Traditional etiquette of the Bashkirs in the story of Leo Tolstoy “Ilyas”
Authors: Baiazitova R. R. 
Published: October 2024

A variety of sources is used when studying traditional culture and etiquette. In this study, the story of L.N. Tolstoy “Ilyas” was considered as an ethnographic source. In scientific texts, works of fiction are more often considered as indirect sources, characteristics of culture and everyday life, requiring careful verification and correlation with other sources and scientific literature.The famous Russian writer and thinker, the outstanding novelist L.N. Tolstoy (1828-1910) in his works truthfully described the customs and rites, the daily life of the Irgiz-Kamelik Bashkirs. His story “Ilyas”, despite the presence of numerous data on the traditional culture of the Bashkirs, has not yet been the subject of special ethnological studies. The purpose of the work is an ethno-literary analysis of the work of L.N. Tolstoy “Ilyas” to study the features of the traditional culture of the Bashkirs of the Samara province in the reform period.The story “Ilyas” by L.N. Tolstoy is of interest to us, firstly, by the fact that in this work the life of the Bashkirs is described by a representative of another ethnic group. Secondly, the story is invaluable, as L.N. Tolstoy conveyed the events and spirit of his era, captured during trips to the Bashkirs.The story of L.N. Tolstoy “Ilyas” shows the features of economic activity, spiritual and material culture, family life. The work describes the custom of hospitality of the Bashkirs, which occupied the main place in the hierarchy of values of the Bashkir people. The mentioned hospitality of the Bashkirs can be explained by the peculiarities of economic activity, ethnopsychology, the influence of ancient beliefs and religion.In the story, L.N. Tolstoy subtly conveys the peculiarities of the behavior of his heroes according to the traditional etiquette of the Bashkirs, for example: after greeting the Bashkirs, it is customary to read sura from the Qur'an and then spend their palms on the face, women sit separately from men. When seating the guests, they took into account their age, social status and family relations, and if they were in an equal position, they paid attention to the path they had traveled. In the story of L.N. Tolstoy, the established tradition of greeting a guest with the filing of kumys was transferred.In his work, L.N. Tolstoy managed to convey the general atmosphere of the era, traditions and mores of the Bashkirs, truthfully described the features of traditional everyday culture. Along with a colorful description of customs, he showed the negative consequences of violating generally accepted norms (drunkenness of a son, naughty, arrogant daughter-in-law, etc.). Ilyas was on the verge of someone else's home due to a violation of the custom of minorat, according to which the youngest son was supposed to care for his elderly parents. At the same time, the generosity of relatives who did not abandon a person in trouble was emphasized.Thus, the outstanding Russian writer in the story “Ilyas” managed to reliably present the national color, convey the spirit of the era, the subtleties of family life and the customs of the Bashkirs. The personal tragedy of Ilyas, associated with the loss of the property acquired by hard work, resonates with the difficult situation of the Bashkirs of the Samara province.An ethno-literary analysis of the story showed that the ethnographic material was used by the author to develop the plot, confirm the authenticity and reliability of the described phenomena, but still the main merit of L.N. Tolstoy, in my opinion, is that he managed to fix the ethnocultural features of the Irgiz-Kamelik Bashkirs.