Main menu / 2016, vol.1, no.1 / L.R. Gabdrafikova

The man in the revolution: Kazan guberniya. 1905–1907. The excursion via a new book

L.R. Gabdrafikova

212-218 p.



This article provides a brief overview the monograph The Man in the Revolution: Kazan Guberniya. 1905–1907 (see: Chelovek v revolyutsii: Kazanskaya guberniya: v 2- kh tomakh. T.1. 1905–1907 gg. / pod red. L.R. Gabdrafikovoy. Kazan': Institut istorii im. Sh.Mardzhani AN RT, 2016. 360 s. +24 s. vkl). The research for the book was conducted in 2015 and inspired by the 110 year anniversary of the First Russian Revolution. The Kazan Gubernia was multiethnic and polyconfessional region in the Russian Empire. The extreme conditions of the revolution in this province were represented not only in public and political experiments and socioeconomic complications, but also in ethnic and cultural problems. Moreover, the military and administrative authorities of the Volga Region and industrial forces were concentrated in Kazan. Kazan was the center of the huge Kazan Military District and of the similarly large Kazan education district. Kazan University was the center of the city’s liberal forces, i.e, students and professors. The historical and anthropological study of this epoch of revolution is analyzed according to the motives, needs, and behaviors of various social, professional, ethnic and religious groups. The authors conclude that the revolution of 1905–1907 contributed to the growth of national consciousness among some groups in the region and the creation of ethnic, urban cultures. In the research project, attention is paid to the study of the cultures of Muslim and Christian (Kryashen) Tatars and Maris.


Keywords: 1905 Revolution, first Russian revolution of 1905–1907, historical anthropology, Kazan Guberniya, Kazan nobility, Kryashens, Mari, «Pan-Islamism», peasants, student movement, Tatar Muslims, workesrs


About the author: Liliya R. Gabdrafikova – Doctor of Sciences (History), Chief Research Fellow, Department of Historical and Cultural Heritage of the People of Tatarstan, Sh.Marjani Institute of History of the Tatarstan Academy of Sciences (Entrance 5, Kremlin, Kazan 420014, Russian Federation); bahetem@mail.ru


Received 23.06.2016   Accepted for publication 04.10.2016

Published Online 17.11.2017