REVIEW OF THE BOOK BY S.S. AVERKIEV “TATAR INFLUENCE ON THE LIFE OF THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE”

The article contains a review of the book by S.S. Averkiev (1886–1963), which remained unpublished during the Soviet period, since such a topic was at that time unpopular, questionable, and therefore “inadmissible” for Soviet publishers. S.S. Averkiev saw the influence of the Tatars on various aspects of the social and cultural life of the Russian people in an extremely wide spectrum. This can even be judged by the chapters' titles: “The Influence of Tatars on Administrative Management, Finances”, “The Influence of Tatars on Trade and Industry”, “Everyday Life”, “Manners and Customs”, “People's Literature”. The author's research enthusiasm often encouraged him to seek the Tatar “connection”, where borrowings actually took place from Persia and the Arab countries, from the peoples of Central Asia. Perhaps, the obsolete, pre-revolutionary general designation of Turkic-speaking peoples as Tatars to some extent affected the author in this respect. Averkiev does not insist that all selected cases and examples of borrowings were certainly associated with the Golden Horde and the later Tatar khanates. The topic of Averkiev's book is not new at all. Attempts to identify the various manifestations of the civilizational connection between Russia and the East have been repeatedly made in historiography. As a rule, borrowings from the Golden Horde of the 13th–15th centuries and from the earlier Turkic states are considered a clear indicator of such a connection. Of course, indisputable examples exist: first of all, in the Russian titulature and social terminology, financial system of medieval Rus', organization of the yam-service, and so on.