Divay, a Bashkurt (in Russian sources, Bashkir), was born on 19 December 1855 in Orenburg and lived most of his life among the Kazakhs. He attended the Orenburg Nepliuev military academy, first studying in the Asiatic Division, where the majority of his classmates were reportedly Kazakhs and second in the division for the preparation of translators of Oriental languages for the steppe regions.

In 1876-1877, at the age of 21, Divay left school to accept an appointment in the Russian bureaucracy of the Turkistan territory (krai). There in the southern steppe region Divay travelled and was able to visit many Kazakh, Kirghiz and Uzbek villages (aul). He held the post of Divisional Inspector of the Evliya-Ata (in Russian sources Aulie-Atinsk) district (uezd) and then became translator and junior official of Special Missions attached to the Governor-General of the Syr-Darya region (oblast). This latter post gave him wide opportunities to travel throughout the Turkistan territory.

In 1883, Divay began collecting ethnographic materials. The following year, the Governor-General of the Syr-Darya region, N. I. Grodekov, initiated the collection of information on Kazakh and Kirghiz customary law in order to publish a code of juridical customs of the nomadic peoples of the region. While working on this project, Divay reportedly collected "historical legends from ancient manuscripts, in the hands of educated Kirghiz, [and] heroic poems, aphorisms, fables, riddles, incantations, etc." A portion of these materials was published in Grodekov's book and the remainder, including fables, legends, songs, poems and dastans (Central Asian ornate oral histories), were published in Collection of Materials for Statistics of the Syr-Darya Region (Sbornik materialov dlia statistiki Syr-Darinskoi oblasti) for 1891-1897, 1901, 1902, 1904, 1905, and 1907. These articles by Divay were reviewed by various prominent Orientalists of the time.

Divay was active in the field prior to the invention of recording devices. Collectors of oral works of that time, recorded recitations on paper, frequently had to interrupt the narrators to keep-up. Reciters grew impatient and truncated their narrations. Aware of these pitfalls and given the many thousands of pages of material he discovered, Divay probably more than welcomed transcribed dastans which he sometimes received. This is not unusual, and other primarily oral works, including Beowulf, were printed from manuscript sources.

Editor's Introduction
A professor of history for over half a century, Zeki Velidi Togan (1890-1970), a Bashkurt Turk, studied and taught in institutions of higher learning on three continents, including the United States.1 His first book, TArk ve Tatar Tarihi (Turk and Tatar History), was published in Kazan in 1911. The renowned scholars N. Ashmarin and N. Katanov (1862-1922),2 both of Kazan University, and V.V. Bartold (1869-1930) of St. Petersburg University, invited Togan to study with them.

In 1913, Togan was asked by the Archeology and Ethnography Society of Kazan University to undertake a research trip to Turkistan. After successful completion of that endeavor, the Imperial Russian Academy of Sciences,3 jointly with International Central Asia Research Society, sponsored Togan for a more extensive expedition. Portions of Togan's findings began to be published in scholarly journals prior to the First World War. His lifetime output approaches four hundred individual items in at least five languages. He also had facility in several others. Like the Ukrainian scholar Mikhail Hrushevsky (1866-1934) and the Czech Thomas Masaryk (1850-1937), Togan was not only a scholar devoted to writing about the history of his nation, but also worked to secure its intellectual, cultural, civil, and political independence. He became a leader of the Turkistan National Liberation Movement in Central Asia (1916-1930s), called the Basmachi Movement by the Russians. A revealing anecdote is offered by A. Inan, a close colleague of Togan both as a historian and as a leading member of the Turkistan National Liberation movement. The event takes place in June 1922 in the vicinity of Samarkand:

When a Bolshevik military unit, detailed to liquidate us, opened fire, we took refuge in a nearby cemetery. As we began defending ourselves, I noticed that Togan had taken out his ever-present notebook and was busily scribbling. The circumstances were so critical that some of those among our ranks even thought that he was hurriedly recording his last will and testament. He kept writing, seemingly oblivious to the flying bullets aimed at him, and the accompanying sounds of war. I shouted at him from behind the tombstone that was protecting me, and asked why he was not fighting. Without looking up, continuing to write, he shouted back: You continue firing. The inscriptions on these headstones are very interesting.4

Togan's investigation of the origin of the Kazaks and the ozbeks is adapted from his TArkili TArkistan, a project he worked on during the 1920s, a period when he was establishing extensive contacts with the Central Asian population from Ferghana to the shores of the Caspian on behalf of the Turkistan national liberation movement. After he left Central Asia, and earned his doctorate in Europe, he continued his research using published sources. Though completed in 1928, the work was not published until 1947, in Istanbul.

Togan's analysis and documentation in the excerpt printed here may contribute to the clarification of the issues involved in efforts to rediscover the ethnogenesis of the Uzbeks, Kazakhs,5 and other Central Asians. It should be recalled that these designations are primarily geographical, tribal, or confederation names, not ethnonyms. Often they were taken from geographic reference points by travelers and then were mistakenly or deliberately turned into ethnic or political classifications.

Early in the eighth century, Central Asians themselves provided an account of their identity, history, and political order.6 Later efforts to identify and disseminate information concerning the genealogy of Central Asians can be traced to a wave of native Central Asian leadership that was suppressed in the Stalinist liquidations. Examples from the period survive in abundance, in Central Asian dialects, published in three alphabets in various Central Asian cities.

The Bashkir evolved centuries ago around the southern foothills of the Ural Mountains. It used to be quite common in the Volga and Urals regions as a riding, pack, and harness animal. These horses are also providers of meat, milk, and clothing for the local population. The sturdy Bashkirs were also popular as troika hacks, and were employed as remounts by Bashkir worriers and Orenburg and Ural Cossacks. Bashkir regiments on their steppe steeds have taken part in the Napoleonic wars.

The history of the Bashkir’s evolution is typical of all the steppe breeds. It is of fairly ancient origin. The Bashkir people, known as good riders and breeders, appeared in the territory of what is now known as Bashkortostan in the 7th century. Therefore, the Bashkir horse does not belong to the Mongolian root, as is often maintained. It comes from the steppe horse of Western Asia, whose remains are found aplenty in ancient burial mounds in that huge territory.

The Bashkir is the result of the crossing of the steppe horse with the forest horses that lived north of Bashkiria. It evolved under the influence of the rigorous continental climate.

The winter in Bashkiria is long and very cold, with much snow and fierce blizzards from early November to late in April. The summer is hot but short with a lush growth of grasses. The region is known for abundance of wild bees and wild honey, an indication of health.

THE REPUBLIC OF BASHKORTOSTAN - LAND OF HONEY

Bashkortostan Supplies for Beekeeping Development

Beekeeping in Bashkortostan is an ancient occupation of native inhabitants with deep historical roots, thousand-year experience and traditions. Bee and honey have been symbols of Bashkortostan for a long time.

There are all the necessary conditions to run a successful beekeeping business: rich natural melliferous vegetation; unique race of Bashkirian honeybees; age-old traditions and high skills of beekeepers; educational institutions for training skilled experts; companies for beekeeping implement and honeycomb production.

Honey provisions in the republic account to about 525,000 tons, including supplies available for bees - 175,000 tons or 33 %. Taking into account that the average production of one bee family is 40 kg of commercial bee, we can keep 1 350,000 bee communities.

Bashkortostan is among few constituent units of Russian Federation that has legislative framework on beekeeping development. The Republic accepted Law on Beekeeping.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - A senior security official at Russian oil firm Bashneft was shot dead close to his home on Tuesday, investigators said.

Vladimir Butorin, 57, who was in charge of protecting industrial secrets for the mid-size oil producer was found dead with five gunshot wounds, investigators from the Prosecutor General's office said in a statement.

The statement said a murder investigation had been launched, but did not mention a motive. State news agency RIA Novosti cited investigators as saying the killing could have been linked to Butorin's work at Bashneft.

Bashneft offered a 100,000 rouble (2,107 pounds) reward for information on the killing, which took place in the city of Ufa in the Urals Mountains region of Bashkortostan, Interfax news agency reported.

Contract killings plagued Russia's oil industry in the early 1990s but have been relatively rare in recent years.

Bashneft is controlled by Russia's oil-to-telecoms group Sistema.

(Writing by Conor Humphries; editing by Philippa Fletcher)

We, the youth representatives of international organization of the Bashkir and Tatar peoples, were disturbed to learn about the inquiry of a State Duma member Andrew Nazarov claiming that a great scientist and politician Akhmet Zaki Validi was apparently involved with the administration of the Nazi Germany. A.Nazarov expressed himself offensively to us about a patriot of our Native land.

As educated people, the members of the Federal State Duma must have a clear understanding about the important role the figure of Akhmet Zaki Validi plays in the development of Russia as a federative state, as well as in the development of the value guide marks for our youth.

It is difficult to overestimate the figure of Akhmet Zaki Validi as a Turcologist with a world-wide recognition. This Man plays an important role in the development of the world outlook and values of the youth of the entire Turkic world. As a scientist-researcher, Akhmet Zaki Validi is luminary of the history science; he was one of the founders of the native turcology in the world. To our days, the works of the medieval Turkic and Arabic scientists analyzed by Akhmet Zaki Validi are the main sources for the scientists-turcologists. In particular, he presented to the world scientific publicity the Itinerary of Ibn Fadlan, the Zafar-name, the Dzhamig-a-tavarikh Kadir Ali-bek and others. Validi is the author of such famous works as the History of the Turks and the Tatar, the General history of the Turks, The Methodology of the history. No one of the works on medieval history of the Ural-Privolgskiy region and the Middle East can spare without references to the works of Akhmet Zaki Validi. The capacity of work that Validi conducted and the contribution he made to the world history science is comparable to the prominent academician V.V.Bartold. For students, young scientists and ordinary people that treasure their history, the scientific life-story of Akhmet Zaki Validi is a role model and will remain so for future generations. For the younger generation, Akhmet Zaki Validi is an example of assiduity and diligence in their studies.

The modern Bashkir and Tatar youth recognizes the significance of the name and role of Akhmet Zaki Validi in the history of our country. It became the basis of the development of the federation in Russia, in the framework of which, the numerous peoples of Russia live in neighborliness and peace.

This is the reason we, the representatives of the Bashkir and Tatar youth, express our protest against the inquiry of a deputy A.Nazarov, in which he unfoundedly tries to dirty the name of Akhmet Zaki Validi, connecting it to the fascists, and, therefore, trying to destroy the value guide marks and high ideals of our youth.

We, the signees below, ask the international public, the scientific community, all who are not indifferent to the cherished memory of Akhmet Zaki Validi, to take measures permitted by law in concern to the provokers trying to dirty his name. Besides that, we ask the government of the country, the law-enforcement authorities to take resolute measures in concern with the dirty claims made by A.Nazarov in terms of the prominent scientist, a luminary and a patriot Akhmet Zaki Validi.

This appeal is conducted in Russian, English and Turkic languages.


Yours sincerely,
The Head of the Youth Assembly of the Executive committee of the International Union
of public associations«World Kurultai (congress) of Bashkirs»,
Deputy Head of the Youth public chamber of the State Assembly-Kurultai
of the Republic of Bashkortostan Timur Lukmanov


Head of the bureau of the World forum of the Tatar youth,
Coordinator of movement «UZEBEZ» (ourselves) Ruslan Aisin

Association for the Advancement of Central Asian Research Monograph Series Hartford, Connecticut
TO THE MEMORY OF ABUBEKIR AHMEDJAN DIVAY (1855-1933) AND TO HIS INTELLECTUAL HEIRS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This work has been produced over a span of seven years, with research conducted on three continents, ten countries and almost two dozen cities. I offer my sincere gratitude to the libraries and librarians of a host of institutions situated in almost as many geographic locations. Among them, the following bore the brunt of my incessant queries: Bodleian (especially the Oriental Reading Room); Oriental Institute; St. Antony's College; the St. Antony's Middle Eastern Center libraries – all of Oxford University; School of Oriental and African Studies of London University; British Library; Slavic Reading Room of University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana; University of Wisconsin-Madison; Widener Library of Harvard University; Seminar fur Sprach und Kulturwissenschaft Zentralasien of Bonn University; Bibliotek National, Paris; Helsinki University; University of Washington, Seattle; Istanbul University; Regenstein Library of University of Chicago; Indiana University; UCLA; Library of Congress. In addition, several Libraries in the USSR provided material.

J. V. Stalin, in his denunciation of Sultan Galiev, formerly Stalin's own assistant in Narkomnats, stated:

....I accused him (Sultan Galiev) of creating an organization of the Validov type... despite that, a week later, he sent... a secret letter... to establish contact with the Basmachi and with their leader Validov...1

Ahmet Zeki (Validov) Velidi Togan (1890-1970), a Bashkurt Turk,2 published his own comprehensive account of the Basmachi movement3 on two separate occasions. According to Togan, these were based on the field diaries he kept during his involvement in the movement. The said diary was smuggled out of Turkistan in segments, via various persons and routes, before and after Togan's own departure from Turkistan in 1923.4 Both accounts complement each other and contain ample material to aid the reader in reconstructing the events surrounding Stalin's references and putting all in historical perspective.5

In completing the final versions of these works for publication, Togan indicates, in addition to his own field notes, he had also utilized secondary sources to refresh his memory. These included the materials deposited with the Hoover Institution Library, which he consulted during 1958, as well as the newspaper collections pertaining to the time period which he chronicles. Togan recalled:

"Kerensky (1881-1970) and I sat down at the microfilm machine and together read the newspapers dating back to the times when we knew each other."

Togan also cites various histories written in the Soviet union after his departure, containing references to his own activities. The first section of this study contains Togan's brief biography, educational and personal background. The second, the events leading to his Basmachi period, due to space limitations, in a highly compressed form.6 The last section is largely translated directly from his pen, both from Turkili and Hatiralar.

The sources constituting the basis of these memoires were taken out, prior to our [Togan, along with other prominet leaders of the Turkistan National Liberation Movement] departure at the beginning of 1923 from Turkmenistan to Iran, via the Kabul Embassy of Bukhara and merchants travelling to Muhammedabad. Quite a few valuable documents were taken out to Finland by my compatriot Osman Tokumbet the same year. The notes and documents that had been recorded in a similie of cypher, and taken out via various means, were read and decoded in collaboration with my compatriots who had fallen prisoner to the Germans during 1943, who were aware of the events contained therein. Additional voluminous [updates of] information was also obtained from them. Those materials were brought to the Turkish Republic by the late Saffet Arikan, then the Ambassador to Berlin. During 1957, extensive use has been made of the Russian newspaper colections at the "Hoover War Library," originally collected by F. A. Kerenskii, and by his permission, and with the aid of the library director, a Professor of Polish origin, W. S. Sworokowsky. Use also has been made of the microfilms of the Turkistan newspapers, originals of which were collected with care by Mr. Richard Pierce of Berkeley University during his visit to Russia [Soviet Union], also with his aid. I must here experess my gratitude to these individuals.

To assure the correctness of the information provided herein, I have asked my friends who have participated in the inclosed events, such as Abdulkadir Inan, Kocaoglu Osman, Abdullah Taymas and the combatants Shirmehmet Bek and Kirghiz leader Parpi Haci, to read the manuscript.

The first draft of this work was written in Berlin during 1924, but due to the unavailability of a suitable publisher, it's publication was delayed. Finally, a compatriot of mine, who had saved capital as a high-school student, provided for the eventual printing [of this volume], desiring to aid the national publications. He wishes to remain anonymous. Author and poet Orhan Saik Gokyay undertook the task of revising the original manuscript which had been written under the influence of Eastern Turk dialects, in order to render it readable in modern Turkish. I offer my sincere thanks to both.

A few photographs, though referenced in the text, were unavailable at the time of the printing. I offer my apologies for their omission.

The all-Russian meeting of representatives of executive power bodies of Russian regions re realization of state national policy and ethnic-cultural development of Russian regions has taken place in Moscow last Friday. It was organized by Russian Ministry of regional development. The deputy Prime-Minister of Government RB, Minister of culture and national policy RB, doctor of political sciences, Professor Ildus Ilishev has taken part in the meeting.

The measures on consolidation of Russian nation’s unity, formation of Russian identity and preventive measures against ethnic, religious and political extremism, including youth sphere, perfection of coordination in activity of federal and regional executive power bodies in sphere of realization of the state national policy, on support of ethnic-cultural development of aboriginal small nations of the North, Siberia and the Far East and protection of the minorities’ rights were under discussion at the meeting.

Taking the floor with the report “Actual questions of the state national policy and formation of Russian identity” Ildus Ilishev mentioned that the meeting of the heads of executive power bodies RF, patronizing the sphere of international relations, covered wide circle of questions, vitally important both for the whole of multinational Russia and its regions, including Republic of Bashkortostan, where more than 4 million people made the unique for Russia variety of ethnoses, religions, cultures and languages. The Vice-Premier emphasized that Republic of Bashkortostan, being one of the national-territorial formations of Russian Federation, accumulated wide experience in formation of the regional model of the state national-lingual policy.