The Red Book of the Peoples of the Russian Empire. Margus Kolga
Islam had begun to spread in western Siberia as early as the 10th century. Islam united the Tatar tribes and principalities. Islam symbolized literacy and culture. The biggest religious centres were Tobolsk and Tara with their madrasas and libraries. There was also a mosque school in every village, where a mullah taught boys in a primary school (4—5 years) at the expense of some wealthy man or the village community. The Baraba Tatars had connections with cultural centres in the European part of Russia and Asia and there were several intellectuals among them too (Nijat-Bakyi Atnometev, Rashid Ibragimov etc.).
Soviet rule was introduced in 1919 and it brought with it radical changes. In 1928 the first co-operatives were founded and during the years of 1930 and 1931 mass collectivization took place. In 1930 the cultural scene became more active (the founding of secondary schools and a teacher training school in Tobolsk and Tomsk, a Tatar newspaper in Omsk, amateur art groups etc.) though it did not take place in the spirit of their own ideology. A way of life, that was either strange to them (e.g. Russian-type buildings, planning of settlements, standardized furniture) or even adverse (e.g. eating of pork, emancipation of women, photos of people on walls) was forced upon them. The Baraba Tatars had been cattle breeders and merchants, and great experts regarding horses, but not tillers or gardeners. They were well-known among other peoples as horse dealers and gelders. Collectivization resulted in the dissolution of existing proprietary and economic relations, meanwhile militant Soviet atheism attacked everything that was either Islamic or nationalistic. Mosques, clergymen, intellectuals and books were all destroyed. In the 1940s teaching in Tatar was replaced by Russian and Tatar was relegated to be used only at home or in the village community. The Baraba Tatars’ full assimilation has been prevented only by religious and anthropological factors. The Tatars are still considered to be “blacks” among the Russians.
Writing. Baraba Tatars have shared a common written language with the other Tatars. The old literary Tatar, dating from the 16th century, was replaced by a new Tatar in the middle of the 19th century, but one that still retained use of the Arabic alphabet. Literacy and denominational schools (maktab, madrasa) had been introduced together with Islam and thanks to the Islamic or Arabic culture the Tatars were the most educated people in Siberia in the 19th century. In the big libraries (Tara, Vembayevo etc.) there were a great number of publications and rare manuscripts in many languages. Arabic script was used up to the year 1928, after which there was a transition to the Latin alphabet and in 1939 to the Russian. Until the 1980s Tatar could still have been used for teaching, whereas all the textbooks, novels, newspapers etc. came from the Tatar Autonomous Republic. Unlike Tatars living in other regions, who have reestablished education in their mother tongue, the Baraba Tatars have yet to do this.
Research. The first historical records of the Baraba Tatars date from the 18th century (L. Lange, “Das veränderte Russland”, 1719—1721). The first examples of their language were presented by R S. Pallas in his comparative dictionary (”Linguarum totius orbis vocabularia comparativa “, 1787—1789), the first texts by V. Radlov in 1872). In 1870 A. Th. von Middendorff expressed the opinion that the Baraba Tatars were on the verge of extinction, but that has proved to be untrue and research continues. Some information on the Baraba language was included in the dictionary of Tatar dialects (1948—1958) and L. Zalyai’s book on the Tatar dialects (1947). A large collection of texts has been published by L. Dimitriyevna, there is also a monograph detailing the connections Baraba has with the other Turkic languages, authored by D. Tumasheva in 1969.
THE BARTANGS
Self-designation. They call themselves bartangidz. Their name originates from the right-hand tributary of the River Pyandzh (Birting in their own language).
Habitat. The Bartangs live in the area between the villages of Dasht and Basid, above the Roshanis, in the valley of the Bartang in the Pamirs. The largest villages are Sipandzh (Bartang on some maps), Darzhomch, Razudsh and Basid. Administratively they belong to the district of Roshani in the autonomous territory of Gorno Badakhshan, which is a part of Tadzhikistan.
The valley of Bartang, one of the highest in the Pamirs and with a severe climate, is mainly swampy and covered with sand. The main areas suitable for habitation are on the Bartang delta. The population in the valley is sparse. There is very little arable land. Sipandzh, the centre of the previous Bartang district, is 57 km from Roshani and can be reached by car. The village centres of Basid and Savnob (Roshorv, Pasor, Kudara and other villages) are better reached from the east, via Murgab. There is no road to Ravmed (Ravmid) or to any other village.
The population of the Bartangs was given in the official list of Tadzhik villages (Stalinabad, 1932) as 2,049 people. Two years later, at the time of the 1939 census, it was 3,700.
The Bartangi language belongs to the Shughni-Roshani or northern subgroup of the Pamir languages in the Iranian group of Indo-European languages. It differs from the other Pamir languages, especially from Khufi and Shughni. There are two dialects: Basid and Sipandzh (Sipondzh). The former is mainly spoken in the village of Basid, the latter in Sipandzh (Sipondzh) and in Ravmid. There are phonetic differences between them. The Basid dialect is similar to the Oroshori language, the Sipandzh dialect to Roshani. The influence of Roshani is especially strong among the people in the village of Ravmid.
The language, spoken by the people in Khufi and Badzhu, has features in common with the neighbouring Shughni.
History. Massive resettlement took place in these parts in the 1950s, so that by 1959 the number of Bartangs had been reduced to less than a thousand — one third of the figure for 1939 (N. Ginsburg). Since 1959 the population of the Bartang valley has been on the increase. The empty Ravmed (Ravmid) is reborn.
Research. Previous to 1916 the Bartangs and their language were unknown to Europe. In 1916 a short research paper “Notes zur leyazgoulami, dialecte iraniren des confins du Pamir” that included some Bartangi words was published, posthumously by French linguist R. Gauthiot. The first text published in Bartangi was a lullaby, in 1924.
THE BATS
Self-designation. They call themselves batsba nah (Bats people), and their language batsba motjiti (Bats language). Neighbouring peoples, who speak the Nakh languages (Ingushes, Chechens), know them by the same name. The peoples who speak the Kvartelian languages (Georgians, Sans, Svans) know the Bats as tsova-tushians and the Didos call them tsuv-ak.
The Bats language belongs to the Nakh group of the Caucasian languages. There are no dialects of Bats and neither is there a written from — the Bats use Georgian as their literary language.
Until the middle of the 19th century the Bats lived in Tushetia, the mountain region of Northwest Georgia. The Tsova Gorge in Tushetia was inhabited by four Bats communities: the Sagirta, Otelta, Mozarta and Indurta. Later they settled on the Kakhetia Plain, in the village of Zemo-Alvani, where they still live. Administratively they are part of the Akhmeta district of Georgia. There are some families of Bats in Tbilisi and other bigger towns in Georgia.
No exact data exists concerning the exact population of the Bats. None of the censuses taken in the Soviet Union have counted them as a separate nation and they have been regarded as Georgians. According to the collection “The Languages of the Peoples of the USSR”, which in its turn was based on the findings of the expeditions of the 1960s, the Bats number 2,500—3,000. Considering the tendency to assimilate, the number has probably declined since then.
Religion. The Bats are Christians. The first records of Christianity in Tushetia date from the 16th century, though the actual conversion could have taken place some centuries before. Christianity spread from Tushetia via the Bats to the Chechens and Ingushes. The strength of their faith manifested itself in a series of wars against the “non-believers”, i.e. the Dagestanians who were Islamic, as well as in strong opposition to the Islamization policy of Persia in the 18th century.
While it is an acknowledged fact that the Bats language belongs to the Nakh group of languages, there is no agreement on the Bats’ ethnic origin. Numerous interpretations exist but because of a