Chuvashia, or the Chuvash Republic (Chuvash. Chӑvash Republic), is a
subject of the Russian Federation, a republic within it. The capital is
the city of Cheboksary.
It borders with the Nizhny Novgorod
region in the west, with the Mari El Republic in the north, with
Tatarstan in the east, with Mordovia in the southwest, and with the
Ulyanovsk region in the south. It is part of the Volga Federal District
and is part of the Volga-Vyatka economic region.
Formed on the
basis of the Decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and
the Council of People's Commissars of June 24, 1920 as the Chuvash
Autonomous Region on June 24, 1920. On April 21, 1925, it was
transformed into the Chuvash Autonomous Socialist Soviet Republic. Since
July 15, 1929, as part of the Nizhny Novgorod Territory, since December
5, 1936 - the Chuvash Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. Since
February 13, 1992 - Chuvash Republic.
Mariinsky Posad
Novocheboksarsk
By plane
To Cheboksary Airport (IATA:CSY) from
Moscow, Surgut and
Yekaterinburg.
By train
From Moscow from the Kazansky
station on the company train No. 054G “Chuvashia”.
By car
From
Moscow along the M7 Volga highway.
Buses, trolleybuses (in Cheboksary and Novocheboksarsk), taxis, water buses (on the Volga in summer)
The name Chuvashia is derived from the ethnonym Chuvash. The appearance of the word “Chuvash” was recorded on the territory of the Kazan Khanate. The modern ethnonym Chuvash was originally an exo-ethnonym of the ancestors of the Chuvash, used by the Kazan Tatars and Russians. The exoethnonym is associated with the socionyme of the 16th-17th centuries, which indicated the class affiliation of people who paid yasak and were engaged in agriculture. The possibility of the origin of the ethnonym Chuvash from the way of life of the people, that is, from the primary social content of the word, was first expressed by the publicist G. I. Komissarov
The history of Chuvashia is the history of the territory of the
modern Chuvash Republic and the Chuvash people. The process of
consolidation of the Chuvashia took place in the Volga Bulgaria, the
Golden Horde and the Kazan Khanate.
The first people arrived on
the territory of modern Chuvashia about 80 thousand years ago during the
Mikulino interglacial period.
The late Paleolithic Urazlinskaya
site was discovered on the territory of Chuvashia near the village of
Ulyank.
At the foot of the indigenous bank of the Maly Tsivil
River, a final Paleolithic workshop site (Sholma 1) with stone and bone
tools was discovered.
Mesolithic (13-5 thousand BC) and Neolithic
(4-3 thousand BC) sites were discovered along the Volga, Sura and Tsivil
rivers.
The burial grounds of the Fatyanovo culture in Chuvashia
are sometimes distinguished as a separate Balanovo culture.
In
the village of Abashevo in 1925, burial mounds of the Abashev culture
were first found. Burial mounds of the Abashev culture were found near
the villages of Taushkasy (Tsivilsky district), Katergino (Kozlovsky
district), Tokhmeevo and Pikshik. 0.5 km west of the village of Verkhnie
Olgashi on the edge of the right bank of the Sundyrka River there is a
group of 16 burial mounds of the Abashev cultural and historical
community.
The Tatar-Timyash burial ground of the Srubnaya
culture was found near the village of Tatarskiye Timyashi.
A
shift in social development occurred in the Bronze Age - in the 2nd
millennium BC. cattle breeding spread.
At the beginning of the new era, the Turkic-speaking tribes of the
Bulgars and Suvars began to move westward along the Semirechye and the
steppes of Central Asia, reaching the North Caucasus in the 2nd-3rd
centuries AD. Centuries of communication with the Iranian-speaking
Scythians, Sakas, Sarmatians and Alans influenced the culture of the
ancestors of the Chuvashes - their economic activities, way of life,
religion, clothing, headdresses, jewelry, ornaments.
In the
30-60s of the 7th century, in the Northern Black Sea region, there was a
state entity called Great Bulgaria, which disintegrated under the attack
of Khazaria.
The Suvars in the territory of the North Caucasus
had their own principality, which from the 60s of the 7th century to the
30s of the 8th century was dependent on the Khazar Khaganate.
In the 770s of the 6th century, part of the Bulgar tribes under the
leadership of Kotrag from the Ciscaucasia - from the territory of the
disintegrated Great Bulgaria moved to the region of the Middle Volga and
Kama region.
After the Arab invasion of their lands in 732-737,
the Suvars moved to the Middle Volga region and settled south of the
Bulgars.
In the 8th century, a Bulgar union of tribes arose in
the Middle Volga region, which included the Suvars and local
Volga-Finnic tribes under the leadership of the Bulgars. After the
subjugation of local tribes, mainly Finno-Ugric, at the end of the 9th
century, the union grew into the early feudal state of Volga Bulgaria,
which occupied the territory of the Middle Volga from the Samara Luka in
the south to the Vyatka River in the north, from the Middle Kama in the
east to the Sura River in the west.
The main economic activities
in Volga Bulgaria were arable farming and livestock breeding, hunting,
fishing, and beekeeping. The following cities emerged: Bolgar (the
capital from the beginning of the 10th century to the second quarter of
the 10th century), Bilyar (the capital from the second quarter of the
10th century to the beginning of the 13th century), Suvar, Oshel,
Nokhrat. Crafts, domestic and transit trade developed. In Volga
Bulgaria, attention was paid to the development of science and
education, and the state language was the Bulgar language. In the 10th -
early 13th centuries, during the unification of the Bulgar and Suvar
tribes, who spoke a language with "rhotacism" (the use, unlike other
Turkic languages, of "r" instead of "z"), and the assimilation of part
of the Finno-Ugric population, a new Volga-Bulgar (ancient Chuvash)
people was formed, its ethnonyms were Bulgar and Chuvash. The central
lands of the Volga Bulgars were located in the area of the confluence
of the Volga and Kama. The possessions of Bulgaria covered the
territories of modern Samara, Penza, Ulyanovsk regions, Tatarstan and
Chuvashia. The latter was populated by Bulgars no later than the 9th
century; the western border of the Volga-Bulgar state passed here. More
than 70 monuments of the Bulgar archaeological culture are known from
the territory of Chuvashia, the most famous of which is the
Tigashevskoye sanctuary (Batyrevsky district), dating back to the end of
the 9th - beginning of the 10th century. Until 965, Volga Bulgaria was
subordinate to the Khazar Khaganate, and then gained independence and
began to play a serious role in the political space of Eastern Europe.
Having an advantageous geographical position, it maintained close
political, economic and cultural ties with Russia, Scandinavia, and the
Arab world. As early as 922, part of the Bulgar aristocracy and
townspeople accepted Islam from the embassy of the Arab Caliphate, but a
significant part of the population remained pagan. The educated strata
of the Bulgars practiced a special kind of runic writing, as evidenced
by the finds of inscriptions from the territory of Bulgar. The material
and spiritual culture of the Volga Bulgars of the pre-Mongol period had
a huge influence on neighboring peoples, primarily the Mari, Udmurts and
Mordvins. The military affairs of the Volga Bulgaria are known mainly in
connection with numerous Bulgar campaigns against Rus' and Russian
campaigns against Bulgaria.
Volga Bulgaria repelled attacks by
Mongol troops three times - in 1223, 1229 and 1232.
In the autumn of 1236, the Mongol army led by Subedei defeated the
Bulgar forces, burned cities and captured a huge number of the
population. In 1239-1240, the Bulgar princes Bayan and Dzhiku rebelled,
and the following year the Mongols had to conquer Bulgaria for the
second time.
In 1236, Volga Bulgaria was devastated by the
Mongol-Tatars led by Khan Batu (Batu). The territory of the Middle Volga
region was included in the Bulgar ulus, a vassal of the Golden Horde.
The population was constantly subjected to violence and physical
destruction. According to historian V.D. Dimitriev, about 80% of the
inhabitants of the former Volga Bulgaria died in the 13th - early 15th
centuries. Some people moved to Prikazanye, Zakazanye, as well as to the
central and northern regions of the modern territory of Chuvashia.
In 1243, the Mongols created the Golden Horde, which included the
territory of the former Volga Bulgaria. During this period, there was an
outflow of part of the Bulgar population to the territory of modern
Chuvashia. The Golden Horde built a number of fortifications in
Chuvashia, in particular, the Bolshetayabinskaya fortress (mid-13th -
early 14th century).
In the middle of the 14th century, an
epidemic of plague occurred in the Bulgar ulus (Bulgarian land) of the
Golden Horde, as a result of which the population decreased
significantly. In the second half of the 14th century, these territories
suffered, on the one hand, from internal strife within the Horde,
accompanied by the devastation of the Bulgarian land, and on the other,
from raids by Novgorod ushkuiniks and princes. During this period,
another, more massive migration of the Bulgar-speaking population to the
territory of modern Chuvashia took place. As a result, the population
density in the Bolshoy and Maly Tsivil river basins, as well as in the
Cheboksary region, where archaeologists have traced a powerful layer
from the second half of the 14th - early 15th centuries. As a result of
the mass migrations of the Bulgars to the territory of Chuvashia and
their assimilation of local Finno-Ugric tribes during the 13th - 14th
centuries, the modern Chuvash people were formed.
After the
devastation of the Bulgarian land in the second half of the 14th - early
15th centuries, all Bulgarians began to be called Chuvashes.
In 1438, the Kazan Khanate broke away from the Golden Horde, which
included, in addition to the Kazan Tatars, the ancestors of the
Chuvashes, Bashkirs, Mari, Erzyans and Udmurts.
On the territory
of modern Chuvashia, as well as in the Prikazan-Zakazansky region, in
the Chuvash Daruga, the modern Chuvash nationality was formed by the end
of the 15th century.
In 1438, the Kazan Khanate (along with the
lands of Chuvashia) broke away from the Golden Horde. In Russian sources
of that time, the territory of Chuvashia and other lands on the right
bank of the Volga, populated primarily by the Chuvashes and mountain
Mari, are called the Mountain Side. The Mountain Side suffered from
incessant skirmishes between the Kazan Khanate and the Russian state;
troops from the warring parties constantly passed through its territory.
In connection with one of the Russo-Kazan wars in 1469, the chronicle
first mentions the city of Cheboksary.
The first mention of the
ethnonym "Chuvash" dates back to 1521: the Russian chronicle names them
among the peoples who, as a result of an uprising, removed the Moscow
protege Shah-Ali from the Kazan throne in favor of his competitor Sahib
I Giray. The population of the Mountain Side took an active part in the
Russo-Kazan War of 1521-1524, fighting and cutting off food supplies to
the Russian troops. Soon the Mountain Side was devastated by the raid of
the Nogai Horde. In 1540, the Chuvashes of the Mountain Side took part
in the Kazan raid on Kostroma.
In 1545, the Kazan campaigns of
Ivan IV the Terrible began. By this time, the political sentiments of
the Chuvash and Mountain Mari feudal lords had changed, and since 1546
they began to assist the Russian tsar in the fight against the Kazan
Khan Safa-Girey, hoping to return Shah-Ali to power. In 1551, Shah-Ali
brought the inhabitants of the Mountain Side (mountain people) to swear
allegiance to Ivan IV. According to the terms of the treaty, the Chuvash
and Mountain Mari were obliged to release Russian prisoners, obey Ivan
IV and pay tribute. In return, Ivan IV promised to preserve the lands
and holdings of the mountain people, as well as to establish a tolerable
tax system for the population. The warriors of the Mountain Side,
including the Chuvash, participated in the capture of Kazan in 1552, as
a result of which the Kazan Khanate became part of the Russian state.
The Chuvash lands, located on the border between the Moscow
Principality and the Kazan Khanate, often suffered from military clashes
between Russian and Kazan troops. Numerous Russian campaigns against
Kazan were accompanied by the plundering of the population along their
route.
In 1523, the troops of Shah Ali, a Moscow protégé and
pretender to the Kazan throne, set out from Nizhny Novgorod to the
Mountain Side. His warriors ravaged the Chuvash and Cheremis lands
between the Sura and Sviyaga rivers and began building a fortification
at the mouth of the Sura in preparation for the capture of Kazan.
In 1545, the Kazan Khan Safa-Girey, who was extremely unpopular on
the Mountain Side, was overthrown. He transferred the right to collect
yasak from the Chuvash lands to the Kazan and Crimean feudal lords,
thereby placing the Chuvash princes and tarkhans in a subordinate
position. In the middle of the 16th century, the struggle within the
Kazan nobility, among whose representatives were the Chuvash,
intensified. In September 1546, 4 Kazan princes and 76 other Kazan
residents went over to the side of Moscow. On December 6 of the same
year, the Mountain Cheremis "Tugai with two comrades" ("Mountain
Cheremis centurion Atachik with comrades", according to the "Discharge
Book") bowed their allegiance to Ivan the Terrible and asked for an
army. The result was a campaign by Russian commanders to the mouth of
the Sviyaga, during which "one hundred Cheremis people" were taken
prisoner. After the construction of Sviyazhsk, the presence of Russian
troops on the Mountain Side became permanent. By this time, Kazan's
inability to defend this territory had become clear. "The mountain
people, seeing that the city of the Orthodox Tsar had become part of
their land, began to come to the Tsar and the voivodes and to petition
that their sovereign would grant them a favor, give up his anger, and
order them to stay near the Sviyazhsk city and not to fight them."
According to Russian chronicles, the delegation headed by Magmed Bozubov
(or Magmed Buzubov according to other lists) "petted" on behalf of the
entire Mountain Side, its princes, murzas, centurions, desyatyrs of the
Chuvashes, Cheremis and Cossacks. Those who took the oath were promised
an end to Russian attacks: "I gave them my anger and did not order them
to fight", exemption from taxes for three years and the preservation in
the future of the same taxes that were paid to the "former tsars" (Kazan
khans), on condition that they release all Russian captives. To test
their loyalty, in July the "mountain people" were sent on a campaign
against Kazan, from where they were forced to flee under cannon fire.
Later they were sent to fight against the "meadow side".
During
the peace negotiations in the summer of 1551 between Ivan the Terrible
and "the entire Kazan Land" (an estate-representative body in which
representatives of the Chuvash and Mari also participated), the tsar
refused to return the Mountain Side, citing that he "took it with a
sabre before their petition". The sources about the capture of Kazan
say:
"However (Ivan the Terrible), as a reward for the insult (to
the Bulgars), subjugated (Moscow) neighboring Bulgaria, which he could
not stand for frequent rebellions, so that this country, not accustomed
to obedience, would learn to bear someone else's yoke." Augustin
Mayerberg. Journey to Muscovy. Part 4.
In March 1552,
preparations began for new military actions between Moscow and Kazan. In
early April, the Sviyazhsk governors reported that "... the mountain
people are worried, many are exiled to Kazan, and they have little hope
for truth in everyone, and there is great disobedience in them...".
Already in the next "charter" (letter) of the Sviyazhsk governors, they
reported that "... the mountain people changed everything, and folded
with Kazan and came to the Sviyazhsk city...". In December 1552, the
Chuvash and Cheremis killed many Russian couriers, merchants, and people
accompanying convoys with government goods on the road from Sviyazhsk to
Vasilsursk. The Russian government, having received a report of hostile
actions, responded with terror: it was ordered to find those who had
taken part in the attack and hang them all. 74 civilian Chuvash were
brought to Sviyazhsk; they were all hanged, and their property was given
to the informers. The war, which flared up with renewed vigor in 1553,
lasted until 1557, and the Chuvash took an active part in it.
After the capture of Kazan in 1552 and the suppression of the
anti-Moscow rebellions of 1552-1557, the Chuvashes living on the
Lugovaya side also became subjects of Moscow. In Chuvashia, the fortress
cities of Cheboksary (first mentioned in chronicles in 1469, founded as
a fortress city in 1555), Alatyr, Tsivilsk, Yadrin were built, which
soon became trade and craft centers. In the second half of the 16th-17th
centuries, the southern and southwestern parts of Chuvashia, abandoned
in the 14th-early 15th centuries due to the robbery of the Nogai Tatars,
were populated. In Chuvashia, land ownership by Russians became
widespread. light and spirits. feudal lords (in the mid-18th century,
there were more than 200 landowners' and 8 monastery estates in the
region), the number of Russians grew (in 1795, they constituted 19.2% of
the total population). The center of consolidation and growth of the
Chuvash people was the right-bank settlement area. In the 16th-17th
centuries, a significant part of the Chuvash of Prikazanye and Zakazanye
moved to Lower Zakamye and Bashkiria, another part - to right-bank
Chuvashia, and the Chuvash who remained in place merged with the Tatars.
In the second half of the 16th-17th centuries, the right-bank Chuvashia
settled in the southeastern part of Chuvashia, in the 17th-18th
centuries they moved to Lower Zakamye, Bashkiria, Simbirsk, Samara,
Penza, Saratov, Orenburg regions. In 1795, out of 352 thousand of all
Chuvashes in Russia, 234 thousand (66.5%) lived on the territory of the
future Chuvashia, and 118 thousand people lived outside of it. Chuvashia
was a region of relatively high agricultural culture. The main
traditions of the population's occupation were arable farming, livestock
farming, hop growing, and beekeeping. Crafts for processing wood,
leather, wool, fiber, etc. were widespread. In order to suppress the
manufacture of weapons used in popular movements, the tsarist government
at the beginning of the 17th century forbade the Chuvashes and other
Volga peoples to engage in blacksmithing and silversmithing (until the
19th century). In the second half of the 17th century, tanneries,
distilleries, lard-making and other enterprises of Russian and Tatar
merchants arose in the cities of Chuvashia. By the middle of the 19th
century, there were about 150 brick, copper foundry, spinning, silk belt
and other small enterprises in Chuvashia. In the 18th - 1st half of the
19th century, there were up to 15 patrimonial tanneries, cloth and other
manufactories in the region, there were glass and cloth factories.
Chuvash peasants paid monetary and grain yasak to the tsar's
treasury, performed labor duties, and supplied one soldier from 3 yasaks
(from 6 households) to the Russian army.
In the 1720s, they were included in the category of state peasants,
yasak was replaced by a poll tax and quitrent, the amounts of which
systematically increased in the 18th - 1st half of the 19th century.
Chuvash peasants were exploited by Russian and Tatar merchants and
moneylenders, their own patriarchal-feudal stratum - Puyans and
Koshtans. In the 17th century, Chuvash district princes, hundred and
desyatny princes and tarkhans gradually thinned out, in 1718-1723,
together with the service Chuvash, by decree of Peter I, they were
equalized with state peasants and assigned to perform lashman. duties.
In the 1830s, about 100 thousand Chuvash peasants were transferred to
the department of appanages - they became serfs of the royal family. The
Chuvashes were called up for military service in the Russian army,
participated in the Livonian War (1558-1583), the fight against the
Polish-Swedish intervention (1611-1614), the Polish campaigns, and the
Russo-Turkish wars of the 18th century. In the Patriotic War of 1812,
thousands of Chuvashes fought against Napoleon's army.
In the
middle of the 18th century, the Chuvashes were Christianized, but until
the 1870s, their baptism was formal, sermons were conducted in Old
Church Slavonic and Russian and were incomprehensible to the Chuvashes.
In fact, they remained adherents of the pre-Christian faith.
In
the 16th-17th centuries, the territory of Chuvashia was governed by the
Prikaz of the Kazan Palace, at the beginning of the 18th century it was
included in the Kazan and Nizhny Novgorod provinces, according to the
administrative reform of 1775 it became part of the Kazan and Simbirsk
provinces. Exploitation, tyranny and excesses of officials, the forced
imposition of Orthodoxy led to resistance from the population. The
Chuvashia participated in all major uprisings of the masses that
affected the Middle Volga region in the 16th-19th centuries: in
1571-1573, at the beginning of the 17th century, in 1634, the peasant
uprisings of S. T. Razin and E. I. Pugachev. In 1842, an armed uprising
of Chuvashia and Mari peasants (the so-called Akramovskaya War) took
place against P. D. Kiselev's reforms of state peasant management; up to
10 thousand people participated in the uprising.
In the 19th
century, especially after the abolition of serfdom in the Russian
Empire, capitalist relations began to develop in Chuvashia, social
stratification of the village took place, and a small trade and
industrial bourgeoisie emerged. However, compared to the central regions
of Russia, this process was much slower, with the prevalence of primary
forms of capitalist entrepreneurship. By the time serfdom was abolished,
the industry of the Chuvash region was represented by two cloth
factories and three distilleries, which, with the exception of one cloth
factory, belonged to landowners. In addition, there were small potash,
glass, and silk-belt manufactories. At the end of the 19th and beginning
of the 20th centuries, up to three dozen factories and plants operated,
and a small proletariat was formed: about 6 thousand people were
employed in industry and transport.
In the forestry industry and
logging, tens of thousands of people were employed in seasonal work
every year at the end of the 19th century. Since the 1880s,
factory-based sawmilling began to develop; up to the mid-1890s, 6
sawmills operated. More than 8% of the male working population of the
region was employed in seasonal trades.
The transport network was
developing. In 1860, the Druzhina shipping company founded a mechanical
plant for building and repairing ships in the Zvenigovsky backwater of
the Cheboksary district. In the 1860s, the Cheboksary pier shipped out
more than 28,000 tons of goods, and at the beginning of the 20th
century, about 16,700 tons. In 1891-1894, the Alatyr - Shikhrany
(Kanash) - Kazan railway line of the Moscow-Kazan railway was built.
Woodworking enterprises arose along it, which since the end of the 19th
century became the main industry of the Chuvashia region. In 1894, the
Alatyr railway workshops were put into operation, becoming the largest
enterprise in the region.
The absolute majority of the population
of Chuvashia (about 96%) lived in rural areas. Its population increased
from 436 thousand in 1859 to 660 thousand in 1897. In the post-reform
period, agriculture gradually acquired the features of a capitalist
economy. In 1905, the treasury and the appanage owned 36.4% of the land,
landowners and clergy - 5.4%, merchants and townspeople - 1%, peasant
community members - 54%, peasant owners - 2.7%, others - 0.5%. Allotment
peasant land was at the disposal of the rural community, which slowed
down the development of capitalist relations. The results of Stolypin's
agrarian reform were insignificant in Chuvashia.
At the turn of
the 19th and 20th centuries, social democratic ideas began to penetrate
the masses. The revolutionary unrest of 1905-1907 and the following
decade were marked by workers' and peasants' actions against the
autocracy, the abolition of arrears and indirect taxes, and against the
implementation of Stolypin's agrarian reform. A movement for national
upsurge was born, and the national consciousness of the people grew.
This was facilitated by the first Chuvash newspaper "Khypar" ("News"),
published in 1906-1907.
During the First World War, the peasantry
experienced great difficulties. The farms whose heads were mobilized
were ruined. Discontent with the war grew. In the autumn of 1916,
anti-war demonstrations began.
1917-1920
After the February Revolution, in the cities and some
volosts of Chuvashia, along with the organs of the Provisional
Government, Soviets were organized, most of which were headed by
Socialist Revolutionaries and Mensheviks. In June 1917, in Simbirsk, at
the all-Chuvash congress, the Chuvash National Society (ChNO) was
established, supporting the Provisional Government of Russia. The ChNO
was headed by Socialist Revolutionaries. The other wing of the national
movement did not have a complete organizational structure and was mainly
represented by national organizations of soldiers and sailors at their
place of service, who adhered to Bolshevik views. These two directions
diverged after the October Revolution and during the Civil War.
Autonomous Chuvash Oblast
Initially, the Chuvash Autonomous Oblast
was divided into 3 counties: Cheboksary, Tsivilsky and Yadrinsky. Soon,
the Ibresinsky District was formed as part of the Tsivilsky County. In
1921, the Ibresinsky District was removed from the Tsivilsky District
and transformed into the Batyrevsky (Ibresinsky) District.
At the
time of Stalin's election as General Secretary of the Central Committee
of the RCP(b) on April 3, 1922, in the Chuvash Autonomous Region, the
post of responsible secretary of the Chuvash Regional Committee of the
RCP(b) was occupied by D. S. Elmen (1885-1932).
The formation of
the Chuvash autonomy is associated with the name of the Chuvash public
and political figure D. S. Elmen (1885-1932). At a meeting of Chuvash
communists held on January 12, 1919 in Kazan, Elmen called on
representatives of the Chuvash intelligentsia to join the work of the
Chuvash Department of the People's Commissariat for Nationalities of the
RSFSR, of which Stalin was the People's Commissar, for the development
of cultural development. On January 3, 1920, a report from the Chuvash
Department was sent to the Commissariat, officially raising the issue of
autonomy for the Chuvash. In February 1920, the First All-Russian
Congress of Chuvash Communists was held, discussing the issue of
organizing Soviet autonomy for the Chuvash people.
On June 24,
1920, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of
People's Commissars of the RSFSR adopted a decree on the formation of
the Chuvash Autonomous Region within the RSFSR with its center in the
city of Cheboksary, which included 7 districts of the Kazan and Simbirsk
provinces. The decree was signed by the Chairman of the Council of
People's Commissars of the RSFSR V. I. Lenin, the Chairman of the
All-Russian Central Executive Committee M. I. Kalinin, and the Secretary
of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee A. S. Yenukidze. On the
same day, the Organizing Bureau of the Central Committee of the RCP(b)
considered the issue of the composition of the Chuvash Revolutionary
Committee (Revkom), whose chairman was D.S. Elmen. The Revkom was
approved as a Soviet body for the management of the new administrative
unit. On July 1, 1920, the Organizing Bureau of the Central Committee of
the RCP(b) formed a temporary Chuvash Regional Committee of the RCP(b),
the executive secretary of which was also Elmen, who held this position
intermittently until 1924. On August 20, 1920, at the initiative of the
Revkom, a rally was held in Cheboksary in honor of the proclamation of
the Chuvash Autonomous Region with the participation of public
organizations, guests from the Tatar ASSR formed on May 27, 1920, and a
number of provinces of the RSFSR. The 1st Chuvashia Regional Congress of
Trade Unions (September 6-7, 1920) and the 1st Chuvashia Regional
Conference of the RKSM (October 1920) formalized the trade union and
Komsomol organizations of the Chuvashia Autonomous Region. The 1st
Chuvashia Regional Party Conference was held on October 6-9, 1920,
completing the formalization of the regional party organization.
On June 24, 1920, the Chuvashia Autonomous Region was formed by decree
of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of
People's Commissars of the RSFSR, and on April 21, 1925, by resolution
of the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, it was
transformed into the Chuvashia ASSR. In June of the same year, the city
of Alatyr with three volosts was included in its composition.
In
the 1920s, the idea of changing the name of the Chuvash ASSR to the
Bulgarian ASSR and renaming the Chuvashes to the Bulgarians, following
the renaming of the Cheremis to the Mari, was discussed. The proposal of
local historians did not receive the support of the leadership and
population of the republic.
“…Chuvash bourgeois nationalists, who
sought to use the Bulgarian theory of the origin of the Chuvashes for
their hostile political purposes.
A number of works published by
them in the 1920s propagated the assertion that the Chuvashes are the
only, direct and pure descendants of the Volga-Kama Bulgarians, and
allowed bourgeois-nationalist idealization of the era of the state of
Volga Bulgaria.
In the works of D. P. Petrov (Yuman), M. P.
Petrov, A. P. Prokopyev-Milli and other regional historians, the
Bulgarian period was depicted as a "golden age" in the history of the
Chuvash people, ignoring the social and class contradictions and the
existence of the oppression of exploiters in this state. During these
same years, bourgeois nationalists launched a campaign to rename the
Chuvashes into Bulgarians, and proposed calling the Chuvash ASSR
"Bulgarian". — Denisov P. V. Ethnocultural parallels of the Danube
Bulgarians and Chuvashes. — Cheboksary, 1969. — P. 10
The first
years of the ChuvAO, and then the Chuvash ASSR, were marked by
difficulties and trials, the peak of which occurred in 1921: first, a
peasant uprising, brutally suppressed by the Bolsheviks, then a
disastrous crop failure and terrible famine. The Russian Civil War
caused enormous damage. With a total population of less than 1 million
people, about 200 thousand people were mobilized for the war (almost the
entire able-bodied male population after the mobilization of World War
I) and about 100 thousand did not return.
On April 21, 1925, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee
decided to transform the Chuvash Autonomous Region into the Chuvash
Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. The territory on which the
Novo-Alatyrsky (since 1926 — Alatyrsky) district was formed was
transferred to it from the Ulyanovsk Governorate. By the resolution of
the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of June 20, 1925, three
volosts of the Alatyrsky district of the Simbirsk Governorate with a
population of 121,464 people were annexed to the Chuvash ASSR:
Alatyrskaya with the city of Alatyr, Poretskaya and Kuvakinskaya.
By the resolution of the 1st session of the Central Executive
Committee of the Chuvash ASSR of the 1st convocation, which took place
from February 1 to 5, 1926, the Council of People's Commissars of the
Chuvash ASSR was formed. The first Chairman of the Council of People's
Commissars of the Chuvash ASSR was S. A. Korichev, who held this
position until July 6, 1926. From November 1926 to May 1927, the
Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the Chuvash ASSR was
A. Ya. Yakovlev; from May 1927 to February 1930 - A. M. Mikhailov; from
February 1930 to February 1931 - P. Ya. Samarin; from February 1931 to
February 1932 - L. S. Spasov; from February 1932 to July 1937 - V. I.
Toksin; from September 1937 to July 26, 1938 - Spasov again; from July
31 to October 20, 1938 - A. A. Volkov; from December 1938 to July 12,
1942 - A. V. Somov. On March 31, 1927, the II All-Chuvash Congress of
Soviets approved the coat of arms and flag of the Chuvash ASSR.
In 1927, the counties were abolished, and 17 districts were formed in
their place: Alatyrsky, Alikovsky, Bolshebatyrevsky, Vurnarsky,
Ibresinsky, Kanashsky, Kozlovsky, Krasnochetaysky, Maloyalchikovsky,
Mariinsko-Posadsky, Poretsky, Tatarkasinsky, Urmarsky, Tsivilsky,
Cheboksary, Shemurshinsky and Yadrinsky. In 1929, the Shikhirdanovsky
Tatar National District was formed.
In 1935, the Bolshebatyrevsky
District was renamed Batyrevsky, and Maloyalchikovsky was renamed
Yalchiksky. In the same year, new districts were formed: Ishleysky,
Kuvakinsky, Tarkhanovsky, Trakovsky, Shikhazanovsky, Shumerlinsky and
Yantikovsky. Significant changes occurred in 1939: the Batyrevsky and
Shikhirdanovsky Tatar national districts were abolished, and the
Kalininsky, Komsomolsky, Oktyabrsky, Sovetsky and Chkalovsky (since 1957
- Batyrevsky) districts were formed. Tarkhanovsky district was renamed
Pervomaysky, and Tatarkasinsky - Sundyrsky. A year later, Trakovsky
district was renamed Krasnoarmeysky.
During the first five-year
plans in the USSR, woodworking, chemical, food industry and mechanical
engineering enterprises were built in the Chuvash ASSR. In 1939, the
construction of the single-track Kanash-Cheboksary railway line was
completed. In 1939, the share of Chuvash among industrial workers
reached 44%, compared to 9.5% in 1926. By the end of the 1930s, the
literacy rate of the republic's population was about 90%, and there were
about 7.5 thousand representatives of the intelligentsia. In places of
compact settlement of the Chuvash in other republics and regions of the
RSFSR, magazines and newspapers in the Chuvash language were published,
teaching staff were trained, and Chuvash theaters functioned. In 1935,
the Chuvash ASSR was awarded the Order of Lenin for its achievements in
the development of the national economy and culture.
From
November 22, 1926 to January 5, 1934, the position of party leader in
Chuvashia was held by S. P. Petrov. The III Congress of Soviets of the
Chuvash ASSR was held on March 20-29, 1929. This period saw the
development of Chuvash statehood, industrialization, and the creation of
large-scale mechanized agriculture. From August 1929 to December 1936,
the republic was part of the Nizhny Novgorod Territory (renamed the
Gorky Territory in 1932). S. P. Petrov was the First Secretary of the
Chuvash Regional Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)
from January 13, 1934 to November 14, 1937. On July 18, 1937, the
Constitution of the Chuvash ASSR was adopted.
From November 14,
1937 to September 17, 1938, G. I. Ivanov served as the First Secretary
of the Regional Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks).
From October 1, 1938 to March 4, 1940, the party leader of the Chuvash
ASSR was A. A. Volkov (1889/1890-1942). From March 4, 1940 to December
2, 1948 — I. M. Charykov (1902-1964).
In 1940, the collective
farms of the Chuvash ASSR united 85.5% of peasant farms and 97.5% of the
sown area.
On January 1, 1940, by the Order of the People's
Commissariat of Railways, the Kanash-Cheboksary railway line was put
into permanent operation and included in the Kazan Railway. This line
connected the small republic with the entire railway network of the
country. The labor feat of the people of Chuvashia, which contributed to
the elimination of impassable roads, is one of the glorious pages of our
history. The construction of the railway gave a great impetus to the
development of industry. In connection with this, the Cheboksary station
began to develop further. The Cheboksary-2 park, freight yard,
Gremyachiy shunting yard were built, and a marshalling yard was
launched. In the post-war years, the Civil Defense headquarters was
created at the Cheboksary station. At the competition in Yudino on Civil
Defense, the workers of the Cheboksary station took first place. Railway
workers have always taken an active part in holding clean-up days, in
landscaping the territory and in putting into operation new devices. The
main building of the station was built in 1939.
In 1939, the
construction of the single-track railway line "Kanash-Cheboksary" was
completed. The first city bus route opened in May 1946 (see Cheboksary
bus).
After the restoration of the national economy, devastated
by the civil war, it was subordinated to the formation of a powerful
industrial potential. During the pre-war five-year plans, woodworking,
chemical, food industry, and mechanical engineering enterprises were
built in the republic.
The Kanash Carriage Repair Plant, the
Kozlovsky House-Building Plant, the Shumerlinsky Tanning Extracts Plant,
and the Shumerlinsky Furniture Factory were built. The gross output of
large-scale industry in 1940 increased by 9.5 times compared to 1913.
In 1935, the Chuvash Republic was awarded the Order of Lenin for
outstanding achievements in the development of the national economy and
culture.
The Kanash Carriage Repair Plant was founded on June 16,
1936.
The Kozlovsky Van Factory was founded in 1932. The
Cheboksary Ribbon Weaving Factory was founded in the fall of 1941 as a
result of the evacuation of the Kyiv Ribbon Weaving Factory and the
Zavidovo Textile and Haberdashery Factory "Bason" to Cheboksary. The
evacuated Zavidovo Factory "Bason" was located in the premises of the
Algeshev Church, and the Kiev Ribbon Weaving Factory was located in a
barn on the outskirts of Cheboksary.
The Alatyr Railway
Workshops, founded in 1893, were reorganized in 1929 into the Kazan
Railway Locomotive Repair Plant. In 1941, workers and employees, as well
as some equipment from the Smelyansky and Gaivoronsky Locomotive Repair
Plants, were evacuated to the plant.
June 27, 1935 — the Chuvash
ASSR was awarded the Order of Lenin for outstanding achievements in
socialist construction. In June 1935, by the Resolution of the Central
Executive Committee of the USSR "For outstanding services in the
implementation of basic agricultural work, cultural construction,
training of national personnel, road construction and fulfillment of
obligations to the state over a number of years," the Chuvash ASSR was
one of the first autonomous republics in the country to be awarded the
Order of Lenin.
The construction of the V. I. Chapaev Cheboksary
Production Association began in April 1938. The construction of the
enterprise is one of the links in fulfilling the tasks of the third
five-year plan of 1938-1942, according to which it was planned to
strengthen the defense capability of the USSR. On October 15, 1941, the
plant manufactured its first products, and on November 1, 1941, the
plant was put into operation.
In the Chuvashia ASSR, from the
late 1920s to 1953, more than 14,000 people were repressed. The peak of
the terror was in 1937. It affected all segments of the population. The
workers of the party-state and economic apparatus suffered the most.
Education workers, literary and artistic figures, the press and the
leadership of the regional committee of the All-Union Leninist Young
Communist League were subjected to repression. The names of three people
became symbols of these years.
At the end of the summer of 1926,
by decision of the Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union
Communist Party (Bolsheviks) S. V. Kosior, S. P. Petrov arrived in
Cheboksary. Here he was immediately nominated as a delegate to the 15th
Conference of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks), in October
1926 he was included in the regional committee, and in December at the
organizational plenum of the joint plenum of the regional committee and
the OKK, on the recommendation of the Central Committee, he was
elected executive secretary of the Chuvashia regional party committee.
In the summer of 1928, the leadership of the Chuvash ASSR began a
campaign against the former leader of the Chuvash Autonomous Republic,
D. S. Elmen. On December 2, 1930, at a meeting of the party bureau of
the Nizhny Novgorod Communist Institute, D. S. Elmen was expelled from
the Communist Party.
The first to come under criticism from S. P.
Petrov were the delegates of the first All-Chuvash Regional Studies
Congress and the participants in the celebration of the 60th anniversary
of the Simbirsk Chuvash School and the 80th anniversary of its founder
I. Ya. Yakovlev, which took place in 1928. In the early 1930s, they were
accused of being conductors of a "nationalist, kulak point of view",
after which active regional studies found themselves on the periphery of
"big science" for many years.
The Society for the Study of the
Local Region, created in 1921 with the active participation of D. S.
Elmen, which became a mass scientific and cultural movement, was
effectively dispersed.
The fight against "nationalists" also
unfolded in the field of Chuvash linguistics. A number of
representatives of the intelligentsia (D. P. Yuman, F. T. Timofeev, G.
I. Vanter) were criticized in 1932 for using "old, obsolete Chuvash
words in their literary practice." A series of works by P. P. Khuzangai,
allegedly "heavily saturated with eastern words, completely
incomprehensible to the reading masses," were attributed to
"kulak-nationalist creativity." Not only the works of a number of
representatives of the creative intelligentsia were subjected to
vilification, but also the outstanding Russian linguist, creator of the
Chuvash dictionary N. I. Ashmarin, who was called a representative of
the "missionary nationalist ideology in the field of Chuvash scientific
linguistics." Speaking at a scientific conference on improving the
terminology and spelling of the Chuvash language (July 15-17, 1935), the
party leader of the republic S. P. Petrov declared: in Ashmarin's
dictionary "not only is there a lot of pornography, but there is direct
counterrevolution there." Criticizing the attitudes of "old specialists
in the field of linguistics," he taught how to write in Chuvash (for
example, the word "collectivization"): "They began to interpret. But the
word has become international. Why not accept it as "collectivization."
Or take the word "oxygen" or "capital." They do not need to be remade...
After all, the native language is needed so that on the basis of the
native language people assimilate the sum of knowledge and the path
traveled by the proletariat as quickly as possible... It is needed to
ensure the world proletarian revolution... striking the enemy,
organizing the masses to fight for socialism." If during the years of
D.S. Elmen's activity, language construction was carried out proactively
and consistently, then in the mid-30s even the Commission for the
Implementation of the Chuvash Language, created under the Central
Executive Committee of the Chuvash ASSR, was liquidated.
The
process of forcing the leveling of national-linguistic differences in
Chuvashia and pushing the language of the titular ethnic group into the
background was especially intensified after the decision of the bureau
of the regional committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)
of January 13, 1936 on the introduction of teaching all disciplines in
grades 8-10 in Russian.
During these same years, the policy of
indigenization was gradually curtailed, thanks to which the Chuvash
people constituted 67.7% of the employees of the people's commissariats
and republican institutions on January 1, 1935 (in 1924 - 40%), in
district institutions representatives of the indigenous population made
up 90-100%. But in the second half of the 1930s, under the pretext of
fighting "nationalists", many senior officials, as well as
representatives of the national intelligentsia, were repressed. After
the “removal” of national personnel, the main posts in the governing
bodies of the autonomy were occupied by Russians: the regional committee
of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) was headed by secretaries
A. A. Volkov, then I. M. Charykov, the chairman of the Council of
People's Commissars was A. V. Somov, the first secretary of the regional
committee of the All-Union Leninist Young Communist League was D. T.
Paroyatnikov (former instructor of the Central Committee of the
All-Union Leninist Young Communist League), etc. The wide network of
Chuvash representative offices at the central bodies in Moscow that
existed until the 1930s was liquidated: the Representative Office of the
Chuvash ASSR at the All-Union Central Executive Committee, Chuvash
sections at the departments of the Central Committee of the All-Union
Communist Party (Bolsheviks) and the Central Committee of the All-Union
Leninist Young Communist League, Chuvash departments of the People's
Commissariat of Education of the RSFSR and the Central Publishing House
of the Peoples of the East, etc. The Moscow Society for the Study of
Chuvash Culture ceased its activities, and the publication of the
central mass newspaper in Moscow was suspended. Chuvash language
"Kommunar".
By the mid-1930s, all official decisions and
documents of the party and Soviet bodies of the autonomy practically
eliminated the mention of the existence of diaspora groups of Chuvash
tribesmen in other regions of the country. Under the banner of the fight
against nationalism, the experience of taking into account the interests
of all ethnoterritorial groups of the Chuvash, mastered in the late 19th
and early 20th centuries by I. Ya. Yakovlev and the Chuvash teacher's
school he founded in Simbirsk, was consigned to oblivion.
The
1937 Constitution of the Chuvash ASSR no longer contained an article on
the Chuvash language as the state language. Instead, the right to "use
one's native language" was proclaimed.
In 1935, S. P. Petrov
directed all his efforts to providing all possible assistance to the
judicial authorities in conducting trials of "enemies of the people".
In July 1936, another letter from the regional committee of the
All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) was sent out, this time "On the
terrorist activity of the Trotskyist-Zinoviev counter-revolutionary bloc
in the Chuvashia regional party organization." In August of the same
year, a resolution was adopted "On measures to strengthen party
vigilance in educational institutions," and in October - "On the work of
primary party organizations at the Kanash and Tsivilsk pedagogical
colleges." In the same year, arrests of innocent citizens and their
prosecution for "counter-revolutionary activity" began in Chuvashia. In
accordance with the decision of the Politburo of the Central Committee
of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) P51/187 of 09.07.37 and
the order of the NKVD No. 00447 of 30.07.37, the "troika" for the
Chuvashia ASSR included the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs A. M.
Rozanov (chairman of the troika), the first secretary of the regional
committee S. P. Petrov, and the prosecutor of the republic S. I.
Elifanov.
The authorized representative of the Party Control
Commission under the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party
(Bolsheviks) M. M. Sakhyanova and the instructor of the Central
Committee of the All-Union Leninist Young Communist League O. P.
Mishakova, sent from Moscow to Cheboksary, came to the conclusion that
S. P. Petrov did not inspire confidence, that Chuvashia had become an
anti-Party, anti-Soviet, enemy-spy nest.
In October-November
1937, a trial of thirteen former senior officials of the republic was
held. In the dock were the first secretary of the regional committee S.
P. Petrov, the chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the
republic V. I. Toksin, the second secretary of the regional committee
Ya. A. Andreev, the deputy chairman of the Council of People's
Commissars A. Ya. Yakovlev, the secretary of the Central Executive
Committee of the Chechen ASSR A. Kh. Kharitonov, the chairman of the
State Planning Committee of the republic G. I. Ivanov, the head of the
regional committee department I. D. Kuznetsov, the People's Commissar of
Education E. S. Chernov, the secretary of the regional committee of the
All-Union Leninist Young Communist League A. S. Symokin, the secretary
of the Cheboksary city party committee F. M. Zefirov, the People's
Commissar of Trade D. S. Chernov, the chairman of the council of
Osoaviakhim of Chuvashia M. T. Ermakov, and the military commissar of
the republic T. P. Khrisanfov. Five of the named group - Petrov,
Andreev, Toksin, Ivanov and Ermakov, who allegedly headed the
organization, were sentenced to death, the rest - to imprisonment from
ten to twenty years.
On December 28, 1938, Sergei Porfiryevich
was arrested by the Chelyabinsk NKVD.
On February 13, 1941, after
reviewing the case, the military tribunal of the PRIVO replaced the
sentences of death by shooting with ten years of imprisonment in camps,
and reduced the sentences of I. D. Kuznetsov and E. S. Chernov.
M. M. Sakhyanova worked in Cheboksary from 1936 to 1938 as an authorized
representative of the Party Control Commission under the Central
Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks). Upon arriving
in Cheboksary, she began an active fight against the "enemies of the
people." Speaking at plenary sessions of the regional party committee
and party activists, she claimed that in the Chuvash Autonomous
Republic, in all links of the party and Soviet apparatus, including the
regional party committee, the Council of People's Commissars, the
Central Executive Committee of the Chuvash ASSR and other organizations,
enemies of the people were operating, with whom the leadership of
Chuvashia was not working properly. Such an accusation by Sakhyanova
contributed to the mass destruction of the leading party and Soviet
cadres of the republic. At the same time, at her request, the local NKVD
department arrested all those expelled from the party, as a result of
which hundreds of innocent people were subjected to repression.
Speaking at the 18th regional party conference (June 10-17, 1937), M. M.
Sakhyanova demanded "to strengthen the exposure of the enemies of Soviet
power entrenched in the party, Soviet, trade union, Komsomol and
economic apparatuses of the Chuvash ASSR." Many communists repressed in
1937-1938 were fully rehabilitated after the 20th Congress of the CPSU.
Returning from exile, in 1956 they raised the issue of bringing
Sakhyanova to justice before the Chuvash Regional Committee of the CPSU.
On October 12, 1956, the CPC under the Central Committee of the
CPSU, having reviewed the note of the first secretary of the Chuvash
Regional Party Committee S. M. Islyukov about Sakhyanova, made the
following decision: “For the actions committed, comrade Sakhyanova M. M.
deserves exclusion from the ranks of the CPSU. Considering comrade
Sakhyanova M. M.’s admission of her anti-party behavior, and also taking
into account her past participation in revolutionary work, issue comrade
Sakhyanova a severe reprimand with an entry in the registration card…”
At the end of September 1937, O. P. Mishakova, an instructor of the
Central Committee of the All-Union Leninist Young Communist League, was
sent to Cheboksary as a representative of the Central Committee of the
All-Union Leninist Young Communist League to the 14th Chuvashia Regional
Komsomol Conference. At the conference, which took place from September
29 to October 7, Mishakova demanded the dissolution of the delegates. At
her demand, 7 people were expelled from the Komsomol directly at the
conference, 36 people were deprived of their delegate mandates, and
political distrust was also expressed to them for "bourgeois
nationalism". Soon after the conference, the leaders of the Komsomol of
the Chuvashia ASSR - regional committee secretaries A. S. Symokin, I. T.
Terentyev and other Komsomol workers were declared "enemies of the
people" and expelled from the Komsomol. Mishakova dissolved the
conference as unprepared. Mishakova telegraphed her decision to Moscow -
to the General Secretary A. V. Kosarev and demanded that appropriate
measures be taken. Having learned of the actions of instructor
Mishakova, Kosarev, in the words of Russian journalist Svetlana
Samodelova of the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper, "fell into a rage"
and ignored all her reports and calls.
Upon Mishakova's return to
Moscow, the actions of instructor Mishakova in Cheboksary were discussed
at the bureau of the Central Committee of the All-Union Leninist Young
Communist League. According to Kosarev, Mishakova did not have the
authority to dissolve the Komsomol conference in the Chuvashia ASSR. The
resolution of the Komsomol bureau noted: "Mishakova made gross mistakes,
as a result of which people who were honest before the party were
included in the category of politically questionable, and even
accomplices of the enemy." On Kosarev's initiative, Mishakova was
dismissed from her job; the bureau of the Central Committee of the
All-Union Leninist Young Communist League decided: "Transfer Mishakova
to another job." All the leaders of the Chuvashia Regional Committee
were reinstated in the Komsomol.
With the formation of the
autonomy in 1920, the spheres of the Chuvash language's use
significantly expanded. Within the republic, the Chuvash language became
one of the two official languages (along with Russian). In all regions
of compact residence of the Chuvash, it became the language of school
instruction (up to the 8th grade), it was spoken in official
institutions, office work was conducted, book printing was carried out
on a large scale, films were made in the Chuvash language, and the
Chuvash speech was heard on the stage. Newspapers and magazines in the
Chuvash language were published in Cheboksary, Kazan, Ufa, Samara,
Simbirsk, and Moscow.
1927 — The Society for the Study of Chuvash
Culture was created in Moscow with branches in Ulyanovsk, Kazan, Ufa,
and other cities.
The building of the Republican Trachomatosis
Dispensary is the first specialized scientific center in the Volga
region to combat trachoma since 1937.
1930, August — Opening of
the Chuvash Research Institute of Language, Literature, History and
Economics (now the Chuvash State Institute of Humanities).
During
the Stalin period, the Dictionary of the Chuvash Language by N. I.
Ashmarin (1870-1933) was created. N. I. Ashmarin himself managed to
prepare five volumes[45]. Since March 1928, on the recommendation of N.
V. Nikolsky, N. A. Rezyukov began to help Ashmarin process materials and
prepare the manuscript of the 17-volume Dictionary of the Chuvash
Language, and he took part in compiling 6 issues. After Ashmarin's
death, N. A. Rezyukov independently prepared volumes 8-14 for
publication. The first two volumes of the revised edition appeared in
Kazan in 1928 and 1929. Subsequent volumes were published in Cheboksary.
The last volume of the Dictionary was published in 1950.
At this
time, the figures of Chuvash culture Komissarov, Gury Ivanovich worked.
In early 1946, the National Library of the Chuvash Republic moved to the
former building of the Chuvash Central Executive Committee on K. Ivanov
Street. Its book collection amounted to approximately 93 thousand
volumes. The team consisted of 22 people.
The Republican State
Unitary Enterprise "Chuvash Book Publishing House" of the Ministry of
Culture was founded on November 12, 1920. Initially, it was called the
Chuvash branch of the State Publishing House.
In 1923, the first
trip of the Chuvash choir to Moscow took place. In 1924, the Chuvash
State Choir was created.
Since 1932, a symphony orchestra has
been operating in Cheboksary. On September 3, 1936, the Arts Department
of the Council of People's Commissars of the Chuvash ASSR issued an
order to establish the Chuvash State Philharmonic. On November 17, the
Council of People's Commissars of the Chuvash ASSR issued a Resolution
approving this decision. In the 1930s, the Chuvash State Choir, which
traces its history back to 1920, performed at the Philharmonic. On July
7, 1936, the State Choir of the Chuvash ASSR took part in a concert in
the Kremlin organized by the All-Union Commission for Arts under the
Council of People's Commissars of the USSR; Secretary of the Central
Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) Stalin was among
the audience. 1939 — Creation of the Chuvash Song and Dance Ensemble.
Among the figures of this time were Lebedev, German Stepanovich.
In 1920, the Chuvash State Drama Theater moved to Cheboksary. The
theatre's repertoire consisted of plays by Chuvash playwrights and
translations of Russian classics; the performances were performed in the
Chuvash language.
In 1927-1939, P. N. Osipov headed the theater
as the main director. The original art of the theater actors grew and
strengthened from year to year in the best performances based on the
plays of Chuvash playwrights F. Pavlov, I. Maksimov-Koshkinsky, N.
Aizman, M. Trubina, L. Agakov, A. Eskhelya, A. Kolgan, Ya. Ukhsay, V.
Alager, L. Rodionov, V. Ukhli, N. Terentyev, and others.
In 1933,
the title of academic was awarded. In 1947, graduates of the Chuvash
Studio of GITIS (course of M. M. Tarkhanov) joined the team.
In
1929, the Chuvash State Theater School was opened in Cheboksary.
In 1933, the Youth Theatre was opened in Cheboksary. The first
performance, "Young Plast" ("Topay") based on the play by L. Bochin,
took place on April 3, 1933 - this day is considered the birthday of the
Youth Theatre. Its founders were Edvin Davydovich Feyertag and Margarita
Nikolaevna Figner - Leningrad directors, teachers and educators of the
future theater group. A special cast of actors at the Chuvash Music and
Theater College became the basis of the theater for children and youth
of the republic. Performances were performed in the Chuvash and Russian
languages.
During this period, such theater figures as: N. S.
Aizman, P. N. Osipov, Alekseev, Boris Alekseevich worked.
Pyotr
Nikolaevich Osipov in 1927-1930 was the director of the Cheboksary drama
theater, 1931-1934. teaches at the music school.
I. S.
Maksimov-Koshkinsky in 1932-1945 - artistic director and actor of the
Chuvash Academic Theater.
State Order of the Badge of Honor
Russian Drama Theater Founded on December 14, 1922. In the summer of
1918, the Russian Drama Group was organized in the house of the merchant
Efremov in Cheboksary. This group served as the basis for the troupe of
the theater, opened in 1922. The first director of the theater was I. A.
Slobodskoy (Kukarnikov). On December 14, 1922, the opening of the first
theatrical season of the Russian Drama Theater took place with the play
"Vasilisa Melentyeva" based on the play by A. N. Ostrovsky. This date
became the birthday of the theater. In 1952, in connection with the 30th
anniversary, and in 1972, in connection with the 50th anniversary, the
theater was awarded the Honorary Diplomas of the Presidium of the
Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR.
Chuvash State Puppet Theater. On
April 15, 1945, the premiere of the play "Three Girlfriends" took place
based on the play by the founder of the theater, its first director and
artistic director, director S. M. Merzlyakov. This day is considered the
day of the theater's creation. In 1951, the theater was liquidated, but
the puppet team continued to work at the Chuvash State Philharmonic.
Alikovo People's Theater. In 1933, a library opened in Alikovo.
Vasily Illarionovich Volkov, a native of the village of Siner, began
working here. The young luminary of the people with all his heart tries
to raise the cultural level of rural life. His efforts are not in vain -
young people begin to reach out to the center of culture. In 1934, V. I.
Volkov organized a drama club here for the first time, which is how
performances began to be staged in Alikovo.
In September 1926,
the first Chuvash feature film, "Volga Rebels," was shown. The Chuvash
film industry is associated with the name of the Chuvash actress T. S.
Maksimova-Koshkinskaya (1903-1977), known under the pseudonym of Tanya
Yun. With the participation of Tanya Yun, such feature films in the
Chuvash language as "Volga Rebels," "Sarpige," "Black Pillar," "Urkka,"
"Whirlwind on the Volga," "Apayka," and "Remember" were shot.
I.
S. Maksimov-Koshkinsky in 1925-1931 was a director, screenwriter, and
artistic director of the Chuvashkino film studio.
Radio of
Chuvashia. In October 1925, regular radio broadcasting in the Chuvash
language began. 1932 — Opening of the Chuvash radio broadcasting studio.
Regular broadcasting of "Radio Chuvashia" began on March 8, 1932.
In March 1932, the Committee for Radiofication and Radio Information
was created under the Council of People's Commissars of the Chuvash
ASSR. In March 1934, it was renamed the Committee for Radiofication and
Radio Broadcasting. Since March 1946 — Committee for Radiofication and
Radio Information under the Council of Ministers of the Chuvash ASSR.
Since June 1949 — Committee for Radio Information under the Council of
Ministers of the Chuvash ASSR.
1935, July — First Congress of
Chuvash Artists. 1939 — Opening of the Chuvash Art Gallery.
During
the Stalin period, N. V. Ovchinnikov, M. S. Spiridonov, and G. N.
Konstantinov began their creative lives. The Chuvash State Art Museum
was founded on September 17, 1939, and opened on November 7, 1939. The
collection was based on 218 works from the art department of the Chuvash
Central Museum, which were transferred to the art museum in September
1939.
1934, June 11-13 — 1st Congress of Chuvash Writers.
Since 1935, Tanya Yun began working on translating the best examples of
Russian, Soviet, and foreign literature. Together with I.
Maksimov-Koshkinsky, she wrote several plays.
At this time,
writers Maxim Yastran, A. E. Alga, Alexander Kalgan, L. N. Vasilyeva, N.
T. Vasyanka, Kashker Mikuli, Nester Yangas, V. E. Rzai, Humma Siemen, M.
D. Trubina, I. S. Toktash, N. I. Sheleby, A. I. Aris, N. Ya. Yut, S. V.
Elger, Ivan Muchi, G. D. Pilesh, Ivan Salambek, Ille Tahti, A. P.
Eatman, A. F. Talveer, K. A. Go ahead.
S. begins his literary
activity. L. Baranova, A. S. Artemyev, Sergey Merchen, Ya. G. Ukhsai, P.
N. Chichkanov, V. S. Alendeev, Metri Kibek, V. V. Pogildyakov, V. L.
Saday, Uip Mishshi, Valentina Elpi, Nikifor Mranka. Literary Museum
named after K. V. Ivanova was opened in October 1940. The creation of
the museum of Chuvash literature and art was dedicated to the 50th
anniversary of the birth of the classic Chuvash literature K. V.
Ivanova. At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War in 1941 The museum
is temporarily closed.
In 1924, the first issue of the magazine
"Suntal" ("Anvil") was published (since 1947 - "Yalav"). On March 18,
1925, the first issue of the satirical magazine "Cap" was published.
1928 - Publication of the first issue of the Chuvash language magazine
"Ӗҫхӗraramӗ" ("Working House"). 1929 - The first issue of the magazine
for schoolchildren in the Chuvash language "Hatӗr pul" ("Be ready").
October 17, 1929 - The first issue of the newspaper "Red Chuvashia"
(since 1952 - "Soviet Chuvashia") was published.
The first issue
of the Tantӑsh newspaper was published on January 12, 1931 under the
title Pioner sassi (Klich pioneera).
Avangard (newspaper,
Batyrevo). On September 9, 1930, at a meeting of the Bureau of the
Bolshoi Batyrevsky RK VKP(b), the issue of organizing a regional
newspaper was considered and a resolution was adopted to allocate
premises for editorial and printing. At the next meeting, the bureau
decided to name the newspaper "Payanhi sas". The first issue of the
newspaper was published on February 8, 1931. It was published once in 5
days on 4 pages. The first employees of the editorial office were
Vasiliy Mitta - responsible secretary and Yakku Arslan (Zverev, Yakov
Lvovich) - a staff member. In 1932, the newspaper was called "Oktyabr
Yalavĕ" ("Znamya Oktyabrya"). From September 4, the newspaper began to
be published under the title "Communism Yalavĕ" in Chuvash language and
"Communism flag" in Tatar language. The latter duplicates the Chuvash
newspaper. In 1953, both newspapers were given one international name -
"Avangard".
Kanash region (Kanash region). The first issue of the
newspaper "Sotsializmshan", as an organ of the district committee of the
Communist Party of Ukraine (B), district executive committee and
district trade union council, with a circulation of 2,000 copies, was
published on July 6, 1931. The newspaper was four-sided, printed in the
Alatyr printing house. In 1939, the newspaper was called
"Communizmshan". In July 1944, the city newspaper "Stalinsky Put" was
published in Kanash.
Pirĕn sămah (Nashe slovo). Pirĕn sămakh (Our
word) is Mariinsky-Posad district newspaper. At first, the newspaper was
called "Udarnik". On October 18, 1952, it was renamed "Lenin's banner".
In the 1990s. The newspaper was given a new name - "Nashe Slovo". The
first issue of the newspaper "Udarnik" was published on October 14,
1932. The newspaper was the printed organ of the District Council of
Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies and the District Committee of the
Communist Party of the Mariinsky-Posad District of the Chuvash Republic.
Центерÿ ялавĕ (Flag victory). The first issue of the Morgaush
district newspaper was published on May 5, 1944 under the title
"Kolkhoznik sassi" (Voice of the collective farmer). It was printed in
the Ishley printing house. The first editor was F., a native of the
Kozlovsky district. I. Malyshkin. Newspaper volume 2 volumes and
circulation 1200 copies. It was published once a week until August 30,
1959. On April 3, 1965, the newspaper began to be published under the
new name "Çĕnterÿ yalavĕ".
Tăvan Atăl is a literary magazine of
Chuvash writers. Searched since 1931. In 1940-1944, it was published
under the name "Fiction" (published 17 books). In 1944, when the 18th
book was published, it was renamed.
Chuvash language magazines
and newspapers were also published in places of compact settlement of
Chuvash in other republics and regions of the RSFSR, teachers were
trained, and Chuvash theaters functioned.
Chuvash State
Pedagogical University named after I. Ya. Yakovleva was founded in 1930.
Open to 2 faculties this year.
Petrov was the initiator of the
opening of the agricultural institute in Cheboksary, as there was a lack
of qualified personnel, and the republic was in dire need of
agronomists, zootechnicians, and engineers.
The Agricultural
Academy was opened on September 1, 1931. Students studied in difficult
conditions. There was a lack of teaching aids, exhibits, preparations,
classrooms, and qualified teachers. In 1939 and 1940, the team of the
institute participated in the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition. The
Great Patriotic War demanded a radical restructuring of the entire work
institute. The educational building, dormitory was transferred to an
evacuated textile factory. Classes were held in unequipped rooms, in
schools in the second and third shifts. Many faculty and staff of the
institute join the front line.
The house where the Chuvash
Pedagogical Institute was opened - the first higher educational
institution of Chuvashia in 1930. (ul. K. Marksa, 32).
Much
attention was paid to the growth of the population's culture. Permanent
centers and centres for the cultural development of workers were
created. By the end of 1920, thanks to the active work of the
communists, of whom there were about 1,300 in Chuvashia at that time,
218 reading huts, 170 libraries, 62 people's houses, etc. were
functioning in the region.
A huge amount of work was done to
eliminate illiteracy among the population. In a short period of time,
about 12 thousand people completed three-month courses to eliminate
illiteracy.
On the initiative of D. S. Elmen, on July 16, 1920,
the Revolutionary Committee decided to open an agricultural technical
school in Yadrin. It was also planned to open a university, initially as
a branch of Kazan University.
In early August 1919, the First
All-Russian Congress of Workers in Education and Socialist Culture among
the Chuvash was held. D. S. Elmen took an active part in its convocation
and work. He was elected chairman of the congress. Daniil Semenovich
strives for friendly, united work of the working intelligentsia of
different nationalities and cultural construction.
D. S. Elmen
paid daily attention to the development of public education, cultural
and educational institutions, and the press in Chuvashia. In a report to
the estimate of the Chuvash Department under the People's Commissariat
of Nationalities for May and June 1919, he outlined specific tasks for
the development of public education in Chuvashia. He wrote: "... in
order to lead the Chuvashes out of the darkness of ignorance and
inertia, it is necessary to widely establish the matter of their
education, both school, preschool, extracurricular, and vocational."
Thanks to the efforts of party and Soviet bodies, the Chuvash
Department under the People's Commissariat of Nationalities and its head
D. S. Elmen, in the harsh conditions of the Civil War, considerable
successes were achieved on the cultural front. The network of schools
expanded, the number of students increased. In 1919-1920, 1,200 schools
of literacy worked in Chuvashia. Even in remote villages, people's
houses, clubs, reading huts, and people's universities were opened. In
1918, a teachers' seminary was opened in Kanash. In January 1918, the
first Chuvash theater was established in Kazan. The Higher Central Music
and Drama School was also opened there.
A number of
labor-intensive and complex issues on the reorganization and improvement
of public education on a new basis were resolved on the initiative of D.
S. Elmen. It was necessary to prepare teaching staff and teaching aids.
In October 1918, the Chuvash Department of the People's Commissariat of
Nationalities, headed by D. S. Elmen, issued an order obliging all
Chuvash departments of public education and educational institutions to
urgently revise the primer, which had become an invaluable teaching aid
not only for schoolchildren, but also for teaching adults to read and
write.
D. S. Elmen was one of the active organizers of the
translation of the works of V. I. Lenin, the works of progressive
Russian writers and poets, school textbooks, etc. into the Chuvash
language. In March 1919, on the initiative of the Chuvash Department of
the People's Commissariat of Nationalities, a translation and publishing
commission was organized, which led to a significant increase in
translated literature.
1923 — Transformation of the Simbirsk
Institute of Public Education (former Chuvash Seminary) into a
pedagogical technical school and an agricultural technical school. Until
1935, it was under the jurisdiction of the Chuvash government.
1930,
August — Opening of the Pedagogical Institute in Cheboksary (now the
Chuvash State Pedagogical University named after I. Ya. Yakovlev).
1931, September — Opening of the Chuvash Agricultural Institute (now the
Academy).
1934, August 4 — Opening of the Chuvash Teachers' Institute
in Cheboksary.
Among the educational figures were Trofimov,
Andrei Trofimovich (teacher).
Chuvash State Institute of
Humanities. On August 17, 1930, the Secretariat of the Chuvash Regional
Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) decided to
reorganize the Council of Science and Culture, founded in April 1928,
into a research institute. On August 18, 1930, the Council of People's
Commissars of the Chuvash ASSR formed the Chuvash Integrated Research
Institute on the basis of the Council of Science and Culture. In August
1932, the institute was reorganized: the Research Institute for
Socialist Reconstruction of Agriculture was established on the basis of
the agricultural sector of the Chuvash Integrated Research Institute (it
existed until 1934). On August 10, 1933, the Council of People's
Commissars of the Chuvash ASSR reorganized the Chuvash Integrated
Research Institute into two institutions: the Chuvash Research Institute
of Industry (it existed until 1936) and the Chuvash Research Institute
of Social and Cultural Construction. On August 25, 1938, by a resolution
of the Council of People's Commissars of the Chuvash ASSR, the institute
was renamed the Chuvash Research Institute of Language, Literature and
History. On January 1, 1948, in accordance with the Decree of the
Government of the Chuvash ASSR dated November 14, 1947, the institute
was transferred to the jurisdiction of the Council of Ministers of the
Chuvash ASSR and became known as the Chuvash Research Institute of
Language, Literature and History under the Council of Ministers of the
Chuvash ASSR.
More than 208 thousand people from the Chuvashia ASSR participated in
the Great Patriotic War, over 100 thousand of whom died. About 54
thousand people were awarded military orders and medals. About 80
natives of the Chuvashia ASSR were awarded the title Hero of the Soviet
Union.
About 1,000 natives of the Chuvashia ASSR arrived to serve
in the garrison of the Brest Fortress on the eve of the fighting; almost
all of them died. A large number of natives of the Chuvashia ASSR
participated in the partisan movement. Many of them fought against the
fascist invaders on the territory of other states.
70.5 thousand
people were accepted from the western and central regions of the USSR to
the Chuvashia ASSR, more than 20 industrial enterprises were relocated.
During the war, the Chuvashia ASSR received the Red Banner of the State
Defense Committee three times. The Kharkov and Moscow electrical
equipment factories were evacuated to Cheboksary.
The armored
train "Komsomol Chuvashii" was built with funds collected by the people,
the armored train "For the Motherland!" was built with funds from
workers of the Kanash carriage repair plant, and the Cheboksary
electrical equipment plant built the squadrons of combat aircraft
"Krasnaya Chuvashia" and "Komsomolets Chuvashii". The newspaper
"Krasnaya Chuvashia" of December 26, 1942 published a letter from an
employee of the "Krasny Luch" collective farm in the Alatyr district, A.
M. Sarskov, to Stalin, in which he reported on his contribution of
100,000 rubles from his personal savings for the construction of an
aircraft for the pilot, Hero of the Soviet Union F. N. Orlov. The next
issue published a reply letter from Stalin: "Please accept my greetings
and gratitude to the Red Army for your concern for the air forces of the
Red Army. Your wish will be fulfilled. Joseph Stalin." There were many
such letters.
The 324th Verkhnedneprovskaya Red Banner Rifle
Division and the 139th Roslavl Red Banner Order of Suvorov Rifle
Division were formed in Cheboksary. Both divisions had a difficult but
glorious combat history, and streets in the city were named in their
honor.
During the war, evacuation hospitals No. 3056 (1941-1945),
No. 3058 (1941-1945), No. 3061 (1942), and No. 3057 (1941-1945) were
located in Cheboksary. The headquarters of the 324th Rifle Division,
formed in the Chuvash ASSR in 1941, was located at 6 Karl Marx Street.
On November 4, 1941, the city of Cheboksary was bombed - in the
dark, Cheboksary was bombed by one plane, dropping about 20 bombs.
In 1941-1945, the Chuvash State Pedagogical Institute, some
workshops of evacuated factories were transferred to Mariinsky Posad.
In 1943, at the Ibresinskaya Flight School, the legendary pilot -
future Hero of the Soviet Union - Senior Lieutenant A. P. Maresyev,
without legs (on prostheses), learned to fly after being wounded. Here
(between July 1943 and May 1944) the sons of high-ranking figures of the
Soviet state learned to fly on UT-2 training aircraft: the son of the
Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party
(Bolsheviks) A.S. Shcherbakov, the future Hero of the Soviet Union
Alexander Shcherbakov, and the son of the member of the State Defense
Committee A.I. Mikoyan, Alexei Mikoyan.
The heroes of the Soviet
Union were natives of the Chuvash ASSR and Chuvash from other regions of
the USSR: G. A. Alekseev, K. D. Andreev, S. A. Andreev, Ya. A. Anisimov,
G. F. Arlashkin, F. A. Artemyev, F. P. Akhaev, F. I. Ashmarov, N. G.
Bezrukov, A. F. Belyaev, A. N. Bogolyubov, S. N. Butya kov, P. Kh.
Bukhtulov, B. M. Vorbiev, G. S. Vasiliev, P. E. Vasiliev, V. F.
Vitvinsky, A. I. Vorbiev, G. G. Gabaidulin, V. I. Ermeneev, M. E.
Efimov, A. A. Ivanov, N. P. Ivanov, I. M. Ivkin, F. N. Izhederov, N. S.
Izhutov, S. I. Illarionov, I. V. Ilgachev, N. R. Irikov, I. A. Kabalin,
N. G. Knyazkin, S. V. Konovalov, A. V. Kochetov, M. T. Koshelev, P. E.
Kuznetsov, P. V. Laptev, G. F. Larionov, A. R. Loginov, N. N. Markov, I.
G. Meshakov, S. Nikolaev, F. N. Orlov, A. M. Osipov, N. S. Pavlov, E. G.
Paigusov, Z. I. Parfyonova, A. P. Petrov, I. K. Polyakov, M. E.
Rodionov, N. K. Romanov, A. F. Sidyukov, K. I. Stepanov, Ya. G. Suldin,
S. A. Uganin, G. N. Chernov, M. S. Chernov, F. . N. Chernov, P. S.
Yukhvitov, E. G. Yakovlev, A. T. Yakunin, I. V. Yashin.
From 1947 to 1955, the Chairman of the Supreme Council of the
Chuvashia ASSR was S. M. Islyukov.
The Cheboksary Cotton Mill,
one of the largest cotton processors in Russia, was opened in 1951.
In 1951, a decision was made to build a tractor spare parts plant in
Cheboksary. In 1953, construction of the industrial base of the
Cheboksary Aggregate Plant began.
The decision to build the
Cheboksary Electrical Measuring Instruments Plant in the Chuvashia ASSR
was made in 1948 and was enshrined in Order No. 8646 of the USSR Council
of Ministers dated July 1, 1948.
In the 1950s and 1980s, the
average annual growth rate of the total volume of industrial output in
Chuvashia outpaced the all-Russian average. In the 1950s and 1960s,
Chuvashia changed from an agrarian-industrial republic to an
industrial-agrarian republic. By 1970, 26 large industrial enterprises
had been built and put into operation in Cheboksary: a cotton mill,
electrical actuator plants, an electrical measuring instrument plant, a
tractor spare parts plant, Chuvashkabel, the Alatyr Elektropribor and
Elektroavtomat plants, the Kanash electric forklift, paint and varnish,
and plastics plants, etc. In 1970, construction began on the Cheboksary
hydroelectric power station, and in 1972, on the Cheboksary industrial
tractor plant. These same years were notable for the strengthening of
the directive nature of economic relations. The reforms of the national
economy did not affect the foundations of strict centralized planning.
By the end of the 1990s, more than 80% of production capacity was
concentrated. in Cheboksary and Novocheboksarsk. In rural areas,
industry is represented mainly by small enterprises in the food and wood
processing industries. The structure of industry retained a high share
of production of means of production, which amounted to 78% in 1985. In
the machine-building complex, the share of products at the world level
in 1985 was 8%.
The intensive growth of industry led to a
significant migration of the population to the cities, especially to
Cheboksary. Some of the "unpromising" villages were liquidated. There
was a constant narrowing of the functions of the Chuvash language,
especially in urban areas. Since the early 1960s, schools in the
republic switched to teaching students from grades 5-7 in the Russian
language. This innovation helped some schoolchildren to better master
the Russian language, and made it easier to study in technical schools
and universities. But the abrupt withdrawal of the native language from
the educational process led to the loss of the basics of literacy by
most of its speakers, many retained the ability to communicate only at
the everyday level. Representatives of the Chuvash diaspora found
themselves in a particularly difficult situation. In 2013, UNESCO
experts classified the Chuvash language as endangered.
The search
for a way out of the current situation, which began actively but
ill-considered in April 1985, did not yield tangible results in the
economy. Since 1991, a decline in production volumes in absolute terms
began. The failure of attempts to radically reform the country's
economy, undertaken in the early 90s, led the national economy to a
systemic crisis. Regions that do not have rich natural resources and
enterprises for their processing found themselves in a particularly
difficult situation.
The unresolved and aggravated
socio-economic, national, cultural and everyday problems in the context
of the weakening of the rigid ideological and state. dictate contributed
to the emergence of public movements advocating for the expansion of the
rights of the republics and peoples. At the end of 1989, the Chuvash
Social and Cultural Center (CSCC) was created, in March 1991 - the
Chuvash National Revival Party (CHAP), on October 8-9, 1993, the Chuvash
National Congress (CNC) was organized, the delegates of which
represented the Chuvash population of the republic and the Chuvash
diaspora. At the beginning of 2001, 39 political associations were
registered in the Chuvash Republic, 12 national social and cultural
centers are operating, but their activities did not prevent a further
rapid decrease in the number of Chuvashes.
On November 5, 1961, a
fire occurred in Elbarusovo, in which 110 people died, including 106
children.
In 1952, a bronze bust of the classic of Chuvash
literature K. V. Ivanov was installed on a polished granite pedestal on
the embankment. Sculptor I. F. Kudryavtsev, architect V. I. Stupin.
Since then, the park on the Volga embankment has been named after
Konstantin Ivanov.
On December 7, 1933, in the building of the
Rodina cinema (K. Ivanov St., 9), the Hungarian communist writer Mate
Zalka gave a speech at the congress of shock workers-road workers of the
Chuvash ASSR. This fact is today recalled by a memorial plaque placed on
the building of the cinema.
In the 30s and 40s, the following
were built on Konstantin Ivanov Street: the Rodina cinema, a brick
factory, the House of Water Light, after the war - a brewery, a park
named after Konstantin Ivanov was laid out.
As a result of socio-economic processes that took place in the period from 1991 to 2010, the number of Chuvashes in the Russian Federation decreased by almost 446 thousand people (by 24% from the 1989 level). The number of Chuvashes in the Russian Federation decreased especially quickly in the period from 2002 to 2010 - by almost 202 thousand people (by 14% in 8 years - to 1,435,872 people, that is, to the 1955 level), including in the Chechen Republic by 75 thousand people. This is comparable to the losses of the Chechen Republic in the Second World War or the Civil War (for comparison: the losses of the USSR in the Great Patriotic War were 13.6% - 27 million people).
In 2010, M. V. Ignatiev became the new president of Chuvashia.
The Chuvash Republic is located in the east of the East European
Plain, mainly on the right bank of the Volga, between its tributaries
Sura and Sviyaga. Territory - 18.3 thousand km². From north to south,
the region stretches for 200 km, and from east to west - for 125 km.
The highest point above sea level is 286.6 meters.
Valuable chernozem soils are located in the southeast along the border with the Republic of Tatarstan, in the southwest, to the west of the Sura River and in the interfluve of the Bolshoi and Maly Tsivil Rivers. Podzolic soils predominate
The hydroelectric potential of the Volga River in the republic has
not been fully realized at the Cheboksary hydroelectric power station.
The Sura River was home to a large population of sterlet until
1969-1970.
Phosphorite deposits with ore reserves of 148.7 million tons, oil shale deposits with reserves of 199.1 million tons, peat deposits.
Chuvashia is located in a zone with a moderate continental climate
and is part of the forest-steppe and forest natural zones. The average
long-term air temperature in January is -13 ° C; in July + 20 ° C. The
average annual precipitation is 530-570 mm.
Average annual wind speed
is 3.6 m / s
Average annual air humidity is 75%
Most of the
absolute minimum temperatures in Chuvashia by month were recorded in the
20th century and 2 minimums were recorded in the 19th century, while 3
absolute maximums already occurred at the beginning of our century.
The Chuvashia Republic is part of the Volga-Vyatka economic region.
The republic's economy is between the "average" and outsiders in
terms of economic development among the subjects of the Russian
Federation. Per capita GRP, adjusted for the cost of living in the
region, is 54% of the Russian average. In the Volga District, only the
Penza and Kirov regions and the neighboring underdeveloped republics of
the Volga-Vyatka region (Mordovia and Mari El) have worse indicators.
As of January 1, 2021, the rural population was 438,920 people, 36%
of the population of the Chuvashia Republic.
In the economy of
Chuvashia, the share of the rural sector in the GRP structure is twice
as high as the average for the Russian Federation (9.4 and 4.9%,
respectively), 31% of the GRP comes from industry (the average for the
Russian Federation is 33.2%).
In 2020, the volume of agricultural
production in farms of all categories was 45.1 billion rubles
(agricultural organizations 20.9 billion rubles), of which crop
production was 23.2 billion rubles, livestock 21.9 billion rubles.
As of January 1, 2020, in farms of all categories / agricultural
organizations there were 193.0 / 65.0 thousand heads of cattle,
including 85.8 / 25.0 thousand heads of cows, 143.8 / 114.2 thousand
heads of pigs, 148.3 / 1.2 thousand heads of sheep and goats.
In
2019, the average milk yield from 1 cow was 6121 kg (+ 10.5%). The
number of breeding dairy cows was 10.3 thousand heads, which is 1.5
thousand heads more. Breeding organizations produced 71.2 thousand tons
of milk, which is 126.5% of the 2018 level. These farms produce 49% (6%
more than the 2018 level) of the gross milk yield of agricultural
organizations. At the same time, the average milk yield per 1 breeding
cow per year also increased by 10.5% and amounted to 7414 kg.
In 2020, farms of all categories threshed grain in the weight after
processing of 941 thousand tons, which is 29.8% more than last year.
Vegetables were collected 157 thousand tons, which is 14.0% more.
Potatoes and sugar beets were obtained less by 22.9% and 38.2%,
respectively. The grain yield was 32.2 centners (+19.3%). The yield of
vegetables is 343.6 c/ha, potatoes 183.6 c/ha.
In 2019, the yield
of vegetables in Chuvashia was 337.5 c/ha, which is 59.3 c/ha higher
than the Russian average, and the yield of potatoes is 15.9 c/ha higher
than the Russian average.
The soil and climatic conditions of
Chuvashia characterize vegetable and potato growing as the most
important highly profitable sectors of the specialization of the
republic's agro-industrial complex. The republic has one of the highest
levels of yield of potatoes and open-ground vegetables and low
production costs compared not only to neighboring, but also to other
regions of Russia. However, in 2021, due to drought, there was a
decrease in agricultural production, the yield of grain and leguminous
crops (-41%), vegetables (-9.6%) and potatoes (-7%) fell. At the same
time, greenhouse vegetable growing developed dynamically. In 2021,
tomato production increased by 1.5 times, cucumbers by 20%. By the end
of 2021, an increase in exports of agricultural products is expected by
25-27 percent.
The production of "borscht set" vegetables is a
key indicator of the country's food security. In 2022, agricultural
organizations of Chuvashia will increase the area of open-ground
vegetable cultivation by 20%, and increase the area of potato
cultivation by 4%.
More and more farmers in Chuvashia prefer to
grow garden strawberries. The Ministry of Agriculture allocates grants
for development, farmers will co-finance 30 percent themselves. Growing
garden strawberries is highly profitable: if you grow grain, then from 1
hectare you will get about 60 thousand in revenue, and from berries -
about 10 million rubles, - said the Minister of Agriculture of
Chuvashia.
The republican industry is mainly located in Cheboksary and
Novocheboksarsk (this agglomeration produces three quarters of
industrial output). OAO Promtraktor is the only plant in Russia and the
CIS countries that is one of the world's four leading enterprises in the
production of heavy bulldozer-ripping and pipe-laying equipment. The
machines manufactured by the enterprise are used in the oil and gas,
mining and construction industries. Cheboksary Instrument-Making Plant
(modern official name - OAO Scientific and Production Complex ELARA
named after G. A. Ilyenko, former name - OAO ChNPPP Elara) is a large
Russian enterprise producing complex electronic devices for the civil
and military industries. The enterprise is converting production,
mastering new types of products: manufacturing devices for the
automotive industry, production of medical computer tomographs. OJSC
Cheboksary Aggregate Plant is an industrial enterprise in Russia
specializing in the production of spare parts for automotive, industrial
and agricultural machinery. Russian leader in the production of spare
parts for tractor chassis. Closed Joint-Stock Company Cheboksary
Electrical Equipment Plant (ZAO CHEAZ) is one of the oldest and largest
electrical engineering enterprises in Russia. An enterprise that
produces low-voltage control devices, microprocessor relay protection
devices and equipment for distributing electrical energy at voltages
from 0.4 to 110 kV. The equipment is necessary for power plants and
substations, gas compressor stations, gas and oil refineries,
metallurgical, machine-building enterprises, etc.
The center of
electric power industry, Cheboksary Hydroelectric Power Station, is
located in Novocheboksarsk, as well as the Khimprom plant, one of the
largest in Russia in its industry. In 2007, JSC Khimprom was included in
the Renova Orgsintez holding, and a technology implementation zone for
the production of solar battery modules was created on the basis of the
chemical plant.
In Kanash, there are auto-aggregate and railcar
repair plants, in Alatyr there are instrument-making plants, and in
Shumerlya, the production of vans and special vehicles has been
established.
In the village of Vurnary, there used to be a
military chemical plant, now a plant for mixed preparations operates in
its place. The remaining 20 municipalities account for only 6% of
industrial production.
The transport network of the republic is represented by automobile, rail and air transport - the Nikolaev Airport operates in Cheboksary. There are river ports in the cities of Cheboksary and Novocheboksarsk, and regular water trams run from Cheboksary to the other side of the Volga - to Sosnovka.
"Rostelecom"
"NetByNet (WiFire)" (until 2015 "Chebnet")
"Infanet-Orionet"
"Beeline"
"Er-telecom" ("Dom. Ru")
"Etherway"
"Enforta"
MTS (GSM/UMTS/LTE)
Beeline (GSM/UMTS/LTE)
Megafon
(GSM/UMTS/LTE)
Tele2 Russia (GSM/UMTS/LTE)
Yota (LTE)
JSC Russian Post
"Rostelecom"
"NetByNet (WiFire)" (until 2015 "Chebnet")
"Er-telecom" ("Dom.Ru")
"Infolink"
"Etherway"
"NKTV"
("NovoNet", "Aquilon")
"Infanet-Orionet"
"Enforta"
"VIP
technologies"
There are 4 federal healthcare institutions and 68 healthcare institutions subordinate to the Ministry of Health of the Republic in Chuvashia, which employ more than 30,000 people, including more than 5,000 doctors, about 13 thousand nurses and brothers and more than 12 thousand employees of junior medical personnel.
The strategy for the development of education in the Chuvash Republic
until 2040, approved by Decree of the President of the Chuvash Republic
dated 03/21/2008 No. 25, says: "Currently there are 344 Chuvash, 177
Russian, 17 Tatar national schools in the republic, in 4 general
education institutions students study the Mordovian language. The
existing network allows us to meet the needs of children in obtaining
high-quality education in a multicultural environment."
According
to the Ministry of Education of Chuvashia, in 2009, there were 65% of
schools in the republic with Chuvash, 3% with Tatar and 31% with only
Russian languages of instruction. The Chuvash language as a native
language was taught in 344 Chuvash schools and as the state language in
all other 198. In grades 1-4 of Chuvash and Tatar national schools,
education was conducted in their native language. According to the
Ministry of Education of Chuvashia, in the 2014/2015 academic year in
the republic, 9.5% of schoolchildren studied in the Chuvash language,
0.7% — in Tatar, 89.8% — in Russian.