Crimean Tatars 91
the elegant folk costumes of the men's cherkeska, a caftan-like tight coat with cartridges across the chest, worn with a sheepskin hat, and the women's flowing gown with long, oblate false sleeves have spread throughout the Caucasus and have even been adopted by the neighboring Turkic and Slavic Cossack peoples as festive dress.
Finally, wood, usually a tree stump, is sculpted to produce a bust or totem-polelike representation of a god or heroic figure. For example, outside Maikop, in a children's playground on the edge of a wooded area there are several such figures—knight in armor, mushroom with a distorted face on its stem, and a totem-polelike representation of the god of the hunt, She-Batinuquo, with a wolf or dog sprouting from his right shoulder and an eagle soaring atop his head.
Science. The Circassians have produced a notable number of outstanding linguists, such as Z. I. Kerash(eva), G. V. Rogava, A. A. Hatan(ov), M. A. Kumakh(ov), and Z. Iu. Kumakh(ova), among others, who have helped establish literary norms Sfor their dialects by producing dictionaries and grammars while at the same time writing a wide range of theoretical articles. Prominent among native folklorists is A. M. Hadaghat'la, who has also written plays. Native archaeologists are making interesting finds on a steady basis, one of the latest ones being rich in gold and golden armor, along with fragments of what seem to have been an ancient Circassian script.
Medicine. Traditional medicine was the provenance of the women, who were highly esteemed for their skills and knowledge. Healing and medicinal springs were also prized; They were associated with a warrior princess, Amazan, "the Forest Mother" (the source of the Amazon myth), who was skilled in medicine and from whose blood the first healing spring arose.
Death and the Afterlife. After a life spent largely outdoors, Circassians viewed paradise as a comfortable, well-stocked room. The more virtuous the life led, the bigger and more sumptuous the room of eternity. It was said that the afterlife room of an evil man would be so small that he would not be able to turn over in it. From the Nart sagas, the realm of the dead appears to have been under the grave mound. The souls of the dead were guarded from supernatural depredations by a little old man and woman. Links with the dead were maintained by setting a place for them at the table for one full year after death. Feasts were held in their memory and toasts were offered to them by the t'hamata. A particularly illustrious warrior could serve as the head of a t'lawuzhe ("the successors to a man") and thereby be remembered by name even if his lineage did not achieve the status of a clan.
Bibliography
Akiner, Shirin (1986). Islamic Peoples of the Soviet Union: An Historical and Statistical Handbook. 2nd ed., 228-236. London: KPI.
Allen, W. E. D. (1962). "A Note on the Princely Families of Kabarda." Bedi Kartlisa, Revue de Kartvelologie 13-14:140-147.
Baddeley, John F. (1908). The Russian Conquest of the Caucasus. New York: Russell & Russell.
Bennigsen, Alexandre, and S. Enders Wimbush (1986). Muslims of the Soviet Empire: A Guide, 190-200. Bloom-ington: Indiana University Press.
Colarusso, John (1979). "Verbs that Inflect for Kinship: Grammatical and Cultural Analysis." Papiere zur Linguistik 20:37-66.
Colarusso, John (1984). "Epic, North Caucasian: The Narts." In The Modern Encyclopedia of Russian and Soviet Literatures, edited by Harry B. Weber. Vol. 7, 1-14. Gulf Breeze, Fla.: Academic International Press.
Colarusso, John (1991). "Circassian Repatriation." The World & I 11 (November): 656-669.
Geiger, Bernhard, Aert Kuipers, Tibor Halasi-Kun, and Karl H. Menges (1956). The Caucasus. Human Relations Area File. New York: Columbia University, Language and Communication Research Center.
Henze, Paul B. (1990). The North Caucasus: Russia's Long Struggle to Subdue the Circassians. Santa Monica, Calif.: Rand Corp.
Luzbetak, Louis J. (1951). Marriage and the Family in Caucasia. Vienna and Mödling: St. Gabriel's Mission Press.
Paris, Catherine (1974). "La Princesse Kahraman, Contes d'Anatolie en dialecte chapsough (tcherkesse occidental)." In Languages et civilizations a tradition oral. Vol. 8. Paris: Societe d'Etudes Linguistiques et Anthropologiques de France (SELAF).
Wixman, Ronald (1984). "Circassians." In The Muslim Peoples: A World Ethnographic Survey. 2nd ed., edited by Richard V. Weekes. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press.
JOHN COLARUSSO
Crimean Tatars
ETHNONYMS: Krymskie Tatary, K'rymtatarlar, Tavricheskie Tatary
Orientation
Identification. The Crimea had been settled by diverse Asian and European peoples for 2,500 years before becoming the ancestral homeland of the Crimean Tatars in the fourteenth century. Since then the ethnic mix has contin-
92   Crimean Tatars
ued to be notable. From the early fifteenth century, the Crimea was dominated by a Tatar Khanate ruled by the Giray family. Following the region's conquest by Russian armies in 1783, it was incorporated into the Russian Empire, eventually becoming part of Tavricheskaia Province (guberniia). As the civil war between Bolshevik and anti-Bolshevik forces wound down, the Crimea was designated the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic on 18 October 1921. Following the forced exile of nearly the entire Tatar population in May 1944, however, that status was abrogated and the region transferred to the administrative control of the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic (RSFSR) in 1946. In 1954 the Crimea became an oblast within the Ukrainian SSR. Tatar petitions for restoration of autonomous status and transferral of their homeland to the RSFSR once again were submitted to Communist party and state authorities in the last years of the Soviet Union. With most of the Crimean Tatars dispersed in Central Asia (principally in the Krasnodar region [Kherson Oblastl of Uzbekistan, in and around Tashkent) and still severely limited in their right to return home, their numbers in the Crimea account for less than 1 percent of the population, the bulk of which is made up of Russians and Ukrainians. By 1993, however, about 250,000 Crimean Tatars had returned to the Crimea and about 700,000 were living elsewhere in the former Soviet Union.
Location. The Crimea is a peninsula bounded on the north by the rest of Ukraine, on the east by the Sea of Azov, and on the south and west by the Black Sea. Its location is approximately 44° to 46° N and 32° to 38° E. Topographically the region is divided into three parts: the steppe lowland in the north, constituting little more than 75 percent of the peninsula, a range of foothills and low mountains to the south (about 20 percent), and a narrow coastal lowland along the Black Sea shore. Semiarid and treeless, the steppe lowland has a continental climate, with mild winters (mean January temperature is about 0° C) and hot summers (mean July temperature is about 23° C). Average annual rainfall is between 27 and 40 centimeters. Lower temperatures and higher precipitation distinguish the mountains from the surrounding regions. The southern shore, Mediterranean in climate and flora, has long been famous among tourists and spa seekers.
Demography. Beginning in 1946 the Crimean Tatars ceased to be officially recognized as a distinct ethnic group, instead being subsumed under a broader Tatar rubric. As a consequence, the best current demographic information results largely from informal surveys conducted by the Crimean Tatars themselves and statistical extrapolations yielding gross approximations of between 1.1 and 1.3 million. Better figures were expected from the 1989 census, which restored "Crimean Tatar" to the list of nationalities, but a preliminary total from unpublished data of only 268,739 Crimean Tatars suggests that the demographic situation remains confused.
Linguistic Affiliation. Crimean Tatars speak a language of their own (Crimean Tatar) that survived Soviet political assault for forty-five years. It is part of the Kipchak Branch of the Turkic Family, with significant influences from Anatolian (Ottoman) Turkish, itself belonging to the Oghuz Branch. The Turkic languages are, in turn, part of the
larger Uralo-Altaic community of languages. Until 1928 Crimean Tatar was written with the Arabic script; in that year the Arabic script was replaced by the Latin, which was in turn replaced by the Cyrillic in 1938-1939. Today Crimean Tatar intellectuals, in their literary journal Yildiz, are fostering a revival of the Arabic script both as a gesture of ethnic independence and as a vehicle for reading the rich corpus of literary treasures that their culture has produced. Some debate has also ensued over the "purity" of the language (i.e., the appropriateness of inclusion of foreign words) and its orthography in Cyrillic.
History and Cultural Relations
The Crimean Tatars are culturally linked to the western Turkic group that includes the Ottoman Turks and the Azerbaijanis. They entered the historical record as "Tatars" in the aftermath of the Mongol conquest of the Crimean Peninsula and surrounding territory in the mid-thirteenth century. By the 1440s they had succeeded in establishing their own state, the Crimean Khanate, albeit under Ottoman hegemony from 1475. The khanate survived until the Russian conquest and incorporation of its territory in 1783. The reigning Russian monarch, Catherine II, sought to develop the Crimea by providing incentives for thousands of foreign agriculturalists (most of them Germans) and other skilled people to settle the region. Much of the peninsula's farmland, abandoned by Tatars who opted to emigrate in periodic waves that may have eventually totaled 1 million by the end of the nineteenth century, was turned over to European immigrants or distributed to privileged Russians who brought serfs from the empire's inner provinces for labor. Under the czars, economic exploitation, social discrimination, and cultural imperialism weighed heavily on the Tatars who did not emigrate and gave rise by the end of the nineteenth century to nationalist aspirations.
Those sentiments were only partially fulfilled under the Soviet system during the 1920s and were subsequently repressed brutally, along with much of the Tatar intelligentsia, in the 1930s with Stalin's rise to preeminence. The crushing blow occurred in 1944 when, despite the service of large numbers of men in the Red Army and in anti-Nazi partisan units, the entire Crimean Tatar people was falsely accused of collaboration with the Nazis and deported to Central Asia and the southern Ural Mountains. This forced exile may have cost the lives of one-half of the Tatar population. Those who survived not only lost their homeland and much of their property but were subjected to special, and exceedingly restrictive, regulations governing their economic, educational, and cultural opportunities. In effect, they were denied any public identity. Since the mid-1950s the Crimean Tatars have waged a relentless campaign for the restoration of their former rights, including the right to return to the Crimea.
In recent decades the Crimean Tatars have been remarkably active as a dissident minority, although they have carefully avoided taking steps that might antagonize the Central Asian populations among whom they have involuntarily lived for over four decades. Efforts to return to the Crimea in large numbers hold the potential for difficulties with the large Russian and Ukrainian communities that now dominate the region.
Crimean Tatars 93
Settlements
Since their forced resettlement in Central Asia and adjacent regions, the Crimean Tatars have been primarily an urban people engaged overwhelmingly in industrial work. In the Crimea, they traditionally had been mainly agriculturalists (and, to a lesser degree, pastoralists), residing in small villages (typically less than thirty households at the beginning of the nineteenth century, dropping to even lower averages as the century progressed). The Crimea today has fifteen cities and over fifty towns, with nearly 70 percent of the population classified as urban.
Economy
Subsistence and Commercial Activities. Under the czars, the Crimean Tatars concentrated their economic activity in animal husbandry, vegetable farming, and orcharding, but some began to plant grain (especially wheat) in the north, whereas others took up viticulture and tobacco growing in the south. Food production remains the main economic activity in the Crimea today, and presumably the Tatars would be quite involved had their recent history been more normal.
Industrial Arts. Some engage in part-time craft work, to a significant degree as part of the larger effort to preserve traditional culture in the face of tremendous official hostility.
Trade. Within the Central Asian environment particularly, some open-air marketing takes place.
Division of Labor. Both Turkic and Islamic traditions have shaped the division of labor along gender lines typical of premodern societies, although restrictions on female activity had something to do with socioeconomic status as well. Thus veiling was largely limited to women of means who did not have to work in public. Emancipation of women was increasingly encouraged by Tatar reformers beginning in the second half of the nineteenth century and was further supported by certain features of Bolshevik ideology and practical policy since 1917, although social practice lags behind in the workplace and, in particular, in family relations.
Land Tenure. Under the czars, Crimean Tatars were one of the few groups not to experience serfdom directly, and, despite difficulties in retaining control of land for economic reasons during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, many held land privately or collectively through their villages. With the collectivization of Soviet agriculture by the early 1930s, however, private ownership of land ceased to be possible, and Tatar farmers became employees of the state, as did all other Soviet peasants. The laws regarding land tenure and usage are currently in a state of flux, with the current tendency toward restoring private rights and opportunities.
Kinship, Marriage, and Family
The most important kinship group in Tatar history has been the family. Under the khanate the family was extended and patrilocal, with great clans dominating society. The power of the clans was severely diminished following the Russian conquest, but they continued to enjoy social
prominence as a reward for service to the Russian government. Although no systematic study has been done of the social and familial consequences of the repeated waves of mass emigration, the evidence indicates that they weakened the extended character of Tatar families. Interestingly, the family has been rendered all the more socially significant since 1944 because of Soviet policies that have done little to support the cultural and social identity of the Crimean Tatars. The family has been the preserver of group memory, cultural legacy, and language. Since the Tatars have not been the subject of statistical or socioanthropo-logical examination for nearly half a century, information relating to the whole range of kinship and familial practices and concerns is unavailable. They are, however, one of the most endogamous peoples in the former USSR, with up to 91 percent of those who marry doing so within the group.
Sociopolitical Organization
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was divided administratively into sixteen republics, each with a hierarchy of subdivisions, some of which were designated autonomous republics or districts, as the Crimea once was. Being an oblast within the Ukrainian SSR, the Crimea was the responsibility of the republic's party and state apparatus.
Social Organization. During the period of the Crimean Khanate, social organization hinged largely on the preeminence, at first, of five great clans—the Giray, Sirin, Argin, Barin, and Kipcak—and, later, two others—Mansur Oglans and Sicuvuts—that held virtual hereditary possession of the vast majority of productive lands in the peninsula and economic and political authority over most of the population and the military forces. Below these clans were others that formed the Tatar aristocracy (mirxas), members of which may have been genealogically linked to the larger clans. Most of the Crimean Tatars were free peasants (protected in their rights by Islamic law) or herdsmen. Members of the traditional aristocracy as well as some other enterprising persons who did not emigrate following the Russian conquest were able to retain or acquire noble status through service within the imperial bureaucracy or military. A classless society in theory, the USSR nevertheless developed a class structure, based largely on access to Communist party and government apparatuses. Typically the Crimean Tatars would have experienced this no differently than other Soviet ethnic groups; however, owing to the dissident stance they have collectively taken for the past several decades, they have not shared in the benefits that the system provided. Though not necessarily anti-Soviet, they were generally indifferent to the social organization around them. For them, status increasingly is associated with contribution to the ethnic cause.
Political Organization. The political organization of the former Soviet Union is in flux, with reforms affecting not only the traditional administrative and controlling institutions but generating new ones and new political procedures at all levels. As part of Tatar efforts to force redress of long-standing grievances and as a reflection of their dissi-dence, the Tatars have forged their own organizations (commonly called "initiative groups") that, because of their purposes, have functioned in quasi-political ways.
94   Crimean Tatars
Social Control. Soviet ideology, particularly as institutionalized during the Stalinist era, had been the key in promoting intellectual and social uniformity and, it was assumed, ensuring not only the resolution but the elimination of social conflict. Authorities in the late Soviet era more readily admitted, however, that the apparent social harmony was to a large degree a fiction generated by the extraordinary insistence on conformity. For decades, widespread fear of frequently abused official power virtually stilled public opinion. Challenging this fundamental feature of Soviet society since the late 1950s, the Crimean Tatars struggled to generate and influence public opinion regarding their plight.
Conflict. Interethnic tensions between Tatars and other peoples of the former Soviet Union have been muted but may increase as Tatars if allowed in large numbers to resettle their homeland.
Religion and Expressive Culture
Religious Beliefs and Practices. The principal religion of the Crimean Tatars is Islam, and as Muslims they are Sunnis of the Hanafi school. Founded in the eighth century by abu-Hanafa and being one of the four approaches to Islamic jurisprudence—differing by emphasizing secondary principles determining law, after the Quran—the Hanafi school is more liberal than the others in its insistence on the right of juridical speculation, particularly analogical deduction. Almost one-half of all Muslims adhere to this school. Its traditional center was the Ottoman Empire, with which the Crimean Tatars were closely tied. During the history of the khanate, religion and culture were intimately linked, not an atypical relationship within an Islamic society.
At the time of the Russian conquest, a survey revealed 1,542 mosques, 25 madrassas (higher schools of theology), and 35 maktabs (primary schools) scattered about the peninsula. Following the peninsula's incorporation into the Russian Empire, these numbers declined precipitously, along with the reduction of the population resulting from emigration. The Muslim clergy were brought within the Russian bureaucratic structure and granted salaries. Until the early twentieth century, the status of the Islamic religion among Crimean Tatars was low and subject to frequent criticism, although calls for reform were beginning to have their effect. Not long after the October Revolution, the militant atheism of Bolshevik ideology, coupled with Soviet power, virtually eliminated all public practice of the faith (there are no mosques for the Tatar population), but it was never able to root out the sociocultural influences of Islam affecting the private rites of birth, marriage, and death. When out of necessity during World War II Stalin's regime conceded some official organization to Soviet Muslims, Crimean Tatars were placed nominally under the Spiritual Directorate of Central Asia and Kazakhstan. More recently, demands for restoration of religious rights have been made to the authorities, including reestablish-ment of a separate directorate for Crimean Tatars alone; in addition, appeals for support from Muslims abroad have been issued, suggesting a turn to religion as an alternative to the uninspiring dicta of Marxism-Leninism. The influence of Islam finds current expression in the practice of
circumcision as well as in the exercise of religious rites associated with marriage and burial. Fasting during the month of Ramadan is observed, although how widely is not clear, and at least some applications for travel visas to perform the hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca) have been made.
Arts. Tatar culture has a rich tradition of oral and written poetry, chronicle prose, music, and visual arts drawn from Turkic roots as well as the Arabo-Persian sources of Islam. In the sixteenth century, for example, a whole school of poetry, much influenced by contemporary Ottoman poetry, evolved around the alim Kefevi Alshayh Abu Bakr Efendi. Although examples of written literature from the pre-1783 centuries do not abound, a number of historical chronicles have survived, including Tarih-i Sahib Giray, Tevarih Dest-i Kipcak, Ucuncu Islam Giray Khan Tarihi, and the most useful for Tatar history and culture, Asseb' O'sseiiar'. Traditional Tatar folk music was typically Turkic in composition and instrumentation, with the most prominent instruments being the zurna (flute), tulup-zurna (a kind of bagpipe), varieties of dumbelek (drums), as well as string devices such as the kemanche (played with a bow), the santyr (struck with hammers), and the saz (plucked).
Tatar literate culture suffered immensely in consequence of the Russian conquest until its revival was inspired by Ismail Bey Gasprinskii, a Tatar social critic and reformer, beginning in the late 1870s. A pioneer of the Turkic-language press in the Russian Empire, Gasprinskii published Tercuman, perhaps the most famous and influential newspaper in the Turkic world from 1883 until Gasprinskii's death in 1914. On its pages he articulated a program that advocated secularization of culture, fundamental reform of education, language reform, economic development, emancipation of women, and a transformation of social attitudes, all along modern lines. In the process he fostered literary creativity not only among his own Crimean Tatars but within the larger Turkic world. Among those of his compatriots who rose to prominence writing belles lettres as well as didactic prose and poetry by the turn of the twentieth century were Abdurreshid Mediev, Osman Akchokrakly, Bekir Emek, Ali Bodaninskii, Hasan Sabri Aivazov, Ismail Lemanov, and Husein Shamil Tok-targazy. The peak of creativity came in the 1920s just as the Soviet regime began cracking down on independent cultural activity. The easing of such restraints in the late 1980s has produced an outpouring in Crimean Tatar expressive culture, one of the most important vehicles for which is the literary journal Yildiz-
Medicine. Despite limitations on the delivery of health care in the Soviet Union, the country is generally modern in its health facilities, and Tatars have full access to those facilities.
Death and Afterlife. There have been no studies of Tatar attitudes toward death and afterlife, although traditionally their Islamic faith would have instilled in them beliefs in the continued existence of the soul after the death of the body and in the soul enjoying the rewards of heaven for a righteous life or the pains of hell as punishment for sin.
J 62 Karachays
Karachay way of life. Today only the tradition of making decorated felt remains. Karachay folklore is diverse and in' eludes the Nart epics (shared with neighboring tribes), tales, riddles, proverbs, and sayings. There is a genre of didactic poetry known as algish: in ancient times it functioned as a hymn to the god Teyri, but with time became part of the wedding ritual (the ritual of unveiling the bride in the presence of her parents-in-law). There are also several types of songs: work songs, prayers (for example appeals to Apsati for a successful hunt), and the song of Inai to accompany the beating of felt. Epic songs recounted events in Karachay history, such as the struggle against the Crimean khan, Abazin-Kyzylbek raids, and the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878.
Medicine. Magical techniques included various spells and rituals, but also more "rational" means such as herbal remedies. Dislocations and breaks were set with bone splints. Ayran was considered a remedy for burns, upset stomach, poisonous stings, and leprosy.
Death and Burial. The effendi would be invited to read the Quran to a dying person. The deceased was covered with a white covering from head to foot and transported from his or her bed on a large piece of felt. News of the death was circulated by a "harbinger of sorrow." Within the village everyone put aside their work and went to the home of the deceased to express their condolences and participate in the funeral. The women wept loudly, keened, tore their clothing, and scratched their faces. The body, wrapped in a felt coat or piece of felt, was carried on a special stretcher to the patronymic cemetery (the privileged classes practiced burial in vaults). If possible the burial occurred on the day of death, before sundown. Six or seven days later the first funeral repast was held, with another on the fifty-second day and then another a year after death. Mourners wore black and men let their beards grow for a year.
Bibliography
Akiner, Shirin (1986). Islamic Peoples of the Soviet Union: An Historical and Statistical Handbook. 2nd ed., 202-207. London: KPI.
Bennigsen, Alexandre, and S. Enders Wimbush (1986). Muslims of the Soviet Empire: A Guide, 201-204. Bloom-ington: Indiana University Press.
Borovkov, A. (1932). "Karachaevo-balkarskii iazyk" (The Karachay-Balkar language), lafeticheskii Sbornik (Leningrad) 7.
Lavrov, L. I. (1969). "Karachai i Balkariia do 30-x godov XIX veka" (Karachay and Balkaria up to the 1830s). Kav-kaz$kii Etnograficheskii Sbornik (Moscow and Leningrad) 4.
Tekeev, K. M. (1989). Karachaevtsy i Balkartsy (The Karachays and Balkars). Moscow.
NATALIA G. VOLKOVA (Translated by Paul Friedrich and Jane Omrod)
ETHNONYMS: Ba'ale Mikra, Binei Mikra, Karaim Orientation
Identification. Karaites or Karaim are followers of non-Talmudic Judaism and thus are distinct from rabbinic Jews such as the Ashkenazim. Karaites adhere to the Torah and Pentateuch, the books of the Prophets, and the Writings— and exclude the Talmud, the post-Torah rabbinical commentary, which is accepted by other Jews. In Russia today, the few remaining Karaites live principally in cities.
Demography. It is virtually impossible to estimate the number of Karaites at the time of their appearance in the region of the former USSR. By the end of the eighteenth century the number of Karaites was approximately 3,800. During the course of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries there were significant migrations. Many Karaites returned from Galicia and Volynia to the Crimea. In Crimea, Karaites moved from the mountains to the coast, primarily to Yevpatoria and Feodosia. As a result, the ancient Karaite center of Mangul was deserted and the population of Chufut-Kale declined significantly. At the same time Karaites were migrating from the Crimea to other Black Sea cities (Odessa, Nikolaev, Kherson) as well as to Moscow and St. Petersburg.
In the mid-1840s the number of Karaites reached approximately 6,000. The principal center was Yevpatoria, with a Karaite population of 2,000. At the end of the 1870s there were 10,000 Karaites, and by the beginning of the twentieth century the Karaite population was around 12,800, 90 percent of whom lived in cities.
As a result of the Revolution, the number of Karaites at the beginning of the 1920s declined to 12,400, and by the beginning of World War II there were less than 12,000. In 1937, according to Karaite tradition, 483 Karaite families were relocated from the Crimea to Lithuania. Because of World War II and assimilation, at the end of the 1940s about 7,000 Karaites lived in the USSR, and another several thousand lived in Poland and other countries. The 1959 Soviet census records 5,700 Karaites; the 1970 census shows 4,600; and the 1979 census only 3,300. At the present time, the number of Karaites in Russia is no more than 2,000 to 2,500. Several thousand East European Karaites live elsewhere in Europe and the United States. There is also a Karaite community of as many as 25,000 of Middle Eastern origin in Israel and a remnant population in Egypt.
Linguistic Affiliation. Karaites in the former USSR speak Karaite, one of the languages of the Turkic Group, in three dialects: Crimean, Halicz-Lutsk, and Trakai. Of the contemporary Turkic languages, Karaite is closest to the Crimean Tatar language. Before the 1917 October Revolution, Karaites used Hebrew as a written language, which at the end of the nineteenth century began to be replaced by Russian, and in the 1920s and the 1930s by Polish and Lithuanian. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries attempts were made to create a written Karaite literary language based on the Hebrew alphabet, which was
Karaites 163
later replaced by the Russian alphabet in Russia and by the Latin alphabet in Poland. Use of the written Karaite language, however, was never widespread. At present, most Karaites consider Russian their native language, and only 15 percent of Karaites, the overwhelming majority of whom are older people, continue to speak Karaite.
History and Cultural Relations
The origin of the Karaites is not clear. In one widely accepted view, the Karaite sect of Judaism is believed to have been founded by Anan ben David in Baghdad at the beginning of the eighth century. The teachings of ben David were directed against the influence of the Talmud and found many adherents among the Jewish population of Babylonia. The original followers of the sect called themselves Ananites; they were joined by followers of other Jewish sects. In the ninth and tenth centuries the new teachings were consolidated, and the sect began to be called Karaite. Followers of Karaitism actively proselytized their teachings among Jews of the Near East, and soon followers appeared in Palestine and other parts of the Middle East as well as in Europe, as far as Spain, where, however, their presence was brief.
In the twelfth century Karaites settled in the Byzantine Empire, from which some migrated to the Crimea. The presence of Karaites in the ancient capital of the Crimean Khanate, Solkhat (now Stary Krym), in the fourteenth century is documented, although the Karaite influence was observed earlier. For instance, the twelfth-century Jewish traveler Pethahiah of Regensburg met members of a sect similar to the Karaites in the southern Russian steppes, populated at that time by Turkish nomads. Karaites settled throughout the Crimean Peninsula, and Chufut-Kale (also called Sela Yehudin, "Jewish Cliff), Mangul, Feodosia, and Yerpatoria also became major centers of the Karaite community.
Tradition has it that in 1392, after a successful march into the Crimea, Crown Prince Vitovt of Lithuania settled several hundred Karaites in his state, in Trok (now Trakai, near Vilnius), Lutsk, Halicz, and Krasny Ostrov (called by Karaites Kukizov, near Lvov). Karaites later appeared in other cities of Lithuania, Podolia, and Volyn' (Panevezhes, Sauliai, Derazhnia, and others).
Legal rights of Karaites in the Polish-Lithuanian Kingdom and in the Crimean Khanate did not differ from the rights of other Jews. Both communities had the same rights, bore the same responsibilities, and paid the same taxes—equal to those collected from the surrounding populations—or special Jewish taxes. The treatment of Karaites and Jews at this time was similar. For example, in 1495, Karaites, along with Talmudic Jews, were exiled from Lithuania, returning in 1503. At the time of the Bogdan Khmelnitsky pogroms of 1648, many Karaites were killed along with other Jews. In 1679, in the village of Shaty, near Trok, Karaites were accused of the ritual murder of a Christian child. As a result of the help of other Jews, the case was dismissed in 1680 and the Karaites escaped undeserved punishment. This similar treatment led to the establishment of friendly relations between the communities before the conquest of the Crimea and Poland by Russia at the end of the eighteenth century.
After their settlement in the Crimea, under Tartar rule, the intellectual life of the Karaites effectively ceased. Only after the resettlement of part of the community in the Polish-Lithuanian State, where they came into contact with European civilization and with Ashkenazi Jews, did a spiritual reawakening of Karaitism begin. First, liturgical works were translated into Karaite. Later, in the fifteenth century, Karaites of Lutsk and Trok entered into correspondence with the reknowned Karaite scholar Elijah Bashyazi of Constantinople, and some became his students.
A significant number of Karaite scholars appeared among the Karaites in Trok in the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. These included Joseph Malinovsky, Zerah ben Nathan, Shlomo Troki, and Abraham ben Joshua. The best known of them, Isaac ben Abraham Troki (1533— 1594), wrote a polemical anti-Christian work, "Hizzuk Emuna" (The Strengthening of Faith) in 1593, first issued in Latin translation under the title "Tela ignea Satanae" in 1681. This work became widely known among Christians, who published many refutations.
Under the influence the Karaites of Trok, intellectual activity grew among the Karaites in Lutsk and Galich. In 1699 Mordechai ben Nisan Kukizov wrote two treatises on Karaitism. His relative, Joseph ben Samuel ha-Mashbiz, the author of many theological works, became a hakham (pi., hakhamim; wise one, the community leader) of Halicz and laid the foundations for an entire dynasty of hakhamim and hazzanim (religious leaders).
Beginning in the second half of the eighteenth century, an active intellectual life arose among the Karaites of the Crimea, associated with the arrival of a group of scholars from Lutsk. Notwithstanding the existence of a large number of scholars among these Karaites, however, there was a noticeable shortage of hakhamim and hazzanim, as well as of teachers (melanmedim), in their communities.
Lithuania was conquered by Russia in 1783, and the Crimea in 1793; the majority of Karaites fell under Russian rule and, together with the rest of the large Jewish population, were placed under special restrictions. At first these laws applied equally to the Karaites, whom the Russians considered Jews. But in 1795 Empress Katherine II of Russia issued a decree that the double tax not be imposed on the Karaites, and, furthermore, that they be allowed to purchase land. For the first time in history, Karaites and Jews were distinguished under law. The schism was deepened by a ban on conversion of Talmudic Jews to Karaitism.
The policy of distinguishing Jews from Karaites continued into the reign of Czar Nicholas I. In 1827, the Crimean Karaites, and in 1828, the Lithuanian and Galician-Lutsk, were exempted from the military service, which was mandatory for Jews. Further, the Karaites received certain privileges, such as permission to hire Christian servants, receive Russian citizenship on the same grounds as others, and swear their own oath in court, all of which further distanced them from rabbanic Jews. In 1809 Karaites came into open conflict with Talmudic Jews; they demanded that the authorities evict the Talmudists from Trok, maintaining that they were illegal residents. This demand was refused, but in 1822 the Karaites again applied to the administration with the same request, and in 1835 it was granted. The support by the Government Council of the
164 Karaites
Karaites' right to reside in any part of the Russian Empire was an important event, as it freed them from required residence in the Jewish Pale of Settlement. The long battle by the Karaites for equal rights ended in 1863, when the Government Council decreed that "Karaites under the jurisdiction of the common laws of the Empire have the same rights alloted to Russian subjects, contingent on their property and monetary holdings." The only limitation was the ban on Karaites taking people of other religions into their community. The Karaites also succeeded in having their official name changed from "Karaite Jews" to "Russian Karaites of Old Testament Faith," and later to simply "Karaites." In practice, however, many points of the new law were not followed. In 1875 Karaites applied to the Minister of Internal Affairs with a petition to order the administration not to call the Karaites "Jews" and not to apply to Karaites laws that were meant for Jews.
A special contribution to the struggle for equal rights for Karaites, as well as to the collection of Jewish and Karaite documents and manuscripts and their study, was made by Abraham ben Samuel Firkovich early in the twentieth century. Firkovich assembled one of the largest collections of Jewish manuscripts in the world during his travels in Egypt, Palestine, Syria, the Crimea, and the Caucasus. He also published a collection of inscriptions from an ancient Karaite cemetery at Chufut-Kala. On the basis of property inscriptions in manuscripts and dates on gravestones, Firkovich asserted that Karaites settled in the Crimea several centuries before the birth of Jesus Christ and thus carried no responsibility for his crucifixion. Later, he argued for a link between the Karaite faith and that of the Khazars (a Turkic people), who adopted Judaism in the eighth century. Firkovich asserted that Karaites, as non-Talmudic believers and as descendants of the Khazars, were entitled to different treatment than Jews. Although some scholars, contemporaries of Firkovich, noticed quite a few forgeries among the manuscripts that he discovered and on the gravestones, the "Khazar theory" of the Karaites' descent found a place in literature and persists, despite the strong skepticism of some scholars.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, the production of Hebrew-language literature and science in the Karaite community ended. A few of the Karaite intelligentsia tried to develop Karaite literature in the Russian language, through printed publications such as Karaite Life and The Karaite Word, which appeared in 1911 and 1913 respectively, but these efforts were short-lived. At the same time, a secular literature in the Karaite language appeared, represented by the works of S. Kobetsky, A. Novitsky, and Z. Abramovich.
After the 1917 Russian Revolution, a significant part of the Karaite bourgeoisie emigrated from the country. There was a second wave of emigration in 1920-1921, motivated by the famine in the Crimea and the Ukraine, which led to the resettlement of many Karaites in central regions of the country. The overwhelming majority of Karaites who emigrated settled in Poland, Turkey, France, Romania, Bulgaria, Egypt, Latvia, and the United States. As a result of Poland's independence, Trok and Galitsko-Lutsk Karaites became citizens of Poland. When Soviet troops occupied the Baltic states and the eastern regions of Poland in 1939, however, they, along with the Crimean
Karaites, became residents of the USSR. The Soviet government recognized the Karaite people in 1932, and later they were officially designated the Karaite nationality.
Karaite literature flourished in the 1920s in the old Karaite centers of Poland, and with it came an ethnic revival. Through the efforts of hazzan Samuel Firkowicz, Karaite youth in Trok studied in their own school, and their knowledge of the Karaite language was significantly greater than that of the older generation. Firkowicz himself worked for the revival of the Karaite language, writing poetry and doing verse translations in Karaite.
After the Nazis came to power in Germany and the swift rise in anti-Semitism there, Karaites tried to prove their non-Jewish ancestry. In January of 1939 the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Germany noted in a special resolution that Karaites did not belong to the Jewish religious community and that their "racial psychology" was not Jewish. As a result, the Karaites were not persecuted during World War II. In 1942 the Nazis questioned three Jewish scholars, M. Balaban, Z. Kalmanowicz, and I. Schiffer, as to the descent of the Karaites. Understanding the mortal implications of this for the Karaites, all three affirmed the non-Jewish ancestry of the Karaites. In the same year, however, the Karaite populations of Krasnodar and Novoros-siisk were killed "by mistake" along with the Talmudic Jews.
After the war Karaites quickly began to assimilate. Many moved to the large cities, where they no longer formed communities and practically all of the younger generation spoke only Russian. The Khazar ancestry of the Karaites had become firmly entrenched in Soviet ideology. All attempts to refute this "theory" or make reference to a relation between Karaites and Jews met with furious resistance on the part of Karaite scholars. On the other hand, many Karaites, often secretly, continued to consider themselves Jews. Karaite culture in the contemporary Soviet Union has practically ceased to exist, with the exception of a small Karaite museum in Trakae.
Economy
During the Middle Ages and afterward, Karaites were principally engaged in trade. They facilitated the development of trade between Poland and Turkey, and their trade routes stretched from the Podolsko-Volynia lands and Lithuania to the Crimea, to Constantinople, and to the Near East. In the nineteenth century a few businessmen among the Karaite traders founded companies in Odessa and Petersburg and became leaders in international trade. Besides merchants, there were a significant number of farmers among the Karaites who cultivated gardens and orchards and were particularly successful with crops that were brought from the Crimea and were new to Lithuania. By the nineteenth century there were a fair number of educated Karaites who became doctors, lawyers, and scholars. In the 1930s Karaites ceased almost entirely to work in agriculture. At the same time, the number obtaining a university education rose significantly. After World War II Karaites abandoned their traditional occupations, taking up professional careers in engineering, medicine, education, music, and the like.
Clothing. Traditional Karaite dress was similar to Tatar dress. In Poland Karaites wore European-style clothing. An
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indispensable object of masculine attire was the small Kolpak hat. Hakhamim wore high hats, Klobuk, and large gowns (djubbe). Wide pants were included in both women's and men's costumes.
Food. The Karaite kitchen was constructed according to the laws of kashrut, as were the kitchens of Talmudic Jews. Karaite cooking was subject to a strong Turkish influence, however. For example, Karaites prepared katlama (a cheese cake consisting of several layers), tutmac (a kind of macaroni), umach (dumplings), and other dishes.
Kinship, Marriage, and Family
Until the twentieth century, matrilocal and neolocal residence were the norm; that is, after marriage, the young couple lived with the parents of the bride or started a new household. Now nuclear families are the norm. The dominant figure in a family was the father. Karaites did have customary levirate marriage, though, as a rule, it was avoided by a ritual freeing of the parties from the obligation. Marriages were strictly monogamous. Divorces were prohibited. The parents of the groom, having chosen a bride, sent a matchmaker to her home. Upon agreement of both sides, a day was selected for the betrothal. After the betrothal, a date was set for the wedding, which might take place much later. The groom and his parents were expected to bring a bride-price (kalym) for the bride. The bride brought a dowry, which was registered on the marriage document (chuppa yazysy), into the groom's home. The marriage was performed under a canopy (chuppa) in the presence of a clergyman and relatives on both sides.
Sociopolitical Organization
The leader of a Karaite community was the hakham. The house of prayer, called a kinessa, was headed by two hazzanim who had a helper [shamash). Religious schools (midrash), operated in the communities. Before the 1917 Revolution, Karaite communities were managed by the Karaite religious governing body (formed in 1837), and by the Trok governing body, which split off from it in 1863. After the Revolution the majority of the Karaite community in Soviet Russia was destroyed. In Poland an organized Karaite life still existed in the period between the world wars. At the present time there is a kinessa at Trok, in which about twenty believers assemble at major holidays.
Religion
Religious Beliefs. Education of Karaites was based on literal study and understanding of the Torah (Bible). All religious laws were derived from Torah text, from the meaning of words and the context. Karaites deny the divine origin of the Talmud (commentaries on religious belief and law), considering it the product of a folk tradition and appealing to this tradition only in cases where the Torah is unclear or inadequate. In some cases, however, Karaites accept the decisions of rabbinic Talmudists. Over the course of many centuries Karaitism has evolved its own version of a Halachah, or religious code, formerly a code of separate rules, opinions, and decisions. The systematization of this code occurred at the end of the fifteenth century.
Religious Practices. The Karaite calendar is lunar. The celebration of the New Year can fall on any day of the week, and thus the beginnings of many holidays may not always coincide with the Jewish calendar. Unlike rabbinic Jews, Karaites celebrate Passover and Sukkoth for seven days rather than eight, observe no fast before Purim, and do not celebrate Hanukkah as a holiday. Karaites have greater prohibitions regarding work on Saturdays, stricter rules about butchering cattle, and use the meat only of animals indicated in the Bible. As among Jews, circumcision of boys is performed on the eighth day after birth. Karaite liturgy is significantly different from that of rabbinic Jews. Their prayers consist of Biblical texts, psalms, and their own liturgical poetry. Karaitism is in essence a sect of Judaism—beliefs and practices do not go outside the framework of Judaism.
Bibliography
Mann, Jacob, ed. (1935). Texts and Studies in Jewish History and Literature. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society.
Nemoy, Leonard (1952). Karaite Anthology: Excerpts from the Early Literature. New Haven: Yale University Press.
IGOR KOTLER (Translated by Dale Pesmen)
Karakalpaks
ETHNONYMS: Kalpaks, Karalpaks; Russian names: Cher-nyye klobuki, Karakalpaki
Orientation
Identification. Karakalpaks speak a Central Turkic language, live primarily in the Turanian (Aral Sea) Basin of Central Asia, and are by tradition Sunni Muslims of the Hanafi school. "Karakalpak" means "black hat" and identifies the former Soviet republic (ASSR) of the people of the same name.
Location. The Karakalpak Republic is an amalgamation of the old Khivan Khanate (1811-1920) and the Khorezm People's Republic of the early 1930s, makes up the eastern third of the Uzbek Republic, and is located between 41° and 46° N and 55° and 62° E. The Karakalpak people are heavily concentrated in Uzbekistan (98 percent), with most (93 percent) being located in the delta country of the Amu Darya (Oxus River). Their homeland includes sections of both the Kyzyl Kum (Red Desert) and Kara Kum (Black Desert). The region is extremely arid, rarely receiving more than 12.5 centimeters of precipitation per year, over half of which falls from February to May. Diversion of rivers for irrigation, both within Karakalpakia and upstream, have radically depleted the water that reaches the
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Bennigsen, Alexandre, and S. Enders Wimbush (1986). Muslims of the Soviet Empire: A Guide. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Mukhametshin, Iu. G. (1967). Tatary srednego Povolzh'ia i Priural'ia (Tartars of the middle Volga provinces and the Preurals). Moscow: Nauka.
Mukhametshin, Iu. G. (1977). Tatary Kriasheny (Kriashen Tatars). Moscow: Nauka.
Vaiazitova, F. S. (1986). Gowr} Tatar-Kriashen v srav-nitel'rtom osveshchenii (Tatar-Kriashen speech in a comparative light). Moscow: Nauka.
ALLEN J. FRANK
ymchaks
ETHNONYMS: Crimean Jews, Tatar Jews Orientation
Identification. The Krymchaks are a Jewish ethnic group located on the Crimean Peninsula on the northern Black Sea shores who spoke vernacular Crimean Tatar. Before the Russian conquest of the Crimea in 1783, the entire Jewish population there was identified, including by the Krymchaks themselves, by the Tatar word "Yakhudiler." During the nineteenth century and possibly earlier, the Krymchaks at times also called themselves "Sral Ballary" (the sons of Israel). Among various references to the Krymchaks in Russian documents from the first half of the nineteenth century are "Karasubazar Jews," "Crimean Jews," "Tatar Jews," and "Turkish Jews." In the second half of the nineteenth century the name "Krymchaks" became dominant. The Krymchaks themselves began to use this name as their ethnonym at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries.
Until the 1950s the Krymchaks always considered themselves a Jewish group, although different from other Jewish groups like the Ashkenazim, and they were perceived as such by other Jewish and non-Jewish groups and by the Russian and Soviet authorities. After World War II, the shaky status of the Jews in the Soviet Union prompted the informal leaders of the Krymchak community to insist on a different origin for themselves as compared to the rest of Jewry. An ethnic myth was created and propagandized: that the 8Krymchaks were descended from those groups of the ancient Crimean peoples, such as the Tavrians, Scythians, Sarmatians, and others, who converted to Judaism. For purely political reasons this claim was accepted by the Soviet authorities, who recognized the Krymchaks as a separate and distinct ethnic group who had nothing in common with other Jews, except religion. Nevertheless,
this shift in the Krymchak ethnic self-identification is still incomplete. Although the majority of Krymchaks now reveal much ethnic conformity and prefer to point out their alleged non-Jewish origin when dealing with the authorities, they do recognize their affiliation with the rest of Jewry and in specific situations reveal an awareness of their Jewish identity.
Location. The historical center for the Krymchaks was the town of Karasubazar in the piedmont part of the Crimea. During the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries a majority migrated to Crimean cities on the Black Sea shores, or to Simferopol', an administrative center of the Crimea in the steppe zone. At present, the majority live in the major Crimean cities. They also live in Sukhumi and Novorossiisk on the Caucasian side of the Black Sea shores and in small numbers in Moscow, Leningrad, and Central Asia. Krymchaks also live in Israel and the United States.
Demography. According to the 1989 census, the number of Krymchaks in the Soviet Union was 1,559; it is expected that their number will continue to decrease because of their assimilation into other ethnic groups. The Krymchaks never constituted a numerous group, however. On the eve of World War II their number was estimated as 8,000, but about 70 percent perished during the Holocaust.
linguistic Affiliation. In the past the Krymchaks spoke an ethnolect of the Crimean Tatar language that belongs to the Kipchak (OJpchaq) Group of the Turkic Branch of the Altaic Language Family. Minor differences with the Crimean Tatar vernacular are found mostly in pronunciation and vocabulary. The pronunciation differences occur because the Krymchak ethnolect was based not on the dialects of the southern coastal area but on the northern steppe dialects of the Crimean Tatar language. Differences in vocabulary stem mainly from the existence of a relatively large number (about 5 percent of the total vocabulary) of Hebrew words in the Krymchak ethnolect.
The mass transition of the Krymchaks to the Russian language began after the Bolshevik Revolution and intensified in the 1930s. At present, only a few elders use Crimean Tatar as their vernacular. A significant number of people of the intermediate generation demonstrate some knowledge of it, although they use it only from time to time and do not consider it their mother tongue. The youth have no knowledge of it.
Unlike the Crimean Tatars who used the Arabic script, the Krymchaks had always used the Hebrew one until 1936, when they were ordered to substitute the Russian script.
History and Cultural Relations
The history of the Krymchaks is inseparably linked with the history of the Jewish communities in the Crimea who had settled there no later than the last centuries B.C. The formation of the Krymchaks as a separate Jewish ethnic group, however, goes back only to the Middle Ages. Although the process intensified between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries, it was completed only in the nineteenth century. Between the fourteenth and eighteenth
214 Krymchaks
centuries, the Jewish population in the Crimea was replenished with a rather significant number of immigrants from the Mediterranean countries, eastern Europe, and also from the Caucasus and Persia, who were incorporated into the already existing Jewish communities. One of the most important steps in the formation of the Krymchaks was their transition to the Crimean Tatar language, which apparently took place between the ends of the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries. Another important step in the formation of the new Jewish group was the religious and cultural consolidation of Crimean Jewry that took place at the turn of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. To a large extent it was connected with activities of Rabbi Moshe ben Yaakov (Moshe ha-Gola; 1448-1520). The third and final crucial step in the Krymchak ethnogenesis was the formation of the Karasubazar community, which probably took place between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries (perhaps even a little earlier). Presumably, between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries this community began to see itself as a separate group, especially in regard to Jewish newcomers who continued to immigrate to the Crimea. After the Russian conquest of the Crimea in 1783 the Krymchaks and all other Jews were affected by the Russian Empire's discriminatory legislation, which was abolished only after the February Revolution of 1917. In the period between the two world wars, the acculturation of the Krymchaks and their linguistic Russification had already been in progress. The Krymchaks' schools and other cultural and religious institutions were closed by the Soviet authorities in the beginning of the 1930s. During the German occupation of the Crimea, the Krymchaks were killed, one and all, except for those who served at the front in the Red Army or had been evacuated to nonoccupied territories. The trauma of the Holocaust and the growing state and public anti-Semitism in the postwar Soviet Union resulted in further intensification of the processes of acculturation and assimilation.
Before the Revolution of 1917 the Krymchaks always considered themselves true Orthodox Jews, although different from the Ashkenazim, and they were also seen as such by other Jewish communities. Up to the period before World War I, the Sephardim of Turkey served the Krymchaks as a reference group of higher status and provided an authoritative religious tradition. The Krymchak attitude toward the Ashkenazim settling in the Crimea was more ambivalent. In daily life, the Krymchaks sometimes had negative attitudes toward them; however, they admitted that the Ashkenazi Jews were more cultured and educated. In the past many Krymchaks knew Yiddish, and even now one meets some Krymchak elders who understand it or even speak it. In the cities where the Krymchaks lacked communities of their own, they joined communities of the Ashkenazi Jews and attended their synagogues. Intermarriage with Ashkenazim, although not very frequent before the Revolution or even before World War II, nevertheless did occur. On the other hand, before the Russian conquest of the Crimea, and also during the nineteenth and the first decades of the twentieth centuries, the material culture of the Krymchaks was similar to that of the Crimean Tatars. The Tatar influence appreciably affected Krymchak housing patterns, interior decoration and appointments, garments, cuisine, and many other elements
of their culture. At present their culture differs little from the cultures of the peoples among whom they live, especially the Russians.
Settlements
The Krymchaks were always a predominantly urban population. Traditionally, they preferred to settle in close proximity to each other, on the same streets or in the same neighborhoods, although by now this practice has fallen into total disuse, with most Krymchaks living in modern apartment buildings. Traditional Krymchak houses were predominantly of the Tatar type, with windows facing the courtyard and earthen floors covered from wall to wall with felt and carpets, with mattresses and pillows strewn along the walls. The usual dwelling consisted of a kitchen, an anteroom, and one or two rooms.
Economy
Subsistence and Commercial Activities. At present a majority of Krymchaks are involved in intellectual professions or in industry and service. Traditional occupations included various handicrafts and, to a lesser extent, petty trade. The restrictive policy of the czarist governments prohibited their participation in agriculture, except for a short period during the reign of Nicholas I. In the 1920s and 1930s the Soviet authorities forced some Krymchaks to settle on the newly organized collective farms (kolkhozy); however, this program soon failed.
Industrial Arts. Until the Revolution it was considered necessary for a Krymchak youth to learn a trade. In 1913, 55.3 percent of the gainfully employed Krymchaks were craftspeople, 28.8 percent of them having been shoemakers (this profession remained widespread among them until World War II). Apart from shoemakers, there were many hatters, tinsmiths, blanket makers, and harness makers; fewer in number were watchmakers, tailors, joiners, metalsmiths, glass cutters, and house painters. During the 1930s craftspeople were forced by the Soviet government to enter factories and workshops as wage laborers.
Trade. In 1913, 34.7 percent of the gainfully employed Krymchaks were involved in trade and commerce; however, many of them lacked capital of their own and worked as shop assistants and salespeople. After the Revolution the Krymchaks' involvement in trade drastically diminished.
Division of Labor. At present, division of labor among the Krymchaks does not differ much from the general pattern existing in the European part of the former USSR, with most of the women working as wage laborers and at the same time performing most household tasks. In the past, provision of a livelihood for a family was considered a man's job, whereas domestic duties were assigned to women.
Land Tenure. The right to own land in the rural areas was denied the Krymchaks, just as it was to other Jews, by the czarist government. Under the Soviet system, no land was held privately.
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Kins/iip, Marriage, and Family
Kinship and Descent. No fixed kin groups, apart from the family, existed among the Krymchaks. Descent was bilateral. Ties with immediate relatives are still quite firm.
Marriage and Family. One of the early sources mentions that the Krymchaks practiced polygynous marriage, but in the nineteenth century marriage was strictly monogamous. In the past, marriages were arranged by parents, relatives, or tutors, although cases of forced marriages were quite rare. The families tried to marry off their daughters early, with their dowry prepared starting from the moment they were born. Issues related to dowries served as a topic for lengthy negotiations. From one or two to four months lay between betrothal and marriage. The marriage ceremony itself lasted for a few days at least. The marriage took place according to the Jewish religious ritual, which included a ketuba (marriage contract). This contract specified, among other things, the bride's'dowry, which the husband was obligated to return to the wife in case of divorce, adding 10 percent of its total value as a reward for her virginity. In fact, families were very tightly knit and divorces uncommon. Postmarital residence was patrilocal, and the independent nuclear family household established after the marriage was the ideal pattern. Under the pressure of Soviet authorities, religious marriage fell into disuse as early as the 1920s and early 1930s. At present marriages are arranged without intermediaries, by both parties, by free choice. Nuclear families constitute the overwhelming majority, but family ties are still quite strong, even in cases of relatives residing in different cities.
Inheritance. Usually, property was divided equally among sons.
Socialization. Infants and children were raised by parents and siblings. Emphasis was placed on respect for parents, relatives, adults, and the aged in general and on conformity to family and community goals. Much attention was devoted to a boy's religious education and his participation in synagogue services. Corporal punishment was rarely used as a disciplinary measure.
Sociopolitical Organization
By virtue of being a small minority, first in the Crimean Khanate, later in the Russian Empire, and finally in the former USSR, the Krymchaks never had a distinct political structure.
Social Organization. In the past, the main element of the Krymchak social organization was the community centered on the synagogue. Class differences within the community were not hereditary or rigidly fixed, but the greatest influence was enjoyed by rabbis, the well-to-do, and the educated. Practices of mutual assistance and social charity have undergone considerable development. Following the Revolution and the shutting down of Krymchak synagogues, social life was temporarily focused on Krymchak clubs, but even those ceased to exist by the outbreak of World War II. At present any social autonomy for the Krymchaks is out of the question, although in a number of cities they are still striving to maintain informal ties with each other.
Social Control and Conflict. In the common value system, the forces of public opinion and tradition were sufficient to ensure a high degree of conformity. As a weak minority often facing discrimination, the Krymchaks have been conditioned to a life of conformity, and they strive at all costs to avoid any conflicts with authorities and other ethnic groups.
Religion and Expressive Culture
Religious Beliefs and Practices. In the past all Krymchaks practiced Orthodox Judaism, which was a central and unifying force in the community. Their prayer book (Makhor Minhag Kafa) was based on a combination of several Jewish traditions. Their synagogue service, religious practices, and Hebrew pronunciation were also somewhat different from those of the Ashkenazi Jews. Thus, in the synagogue the Krymchaks prayed sitting on carpets spread on the floor. To discuss everyday business in the synagogue was forbidden; so as not to occasion secular discourse, Krymchaks entered and exited the synagogue as a single group. After the shutting down of Krymchak synagogues, and especially in the wake of World War II, the extent of religious worship sharply declined. The observance of the rules of kashruth ceased altogether. In the early 1980s only a handful of elders attended the Ashkenazi synagogue in Simferopol', and even then only during the High Holidays.
In the past, various folk beliefs and superstitions, especially the fear of the evil eye, were widespread among the Krymchaks.
Arts. Krymchak secular literature consisted mainly of recorded folklore in the Krymchak vernacular language. Handwritten collections of songs, tales, riddles, and proverbs were carefully recorded, supplemented, and kept from generation to generation. Musical folklore was widespread as well. No family feast or celebration would be complete without a round of folk songs. New songs continued to be composed even after World War II; most of these were inspired by the Holocaust.
Medicine. Whereas at the present time the Krymchaks avail themselves exclusively of the services provided by modern medicine, in the past they practiced folk medicine, including various magical remedies.
Death and Afterlife. Concepts of death and afterlife, along with corresponding rituals, were mainly those of Orthodox Judaism. After World War II a new cultural institution, the tkun, was established to commemorate Krymchaks who perished in the Holocaust. From the cultural point of view, tkun is a mixture of general Jewish tradition, analogous to Ashkenazi yahrzeit (mourning rituals), interwoven with local Krymchak traditions and even with non-Jewish traditions.
Bibliography
Chernin, V. lu. (1983). "O poiavlenii etnonima 'Krymchak' i poniatiia 'Krymchakskii iazyk'" (On the appearance of the ethnonym "Krymchak" and the concept of the "Krymchak language"). Geografiia i kultura etnografi-cheskikh grupp Tatar v SSSR (Geography and cultural ethnography of the Tatars of the USSR). Moscow: GO SSSR.