Chuvash- people Turkic origin living in Chuvashia, where it is the main population, and beyond.
About the etymology of the name Chuvash there are eight hypotheses. It is assumed that the self-name Chăvash goes back directly to the ethnonym of a part of the “Bulgar-speaking” Turks: * čōš → čowaš / čuwaš → čovaš / čuvaš. In particular, the name of the Savir tribe ("Suvar", "Suvaz" or "Suas"), mentioned by the Arab authors of the 10th century. (ibn-Fadlan), it is supposed to be considered the source of the ethnonym Chavash - "Chuvash": the name is considered simply a Turkic adaptation of the name of the Bulgar "Suvar". According to an alternative theory, chăvash is a derivative of the Turkic jăvaš - "friendly, meek", as opposed to şarmăs - "warlike". The name of the ethnos among neighboring peoples also goes back to the self-name of the Chuvash. The Tatars and Mordva-Moksha call the Chuvash “Chuash”, the Mordva-Erzya - “Chuvazh”, the Bashkirs and Kazakhs - “Syuash”, the mountain Mari - “Suasla Mari” - “a person in the Suvaz (Tatar) way”. In Russian sources, the ethnonym "Chavash" is first encountered under 1508.

From an anthropological point of view, most of the Chuvashes belong to the Caucasoid type with some degree of Mongoloidism. Judging by the research materials, Mongoloid traits dominate in 10.3% of Chuvashes, and about 3.5% of them are relatively pure Mongoloids, 63.5% belong to mixed Mongoloid-European types with a predominance of Caucasoid traits, 21.1% are different Caucasoid types, both dark-colored and fair-haired and light-eyed, and 5.1% belong to sublaponoid types, with weakly expressed Mongoloid characters.
From the point of view of genetics Chuvash are also an example of a mixed race - 18% of them carry the Slavic haplogroup R1a1, another 18% - the Finno-Ugric N, and 12% - the Western European R1b. 6% have Jewish haplogroup J, most likely from the Khazars. The relative majority - 24% - bears haplogroup I, characteristic of northern Europe.
The Chuvash language is a descendant of the language of the Volga Bulgars and the only living language of the Bulgar group. It is incomprehensible with other Turkic languages. for example, it is replaced by x, s by e, and z - by x, as a result the word "girl", which sounds in all Turkic languages ​​as Kyz in Chuvash sounds like her.

Chuvash are divided into two ethnic groups: riding (viryal) and grassroots (anatri). They speak different dialects Chuvash language and in the past they were somewhat different in their way of life and material culture. Now these differences, which have continued to persist particularly steadily in women's clothing, every year more and more are smoothed out. Viryaly occupy mainly the northern and northwestern parts of the Chuvash Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, and Anatri the southeastern part. At the junction of the territory of settlement of the upland and downstream Chuvashes, there is a small group of middle-upland Chuvashes (anatenchi). They speak the dialect of the upper Chuvash, and are close to the grassroots in dress.

In the past, each group of Chuvashes was divided by everyday features into subgroups, according to their differences are now largely erased. Only among the lower Chuvash, the so-called steppe subgroup (hirti), living in the southeastern part of the Chuvash ASSR, is distinguished by some originality; In the everyday life of the hirti, there are many features that bring them closer to the Tatars, next to whom they live.
... The self-name of the Chuvashes, according to one of the versions, goes back to the name of one of the tribes related to the Bulgars - Suvar, or Suvaz, Suas. Mentioned in Russian sources since 1508.
At the end of 1546, the Chuvash and mountain Mari who rebelled against the power of Kazan called Russia for help. In 1547 Russian troops drove out the Tatars from the territory of Chuvashia. In the summer of 1551, during the founding of the Sviyazhsk fortress by the Russians at the confluence of the Sviyaga into the Volga, the Chuvash of the mountain side became part of Of the Russian state... In 1552-1557, the Chuvash, who lived on the meadow side, also became citizens of the Russian tsar. By the middle of the 18th century Chuvash were mostly converted to Christianity. Part of the Chuvashes who lived outside Chuvash and, having converted to Islam, she retired. In 1917 Chuvash received autonomy: AO from 1920, ASSR from 1925, Chuvash SSR from 1990, Chuvash Republic from 1992.
The main traditional occupation Chuvash- agriculture, in ancient times - slash-and-burn, until the beginning of the 20th century - three-field. The main grain crops are rye, spelled, oats, barley, less often wheat, buckwheat, and peas were sown. From industrial crops Chuvash cultivated flax, hemp. Hop-growing was developed. Livestock (sheep, cows, pigs, horses) was poorly developed due to the lack of forage lands. Long ago Chuvash were engaged in beekeeping. Woodcarving (utensils, especially beer ladles, furniture, gate posts, cornices and trims of houses), pottery, weaving, embroidery, patterned weaving (red-white and multicolored patterns), beadwork and coins, handicrafts were developed. woodworking: wheeled, cooper, carpentry, also rope and cable, matting production; there were carpentry, tailor and other artels; at the beginning of the 20th century, small shipbuilding enterprises arose.
The main types of settlements Chuvash- villages and villages (yal). The earliest types of settlement are river and parochial, the planning is cumulonlocal (in the northern and central regions) and linear (in the south). In the north, the village is divided into ends (kas), usually inhabited by kindred families. Street planning has been spreading since the 2nd half of the 19th century. From the second half of the 19th century, dwellings of the Central Russian type appeared.

House Chuvash decorated with polychrome painting, saw-cut carvings, overhead decorations, the so-called "Russian" gates with a gable roof on 3-4 pillars - bas-relief carvings, later painting. There is an ancient log building - las (originally without a ceiling and windows, with an open hearth), which serves as a summer kitchen. Cellars (nukhrep) and baths (munch) are widespread.

Men at Chuvash wore a canvas shirt (kepe) and pants (yem). The basis of traditional clothes for women is a tunic-like shirt-kepe; for viryal and anat enchi, it is made of thin white linen with abundant embroidery, narrow, worn with slouch; until the middle of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, anatri wore white shirts that were flared at the bottom, later - from a pestle with two or three gathers of fabric of a different color. Shirts were worn with an apron, for viryal it was with a bib, decorated with embroidery and applique, for anatri - without a bib, sewn from red checkered fabric. Women's festive headdress - a canvas canvas surpan, over which anatri and anat enchi wore a cap in the shape of a truncated cone, with earpieces fastened under the chin and a long blade at the back (hushpu); viryal fastened with a surpan an embroidered strip of fabric on the crown of the head (masmak). The girl's headdress is a helmet-shaped hat (tukhya). Tuhya and hushpu were abundantly decorated with beads, beads, and silver coins. Chuvashki headscarves were also worn, preferably white or light-colored. Women's jewelry - dorsal, waist, chest, neck, shoulder straps, rings. For the lower Chuvashes, a sling (tevet) is characteristic - a strip of fabric covered with coins, worn through left shoulder under the right hand, for riding Chuvashes - a belt woven with large tassels with stripes of kumach covered with embroidery and applique, and pendants made of beads. Outerwear - a canvas caftan (shupar), in autumn - a cloth undercoat (sahman), in winter - a fitted sheepskin fur coat (kerek). Traditional footwear - bast bast shoes, leather boots. Viryal wore bast shoes with black cloth onuchi, anatri - with white woolen (knitted or sewn from cloth) stockings. Men wore onuchi and footcloths in winter, women - all year round... Mens traditional clothes used only in wedding ceremonies or folklore performances.
In traditional food Chuvash plant products prevail. Soups (yashka, shurpe), stews with dumplings, cabbage soup with seasonings from cultivated and wild-growing greens - snyta, hogweed, nettle, etc., porridge (spelled, buckwheat, millet, lentil), oatmeal, boiled potatoes, jelly oat and pea flour, rye bread (khura sakar), pies with cereals, cabbage, berries (kukal), flat cakes, cheesecakes with potatoes or cottage cheese (puremech). Less commonly, they cooked a khuplu - a large round pie with meat or fish filling. Dairy products - turah - sour milk, uyran - churning, chakat - curd snacks. Meat (beef, lamb, pork, horse meat among the lower Chuvashes) was a relatively rare meal: seasonal (when slaughtering cattle) and festive. Prepared shartan - sausage from a sheep's stomach, stuffed with meat and lard; tultarmash - boiled sausage stuffed with cereals, minced meat or blood. Mash was made from honey, beer (sara) was made from rye or barley malt. Kvass and tea were common in areas of contact with Tatars and Russians.

Rural community Chuvash could unite residents of one or several settlements with a common land plot. There were nationally mixed communities, mainly Chuvash-Russian and Chuvash-Russian-Tatar. The forms of kinship and neighborly mutual assistance (nime) were preserved. Family ties persisted, especially at one end of the village. There was a custom of sororata. After the Christianization of the Chuvashes, the custom of polygamy and levirate gradually disappeared. Undivided families were rare in the 18th century. The main type of family in the second half of the 19th century was the small family. The husband was the main owner of the family property, the wife owned her dowry, independently disposed of income from poultry (eggs), animal husbandry (dairy products) and weaving (canvases), in the event of her husband's death she became the head of the family. The daughter had the right to inherit along with her brothers. In economic interests, the early marriage of the son and the relatively late marriage of the daughter were encouraged, and therefore the bride was often several years older than the groom. The tradition of the minorat, characteristic of the Turkic peoples, is preserved, when younger son stays with the parents and inherits their property.

Grassroots Chuvash of Kazan province, 1869.

The modern beliefs of the Chuvashes combine elements of Orthodoxy and paganism. In some areas of the Volga and Ural regions, villages have survived Chuvash- pagans. Chuvash revered fire, water, sun, earth, believed in good gods and spirits led by the supreme god Cuult Tura (later identified with the Christian God) and evil creatures led by Shuitan. Household spirits were revered - "the master of the house" (hertsurt) and the "master of the yard" (karta-puse). Each family kept home fetishes - dolls, twigs, etc. Among evil spirits Chuvash they especially feared and honored the kiremety (whose cult remains to this day). Calendar holidays included a winter holiday of asking for a good offspring of livestock, a holiday of worshiping the sun (Shrovetide), a multi-day spring holiday sacrifices to the sun, the god of Tour and ancestors (which then coincided with Orthodox Easter), the holiday of spring plowing (akatui), a summer holiday of remembrance of the dead. After sowing, sacrifices were carried out, the rite of making the rain, accompanied by bathing in a reservoir and pouring water, at the end of the harvesting of bread - prayers to the guardian spirit of the barn, etc. Young people arranged walks with round dances in the spring and summer, in winter - get-togethers. The main elements of the traditional wedding are preserved (the groom's train, a feast at the bride's house, her taking away, a feast at the groom's house, the redemption of a dowry, etc.), maternity (cutting the umbilical cord of a boy with an ax, a girl on a stand or the bottom of a spinning wheel, feeding a baby, now - smearing the tongue and lips with honey and oil, transferring it under the patronage of the guardian spirit of the hearth, etc.) and funeral and memorial rituals. Chuvash- the pagans buried the dead in wooden logs or coffins with their heads to the west, with the deceased they laid household items and tools, a temporary monument was erected on the grave - a wooden pillar (for a man - oak, for a woman - linden), in the fall, during a general commemoration in the month of yupa uiyh ("Pillar month") a permanent anthropomorphic monument of wood or stone (yupa) was erected. His removal to the cemetery was accompanied by rituals imitating burial. At the commemoration, memorial songs were sung, bonfires were kindled, and sacrifices were made.

The most developed genre of folklore is songs: youth, recruiting, drinking, memorial, wedding, labor, lyric, as well as historical songs. Musical instruments - bagpipes, bubble, duda, gusli, drum, later - accordion and violin. Legends, fairy tales and traditions are widespread. The Chuvash, like many other peoples with an ancient culture, in the distant past used a kind of writing, developed in the form of a runic script, widespread in the pre-Bulgarian and Bulgarian periods of history.
In the Chuvash runic script, there were 35 (36) characters, which coincides with the number of letters of the ancient classical runic script. In terms of location and quantity, shapes, phonetic meanings, the presence of a literary form, the signs of Chuvash monuments are included in the general system of runic writing of the eastern type, which includes the scripts of Central Asia, Orkhon, Yenisei, the North Caucasus, the Black Sea region, Bulgaria and Hungary.

In the Volga Bulgaria, the Arabic script was widespread. In the 18th century, writing was created based on the Russian graphics of 1769 (Old Chuvash writing). Novochuvash writing and literature was created in the 1870s. The Chuvash national culture is being formed.

Chuvamshi (Chuvash. Chgvashsem) - Turkic people, the main population of the Chuvash Republic (Russia).

According to the results of the 2002 census, there are 1,637,200 Chuvashes in the Russian Federation; 889,268 of them live in the Chuvash Republic itself, accounting for 67.69% of the republic's population. The largest share of the Chuvash is in the Alikovsky region - more than 98%, the smallest - in the Poretsky region - less than 5%. The rest: 126 500 live in Aksubaevsky, Drozhzhanovsky, Nurlatsky, Buinsky, Tetyushsky, Cheremshansky districts of Tatarstan (about 7.7%), 117 300 in Bashkortostan (about 7.1%), 101 400 in the Samara region (6.2%) , 111,300 in the Ulyanovsk region (6.8%), as well as 60,000 in Moscow (0.6%), Saratov (0.6%), Tyumen, Rostov, Volgograd, Kemerovo, Novosibirsk, Irkutsk, Chita, Orenburg, Moscow, Penza regions of Russia, Krasnoyarsk Territory, Kazakhstan and Ukraine.

According to recent studies, the Chuvash are divided into three ethnographic groups:

riding Chuvash (viryaml or turim) - northwest of Chuvashia;

middle-bottom Chuvash (anamt enchim) - north-east of Chuvashia;

lower Chuvash (anatrim) - the south of Chuvashia and beyond;

steppe Chuvash (hirtim) - a subgroup of grassroots Chuvash, identified by some researchers, living in the south-east of the republic and in adjacent regions).

The language is Chuvash. Is the only living representative of the Bulgar group Turkic languages... Has three dialects: upper ("okayuschiy"), eastern, lower ("pointing").

Main religion - Orthodox Christianity.

The Mongol invasion and the events that followed (the formation and disintegration of the Golden Horde and the emergence on its ruins of the Kazan, Astrakhan and Siberian khanates, the Nogai Horde) caused significant movements of the peoples of the Volga-Ural region, led to the destruction of the consolidating role of the Bulgarian statehood, accelerated the formation of individual Chuvash ethnic groups , Tatars and Bashkirs, In the fourteenth - early fifteenth centuries, under conditions of oppression, about half of the surviving Bulgaro-Chuvash moved to the Prikazan and Zakazan regions, where the "Chuvash Daruga" was formed from Kazan to the east to the middle Kama.

The formation of the Tatar nation took place in the Golden Horde in the 14th - first half of the 15th century. from the Central Asian Tatar tribes that arrived with the Mongols and appeared in the Lower Volga region in the 11th century. Kypchaks, with the participation of a small number of Volga Bulgarians. On the Bulgarian land there were only insignificant groups of Tatars, and on the territory of the future Kazan Khanate there were very few of them. But during the events of 1438-1445, associated with the formation of the Kazan Khanate, about 40 thousand Tatars arrived here together with Khan Uluk-Muhammad. Subsequently, Tatars from Astrakhan, Azov, Sarkel, Crimea and other places moved to the Kazan Khanate. In the same way, the Tatars who arrived from Sarkel founded the Kasimov Khanate.

The Bulgarians on the right bank of the Volga, as well as their compatriots who moved here from the left bank, did not experience any significant Kypchak influence. In the northern regions of the Chuvash Volga region, they mixed, already for the second time, with the Mari and assimilated a significant part of them. The Muslim Bulgarians who moved from the left bank and from the southern regions of the right bank of the Volga to the northern regions of Chuvashia, falling into the environment of the pagans, departed from Islam and returned to paganism. This explains the pagan-Islamic syncretism of the pre-Christian religion of the Chuvash, the spread of Muslim names among them.

Until the fifteenth century. land east of the rivers Vetlugs and Suras, occupied by the Chuvashes, were known as "Cheremis" (Mari). The first mention of the name of this territory under the name "Chuvashia" also refers to the beginning of the 16th century, that is, to the time when the ethnonym "Chuvash" appeared in the sources, which, of course, is not accidental ( it comes on the notes of Z. Herberstein, made in 1517 and 1526).

The complete settlement of the northern half of modern Chuvashia by the Chuvash took place in the 14th - early 15th centuries, and before that time the ancestors of the Mari, the real "Cheremis", predominated here. But even after the entire territory of present Chuvashia was occupied by the Chuvash, partially assimilating, partially displacing the Mari from its northwestern regions, Russian chroniclers and officials throughout the 16th-17th centuries, according to tradition, continued to name the population living east of the lower Sura, at the same time or "mountain Cheremis", or "Cheremis Tatars", or simply "Cheremis", although the actual mountain Mari occupied only small territories east of the mouth of this river. According to A. Kurbsky, who described the campaign of Russian troops against Kazan in 1552, the Chuvash, even at the time of the first mention of them, called themselves "Chuvash", and not "Cheremis".

Thus, during the complex military-political, cultural-genetic and migration processes of the 13th - early 16th centuries. two main areas of habitation of the Bulgaro-Chuvashes were formed: 1 - the right-bank, mainly forest area between the Volga and Sura, bounded in the south by the line of the Kubnya and Kirya rivers; 2 - Zakazan-Zakazan region (here the number of Kypchak-Tatars was also significant). From Kazan to the east, to the river. Vyatka, the Chuvash Daruga stretched. The basis of both territorial groups of the ethnos was predominantly rural agricultural Bulgarian population, who did not accept Islam (or moved away from it), which absorbed a certain number of Mari. In general, the Chuvash people included various ethnic elements, including the remnants of the "Imenkovo" East Slavic population, part of the Magyars, Burtases, and, probably, Bashkir tribes. Among the ancestors of the Chuvashes, there are, albeit insignificantly, Kypchak-Tatars, Russian polonyans (captives) and peasants who found themselves in the 15th-16th centuries.

The fate of the Zakazan-Zakazan Chuvashes, known from the sources of the 15th - first half of the 17th century, developed in a peculiar way. Many of them in the XVI-XVII centuries. moved to Chuvashia, in the seventeenth century. - in the Zakamye (their descendants live today here in a number of Chuvash villages - Savrushi, Kiremet, Serezhkino, etc.). The rest became part of the Kazan Tatars.

According to the data of the scribes of the Kazan district of 1565-15b8. and 1b02-1603, as well as other sources, in the second half of the 16th - first half of the 17th century. on the territory of the Kazan district there were about 200 Chuvash villages. In the very center ethnic territory Kazan Tatars - Kazan district - at the beginning of the 17th century. There were much more Chuvashes than Tatars: here, only in the mixed Tatar-Chuvash villages, according to the Scripture Book of 1602-1603, there were 802 courtyards of the Yasak Chuvash and 228 - serving Tatars (then only villages in which there were serving Tatars were copied; the number Chuvash villages were not rewritten). It is noteworthy that in the Scripture Book of Kazan 1565 - 1568. urban Chuvash were also indicated.

According to some researchers (GF Sattarov and others), the "Yasak Chuvashes" in the Kazan district in the 16th - mid-17th centuries. called those groups of the Bulgarian population, in whose language the Kypchak elements did not win a final victory, and "Bulgarians with their native Bulgarian language (Chuvash type) should not have disappeared and lost their native language in the period between the 13th and 16th centuries. "This can be evidenced by the decoding of the names of many villages in the central part of the Kazan district - Zakazanye, which are etymologized on the basis of the Chuvash language.

Since ancient times, the Bulgarian population also lived in the middle Vyatka, on the Chepets River. It was known here under the name "Chuvash" at the very beginning of the 16th century. (since 1510). On its basis there were formed ethnographic groups of "Besermyans" (with a culture more than similar to the Chuvash) and Chepetsk Tatars. The letters of gratitude from the "Yarsk" (Arsk and Karin) princes of the 16th century have been preserved, in which the arrival in the basin of the river is celebrated. Caps "Chuvash from Kazan places" in the first half of the 16th century.

Among the Chuvash who converted to Islam in Zakazanye, Zakamye, the Cheptsa basin, in the Sviyazhie region, according to the Tatar scholar and educator Kayum Nasyri and according to folk legends, there were also their scholar Mudarists, imams, Hafiz and even Muslim "saints" who performed the Hajj to Mecca , what was, for example, judging by his rank, Valikhadzh, known among the Chuvash as "Valium-khusa".

The main component of the Chuvash people was the Bulgarians, who passed on to it the "r" - "l" language and other ethnocultural characteristics. The fact that it was the Bulgarians, who were mainly formed into an ethnos by the beginning of the 13th century, served as a component of the Chuvash nationality, which led to the ethnic, cultural, everyday and linguistic unity characteristic of the Chuvash, and the absence of tribal differences.

The largest modern Türkologist M. Ryasyanen writes that "the Chuvash language, which differs so much from the rest of the Türkic-Tatar languages, belongs to the people, which should be considered with all certainty as the heir of the Volga Bulgarians."

According to R. Akhmetyanov, "both the Tatar and Chuvash ethnic groups finally took shape, apparently, in the 15th century. At the same time," building material"in both cases, the same elements served: Bulgars, Kipchaks, Finno-Ugrians. The differences were only in the proportions of these components. The Chuvash retained some unique features of the Bulgar language in the system of Turkic languages, and this fact suggests that in ethnogenesis Chuvash people The Bulgar element played a big role ... There are also Bulgar features in Tatar (especially in the vowel system). But they are hardly noticeable. "

On the territory of Chuvashia, only 112 Bulgarian monuments have been identified, of which: fortified settlements - 7, settlements - 32, locations - 34, burial grounds - 2, pagan burial grounds with epitaphs - 34, treasures of Juchij coins - 112.

Bulgarian monuments of the Chuvash region make up an insignificant share (about 8%) of the total number of monuments discovered in central regions the former Bulgarian state - 1855 objects in total.

According to the research of V.F.Kakhovsky, these monuments are the remains of Bulgarian settlements, abandoned by the inhabitants in the second half of the 14th - early 15th centuries, in connection with the devastating raids of the Golden Horde emirs, the hordes of Tamerlane, ushkuyniks and campaigns of the Russian princes. According to V.D.Dimitriev's estimates, the number of Bulgarian-Chuvash monuments on the right bank of the Volga, including the territory of the Ulyanovsk region and the Chuvash Volga region, exceeds 500 units. Many Chuvash and Tatar settlements on the right bank of the Volga and Predkamye are a continuation of the Bulgarian-Chuvash villages of the 13th - 14th centuries, they were not destroyed and did not become archaeological monuments.

Chuvash medieval pagan cemeteries are also among the late Bulgarian monuments of the times of the Golden Horde and the Kazan Khanate, on which stone tombstones were installed with epitaphs usually made in Arabic script, rarely with runic characters: in the Cheboksary region - Yaushsky, in Morgaushsky - Irkhkassinsky, in Tsivilsky - Toisinsky burial grounds.

The bulk of the burial grounds with stone tombstones and epitaphs have survived in the eastern and southern regions of Chuvashia (in Kozlovsky, Urmarsky, Yantikovsky, Yalchiksky, Batyrevsky).

The types of dwellings (semi-dugouts, chopped huts), the arrangement of the underground in them and the location of the stove, the layout of the estate, enclosing it from all sides with a fence or a fence, setting the house inside the estate with a blank wall on the street, etc., characteristic of the Bulgarians, were inherent in the Chuvashes XVI-XVIII centuries The rope ornament used by the Chuvash to decorate the pillars of the gates, the polychrome coloring of platbands, cornices, etc. fine arts Volga Bulgarians.

The pagan religion of the Suvar and the Bulgarians, described in the Armenian sources of the 7th century, was identical to the Chuvash pagan religion. Remarkable are the facts of religious veneration by the Chuvashes of the perished cities - the capitals of Volga Bulgaria - Bolgar and Bilyar.

The culture of the Chuvash people also includes Finno-Ugric, primarily Mari, elements. They left their mark on the vocabulary and phonetics of the Chuvash language. Horse Chuvash retained some elements material culture Mari ancestors (cut clothes, black onuchi, etc.).

The economy, way of life and culture of the rural population of Bulgaria, judging by the data of archeology and written sources, had many similarities with those known to us from the descriptions of the 16th-18th centuries. material and spiritual culture of the Chuvash peasantry. Agricultural machinery, the composition of cultivated crops, types of domestic animals, farming techniques, Bortnichestvo, fishing and hunting of the Volga Bulgarians, known from Arabic written sources and archaeological research, find correspondences in the economy of the Chuvashes of the 16th-18th centuries. The Chuvash are characterized by a complex anthropological type. A significant part of the representatives of the Chuvash people have Mongoloid features. Judging by the materials of individual fragmentary surveys, Mongoloid features dominate in 10.3% of Chuvashes, and about 3.5% of them are relatively "pure" Mongoloids, 63.5% are of mixed Mongoloid-European types, 21.1% are different Caucasoid types - both dark-colored (prevailing), and fair-haired and light-eyed, and 5.1% belong to the sublaponoid types, with mild Mongoloid features.

The anthropological type of the Chuvashes, characterized by specialists as a subural variant of the Ural transitional race, reflects their ethnogenesis. The Mongoloid component of the Chuvashes, according to the famous anthropologist V.P. Alekseev, is of Central Asian origin, but at this stage it is impossible to name the ethnic group that introduced Mongoloid features into the anthropological type of the Chuvash. Bulgarians who emerged from the Mongoloid Hunnic environment Central Asia, of course, they were carriers of exactly that physical type, but later, on a long journey through Eurasia, they adopted Caucasoid features among the Caucasian Dinlins of Southern Siberia, the Northern Iranian tribes of Central Asia and Kazakhstan, the Sarmatians, Alans and the peoples of the North Caucasus, the East Slavic Imenkov tribes and Finno-Ugric in the Volga region. As already noted, the composition of the Chuvash in the XV-XVII centuries. a certain number of Russians (mainly Polonyans) also entered, which also affected their physical type. As Islam strengthened in the culture of the Tatars, Central Asian traditions were established, and among the Chuvash-pagans, the layer of the Finno-Ugric culture becomes influential, since the neighboring Finno-Ugric peoples remained pagans until the 18th-19th centuries. As a result, the Chuvash, according to RG Kuzeev et al., Turned out to be the most bicultural (that is, with a dual culture) people; the Chuvash, "preserving the archaic Türkic language," the scientist noted, "at the same time developed a culture, in many respects close to the culture of the Finno-Ugric people."

Ethnographic groups

Traditional festive costumes of riding (viral) and grassroots anatri) Chuvash.

Initially, the Chuvash people formed two ethnographic groups:

Viryal (riding, also called turi) - in the western half of the Chuvash region,

Anatri (grassroots) - in the eastern half, with differences in language, dress and ritual culture. At the same time, the ethnic identity of the people was unified.

After joining the Russian state, the Chuvash of the north-eastern and central parts of the region (mainly Anatri) in the 16th-17th centuries. began to move to the "wild field". Subsequently, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. the Chuvash also migrate to the Samara Territory, Bashkiria and the Orenburg region. As a result, a new ethnographic group has emerged, which now includes almost all Chuvash living in the southeastern regions of the Chuvash Republic and in other regions of the Middle Volga and Ural regions. Their language and culture were influenced by the Tatars. Researchers call this group anatri, and their descendants, who remained in the former territory - in central, northern and northeastern Chuvashia - are anat enchi (middle nizy).

It is believed that the Anat Enchi group formed in the 13th-15th centuries, viral - in the 16th century, anatri - in the 16th-18th centuries.

By culture, Anat Enchi is closer to Anatri, and by language - to Viryal. It is believed that the Anatri and Anat Yenchi retained to a greater extent the ethnic features of their Bulgarian ancestors, and the Finno-Ugric (mainly Mari) elements were noticeably manifested in the Viryal culture.

At the heart of the names ethnographic groups the settlement lies relative to the Volga: the Chuvashs, settled below the upper ones, are called Anatri (grassroots), and the group located between them is Anat Enchi, that is, the Chuvash of the lower (lower) side,

Already in the pre-Mongol period, two main ethno-territorial massifs of the Bulgaro-Chuvashes were formed, but then they were distinguished, apparently, not along the course of the Volga, but according to their settlement on its left and right banks, i.e. on the "mountain" (turi) and on the "steppe" (hirti), or "Kama", During the academic expedition of the eighteenth century. PS Pallas singled out exactly two groups of Chuvashes: horseback riding along the Volga and hirti (steppe, or Kama).

Since ancient times, the northeastern regions of the Chuvash region were a kind of crossroads for the migration movements of the Bulgarian-Chuvash tribes. This is the territory inhabited by modern anat-enchi, which was originally called anatri. It is among the latter, both in language and ethnoculture, that the Bulgarian components have had and are the most pronounced manifestation.

The formation of the modern Anatri was associated with the development of the "wild field". The migrants here and to new lands up to the Urals were mainly natives of the Pritsivillia and Prianishye, as well as the Sviyazhie, that is, from the places where the Anat Enchi now live. Constant contacts with Kazan Tatars and Mishars, weakening of ties with mother villages, life in a different environment and in different conditions led to changes in their culture and way of life. As a result, the southern Chuvash became isolated, a separate ethnographic group was formed, which was named Anatri.

Outside the modern borders of Chuvashia, they live in the bulk of the Anatri. However, a rather complex and mixed Chuvash population settled in Zakamye (Tatarstan), Ulyanovsk, Samara, Orenburg, Penza, Saratov regions and Bashkiria. For example, the village of Saperkino, Isaklinsky district of the Samara region, arose in the middle of the 18th century, it was founded by pagan Chuvashs - natives of the village of Mokshiny, Sviyazhsky district, headed by Saper (Saper) Tomkeev. Subsequently, Chuvash migrants moved to Saperkino not only from Sviyazhsky, but also from Cheboksary, Yadrinsky, Simbirsky, Koz-modemyansky districts.

Ethnographic groups of the Chuvash differ mainly in women's clothing and dialectal features of the everyday language. The most ancient and basic among them is the anat enchi women's shirt, which is cut from four panels of white canvas. Wedges were inserted from below. Anatri's shirt has the same look. In viryal, it is longer and wider, of five panels and without wedges. II According to researchers (H.I. Gagen-Thorn and others), the cut of the shirts of the riding Chuvash and mountain Marikas, like the entire set of clothes, is almost the same.

In the second half of the nineteenth century. anat enchi and anatri began to sew clothes out of motley, but the daggers did not adopt this fabric. Horse Chuvash women wore 2-3 belts (to create an overlap), and anat enchi and anatri - only one belt, moreover, which served more for hanging belt ornaments.

Horsebacks were identical to those of the Mountain Mari and differed from the rest of the Chuvash. The Virjals wore long footcloths and onuchi, and the dress was longer than the rest. The legs were wrapped up thickly, like the Finno-Ugric neighbors. Viryal had footcloths of black cloth, anat enchi - of black and white, anatri - only of white.

Married Chuvash women of all groups wore khushpa - a cylindrical or conical headdress decorated with sewn coins and beads.

Towel-like Surpan headwear was shorter in the riding and mid-bottom than in the Anatri.

Women anat enchi also wore a turban over a surpan - a triangular linen bandage.

The maiden headdress tuhya - a hemispherical cap made of canvas - is almost entirely covered with coins for horsemen, as well as for a part of the middle-bottom Chuvash. In middle-bottom ones, it was trimmed with beads, several rows of coins and had a cone trimmed with beads at the top with a metal knob.

The linguistic features of ethnographic groups are expressed in the existence of two easily understandable dialects - grassroots and upper: the former is characterized by hooting (for example: uksa - money, urpa - barley), for the second - okanie (oxa, orpa).

Thus, in contrast to a number of neighboring peoples (for example, the Mari and Mordovians, which are characterized by more than significant differences), the Chuvash dialects and, in general, all specific group cultural characteristics developed relatively late. Dialects did not have time to stand out into separate languages ​​before the appearance of a common literary language... All this indicates that the Volga-Kama Bulgarians by the time of the appearance of the Mongol-Tatar hordes on the Middle Volga - at the turn of the 12th-13th centuries. - basically already formed into the Bulgarian nationality, and it was going through ethno-consolidation processes. At that time, on the basis of the consolidation of individual tribal dialects, all the main specific traits a single Bulgarian language, which later became the basis of the Chuvash language.

What facial features distinguish the Chuvash from other nations.

1. The jugs are 1000% smarter and the Tatars, so they are under our oppression,
2. slightly Mongoloid facial features, and so everything in the aggregate must be taken: both skin color and manner of communication
3. chubby, slightly slanting. noticed when I was a shapushkar ;-)))
4. Chuvash and Russians are the same
5. It is easy to distinguish the Chuvashes from the Russians. Chuvash (Volga-Bulgarian type) They combine a lot of ethnic characteristics taken from other peoples: Caucasians, Mari, Udmurts, partly Mordovians-Erzis, Slavs, but many of them are similar to typical Turks and mostly Mongolians, that is, representatives of the Uralic type. There are not so many Caucasians, but they are also found. The peoples closest in appearance are the Kazan Tatars, Mari and Udmurts.
6. Sharply protruding Chuvashals
7. The Mongol invasion and the events that followed (the formation and disintegration of the Golden Horde and the emergence on its ruins of the Kazan, Astrakhan and Siberian khanates, the Nogai Horde) caused significant movements of the peoples of the Volga-Ural region, led to the destruction of the consolidating role of the Bulgarian statehood, accelerated the formation of individual Chuvash ethnic groups , Tatars and Bashkirs, In the XIV beginning of the XV century. , in conditions of oppression, about half of the surviving Bulgar-Chuvash moved to the Prikazanie and Zakazanie, where the Chuvash Daruga was formed from Kazan to the east to the middle Kama.
   Formation of the Chuvash people

   girl in national Chuvash costume

   Chuvash- (self-name chavash); also includes peoples close to the main ethnos: viryal, turi, anatri, anatenchi, a people with a total number of 1,840 thousand people. Main countries of settlement: the Russian Federation- 1773 thousand people , including Chuvashia - 907 thousand people. Other countries of settlement: Kazakhstan - 22 thousand people. , Ukraine - 20 thousand people. , Uzbekistan - 10 thousand people. The language is Chuvash. The main religion is Orthodox Christianity, the influence of paganism remains, there are Muslims.
   Chuvash are divided into 2 groups:
   upper Chuvash (viryal, turi) north and north-east of Chuvashia;
   lower Chuvash (Anatri) south of Chuvashia and beyond.
   Sometimes the meadow Chuvash (anat enchi) center and southwest of Chuvashia are distinguished.
   The language is Chuvash. It is the only living representative of the Bulgaro-Khazar group of Turkic languages. Has two dialects: lower (pointing) and upper (okay). Many Chuvash speak Tatar and Russian.
   Well, and, in fact, the answer to the question: Anthropological types of the Urals and the Volga regions (Komi, Mordovians, Chuvash, Bashkirs, etc.), occupying an intermediate position between Caucasians and Mongoloids, in their morphological features are characterized by such a complex of characters, which includes both Caucasoid and Mongoloid features. They are characterized by medium and short stature, the pigmentation of the skin, hair and eyes is somewhat darker than that of the northern and central Caucasians, the hair is stiffer, with a predominance of a straight shape, however, compared to Mongoloids, the pigmentation is lighter and the hair is softer. The face is short, the protrusion of the cheekbones is medium and strong, but less than in the Mongoloid groups, the nose bridge is medium and low, the nose is short, often with a concave back, epicanthus is found.
   Most likely the word is Chuvashaly, this is some kind of local dialect, I will be grateful if you explain what it is.
   the link is blocked by the decision of the project administration
   BTW
   Chapaev was born on January 28 (February 9), 1887 in the village of Budaika (now this is the territory of the city of Cheboksary), in the family of a poor man. Erzya by nationality (erz. Chapoms to cut (felling)). The ancestors of the Chapaevs went to the villages for hire, chopped down log cabins and decorated houses. According to the version widespread in Chuvashia, the nationality of Chapaev is Chuvash (Chuv.chap, beautifull, beauty), in other sources it is Russian.

8. only shupashkaras))
9. This is probably sad, but the peoples of the Volga region, Chuvash (Moksha and Erzya) and Kazan Tatars, according to epidemiological studies, in terms of antigens of the main histocompatibility complex (HLA) do not differ from Russians living in the same places, while Russians living in other areas differ from Russians living in these republics.
   That is, the population is genetically homogeneous, but the language and culture are certainly different.
   Therefore, there is no need to talk seriously about physiognomic differences among the Chuvash. I can only say that people from your kravs are very nice, even beautiful and good-natured.
10. Chuvash - a national team, a mixture of EUROPE and ASIA. My mother was fair-haired, my father - with very dark hair (Pontic type). Both are European.
11. I would not say that Russians and Chuvash are the same. Now, let's arrange in descending order. From Caucasoid to Mogngoloid of the peoples of the Volga region: Kershennr, Tatar-Mishrlr (62 pontids, 20 CE, 8 Mongoloids, 10 sublapponoids), Mordva-Moksha (close to the Mishars not only in culture, but also in anthropology), Mordva-Erzya, Kazanla ( Kazan Tatars), Chuvash (11 - pronounced Mongoloids, of which 4% are pure, 64 transitional between Mongolians and Caucasians, with a preponderance of Euro-, 5% - sublapponoids, 20% - pontids (among the grassroots), CE, Baltids
12. I am a Chuvash by my father, so if my grandmother had Asian facial features, then my grandfather had a European face ..
13. I have not seen the Chuvash. Maybe Chapaev is a Chuvash?
14. no