The history of the emergence of the Chuvash people. What facial features distinguish the Chuvash from other nations
Chuvash ( self-name - chăvash, chăvashsem) is the fifth largest people in Russia. According to the 2010 census, 1 million 435 thousand Chuvash live in the country. Their origin, history and peculiar language are considered very ancient.
According to scientists, the roots of this people are found in the most ancient ethnic groups of Altai, China, and Central Asia. The closest ancestors of the Chuvash are the Bulgars, whose tribes inhabited a vast territory from the Black Sea to the Urals. After the defeat of the state of Volga Bulgaria (14th century) and the fall of Kazan, part of the Chuvash settled in the forest regions between the Sura, Sviyaga, Volga and Kama rivers, mixing there with the Finno-Ugric tribes.
The Chuvash are divided into two main sub-ethnic groups according to the course of the Volga: riding (viryal, turi) in the west and northwest of Chuvashia, grassroots(Anatari) - in the south, in addition to them, in the center of the republic, a group is distinguished middle-level (anat enchi). In the past, these groups differed in their way of life and material culture. Now the differences are more and more smoothed out.
The self-name of the Chuvash, according to one version, directly goes back to the ethnonym of a part of the "Bulgarian-speaking" Turks: *čōš → čowaš/čuwaš → čovaš/čuvaš. In particular, the name of the Savir tribe ("Suvar", "Suvaz" or "Suas"), mentioned by Arab authors of the 10th century (Ibn Fadlan), is considered by many researchers to be a Turkic adaptation of the Bulgar name "Suvar".
In Russian sources, the ethnonym "Chuvash" first occurs in 1508. In the 16th century, the Chuvash became part of Russia, at the beginning of the 20th century they received autonomy: since 1920, the Autonomous Region, since 1925 - the Chuvash Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. Since 1991 - the Republic of Chuvashia as part of the Russian Federation. The capital of the republic is the city of Cheboksary.
Where do the Chuvash live and what language do they speak?
The main part of the Chuvash (814.5 thousand people, 67.7% of the population of the region) lives in the Chuvash Republic. It is located in the east of the East European Plain, mainly on the right bank of the Volga, between its tributaries the Sura and the Sviyaga. In the west, the republic borders on the Nizhny Novgorod region, in the north - on the Republic of Mari El, in the east - on Tatarstan, in the south - on the Ulyanovsk region, in the southwest - on the Republic of Mordovia. Chuvashia is part of the Volga Federal District.
Outside the republic, a significant part of the Chuvash live compactly in Tatarstan(116.3 thousand people), Bashkortostan(107.5 thousand), Ulyanovsk(95 thousand people.) and Samara(84.1 thousand) regions, in Siberia. A small part is outside the Russian Federation,
The Chuvash language belongs to Bulgar group of the Turkic language family and is the only living language of this group. In the Chuvash language, there is a riding ("okaying") and a grassroots ("poking") dialect. On the basis of the latter, a literary language was formed. The earliest was the Turkic runic alphabet, replaced in the X-XV centuries. Arabic, and in 1769-1871 - Russian Cyrillic, to which special characters were then added.
Features of the appearance of the Chuvash
From an anthropological point of view, most of the Chuvashs belong to the Caucasoid type with a certain degree of Mongoloidity. Judging by the research materials, Mongoloid traits dominate in 10.3% of the Chuvash. Moreover, about 3.5% of them are relatively pure Mongoloids, 63.5% belong to mixed Mongoloid-European types with a predominance of Caucasoid features, 21.1% represent various Caucasoid types, both dark-colored and fair-haired and light-eyed, and 5.1 % belong to sublaponoid types, with weakly expressed Mongoloid features.
From the point of view of genetics, the Chuvash are also an example of a mixed race - 18% of them carry the Slavic haplogroup R1a1, another 18% - Finno-Ugric N, and 12% - Western European R1b. 6% have a Jewish haplogroup J, most likely from the Khazars. The relative majority - 24% - carries haplogroup I, which is characteristic of northern Europe.
Elena Zaitseva
The Chuvash folk religion refers to the pre-Orthodox Chuvash faith. But there is no clear understanding of this faith. Just as the Chuvash people are not homogeneous, the Chuvash pre-Orthodox religion is also heterogeneous. Part of the Chuvash believed in Thor and now believe. This is a monotheistic faith. There is only one Torah, but in the belief of the Torah there is Keremet. Keremet is a relic of the pagan religion. The same pagan relic in the Christian world as the celebration of the new year and Shrovetide. For the Chuvash, keremet was not a god, but an image of evil and dark forces, to which they made sacrifices so that they would not touch people. Keremet when translated literally means “faith in (god) Ker”. Ker (name of god) has (faith, dream).
Perhaps a part believes in Tengrianism, what it is is not completely clear. Tengrianism, in Chuvash tanker, actually means ten(faith) ker(name of god), i.e. "faith in the god Ker".
There was also a pagan religion with many gods. Moreover, each settlement, city had its own main god. By the name of these gods were called villages, cities, peoples. Chuvash - sounds like Chuvash Syavash (Sav As literally means “ases (god) Sav”), Bulgars - in Chuvash pulhar ( pulekh-ar- literally means "people (god) pulekh"), Russ - Re-as(literally means “ases (god) Ra”), etc. In the Chuvash language, in the myths, there were mentions of pagan gods - Anu, Ada, Ker, Savni, Syatra, Merdek, Torah, Ur, Asladi, Sav, Pulekh, etc. These pagan gods are identical with the gods of ancient Greece, Babylonia or Rus'. For example, the Chuvash god Anu (Babylonian – Anu), Chuv. Ada (Babylon. - Adad), Chuv. Torah (Babylon. - Ishtor (Ash-Torah), Chuv. Merdek (Babylon. Merdek), Chuv. Savni (Babylon. Savni), Chuv. Sav (Greek. Zeus -Sav- ace, Russian Savushka).
Many names of rivers, cities and villages bear the names of gods. For example, the river Adal (Volga) ( Ada-ilu means the god of Hell), the river Syaval (Tsivil) ( Sav-ilu- the god Sav), the river Savaka (Sviyaga) ( Sav-aka- meadows of the god Sav), the village of Morkash (Morgaushi) ( Merdek-ash- god Merdek), the city of Shupashkar (Cheboksary) ( Shup-ash-kar- the city of the god Shup), the village of Syatrakassy (street (of the god) Syatra) and much more. All Chuvash life is permeated with relics of pagan religious culture. Today we do not think about religious culture, and religion in the life of a modern person is not the first place. But in order to understand ourselves, we must understand the people's religion, and this is impossible without restoring the history of the people. In my small homeland (the village of Tuppai Esmele, Mariinsko-Posadsky district), Orthodoxy was forcibly adopted in the middle of the 18th century, which led to a decrease in the population of the village by 40%. The Chuvash have always been adherents of their antiquity and did not perceive the forcible imposition of another culture and religion.
An examination of folk religion reveals a layering of three kinds of religions:
- Monotheistic belief in the god Thor.
- An ancient pagan faith with many gods - Sav, Ker, Anu, Ada, Pulekh.
- Monotheistic faith Tengrism - faith in the god Tenker, nothing more than faith in the god Ker, which is possibly the result of the development of a pagan religion with the transformation into a monotheistic one with the god Ker.
In different parts of Chuvashia and the Russian Federation, there are relics of these types of religion, respectively, rituals differ and there is cultural diversity. Moreover, this diversity is also accompanied by linguistic diversity. Thus, there are prerequisites for the assumption that this diversity is due to the influence of different cultures or peoples. But as historical analysis has shown, this assumption is wrong. In fact, such a diversity is due to the fact that only one culture, one people, but different tribes of this people, who went through a different historical path, participated in the ethnogenesis of the Chuvash people.
The ancestors of the Chuvash are the Amorites, a biblical people, three or four waves of migration of the Amorites in different eras settled on the middle Volga, which went through different historical paths of development. To understand the history of the Chuvash, it is necessary to trace the history of the Amorites from the 40th century BC. before 10 AD In 40 BC our ancestors - the Amorites lived in the territory of western Syria, from there, for almost 5 thousand years, the Amorites settled around the world, spreading their pagan faith and culture, which was at that time the most progressive. Amorite is considered a dead language. Until the beginning of our era. on the vast Eurasian continent, two main religions dominated - Celtic-Druidic and pagan. The carriers of the first were the Celts, the carriers of the second were the Amorites. The border of the distribution of these religions passed through Central Europe - the Druids dominated to the West, to the east up to the Pacific and Indian Ocean - the pagans.
Modern Chuvash culture and language is the result of thousands of years of history of the Amorite people, whose descendants are the Chuvash people. The history of the Chuvash is very complex and varied. There are many hypotheses and theories of the origin of the Chuvash, at first glance, the opposite. All historians agree that the Savirs (Suvaz, Suvars) were the ancestors of the Chuvash. Many historical documents speak of this people, but geographically located in all parts of the Eurasian continent - from the Barents Sea to the Indian Ocean, from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans. The modern Russian spelling of the name of the people is Chuvash, and the self-name of the people is savash, which consists of two parts Sav and ash. The first part denotes the name of the god, the second part denotes the type of people - Ases. (You can read about aces in detail in the Scandinavian epic). In the Chuvash language, the sound is often With is replaced by w. Thus, the Chuvashs always considered themselves subjects of the god Sav or the Chuvashs can be called the Savic ases. Often these myths mentioned words that were not used in ordinary life. Coming home, I asked my father the meaning of these words and why they are not used now. For example, rotatkan, as the father explained, this old Chuvash word means squirrel, in the modern Chuvash language the word paksha is used. Spanecappi was a native of the Chuvash from the Mari Trans-Volga, where, probably, ancient Chuvash words and pagan myths were preserved. For example, the ancient Chuvash word meshkene, meaning slave, also does not occur in modern language, but was used in ancient Babylon and is also an Amorite word. In conversation, I did not meet this word, but heard only from the lips of Spanecappi.
Spanecappi told myths about a world tree with two peaks, an owl sits on one peak, an eagle sits on the other, how a sacred spring is located at the roots of this tree, runs along the branches rotatkan and gnaws the leaves kachaka. The top of the tree rests on the sky. (In our village on Cape Tanomash there is such a tree, a sacred spring beats at the roots.) God lives in the sky Anu, people, animals live on the ground, and reptiles underground. This myth is very similar to the Scandinavian epic. It's also called a squirrel rotatkan. World tree - ash ikctorsil, if translated from the Chuvash language, then this literally means - two-peak.
Spanecappi told about the hero Chemen, having matured, I began to look for the historical prototype of the hero Chemen and came to the conclusion that this was the commander Semen, after whom the city of Semender was named.
Spanecappi told about the hero (I don’t remember the name), who performed feats, traveled the underworld, where he fought and defeated various monsters, traveled to the heavenly world to the gods and competed with them. I remembered all these myths a few decades later, when I read about the exploits of Gilgamesh from Mesopotamian mythology, they were so similar.
But I always had a question to which I could not find an answer, why the Chuvash do not have a full-fledged pagan epic. The study of historical material, reflection led me to the conclusion that this is the result of a complex history of the people. Tales, myths and legends told to us in childhood by Spanecappi were much richer than those recorded and printed in books. But these myths are typical only for the Chuvash of the Mari Trans-Volga, who differed from the rest of the Chuvash, both in mythology, language, and in appearance - fair-haired and tall.
Attempts to understand, reflection and study of historical material allowed me to come to certain conclusions, which I want to state here.
The modern Chuvash language contains a large number of Turkic words from the Bulgar language. In the Chuvash language, there are often two words in parallel that have the same meaning - one from the Turkic, the other from the ancient Chuvash. For example, the word potato is denoted by two words - sier ulmi (Chuv) and paranka (Turks), a cemetery - syava (Chuv) and masar (Turks). The appearance of a large number of Turkic words is due to the fact that when the Bulgars accepted Islam, part of the Bulgars refused to accept Islam and remained in the old religion, and mixed with the pagan Chuvashs.
Many researchers attribute the Chuvash language to the Turkic language group, I do not agree with this. If the Chuvash language is cleared of the Bulgar component, then we will get the ancient Chuvash language, which will turn out to be the Amorite language.
Here I want to give my point of view about the history of the Chuvash, which begins in the 40th century BC. In 40 BC the ancestors of the Chuvash Amorites lived in the territory of modern western Syria. (Remember the mention of frescoes in Syria). From the 40th century BC Amorite tribes begin to intensively settle around the world. There is information about the migration of the Amorites in the 40th century BC. to the west, to the north of Africa, where they, together with the Luvian tribes, participated in the formation of the first Egyptian kingdoms.
In the 30th century BC. the following Amorite tribes called Carians(the main god of the Ker tribe) invaded the Mediterranean, settled the islands of the Mediterranean, part of the Balkan Peninsula and the Etruscan tribe (Ada-ar-as - means the people of the god Hell) - part of modern Italy. There are common elements of the culture of the Etruscans and the Caucasian Savirs. For example, the Etruscans have a ritual fight of warriors (gladiators) over the grave of the deceased, among the Savirs - a ritual fight of relatives on swords over the deceased.
In the 16th century BC. next Amorite tribe Thorians(who are called the northern Greek tribe, the main god is Thor) invaded the north of the Balkan Peninsula. All these tribes together with the Indo-European tribes (Pelasgians, Achaeans) participated in the creation of the Cretan, Greek and Roman civilizations with pagan religion and culture. Scientists are still struggling to figure out the Cretan script. Last year, the Americans came to the conclusion that Cretan writing is a variation of Greek. But in fact it is one of the varieties of the Amorite script and is written in the Amorite language.
Between the 30th and 28th centuries B.C. Amorite tribes migrated east, passed through Mesopotamia without stopping, where there was a strong Sumerian state, moved further east and reached northwestern China. Arriving in the Tufyanskaya depression, they created the civilization of the Turfyansky chamois (Turkhan syere), populated Tibet. These same Amorites captured the entire territory of China, created the first Chinese state and the first royal dynasty in China, ruled for about 700 years, but were then overthrown. The Amorites who arrived differed in appearance from the Chinese - tall, fair-haired. Subsequently, the Chinese, having come to power, decided to oust the memories of the rule of the aliens from memory, it was decided to destroy all references to the rule of the Amorites. Already in later times in the 14th century BC. the Amorites were forced to leave the Turfian depression. Due to tectonic movements (new mountain building), the appearance of northwestern China changed, the depressions were flooded. The Amorites migrated to the north - to Siberia, to the West - to Altai, and to the south. Centuries later, after the cessation of tectonic movements, the Amorites again settled northwestern China and already at the beginning of our era they came to Europe as part of an alliance of tribes called the Huns, the main role in this alliance was played by the Savirs. The Huns brought a faith - Tengrianism, which is the development of the pagan religion of the Amorites and its transformation into a monotheistic one, where there was one god Tenker (Ten-ker - from the Chuvash means the god Ker). Only part of the Savirs settled on the middle Volga, where the Amorites of the first wave of migration, who came from Mesopotamia, already lived, part went to Western Europe.
In the 20th century BC. a more powerful flow of Amorite migration was directed again to the east. Under the onslaught of this migration, the weakened Sumerian-Akkadian state fell. Arriving in Mesopotamia, the Amorites created their own state with the capital Babylon. Before the arrival of the Amorites, there was only a small village on the site of Babylon. But the Amorites did not destroy the Sumerian-Akkadian cultural heritage; as a result of the synthesis of the Sumerian-Acadian and Amorite cultures, a new one emerged - the Babylonian culture. The first Amorite kings took Akkadian names for themselves. Only the fifth Amorite king took the Amorite name - Hamurappi, which is translated from Chuvash as "the elder of our people." Writing, correspondence was conducted in the Akkadian language, akin to Amorite. Therefore, documents in the Amorite language are practically not preserved. In the modern Chuvash language, culture, there is a lot in common with the Amorite culture and the language of Babylonia from the 20th to the 10th century BC. In the 10th century BC. The Amorites were forced out of Mesopotamia by the more warlike Aramean tribes. The departure of the Amorites from Mesopotamia is associated with a change in the culture and economic structure of the region, a change in diet, etc. For example, the Amorites brewed beer; with their departure, brewing was replaced by winemaking.
The Amorites went to the north - they settled the territory of the Caucasus and further to the north of the European plain and to the east - the Iranian highlands. On the European plain, the Amorites are mentioned by Herodotus (5th century BC) under the name Savromats (sav-ar-emet), which in literal translation from the Chuvash means “the people who believe (to the god) Sav”. Emet in the Chuvash language means a dream, faith. It was the Savromats, from my point of view, that made up the first wave of migrants, our ancestors, who settled on the Volga. The Savromats were pagans, the Savromats settled in the vast Eurasian territory. It was they who brought the names of rivers, mountains, and localities to the Eurasian territory, the meaning of which is now unclear. But they are understood from the Amorite language. Moscow (Me-as-kekeek - from Amorite “homeland of Ases (god) Me, kevek - homeland)”, Dnieper (te en-eper - “road of the country (god) Te”, eper - road), Oder, Vistula, Tsivil, Sviyaga, etc. The Amorite name is the Kremlin (Ker-am-el from the Amorite “sacred land (of the god) Ker”), the Slavic name of the fortress is detinets. The Chuvash of the Mari Trans-Volga, who differ from the rest of the Chuvash, may not have mixed with the Amorites of later migration to the Volga (Huns and Savirs) from other regions.
It is with this stream of Amorite migrants (Sauromates) that paganism is associated in the Chuvash culture, but it was forced out of life by the Amorites of later and numerous migration streams. Therefore, I learned Chuvash pagan mythology only from the lips of Spanekapi, who was originally from the Chuvash of the Mari Volga region, where the influence of later Amorite migrants did not affect.
The next wave of Amorite migrants who came to the Volga were the Huns, some of whom settled on the territory of kindred tribes, brought Tengrianism, and some went west. For example, a tribe called the Sueves, headed by the leader Cheges, went west and settled in the south of France and Spain, the Suevis later participated in the ethnogenesis of the French and Spaniards. It was they who brought the name Sivilla (Sav-ilu, meaning the god Sav).
The next wave of Amorite migration is the migration of the Savirs, who lived in the northern Caucasus. The Caucasian Savirs are identified by many as the Hunnic Savirs, but they probably settled in the Caucasus when forced out of Mesopotamia as early as the 10th century BC. By the time of the resettlement, the Savirs had already abandoned the pagan religion and adopted Christianity. The Savir princess Chechek (flower) became the wife of the Byzantine emperor Isaurus V, adopted Christianity and the name Irina. Later, after the death of the emperor, she became empress and actively participated in the canonization of Orthodoxy. In the Caucasus (the Chuvash name is Aramazi), the Savirs converted to Christianity in 682. The adoption of Christianity was forced, the king of all Savir Elteber (in Chuvash this title sounded yaltivar, literally from the Chuvsh means “perform customs”) Alp Ilitver cut down sacred trees and groves, destroyed idols, executed all the priests, made crosses from the wood of sacred trees. But the Savirs did not want to convert to Christianity. The disunited Savirs, with the adoption of a new religion, could not resist the Arab invasion after 24 goals in 706. Before the adoption of Christianity, the Savirs were a very warlike people, they constantly participated in wars with the Arabs, Persians and emerged victorious. The basis of the belligerence and courage of the Savirs was their religion, according to which the Savirs were not afraid of death, only warriors who died in battle with enemies fell into heaven in a divine country. With the adoption of Christianity, the psychology and ideology of the people changed. A similar process occurred with the Norwegians and Swedes (Vikings) after the adoption of Christianity.
Arabs with sword and fire passed through the country of the Savirs, destroying everything, especially destroying the Christian faith. The Savirs were forced to go north, settled from the Dnieper to the Volga and further to the Aral Sea. And a decade later, these Savirs created a new state - the Great Khazaria, which occupied the territory of the settlement of the Caucasian Savirs, Hunnic Savirs and their allies (Magyars). In the 9th century, a military coup took place in Khazaria, the military came to power with the Jews, Judaism became the state religion. After that, the state of Khazaria became an alien and hostile state for the Savirs, a civil war began. The Oguzes were called in to maintain power. Without the support of the population, Khazaria did not last long.
The invasion of the Arabs led to the fact that the Savirs moved away from the pagan religion due to the destruction of the priests who were in charge of customs, but the new Christian religion did not have time to gain a foothold among the people and took the form of a monotheistic religion of faith in the Torah. The last wave of migration was the most numerous. The migration of the Savirs from the Caucasus (from the mountains of Aramazi - from the Chuvash is translated as - “the land (am) of the people (ar) Ases (az)”) is said in myths. In the myth, the Chuvashs hurriedly left their places of residence along the Azamat bridge, which rested at one end against the Aramazi mountains, and at the other on the banks of the Volga. The Savirs, having migrated with an unsettled religion, forgot about Christ, but moved away from the pagan religion. Therefore, the Chuvash have practically no full-fledged pagan mythology. The pagan myths told by Spanecappi were probably introduced by the Amorites of the first wave of migration (Sauromates), and were preserved only in inaccessible areas, such as the Mari Trans-Volga region.
As a result of the mixing of the three streams of the descendants of the Amorites and the synthesis, they received the pre-Orthodox faith of the Chuvash. As a result of the synthesis of three waves of migration of the descendants of the Amorites (Sauromates, Savirs, Huns), we have a variety of language, differences in appearance, culture. The predominance of the last wave of migration over others led to the fact that paganism and Tengriism were practically forced out. Savirs from the Caucasus migrated not only to the Volga, a large group migrated and settled in the vast territory of modern Kiev, Kharkov, Bryansk, Kursk regions, where they created their cities and principalities (for example, the principality of Novgorod Siversky). Together with the Slavs, they participated in the ethnogenesis of Russians and Ukrainians. Back in the 17th century AD, they were mentioned under the name of stellate sturgeons. The Russian cities of Tmutarakan, Belaya Vezha (literally translated from the Chuvash - “land (of God) Bel”), Novgorod Siversky were Savir cities.
There was another wave of Amorite migration, at the turn of the two eras. This wave may not have led to the Amorites settling on the Volga. The Amorites went far to the north of the European continent - to the north of Russia and to Scandinavia under the name Svear, partly from Scandinavia they ousted the Germanic tribes of the Goths, who crossed over to the continental part of Europe in the 3rd century AD. created the state of Hermanrich, which later fell under the onslaught of the Huns (Savirs). The Svears with the remaining Germanic tribes participated in the ethnogenesis of the Swedes and Norwegians, and the Svears on the European territory of Russia, together with the Finno-Ugric peoples, the Slavs, participated in the ethnogenesis of the Russian people of the north, in the formation of the Novgorod principality. The Chuvashs call Russians grown, which literally means “riding aces” (along the upper reaches of the Volga), and the Chuvashs call themselves aces who believe in the god Sav. It was the participation of the Savirs in the ethnogenesis of the Russian people that brought many Chuvash words into the Russian language - top (Russian) - vir (Chuv.), lepota (Russian) - lep (Chuv.), first (Russian) - perre (Chuv.) , table (Russian) - setel (Chuv.), cat (Russian) - sash (Chuv.), city (Russian) - map (Chuv.), cell (Russian) - kil (Chuv.), bull ( Rus.) - vykor (Chuv.), edge (Rus.) - upashka (Chuv.), mushrooms (Rus.) - uplyanka (Chuv.), thief (Rus.) - thief (Chuv.), prey (Rus.) ) - tuposh (Chuv.), cabbage (Russian) - kuposta (Chuv.), father (Russian) - atte (Chuv.), kush (Rus) - kushar (Chuv.), etc.
It should be noted about the invasion of the Amorites from the Iranian Highlands into India. This invasion took place in the 16th-15th century BC. The invasion may have taken place jointly with the Indo-European peoples, in history it is referred to as the Aryan invasion. With the advent of the Amorites, the weakened Harappan state fell and the newcomers created their own state. The Amorites brought a new religion and culture to India. In the Mahabharata, there is an early mention of the Savirs together with the Sinds. In ancient times, the Sindh territory was known under the name of Sovira. In the ancient Vedas, there are many words similar to the Chuvash, but modified. (For example, how the name of the city of Shupashkar was changed when Cheboksary was written in Russian). The sacred pillar is called yupa, among the Chuvash people it is also called yupa. The fifth book of the Vedas about biography is Puran (Puran from Chuvash - life), the book of Vedas Atharva about treatment from Chuvash means (Ut - Horvi, from Chuvash - protection of the body), another book of the Vedas is Yajur (yat-sior - earthly name).
And behavior. The Chuvash live in the center of the European part of Russia. The characteristic traits of character are inextricably linked with the traditions of these amazing people.
The origins of the people
At a distance of about 600 kilometers from Moscow is the city of Cheboksary, the center of the Chuvash Republic. Representatives of a colorful ethnic group live on this land.
There are many versions about the origin of this people. It is most likely that the ancestors were Turkic-speaking tribes. These people began migrating west as early as the 2nd century BC. e. Seeking a better life, they came to the modern territories of the republic as early as the 7th-8th centuries and three hundred years later created a state that was known as the Volga Bulgaria. This is where the Chuvash came from. The history of the people could be different, but in 1236 the Mongol-Tatars defeated the state. Some people fled from the conquerors to the northern lands.
The name of this people is translated from Kyrgyz as "modest", according to the old Tatar dialect - "peaceful". Modern dictionaries claim that the Chuvash are "quiet", "harmless". The name was first mentioned in 1509.
Religious preferences
The culture of this people is unique. Until now, elements of Western Asia can be traced in the rites. The style was also influenced by close communication with Iranian-speaking neighbors (Scythians, Sarmatians, Alans). Not only life and household, but also the manner of dressing was adopted by the Chuvash. Appearance, features of the costume, character and even their religion are received from their neighbors. So, even before joining the Russian state, these people were pagans. The supreme god was called Tura. Later, other faiths began to penetrate the colony, in particular Christianity and Islam. Jesus was worshiped by those who lived on the lands of the republic. Allah became the head of those who lived outside the region. In the course of events, the bearers of Islam became Tatars. Nevertheless, today most of the representatives of this people profess Orthodoxy. But the spirit of paganism is still felt.
Merging two types
Various groups influenced the appearance of the Chuvash. Most of all - the Mongoloid and Caucasoid races. That is why almost all representatives of this people can be divided into fair-haired Finnish and representatives of the dark Blond. Fair hair, gray eyes, pallor, a wide oval face and a small nose are inherent, the skin is often covered with freckles. At the same time, they look somewhat darker than Europeans. Curls of brunettes often curl, eyes are dark brown in color, narrow in shape. They have poorly defined cheekbones, a depressed nose and a yellow skin type. It is worth noting here that their features are softer than those of the Mongols.
Chuvash differ from neighboring groups. Characteristic for both types - a small oval of the head, the bridge of the nose is low, the eyes are narrowed, a small neat mouth. Growth is average, not prone to fullness.
Everyday look
Each nationality is a unique system of customs, traditions and beliefs. It was no exception, and since ancient times, these people in every house made their own cloth and canvas. Clothes were made from these materials. Men were supposed to wear a linen shirt and trousers. If it became cool, a caftan and a sheepskin coat were added to their image. They had Chuvash patterns inherent only to themselves. The woman's appearance was successfully emphasized by unusual ornaments. All things were embroidered, including the wedged shirts worn by the ladies. Later, stripes and checks became fashionable.
Each branch of this group had and has its own preferences for the color of clothing. So, the south of the republic has always preferred saturated shades, and northwestern fashionistas have loved light fabrics. In the dress of each woman there were wide Tatar trousers. An obligatory element is an apron with a bib. It was decorated especially diligently.
In general, the appearance of the Chuvash is very interesting. The description of the headgear should be highlighted in a separate section.
Status determined by helmet
Not a single representative of the people could walk with his head uncovered. Thus, a separate trend in the direction of fashion arose. With special imagination and passion, they decorated such things as tukhya and khushpu. The first was worn on the head by unmarried girls, the second was only for family women.
At first, the hat served as a talisman, a talisman against misfortune. Such an amulet was treated with special respect, decorated with expensive beads and coins. Later, such an object not only adorned the appearance of the Chuvash, he began to talk about the social and marital status of a woman.
Many researchers believe that the shape of the headdress resembles others. Others give a direct link to understanding the design of the universe. Indeed, according to the ideas of this group, the earth had a quadrangular shape, and in the middle stood the tree of life. The symbol of the latter was a bulge in the center, which distinguished a married woman from a girl. Tukhya was a pointed conical shape, khushpu was rounded.
Coins were chosen with particular care. They were meant to be melodic. Those that hung from the edges hit each other and rang. Such sounds scared away evil spirits - the Chuvash believed in this. The appearance and character of the people are in a direct relationship.
Ornament code
The Chuvash are famous not only for soulful songs, but also for embroidery. Mastery grew with generations and was inherited from mother to daughter. It is in the ornaments that one can read the history of a person, his belonging to a separate group.
Home embroidery - clear geometry. The fabric should be only white or gray. It is interesting that the girls' clothes were decorated only before the wedding. In family life, there was not enough time for this. Therefore, what they did in their youth was worn for the rest of their lives.
Embroidery on clothes complemented the appearance of the Chuvash. It encoded information about the creation of the world. So, they symbolically depicted the tree of life and eight-pointed stars, rosettes or flowers.
After the popularization of factory production, the style, color and quality of the shirt changed. The older people grieved for a long time and assured that such changes in the wardrobe would bring trouble to their people. Indeed, over the years, the true representatives of this genus are becoming less and less.
World of Traditions
Customs say a lot about a people. One of the most colorful rituals is a wedding. The character and appearance of the Chuvash, traditions are still preserved. It is worth noting that in ancient times the wedding ceremony was not attended by priests, shamans or official representatives of the authorities. The guests of the action witnessed the creation of a family. And everyone who knew about the holiday visited the houses of the parents of the newlyweds. Interestingly, divorce as such was not perceived. According to the canons, lovers who combined in front of their relatives must be faithful to each other until the end of their lives.
Previously, the bride had to be 5-8 years older than her husband. In the last place when choosing a partner, the Chuvash appearance was put. The nature and mentality of these people demanded that, first of all, the girl be hardworking. They gave the young lady in marriage after she mastered the household. An adult woman was also assigned to raise a young husband.
Character - in customs
As mentioned earlier, the word itself, from which the name of the people came from, is translated from most languages as "peace-loving", "calm", "modest". This value is absolutely consistent with the character and mentality of this people. According to their philosophy, all people, like birds, sit on different branches of the big tree of life, each one is a relative to another. Therefore, their love for each other is boundless. Chuvash people are very peaceful and kind people. The history of the people does not contain information about the attacks of the innocent and arbitrariness against other groups.
The older generation keeps traditions and lives according to the old scheme, which they learned from their parents. Lovers still marry and swear allegiance to each other in front of their families. Often they arrange mass celebrations, at which the Chuvash language sounds loud and melodious. People put on the best suits, embroidered according to all the canons. They cook traditional mutton soup - shurpa, and drink their own beer.
The future is in the past
In modern conditions of urbanization, traditions in the villages are disappearing. At the same time, the world is losing its independent culture and unique knowledge. Nevertheless, the Russian government aims to maximize the interest of contemporaries in the past of different peoples. The Chuvash are no exception. Appearance, features of life, color, rituals - all this is very interesting. To show the younger generation the culture of the people, impromptu evenings are held by students of the universities of the republic. Young people speak and sing at the same time in the Chuvash language.
The Chuvash live in Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, so their culture is successfully breaking through into the world. Representatives of the people support each other.
Recently, the main book of Christians - the Bible - was translated into Chuvash. Literature flourishes. Ornaments and clothes of the ethnic group inspire famous designers to create new styles.
There are still villages where they still live according to the laws of the Chuvash tribe. The appearance of a man and a woman in such gray hairs is traditionally folk. The great past is preserved and revered in many families.
Chuvash traditional beliefs represent a mythological world outlook, religious concepts and views coming from distant epochs. The first attempts to consistently describe the pre-Christian religion of the Chuvash belong to K.S. Milkovich (late 18th century), V.P. Vishnevsky (1846), V.A. Sboev (1865). Materials and monuments related to beliefs were systematized by V.K. Magnitsky (1881), N.I. Zolotnitsky (1891) Archbishop Nikanor (1910), Gyula Messaros (translated from the Hungarian edition of 1909. Made in 2000), N.V. Nikolsky (1911, 1912), N.I. Ashmarine (1902, 1921). In the second half of the 20th - early 21st centuries. a series of works devoted to the traditional beliefs of the Chuvash appeared.
Beliefs The Chuvash belong to the category of those religions that are called the religion of sacrifices, according to researchers who go back in their origins to the first world religion - ancient Iranian Zoroastrianism. Christianity, Islam were known to the ancient ancestors of the Chuvash already in the early stages of the spread of these two religions. It is known that the Suvar king Alp - Ilitver in his principality (17th century) planted Christianity in the struggle against ancient religions.
Christianity, Islam, Judaism coexisted side by side in the Khazar state, at the same time, the masses were very committed to the worldview of their ancestors. This is confirmed by the absolute dominance of pagan funeral rites in the Saltov-Mayak culture. In the culture and beliefs of the Chuvash, researchers also found Judaic elements (Malov, 1882). In the middle of the century, when the Chuvash ethnos was being formed, traditional beliefs experienced a long-term influence of Islam. After the accession of the Chuvash Territory to the Russian state, the process of Christianization was lengthy and did not end only with an act of forced baptism. The Chuvash Bulgars adopted elements of the traditional beliefs of the Mari, Udmurts, possibly Burtases, Mozhors, Kypchaks and other ethnic communities with whom they had contact.
Adherence to Islam after its adoption in 922 by the Bulgars under Khan Almush, on the one hand, to ancient beliefs, on the other, becomes an ethno-confessional and ethno-separating feature of the population of the Volga Bulgaria, where the nobility and the main part of the townspeople became Muslims (or Besermens), rural residents mainly remained adherents of the pre-Islamic religion. In Bulgaria, Islam was established not as an orthodox model, but as a syncretic one, enriched with elements of traditional cultures and beliefs. There is reason to believe that transitions from one state to another (from the Chuvash to the Besermian and vice versa) among the population, especially the rural population, took place throughout the entire Bulgar period. It is believed that before the formation of the Kazan Khanate, official Islam did not persecute non-Muslims too much, who, despite the syncretization of traditional beliefs, remained faithful to pre-Muslim canons, social and family life. The complex processes that took place during the period of the Golden Horde left a trace in the religious and ritual practice of the ancient Chuvash. In particular, gods and spirits were reflected in the pantheon in the images of the khans and the officials who served them.
In the Kazan Khanate, the ruling class and the Muslim clergy preached intolerance towards non-believers - the so-called. yasak Chuvash. Hundreds of sickles and tenths of Wunpu princelings, Tarkhans and Chuvash Cossacks, having converted to Islam, fled. Traditions testify that the yasak Chuvash were also forced to accept Islam. The facts of the return to the bosom of the bearers of traditional beliefs are also known. After the capture of Kazan in 1552, when the positions of Islam were greatly weakened, part of the Muslim villagers passed into the "Chuvash" pre-Muslim state. This took place back in the period of the Golden Horde in connection with the strife in the Trans-Kama region, from where the population of the Bulgar ulus (vilayet) went north - to the Order and north-west - to the Volga region, as a result of these migrations there was a break from the Muslim centers. Adherents of non-Muslim beliefs, according to the researchers, made up the majority of the inhabitants of the Order and the Volga region. However, with the strengthening of Islam, starting from the 17th century, in the ethno-contact Chuvash-Tatar zone, there was an overflow of pagans (part or all families) into Islam in the Chuvash villages. This process continued until the middle of the 19th century. (for example, in the village of Artemyevka, Orenburg province).
Until the middle of the 18th century. Adherents of traditional beliefs retained canonized forms, they were subjected to violent acts of baptism on a small scale (the service Chuvash accepted Orthodoxy). The bulk of the Chuvash remained faithful to the pre-Christian religion even after their baptism in 1740. By force, when with the help of soldiers, members of the New Baptism office drove the villagers to the river, performed the rite of baptism and wrote down their Orthodox names. Under the influence of Orthodoxy, its developed, including rural areas, church organization in the late 18th - first half of the 19th centuries. syncretization of traditional beliefs. For example, the icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker (Mozhaisk) became revered, which was a rare example of a wooden sculpture of the 16th century (located in the Nikolsky convent), which turned into Mikul Tura and entered the Chuvash pantheon. Chuvash rituals and holidays are approaching Christian ones, but the trend of convergence was not simple and smooth.
During the period of mass forced baptism in the 18th and first quarter of the 19th centuries, sacred places of public prayers and ancestral prayers (kiremetey) were severely destroyed, baptized Chuvash were forbidden to perform traditional customs and rituals in these places. Often churches and chapels were erected here. Violent actions, spiritual aggression of Orthodox missionaries caused protests and mass movements in defense of folk beliefs, rituals and customs, and in general - original culture. Erected Orthodox churches, chapels, monasteries were poorly attended (although many chapels arose on the site of ancient sanctuaries in different areas of the Chuvash settlement), with the exception of a few well-known churches, including Ishakovskaya (Cheboksary region), which became multi-ethnic and interregional.
In the middle of the 19th century, the Kazan province remained about them, according to official statistics, there were much more. In fact, judging by the data of 1897, 11 thousand "pure pagans" lived in the right-bank districts of the Kazan province. As a transitional state in religious terms, the second half of the 19th - early 20th centuries is characterized. This period is associated with the introduction of N.I. Ilminsky, Christian and educational activities of I.Ya. Yakovlev and the Chuvash Orthodox missionaries, young people were drawn to Orthodoxy through education, as a result of which the process of Christianization of the Chuvash people accelerated. The victory of Orthodoxy over ethnic religions was also accelerated by bourgeois reforms. Orthodox figures of this period, on the whole, respected the Chuvash traditions and mentality, enjoyed the trust of the masses. Orthodoxy on Chuvash soil was consolidated rapidly, albeit on a syncretic basis.
During the 20th century, the number of adherents of the Chuvash beliefs who did not accept baptism (they call themselves chan chavash - "true Chuvash") gradually decreased, because the generation of people of the Soviet era grew up outside the religious soil. However, due to the stability of the folk ritual culture, which Soviet rituals and holidays could not supplant, an ethno-confessional community remained in the peasant environment, localized mainly outside the Chuvash Republic in multinational regions - in the Ulyanovsk, Orenburg, Samara regions, Tatarstan and Bashkortostan. Due to the lack of statistical data, one can only speak about the number of Chuvashs of this group - it is several thousand people, but not less than 10 thousand, and two-thirds of them live in Zakamye, especially in the Bolshoy Cheremshan and Sok basins.
At the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries, the tendency of "pagans" to convert to Orthodoxy intensified, in particular, in families where spouses belong to different confessions.
The Orthodox religion, which has established itself as the official religion among the Chuvash, has absorbed significant elements of traditional beliefs that are associated with folk customs and rituals, the ritual calendar, and the names of religious holidays. The term Tura denoted the Chuvash supreme heavenly god, and later - Jesus Christ. The Chuvash also call Christ turash, as well as images of other Christian gods and saints. This is due to the consolidation of the veneration of icons as gods (turash - "icon"). In the 20th century, it was common to refer to the icon and pagan gods at the same time. During this century, despite the atheistic propaganda of the Soviet era, folk (nevertheless real Chuvash, associated with beliefs) religious rites and holidays, primarily associated with the cult of ancestors and industrial rituals, functioned, and in many cases actively existed - this is the first pasture livestock, rites of consecration of the new harvest chukleme and others. The traditional Chuvash holidays of the winter, spring, summer and autumn cycles coincided or merged with the Christian ones: Kasharni - Epiphany, Mankun - Easter, Kalam - with Holy Week and Lazarus Saturday, Virem - with Palm Sunday, Simek - with Trinity, Sinse - with Spiritual Day , Kerr sari - with patronal holidays.
The traditional beliefs of the Chuvash, as noted above, have become the object of attention of researchers, missionaries, and everyday writers since the 18th century. And even then, a pronounced dualism with a sharp distinction between the good and evil principles of their religion served as the basis for its classification as a branch of Zoroastrianism. In the Chuvash pantheon and the pre-Christian concept of the consciousness of the world and the creation of man, researchers find similarities with ancient Iranian mythology. For example, the following names of the Chuvash gods echo the pantheon of the Indo-Iranian circle: Ama, Amu, Tura, Asha, Pulekh, Pikhampar. Yanavar.
The beliefs of the Chuvash associated with fire worship, cosmogonic ideas, the multiplicity of gods of the hearth and nature, rituals in honor of ancestors, the construction of anthropomorphic stone and wooden monuments gave rise to researchers back in the 19th century to conclude that the Chuvash adhered to the teachings of Zoroastrianism.
At the head of the Chuvash pantheon, complex in its structure, stands the supreme heavenly god Sulti Tura, who rules the whole world, acts as the main person of religious worship and faith. This main character of the Chuvash religion coincides with the riding gods of many Indo-European, Turkic and Finno-Ugric peoples, including etymology, functions and other parameters.
In a solemn form, a thanksgiving sacrifice was made to the god Tura during public ceremonies, the family and clan rite of chukleme, when new bread was baked in his honor from the new crop and beer was brewed. Tura was addressed in many ceremonies, including public, family and individual ones, the prayer was specific in each case.
In a solemn form, thanksgiving was performed to the god of Tur.
What is the Chuvash folk religion? The Chuvash folk religion refers to the pre-Orthodox Chuvash faith. But there is no clear understanding of this faith. Just as the Chuvash people are not homogeneous, the Chuvash pre-Orthodox religion is also heterogeneous. Part of the Chuvash believed in Thor and now believe. This is a monotheistic faith. There is only one Torah, but in the belief of the Torah there is Keremet. Keremet is a relic of a pagan religion. The same pagan relic in the Christian world as the celebration of the new year and Shrovetide. For the Chuvash, keremet was not a god, but an image of evil and dark forces, to which they made sacrifices so that they would not touch people. Keremet in literal translation means "faith in (god) Ker". Ker (name of god) has (faith, dream).
World structure
Chuvash paganism is characterized by a multi-tiered view of the world. The world consisted of three parts: the upper world, our world and the lower world. And there were only seven layers in the world. Three layers in the upper, one in ours, and three more in the lower worlds.
In the Chuvash structure of the universe, a common Turkic division into aboveground and underground tiers can be traced. In one of the celestial tiers, the chief Pireshti Kebe lives, who transmits the prayers of people to the god Turg, who lives in the uppermost tier. In the above-ground tiers there are also luminaries - the moon is lower, the sun is higher.
The first aboveground tier is located between the earth and the clouds. Previously, the upper limit was much lower ("at the height of the roof of windmills"), but the clouds rose higher when people became worse. In contrast to the underground tiers, the surface of the earth - the world of people - is called the "upper world" (Z?lti zantalgk). The shape of the earth is quadrangular, in spells the "four-cornered bright world" (Tgvat ketesle zut zantalgk) is often mentioned.
The earth was square. It was inhabited by different peoples. The Chuvash believed that their people lived in the middle of the earth. The sacred tree, the tree of life, which the Chuvash worshiped, supported the firmament in the middle. On four sides, along the edges of the earthly square, the firmament was supported by four pillars: gold, silver, copper, stone. At the top of the pillars there were nests, in them there were three eggs, on the eggs - ducks.
The shores of the earth were washed by the ocean, raging waves constantly destroyed the shores. “When the end of the earth reaches the Chuvash, the end of the world will come,” the ancient Chuvash believed. In every corner of the earth, wonderful heroes stood guard over the earth and human life. They guarded our world from all evil and misfortune.
The supreme god was in the upper world. He ruled the whole world. He threw thunder and lightning, let the rain fall to the ground. In the upper world were the souls of saints and the souls of unborn children. When a person died, his soul went up to the upper world along a narrow bridge, passing to the rainbow. And if he was sinful, then, without passing the narrow bridge, the human soul fell into the lower world, into hell. In the lower world, there were nine cauldrons where the souls of sinful people were boiled. The servants of the devil constantly kept the fire under the cauldrons.
Religions and beliefs Before joining the Russian state, the Chuvash of the Ulyanovsk Volga region were pagans. In their paganism there was a system of polytheism with the supreme god Turg. The gods were divided into good and evil. Each occupation of people was patronized by its own god. The pagan religious cult was inextricably linked with the cycle of agricultural work, with the cult of ancestors. The cycle of agrarian-magical rituals began with the winter holiday "Surkhuri", then came the holiday of honoring the sun "Z?varni" (Slavic Shrovetide), then - the spring multi-day holiday of sacrifices to the sun, god and dead ancestors - "Mgnkun" (which later coincided with the Christian Easter). The cycle continued "Akatuy" - a holiday of spring plowing and plow, before the start of spring sowing - "Zimek" (a holiday of the flowering of nature, a public commemoration. Coincided with the Orthodox Trinity). After the sowing of bread, the grassroots Chuvashs celebrated "Uyav". In honor of the new harvest, it was customary to arrange prayers - thanksgiving to the spirit - the keeper of the barn. Of the autumn holidays, "Avtan-Syry" (the cock's holiday) was celebrated. Chuvash weddings were celebrated mainly in the spring before Zimmk (Trinity) or in the summer from Petrov to Ilyin's day. Public commemoration of all ancestors was held on the third day of Easter, in "Zimmk". In November-December, the month of commemoration and sacrifices coincided with the beginning of the year according to the Chuvash lunisolar calendar. The Chuvash more often than other peoples commemorated their dead relatives, since they attributed all the troubles and illnesses to the anger of the dead.
The traditional Chuvash faith was a complex system of beliefs, the basis of which was the belief in Turo - the supreme god of the sky and includes many elements of Zoratushtra (Sarotusturo) - the worship of fire. Even D. Messarosh noticed the presence of a single god among the Chuvash, which, nevertheless, was combined with agrarian holidays:
The southern Chuvashs call God Tur?, the northern Chuvashs call Tor?. Regarding the concept of God among the Chuvash, Russian specialized literature has so far been in error. To paganism or "black magic" she attributed innumerable Gods, regardless of whether they are good or evil, as well as other products of the imagination. With their incomplete knowledge of the language and the subject, the vague names of some diseases were also perceived as the names of the Gods. They differed in the main God (Tur?) and many Gods of the lower rank. Also, the traditional Chuvash faith was characterized by dualism - the presence of good and bad deities. The Chuvash called him "Shuittan":
One day, when a thunderstorm broke out, a peasant was walking along the bank of the river with a gun. Thunder rumbled in the sky, and the Shuitan, mocking God, beat backwards upwards towards the sky. The peasant, seeing this, took a gun and fired at him. Shuitang fell from the shot. The thunder stopped, God descended from the sky in front of the peasant and spoke: - You turned out to be stronger even than me. I have been chasing the Shuitan for seven years now, but so far I have never been able to catch him.
The Chuvash also had other beliefs, one of the most significant is the worship of the spirits of their ancestors, which was personified by Kiremet. Kiremet was a holy place on a hill, next to a clean drinking spring. As a symbol of life in such places, an oak, ash or other strong and tall living tree was used. The faith of the Chuvash people has much in common with the traditional beliefs of the Mari, as well as with other peoples of the Volga region. The influence of Islam (for example, Pireshti, Kiremet, Kiyamat), as well as Christianity, is quite noticeable in it. In the 18th century, the Chuvash were Christianized. The Chuvashs are the most numerous Turkic people, the majority of whose believers are Christians. There are also a few groups that profess Sunni Islam and traditional beliefs.
CHUVASHI, Chavash (self-named)- people in the Russian Federation, the titular nation of the Chuvash Republic. They also live in a number of republics and regions of the Ural-Volga region - Tatarstan, Bashkortostan, Samara, Ulyanovsk, Saratov, Orenburg, Sverdlovsk regions. Significant groups of Chuvash are settled in Siberia - Tyumen, Kemerovo regions, Krasnoyarsk Territory, etc. (see table). They live in the CIS and Baltic states. 1637.1 thousand people live in the Russian Federation, incl. in the Chuvash Republic 889.3 thousand people. (see Resettlement of the Chuvash)
On June 24, 1920, the Chuvash Autonomous Region was formed, since 1925 - an autonomous republic. Since 1990 - the Chuvash SSR, since 1992 - the Chuvash Republic.
There are various hypotheses of the origin of the Chuvash, which boil down to the following concepts:
1) the Chuvash ethnos was formed on the basis of the agricultural Bulgarian population that did not convert to Islam, settled on the right bank of the Volga in the Sviyazhye, Pritsivilye, Prianishye and on the left bank in Order and Order, partially assimilated the Finno-Ugric peoples in the north of Chuvashia. Supporters of the theory of the Bulgarian origin of the Chuvash are numerous (N. I. Ashmarin, N. A. Baskakov, D. M. Iskhakov, N. F. Katanov, A. P. Kovalevsky, I. Koev, R. G. Kuzeev, S. E Malov, N. N. Poppe, A. Rona-Tash, B. A. Serebrennikov, A. A. Trofimov, N. I. Egorov, V. P. Ivanov, etc.), although they adhere to various hypotheses about the Bulgarian -Turkic succession. A lot of evidence was also found of the ancient connections of the ancestors of the Chuvash with the Indo-Iranian cultural area;
2) supporters of another concept believe that the basis of the Chuvash ethnos was the Finno-Ugric (Mari) population, which experienced a strong cultural, especially linguistic, influence of the Bulgarians (N. I. Vorobyov, V. V. Radlov, N. A. Firsov and others. );
3) Kazan scientists M. Z. Zakiev, A. Kh. Khalikov, N. N. Starostin and others put forward a hypothesis about the pre-Bulgarian Turkization of the Middle Volga region, about the beginning of the formation of the Chuvash ethnos on the basis of the Turkic-speaking carriers of the culture of the Piseral-Andreev burial mounds of the 2nd–3rd centuries . AD At different times, various other hypotheses appeared, incl. about the origin of the Chuvash from the Huns (V. V. Bartold), from the Sumerians (N. Ya. Marr), etc.
Ethnographic groups of Chuvash:
1) viryal, or turi (mounted). One of the ethnographic groups of the Chuvash people, settled in the northern regions of the republic. As part of a group or subgroup, they are found among anat enchi, anatri, as well as in the diaspora (Ulyanovsk, Samara, Orenburg regions, the Republic of Bashkortostan, Tatarstan). Education is associated with socio-economic, political changes in the life of the peoples of the Middle Volga region and Russia as a whole in the historical past, and the beginning of the process of emergence dates back to the period of Volga Bulgaria. Viryal differ from the grassroots and middle grassroots in their specific features (dialect - okan, folk oral art, costume, musical folklore, etc.). Folk culture, including rituals, ancient beliefs, is closer to the mountainous Mari (of the Republic of Mari El), its basis belongs to the Finno-Ugric layer, but at the same time, ancient Suvaro-Bulgarian elements can be traced in it. From the viryal environment back in the 18th century. the scientist and educator E. I. Rozhansky came out, at the beginning of the 19th century. - historian, ethnographer and writer S. M. Mikhailov-Yandush, the first professor from the Chuvash. In the life of the nation, the Viryal folk culture, like the Anatri and Anat Enchi, comes out with a rich arsenal. Their dialect, being a historical phenomenon in its development, contributes to the enrichment of the literary language. In the second half of the 20th century there is a gradual process of disappearance of the dialect.
2) anatri (grassroots). They differ in their specific features: dialect - ukany, folk costume, musical folklore, oral folk art, rituals, etc. Anatri are settled in the south and southeast of the Chuvash Republic and in the diaspora - various republics and regions of the Russian Federation and the CIS. The main factors in the formation of anatri were socio-economic and political changes both in the Chuvash region and in the Russian Empire. The main reasons were the flight from forced Christianization and the search for fertile lands (16-18 centuries). Among the grassroots there are so-called local (zakamsky) i.e. not subjected to major migration processes. On their territory there are "islands" of viryal, anat enchi, as well as subgroups of anatri. The concept of "anatri" is associated not so much with the geographical division, but with the type of people, their character, variety of culture and history. How the term "anatri" was fixed at the beginning of the 20th century. The Anatri language formed the basis of the Chuvash literary language, developed by the creators of the new Chuvash writing system (, V. A. Belilin, S. N. Timryasov, A. V. Rekeyev, D. F. Filimonov). On the territory of Anatri, ancient monuments of the Chuvash runic writing, works of small and monumental sculpture have been preserved. Among the unbaptized Chuvash of the Republic of Tatarstan, the Republic of Bashkortostan, the Ulyanovsk, Samara, Orenburg regions, the traditions of the ancient religion, traces of Zoroastrianism, still live to this day.
3) anat enchi (middle grassroots). Settled in the north and northeast of Chuvashia, they are also found in the Republic of Bashkortostan and the Republic of Tatarstan, Ulyanovsk, Orenburg regions, most of all in the Penza, Samara and Saratov regions. The study of the dialect of the language remains problematic: some believe that the dialect of the middle-low Chuvash is independent, while others believe that it is transitional between the Viryal and Anatri dialects. At the same time, folklore, especially folk art, testifies that the middle-lower Chuvashs have preserved ancient forms of culture: a folk costume dating back to the 18th century, complex breast decorations. Archaeological and historical monuments (tombstones, jewelry, rings) confirm that anat enchi even in the 17-18 centuries. they used runic writing and such a rare art form as jewelry chasing on non-ferrous metal was at a high level. The process of erasing the dialect of anat enchi is much faster than the dialect of horsemen. Folk art, musical creativity, folklore, choreography, being the ancient heritage of the people, serve as a rich arsenal for the development of modern culture.
Lit .: Ashmarin N. I. Dictionary of the Chuvash language. Issue. 1–17. Ch., 1928–1950; Ilyukhin Yu. A. Musical culture of Chuvashia. Ch., 1961; Sirotkin M. Ya. Chuvash folklore. Ch., 1965; Kakhovsky V. F. The origin of the Chuvash people. Ch., 1965; History of the Chuvash ASSR. T. 1. Ch., 1983; Trofimov A. A. Chuvash folk cult sculpture. Ch., 1993; Culture of the Chuvash region. Part 1. Ch., 1994; Salmin A.K. Chuvash folk rituals. Ch., 1994; Chuvash. Ethnographic research. Ch. 1 and 2. Ch., 1956, 1970; Ethnic history and culture of the Chuvash of the Volga and Ural regions. Ch., 1993; Ivanov V.P. Chuvash. Ethnic history and traditional culture. M., 2000.
Chuvamshi (Chuvash. Chgvashsem) is a Turkic people, the main population of the Chuvash Republic (Russia).
According to the results of the 2002 census, there are 1,637,200 Chuvashs in the Russian Federation; 889,268 of them live in the Chuvash Republic itself, making up 67.69% of the population of the republic. The largest share of Chuvash in the Alikovsky district is more than 98%, the smallest - in the Poretsky district - less than 5%. The rest: 126,500 live in Aksubaevsky, Drozhzhanovsky, Nurlatsky, Buinsky, Tetyushsky, Cheremshansky districts of Tatarstan (about 7.7%), 117,300 in Bashkortostan (about 7.1%), 101,400 in the Samara region (6.2%) , 111,300 in the Ulyanovsk region (6.8%), as well as 60,000 in Moscow (0.6%), Saratov (0.6%), Tyumen, Rostov, Volgograd, Kemerovo, Novosibirsk, Irkutsk, Chita, Orenburg, Moscow, Penza regions of Russia, Krasnoyarsk region, Kazakhstan and Ukraine.
According to recent studies, the Chuvash are divided into three ethnographic groups:
riding Chuvash (viryaml or turim) - north-west of Chuvashia;
middle-low Chuvash (anamt enchim) - northeast of Chuvashia;
grassroots Chuvashs (Anatrim) - the south of Chuvashia and beyond;
steppe Chuvashs (khirtim) - a subgroup of grassroots Chuvashs identified by some researchers living in the southeast of the republic and in adjacent regions).
The language is Chuvash. It is the only living representative of the Bulgar group of Turkic languages. It has three dialects: riding ("okaying"), eastern, grassroots ("poking").
The main religion is Orthodox Christianity.
The Mongol invasion and the events that followed it (the formation and collapse of the Golden Horde and the emergence of the Kazan, Astrakhan and Siberian khanates, the Nogai Horde on its ruins) caused significant movements of the peoples of the Volga-Ural region, led to the destruction of the consolidating role of the Bulgarian statehood, accelerated the formation of individual ethnic groups of the Chuvash , Tatars and Bashkirs, In the 14th - early 15th centuries, under oppression, about half of the surviving Bulgarian-Chuvash people moved to Order and Order, where the "Chuvash daruga" was formed from Kazan east to the middle Kama.
The formation of the Tatar people took place in the Golden Horde in the 14th - the first half of the 15th century. from the Central Asian Tatar tribes who arrived together with the Mongols and appeared in the Lower Volga region as early as the 11th century. Kipchaks, with the participation of a small number of Volga Bulgarians. There were only insignificant groups of Tatars on the Bulgarian land, and there were very few of them on the territory of the future Kazan Khanate. But during the events of 1438 - 1445, connected with the formation of the Kazan Khanate, together with Khan Uluk-Muhammed, about 40 thousand Tatars arrived here at once. Subsequently, Tatars from Astrakhan, Azov, Sarkel, Crimea and other places moved to the Kazan Khanate. In the same way, the Tatars, who arrived from Sarkel, founded the Kasimov Khanate.
The Bulgarians of the right bank of the Volga, as well as their fellow tribesmen who moved here from the left bank, did not experience significant Kipchak influence. In the northern regions of the Chuvash Volga region, they mixed, already for the second time, with the Mari and assimilated a significant part of them. Muslim Bulgarians who moved from the left bank and from the southern regions of the right bank of the Volga to the northern regions of Chuvashia, falling into the environment of pagans, departed from Islam and returned to paganism. This explains the pagan-Islamic syncretism of the pre-Christian religion of the Chuvash, the spread of Muslim names among them.
Until the fifteenth century the land east of the rivers Vetluga and Sura, occupied by the Chuvash, was known as "Cheremis" (Mari). The first mention of the name of this territory under the name "Chuvashia" also refers to the beginning of the 16th century, i.e., to the time the ethnonym "Chuvash" appeared in the sources, which, of course, is not accidental (we are talking about the notes of Z. Herberstein, made in 1517 and 1526).
The complete settlement of the northern half of modern Chuvashia by the Chuvashs occurred in the 14th - early 15th centuries, and before that time, the ancestors of the Mari - real "Cheremis" - numerically prevailed here. But even after the entire territory of present-day Chuvashia was occupied by the Chuvash, having partially assimilated and partially displaced the Mari from its northwestern regions, Russian chroniclers and officials throughout the 16th-17th centuries traditionally continued to call the population living east of the lower Sura, at the same time or "Mountain Cheremis", or "Cheremis Tatars", or simply "Cheremis", although the mountain Mari proper occupied only small territories east of the mouth of this river. According to A. Kurbsky, who described the campaign of Russian troops against Kazan in 1552, the Chuvash, even at the time of the first mention of them, called themselves "Chuvash", and not "Cheremis".
Thus, in the course of complex military-political, cultural-genetic and migration processes of the 13th - early 16th centuries. two main habitats of the Bulgarian-Chuvash were formed: 1 - the right-bank, mostly forest area between the Volga and Sura, limited in the south by the line of the Kubnya and Kirya rivers; 2 - Prikazansko-Zakazansky region (the number of Kypchak-Tatars was also significant here). From Kazan to the east, to the river. Vyatka, the Chuvash daruga stretched. The basis of both territorial groups of the ethnos was mainly the rural agricultural Bulgarian population, who did not accept Islam (or moved away from it), and absorbed a certain number of Mari. The composition of the Chuvash people included, in general, various ethnic elements, including the remnants of the "Imenkovsky" East Slavic population, part of the Magyars, Burtases, and, probably, the Bashkir tribes. Among the ancestors of the Chuvash, there are, although insignificantly, Kipchak-Tatars, Russian Polonians (captives) and peasants who came to their senses in the 15th-16th centuries.
The fate of the Prikazan-Kazan Chuvash, known from the sources of the 15th - first half of the 17th century, developed in a peculiar way. Many of them in the XVI-XVII centuries. moved to Chuvashia, in the seventeenth century. - in Zakamye (their descendants live today here in a number of Chuvash villages - Savrushi, Kiremet, Serezhkino, etc.). The rest became part of the Kazan Tatars.
According to the data of the scribe books of the Kazan district of 1565-1568. and 1b02-1603, as well as other sources, in the second half of the 16th - the first half of the 17th centuries. On the territory of the Kazan district there were about 200 Chuvash villages. In the very center of the ethnic territory of the Kazan Tatars - the Kazan district - at the beginning of the 17th century. there were much more Chuvashs than Tatars: here, only in mixed Tatar-Chuvash villages, according to the Scribe Book of 1602-1603, there were 802 courts of yasak Chuvashs and 228 serving Tatars (then only villages in which there were serving Tatars were rewritten; the number Chuvash villages did not correspond). It is noteworthy that in the Scribe Book of Kazan 1565 - 1568. urban Chuvash were also indicated.
According to some researchers (G.F. Sattarov and others), the "yasak Chuvash" in the Kazan district in the 16th - mid-17th centuries. those groups of the Bulgarian population were named in whose language the Kipchak elements did not win a final victory, and "Bulgarians with a native Bulgarian language (of the Chuvash type) should not have disappeared and lost their native language between the 13th and 16th centuries." This can be evidenced by the decoding of the names of many villages in the central part of the Kazan district - Order, which are etymologized on the basis of the Chuvash language.
Since ancient times, the Bulgarian population also lived in the middle Vyatka, on the Chepets River. It was known here under the name "Chuvash" at the very beginning of the 16th century. (since 1510). On its basis, the ethnographic groups of "Besermians" (with a culture more than similar to the Chuvash) and Chepetsk Tatars were formed. Letters of letters of "Yarsky" (Arsky and Karinsky) princes of the 16th century have been preserved, in which the arrival in the basin of the river. Caps of "Chuvash people from Kazan places" in the first half of the 16th century.
According to the Tatar scholar-educator Kayum Nasyri and folk legends, among the Chuvash who converted to Islam in the Order, Zakamye, the Chepts basin, in the Prisviyazhye, there were also their own scholars, mudarists, imams, hafiz and even Muslim "saints" who performed the hajj to Mecca , which was, for example, judging by his rank, Valikhadzh, known among the Chuvash as "Valyum-Khusa".
The main component of the Chuvash people was the Bulgarians, who passed on to it the "r" - "l" language and other ethno-cultural features. The fact that it was the Bulgarians, who had mainly formed into an ethnic group by the beginning of the 13th century, that served as a component of the Chuvash people, determined the ethnic, cultural, everyday and linguistic unity characteristic of the Chuvash people, the absence of tribal differences.
The greatest modern Turkologist M. Ryasyanen writes that "the Chuvash language, which is so different from the rest of the Turkic-Tatar languages, belongs to a people that should be considered with all confidence as the heir of the Volga Bulgarians."
According to R. Akhmetyanov, "both the Tatar and the Chuvash ethnic groups finally took shape, apparently, in the 15th century. At the same time, the same elements served as the" building material "in both cases: Bulgars, Kypchaks, Finno-Ugric peoples. The differences were only in the proportions of these components.Chuvash retained some unique features of the Bulgar language in the system of Turkic languages, and this fact suggests that the Bulgar element played a big role in the ethnogenesis of the Chuvash people... There are also Bulgar features in Tatar (especially in the vowel system) . But they are barely noticeable."
A total of 112 Bulgarian monuments have been identified on the territory of Chuvashia, of which: settlements - 7, villages - 32, locations - 34, burial grounds - 2, pagan burial grounds with epitaphs - 34, treasures of Dzhuchizh coins - 112.
The Bulgarian monuments of the Chuvash region make up an insignificant share (about 8%) of the total number of monuments discovered in the central regions of the former Bulgarian state - a total of 1855 objects.
According to the studies of V.F. Kakhovsky, these monuments are the remains of Bulgarian settlements abandoned by the inhabitants in the second half of the 14th - early 15th centuries, in connection with the devastating raids of the Golden Horde emirs, the hordes of Tamerlane, the Ushkuyniki and the campaigns of Russian princes. According to V. D. Dimitriev, the number of Bulgarian-Chuvash monuments on the right bank of the Volga, including the territory of the Ulyanovsk region and the Chuvash Volga region, exceeds 500 units. Many Chuvash and Tatar settlements on the right bank of the Volga and Predkamye are a continuation of the Bulgarian-Chuvash settlements of the 13th-14th centuries, they were not destroyed and did not become archaeological monuments.
Among the late Bulgarian monuments of the times of the Golden Horde and the Kazan Khanate are the Chuvash medieval pagan cemeteries, on which stone tombstones with epitaphs were erected, usually in Arabic script, rarely in runic characters: in the Cheboksary region - Yaushsky, in Morgaushsky - Irkhkasinsky, in Tsivilsky - Toysinsky burial grounds.
The bulk of burial grounds with stone tombstones and epitaphs has been preserved in the eastern and southern regions of Chuvashia (in Kozlovsky, Urmarsky, Yantikovsky, Yalchiksky, Batyrevsky).
The types of dwellings (semi-dugouts, log huts), the arrangement of the underground in them and the location of the stove, the layout of the estate, enclosing it on all sides with a backyard or fence, setting the house inside the estate with a blank wall on the street, etc., characteristic of the Bulgarians, were inherent in the Chuvash XVI-XVIII centuries The rope ornament used by the Chuvash to decorate gate posts, the polychrome coloring of architraves, cornices, etc., find similarities in the fine art of the Volga Bulgarians.
The pagan religion of the Suvars and the Bulgarians, described in the Armenian sources of the 7th century, was identical to the Chuvash pagan religion. Noteworthy are the facts of religious veneration by the Chuvash of the dead cities - the capitals of Volga Bulgaria - Bolgar and Bilyar.
Finno-Ugric, primarily Mari, elements also entered the culture of the Chuvash people. They left a mark in the vocabulary and phonetics of the Chuvash language. Riding Chuvash retained some elements of the material culture of their Mari ancestors (tailoring, black onuchi, etc.).
The economy, life and culture of the rural population of Bulgaria, judging by the data of archeology and written sources, had many common features with the one known to us from the descriptions of the 16th-18th centuries. material and spiritual culture of the Chuvash peasantry. Agricultural machinery, the composition of cultivated crops, types of domestic animals, methods of agriculture, beekeeping, fishing and hunting of the Volga Bulgarians, known from Arabic written sources and archaeological research, are found in the Chuvash economy of the 16th-18th centuries. The Chuvash are characterized by a complex anthropological type. A significant part of the representatives of the Chuvash people have Mongoloid features. Judging by the materials of individual fragmentary surveys, Mongoloid features dominate in 10.3% of the Chuvash, and about 3.5% of them are relatively "pure" Mongoloids, 63.5% belong to mixed Mongoloid-European types, 21.1% represent various Caucasoid types - both dark-colored (predominate), and fair-haired and light-eyed, and 5.1% belong to sublaponoid types, with weakly expressed Mongoloid features.
The anthropological type of the Chuvash, characterized by experts as the sub-Ural variant of the Ural transitional race, reflects their ethnogenesis. The Mongoloid component of the Chuvash, according to the well-known anthropologist V.P. Alekseev, is of Central Asian origin, but at this stage it is impossible to name the ethnic group that introduced Mongoloid features into the anthropological type of the Chuvash. The Bulgarians, who came out of the Mongoloid Hunnic environment of Central Asia, were certainly carriers of precisely that physical type, but later, on a long journey across Eurasia, they perceived Caucasoid features from the Caucasoid Dinlins of South Siberia, the North Iranian tribes of Central Asia and Kazakhstan, the Sarmatians, Alans and peoples of the North Caucasus, East Slavic Imenkovsky tribes and Finno-Ugric peoples in the Volga region. As already noted, the composition of the Chuvash in the XV-XVII centuries. a certain number of Russians (mostly Polonians) also entered, which also affected their physical type. As Islam strengthened in the culture of the Tatars, Central Asian traditions were established, and among the Chuvash-pagans, the layer of Finno-Ugric culture becomes influential, since the neighboring Finno-Ugric peoples remained pagans until the 18th-19th centuries. As a result, the Chuvash, according to R. G. Kuzeev and others, turned out to be the most bicultural (i.e., with a dual culture) people; The Chuvash, "preserving the archaic Turkic language," the scientist noted, "at the same time developed a culture that in many respects was close to the culture of the Finno-Ugric people."
Ethnographic groups
Traditional festive costumes of riding (viryal) and grassroots anatri) Chuvash.
Initially, the Chuvash people formed two ethnographic groups:
Viryal (mounted horses, also called turi) - in the western half of the Chuvash region,
Anatri (grassroots) - in the eastern half, with differences in language, clothing and ritual culture. At the same time, the ethnic self-consciousness of the people was unified.
After the Chuvash of the northeastern and central parts of the region (mainly Anatri) became part of the Russian state in the 16th-17th centuries. began to move to the "wild field". Subsequently, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Chuvash also migrate to the Samara Territory, Bashkiria and Orenburg. As a result, a new ethnographic group has emerged, which currently includes almost all Chuvash living in the southeastern regions of the Chuvash Republic and in other regions of the Middle Volga and Ural regions. Their language and culture have experienced a noticeable influence of the Tatars. Researchers call this group Anatri, and their descendants, who remained in the former territory - in the central, northern and northeastern Chuvashia, - Anat Enchi (middle grassroots).
It is believed that the anat enchi group formed in the 13th-15th centuries, the viryal - in the 16th century, and the anatri - in the 16th-18th centuries.
In terms of culture, Anat Enchi is closer to Anatri, and in terms of language - to Viryal. It is believed that the Anatri and Anat Enchi retained the ethnic features of their Bulgarian ancestors to a greater extent, and Finno-Ugric (mainly Mari) elements were noticeably manifested in the Viryal culture.
The names of ethnographic groups are based on settlement relative to the flow of the Volga: the Chuvash settled below the riding ones are called Anatri (grassroots), and the group located between them is Anat Enchi, i.e. Chuvash of the lower (lower) side,
Already in the pre-Mongolian period, two main ethno-territorial massifs of the Bulgaro-Chuvash were formed, but then they were apparently distinguished not along the course of the Volga, but according to their settlement on its left and right banks, i.e. on the "mountain" (Turi) and "steppe" (Hirti), or "Kama", During the academic expedition of the eighteenth century. P.S. Pallas singled out exactly two groups of Chuvash: riding along the Volga and Hirti (steppe, or Kama).
Since ancient times, the north-eastern regions of the Chuvash region were a kind of crossroads of migratory movements of the Bulgarian-Chuvash tribes. This is the territory of residence of modern anat enchi, who were originally called anatri. It is in the latter, both in the language and in the ethnic culture, that the Bulgarian components had and still have the most pronounced manifestation.
The formation of modern anatri was associated with the process of development of the "wild field". Moved here and to new lands up to the Urals, mainly people from Cisivil and the Anishsh region, as well as the Sviyazh region, that is, from the places where the Anat Enchi now live. Constant contacts with the Kazan Tatars and Mishars, the weakening of ties with the mother villages, life in a different environment and in different conditions, led to changes in their culture and way of life. As a result, the southern Chuvashs became isolated, a separate ethnographic group was formed, called Anatri.
Outside the modern borders of Chuvashia, they live in the bulk of the Anatri. However, a fairly complex and mixed Chuvash population settled in Zakamye (Tatarstan), Ulyanovsk, Samara, Orenburg, Penza, Saratov regions and Bashkiria. For example, the village of Saperkino, Isaklinsky district, Samara region, arose in the middle of the 18th century, it was founded by pagan Chuvashs - immigrants from the village of Mokshins, Sviyazhsky district, headed by Minesweeper (Saper) Tomkeev. Subsequently, Chuvash migrants moved to Saperkino not only from Sviyazhsky, but also from Cheboksary, Yadrinsky, Simbirsk, Koz-Modemyansky counties.
The ethnographic groups of the Chuvash differ mainly in women's clothing and the dialectal features of the everyday language. The most ancient and basic among them is the women's shirt anat enchi, which is cut from four panels of white canvas. Wedges were inserted from below. The shirt of anatri also has such a look. In viryala, it is longer and wider, of five panels and without wedges. II according to the opinion of researchers (N. I. Gagen-Torn and others), the cut of the shirts of the riding Chuvash and mountain Mariykas, like the whole complex of clothing, is almost the same.
In the second half of the nineteenth century. Anat Enchi and Anatri began to sew clothes from motley, but the Viryalks did not adopt this fabric. Riding Chuvash women wore 2-3 belts (to create a lap), and anat enchi and anatri - only one belt, moreover, it served more for hanging belt decorations.
Riding shoes were identical to the Mountain Mari and differed from the rest of the Chuvash. The Viryals wore long footcloths and onuchi, the frills of the dresses were longer than those of the others. The legs were wrapped thickly, like the Finno-Ugric neighbors. The viryal footcloths were made of black cloth, anat enchi - black and white, anatri - only white.
Married Chuvash women of all groups wore khushpa - a cylindrical or conical headdress, decorated with sewn coins and beads.
The towel-like surpan attire was shorter among the riding and middle lower classes than among the anatri.
Anat Enchi women also wore a turban over a surpan - a triangular canvas bandage.
The girl's headdress tukhya - a hemispherical cap made of canvas - is almost entirely covered with coins among the riding, as well as among the middle lower Chuvash. Among the middle-lower ones, it was trimmed with beads, several rows of coins and had a beaded cone with a metal knob at the top.
The linguistic features of ethnographic groups are expressed in the existence of two easily understandable dialects - grassroots and riding: the first is characterized by ukanye (for example: uksa - money, urpa - barley), the second - okanye (oksa, orpa).
Thus, unlike a number of neighboring peoples (for example, the Mari and Mordovians, which are characterized by more than significant differences), the Chuvash dialects and, in general, all specific group cultural features developed relatively late. Dialects did not have time to stand out into separate languages before the appearance of a common literary language. All this indicates that the Volga-Kama Bulgarians by the time the Mongol-Tatar hordes appeared on the Middle Volga - at the turn of the 12th-13th centuries. - basically already formed into the Bulgarian nationality, and it experienced ethno-consolidation processes. At the same time, on the basis of the consolidation of individual tribal dialects, all the main characteristic features of a single Bulgarian language were finally formed, which later became the basis of the Chuvash language.