Pyotr Rychkov served for decades in the Orenburg administration and became a correspondent of the Academy of Sciences. His Topography (1762) describes the province region by region: towns and forts, Bashkirs, Kalmyks, Kazakhs (then called Kirghiz-Kaisaks), Nogais and Tatars, rivers, minerals, and the ruins of old towns on the steppe. He drew on his own travels, government files, and questions put to Muslim scholars, interpreters and envoys who had been to Khiva and Bukhara. This corpus copy is the 1762 Academy printing.
How they knew
Part eyewitness
Who “Tartar” means here
For Rychkov 'Tatars' are the Muslim Turkic peoples of Kazan, Orenburg and the Volga, the Nogais of the old steppe towns, and the Siberian Tatars. He notes that in Khiva and Bukhara the word was an insult and that these peoples called themselves Turks.
Why read it
A candid 18th century discussion of where the name 'Tatar' came from and who used it, plus early notes on steppe ruins and the traditions about who built them.
Watch out
The OCR of this 1762 typeface is badly garbled and quotes here have been normalized word by word; some place names in the ruins list could not be read securely. Much of what he reports about ruins is hearsay from Kazakhs, Cossacks and old men.
Stone ruins that an old Tatar called tombs of a people who left for China
Editorial contextAlong the Uy frontier line Rychkov notes ruins of stone buildings, some still whole. An old Tatar of Iset province told Lieutenant-Colonel Rennenkampf, from his ancestors' tradition, that the peoples who once lived here had moved away to China, and that the standing buildings were nothing but cemeteries of their notable men. An early record of local explanations for steppe ruins.
in various places there are ruins of stone buildings, some of which are still whole. About these, one very old man among the Tatars living in Iset province told Lieutenant-Colonel Rennenkampf, from the tradition of his ancestors, that the peoples who lived in these places in ancient times went away into the Chinese state. The buildings still visible are nothing other than the cemeteries of their notable people
Working translation
Original wording
въ разныхъ мѣстахъ находятся развалины каменныхъ строеній, изъ коихъ нѣкоторыя понынѣ еще въ цѣлости. О сихъ изъ живущихъ въ Исетской провинціи Татаръ одинъ престарѣлой человѣкъ Подполковнику Ренненкампфу по преданію предковъ своихъ объявлялъ, яко бы въ древнія времена жившіе въ сихъ мѣстахъ народы отошли въ Китайское государство. Оныя донынѣ видимыя строенія не что иное, какъ знатныхъ ихъ людей кладбища
Pyotr Rychkov, reporting an old Tatar's account to Rennenkampf (1762)
A ruined stone town with a mosque, credited to the Nogais
Editorial contextIn a section on 'ruins of ancient towns and buildings' Rychkov lists sites in the Kazakh Middle Horde. At a great ruined town on the Nura river there were chambers still standing, a mosque and much fallen stone building. The Kazakhs told Russian informants that Nogais had lived there in the old days. Nearby entries credit other ruins to Nogai princes or to holy women.
Here too is a mosque, and a great deal of ruined stone building. The Kirghiz (Kazakhs) say that Nogais lived here in the old days.
Working translation
Original wording
Тутъ же одна мечеть, и весьма много развалившагося каменнагожъ строенія. Киргисцы сказываютъ, что тутъ въ старину живали Нагайцы.
Editorial contextRychkov questioned Muslim scholars and Russian envoys sent from Orenburg to Khiva and Bukhara about the names 'Scythians' and 'Tatars'. He concludes that no people there called itself Tatar. The word meant a lawless, inhuman people supposed to live somewhere in far Siberia, and calling someone a Tatar was like calling him a barbarian or a worthless peasant.
for I am fully certain that in all those parts there is not one people that calls itself Tatars. By the name Tatars they understand a very lawless and inhuman people, which they suppose lives in the Russian, and above all in the most remote Siberian, places … And they regard the name Tatar as very dishonourable and abusive, as if to say barbarian, serf, and good-for-nothing.
Working translation
Original wording
ибо я совершенно увѣренъ, что во всѣхъ тамошнихъ сторонахъ ни одного народа нѣтъ, которой бы Татарами имяновался. Подъ именемъ Татаръ разумѣютъ они народъ весьма беззаконной и безчеловѣчной, признавая, якобы жительствуетъ онъ въ Россійскихъ, а паче въ самыхъ отдаленныхъ Сибирскихъ мѣстахъ … И имя Татаръ почитаютъ они за весьма безчестное и поносное, такъ какъ бы сказать, Варваръ, Смердъ, и ни къ чему годной человѣкъ.
Editorial contextThe interpreter Aralov, who had often been to the town of Turkestan, told Rychkov of a despised clan of under a hundred families nicknamed the 'tailed Tatars'. The story went that their ancestors killed the son of a local saint, who cursed them so they could not ride horses, and they grew a tail-like mark. Aralov swore he had seen such a mark on a naked child. Rychkov leaves it to the reader: 'whether this is true or not'. His real point follows: there the name Tatar is an insult, and the Tatars of Orenburg and Kazan are called Nogais.
he cursed them with a prayer, so that they should be unable to ride on horseback, and supposedly from that time they received on their bodies a mark like a tail … The said interpreter declares that he himself saw one child of those people naked, and assures that it really had such a mark behind. Whether this is true or not is left to free judgment.
Working translation
Original wording
заклялъ ихъ молитвою, дабы они неспособны были къ верховой ѣздѣ на лошадяхъ, и будтобъ съ того времени получили они на тѣлѣ знакъ подобной хвосту … Помянутой Переводчикъ объявляетъ, яко бы онъ изъ тѣхъ людей одного робенка самъ видѣлъ нагова, и увѣряетъ, что у него назади такой знакъ подлинно былъ. Правдаль сіе, или нѣтъ, остается въ произвольномъ разсужденіи.
Pyotr Rychkov, reporting the interpreter Aralov (1762)
About A despised clan near Turkestan called 'tailed Tatars'
Keep in mind
A second-hand legend; Rychkov explicitly declines to vouch for it.
The scan is too rough to double-check this quote by machine. Compare it with the page.
The fine print
How we know
compilation Assembled from earlier sources. The author did not observe it directly.
compilation by a provincial official from personal observation, administrative records and Tatar, Bashkir and Kazakh informants (including Tevkelev)
Research notes
Draws on Tevkelev, Kirilov papers and Tatar oral genealogies; Rychkov also published Dnevnye zapiski (1770, 1772) not located on IA in this pass.
Why it matters
Systematic Russian account of the Kazakh hordes, Bashkirs and the Aral-Caspian trade routes at the moment Russia fixed its steppe frontier; includes historical chapters on the Golden Horde and Kazan successors.