Kryashen Historical Review

The article explores the potential of the microhistorical approach in the study of the Russian provinces, using the example of the uezd town of Menzelinsk (late 18th – early 20th century). It reconstructs a multidimensional picture of life in this uezd’s center, which successively belonged to the Orenburg and then Ufa Governorates. The focus is on the fate of the descendants of the Smolensk szlachta, their adaptation processes in the Urals, and the erosion of their ethno-estate identity. The history of local administration and self-government is revealed through the figures of town commandants and mayors, whose governance methods ranged from authoritarianism to direct conflicts with local society. A special place is given to the formation of the intellectual environment of the county town in the 19th century: the development of gymnasium education, the emergence of public libraries, and the influence of technological innovations on the daily life of townspeople. The complex world of the Tatar community is analyzed through the example of the Muslim community and the construction of a cathedral mosque in the early 20th century. The conclusion is drawn that microhistorical analysis helps to overcome the stereotype of cultural stagnation in the provinces and to reveal the significant socio-cultural potential of a county center.

This article is devoted to the history of the Tatar-Kryashen village of Kryash-Serda in the Pestrechinsky District of the Republic of Tatarstan. Using available archival materials, the authors attempt to reconstruct the events that took place in this village at the beginning of War Communism (1918–1921). As throughout the country, a peasant movement was formed in Kryash-Serda, and the village council and the poor peasants' committee worked hard to begin a campaign against fellow villagers labeled kulaks. They were "exposed", their food and property confiscated, abuses by officials exposed, and so on.

In the Russian Empire, marriages between a Muslim man and women of Orthodox and Catholic faiths were legally prohibited. However, an exception was made for women who professed Protestantism (Lutheranism). They were initially able to marry Muslims without restrictions. Later, their marriages were also regulated by Russian law, with the restriction that children born into such a marriage were required to be baptized according to the Lutheran or prevailing Orthodox rite. Such a marriage was to be performed only according to the Lutheran rite. The article examines the special case of retired Muslim Tatar non-commissioned officer Murtaza Rafikov and his Lutheran wife Anna Petrova, who married and raised their two daughters in Islam even before the provisions of the Charter of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of 1832 came into force. The issues of a Lutheran woman funeral in an area with an Orthodox Muslim population and the expediency of baptizing the children of Murtaza Rafikov and Anna Petrova according to the Orthodox rite are considered.The article also covers other examples of Muslim-Lutheran families in the Russian Empire, but at a later date.

This publication presents archival documents that reveal certain aspects of the Russian state's religious policy in the 19th century, related to its paternalistic attitude toward the Orthodox Church. The tragic fate of Gaisha Shakhingarevna, a member of the Tatar noble family of the Tevkelevs, illustrates the situation of baptized Tatars who returned to Islam.