The Idel-Ural State (, , , also İdel-Ural berlege İdel-Ural ştatı), also known as the Volga-Ural State or Idel-Ural Republic, was a short-lasting autonomy of Tatar peoples that claimed to unite the Tatars, Bashkirs, and Chuvash in the turmoil of the Russian Civil War. The republic was proclaimed on 1 March 1918, by a Congress of Muslims from Russia's interior and Siberia, but defeated by Bolsheviks the same month. Idel-Ural means "Volga-Ural" in the Tatar language.

History

thumb|Proclamation of Idel-Ural Republic

thumb|Şämğulof's<!--Sabirzhan Shamgulov, Сабирҗан Шамгулов--> House in [[Ufa, where the sessions of the National Parliament (Millät Mäclese) took place.]]

During the Russian Revolution, various regional political leaders convened in June 1917 in Kazan. The group declared the autonomy of "Muslim Turk-Tatars of Inner Russia and Siberia". Later on, in Ufa, a parliament named the Millät Mäclese (National Council) was created, in which a draft for the creation of the state would be pushed through and accepted on 29 November 1917 following the Second All-Russia Muslim Congress. However, the Idel-Ural State was met with opposition from Zeki Velidi Togan, a Bashkir revolutionary, who declared the autonomy of Bashkiria, as well as from the Bolsheviks, who had initially supported the creation of Idel-Ural but two months after denounced it as bourgeois nationalism

Members of the Tatar-Bashkir Committee of Idel-Ural based outside of Russia such as Ayaz İshaki participated in an anti-Bolshevik propaganda war. Some also joined the Prometey group, a circle of anti-Soviet Muslim intellectuals based in Warsaw. The idea of Idel-Ural by its supporting nationalists included the territory of modern-day Tatarstan, Bashkortostan, and most of Orenburg Oblast. The nationalists also wished for expansion towards the Caspian Sea. In January 1918, the Millät Mäclese adopted a constitution written by Galimzian Sharaf, Ilias and Jangir Alkin, Osman Tokumbetov, and Y. Muzaffarov.

The Millät Mäclese looked to declare the creation of Idel-Ural on 1 March 1918, a plan which never came to fruition due to Bolshevik arrests of deputies of the Millät Mäclese and their official declaration of the Tatar-Bashkir Soviet Socialist Republic. Its Parliament disbanded in April.

See also

  • Free Idel-Ural
  • Idel-Ural
  • Collegium for the implementation of the Idel-Ural State
  • Zeki Validi Togan

References

Further reading

  • :
  • «Очерки истории Татарстана и татарского народа», Tatar Book Publishers, 1999
  • «История национальной государственности татарского народа и Татарстана», Tatar Book Publishers 2008
  • , «Казань: время гражданской войны», 1991