Vol 13, No 4 (2023)

The publication provides a retrospective analysis of the integration of the territory of the Western Urals into the Moscow State in the 16th – 17th centuries. The author comes to the conclusion that the annexation of this territory and the peoples inhabiting it was complex, multi-vector in nature and took a long time. This process is considered as a gradual expansion of the military-administrative infrastructure of the Russian state to the east and the inclusion of the local population in the yasak taxation system.

The process of formation of one of the branches of commercial and industrial activity – the fashion industry, which included the sale and production of goods for women in the Russian province in the 1860s–1880s – is considered. The subject of study is gender history, raising the status of a woman who becomes an independent owner or manager of a business. In the post-reform period, the rapid development of trade in women’s goods began for representatives of the "middle" and "upper" classes of Ufa, the capital of a separate province that emerged in 1865. Due to the transport isolation of the region, only during the summer navigation period the river shipping company operated, the delivery of "fashionable" goods from the capitals and abroad through Nizhny Novgorod and Kazan sharply increased the cost of products. Therefore, an independent system for the production of women’s clothing, hats, shoes and even jewelry is being developed in Ufa. It was practically the only purely female business in the city, covering about a third to a quarter of all establishments. Either the owners or managers who actually managed the business were women. Initially, the fashion industry of Ufa as an entertainment for wealthy officials and merchants who dreamed of breaking out of everyday life, quickly transformed into a serious business, acquiring the features of small-scale production with a considerable number of employees. Women’s entrepreneurship in the fashion industry was distinguished by a higher socio-cultural level; noblewomen (officials) and merchant women made up 2/3 of the owners of establishments, while the production of men’s clothing and shoes was dominated by the bourgeoisie. This situation persisted for about 30 years, until the railroad arrived in Ufa in 1888. The influx of cheaper imports has dramatically changed the situation.

The factual basis of the publication consists of typological and cartographic materials of the Historical and Ethnographic Atlas of the Tatar People (volume "Folk costume") and the ethnocultural zoning carried out on their basis, highlighting three distinctive areas. A comparative historical (synchronous and diachronic) analysis of the structural elements of the costume and the features of its decor allows us to state that the Finno-Ugric component, in terms of ethnocultural fullness, constitutes one of the important trends in the cultural genesis of the Volga-Ural Tatars. It is noticeable in the Kazan-Tatar costume complexes, especially in its rural variations, in the clothing complexes of the baptized Tatars of the Central ethnocultural area. In the Western area, the Finno-Ugric component is also evident in all complexes, especially in the Sergach costume. However, to the greatest extent, Finno-Ugric, Samoyed-Ugric traditions are found in the Trans-Ural complex of Tatar clothing of the Eastern area, due to ethnocultural contacts of the Turks and Finno-Ugric peoples in the Ural-Volga region and mediated through the Bashkirs by Siberian Ob-Ugric, Ugric-Samoyedic connections.

The article is devoted to the study of the scientific and teaching activities of Kadyr and Maryam Gubaidullins, who were actively engaged in the study of the history and ethnography of the Tatars in the 1920s. The contribution of young ethnographers to the development of Tatar ethnography for a number of reasons did not become the object of special research. Based on archival documents from the collections of the Central Museum of the Tatar Republic, the North-Eastern Archaeological and Ethnographic Institute, the Eastern Pedagogical Institute and the memoirs of relatives, the article presents in more detail the scientific and teaching activities of Kadyr and Maryam Gubaidullins. It is concluded that they were at the origins of the organization of higher special ethnographic education in the republic, carried out significant work on the collection and popularization of field ethnographic materials. Most of their works were the first studies in the Tatar national ethnography of the 1920s and served as the basis for further research.

In the paper the features of the dynamics and structure of population mortality in the 1990s – 2000s in two economically developed regions of the Middle Volga region – the Republic of Tatarstan and the Samara region – are analyzed. Mortality indicators are considered by the author in the context of place of residence, age and gender differences. As a result of the analysis, the author found that the growth rate of the number of deaths in the regions under consideration turned out to be higher than the Russian average and the increase in the number of deaths at young ages had a significant impact on the deterioration of these indicators. The author paid much attention to studying the structure of population mortality in accordance with the current International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10). The article analyzes the dynamics of the contribution of various causes of death to the structure of mortality in the city and rural areas, and also identifies the main trends and regional specifics, showing positive and negative trends in the dynamics of mortality in the regions under consideration.

The publication presents an analysis of the materials of the case "By the Decree of the Governing Senate on the allotment of the lands of the Kundra, Yurt and Emesh Tatars", deposited in the fund no.383 "First Department of the Ministry of State Property" of the Russian State Historical Archive. These materials date back to 1839–1847. The case was initiated in connection with the completion of the process of sedentarization of Astrakhan (Yurt, Emesh and Kundra) Tatars in the first third of the 19th century and the need to endow them with land on the basis of a Senate decree. The sparsely populated Astrakhan province predetermined the highest "proportion" of allotment of land to Astrakhan Tatars – 15 tithes per male. The documents of the case are interesting because they clarify several issues related to the history of the Astrakhan (Yurt) Tatars: the socio-legal status (Russian subjects and state peasants), the attitude to conscription and the amount of taxation, the number of Yurt, Emesh and Kundra Tatars in the 1830s; a clear definition in the source of belonging to the Tatar world. The documents presented in this publication indicate the interest of the Russian authorities in the final consolidation of the socio-legal status of the Tatar population of Astrakhan province as a settled taxable population with a clearly defined set of state duties. The authorities were also interested in finalizing the boundaries of rural settlements and securing land holdings for Yurt-Tatar societies in order to avoid land disputes between different owners.