The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1918-01-19

leaders OF the movement IN COnStan-
tinople were Tartar emigrants from
Russia. The fundamental idea is
that the Turanian race including Tar
tars, Turcomans, Kirghiz, Sarts, Os-
manh and all that vast population of
Middle and Nearer Asia which speaks
Turanian dialect, should unite its
scattered peoples and develop a cul-
tural life in common. Several able
young Tartar writers I have met in
the last day or two strongly favor the
idea of an entente between Russia and
Turkey, and even hope that the Tar
tars will become the mediators be-
tween the two countries. 49, as be-
fore the revolution the Tartar peas
ants of Russia used to look to the
Sultan as the defender of their filth
against TIE tyranny OF Czarism, so
ROW when that tyranny is over the
Tartar intellectuals and with them al
so the peasants, are looking to STAN
boul as their cultural shrine and long
to become the messengers of peace
between the Ottoman people and the
russian republic. 1t is interesting
to observe that the Tartars of this
school of thought take no interest at
all in their fellow Moslems in Persia,
Arabia, Egypt and India. Thus I
find that the three Tartar newspapers
and the one periodical published here
in support of "Yeni Turan'' are con
cerned with such things as Tartar
history, the story of the Turanian
race, the possibilities of rap
prochement with Turkey, etc. But
there is not word about the educa-
tional movement in Egypt, the ALL
India Congress or, the fate of Pr
Sia-
On the other hand, I have come
across another school here which
takes a much wider view of the des-
TIMES of the Tartars toward their CO.
reIgionists in Asia. A considerable
group of young Tartars, REINFORCED
by some Moslems from the North
Caucasus, are running campaign in
favor of what might be called 'cul-
tural Pan-Islam." Dissatisfied with
the Yeni Turan movement which they
regard as a narrow form of national
ism, they see before them the whole
world of Asia, sunk in medieval
enslaved by the ruling classes of Eur
ope and economically exploited by
world capital. They note the growth
of class consciousness among the ur-
ban proletariat of Russia, and feeling
instinctively that this psychological
| wave of class consciousness will not
| come to a stop on the Russian
plain but will surge some day far
and wide over Asia, they hope to
see the Russian Tartars as the ad-
vanced guard of this great movement
of cultural renaissance and political
awakening in the East. The Moslems,
they think, are the best organized and
the most conscious of all the peoples
of Asia, and since the emancipation
comes from the west, the Tartafs,
through their contact with the Rus
sian proletariat, are destined to car
ry the fiery cross eastward. For this
reason they denounce all federal sys-
TENS which will divide one group of
! Asiatics from another, and are against
all artificial attempts to create ma
tional barriers between the oppressed
masses of Asia. Pan-Islamism is to
them not a fantastica1 religious creed
nor an idea for establishing a politi-
cal State or Empire. It is rather a
cultural movement for educating the
masses of Asia to the consciousness of
their condition, so that one day they
can join hands with their comrade
proletariat in Europe in the great in
ternational class struggle which is to
come.
A Woman's Movement
The revolution has also brought
about most far-reaching changes
among the Tartar women. The Wom-
ems movement here started in the
revolution of 1905, as a result of which
women began to go about unveiled.
By 1910 a yelled Moslem woman was
unknown in KaZan. Directly after the
March revolution the Moslem women
in Kazan formed a society and sent
their delegates to the first Russia
Moslem Conference. Here they pre-
scented resolutions condemning poly
ganly and the Moslem inheritance law,
according to which female inheritors
in a family receive smaller portions
than male. These two resolutions
were passed, but during the summer a
recationary agitation was got up by
the mullahs, and at the second con-
ference in August, the second resolu-
ton was reversed. But the resolution
condemning polygamy remains in
force, and the Moslem Council now
sitting in Ufa to prepare the plans OF
cultural autonomy for the Tartars will
act upon this resolution.
In the political world also the Tar
tar women are beginning to take their
part, and in the elections for the
Zemstvos for the Kazan province
they are voting along with the men
! A separate day is set apart for them
to vote on, SO as to satisfy the null
labs and the more old fashioned wom-
en-. According to the latest informa-
ton about 40 per cent. of the wom-
en- have gone to poll. Although il
still has to meet with the opposition
of the clerical influences, the woman's
movement among the Tartars of the
! Volga provinces may be said to be
now upon a secure basis. The Tartars
= are in this respect the most advanc-
: ed of all the Russian Moslems. Mex
to them come the Crimean Tartars
who in the course of the summer also
y have developed a woman's movement
l After them in progress1veness come
the Caucasus Moslems, and lastly
those of Central Asia, who in matter:
l concerning women are still sunk il
medieval fanaticism and supersti
ton. But one. has only to walk dowr
g the streets in Kazan and go to the
7 Moslem theatre in the evening to SET
g that here at least Moslem women arr
e socially the equals of men, and have
e at last shaken off from themselvei
e the shackles of sex
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