Muslim Crimea in the Beginning of the 20th Century Between Obscurity, Pan-Turkism and Sovereignty

Abstract

In his article Anatoly Vyatkin distinguishes three main trends in the history of Muslim society in Russia's Crimea corresponding to three subsequent stages in the history of Crimean Tatar Muslim community under the tsarist rule and after its break-up. The initial period might be defined as that of non-existence or obscurity in the late 18^th through the late 19^th centuries. The second one related to Pan-Turkism and jadid activities of Ismail Bey Gasprinskii in the 1890s and the beginning of the 20^th century between the two Russian revolutions. The third period was that of sovereignty after 1917. Vyatkin concentrates on origins of Crimean Tatar nationalism and its political implications after the 1917 revolution and then under the German occupation. Weakness of liberal national movement, as Vyatkin argues, resulted in growth of radical nationalism of the Crimean Tatars who had failed to oppose to the Bolsheviks unity of all anti-Bolshevik forces. On the other hand, the end of German occupation made the problem of Crimean separatism as such irrelevant to any Russian political regime.