The Role of «Terjiman» Newspaper in the Modernization Process of Russian Muslim Turks at the Turn of the 19th–20th Centuries

This article analyzes the influence of «Perevodchik-Terjiman» newspaper over the modernization process among Russian Muslim Turks at the turn of the 19th–20th centuries. It is being noted that the modernist «Perevodchik-Terjiman» newspaper remained the only private Muslim periodical in Russia until 1905 and marked the popularity of renovation ideas among Russian Muslim Turks, which is proved by an uprise of «jadidism» as a mass movement. As a part of his modernization program, neswspaper’s editor Ismail Gasprinskiy employed such methods of nation-building as a creation of a common literary language (common Turkic) and distribution of an unified educational network («new-method» schools), new literature (the novels and civic poetry) and national media («Perevodchik-Terjiman» newspaper, etc.). At the same time the «Perevodchik- Terjiman» newspaper used a common for nationalist discourses rhetoric – awakening of the nation, enlightment, modernization, etc. However, I. Gasprinskiy’s renovation ideas, spread over a geographically vast space, could have an impact only on a certain part of the Turkic-Muslim population of Russia, primarily related to the «new-method» schools. Moreover the discourse of «Perevodchik-Terjiman» newspaper confirms the absence of internal homogeny among the Russian Muslim Turks.