A Case of Cultural Nationalism in Eastern Europe: Karaite Studies and Their Role in the Development of a Karaite Identity in the 19th–21st Centuries Diana Mykhaylova Academic dissertation to be publicly discussed, by due permission of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Helsinki in auditorium XIV, on the 8th of September, 2018 at 12 o’clock. University of Helsinki, Department of Cultures ISBN 978-951-51-4452-2 (paperback) ISBN 978-951-51-4453-9 (PDF) Helsinki University Printing House Helsinki 2018 Abstract A doctoral thesis, titled A Case of Cultural Nationalism in Eastern Europe: Karaite Studies and Their Role in the Development of a Karaite Identity in the 19th–21st Centuries Chronologically, my study begins in the 19th century, a time when some evidence of Karaite social activity allows us to identify the beginnings of a Karaite ‘National Movement’. However, I open the discussion with a retrospective look at the historical background and preconditions for the beginnings of the Karaite national movement after the annexation of the Crimean Peninsula in 1783 by the Russian Empire. The study chronologically ends in 2014, when Crimean Karaites passed under the jurisdiction of the Russian Federation. In my doctoral thesis, I analyse the following main issues: First, I examine the Karaite proto-national movement through the prism of a constructivist approach to the study of nationalism and identity. I also test the applicability of Miroslav Hroch’s model of the development of European national movements in the 19th century using the Karaite proto- national movement as a case study. I compare the essential traits of several national movements in Europe in the 19th century (for instance, the Crimean Tatar, Lithuanian, Finnish and Scottish national movements) with the Karaite one. I also use comparative analysis to focus on the characteristics of the Karaite identity in different historical periods from the 19th until the beginning of the 21st centuries as discussed in published sources. The Karaite group travelled a long way from being a religious group to the modern ethnic group that it is today. Additionally, I dedicate a significant part of the study to scholarly discussions on the Karaite ethnic origin by non-Karaites and the Karaite reaction to such discussions precisely because outside opinions greatly impacted the construction of the Karaite identity. I use Hroch’s model for the comparative analysis of national movements specifically with respect to the Karaite case because he paid particular attention to small-scale nationalism (and the nationalism of minority groups) in Eastern Europe. I attempt to clarify the place of the Karaite national movement in the European context with the help of this model. The Karaite movement is similar to the sort of national movements where an ethnic group has never had either its own statehood or its own ruling class (e.g., Basques). Although the Karaites have never made such demands (probably because of their small number), they can still be compared to certain national minority movements. 2 Table of Contents A Case of Cultural Nationalism in Eastern Europe: Karaite Studies and Their Role in the Development of a Karaite Identity in the 19th–21st Centuries...............................................................1 Abstract............................................................................................................................................2 Table of Contents.............................................................................................................................3 Acknowledgements..........................................................................................................................7 Chapter 1. Introduction.........................................................................................................................8 Who are the Karaites?.................................................................................................................8 Origin and Meaning of the Name...........................................................................................8 Language................................................................................................................................9 Structure of the Thesis................................................................................................................9 What is new in this work?.........................................................................................................11 Methodology.............................................................................................................................12 Sources......................................................................................................................................12 Literature Review......................................................................................................................13 Works on Nationalism and Identity......................................................................................13 Karaite Bibliography............................................................................................................14 Early Research......................................................................................................................14 Contemporary Research.......................................................................................................14 Chapter 2. Theory Frame and Earlier Research on Identity, Ethnicity, Nation, Nationalism............17 Identity......................................................................................................................................17 Ethnicity....................................................................................................................................18 Definitions of Ethnicity by Constructivists...............................................................................20 Construction of Ethnicity, Ethnic Culture and Ethnic Identity.................................................22 Nation and National identity.....................................................................................................23 Terminology of Nation, People, Ethnicity in the Russian language.........................................26 Nationalism...............................................................................................................................28 Cultural nationalism..................................................................................................................30 Ethno-symbolism......................................................................................................................32 Birth of Nationalism: Historical Background...........................................................................34 Romanticism.............................................................................................................................40 Miroslav Hroch’s Theory on National Revival.........................................................................42 New Imperial History................................................................................................................47 Chapter 3. Preface. Historical Background and Preconditions for the Beginning of the Karaite ‘National Movement’: Early Studies on the Ethnic Origin of the Karaites by Non-Karaites............56 Historical Preconditions for the Karaite National Movement...................................................56 Arguments presented by Abraham Firkovich...........................................................................63 Ancient Karaite Settlements in Crimea and the Glorious Karaite Ancestors ‘Granted’ by Abraham Firkovich...................................................................................................................64 New Interpretations of Karaite History According to Documents Found by A. Firkovich:.....66 First Articles in the Russian Press (1843–1844)..................................................................66 First Assumptions about the Khazar Origin of the Karaites.................................................69 Karaites and Khazars in the Universal Description of Crimea (1873).................................70 Livanov's Entry on the Karaites in his Crimea Travel Guide (1874)...................................72 Vasiliy Smirnov's theory about the ‘Khazar-Karaite Symbiosis’ (1890)..............................73 Anthropometrical Research.......................................................................................................75 Summary of the First Period of the Karaite National Movement in the Russian Empire from the Middle of the 19th until the Beginning of the 20th Centuries...............................................77 Chapter 4. The Karaite Response to the Russian Scholarly Articles and Reconstruction of Karaite Ethnocultural Identity in the Russian Empire in Publications from the Middle of the 19th Century to the Beginning of the 20th Century.......................................................................................................79 Historical Overview: National Policy in the Late Russian Imperial Period.........................79 3 What Karaites Had to Say about Their Identity and Ethnic Origin..........................................81 Reformatory and De-Judification Tendencies among Karaites in the 1870s.......................81 First Seraya Szapszał Publication on the Khazar Theory (1896).........................................82