In the last days of August, a daddy with the pain of thousands of Russian families living in Tatarstan was transferred to the hands of the Minister of Education of Russia Olga Vasilyeva through a large family from Moscow region. They ask the minister to read it personally.
“Save our children from forcible study of the Tatar language!” - they beg Vasilyev, for many years not finding support, including in the department under her control. The authorities of Tatarstan do not recognize the problem.
Although they openly declare that the republic is an independent state. That is what is written in black and white in school textbooks, on the covers of which Tatarstan is placed in a row with the leading world powers separately from Russia.
On the situation with the Russian language in the country, and why the situation in Tatarstan reminds Ukraine, the Daily Storm special correspondent Natalya Bashlykova was told by the head of the Russian Culture Society of Tatarstan Mikhail Scheglov.
- Mikhail Yuryevich, you are one of those who collected the folder for the minister, why did you decide to hand it over personally?
- We have repeatedly tried to draw the attention of the federal authorities to this situation. A lot has already been written on this topic, including to the Minister of Education. Until now, we have received answers according to the standard scheme, when everything descended back into the republic ... Once we received an answer that we consider the correspondence completed.
Therefore, we went the other way. We were helped by a woman from the Moscow region who read the pain of the parents in our group on the social network VKontakte - the Committee of Russian-speaking parents of Tatarstan. She agreed to directly transfer the Vasilyeva folder.
In addition, at the same time, Russian President Vladimir Putin instructed the General Prosecutor’s Office of the Russian Federation to conduct a test of the voluntary study of national languages in the regions. At the Council for Interethnic Relations in Yoshkar-Ola, he stated that it is unacceptable to reduce the hours of the Russian language at the expense of other languages.
The President paid particular attention to the leaders of the regions. It is obvious to us that this was said about Tatarstan, because the worst situation is here. But our first persons of the republic do not recognize this. And they have already stated that everything is within the law.
- What is happening in the country with the Russian language today?
- The Russian movement in the Republic of Tatarstan is concerned with a number of problems that the authorities do not recognize today. But, of course, in the first place in the republic is the problem of the Russian language in education. It is very difficult to solve it, because our legislation is “sharpened” under bilingualism.
Mandatory for studying in school are Russian and Tatar. My children are already adults, at first I myself did not resist the fact that they were studying Tatar language at school. But later I became convinced that this was an absolutely unnecessary item for my children.
They cannot learn it, because they have neither motivation nor environment for this, unlike their Tatar peers. In my opinion, from 60 to 80% of the population, including Tatars, think so. They understand that the future for them is Russian.
Nevertheless, the regional authorities persist and position this language as equal to Russian in all dimensions. Even the fact that it contradicts the Constitution of the Russian Federation, where Russian is the only official language of the whole country, does not bother officials.
Another problem is legal collision. This is something that in the Russian Federation the Russian language does not have the status of a native, although 92% of citizens consider it as such. For example, in our republican legislation, the concept of the native language is opposed to the Russian language.
- What is it like?
- That is, native is not Russian, but Tatar. But if I am Russian, what can be my mother tongue? This is the first thing that, in my opinion, needs to be corrected in the legislation, because there must be an unshakable foundation for the state language, which guarantees the security of the country ...
Fundamentally, on a large scale, the Russians in Tatarstan realized this problem in 2009, with the introduction of the Russian language EG as an entrance test to universities. Parents tolerated - suffered, and then realized that their children could not go to college. For example, someone’s child has gotten triples in Russian, which, due to the limited hours (in favor of Tatar), he doesn’t know well.
- What is the ratio of hours of teaching Russian and Tatar languages?
- All equally. This is a principled position for the government and the Tatar nationalists, whom it supports. I would compare it with the Battle of Stalingrad - we will not give an inch of land. But how equally? For example, Tatyana Loginova, who is also in our association, her child has three lessons of Russian and literature a week and five lessons of the Tatar language and another one on the Tatar literature, where the subject “Tatar language” also actually takes place.
Our principled position is what? Russian children should learn Tatar literature translated into Russian. This is logical. They are not native speakers of the Tatar language, they have little understanding of what they read. However, there are no such transfers.
Therefore, of course, it is very logical that the majority of Russian students receive bad marks for the Tatar language. Moreover, they are crushed for it, spread rot, cheat. They say to children: do not pass the language, we will not transfer you to the next class.
For example, we had such a case, when mother put a voice recorder in her briefcase, and then listened to what the teacher told him about his parents who did not support the study of the Tatar language, as well as humiliation, insults to the child in the presence of the class.
This, of course, is unacceptable from the point of view of pedagogical ethics, but the majority is silent so that the child can simply finish school. Because this topic is taboo. Be silent - and your C grade will be drawn to you.
- This situation is only in Tatarstan?
- In Bashkiria, there was a similar situation, but there the prosecutor's office took up the cause, and the president takes a different position. We have flint.
- How do you think, why?
- There is such a figure - Rafael Khakimov, who designed the Republic of Tatarstan as a sovereign separate state. For many years he was Mintimer Shaimiev’s adviser on domestic policy.
This is a famous writer, an extreme nationalist, precisely of a state regional scale. When he was in the 90-ies in the republic brought a man like Aslan Maskhadov. From the presidium, he taught our state council of the republic how to build relations with Russia, why it is necessary to support the national liberation movement, and also what Ichkeria is. It was a project of Khakimov.
In general, the contract signed today between Moscow and Tatarstan is part of the systemic situation created by the revanchist, ethnocratic group formed by ex-President Shaimiev. Today there are people who want revenge and return to 500 years ago, so that a separate Tatar state appears again. There are those in the republic who frankly would not like to see Russians here. This is natural, because the Russians are not assistants in the construction of such a state.
- From Moscow this is not visible. How does this manifest itself?
- And from Moscow, what was visible about Ukraine before it flashed there? Everything is the same here today. I myself am a candidate of technical sciences, I teach at the institute, but the defense of the Russian language is now my second half. I've been doing this for 30 for years, from creating a folk movement, folk ensembles, holidays, to speeches at various scientific conferences and events.
- Are there any opposition to your activities?
- For the authorities, I am persona non grata. For example, they ask me not to give words at various events. Repeatedly I tried to bring to administrative responsibility. But I win all such administrative cases either in the lower court or in the Supreme Court. Because all the claims against me are bullshit. However, they still need to crush me, hold me down, scare me ...
If you go back to the contract, then there are definitely people who would like separation from Russia, even to the point of implementing some kind of resettlement program. Also in the republic there have always been those who use this factor in the political game.
- What game is this?
- It was that they first declared sovereignty, held a referendum, in which 61,4% of the population spoke in favor of considering the republic as a subject of international law and an independent state.
At that time, such an idea was thrown in, that we have an oil region, and in the conditions of a sovereign state, our children will be born automatically by millionaires like in Saudi Arabia. But in the end, who has the whole oil industry now? Families and clans. In general, the sovereignty of the Shaimiev team used as an enrichment tool, creating well-being to their descendants.
If you pay attention, the wife of the current president of Tatarstan is a very successful businessman. Over the year 2016 she earned 2,6 billion rubles. In general, with respect to Moscow, it is a separate organism, a certain cocoon. I do not know whether his federal forces and Vladimir Putin will be able to unravel. Some signals have now appeared, including bank failures, because the banks here are palaces and castles.
- You said that the same processes are repeated in the republic as in Ukraine, what exactly do you mean by this?
- All markers are similar, language as well. Suppose the whole fact история Republic rewritten. If you take the textbook under the authorship of D.K. Sabirova, Ya.Sh. Sharapova “History of Tatarstan. From ancient times to the present day ”, there Tatarstan is considered as an independent state since the times of ancient Bulgaria.
In particular, it says that in 1552, Russia committed an act of aggression and occupied Tatarstan. The light forces are in the republic, and the black ones are understandable from where. This goes in other textbooks. There were a lot of complaints, including to the prosecutor’s office, but they did not give results.
Moreover, our history textbooks are not just rewritten, but academic historical science is built on a completely rewritten history. For example, Indus Tagirov is a real academic, doctor of science, professor. He is actually the head of the historical school of the Republic of Tatarstan.
That is, all our candidates and doctors have passed his school. And this person in all seriousness says that the Republic of Tatarstan has 3000 years, and the territory includes not only Tatarstan, Bashkiria and all of Siberia, but also all of China. In Soviet times, it was impossible to voice such ...
The same situation with art, creative unions. In the local Writers Union, there are slightly more than 300 Tatars and, in my opinion, 13 Russians, moreover, in the Russian section of the Tatars even more, and in the section of Tatar writers, in my opinion, not a single Russian. That is, the Russian word does not develop here at all.
We tried to launch one project. A certain Russian writer wanted to make the almanac “The Russian Word”. Punched, talked about it at all status meetings. As a result, the word “Russian” was removed from the title and they were assigned to steer the edition of a Tatar. The same thing in the Union of Composers, in the Union of Artists.
- What happened in your letter to Vasilyeva?
- We reported on the ratio of Tatar and Russian hours in schools, that we can not defend our right to a full study of the Russian language. They wrote about the programs for which our children study, that there are forgeries in schools, about aggression against children.
If someone vyaknet something, then the child on the line can for all to reprimand: "That's because of his father and mother, this classmate of yours refuses to respect the Tatar people." When there is nothing to oppose the advocates of such a kind of regional education go to the hysterical: “Teach, ignoramuses, the language of the people in whose territory you live!”
Although it is difficult to talk about whose real territory it is. Before the Bulgars, here lived the Imenkovites, who are considered to be the Proto-Slavs. That is, the territory flowed smoothly, from there to here. In general, the Russians with the Tatars are complementary peoples, between whom there have so far been no serious contradictions.
By the beginning of the revolution, the Tatars had developed mechanisms of interaction with the tsarist government, with the dominant Orthodoxy, and no one thought about Sharia. Now Sharia, which we propagandize in all mosques.
People who visit them say that up to 20% of worshipers are Salafis and Wahhabis. This ideology of radical Islam is spreading here today because of the uncontrolled preaching of newcomers from Saudi Arabia and a number of other countries in the Middle East.
At first I didn’t go into it either, but when I saw that the churches began to burn, that there were shooting with Wahhabis within the city limits, I studied this question. After all, the former mufti as a result of this was left without legs, miraculously survived.
And the main leader of traditional Tatar Islam, theologian Valiulla Yakupov, was killed in the entrance of his own house. Up to nine churches in the republic were set on fire or attempted to break the Wahhabis. Several churches burned to the ground.
- What is the ratio of Russian and Tatars in the republic today?
- In the region, with the last census, slightly more than 53% Tatars and almost 39% Russians. Although there is insider information from the security forces, that in fact Russians are the majority here. Just for the Tatars, it is important to be the majority. In previous censuses, the number of Tatars in the republic was less than 50%. They could not come from anywhere; there are also no migration flows to the Tatars' Republic.
An interesting fact is, for example, that Ivan the Terrible moved the Tatars away from the rivers so that they would not rob. Therefore, in all villages along the banks of the rivers live Russians. But in recent years there is an unofficial policy of resettling Tatars in Russian villages. And there is a tendency for the moschetization of all villages, including the purely Russian.
In kindergartens, without asking the parents, they introduce halal nutrition. It's like kosher Jews, that is religiously correct. Is it that now before eating children re-sanctify this food?
Neglecting the interests of Orthodoxy is also the dominant feature of this structure. Everywhere, where it is possible to do without him, they manage without him, but they always try to plant the priest next to the mullah. Or, let's say, the construction of mosques, which went at a very heightened pace under President Shaimiev. Now there are about one and a half thousand mosques in the republic.
And behind the scenes, local entrepreneurs were connected to this power. There was even such a topic, when a Russian businessman boasted that he had helped two Orthodox churches and four mosques. At the same time, there was a strong merchant class under the kings in Tatarstan, especially in the provinces.
These were the Old Believers merchants who created here mighty centers of culture and Russianness, ranging from family values to the temples that they built here. It is near 500 of the namolenny, spiritually richest Orthodox churches, most of which are now destroyed and standing in disrepair.
Nobody raises this topic yet. But I think that this is a shame for the regional authorities, which allow the dying of such pearls. In Kazan, such examples were. This, for example, the house church of the merchant Niklyaev of the XVIII century, on the territory of the altar of which a new three-storey building was built. No matter how the public was indignant, no matter how much the head of the region wrote about it, we failed to protect the temple.
PS
Meanwhile, the authorities of Tatarstan have responded to the remarks of Vladimir Putin about the forced learning of a non-native language in some regions of Russia in a peculiar way. Kazan decided to increase the hours of Russian lessons, but at the same time preserve the obligatory lessons of the Tatar, reports the publication "Vzglyad".
Last Friday, the Ministry of Education of Tatarstan announced that from January 1, the study of the Russian language in schools of the republic will increase to the volumes recommended by the Ministry of Education of Russia, however, the study of the Tatar language in the republic remains mandatory. At the same time, the Ministry complains that mass appeals have appeared in social networks to refuse to learn the Tatar language.
The Ministry of Education of the region recalls that the Constitution of Russia recognizes the republics the right to establish state languages. The agency also recalls the ruling of the Constitutional Court of November 16 of 2004 of the year, which “studies in general educational institutions of the Russian and Tatar languages as state languages” in Tatarstan is recognized as not inconsistent with the Constitution of Russia.
“Accordingly, the Tatar language as an obligatory subject is subject to study in all educational institutions of the Republic of Tatarstan. Thus, appeals distributed in social networks (and sample applications) for refusing to learn Tatar language contradict the current legislation and mislead the parents of students, ”the ministry's message quotes Interfax.
The Ministry notes that the decision to expand the teaching of the Russian language was made on the basis of the proposals of the interdepartmental commission on the implementation of instructions from President Vladimir Putin, which were given as a result of a meeting of the council at the head of state on interethnic relations held in late July.
However, let us turn once again the attention of readers that the President of Russia had in mind precisely the need for a transition to a FULLY VOLUNTARY study of the Tatar language for all residents of the Republic of Tajikistan.
“To force a person to learn a language that is not native to him is just as unacceptable as is to reduce the level and time of teaching Russian. I pay special attention to this by the heads of regions of the Russian Federation, ”the head of state said then. At the same time, he added that the languages of the peoples of Russia are an integral part of their original culture. “To study these languages is a right guaranteed by the Constitution. The right is voluntary, ”Putin said.
Thus, the words of Mikhail Shcheglov that the imposition of the Tatar language is a kind of “Stalingrad battle” for the local authorities and the national elite, have been fully confirmed.