Практика англоязычной межкультурной коммуникации. Залялеева А.Р. - 14 стр.

                                            15

low, rolling plain that makes up most of the republic's territory yields fodder
crops, wheat and other cereals, sugar beets, sunflowers, and flax. The republic is
a leading Russian oil and natural-gas producer and the starting point for a pipe-
line to Eastern Europe. There are also important deposits of brown coal, lime-
stone, gypsum, dolomite, and marl. Lumbering and food, leather, oil refining, and
fur processing are major Tatar industries. Manufactures include machinery,
chemicals, and pharmaceuticals. The Volga, Kama, Belaya, and Vyatka rivers
are important for both transportation and irrigation. There are several hydroelec-
tric stations.
      Turko-Tatars make up around 50% of the population, and most live in rural
areas. Russians, generally urban, constitute some 40%, and there are Chuvash,
Udmurt, Mari, and Mordovian minorities. Sunni Islam is the chief religion.
      Bulgars dominated the region from the 8th to 13th cent., when it was con-
quered by the Mongols of the Golden Horde; their Tatar descendants, in turn,
gradually replaced or absorbed the Bulgar population. Russian colonization fol-
lowed the capture (1552) by Czar Ivan IV of the khanate of Kazan, the most
powerful of the Tatar states emerging from the empire of the Golden Horde. The
Tatar ASSR was organized in 1920 as one of the first autonomous areas estab-
lished by the Soviet government. In 1990 a declaration of sovereignty was
adopted, and in 1991 the republic declared itself independent. This declaration
was recognized by no other state. The republic was not a signatory to the Mar.
31, 1992, treaty that established the Russian Federation, but it has made its own
treaty arrangement with Russia.
The Tatar Empire
      The original Tatars probably came from E central Asia or central Siberia;
unlike the Mongols, they spoke a Turkic language and were possibly akin to the
Cumans or Kipchaks and the Pechenegs. They were nomads, moving across the
vast Asian and Russian steppes with their families and their herds of cattle and
sheep. After the conquests of the Mongol Jenghiz Khan, the Mongol and Turkic
elements merged, and the invaders became known in Europe as Tatars. The
Mongol invasion led by Batu Khan into Hungary and Germany in 1241 is also
known as the Tatar invasion.
      After the wave of invasion receded eastward, the Tatars continued to domi-
nate nearly all of Russia, the Ukraine, and Siberia. Because of the gorgeous
tents of Batu Khan, his followers were known as the Golden Horde. The empire
of the Golden Horde - also known as the Kipchak khanate - controlled most of
Russia either directly or through exacting tribute from the Russian princes. The
Golden Horde adopted Islam as its religion in the 14th cent.


                             HISTORY OF TATARSTAN
     Exercise 16. Translate into English making historical and cultural comments where nec-
essary.
    1. Народ, носящий теперь имя "казанские татары", жил на своей земле
в междуречье Волги и Камы гораздо раньше нашествия Чингисхана и вовсе
не является народом-пришельцем. Русский историк Н.И. Воробьев писал:
"Название татар (официальное со стороны русских название населения Зо-
лотой Орды) по отношению населения Волжско-Камского края начинает