Tatars Won Autonomy in 1920; Moscow Didn’t ‘Give’ It to Them, Iskhakov Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, August 30 – On this, the centenary of the formation of the Tatar ASSR and the 1990 Sovereignty Declaration, many in Moscow and some in Kazan are suggesting that the Soviet government “gave” the Tatars their autonomy. That isn’t true, Damir Iskhakov says. The Tatars won it, and Moscow had no choice but to recognize the reality. 

            There are compelling reasons why this is important. On the one hand, the senior Tatar historian says, Tatars should not see themselves as the beneficiaries of Moscow’s policies but rather as people who in their own right can and have won victories and often suffered losses as well (business-gazeta.ru/article/479165).

            And on the other, Tatars must remember their history and draw from it. When the Tatar ASSR was created, there were no union republics; and that is why Tatars at that time and later tried so hard to ensure that their republic would have equal status with the union republics that became part of the USSR.

            That sparked the first great political conflict between Kazan and Moscow in Soviet times when Mirsaid Sultan-Galiyev insisted that Tatarstan should have the same status and rights as the union republics like Ukraine. (On his role, see  windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2020/08/sultan-galiyev-now-having-his-day-in.html and windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2020/08/sultan-galiyev-warned-ussr-would.html.)

            One of the biggest mistakes many Tatars are making is to speak now only about the achievements of the last century, the historian continues. In fact, there were enormous losses: the artificial famine of 1921-1922 which carried off 200,000 Tatars, World War II which cost another 200,000 Tatar lives, and the destruction of the Tatar peasantry, religious establishment and intellectual elite under Stalin which cost tens of thousands more.

            The Stalinist period was horrific for the Tatars and other peoples of the country not only because of repressions but also because they suffered “the most powerful pressure of the communist-Bolshevik ideology which was directed against national cultures,” including in no small measure, the Russian one as well.

            No dictator lives forever, and when Stalin finally passed from the scene, his successors ushered in the thaw. That didn’t last very long, Iskhakov says; but in the course of this short period, the Tatars were inspired by the spirit of freedom” and when Gorbachev opened the gates to new possibilities, they acted on it.

           

            Among the most politically significant of their steps was the adoption on August 30, 1990, of the Tatarstan Declaration of State Sovereignty.  By that action, the foundation was laid for “the start of a new Tatarstan.” Three decades have passed, and it is time to sum things up: there have been many achievements, but equally many failures.

            Tatars have suffered especially in the cultural and linguistic spheres, and to make progress now, they must begin almost from square one. The state of the Tatar language is “close to critical,” and in a few decades if nothing is done now, “our nation will remain without a language.”

            On this anniversary, Iskhakov insists, Tatars must recognize that “our real enemy (if someone is seeking the guilty for our problems) is not external; it sits in fact in each of us ourselves. For overcoming all our problems, we must recognize this truth. Only the can we expect success.”