Idel-Ural

Jan 27, 2022

The second cluster of ethnic republics in Russia is Idel-Ural or Volga-Ural region, shaped by Volga river and Ural mountains. 'Volga' is the Slavic name of the great river, 'Idel' is Turkic one. So the term you choose can reflect your identity and political affiliation

While the North Caucasus is a mosaic of myriads of cultures, languages and ethnicities, ethnic situation in Idel-Ural is somewhat simpler. Before the Russian (red) conquest there were two big ethnic groups here - Turks (shades of green), and Finno-Ugrics (everyone else)

Of course, it's more nuanced than that. To start with, Tatars and Bashkirs speak mutually intelligible Turkic languages, which can be even considered the dialects of one - Kipchak language. Tatars and Bashkirs are Kipchak-speaking Sunni Muslims

With Chuvashs it's more tricky. Let's look at the map of Turkic languages in Eurasia. You see big groups: Oghuz (Turks, Azeri, Turkmen), (Uzbek, Uyghur), Kipchak (Tatar, Bashkir, Kazakh, Kyrghyz), Siberian (Yakut, Altai, Tuva, Hakas). And a lonely purple dot. That's Chuvashia

Chuvash are alone and isolated in a sense that Chuvash language is the last living tongue of the Bulghar-Oghur family. Which used to be prominent in the past, but then mostly died away. It's the last relict of Old Great Bulgaria