Problems with the identity of the Polish-Lithuanian-Belarusian Tatars in the past and today Cover Image

Проблемы идентичности польско-литовско-белорусских татар: исторический и современный аспект
Problems with the identity of the Polish-Lithuanian-Belarusian Tatars in the past and today

Author(s): Svetlana Chervonnaja
Subject(s): Islam studies, Religion and science
Published by: Verbinum
Keywords: ethnic self-awareness; Tatar community in Poland; identity

Summary/Abstract: Research on Tatar minorities in Poland, Latvia and Belarus, conducted according to modern scientific methods, should encompass the subjects’ ethnic and cultural identity, and pay a close attention to their ethnic and cultural origins. Many determinants, affecting Tatars of the Golden Horde resettled to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Republic of the Two Nations (language, territory, military service) in former times, have lost their relevance. The widespread idea that Tatars differ from others only in their religion (Islam), today is being undermined by the evidence drawn from the process of migration. The most important foundations for the ethnic identity of the Polish, Lithuanian and Belarusian Tatars lie in their collective historical memory and contemporary culture (literature, poetry, journalism, humanities), by means of which they nourish the cult of their “self” as the separate ethnic and cultural unit. Barely discernible outlines of that phenomenon of “ourself”, take concrete shapes in Tatar literature and art, supported by documents and historical mythology.This article describes research into written and folk stories concerning that “legendary memory”. The outcome of the research indicates the presence of the dialectics of myth and reality in the images of the “famous past”, plays about “calls from the Grand Steppes”, “common ancestors”, and genetic kinship with the Tatars from the Volga and Ural regions and Crimea.

  • Issue Year: 142/2017
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 139-172
  • Page Count: 34
  • Language: Russian