Religious and Educational Activities of the Tatars in the Turgai Region at the Second Half of the 19th – Beginning of the 20th Centuries

In the article the author for the first time analyzes legislative, religious and educational activities of Tatars in the Turgai region on the basis of archival, periodic, statistical sources. This ethnic minority activity is interesting from the point of view of studying the problem of interaction between the empire, the mobile diaspora and the local population in the context of the frontier modernization process. The aim of the study is to identify the main results of religious and educational activity of the Tatar population in the region. The author comes to the conclusion that the main directions of religious-educational work were missionary activities of Tatars in Kazakh auls, construction of mosques, functioning of mektebs and madrasas, theaters, libraries, public Muslim organizations, attempts to publish books, brochures and newspapers. Many of these initiatives were strongly opposed by the empire. The result of the activities of the Tatar population was not only the maintenance of ethno-cultural diversity, but also a versatile influence on the Kazakhs manifested in the religious, cultural, political sphere and in the formation of a multi-ethnic (Tatar-Kazakh) Muslim socio-cultural space of the empire, which became part of the global Islamic network community. The Tatars spread the ideas of Jadidism and became competitors of the Russians in familiarizing the local population with European culture and pedagogy. The article is intended for specialists in the field of history of Kazakhstan, Islam, Tatars, national policy of the Russian Empire.