The concepts of “People”, “Nation” in the works of G. Gubaydullin

The end of the 19th – early 20th century in the history of the Tatar people is a time of comprehension of their past, reflection on historical and cultural issues, determination of the main tasks of development. During this period, analysis and reasoning about the national issues come to the foreground in the works of Tatar scholars and publicists; they discuss the concepts of "people", "nation", raise the question "Who are we?" In this article, the author refers to the works of historian G. Gubaydullin "Millätne nichek tagrif kylyrga?" (1913), "Törekme, Tatarmy?" (1918), "Revisiting the Question of the Origin of the Tatars" (1928), who, using the example of the listed works, examines his reasoning about the name of the Tatar people, about the formation of the Tatar nation and also shows the evolution of his understanding of the problem of Tatar identity. A comparative analysis of G. Gubaydullin’s views on this issue with the arguments of his contemporaries has been conducted. The fact that recently interest in the problem of Tatar identity has increased remarkably is of particular note. In this respect, the relevance of studying the given problem in the reflections of famous scientists of the early 20th century has increased. The novelty of this study lies in the fact that, the formulation and understanding of the scientific problem of the national identity of the Tatar people at the beginning of the twentieth century is presented based on the works of G. Gubaydullin, the first Tatar professional historian.