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

by the Russian revolution, whereby
the Turanian race, embracing the
great population of Middle and Near
Asia, might unite its scattered people
and organize a common cultural life.
These Asiatics, he says, are concern
ing themselves with the possibilities of
a rapprochement with Turkey. Appli?
cation to them of the principle of self
determination might mean the cree
ton of a vast Turanian state. There
is also a school of Moslem information
lists who expect Russian class con-
seriousness to sweep eastward over
Asia. Thism ovement appears to aim
at cultural unity. Writing from Ka-
ban last October Mr.. Price says:
| The provinces of the Middle Volga
are inhabited by a mixed population
! of Great Russians and Moslem Tar
tars. OF the latter there are Ssome
eight million, chiefly centred round
Kazau and Ufa. Throughout these.
provinces there is no area inhabited
exclusively by one race. 1t is not pos
sible to separte off certain areas and
say that in this or that one the Mos
! lens predominant and have right
| to claim territorial autonomy. There
are no unoccupied and sparsely popu-
lated lands as in the regions bordering
Asia, and therefore, as one would eX-
pect, the natives have no need to pro-
tect themselves, as the Cossacks and
Kirghiz do, from a flood of immi-
grants from the west by demanding
autonomy over the land settlement.
On the contrary, the land allotments
In tc in
are not over five acres per family, and
consequently the demand is for emf
grafton eastward.
Now the circumstances above men
toned have had their influence upon
the political developments in this part
of Russia since the revolution. First,
it must be noted that the mixed popu
lation in the Middle Volga provinces
has complicated the issues of the rev.
Olution by introducing the factor OF
.-ationalism, which, as it were, cuts
across the International Socialist and
land reform movements. The Czar's
government used to the utmost this
factor to strengthen it's position. By
systemativ oppression of the Tartars,
by Withholding all official positions
from them, by deliberately hindering
the spread of education among them,
and by attempting to Russify their
schools, czarism succeeded in MAX
ing the standard of culture and poll
teal consciousness in the Middle Vol
ga provinces considerably lower than
in the provinces to the north and
south. Moreover, the effect is seen
also upon the Russian peasants of
these regions. 1 find that in the Ka-
zan government the Russian peasants
have since the revolution been much
slower and less effective in their or
ganization of revolutionary commit
tees than elsewhere. 1t is only in GER
tain places that land committee have
been formed for dividing up the land
lords lands on a properly worked out
plan. In other districts the peasants
have simply seized the land, and in
some place agrarian disorders have
broken out. Now all this tends to
show that in areas of mixed popula-
ton, where the policy of the Cars
government was directed toward turn
ing one race against another or sup
pressing one of them, the revolution
has developed much slower and with
greater difficulty than in province in
haD1CeQ by one race only
On the other hand, on account of
the mixed population here, there are
no complicated political problems for
the revolution to solve arising out OF
demands for federation and territor-
jaI autonomy for this or that race, as
have shown to be the case among
the Cossacks( Kirghiz and natives OF
central Asia. The Tartars of the Vol
ga provinces are everywhere mingled
with the Great Russian peasants, and
can nowhere form a solid mass pre-
tending to federal rights In the ALL
Russia Moslem Conference. held in
Moscow in May, the speakers for the
Volga Tartars openly denounced al
plans for political autonomy, and even
opposed it for their coreligionists fur
Their east While the Bashkir dele
gates from the southern Urals were
demanding territorial autonomy tt
protect their large land reserves, the
Volga Tartars put forward a modest
claim for cultural autonomy, and urg-
ed their eastern colleagues to go nc
further so as not to separate one Mos
lem people from another by artificial
political barriers. In fact, the circum'
stances under which the Volga Tar
tars are placed force them to take 6
more sober view of national problems
Moreover, in the practical steps they
have taken they have shown modera
ticn and wisdom.
At the second A1l-Russia Moslen
q Conference, held in Kazan last month
these Tartars passed a resolution il
n favor of national cultural autonomy
and proceeded to establish Tarta
= National Council at Ufa to work gu
a plan for primary education, for ;
Moslem university in Russia and TO
other cultural institutions upon a ma
o tional Tartar basis. But the Cypress
n ion of the Cars regime has left tn
n Tartars very poor in teachers an
v members of the academic professions
:. The Ufa council has therefore set t
a work to establish a teachers trainin
"a college to provide the necessary ba
sis for a whole net of Moslem primar
schools which are to be testablishe
70 all over the Volga provinces. Thu
the Tartars are clearly laying them
"a selves out to become the cultura
= leaders of the Moslem world in cen
~ trail and northern Asia.
In this connection it is interestin
a to examine the different currents c
Z political opinion now running anon
the Volga Tartars. 1 find that a Iarg
section of the young Tartars her
have come under the influence of tn
''Yeni Turan" movement. This,
may be remembered, began in TuI
I. kew few years before the outbrea
of the war, and indeed some of IL