In Defense of Land and Faith: Muslim Tatars between Confrontation and Accommodation in Late Imperial Russia
In Defense of Land and Faith: Muslim Tatars between Confrontation and Accommodation in Late Imperial Russia

Summary/Abstract: This article offers a discussion of state-society encounters and confrontations in the 1870s and 1880s, including both violent clashes and protracted negotiations, between Muslim Tatars and representatives of the Russian imperial state. It explores conflicts over land and faith in Muslim communities of Crimea and the Volga region, combining an analysis of the socio-economic and cultural-political roots of protest. In so doing, it goes beyond the technical details of specific disputes, offering rich information on everyday life in the countryside. It looks at forms of protest, boycott, and resistance, demonstrating that these could be highly individualistic, localized incidents or broader, collective phenomena. They could be directed against new rules and directives issued by the central state and communicated by its local representatives, or they could be aimed at village elders and neighbors. The religious affiliation of those involved could, but did not have to become a factor. In addition, the article explores protest in comparative terms. Why were open conflict and resistance against the state more common in the Volga provinces than in Crimea?

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