Tatar nationalist Strategy, 1880-1920

To complete the written requireme,t for his doctoral degree in political science, alexei Zverev will have to write two articles. They will constitute, together with his previous published writings on Chechnya, his doctoral dissertation, as proposed by the doctoral commission. The article ''from reformed school to red Tatary: Political Strategies in the History of tatar Nationalism, 1880-1920' deals with the various ways in which the Tatar elites at the turn of the 20th century tried to meet the challenges posed by the changing political and social situation in Russia. The second article, 'The Austromarxist Theories of Cultural-National Autonomy and the Tatar Dilemmas of 1917-18' will try elucidate the similarities and the differences between Otto Bauer's / Karl Renner's conceptsof cultural national autonomy and the analogous project of Tatar politicians. We intend to show that althoughteh austromarxist theories of Bauer/Renner and some Tatar projects (in particular, that of Sadri Maksudi) had the common element of providing for a national council (councils) to deal with cultural, educational and religious matters, both of them stemmed from contrasting premises and had different objectives. The Austromrxist projects were aimed at preserving the territorial integrity of Austria-Hungary and accomodate the wishes of conflicting nationalities. The tatars rather wished to preserve their isolation from the newly established Sovier regime.