TO THE HISTORY OF THE WAY OF THE KRYASHENS' SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT

In the question about sources of the way of the Kryashens' spiritual development it is necessary, undoubtedly, to see importance in the next: the creation of the Kryashen alphabet, the establishment of Kryashen school, the performance of Orthodox Divine service in the Kryashen language, the ordination in hierarchical degrees of representatives from the Kryashens, the publication of books in the Kryashen language, the convocation of congresses and the revival of parish life of the Kryashens in the bosom of Russian Orthodox Church.

From the Kryashens father Vasiliy (Timofeev) and father Timothy (Egorov) worked on spiritual field (i.e. Orthodoxy) in Kazan in the XIX century. Father Vasiliy translated Holy Scriptures under guidance of N. I. Ilminskiy. After hieromonk Makariy's departure from Kazan, he served Orthodox worship in his native language. After father Vasiliy's death in 1895, father Timothy occupied his place. He served in the Kryashen church up to its closing.

From 1 to 7 July 1920 there took place the 1-st All-Russian Congress of the Kryashens in Kazan. In the evening sitting in the 5-th day of the Congress' work there were delivered the famous speech of Nikolskiy N. V., the professor of theology, in which the latter briefly but thoroughly explained the Kryashens' origin to the Congress, saying that the Kryashen people descended from the Polovtsians mainly, partly from the former Turks. /The recording of proceedings of the 1-st All- Russian worker-peasant's and Red Army man's Congress of the Kryashens. The edition of the Central Kryashen publishing- house. Kazan. The First State printing-house. 1921, p. 41/

There were attempts of publishing "The Kryashens' history" as a separate nation, enlist Nikolskiy, the professor of theology./Vol. 15, list 1,file � 1279. The records of proceedings of the sittings of the board of sub-department and sections./ "The Kryashens' history" was not published. The chief of publishing-house Pavlov reported that the department of press abolished the orders for publishing of 3 small plays, 2 political booklets and "The Kryashens' history" by professor Nikolskiy / from record of proceedings � 15 of the sitting of the Kryashen board from 15.02.1921/

In 1917-1918 there called the Congresses of the representatives of the Povolzhje's small nationalities. The congresses considered wide program of the development of Povolzhje nations in that number the program of church reform. At the 1-st general meeting of the representatives of Povolzhje's small nations deacon O. K. Sadkov reported a resolution of church commission. Here some points of this resolution:

1.To acknowledge desirable the establishment of the Metropolitan Kazan area. It's desirable if the Metropolitan Kazan chair will occupy Andrew, the bishop of Ufa, as an expert of customs and mode of life of the non-Russians not only in the Kazan diocese but also in the others. The Metropolitan is the leader of activity of the national non-Russian bishops but not as the chief and as first among the equals.

2.At once to send into the pre-council conference the representatives from the next non-Russian tribes- the Kryashens, Chuvashs, Cheremis, Mordva, Votyaks, Permyakovs and Ziryan; the choice of candidatures give into the sections of the afore-named nationalities etc./ The record of proceedings of the 1-st general meeting of the representatives of Povolzhje's small nationalities.-p.24-28/

After the October revolution of 1917 the government structures of the Tatar republic began to realize the idea about the united Tatar nation among the Kryashens, the line of bringing together the Kryashens with the Tatar mass. It required a number of years of systematic and hard work in order to abolish Kryashen organizations, institutions and representations. There were liquidated newspapers, publishing-house, theatre, pedagogical technical secondary school, Kryashen parishes and so on. On 4 December 1925 according to decision of the district committee's commission it happened the "reunification" of the Kryashens with the Tatars./See: Maxim Glukhov. ENCYCLOPAEDIA. Kazan, 1997, p.333-334. Newspaper "Krasnaya Tatariya", from 4 December 1925/

The restoration of Kryashes' identity began simultaneously with spiritual revival. In Kazan, by the blessing of archbishop Anastasiy, the Divine Service in the Kryashen language began in the day of St. Ioasaf Belgorodskiy's memory-23 December 1989. Since this day is like start point.

We greatly hope that the texts and the materials, which are presented in the section of spiritual culture and literature, will be soon the property of general public readers and will promote the decision of the questions concerning to the Kryashen problematics.