A little about the Tatars of the Ulyanovsk region
October 04, 2018
The story tells that in the territory of the modern Ulyanovsk region Tatars appeared long ago. Once these lands were part of the Volga Bulgaria, the Golden Horde, the Kazan Khanate and were inhabited by the ancestors of the Tatars. From the second half of the 16th century, service Tatars began to move here from the territory of the modern Nizhny Novgorod Region and Mordovia.
The Tatars of the Ulyanovsk Region, mostly the so-called Mishar Tatars, are direct descendants of the Bulgars. Many geographical names of the region preserve the roots of the Bulgaro-Turkic toponymy. However, the current Tatar settlements began to emerge at the end of the XVI century, i.e. after the conquest of Kazan and the fall of the Kazan Khanate.
From among the Simbirsk-Ulyanovsk Tatars came out many famous, prominent figures who left a noticeable mark in science, literature and art. All Tatars are well aware of the names of the poets Gabdelzhabbar Kandalyi, born in the village of Ertuganovo (Stary Kandaly), and Sagit Syunchali; a writer and literary critic, a professor at Kazan State University, Ibrahim Nurullin, a Sahab Uray, a Tatar poet, a journalist, and a translator. In the years 1932-38. he was the editor of the Kuybyshev regional Tatar newspaper “Kolhoznik”. Vafa Bakhtiyarov was born in the village of Novy Zimnitsy, who later became the editor of the Tatar newspaper «El-Islyakh», on whose pages Gabdulla Tukay was published.
The name of Bari Gafurov, known under the pseudonym Tarkhanov, has forever entered the history of the Tatar theater. For the first time in 1916, he organized in Ulyanovsk a professional theater troupe called “Irek”, after the revolution it was renamed «Kyzyl Yoldyz» future famed actors Karim Tinchurin, Kavi Najmi, Tazetdin Gizzat (T. Gizzat) Fatkhia Yusupova and Sait Bulatov participated in this troupe in different years. In Simbirsk, another theater star has grown – Asiya Izmailova, a popular actress of the 50s.
