Bashkir Embassies to the Russian Tsar, Seventeenth–Nineteenth Centuries: From Consensus to Ritual

Introduction. The history of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Russia is marked by the phenomenon of Bashkir embassies to the Tsar. Enthronements, consequences of uprisings were to be confirmed with corresponding government agreements. And in the nineteenth century, Bashkirs would become honored guests at coronations. Goals. The study aims to reveal how Bashkir-Tsar relations shifted from consensus to ritual throughout the seventeenth to late nineteenth centuries, how the deputations represented ethnic elites and the community at large, what changed their essentials and functions. Materials and methods. The work analyzes some related documents discovered at the Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts, Archive of Foreign Policy of the Russian Empire, National Archive of Bashkortostan, and reviews a variety of publications. The historical-genetic method proves most instrumental in considering the reasons for the emergence of Bashkir embassies to the Tsar, their transformation from discussing governance issues to demonstrating imperial unity. Results. The right of direct access to Tsar was a stipulation of the mid-sixteenth century Bashkir contractual subjection. However, the privilege was not directly associated with the voluntary accession since other ethnic groups had somewhat similar experiences. The Russian government concluded an agreement with the Bashkir as a semi-nomadic people that had no institutional elites authorized to make decisions for the entire community. This demanded repeated reviews of once achieved agreements with representatives of Bashkir clans through embassies to the Tsar. The strengthening of Russia’s military and administrative presence in Bashkir-inhabited territories made such coordination arrangements unnecessary. The 1740s construction of Orenburg Defense Line resulted in that Bashkir embassies to the court lost their original function only to turn into ritual visits of loyalty to be paid by newly appointed Bashkir executives. The canton system created elites of canton chiefs and Bashkir nobles directly subordinate to Orenburg Military Command. And the nineteenth-century integration processes filled the old form with a new content: henceforth Bashkir participants of coronation ceremonies were to demonstrate the Empire’s power and the unity of peoples under the Russian Tsar. Conclusions. According to the accession terms, Bashkirs — along with hereditary land ownership, freedom of religion, and local self-governance — received the privilege of direct appeal to the monarch. This was exercised in the form of Bashkir embassies throughout the seventeenth to late nineteenth centuries. The early-to-mid eighteenth century crisis between the Bashkir and Russian government was overcome by involving the former in border defense and changing communication patterns. Canton officials and Bashkir elites in Russian service were supposed to show the triumph of the Empire at coronations.

1. Ageeva O. G. Diplomatic Ceremonial in Eighteenth-Century Imperial Russia. Moscow: Novyi Khronograf, 2012. 891 p. (In Russ.)

2. Aznabaev B. A., Kortunov A. I. The problem of the subject in the contractual relations of the Bashkirs with the Russian state in the XVII – first third of the XVIII centuries. Bylye Gody. 2021. No. 16 (3). Pp. 1106–1115. (In Russ.) DOI: 10.13187/bg.2021.3.1106

3. Asfandiyarov A. Z. Bashkir Tarkhans. Ufa: Kitap, 2006. 160 p. (In Russ.)

4. Suleymanov A. (ed.) Written Qissas and Dastans (Bashkir Folklore 7). Ufa: Kitap, 2004. 624 p. (In Bash.)

5. Glinka S. N. Notes. Moscow: Zakharov, 2004. 464 p. (In Russ.)

6. Demidova N. F. Seventeenth-century Bashkir embassies to Moscow. In: Yurasov A. V. (comp.) From Ancient Rus’ to Modern Russia. Collected papers. Jubilee edition. Moscow: Nauka, 2003. Pp. 169–182. (In Russ.)

7. Dobrosmyslov A. I. Bashkir Rebellion of 1735, 1736 and 1737. Orenburg: F. Sachkov, 1900. 104 p. (In Russ.)

8. Gvozdikova I. M. et al. (comps.) Documents and Materials in Bashkir History, 1574–1798. Ufa: Institute of History, Language and Lite­rature (USC RAS), 2012. Vol. 3. 548 p. (In Russ.)

9. Ibneeva G. V. Imperial Policy of Catherine II and Her Majesty’s Travels. Moscow: Pamyatniki Istoricheskoy Mysli, 2009. 469 p. (In Russ.)

10. Ilyinsky N. S. Coronation of Russia’s Rulers: A Brief Historical Essay. Moscow: V. Abramov, 1883. 96 p. (In Russ.)

11. Iskhakov D. M. From Medieval to Modern Tatars, Fifteenth–Seventeenth Centuries: An Ethnological Perspective on the History of Volga-Ural Tatars. Kazan: Master Line, 1998. 276 p. (In Russ.)

12. Komarov V. V. In Memory of the Holy Coronation of Emperor Alexander III and Empress Maria Feodorovna. St. Petersburg: V. Komarov, 1883. 469 p. (In Russ.)

13. Kundakbaeva Zh. B. ‘By the Mercy of H. I. M. …’: Russia and Peoples of the Northern Caspian in the Eighteenth Century. Moscow: AIRO-XXI; St. Petersburg: D. Bulanin, 2005. 303 p. (In Russ.)

14. Chuloshnikov A. P. (ed.) Materials in the History of the Bashkir ASSR. Pt. 1: Bashkir Uprisings, Seventeenth to Mid-Eighteenth Centuries. Moscow, Leningrad: USSR Academy of Sciences, 1936. 631 p. (In Russ.)

15. Description of the Holy Coronation of Emperor Alexander III and Empress Maria Feodorovna. St. Petersburg: A. Benke, 1896. 32 p. (In Russ.)

16. Pochekaev R. Yu. Law of the Golden Horde. Kazan: Fän, 2009. 260 p. (In Russ.)

17. Rakhimov R. N. ‘Were in Moscow… Said to Represent Their People …’: Bashkir and Mishar foremen at the 1742 Coronation of Empress Elizaveta Petrovna. Yadkyar. 2001. No. 2. Pp. 34–43. (In Russ.)

18. Rakhimov R. N. In White Tsar’s Service: Military Service of Southeast Russia’s Asians, Eighteenth to Mid-Nineteenth Centuries. Moscow: Russian Institute for Strategic Studies, 2014. 544 p. (In Russ.)

19. Mankov A. G. (ed.) Russian Law in the Tenth to Twentieth Centuries. In 9 vols. Vol. 3: Acts of Zemsky Sobors. Moscow: Yuridicheskaya Literatura, 1985. 511 p. (In Russ.)

20. Svinyin P. Historical description of the holy coronation and confirmation of Emperor Nicholas Pavlovich and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna on 22 August 1826 in Moscow. Otechestvennye zapiski. 1827. Vol. 31. No. 89. Pp. 369–396. (In Russ.)

21. Solovyov K. A. Power in ancient and medieval Rus’: Evolution of legitimacy forms. Vestnik ekonomicheskoy bezopasnosti. 2017. No. 2. Pp. 162–164. (In Russ.)

22. Trepavlov V. V. ‘White Tsar’: The Monarch, His Image, and Visions of Allegiance among Russia’s Peoples, Fifteenth–Eighteenth Centuries. Moscow: Vostochnaya Literatura, 2007. 255 p. (In Russ.)

23. Trepavlov V. V. Symbols and Rituals in Russia’s Ethnic Policies, Sixteenth–Nineteenth Centuries. St. Petersburg: O. Abyshko, 2018. 320 p. (In Russ.)

24. Wortman R. S. Scenarios of Power: Myth and Ceremony in Russian Monarchy. Vol. 2: From Alexander II to the Abdication of Nicholas II. Moscow: OGI, 2004. 796 p. (In Russ.)

25. Firsov N. N. Khanate of Kazan and its non-Russian natives in modern Russia before 1762 and prior to the colonization of Transkama region. Uchenye zapiski Kazanskogo universiteta. 1871. Vol. 6. Pp. 297–401. (In Russ.)

26. Shapshal S. M. More on tarkhan jarliqs. In: Celebrating the 75th Birthday of Acad. Vla­dimir A. Gordlevsky. Collected papers. N. Baskakov (ed.). Moscow: USSR Academy of Sciences, 1953. Pp. 304–316. (In Russ.)

27. Schmitt C. The Concept of the Political. St. Petersburg: Nauka, 2016. 588 p. (In Russ.)