Gaziz Gubaidullin (1887-1937)-Tatar publicist, writer, scholar-Turkologist, a man whose name has emerged from non-existence today, as if re-opened to the Tatar people.

In the Museum of the Tatar Cultural Center in Kazan, the first of five stands dedicated to outstanding figures of the Tatar people of the XX century and opening the museum's exposition tells about the life and work of G. Gubaidullin. This center, located in the premises of a cult institution of the Soviet era - the Lenin Memorial, was created after the fall of the Soviet Union. Until then, since the early 1930s, the name and work of the scientist and public figure for several generations of Soviet people was forgotten, despite the fact that "in the intellectual life of Tatar society in the first decades of our century," writes the oldest Russian scholar-Turkologist Shamil Mukhammedyarov, " one of the central places belongs to Gaziz Salikhovich Gubaidullin (G. Gaziz) is a bright and multi-faceted personality. The breadth of views of this man, who was formed within the walls of the Kazan Imperial University, naturally intertwined with the skill of filigree analysis of a specific historical fact. His critical mind and ability to penetrate the essence of historical phenomena, the academic form of presentation of the material were closely combined with his artistic talent. History, source studies, historiography, literature and literary studies - these are not the full range of creative interests of a scientist " [Mukhamediarov, 1994, p. 13].

G. Gubaidullin combined scientific work with journalistic activity and writing. He is a master of the short story, "Tatar Chekhov" - became known as a writer and publicist in pre-revolutionary Russia. It is now reopened to the public. Not only his short stories, but also almost all his journalistic articles of the pre-revolutionary Russia era, such as" Is the Nation Dying?", are reprinted in the pages of the modern press of Tatarstan. The fate of G. Gubaidullin is the fate of an intellectual of the Russian national suburbs of the XX century. The scientist's life spanned two epochs of Russia. The first half of his life coincided with the era of initial capital accumulation with its far from humane face; the second-with the construction of a new, as the country hoped, the most just society on Earth, which since the 1930s turned out to be akin to the darkest Middle Ages.

G. Gubaidullin was a representative of one of the most rapidly developing peoples of the Russian Empire. After the abolition of serfdom, the Tatar people began to confidently look to the future, to believe in the real possibility of eliminating the negative aspects of Russian life. Thanks to the research of historian Damir Iskhakov, coe-

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A year ago, it became known that during the period from the XVIII to the beginning of the XX century, the number of Volga-Ural Tatars increased 11.2 times [Iskhakov, 1999, pp. 27, 40-50]. Such growth rates testified to the spiritual health of the ethnic group, to the belief in their ability to successfully overcome future adversities.

The future scientist was born in the family of a representative of a dynamic social stratum, the main driving force of change - merchants, entrepreneurs. Among the Russian merchants at this time, there was a formative transition from medieval trade to industrial production. G. Gubaidullin's father, Salih Gubaidullin, was in line with the general flow of reforming Russia. Starting with a small fortune inherited from his father in the early twentieth century. he became one of the most prominent merchants of Kazan, the owner of a cloth manufactory that carried out orders from the treasury. G. Gubaidullin's mother was one of the daughters of the famous Kazan rich man I. Aituganov.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, urban residents of Russia ceased to differ in appearance from Europeans. Only peasants and worshippers continued to wear traditional national clothing. Changing your appearance was much easier than changing your value system. The strategic task was different: the country was faced with the need not only to change its traditional national clothes for European ones; a horse for a car, tram and train; to use for communication not so much an "opportunity" as a post office, as well as recently unknown telegraph and telephone. Many other previously unheard-of innovations entered the city's everyday life literally on a daily basis. It was necessary not only to accept them, but also to radically rethink the foundations of their existence, to change their ideas about the world and about themselves.

This comprehension and reinterpretation of being, the world and one's place in it - the psychologically most difficult process for a person to reevaluate values - took place among G. Gubaidullin's contemporaries, but in different ways. This process divided people, including those closest to them, pitted them against each other and, ultimately, resulted in a bloody Civil War. In the national suburbs, the same thing happened as in the capitals, but this process had to be completed faster and cover a much longer distance.

The historian's father, who already in the 19th century conducted business on a grand scale and in a European way and looked very presentable, sent his son to study in a conservative, old - fashioned, as they said at that time, educational institution; in the one in which he himself once studied-the Khalidiya madrasah. But when S. Gubaidullin was young, in the middle of the 19th century, this educational institution was not conservative and was headed by one of the most prominent Tatar enlighteners of the 19th century - Shihab Marjani. However, at the beginning of the 20th century, "Khalidia" seemed to be a bastion of medieval obscurantism for Tatar youth oriented towards Europe. A contemporary of S. Gubaidullin, I. Aitov, later wrote about Gaziz and his studies at the madrasah: "He himself was for many years a shakird (student. - E. K.) in one of the worst pre-reform madrasahs, "kadym", where even the use of black chalkboards, like the color of Shaitan, was considered a sinful act, and students sat directly on the floor, did without desks " [Cit. by: Gubaidullin, 2002, p. 239]. Probably, this madrasah was not so bad at all, but it only seemed so against the background of rapid changes in the country, against the background of conscious and semi-conscious tasks facing the Tatar people in an era when Russia was catching up with Europe at an accelerated pace.

Eight years, from 1895 to 1904, when Gaziz studied at the Khalidiyya madrasah, where he had to come before sunrise and leave around 9 pm, devoting all his time to the madrasah.

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according to spiritual scholasticism, they fell at the time of 12-18 years, when a person has a natural process of forming a system of values. The walls of the conservative ecclesiastical school heard rumors of grandiose changes: the development of industry, the construction of great railways, and the rapid Europeanization of the country. At the beginning of the 20th century, three innovations conquered everyone in Russia: telephone, cinematography and photography, known in the XIX century.

The lively, intense, fascinating life affected the students even more than others. Ignoring the prohibitions of their mentors, they were drawn to a life free from medieval norms. The main questions that they were concerned about were how much the acquired knowledge would be useful to them in the future, what place in life graduates of madrasas could take. Gaziz acquired the skills that allowed him to work as a cleric; skills that were not useful to him in later life. But unlike many other students, he, a future historian and writer, managed to use the good knowledge of Arabic, Turkish and Tatar languages obtained in the madrasah. In addition, while still studying at a madrasa, he began to study Persian with a private teacher. Since 1899, Gaziz has already read Jules Verne, Flammarion, Voltaire, Rousseau, and other European writers and scholars in Turkish. Through Arabic and Turkish literature, through articles in Tatar periodicals, he gets acquainted with the basics of teaching in Europe.

Representatives of the Tatar intelligentsia tried to acquaint their people with the achievements of Europe and the Russian people, and were engaged in translations. They sought to instill in the Tatars a sense of love for other nations, in particular for the Russian people; they called on the Tatar youth to take an example from the Russian youth. Gaziz feels an acute need for the Russian language and begins to study it immediately after graduating from the madrasah.

In the year of Gaziz's graduation from the madrasah, during the Russo-Japanese war, when the whole country was acutely aware of its backwardness from European countries, a violent movement began among the progressive Tatar youth - madrasah shakirds, students of real schools, high school students, students of Kazan and other cities-aimed at promoting and spreading advanced European and Russian culture among the Tatars. Then a circle of elite intellectual Tatar youth is created under the name "Shimba", which Gaziz becomes a member of. When Gaziz finished Khalidiya, the Russo-Japanese war was raging on the far-flung Russian outskirts, and the country was on the verge of the first Russian revolution. Gaziz's desire to get a European education, which he developed during his madrasah years, was finally formed in the year of Russia's defeat in the war and the beginning of the first Russian revolution of 1905-1907. During these years, the advanced strata of Russian society, acutely experiencing defeat in the war and internal problems, believed that all the troubles stem from the lack of civilization of society, from its backwardness from the Western European powers.

Among the Muslim peoples of Russia, the Tatars have always occupied a special place. They were the most educated, drawn into new social relations of the Turkic ethnic group, aware of the role of an informal spiritual leader not only of the Turkic, but also of all the Muslim peoples of Russia. The process of revaluation of values among the Tatars was, on the one hand, the most civilized (with almost universally literate Tatar population), on the other - the most acute. The confrontation between people with different ideas about the world and about themselves was especially intense among people of different generations, the traditional conflict between fathers and children became deafeningly loud.

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Fatih Amirkhan dedicated the play "Yashlyar" (Youth) to the struggle of fathers and children in Tatar families at the beginning of the XX century, which is still being performed on the stage of Kazan theaters. Although the author did not even change the name of the main character - Gaziz, now few people know that the prototypes of the heroes of the play were the family of the Kazan merchant S. Gubaidullin, the conflict of fathers and children in this family. In the revolutionary year 1905, Gaziz told his father that he completely broke with his business as a merchant and manufacturer, and he should not count on his son's participation in the trade, that he had a different path in life, he would earn money independently of his father by his work and wanted to get a European education.

Since 1906, Gaziz began to prepare for the exams for the 8th grade of the classical gymnasium, hiring a tutor for a modest fee, which turned out to be one of the first Bolsheviks in Kazan - a student S. N. Gassar. The gymnasium course included a mandatory and good knowledge of ancient and modern European languages. Gaziz is studying German, French, Greek and Latin, and is thoroughly preparing for university admission in other subjects. Although class and national restrictions on admission to university (except for restrictions for Jews) were lifted, it was not easy for him to realize his dream at that time. In huge Russia, there were only 10 universities - the same number as in small Switzerland. Accordingly, there was a high competition, in which, as today, it was necessary to demonstrate, in addition to knowledge in certain subjects, a good command of the Russian language. Gaziz was lucky to learn the language: he teaches it at home with the help of a teacher of Russian literature - his uncle's wife. (The existence of the Russian Aunt Liza was a great boon for Gaziz, but a scandalous circumstance for the clan. When, after the death of his first wife, his uncle married the Russian governess of his children, the famous Tatar poet Gabdulla Tukay composed a poem popular at that time, where he sarcastically wrote about this marriage as a disgrace to the ancient Aituganov family.)

G. Gubaidullin lives in a period of revolutionary transformations in Russia, where the Tatar should promote the introduction of his people to Russian and European culture. This is exactly what Gubaidullin and a small circle of his friends and associates see as their life's purpose. In a narrow circle of like-minded people, Gaziz, together with his friends, intensely and consciously absorbs European culture in discussions of various problems, at literary evenings, in productions of home performances. During these years of intense political and intellectual life, Gaziz meets young leaders of the thoughts of the Tatar people-Gabdulla Tukay, Fatih Amirkhan, Karim Tinchurin, Gafur Kulakhmetov, actively participates in the Shakirdian movement and begins to speak in the periodical press. Young people gather in small groups in full confidence that they are the most intelligent, talented, and capable of solving problems that everyone else cannot solve. And indeed, they decide, invent. This is a time of extremely intense intellectual activity. In Russia, the reference points are I. I. Mechnikov, a Nobel Prize winner (1908), and I. P. Pavlov. Tatar intellectuals transformed themselves first of all and felt themselves to be leaders responsible for the fate of the people.

In 1909, Gubaidullin passed the matriculation exams and entered the Faculty of Law of Kazan University. Russia was successfully industrializing during this period. At the same time, the principles of autocracy (since 1905) were shaken. Tsarism could not even fully control the activities of the government, since the state budget was approved by the Duma. The principle of state policy has become maneuvering between social forces that are ready to compromise with the tsarist government. Compromisers naturally aroused hostility.-

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sexually motivated young people. In 1905 - 1907, the revolutionary intelligentsia even supported individual terror and peasant riots, which destroyed the centers of rural Russian noble culture - 2 thousand landowners ' estates, which contained works of art and libraries. The peasants, speaking out against the landlords, also launched a struggle against the kulaks for communal egalitarian ideals. There were student strikes in 1908 and 1910. The level of the working-class movement even in 1908-1910. it remained higher than before 1905.

The collapse of the state, which began "from below", was supplemented by a crisis of the "top". Government power gradually passed into the hands of temporary workers, and the influence of Grigory Rasputin, who treated the heir to the throne Alexey from hemophilia and, as many were sure, determined state policy, grew at the court.

After the defeat of the 1905 - 1907 revolution, the slogan "Russia for Russians" became a guide for the most reactionary forces. The young Tatar intelligentsia followed with intense attention how in 1910 the government decided to liquidate the autonomy of Finland, anti-Polish agitation and persecution of Jews began. Emigration to the New World has increased. The Duma approved the nationalist course of the Stolypin government, in particular the policy of Russification of the western provinces. It was in this situation in 1910. Gaziz moved to the Faculty of History and Philology of the University, finally deciding to devote his energies not so much to the establishment of a civilized legal state in Russia, but in order to get answers to three sacramental questions for the Tatar people and for all the peoples of Russia: Who are we? Where did we come from? Where are we going?

During the student years, in addition to acquiring special, professional knowledge and skills, there is also the most intensive familiarization with the cultural values accumulated by humanity. The intensity and depth of an individual's exposure to culture is directly related to the spiritual and emotional climate of the era. G. Gubaidullin was lucky that his young years coincided with the "silver age" of Russian culture. This meant that the process of becoming familiar with European culture was spurred by the extraordinary richness of the country's creative life. In addition, in the" silver age "art was looking for an answer to the question" What is Russia, what is waiting for Russia?". Vekhi became the manifesto of the new bourgeois intelligentsia of Russia.

Of course, much remained the property of only the residents of the capital. But even in the province, G. Gubaidullin and a narrow circle of like-minded people did not miss the opportunity to discuss the same political and social problems that were discussed in the capitals, and to see and hear visiting artists and singers. As A. S. Alishev, a Soviet researcher of Gubaidullin's creative work, wrote: "G. Gubaidullin's ideological growth before the October Revolution was influenced by the social environment in which the Tatar national intelligentsia played a decisive role. On the other hand, he was under the growing influence of the progressive democratic movement, especially the youth. He himself wrote that in 1905 the ideas of Leo Tolstoy, the Narodniks, and the Social Democrats penetrated their midst. He was a friend of Gafuri Kulakhmetov and knew Kh. Yamashev (the most famous Bolshevik Tatars. - E. K.). However, ideologically, he did not rise to their level, to the social-democratic ideology. His favorite teacher at the university, Professor N. N. Firsov, was a populist. Outside of the university, Gubaidullin participated in various circles of advanced Tatar youth. In terms of ideological positions, he was close to F. Amirkhan and the revolutionary democrats. G. Gubaidullin was not a revolutionary" [Alishev, 1986, pp. 112-121].

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G. Gubaidullin managed to get a brilliant professional education. Russian universities at that time were not inferior to European ones. Kazan University was one of the oldest, with deep traditions, especially in Oriental studies. G. Gubaidullin, who decided to become an orientalist, received an education at the Kazan Imperial University, which was at a high European level. At the Faculty of History of the University from 1910 to 1916, its main supervisors were well-known Russian professors-historians N. N. Firsov, M. M. Khvostov and orientalist N. F. Katanov. Student G. Gubaidullin actively participated in the social life of the democratic Tatar youth. Together with F. Amirkhan, G. Tukay and other Tatar democrats organized the popular magazine "Ang"among Tatars. In 1914-1915, Gubaidullin participated in the compilation, editing and publication of the first fundamental collection of articles in the history of the Tatar people, dedicated to the 100th anniversary of Sh. Marjani. For the collection, he wrote two articles about the work of the enlightener. In 1915, G. Gubaidullin published his first scientific work in 11-20 issues of the Shura magazine: "The Experience of Marco Polo".

As S. Kh. Alishev writes, " G. Gubaidullin's pre-revolutionary works are mainly of a source-study and historiographical nature. "The Experience of Marco Polo" < ... > is a source study of the book of Marco Polo <...> Gubaidullin compares the book of Marco Polo with other sources, compares, sometimes disagrees with the author, criticizes and complements Marco Polo. He uses the works of many travelers and writers, historians both European and Eastern. Thus, a solid and serious study was made not only about the book of Marco Polo, but also on the history of the Mongol Empire at the end of the XIII century. The same kind of work should be considered his work "Ibn Khaldun and the Politics of Aristotle", completed in 1910. Articles devoted to the work of Sh. Marjani are especially valuable for studying Tatar pre-October historiography. In the article " Views of Sh. Marjani on enlightenment, science and art " he proves that Marjani was a man of a progressive worldview, with a European outlook. In another article - " Historical works of Sh. Marjani" - the author shows how Marjani worked on the sources, reveals the scientist's laboratory. Gubaidullin generally gives a high assessment of Marjani's activities, claiming that he is the first historian of the Bulgaro-Tatars " [Alishev, 1986, pp. 112-121].

Just as the high growth of Russian culture in the late XIX-early XX centuries would not have been possible without the help of industrialists-patrons-S. I. Mamontov, P. M. Tretyakov, S. T. Morozov and many others, so the development of the culture of the Tatar people depended on patrons-Tatars. Over time, the views of Gaziz's father, S. Gubaidullin, changed. He became the most famous patron of the arts in Kazan. With his financial support, a collection of articles devoted to Sh. Marjani. The magazine Moslem, published in Paris, described Gaziz's father as follows:: "There have long been rumors among the wealthy Muslims of Kazan about the establishment of a special fund to support needy students of the same faith and grant them scholarships. This rumor has finally come to fruition, and if we take into account the speech made on this occasion by the famous rich man Mr. Salih-effendi Gubaidullin, we can hope that the time is not far off when our students will be no worse off than others. Speaking about the need to take measures to improve the financial situation of young people in need, Mr. Gubaidullin said: "The time has come to close the gap that separates us from young people. For the sake of the future, we must support it. Do not think, however, gentlemen, that without our help they will never be able to survive.-

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they will go to school and remain ignorant. Their love for knowledge is so great in our country that they will go out on the road and achieve their goal by their own efforts. But if we then have the conscience to call ourselves the fathers of those children to whom we have denied the necessary things at the most critical moment for them, we will justly deserve only contempt on their part, and they will be right." by: Islamic Bulletin, p. 21].

In 1914, Gaziz got married and started teaching history at the new-fashioned madrasa "Muhamadiya". In one of his autobiographies, Gaziz wrote:: "Since 1914, secretly from my superiors, I began teaching history at one of the Tatar reformed madrasahs "Mukhammadiye "" [Autobiography]. He could teach secretly from the authorities, but he did not marry. In the archive of the son of the scientist, the rector's permission to marry the daughter of the merchant of the 1st guild Rabiga Kazakova is still kept.

In 1916, Gaziz graduated from the university with a first-degree diploma. In tsarist Russia, a person who graduated from a university automatically became a nobleman, i.e., a member of the ruling class. However, for the unreliable, this fact was purely formal. For the authorities who monitor students ' social activities, Gubaidullin was considered unreliable. Therefore, after graduating from the university, he could neither continue his studies to prepare for the professorship, nor enter the civil service. G. Gubaidullin himself writes about this as follows:" My political unreliability and Tatar origin did not allow me to enter the civil service and stay at the university " [Autobiography]. Moreover, formally at the suggestion of the governor, but in fact by his order, G. Gubaidullin was forced to leave Kazan. The career of an excellent student, a university graduate with a first-degree diploma, began in the small county town of Troitsk, in a private Tatar teachers ' seminary. Here he began to teach history, and unofficially, i.e. without the approval of the authorities. He became the head of the Tatar men's 5-class school "Vazifa".

The February revolution, which Gubaidullin accepted with enthusiasm, allowed him to return to Kazan. "G. Gubaidullin was in the maelstrom of public life of his time. Having started his career as a politician during the turbulent revolutionary years, he actively participated in the work of the Millet Majlis (National Assembly of Muslims of Inner Russia and Siberia) convened on November 20, 1917, and became a member of the board for the creation of the Idel-Ural State. There, together with other members of the board G. Sharaf, F. Saifi, F. Mukhamedyarov, S. Atnagulov, he began to implement this most realistic project of restoring the national statehood of the Tatar people in the conditions of the collapse of the Russian Empire. One after another, from year to year, journalistic articles and pamphlets were published from his pen. His views, socio-political views, and philosophical perception of life evolved" [Mukhamediarov, 1994, pp. 13-14].

After the October Revolution, Gubaidullin refused his father's offer to emigrate, saying that he would share the fate of his people. In 1919, he entered graduate school at the Department of Russian History. In his autobiography, he wrote about this: "The February Revolution made it possible to deploy all my forces in the field of science and literature. However, this revolution did not yet make it possible to stay at the department to prepare for the professorship, because until October Kazan University remained old - pre-revolutionary. Only the October Revolution and the cleansing of Tartary from the Belochs opened the way for me to graduate school. In 1919, I was assigned to the Department of Russian History at the University under the supervision of two professors: N. F. Katanov (orientalist) and N. N. Firsov, a Russian historian"

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[Autobiography]. These words of the scientist contain his personal choice in an era of rapid changes, when many intellectuals left for politics and administrative work. Although, of course, at this time it was impossible to completely lock himself in the "ivory tower", but he made a fundamental decision: to be a scientist.

In 1918 - 1925 collections of short stories by G. Gubaidullin, textbooks, monographs, pamphlets were published: "History of the Tatars", "History of classes among the Tatars", "Stages of social development of the Volga Tatars". Books "History of the Tatars" ("Tatar tarikhy") and "From the Past of the Tatars" covered the history of the Tatar people from ancient times to the XIX century. "The author pays special attention," writes S. Alishev, " to the history of the Tatars of the XVII century, widely covers the Pugachev uprising, the Catherine Commission of 1767, for the first time introduces archival materials of the Tatar town hall into scientific circulation, etc. 3 editions in the Tatar language, the last one was published in Moscow in 1925 " [Alishev, 1986, p. 112-121], "From the Past of the Tatars" was published twice during the author's lifetime and once - relatively recently in England, "History of Classes among the Tatars" went through two editions. In 1923-1924. Gaziz, in collaboration with Ali Rahim, writes The History of Tatar Literature, published in Kazan, in three volumes.

By this time, G. Gubaidullin became known not only as a publicist and writer, but also as a scientist. His views were formed, which did not coincide with the Marxist ones. He did not write about abstract classes in Tatar society in the eighteenth century - the feudal lords and the peasantry-but about social strata: the landed aristocracy (princes and murzas), the Muslim clergy, service Tatars, merchant Tatars, landlords and landlords. Following M. N. Pokrovsky (and like the French historian Fernand Braudel later), he argued in his works that after feudalism in the XVIII century, the country established not a capitalist system, but a formation of commercial capitalism.

Before the era of mass repression was still far away, but the scientific and ideological views of the scientist and personal relations with public figures of different political views did not suit the authorities. It dealt mercilessly with ideological opponents, expelled them from the country, but did not yet dare to condemn a well-known scientist for his scientific views. In 1925, Gubaidullin was arrested on charges of a criminal offense. The scientist's son wrote about this: "My father was accused of theft, allegedly committed by him somewhere in Central Asia. The absurdity of the accusation was obvious: at that time, my father was constantly living in Kazan, but he was arrested" [Gubaidullin, 2002, p. 36]. Only the friendly intervention of the old (tsarist) professorship that still remained saved him from prison. The press published an article "An unfortunate mistake" with an apology to the scientist.

However, Gubaidullin decided to leave Kazan. At this time, not only in Moscow, but also on the outskirts of Soviet Russia, there was an acute need for qualified personnel capable of working in local languages. The scientist received an invitation to work in Moscow, Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan. And he's leaving for Baku. He travels to Moscow and Uzbekistan to give lectures. Gubaidullin's research extends to the history of all Turkic peoples. In 1927, he defended his doctoral dissertation "The problem of the origin of the Uzbek people", became a professor and dean of the Oriental Faculty of Azerbaijan State University, a member of the State Academic Council of Azerbaijan, Chairman of the Central Bureau of Education of the Academic Center of Uzbekistan, professor of the Department of Muslim Oriental Studies at Tashkent and Samarkand Universities, and created a school of Oriental studies. In 1929, he was elected a full member of the Research Institute of Ethnic and National Cultures of the Peoples of the East in Moscow, in which he worked as a researcher.

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1930-Freelance professor at the 1st Moscow State University. During this period, Gubaidullin is particularly active in scientific congresses and conferences.

Gubaidullin's creative period was marred by political persecution since the early 1930s. The publication of the scientist's works has been sharply reduced since 1931-1932. Many of his handwritten works from the most productive period of his life in 1931-1933 were irretrievably lost. Only a part of them is preserved in the scientific archive of the Institute of History of the Azerbaijan Academy of Sciences. Already in 1933, the scientist was forced to leave his work in the Azerbaijani branch of the Academy of Sciences and leave Baku with his family, choosing Pyatigorsk first and then Kazan as his place of work and life. He thought that the persecution of him outside Azerbaijan would end, but he clearly underestimated the repressive machine created by Stalin. Realizing that it was impossible to escape from her, he returned to Baku and was arrested on March 17, 1937. During the arrest, the missing manuscripts of recent works were seized. After many months of imprisonment, accompanied by torture, on October 13, 1937, the first Tatar professor was shot in the dungeons of the NKVD of Baku.

Thanks to the kindness of V. M. Alpatov and F. D. Ashnin, who studied the circumstances of the political trial of Oriental scholars and wrote together with D. M. Nasilov a monograph on the life and death of prominent Soviet Turkologists [Ashnin, Alpatov, Nasilov, 2002], I was able to read the transcripts of G. Gubaidullin's interrogations. He was interrogated several times every month. Three times the interrogation lasted continuously for 10 days. The defendant had to stand during the entire interrogation. For 10 days, the investigators, who, of course, were sitting, changed repeatedly. Mr. Gubaidullin was accused of everything and "confessed"! In addition to his scientific activities, which "naturally" served as a screen for subversive counterrevolutionary work, he worked in connection with all the real and virtual political forces of the time and was engaged in both subversive sabotage activities and political and ideological work. It doesn't only (simultaneously!) he was an agent of the intelligence services of Turkey, Germany and Japan, but also intended (at the same time!) to revive in one and the same place the constitutional Russian monarchy, the medieval (!) caliphate, the unified Turkic-Tatar state and the bourgeois-democratic state of Azerbaijan.

We don't know what a scientist who received a first-class European education and had a unique language toolkit could create. He knew six modern and dead European languages - Russian, French, German, English, Latin, and ancient Greek; three Eastern languages-Turkish, Arabic, and Persian. Today, the works of G. Gubaidullin, which were created almost at the very beginning of his scientific career, have found a second life, but most of the works created by him in the last years of his life are not known. G. Gubaidullin's life was interrupted in the prime of his creative powers.

list of literature

Autobiography of Gaziz Gubaidullin. It is located in the personal archive of the son of the scientist Salman Gubaidullin.

Alishev A. S. In the footsteps of the past. Kazan: Tatar Publishing House, 1986.

Ashnin F. D., Alpatov V. M., Nasilov D. M. Repressed Turkology, Moscow: Vostochnaya literatura, 2002.

Gaziz Gubaidullin: scientific and bibliographic collection. Kazan: Ruhiyat Publ., 2002.

Iskhakov D. M. Etnodemograficheskoe razvitie tatars v XVIII-XX vv. i ikh traditsionnaya kul'tura [Ethnodemographic development of Tatars in the XVIII-XX centuries and their traditional culture]. Kazan: Tatpoligraf Publ., 1999.

Islamic Bulletin. 1992. N 14. The Archive category.

Sh. Mukhamedyarov Preface / / Gaziz G. Istoriya tatar [History of the Tatars], Moscow: Moskovskiy Lyceum Publ., 1994.

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