Samigulov Geyaz (Cheliabinsk, Russia)

The Formation of Turkic Ethnic Groups in the Conditions of Estate Russian State (on the example of Ichkinskye Tatars)

(57th Annual Meeting of the PIAC Vladivostok. 2014)

The Ichkinskye Tatars – is one of Tatar groups of Southern Trans-Ural region. Nowadays the representatives of this group solidly live in Safakulevsky and Shadrinsky regions of Kurganskaya oblast as two sub-groups: Ichkinskaya and Al’menevskaya. The information, gathered up to the present, gives an opportunity preliminary to reconstruct the scheme of forming this ethnic group. We need to suppose many things for now there are not many data yet. But there are the first results.

In the 1670s Tobol serving Tatars, brothers Seidyashev got the Charter on possessing the land along the Ichkin River. In this case “Seidyashev” means their patronymic. Most probably Seidyash Kul’mametev, who is mentioned in various documents either as a serving Tatar or as Bukhara man, was their father. Besides the land along the Ichkin River (a tributary of the Iset River’), the Seidyashev got vast areas in the upper flow of the Tobol River. The Ichkin allotment became a place of forming a local community. Lev Poskochin’s census fixed in Ichkin yurtas of the brothers Seidyashev their house serfs (the Kalmyk) and seven Tatar families who resettled from Povolzhye. The census of 1710 fixed: “and there are the Ichkin Tartars in all …47 yurtas and there 158 male and 131 female” [RGADA. F.214. Op.5. D.434. L.696]. In 1735 the Murza of serving mescheryakov men Tonkachev with his people resettled to Ichkin yurtas from Priuralye.

In 1754 the Ichkin Tatars got the status of “serving Tartars”. And under the common name “Ichkinskye Tartars” there was united the population of Ichkinskaya village and the villages Sibirkina, Tersyutskikh, Kyzylbaevskykh and Alabuzhskykh urtas. It could be supposed that a considerable part of the population of Alabuzhskykh and Tersyutskikh urtas were the representatives of the native tribes, and in the first turn, Tersyak tribe where these settlements were located. P.I. Rychkov notes that till this time they paid “five-griven” yasak (tribute). So, within the limits of a new serving estate group there was united Tobol serving Tatars, serving mescheryaks and the former tax population.

Soon after 1754 the Ichkin Tatars got the land on the territory of Karatabynskaya and Baryntabynskaya volosts (rural districts) (now the territory of Al’menevsky region Kurganskaya oblast). The name of the first settlement was Al’men-Kul’ or Mogil’noye (according to the Russian name of the lake). In 1781–1782 within the Gubernia reform old settlements of the Ichkin Tartars and new allotted lands were situated in the different gubernias – the first ones were related to Shadrinsky uezd of the Perm’ region ruled by governor-general , and the second one to Cheliabunsk uezd Ufa regional ruled by governor –general. After the reform of regions governed by governor-generals the population of a new organized Mogil’naya (Ichkinskaya) volost’ of Cheliabinsk uezd was swiftly growing. In 1783 only in the village Al’men-Kul’ there were 30 farmsteads of settlers from Ichkinsky yurtes. During the period of the Great land-surveying (1802) in the new Ichkinskaya volost there were 4 villages,where there lived 415 males. And the old settlements – Ichkinskye, Tersiutskye and Kyzylbaevskye yurtes – were of significance too. In
1798, while organization of the Bashkir-Mescheriaks Army the Ichkinskye Tatars of both uezds became a part of estate of Mescheriakov.

So, the formation of the community of the Ichkinskye Tatars took place within the limits of serving estate. And despite the presence of Mescheriaks component in the initial structure within the limits of the Bashkir-Mescheriaks Army, they did not apprehend the Mescheriaks identity but pretend to be considered in the ethnic aspect exactly as “The Ichkinskye Tatars”.