TURANISM AS A POLITICAL PHENOMENON

Abstract

This article concerns the historical, political, and ideological aspects of the birth and subsequent genesis of the Pan-Turkism and Turanism ideology. The theoretical foundations of this ideology were laid by the Muslim (Tatar) intellectuals of Volga and Crimea at the end of the 19th century. It seems a paradox, but it is a fact, that the development and activation of the Turanism ideology as well as the origin of this notion itself, refers not to Turkey or Turkish-speaking people, but to some European political forces, first of all to German imperialists. As a result of the diversified and intense efforts, before WWI began, the ideology of pan-Turanism had already obtained obvious political shading. The governing triumvirate of the Ottoman Empire, and in the first place, General Ismail Enver Pasha - the military minister and the actual governor of the Empire - became the main ideologist of this movement.
The processes, closely associated with the increased political activity of the Muslim population of the Russian Empire, which was followed by the “appropriate steps” from the government of the Empire, are also discussed in the represented article.