Chuvash people

Chuvash

Чӑваш
Group of dancing Chuvash people
Total population
1.5 million[1]
Regions with significant populations
Russia	1,435,872[2][3]
Kazakhstan	22,305[4]
Ukraine	10,593[5]
Uzbekistan	10,074[6]
Turkmenistan	2,281[7]
Belarus	2,242[8]
Moldova	1,204[9]
United States	900[citation needed]
Kyrgyzstan	848[10]
Georgia	542[11]
Latvia	534[12]
Azerbaijan	489[13]
Estonia	373[14]
Languages
Chuvash Russian
Religion
Predominantly Orthodox Christian Minority Tengrism and Sunni Islam
Related ethnic groups
Volga Tatars, Mari people

Baptized Chuvash people, 1870

Chuvash diaspora in Volga Federal District

The Chuvash people (UK: /ˈtʃuːvɑːʃ/ CHOO-vahsh,^[15] US: /tʃʊˈvɑːʃ/ chuu-VAHSH;^[16] Chuvash: чӑваш [tɕəˈʋaʃ]; Russian: чуваши [tɕʊˈvaʂɨ]) are a Turkic ethnic group branch of Oghurs, native to an area stretching from the Volga Region to Siberia. Most of them live in Chuvashia and the surrounding areas, although Chuvash communities may be found throughout the Russian Federation. They speak Chuvash, a unique Turkic language that diverged from other languages in the family more than a millennium ago.

Etymology[]

There is no universally accepted etymology of the word Chuvash, but there are two main theories. One suggests that the word Chuvash may be derived from Common Turkic jăvaš ('friendly', 'peaceful'), as opposed to şarmăs ('warlike'). Another theory is that the word is derived from the Tabghach, an early medieval Xianbei clan and founders of the Northern Wei dynasty in China. The Old Turkic name Tabghach (Tuoba in Mandarin) was used by some Inner Asian peoples to refer to China long after this dynasty. Gerard Clauson has shown that through regular sound changes, the clan name Tabghach may have transformed to the ethnonym Chuvash.^[17]

Subgroups[]

Chuvash people are divided into three main groups:^[18]

• Virjal or Turi (Chuvash: вирьял, тури, 'upper')
• Anat jenchi (анат енчи, 'mid-lower')
• Anatri (анатри, 'lower')
  • Hirti (хирти, 'steppe') (this is a sub-group that is recognized by some researchers)

History[]

Distribution of Chuvash in the broader Volga-Ural region. Source: 2010 Russian Census.

The Turkic ancestors of the Chuvash people are believed^{[by whom?]} to have come from central Siberia, where they lived in the Irtysh basin (between Tian Shan and Altay) from at least the end of the third millennium BC. In the early first century AD the Bulgars started moving west through Zhetysu and the steppes of modern-day Kazakhstan, reaching the North Caucasus in the 2nd to 3rd centuries AD. There they established several states (Old Bulgaria on the Black Sea coast and the Suar Duchy in modern-day Dagestan).

Old Bulgaria broke up in the second half of the 7th century after a series of successful Khazar invasions. Some of its population fled north, to the Volga-Kama region, where they established Volga Bulgaria, which eventually became extremely wealthy: its capital then being the 4th-largest city in the world. Shortly after that, the Suar Duchy was forced^{[by whom?]} to become a vassal state of Khazaria. About half a century later, the Suars took part in the Arab–Khazar wars of 732–737. The adoption of Islam in the early tenth century in Volga Bulgaria led to most of its people embracing that religion.^[19]

After the Mongols destroyed Volga Bulgaria in 1236, the Golden Horde kept control of the region until its slow dissolution from c. 1438. The Kazan Khanate then became the new authority of the region and of the Chuvash. The modern name "Chuvash" began to appear in records starting from the sixteenth century from Russian and other foreign sources.^[19]

In 1552 the Russians conquered the Kazan Khanate and its territories. The Chuvash, required to pay yasak, gradually became dispossessed of much of their land. Many Chuvash who traditionally engaged in agriculture were forced to become bonded laborers in the timber industry or to work in barges due to growing poverty.^[20] The subsequent centuries saw the Christianization and Russification of the Chuvash. During this period, most Chuvash converted to Orthodox Christianity, but the Tsars never achieved their complete Russification.^{[19][need quotation to verify]}

The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries saw the revival of Chuvash culture and the publication of many educational, literary, and linguistic works, along with the establishment of schools and other programs. The Chuvash language began to be used in local schools, and a special written script for the Chuvash language was created^{[by whom?]}in 1871.^[19]

On June 24, 1920, the Bolshevik government of the RSFSR established the Chuvash Autonomous Region; it became the Chuvash Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic on April 21, 1925. Around this time Chuvash nationalism grew, but the Soviet authorities attempted to suppress nationalist movements by re-drawing the borders of the republic, leaving many Chuvash living in neighboring republics or in Russian districts. During most of the Soviet period of 1917-1991, the Chuvash were subjected to Russification campaigns and propaganda.^[21] The Chuvash language vanished from educational and public use. In 1989, another Chuvash cultural revival began^[22] - partly in response to these changes. Soon the Chuvash language once again came into use in educational, public, and political life.^[19]

As of 2005, schools in the Chuvash Republic and in areas outside that have large Chuvash populations teach the Chuvash language and culture. Chuvash people around Russia also have media available to them in their local communities.^{[19][need quotation to verify]}

Origin[]

According to one theory, the Chuvash may be descended from the Volga Bulgars.^[23]

They have been subjected to much infusion and influence, not only from Russian and Turkic peoples, but also from neighboring Finnic tribes, with whom they were persistently and mistakenly identified for centuries, perhaps aided by the fact that the Chuvash language is a highly divergent form of Turkic, and was not easily recognized as such.^[23] Chuvash is classified, alongside the extinct Bulgar language, as the only remaining member of the Oghuric branch of the Turkic language family.

Genetics[]

Physical anthropologists using the racial frameworks of the early 20th century saw the Chuvash as a mixed Finno-Ugric and Turkic people.^[24][23]

Subclades of Y-DNA haplogroups R1 and N are most common among the Chuvash. According to Rootsi et al. 2004, Tambets et al. 2004 (79 samples), and Trofimova 2005 (43 samples) the following distribution of haplogroups is obtained:^[25]

• I1: 7%
• I2a2: 0–2%
• I2a1: 0–2%
• J1: 0–2%
• J2a: 0–9%
• J2b: 0–5%
• Q: 0%
• R1b: 2–4%
• R1a: 28–32%
• N1c1: 18–19%
• N1c2: 9–10%
• E-M78: 0–14%
• C: 0–1%

Haplogroups Q and C are rare among Chuvashes. Chuvash carriers of Haplogroup R1a (19% in hundreds of samples) are Balto-Slavic Z282 subclade.^[26]

A study sampling of unrelated 96 Chuvashes concluded:

Earlier genetic research using autosomal DNA markers suggested a Finno-Ugric origin for the Chuvash. This study examines non-recombining DNA markers to better elucidate their origins. The majority of individuals in this sample exhibit the maternal haplogroups H (31%), U (22%), and K (11%), all representative of western and northern Europeans, but absent in Altaic or Mongolian populations. Multidimensional scaling (MDS) was used to examine distances between the Chuvash and 8 reference populations compiled from the literature. Mismatch analysis showed a unimodal distribution. Along with neutrality tests (Tajima's D (−1.43365) p < 0.05, Fu's FS (−25.50518) p < 0.001), the mismatch distribution is suggestive of an expanding population. These tests suggest that the Chuvash are not directly related to the Turkic and Mongolic people along their maternal line but supports the hypothesis that their language was imposed by a conquering group—leaving Chuvash mtDNA largely of European origin with a small amount of Central Asian gene flow. Their maternal markers appear to most closely resemble Slavic and Finno-Ugric speakers rather than fellow Turkic speakers.

The MtDNA gene pool was found to be 89.1% Caucasoid, 9.1% Mongoloid and 1.8% unidentified.^[27]

According to autosomal analyses, the present-day Chuvash speak a Turkic language but are genetically a mix of East-Asian and European elements. They are generally closer to Europeans with some genetic input from Siberia.^[28]

An autosomal analysis (2015) detected an indication of Oghur and possibly Bulgar ancestry in modern Chuvash. These Oghur and Bulgar tribes brought the Chuvash language with them.^[29] Another study found some Finno-Ugric components in Chuvash people.^[30]

Culture[]

They speak the Chuvash language and have some pre-Christian traditions. The Chuvash language is Turkic and is the only Oghur Turkic language that survives. The language has been influenced by Tatar, Russian, and Finno-Ugric languages. It has two to three dialects.^[19] In addition to Chuvash,^[31] many people also use the Russian language.

Religion[]

Today Chuvash people are Eastern Orthodox Christians and belong to the Russian Orthodox Church. After the Russian subjugation of the Chuvash in the 16th century, a campaign of Christianization begin. Most Chuvash didn't convert until the mid-nineteenth century.^[32] They retain some pre-Christian Tengrism traditions in their cultural activities. They syncretized Orthodox Christianity and Tengriism.^[32] Parallel pray in the shrines called keremet and sacrifice geese there. One of the main shrines is located in the town of Bilyarsk.

A minority of Chuvash follow Islam and they have also retained many traces of pre-Islamic beliefs and rituals.^[19] A minority of Chuvash probably adopted Islam as early as the Volga Bulgaria era but most Muslim Chuvash likely converted during the Golden Horde period.^[20] Some Chuvash who converted to Christianity following the Russian conquest reverted to Islam during the 19th and early 20th century.^[20]

Gallery[]

• 

  Chuvash woman in traditional attire.Mid-to-late 19th century

• 

  Married Chuvash woman in costume of matchmake. Early 20th century

• 

  Andriyan Nikolayev, Chuvash, the fifth cosmonaut in the world

• 

  Chuvash poet Gennadiy Aygi

• 

  Chuvash classic poet Konstantin Ivanov

See also[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Chuvash people.

• List of Chuvashes
• Chuvash National Congress
• Chuvash National Museum
• Chuvash national symbols
• Chuvash State Academic Song and Dance Ensemble
• Chuvash Wikipedia
• ChuvashTet
• Society for the study of the native land

References[]

External links[]

• Photos of the Chuvash people