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Nağaybäks ( ) are an indigenous
Turkic people Turkic peoples are a collection of diverse ethnic groups of West Asia, West, Central Asia, Central, East Asia, East, and North Asia as well as parts of Europe, who speak Turkic languages.. "Turkic peoples, any of various peoples whose members ...
in Russia recognized as a separate people under Russian legislation. Most Nağaybäks live in the Nagaybaksky and Chebarkulsky Districts of the
Chelyabinsk Oblast Chelyabinsk Oblast; , is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject (an oblast) of Russia in the Ural Mountains region, on the border of Europe and Asia. Its administrative center is the types of inhabited localities in Russia, city of Chel ...
.Tishkov, V. A. (editor), D. M. Iskhakov (article author) (1994). ''Народы России. Энциклопедия (Narody Rossii. Encyclopedia) (in Russian)''. Bolshaya Rossiyskaya Encyclopedia. . p. 238 They speak a sub-dialect of the
Tatar language Tatar ( ; or ) is a Turkic languages, Turkic language spoken by the Volga Tatars mainly located in modern Tatarstan (European Russia), as well as Siberia. It should not be confused with Crimean Tatar language, Crimean Tatar or Siberian Tatar ...
's middle dialect known as the Nagaibak dialect. Russian and Tatar historians usually treat the Nağaybäks as an integral part of
Volga Tatars The Volga Tatars or simply Tatars (; ) are a Turkic ethnic group native to the Volga-Ural region of western Russia. They are subdivided into various subgroups. Volga Tatars are the second-largest ethnic group in Russia after ethnic Russians. ...
; a minority considers Nağaybäks a separate ethnicity in their own right. In the 1989 Russian census, 11,200 people identified themselves as Nağaybäks, falling to 9,600 in 2002.


Origin

The origins of the Nağaybäks are unclear. One theory places the Nağaybäks as an offshoot of the
Nogais The Nogais ( ) are a Kipchaks, Kipchak people who speak a Turkic languages, Turkic language and live in Southeastern Europe, North Caucasus, Volga region, Central Asia and Turkey. Most are found in Northern Dagestan and Stavropol Krai, as well ...
. Other accounts claim that they are
Volga Tatars The Volga Tatars or simply Tatars (; ) are a Turkic ethnic group native to the Volga-Ural region of western Russia. They are subdivided into various subgroups. Volga Tatars are the second-largest ethnic group in Russia after ethnic Russians. ...
baptized after the fall of
Kazan Khanate The Khanate of Kazan was a Tatars, Tatar state that occupied the territory of the former Volga Bulgaria between 1438 and 1552. The khanate covered contemporary Tatarstan, Mari El, Chuvashia Republic, Chuvashia, Mordovia, and parts of Udmurti ...
. The most plausible theory, according to the 1994
Great Russian Encyclopedia The ''Great Russian Encyclopedia'' (''GRE''; , БРЭ, transliterated as ''Bolshaya rossiyskaya entsiklopediya'' or academically as ''Bol'šaja rossijskaja ènciklopedija'') is a universal Russian encyclopedia, completed in 36 volumes, publishe ...
, says that the ancestors of the Nağaybäks traditionally lived in central districts of the Khanate, east of
Kazan Kazan; , IPA: Help:IPA/Tatar, ɑzanis the largest city and capital city, capital of Tatarstan, Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Volga and the Kazanka (river), Kazanka Rivers, covering an area of , with a population of over 1. ...
, and most likely descended from Nogay and
Kipchak people The Kipchaks, also spelled Qipchaqs, known as Polovtsians (''Polovtsy'') in Russian annals, were Turkic nomads and then a confederation that existed in the Middle Ages inhabiting parts of the Eurasian Steppe. First mentioned in the eighth cent ...
. In the 18th century, they also assimilated a small group of Christians from
Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...
and
Central Asia Central Asia is a region of Asia consisting of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The countries as a group are also colloquially referred to as the "-stans" as all have names ending with the Persian language, Pers ...
. The most popular theory in
Tatarstan Tatarstan, officially the Republic of Tatarstan, sometimes also called Tataria, is a Republics of Russia, republic of Russia located in Eastern Europe. It is a part of the Volga Federal District; and its capital city, capital and largest city i ...
is that they were Serving Tatars from
Kazan Khanate The Khanate of Kazan was a Tatars, Tatar state that occupied the territory of the former Volga Bulgaria between 1438 and 1552. The khanate covered contemporary Tatarstan, Mari El, Chuvashia Republic, Chuvashia, Mordovia, and parts of Udmurti ...
that were forcibly baptized by
Ivan IV Ivan IV Vasilyevich (; – ), commonly known as Ivan the Terrible,; ; monastic name: Jonah. was Grand Prince of Moscow and all Russia from 1533 to 1547, and the first Tsar and Grand Prince of all Russia from 1547 until his death in 1584. ...
and relocated to the border between nomad
Bashkirs The Bashkirs ( , ) or Bashkorts (, ; , ) are a Turkic peoples, Turkic ethnic group indigenous to Russia. They are concentrated in Bashkortostan, a Republics of Russia, republic of the Russian Federation and in the broader historical region of B ...
, that were already incorporated to
Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
and nomad
Kazakhs The Kazakhs (Kazakh language, Kazakh: , , , ) are a Turkic peoples, Turkic ethnic group native to Central Asia and Eastern Europe. They share a common Culture of Kazakhstan, culture, Kazakh language, language and History of Kazakhstan, history ...
as border keepers. Yet another theory says that the Nağaybäks were Tatarized
Finno-Ugric peoples Finno-Ugric () is a traditional linguistic grouping of all languages in the Uralic language family except for the Samoyedic languages. Its once commonly accepted status as a subfamily of Uralic is based on criteria formulated in the 19th century ...
that kept the
Kazan Khanate The Khanate of Kazan was a Tatars, Tatar state that occupied the territory of the former Volga Bulgaria between 1438 and 1552. The khanate covered contemporary Tatarstan, Mari El, Chuvashia Republic, Chuvashia, Mordovia, and parts of Udmurti ...
's borders.
Demonym A demonym (; ) or 'gentilic' () is a word that identifies a group of people ( inhabitants, residents, natives) in relation to a particular place. Demonyms are usually derived from the name of the place ( hamlet, village, town, city, region, ...
''Nağaybäk'' emerged in written sources only in the 19th century although a
fringe theory A fringe theory is an idea or a viewpoint that differs significantly from the accepted scholarship of the time within its field. Fringe theories include the models and proposals of fringe science, as well as similar ideas in other areas of schola ...
asserts its existence as far as the 17th century. The village of Nagaybak, which gave name to present-day
Nagaybaksky District Nagaybaksky District () is an administrative and municipal district (raion), one of the twenty-seven in Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia.Resolution #161 It is located in the south of the oblast. The area of the district is . Its administrative center ...
, is known since the 1730s.


Historical record

Reliable historical evidence of Nağaybäk people start with a 1729 record detailing 25 villages of "newly baptized atars (Russian: новокрещёны) in Ufa uezd, east of the
Kama River The Kama ( , ; ; ), also known as the Chulman ( ; ), is a long«Река КАМА»
Russian St ...
. Most likely, they settled around Ufa in the second half of the 17th century after the completion of the defensive Kama
Abatis An abatis, abattis, or abbattis is a field fortification consisting of an obstacle formed (in the modern era) of the branches of trees laid in a row, with the sharpened tops directed outwards, towards the enemy. The trees are usually interlaced ...
Line (1652–1656). During the Tatar and Bashkir revolts of late 17th and early 18th century the Nağaybäks remained loyal to the Russian Empire. The government rewarded them with a wholesale transfer of the Nağaybäks into the Cossack estate, and assigned the Nağaybäks to the defense of Menzelinsk Fort. Another defensive fort was built in 1736 in the village of Nagaybak, 64
verst A verst (; ) is an obsolete Russian unit of length, defined as 500 sazhen. This makes a verst equal to . Plurals and variants In the English language, ''verst'' is singular with the normal plural ''versts''. In Russian, the nominative singul ...
s from Menzelinsk (present-day Bakalinsky District). The new fortress became the hub of the "newly baptized", and by 1744 the nearby Nağaybäk population increased to 1359 people in eleven villages. Two more Nağaybäk villages were recorded in 1795. The original Nağaybäk race was gradually diluted with an inflow of other Christianized Tatars recruited into cossack service (Yasak Tatars and Tiptärs). The government mandated their relocation into predominantly Christian Nağaybäk lands to evade daily contact between Christian and Muslim Tatars, and the new settlers rapidly intermarried with the locals. In 1773, Nagaybak Fort was caught in the way of Yemelyan Pugachev's rebellion. Loyal cossacks and troops, headed by captain Rushinsky, fled to Menzelinsk; most of the remaining soldiers joined the rebellion and participated in the siege of Ufa. Pugachev installed a "newly baptized Persian" by the name of Tornov, as the
ataman Ataman (variants: ''otaman'', ''wataman'', ''vataman''; ; ) was a title of Cossack and haidamak leaders of various kinds. In the Russian Empire, the term was the official title of the supreme military commanders of the Cossack armies. The Ukra ...
of Nagaybak. In January 1774, a small government company pushed the rebels out of Nagaybak Fort, but Tornov returned in strength and regained control over the fort. Two weeks later a whole corps of government troops crushed the rebellion. The fort became a base for punitive expeditions against the remains of Pugachev's army.R. V. Ovchinnikov, L. N. Bolshakov.
Encyclopedia of Orenburg Oblast. Nagaybak Fortress (in Russian)
'. Retrieved October 25, 2010
Nağaybäk cavalry participated in the
Napoleonic Wars {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Napoleonic Wars , partof = the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars , image = Napoleonic Wars (revision).jpg , caption = Left to right, top to bottom:Battl ...
and in the subsequent occupation of
Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
. In 1842, the Nağaybäk cossacks relocated from their former host in Nagaybak Fort eastward, to the former Orenburg Governorate. Here, they founded a chain of villages named after the battles of
Napoleonic Wars {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Napoleonic Wars , partof = the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars , image = Napoleonic Wars (revision).jpg , caption = Left to right, top to bottom:Battl ...
, including present-day Parizh, named after the Battle of Paris in 1814, Fershampenuaz (after the
Battle of Fère-Champenoise The Battle of Fère-Champenoise (25 March 1814) was fought between two Imperial French corps led by Marshals Auguste de Marmont and Édouard Mortier, duc de Trévise and a larger Coalition force composed of cavalry from the Austrian Empire, ...
), Kassel (after engagements near
Kassel Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in North Hesse, northern Hesse, in Central Germany (geography), central Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel (region), Kassel and the d ...
in
Hesse Hesse or Hessen ( ), officially the State of Hesse (), is a States of Germany, state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt, which is also the country's principal financial centre. Two other major hist ...
), Trebiy (after the Battle of Trebbia) in 1799, etc. Fershampenuaz remains the center of
Nagaybaksky District Nagaybaksky District () is an administrative and municipal district (raion), one of the twenty-seven in Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia.Resolution #161 It is located in the south of the oblast. The area of the district is . Its administrative center ...
to present. Another group of the Nağaybäk settled in present-day
Orenburg Oblast Orenburg Oblast (also Orenburzhye) is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast), mainly located in Eastern Europe. Its administrative center is the city of Orenburg. From 1938 to 1957, it bore the name Chkalov Oblast in honor of Valery Chkal ...
. These Nağaybäks settled on traditionally Muslim territories, and by the beginning of the 20th century they converted back to
Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...
and were reassimilated into Tatar ethnos.


Culture

Most Nağaybäks are
Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...
and were largely converted during the 18th century. Traditional Nağaybäk female clothing is similar to that of the Keräşen Tatars, but male clothing contains many elements of the Cossack uniform.


See also

* Turkic Christians *
Orenburg Cossacks The Orenburg Cossack Host () was a part of the Cossack population in pre-revolutionary Russia, located in the Orenburg province (today's Orenburg Oblast, part of the Chelyabinsk Oblast and Bashkortostan). History After having constructed for ...
* Keräşen Tatars *
Gagauz people The Gagauz (; ) are a Turkic ethnic group native to southern Moldova ( Gagauzia, Taraclia District, Basarabeasca District) and southwestern Ukraine (Budjak). Gagauz are mostly Eastern Orthodox Christians. The term Gagauz is also often used ...


Notes


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nagaybak Ethnic groups in Russia History of the Cossacks in Russia Orenburg Cossacks Tatar Christians Volga Tatars Chelyabinsk Oblast