"Bulgars" Press Their Case in Civil Courts (Tatarstan)

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Date: Tue, 25 May 1999 15:18:01 +0300 (EET DST)
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Subject: "Bulgars" Press Their Case in Civil Courts (Tatarstan)

From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>

Original sender: Felix Corley <[email protected]>

"Bulgars" Press Their Case in Civil Courts


It is no secret that many Tatars are uncomfortable about their own
ethnicity, including their own ethnonym.  This is unusual but not
surprising: historically, in Russia, the word "Tatar" has had very
strong negative connotations. Very often, it takes some courage to
call yourself a Tatar, especially if you happen to live in a
predominantly Russian environment.

The low ethnic self-esteem and severe discomfort associated with the
word 'Tatar" has recently found its most dramatic expression in the
so-called "Bulgar movement."  The movement was founded more than a
century ago by a Tatar cleric Bagautdin Vaisov, who taught his
followers that they were the descendants of Bulgars, a Turkic tribe
that settled in the Middle Volga area in the 7th-9th centuries C.E. 
Members of his sect rejected the enthnonym "Tatar" and called
themselves "Bulgars." With the death of Vaisov in 1918 his sect
gradually disappeared despite the efforts of his son, Gainan, to
reinvigorate it.

During the Soviet period the "Bulgar movement" disappeared altogether,
although the debate about the origins of Tatars continued for decades
within the academic community.  With the breakup of the USSR the
"Bulgar movement" was revived by the members of such groups as
"Bulgar-al-Jadid" and "Bulgar National Congress."  One of their
demands is to be allowed to change the entry in their passports
pertaining to ethnicity.  During the last few years as many as 200
people in Kazan have applied to the local authorities with the request
to change their passports to reflect their "true" ethnic origin.

Recently, some members of these organizations began pressing their
case in civil courts.  In Kazan, the president of the Bulgar National
Congress, Gusman Khalilov,  filed a law suit in the civil court of the
Vakhitovsky district. The purpose of the law suit was to force the
local authorities to allow him to replace the word "Tatar" in his
passport with the word "Bulgar."  In a surprising ruling, the
Vakhitovsky district court allowed Khalilov to change the respective
entry in his passport. The ruling was immediately appealed to the
Supreme Court of Tatarstan, which, in turn, reversed the ruling of the
lower court.

Something similar happened this year in Ulyanovsk region.  An ethnic
Tatar, Shaukat Bogdanov, has filed a law suit in the Zasviyazhsky
district court of Simbirsk, the regional capital.  The judge who
decided the case, Olga Boikova, has ruled that Bogdanov and his family
have the right to replace the word "Tatar" in their passports with the
word "Bulgar."  The judge based her ruling on the article 26 of the
Constitution of the Russian Federation, which states that anyone can
freely choose his or her ethnicity and indicate it in the passport.

Sabirzyan Badretdin

Sources: "Vechernyaya Kazan", No. 77, May 18, 1999,
(<http://www.vk.melt.ru>);
"The Simbirsk Courier" No. 32, March 4, 1999,
(<http://www.courier.mv.ru>)


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