The manifestation of objective grounds for ethnoidentity in the everyday life of the Turkic population of the Orenburg Cossack Army (second half of the 18th - first half of the 19th centuries)

The aim of this article is to analyze the manifestation of objective grounds for ethnoidentity in the everyday life of the Turkic population of the Orenburg Cossack Army in the second half of the eighteenth and first half of the nineteenth centuries, namely the Tatars and the Nagaibaks, who became members of the army through spontaneous migration, a purposeful populating of the border area by Orenburg military authorities, as well as the inhabitants of the villages located in close proximity to the newly established Orenburg border line. To achieve this aim, the following tasks are solved: first, the daily life of the Turkic-speaking military population is described, and, second, the identity in the everyday life of the Tatar army population and the Nagaibaks is determined. The methodology of the research is based on the achievements of the scientific direction of the "history of everyday life" and the concept of acculturation, as well as on the regional approach that emphasizes the uniqueness of local conditions. The research is aimed at revealing the specifics of everyday practices of Turkic-speaking groups in the Orenburg Cossacks as a phenomenon of a polyethnic formation and at studying their borrowing of new cultural codes from the "Russian Cossacks", which indicates their successful acculturation. The archival materials of the State Archive of Orenburg Oblast and historical and ethnographic research served as sources of research. In the course of the study, the authors came to the following conclusions. First, the identity of the Tatars, the second largest ethnic group in the Orenburg Cossack Army, was manifested in their daily life style. On the territory of the Orenburg Army, polygamy in the Tatar families, the peculiar appearance of the Tatar Cossacks, the Muslim faith were observed. Yet, the influence of the Russian population showed. The houses of the Tatar-Cossacks practically did not differ from the Russian buildings, agriculture dominated in the economic system, and everyday clothes of the Tatar Cossacks included elements of the Cossack form. Second, the identity of the Nagaibaks, or baptized Tatars, was preserved in the appearance of buildings, the decoration of houses, food, everyday clothing. In terms of confession, a mixture of Mohammedanism and Christianity was observed among the Nagaybaks. They wore crosses, but sat at the table without a prayer, observed Sundays and holidays, visited temples, although not often, performed many Christian rites but did not observe fasts, organized feasts and horse races according to their old customs.

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