The Chuvash
A Turkic people who have been largely isolated from other peoples of similar origin, the Chuvash have a unique sense of identity among the people of the Soviet Union. They are descended from Volga Bolgars who assimilated local Finnic and Turkic peoples. The Chuvash language is a literary language developed in the 1870's using the Cyrillic script. 82% of the Chuvash speak it as their mother tongue.

For centuries they have lived quietly along the middle course of the Volga River, growing rye and potatoes. Today they are found primarily in the Chuvash ASSR (Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic), east of Moscow. Many also live in settlements in the Tatar and Bashkir ASSR's. Since 1522, when Ivan the Terrible pushed back the forces of the Tatars, the Chuvash have lived under Russian rule. To avoid trouble - and the Czar's tax collectors - they often built their homes and villages off the beaten path, deep in the forest or in hard-to-find ravines. From the Russians the Chuvash learned more advanced means of agriculture. Today many of them live on large, thousand-acre collective farms.

Folk art and music continue to flourish with rich embroidery being carried on at a special centre in the village of Algeshevo, and traditional monophonic folk songs being sung to the accompani- ment of shapar (bagpipes made of a bull's bladder), parapan (drums) and tambourines.

In the middle of the eighteenth century the Chuvash were converted from pagan beliefs and became a part of the Russian Orthodox Church. They thus became one of the few peoples of Turkic origin not to identify with Islam. Today a good number of believers can be found among the Chuvash, especially in the regional capital of Cheboksary. At least one church of approximately 100 members is entirely indigenous.

The Chuvash received a New Testament in their own language in 1904 and again in 1911. Reprinting has recently been carried out. They also have a separate edition of the Gospel of John as well as a hymnal.

PRAY:
-for the 2 million Chuvash, and that those who truly know the Lord will carry the Gospel to the rest of their countrymen.

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