‘When there is an opportunity, I’ll try to write it down in Tatar’: National Identity as Constructed in the Diary of High-School Student Fathima Kashafutdinova, 1917-1920

Abstract

The author examines the process of construction of national identity by high-school student Fathima Kashafutdinova based on her diary entries of 1917-1920 in the context of sociocultural, economic and political changes at the turn of the 20th century and as a result of the Great Russian Revolution (1917-1922). The author analyzes how elements of the Tatar national discourse developed in Fathima’s diary over time and how they were used to express her self-reflection and her identification with other people. Through their research, the author has discovered that Fathima’s had initially needed to construct her national identity as a Tatar, which can be clearly traced through the earlier pages of the diary. Nevertheless, by May 1918, any sign of a “Russians/Tatars” dichotomy disappeared in her text. However, this dichotomy was not completely resolved since she was influenced by both cultural and intellectual processes in the Tatar community as well as by the Russian-speaking urban cultural and social space.