Vol 14, No 3 (2024)

The article, written in connection with the 95th anniversary of the Doctor of Historical Sciences, honored scientist of the Republic of Tatarstan Salyam Khatypovich Alishev (1929–2015), contains information about the scientific activities of the famous scientist, characterizes the results of his research in the 1970s, analyzes his significant contribution to the study of the history of the Kazan Khanate, the peoples of the Middle Volga and Ural regions, Moscow-Kazan relations of the 15th–16th centuries.

This article discusses the history of the participation of the Mari warriors on the side of the Russian state in the wars in the Baltic states in the second half of the 16th century. Their number in the ranks of thousands of Moscow troops did not exceed several hundred people, however, but in all cases the Mari warriors were assigned to the Advanced regiment. The participation of the Mari in the Livonian War was mainly limited to horse raids and skirmishes with small enemy units. During the Russo-Swedish War (1589–1595) Mari for the first time took part in the storming of the fortress. Also, the Cheremis, like the rest of the warriors of the Moscow army, participated in the robbery and devastation of the Baltic lands.

More than 250 years ago, an uprising led by E.I. Pugachev broke out on the southeastern borders of the Russian Empire, which in a short period of time covered a large territory of the Urals and the Volga region. The first attempts of government troops to suppress these unrest were unsuccessful, and among them the campaign (expedition) of Major General V.A. Kar, during which systemic shortcomings were revealed both in the command and control of troops and in the measures taken by local authorities. Prejudiced attitude towards the rebels as “cowardly men and rabble”, ignorance of the natural conditions of the Ural steppes and a number of other factors led to the failure of government troops in the fight against the Pugachevites in the initial stage of the uprising.

This article is devoted to the study of one of the key moments in the social history of the Teptyars in the 18th–19th centuries – the process of their transition from the peasant class to the military class. The article, based on published legislative acts of the Russian Empire of the 1790s, reconstructs the sequential chain of events that marked the formation of the Teptyars in a new social status. The details and features of the socio-economic nature of their class transformation are revealed.

The article presents an analysis of thirteen volumes of the “Collection of Oriental Manuscripts of Uzbek SSR Academy of Sciences” for the presence of manuscripts related to the activities of the sheikhs – the founders of the Yasawiya and Naqshbandiya tariqats, their students and followers, as well as the treatises of al-Ghazali and al-Arabi, as especially revered among the Tatar scientists of the Middle Ages. The relevance of the search for Sufi sources of the period of the 16th – 19th centuries is due to the need to deepen knowledge about the Tatar Sufi culture of this period of history. The description of the manuscripts in the “Collections” is carried out according to the dates of the copying of the treatises, which is an indirect fact of interest in them in the described period.

The article is devoted to the study of Tatar epigraphic monuments preserved in the Vysokogorsky district of the Republic of Tatarstan. As a valuable source, they play an important role in the study of the history, culture and language of the Tatar people, since they contain information that cannot be obtained from other historical sources. During an epigraphic expedition in this area, the author for the first time identified over 1200 monuments dating from the 13th century to 1939. The article presents the results of this work, describes the most significant and interesting examples of epigraphic monuments of scientific interest. The novelty of the study lies in the fact that some examples of this epigraphic heritage are introduced into scientific circulation for the first time, and also presents the results of the study of Arabic and Tatar texts on stones.

The article introduces into scientific circulation, investigates, and publishes a document on the history of local government of the Moscow State in the mid-17th century and the administrative activities of the Military Records Office and the Kazan Palace Office – list of voevodes and officemen of cities assigned by the Kazan Palace Office, September 1656. The document studied in the article was deposited in the fund of the Military Records Office of the Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts (RGADA). The article gives an archaeographic description of the published document, and substantiates the proposed dating of the document. The article describes the information potential of the document. The article is addressed to specialists in the history of public administration, and the source studies of office documents.

The review presents a description of the content of the collection of documents dedicated to the education and Christian enlightenment of the Chuvashs, who lived in the Volga-Ural region in the second half of the 19th – early 20th centuries. The author highlights aspects of the topic that are most fully reflected in the published documents: state of school affairs in rural areas, interfaith situation in the region, living conditions of parish priests and school teachers, activities of teachers and educators N.I. Ilminsky, I.Ya. Yakovlev, N.I. Zolotnitsky. The review positively assesses the detailed scientific reference apparatus of the book. It is concluded that the collection of documents expands our knowledge of the daily life of the peoples of the Volga region in the post-reform period of Russian history.

The article highlights the problems of scientific research, the creative biography of the great Tatar historian Salyam Khatipovich Alishev, who, having entered graduate school at the age of 34, achieved outstanding success thanks to his determination and enormous diligence, love for the craft of a historian and the desire to learn and write the true history of his native people. In the 1970–1980s, when the planned scientific topics of the majority of the employees of the sector of history were limited to the Soviet period, the achievements and successes of the Institute of Language, Literature and History in the study of the past of the Tatar people of the 15th – 19th centuries were largely determined by the works of S.Kh. Alishev.