1. Case-study No. & Title:
No. 229. Creation in Bashkortostan (Russian Federation) of the Republican National-Cultural Centre of Kriashen (RNCCK) (Bakalinskiy district, Bakaly village) as the basis for establishing the national and cultural autonomy of the Kriashen people (1998-2000 and beyond).

Кeywords

2. Author information:
2.1. Author’s Name
Anatoliy Ivanov .

2.2. Institutional Affiliation and Contact Details:
Institute of Africa
Russian Academy of Sciences
Spiridonovka street 30/1
Moscow, 103001
Russia

Tel.: (095) 202-61-16

2.3. Date recorded
28/02/2001

3. Good Practice Information Sheet
3.1. Local Level Good Practice.
Creation in Bashkortostan of the Republican National-Cultural Centre of Kriashen (RRNCCKK) – an important step towards the rebirth of Kriashen ethnicity.

3.2. Location
Republic of Bashkortostan (RB), Bakalinskiy district, Bakaly village.

3.3. Minority/Target Groups
The Bakalinskiy Kriashen community.

3.4. Major Actors Involved.

3.5. Budget allocated by local government authorities and/or by other actors
The establishment of the RNCCK became possible thanks to financial support from the Republican and local level budgets, but also from voluntary contributions made by citizens, institutions, governmental departments, and public associations. The RNCCK now is also supported by a number of economic structures to which it is linked.

3.6. Timeframe
The initiative for the creation of the RNCCK started in the early 1990s. The Centres was officially established in January 1998.

3.7. Local level good practice relation to national level ethnic policy
The establishment of the RNCCK is a result of the pressure exerted by the Bakaly Kriashen territorial minority. Its realisation was made possible by the introduction of the Russian Federation Law "On national-cultural autonomies" and of the Republic of Bashkortostan law "On national-cultural associations in the Republic of Bashkortostan".

4. Good Practice Description
The Kriashen (self-name – «Kereshen») is a small Turkic-language people, divided into seven territorial sub-groups. Their culture and language are very similar to those of the Tartar. But unlike the Tartar, who are Moslems, the Kriashen are Orthodox Christians. They represent dispersed minorities, the majority of which (6 out of the 7 sub-groups) reside in the Republic of Tatarstan (RT).

Only one of 7 territorial Kriashen groups, the so-called Bakaly group, lives in Bashkortostan. In the Bakaly district there are 24 Kriashen-populated areas including the district centre – Bakaly, where there are 9,700 Kriashen (30% of the total Kriashen population in the Russian Federation, data from January 2001).

In spite of the fact that the Kriashen were administratively included as part of the Tatar nationality by the Bolshevik in 1923, they have not been assimilated in the course of about 80 years, and preserve their ethnic peculiarities, consciousness and culture. Currently the Kriashen demand the re-establishment of their ethnic name and their inclusion in the official list of nationalities as group distinct from the Tatar, this with a view to the next population census in 2002.

The district RNCCK, created in January 1998, today plays an important role in the consolidation of Kriashen in Bashkortostan and will continue to do so in the consolidation of the entire Kriashen "nation". Among the other Kriashen territorial groups, the Bakaly group stands out for its clear ethnic consciousness. That is why they proclaimed and realized the formation of the Centre as the institutional and organizational basis for obtaining national and cultural autonomy.

The RNCCK is the descendant and successor to the Bakaly ethnographic Kriashen society, established in 1989. According to its statute the Centre realizes and coordinates the scientific, methodological, educational, cultural and concert activities and also tackles the problems of the Kriashen culture and the rebirth of Kriashen decorative arts.

The Centre further has the right to promote and support its candidates in elections at various levels, and to present legislative proposals in the Republic of Bashkortostan. The Centre also took upon itself the defence of juridical and national-cultural rights of Kriashen; it cooperates closely with the Orthodox religious communities in relation to the problems of restoring the spiritualism, customs and rituals of the ancestors; in its care are some children’s homes, boarding houses for invalids and old people; it works actively to establish relations with other national-cultural associations within the country and abroad etc.

One of the most important spheres of activity is the support for Kriashen schools, of which there are 11 in the Bakaly district. School ethnographic museums have been just formed in 4 of them and there are now folk ensembles, circles and clubs of amateurs in 7 schools. At present a Bakaly ethnographic museum is under realization.

After its formation, the Centre organized a district Kriashen folk ensemble in Bakaly; and it gives regular financial and methodological support to amateur associations at schools and culture houses. The Centre regularly organizes festivals, concerts, national festivals (sabantuy), evenings of literature and music, exhibitions and fairs of national costumes, fine and applied arts presented by professional artists and amateurs.

Cultural and educational activities of the Centre are aimed at all Kriashens and realized in various districts densely populated by them, not only in RB, but also in RT, in Udmurtia (RU) and other regions.

As an important task the Centre proclaimed the creation of a net of local village centres in RB, in the districts with concentrated Kriashen population, the district and municipal sections of the RNCCK and in Bakaly district.

In February 2001 the RB government discussed the question of the formation of a Kriashen section of the historic-philological faculty of Bashkir State University, as well as the organisation in the Republican national museum of a permanent exposition dedicated to Kriashen history, ethnography and culture in Bashkortostan and the creation of a special associated publication in the Kriashen language.

The information regarding the RNCCK activities is published in the newspapers – "Bashkortostan news" (Ufa), "Rural dawns" (Bakaly) and "Kereshen suze" (Kriashens’ word) (Naberezhniye Chelny).

At the initiative of the RNCCK a number of other Centres were created in the Republic of Tatarstan (Naberezhniye Chelny), in the Republic of Udmurtia (Grahov district) and in the Chelyabinsk oblast (Nagaybak district). The first pan-Kriashen scientific-practical conference took place 6-7 December 2000 in Kazan. The event took place in the main church of the Kriashen orthodox community, Tikhvin. The conference was organized by the above-mentioned Centres, and conference topics included discussion of various aspects of Kriashen ethnicity, the history of their economic and everyday life, education, culture, and religious beliefs. The results of scientific studies of the Kriashen issue and of the activities of government authorities and public associations in relation to the rebirth, protection and development of the unique ethnic heritage of the Kriashen were also discussed.