Idel-Ural State
| Idel-Ural State | ||||||||||
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| Capital | Kazan | |||||||||
| Languages | Tatar, Uralic | |||||||||
| Religion | Islam | |||||||||
| Government | Republic | |||||||||
| President | Sadrí Maqsudí Arsal | |||||||||
| Historical era | World War I, Russian Civil War | |||||||||
| • | Proclamation | December 12, 1917 | ||||||||
| • | Defeated by Red Army | March 1918 | ||||||||
| • | Disestablished | March 28, 1918 | ||||||||
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The Idel-Ural State was a short-lived Tatar republic with its centre in Kazan that united Tatars, Bashkirs and the Chuvash in the turmoil of the Russian Civil War. Often viewed as an attempt to recreate the Khanate of Kazan, the republic was proclaimed on December 12, 1917, by a Congress of Muslims from Russia's interior and Siberia. "Idel-Ural" means "Volga-Ural" in the Tatar language.
On May 5, 1917 more than 800 non-Russian delegates representing Maris, Chuvashes, Udmurts, Mordvins (Mokshas and Erzyas), Komis, Komi-Permyaks, Kalmyks and Tatars held a general meeting in Kazan to create an independent Idel-Ural Republic in the Idel-Ural area in Russia. As a first concrete step, it was decided to create four professorships and two researchers' posts at Kazan University. The main idea was a loose League of Small Nations where all were free to strengthen their own cultural heritage. At first the Muslim Bashkirs declined to participate, but later in 1917 they and the Volga Germans joined the League of Idel-Ural.
Initially it comprised only Tatars and Bashkirs in the former Kazan and Ufa governorates, although other, non-Muslim and non-Turkic, nations of the area joined in a few months later: the Komi peoples, Mari, and Udmurts, who speak Uralic languages and practice either Orthodox Christianity or shamanism. The republic, which in reality included only parts of Kazan, was defeated by the Red Army on 28 March 1918.
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