Folk crafts of Tatarstan. Golden hands of masters: folk crafts of the Tatars

Among the ancestors of the Tatars there were many artisans. Masters lived in almost every village. There were those whose products were worth their weight in gold. Such craftsmen were known far beyond the village.

Alas, the ancestors of the Tatars lost many types of crafts even before the 1917 revolution. By the beginning of the 20th century, they stopped weaving carpets and complex patterned fabrics, stone carving and some jewelry crafts disappeared. Only in some villages did craftsmen continue to embroider with gold on headdresses - skullcaps and kalfaks, felt products from felt, and weave lace. Wood carving, simple patterned weaving, embroidery, silver nielloing, and the making of leather mosaic shoes lasted the longest.

Where did the artels work?

In the 1920s, Tatar craftsmen united into artels. Using them you can trace the geography of the existence of folk crafts on the territory of the republic.

• Gold embroidery - Kazan.
• Leather mosaic - Kazan.
• Embroidery - Kazan, Kukmorsky district, Chistopol.
• Patterned shoes - Kazan, Arsky, Laishevsky, Pestrechinsky, Dubyazsky (now Vysokogorsky) regions.
• Weaving - Menzelinsk, Naberezhno-Chelninsky (Sarmanovsky), Alekseevsky, Laishevsky districts.
• Felt carpet making - Dubyazy (Vysokogorsk region).
• Wood carving - Sabinsky, Mamadyshsky districts.
• Lace making - Rybnaya Sloboda.
• Jewelry craft - Kazan, Rybnaya Sloboda.
• Artistic metal - Arsk.
• Ceramics - Laishevsky district.

How weaving looms were dispossessed

In the 1920s, Tatar artisans began working in artels. It was then that our craftsmen became famous throughout the USSR, as well as in Europe and the world, because their products were exported. In those years, the works of Tatar craftsmen were exhibited in Paris, Monza Milano, Leipzig, Riga, Prague, and Vienna.

At the All-Union Agricultural and Handicraft Exhibition in Moscow in 1923, an entire pavilion of the Tatar Republic was dedicated to their work. Visitors saw tambour embroidery, headdresses embroidered with silver thread, jewelry, ceramic jugs, carved wooden dishes and boxes. And at the exhibition “The Art of the Peoples of the USSR”, craftsmen presented products using the techniques of artistic weaving, gold embroidery, leather mosaic and others.

However, in the 1980s, researchers noted that traditional folk arts still survived as home crafts. They mostly did what was needed in everyday life with their own hands - they wove rugs and rugs, wove utensils from wicker, and hung carved frames on windows. But only single craftsmen were engaged in tambour embroidery, carpet weaving, and silver plating. But the techniques and patterns used by the artisans still changed. What did Tatar craftsmen prefer in the old days?

Mortgage and bran weaving

Patterned fabrics were woven by hand on wooden looms from multi-colored linen, hemp and wool threads. Since ancient times, threads have been dyed with vegetable, and later with aniline dyes. Tatar craftswomen used their own weaving techniques and knew how to correctly thread the threads into the loom so that even the most complex weaving pattern could be formed. Wide white towels with red patterns were used for various ceremonies, for example, weddings or when greeting guests with bread and salt.

Samples of towels of the early 20th century from the collections of the State Museum of Fine Arts of the Republic of Tatarstan Photo:

Handmade carpet weaving

Probably many people have seen checkered paths in villages. To make them, craftswomen spent months collecting scraps of fabric, sorting them by color and rolling them into balls. In the old days, not only rugs, but also brightly colored carpets were woven on handlooms. The ornaments were usually large, geometric in green-blue and golden-yellow tones. For contrast, the background of the carpet was most often dark. They usually wove several panels, which were then joined and trimmed with a border. By the way, carpets and wall panels were also made from felt.

Handmade wool carpet. Elabuga, 1980s Photo:

Tambour embroidery

Embroidery is considered one of the oldest types of artistic creativity of the Tatars. It was used to decorate household items and folk costumes. Tambour embroidery was called by the type of seam used in it, similar to a chain with a simple anchor weave. The chain stitch was used to make the contours of the patterns and fill in large elements - petals, leaves. To speed up the process, the craftswomen used a hook rather than an ordinary needle.

Velvet pillow embroidered with chain stitch, 1960s Photo:

Gold embroidery

Such embroidery decorated headdresses, dresses and camisoles, bedspreads and hasite - a breast belt. Bouquets and golden feathers were embroidered on thin velvet, velor, and sometimes on silk and other thin fabrics, as well as on leather. They used not only metal gold and silver threads, but also gimp - a thin wire twisted into a spiral. Over time, silver and gold threads were used less and less, usually coated copper threads.

Gold embroidery with gimp. Photo: AiF/ Nail Nurgaleev

Bulgarian cross stitch

This type of embroidery is more recent and was widespread in the 20th century. The Bulgarian cross resembles regular cross stitch, only the crosses are superimposed on one another in such a way that the result is an element similar to an eight-pointed snowflake. Cross stitch used to be used to embroider, for example, wedding and other homespun shirts, towels, pillowcases, curtains, and tablecloths.

Lace weaving with bobbins

The most famous lacemakers lived in Rybnaya Sloboda and Pestretsy. Serfs also wove lace napkins, runners, and collars; their work was even sold abroad, called “Brussels” lace. The products featured geometric patterns, floral patterns, and images of animals. In Rybnaya Sloboda, lace products were edged with thick thread, which distinguished the products from the work of other masters. At the beginning of the 20th century, Tatar lacemakers received a prestigious award at an exhibition in Chicago.

Leather mosaic

This ancient craft of the Tatars has received worldwide recognition. Tatar craftsmen mainly made patterned boots - ichigi from multi-colored pieces of leather, assembled into plant and flower patterns. They say that even Torzhok gold seamstresses, trying to keep up with Tatar craftsmen, began to decorate shoes with gold embroidery. Later they began to make shoes, pillows, tobacco pouches and other products using the leather mosaic technique. This fishery is still alive today.

Ichigi. Photo: AiF/Maria Zvereva

Ceramics

It was common among the Kazan Tatars until the 16th century, and was revived only in the middle of the 20th century. In the old days, craftsmen made not only dishes for everyday use - jugs, dishes, etc., but also glazed facing tiles with geometric and floral patterns and decorative bricks with bows, which were used for decoration in construction. For beauty, the jugs were covered with white, red or gray clay, and stripes were applied to create a design. Each master branded his work; by this sign one could recognize the craftsman’s hand.

Glazed pottery, 1960s Photo:

Artistic metal processing

The ancestors of the Tatars made household utensils, decorations for clothing, weapons, and horse harness from copper, bronze, and silver. They used different techniques - casting, embossing, embossing, stamping, metal engraving. From the 16th century, craftsmen switched to making various vessels, trays, and forged chests. Coppersmiths, as the masters of artistic metal processing were called, were in every Tatar village. Most of them minted kumgans - a jug with a narrow neck, spout, handle and lid. The noses of kumgans were made, for example, in the form of the heads of animals and birds.

Engraved copper tray and bowl, 1980s Photo:

Jewelry craft

The ancestors of the Tatars were fluent in the techniques of blackening, casting, engraving, minting, stamping, inlaying with gems, engraving on gems, and cutting precious stones. The most delicate work went to filigree workers. They made jewelry, for example, using the lumpy filigree technique - when gold and silver wires ended in several curls united into a cone. The center for the production of such complex jewelry was Kazan. They made bracelets blackened on silver, openwork hair decorations - chulpas, which were woven into braids. The hand of the master was so noticeable in each product that the jewelers did not even put their mark, they say, so everyone will recognize it. Ancient rings, rings, and earrings are kept as relics in Tatar families. In Kryashen villages, women's breastplates made of minted coins and plaques have been preserved.

Women's chest jewelry with filigree. Photo: AiF-Kazan/ Ruslan Ishmukhametov

Wood carving and painting

Craftsmen made household utensils from wood - chests, dishes, spinning wheels, horse bows, carts. We used oak, birch, maple, linden, aspen, and pine. These products were characterized by elegant carved ornaments and bright color painting. At the beginning of the 20th century, many craftsmen made wooden painted spoons with floral patterns. During the Soviet years, such a concept as “Tatar Khokhloma” appeared. Khokhloma souvenirs were produced in workshops at timber industry enterprises. In reality, the ancestors of the Tatars did not use the black background characteristic of Khokhloma in painting on wood. Black color was rarely used in wood painting, only to separate elements. More often they used bright red, orange, and gold paints.

Wood carving. Photo: AiF-Kazan/ Ruslan Ishmukhametov

The most ancient writing is the Turkic runic. From the 10th century to 1927, writing based on Arabic script existed; from 1928 to 1936, Latin script (Yanalif) was used; from 1936 to the present, writing on a Cyrillic graphic basis was used, although there are already plans to transfer Tatar writing to Latin. Tatars speak the Tatar language of the Kipchak subgroup of the Turkic group of the Altai family. The languages ​​(dialects) of the Siberian Tatars show a certain closeness to the language of the Tatars of the Volga region and the Urals. The literary language of the Tatars was formed on the basis of the middle (Kazan-Tatar) dialect.

The traditional dwelling of the Tatars of the Middle Volga and Urals was a log hut, separated from the street by a fence. The external façade was decorated with multicolor paintings. The Astrakhan Tatars, who retained some of their steppe cattle-breeding traditions, used a yurt as a summer home.

Kuzikmyaki are hot flatbreads made from unleavened dough, folded in half, with any filling: be it potatoes with onions, wheat porridge with butter, pumpkin puree, poppy seeds and many more options! Chak-chak is an oriental sweet made from dough with honey. Tatar pilaf - Echpomchak pilaf is especially popular among the Tatars - they put lamb in the filling.

The clothing of men and women consisted of trousers with a wide step and a shirt (for women it was complemented by an embroidered bib), on which a sleeveless camisole was worn. Outerwear was a Cossack coat, and in winter a quilted beshmet or fur coat. The men's headdress is a skullcap, and on top of it is a hemispherical hat with fur or a felt hat; Women have an embroidered velvet cap (kalfak) and a scarf. Traditional shoes were leather ichigi with soft soles; outside the home they wore leather galoshes. Women's costumes were characterized by an abundance of metal decorations.

Like many other peoples, the rituals and holidays of the Tatar people largely depended on the agricultural cycle. Even the names of the seasons were designated by a concept associated with this or that work: saban өste spring, the beginning of spring; It's summer, haymaking time.

Its time is after the end of spring field work and the beginning of haymaking. On this holiday, residents of some villages became guests of others. Those who went to visit sewed outfits, baked pies, and brought carcasses of dried geese with them. They arrived on decorated carts, entered the village with music and songs, children opened the decorated field gates for the guests. The hosts set the table anew for each newly arrived guest. In the evening a common dinner was organized. On all days of the visit, the owners heated the baths: kunakny khormeshe muncha bath is the highest honor for a guest. This is what is commonly believed among the Tatars. The Vienna holiday strengthened family and friendly relations, united the village and the surrounding area: people felt like one family during this holiday

According to the old, old tradition, Tatar villages were located on the banks of rivers. Therefore, the first beyram “spring celebration” for the Tatars is associated with ice drift. This holiday is called boz karau, boz bagu “watch the ice”, boz ozatma seeing off the ice, zin kitu ice drift. All residents, from old people to children, came to the river bank to watch the ice drift. The youth walked dressed up, with accordion players. Straw was laid out and lit on floating ice floes. In the blue spring twilight these floating torches were visible far away, and songs followed them.

Tatar wedding ceremonies are so diverse that it is impossible to tell about them all. Every marriage was preceded by a conspiracy, in which the groom (the groom) and one of the older relatives participated. If the bride's parents agreed to the marriage, during the course of the conspiracy, issues were resolved about the size of the bride price, the bride's dowry, the time of the wedding, and the number of invited guests. After the conclusion of the “marriage contract”, the bride was called yarashylgan kyz - the matched girl. For 3-5 weeks, the parties prepared for the wedding. The groom collected the bride price, bought gifts for the bride, her parents and relatives, pillows, feather beds and other belongings. The bride was completing the preparation of the dowry, which she had begun to collect at an early age. It consisted of homemade dresses, underwear, as well as gift clothing for the groom: embroidered shirts, trousers, woolen socks, etc. Relatives of both parties were busy organizing the upcoming wedding.

There was a belief in various master spirits: water - suanasy, forests - shurale, earth - fat anasy, brownie oy iyase, barn - abzar iyase, ideas about werewolves - ubyr. Prayers were held in groves called keremet; it was believed that an evil spirit with the same name lived in them. There were also ideas about other evil spirits - gins and peris. For ritual help they turned to the yemchi - that’s what healers and healers were called. Believing Tatars, with the exception of a small group of Kryashens (including Nagaibaks), who were converted to Orthodoxy in the 16th and 18th centuries, are Sunni Muslims.

The basis of the ichizh craft as a mass production of Tatar patterned footwear from the leather of boots (chitek, ichigi) and shoes (bashmak, chuvek) is the tradition of artistic processing of leather using the kayula kun mosaic technique, rarely embossing. Shoes are created from patterned multi-colored pieces of leather (morocco, yuft), sewn end-to-end, using a unique hand-stitching technique that weaves and at the same time decorates the product. Jewelry craft became widespread among the Tatars. This was due to the high level of its development, dating back to the Middle Ages, and the preservation of traditions both in production technology and in the design of jewelry. Jewelers worked with gold (altyn), silver (komesh), copper (bakyr) and their alloys.

Tatars have school education in the Tatar language. It is conducted according to the all-Russian program and textbooks translated into the Tatar language. Exceptions: textbooks and lessons of Russian language and literature, English and other European languages, OBC, teams in physical education lessons may be in Russian. There is also Tatar-language education in some faculties of Kazan universities and in kindergartens. A secular school with a ten-year period of study began to exist among the Tatars with the introduction of compulsory secondary education for all citizens of the USSR. Before this, the role of educational institutions was played by madrassas.

The national music of the Tatars - the people of Eurasia with a centuries-old history and distinctive culture - is an integral part of world civilization. Its emotional content and musical style are manifested in the most concentrated form in the lyrical lingering song, presented here in the interpretation of recognized masters of folk music performance. But the traditional song is not only a monument to folk song; it is still heard today in radio and television programs, concert programs. Getting to know Tatar music will allow you to better understand the spiritual culture of a people with a rich historical destiny.

Traditional crafts of all nations were passed on from generation to generation. There were many artisans among the Tatars; almost every village had its own craftsmen. Unfortunately, many types of crafts were lost forever: they stopped weaving carpets and complex patterned fabrics, stone carving and some jewelry crafts disappeared. But there are still craftsmen who continue to embroider with gold on headdresses - skullcaps and kalfaks, felt products from felt, weave lace, carve wood, embroider and weave, engage in jewelry work, including blackening on silver, and make leather mosaic shoes. Crafts such as gold embroidery, leather mosaic, national embroidery, making patterned shoes, weaving, felt carpet making, wood carving, lace making, jewelry making, and ceramics have been preserved.

Tatar craftsmen manually wove patterned fabrics from multi-colored linen, hemp and wool threads on wooden looms. Each craftswoman had her own weaving techniques, each needlewoman knew how to correctly thread the threads into the loom to create a complex pattern. On handlooms, craftswomen wove not only fabrics, but also rugs and bright carpets. The patterns on the carpets were usually large, geometric in green-blue and golden-yellow tones. For contrast, they most often tried to make the background of the carpet dark. They usually wove several panels, which were then joined and trimmed with a border. Carpets and wall panels were also made from felt.

Embroidery is considered one of the most ancient types of Tatar handicraft. It was used to decorate household items and clothing. Headdresses, dresses and camisoles, bedspreads and hasite (chest belt) were decorated with gold embroidery. When sewing, they used not only metallic gold and silver threads, but also gimp - a thin wire twisted into a spiral. Over time, silver and gold threads began to be used less frequently and coated copper threads were used for embroidery.

Lace making was widespread. Lace napkins, runners, and collars were made.

One of the ancient Tatar crafts that has received worldwide recognition is leather mosaic. Basically, craftsmen made patterned boots (ichigi) from multi-colored pieces of leather assembled into a plant or floral pattern. Later they began to make shoes, pillows, tobacco pouches and other products using the leather mosaic technique.

The Tatars also developed ceramic craft. Craftsmen made dishes for everyday use, as well as glazed facing tiles with geometric and floral patterns and decorative bricks, which were used for decoration in construction. The dishes were usually covered with white, red or gray clay, and stripes were applied to create a design. Each master branded his work; by this sign one could recognize the craftsman’s hand.

Tatar craftsmen are also famous for their artistic metalworking. Household utensils, decorations for clothing, weapons, and horse harness were made from copper, bronze, and silver. The craftsmen used different techniques: casting, embossing, embossing, stamping, metal engraving.

Jewelry making was also well developed among Tatar artisans. Many craftsmen were fluent in the techniques of blackening, casting, engraving, chasing, stamping, inlaying with gems, engraving on gems, and cutting precious stones.

Tatar craftsmen did not ignore such material as wood. Therefore, wood carving was developed. Craftsmen made household utensils from wood: chests, dishes, spinning wheels, horse bows, carts. These products were characterized by elegant carved ornaments and bright color painting.

Are you interested in the history, culture and traditions of the Tatar people, our region? Do you know how traditional Tatar shoes were made - ichigi boots and shoe shoes? How do Tatar bast shoes differ from Russian ones? Why do women's headwear - kalfak - have different sizes? To find out all this, you need to visit our exhibition “Ungan halkymnyn osta kullary: Tatar halyk Һөnərləre” - “Golden hands of masters: folk crafts of the Tatars”.

For many centuries, the traditional crafts of the Tatars have been jewelry and gold embroidery, leather mosaics, tambour embroidery and embedded weaving, woodworking and felting. Thanks to traditions and preserved products made by the hands of masters of the past, crafts known for their originality and popularity have developed.

The National Museum of the Republic of Tatarstan preserves one of the largest collections of products and tools of Tatar craftsmen. Many of them represent traditional crafts, the secrets of which have been passed down from generation to generation. When creating a new work, the true master not only relied on the experience of past centuries, but also tried to find his own original solution.

Nowadays, the best traditions of folk arts and crafts are being revived in Tatarstan. Maintaining continuity, folk craftsmen create works of art that correspond to new forms of life, making extensive use of national ornaments and traditional techniques.

At the exhibition you can see rarities of crafts and crafts of the 19th-20th centuries. and products of modern masters.
Among them are paintings on velvet made by Luiza Faskhrutdinova, elegant works by leather mosaic masters Sofia Kuzminykh, Ildus Gainutdinov, Nailya Kumysnikova and others.

The creators of the exhibition hope that it will be of interest to the visitor not only for its content, but also for its interactive areas. The exhibition includes master classes on gold embroidery, leather mosaics, wood carving, and calligraphy; museum activities “We don’t miss drinking tea”, “Visiting the stove”; interactive theatrical excursions “Living Exposition”.