Chuvash
History of Chuvashia / Facts
The Chuvash are considered to be descendants of nomadic Hun (Xiongnu) tribes that emigrated from Central Asia.
In short
01
By the 2nd-3rd centuries BC had settled in the Northern Caucasus, and in the 7th-8th centuries together with other Bulgarian tribes had moved to the Middle Volga region, where they assimilated with the Finno-Ugric tribes and founded Volga Bulgaria.
02
After the capture of Kazan in 1552, the Chuvash settlements became part of the Kazan county (after 1708 – province).
03
The Chuvash culture is closely intertwined with that of the neighboring Tatars, Mari, and Bashkirs.
05
The Chuvash have their own language, rituals, and a number of celebrations related to agriculture: Akatuy, Simek, Pukrav, and Pitrav.
06
Prior to joining the Russian state, most of the population were pagans; however, in the 16th century, churches began to be constructed and the Chuvash began gradually converting to Orthodoxy.
04
The end of the 3rd century BC
Ancient ancestors of the Turkic-speaking people – the Huns (Xiongnu), were widely settled in Central Asia since the 3rd millennium BC. There were various tribes among the Huns, and the Onoguro-Bulgarian and Sabirian tribes are considered the ancestors of the Chuvash
About the Chuvash people
The Hun tribes began migrating to the West across Central Asia and modern Kazakhstan, the language of the Proto-Bulgarians – the ancestors of the Chuvash, was penetrated with up to two hundred ancient Iranian words, dozens of Indian words, and elements of Zoroastrianism entered the pagan ancestral cult of the Chuvash.
At the end of the 3rd - early 4th centuries
At the end of the 3rd - early 4th centuries, they occupied significant territories of the North Caucasus, the Azov steppes, where wedding ceremonies and cosmogonic ideas about the "low sky", specific features of the cult appeared from and were adopted, and the language preserved several dozen words from ancient Georgian, ancient Armenian, and Greek (Byzantine) languages.
In the '30s and '40s of the 7th century
In the '30s and '40s of the 7th century, a military-political association headed by Khan Kubrat, known in history as Great Bulgaria, which included other Turkic-speaking tribes, was formed.
the 50s of the 7th century
Following the death of Khan Kubrat and the strengthening of the Khazar Kaganate in the 50s of the 7th century, Great Bulgaria breaks into separate parts. Kubrat's sons divided the power: Asparuh (Isperih), together with a part of the Bulgarians (Kutrigurs), moved west to the Balkans, where he founded the Danube Bulgaria, Batbai and part of the Bulgarian tribes ("black Bulgarians") remained in their homeland and submitted to the Khazars, the third group of Bulgarians ("silver Bulgarians") led by Kotrag moved to the Middle Volga region in the 670s.
8th century
When the Silver Bulgarians came to the Volga and Kama regions, ancient ancestors of Mari, Komi, Udmurts, as well as Mordva, Cheremisses, and Burtases were already there. In the 8th century, the Turkic-speaking and Finno-Ugric populations came together to form a union of tribes for the first time, and at the turn of the 9th-10th centuries – the into Volga Bulgaria.
1236
In 1236, the Mongol-Tatar hordes defeated the Bulgarian state Volga Bulgaria became ulus (a region) of the Golden Horde state. The city of Bolgar became the first capital of the Golden Horde and until the 30s. The 14th century remains one of the most defining periods of this state.
the second half of the XIII – XV centuries
The Mongol invasion and subsequent events caused significant internal movements of the peoples of the Volga-Ural region, led to the loss of the consolidating role of the Turkic-Bulgarian cultural civilization, and accelerated the formation of the Chuvash, Tatars, and Bashkirs into separate ethnic groups.
the mid-15th – early 16 centuries
Following the formation in the mid-15th century of the Kazan Khanate, part of the Chuvash migrated to the northeast of modern Chuvashia, and the rest of the Bulgarian-Chuvash population in Transcaucasia dissolved among the Kazan Tatars by the end of the 17th century. On the territory of modern Chuvashia and in the Prizansko-Zakazan district, in the Chuvash Daruga, by the end of the 15th century, the modern Chuvash nation had been formed.
The Chuvash lands located on the border between the Moscow princedom and the Kazan Khanate often suffered from military clashes between the Russian and Kazan armies. Numerous Russian campaigns against Kazan were accompanied by plundering of the population on their way.
The Chuvash lands located on the border between the Moscow princedom and the Kazan Khanate often suffered from military clashes between the Russian and Kazan armies. Numerous Russian campaigns against Kazan were accompanied by plundering of the population on their way.
1551 - 1552
During the conquest of Kazan by Ivan the Terrible, the territory of modern Chuvashia became part of the Russian state, which began to get populated by Russian servicemen.
The middle of the XVIII century
In the mid-18th century, the Chuvash were subjected to Christianization, but until the 70s of the 19th century, their baptism had a formal character, and the sermons given in Old Slavonic and Russian were incomprehensible to the Chuvash. In fact, the latter remained adherents of the pre-Christian pagan faith.
1920-1925
In 1920, the Chuvash received their own statehood as the Chuvash Autonomous Region. Chuvashia has its own president, its own constitution, emblem, flag, and anthem. In 1990, two languages – Chuvash and Russian, were declared state languages.
1st century BC -
1st century AD
1st century AD
1990s
В 1992 г. в Чувашии приняты современные Герб, Флаг, Гимн Республики. В 2000 г. принята современная Конституция.
