Abstract:

The Russians’ conquest of the Kazan Khanate is described as a great disaster in the history of the Tatar people. With the collapse of the Kazan Khanate in 1552, Tatars lost their state and national freedom. This event made a deep impact on Tatars, affecting destructively their economic, religious and cultural life. Important events in a nation’s historical past are reflected in its literature. The occupation of the Kazan Khanate by the Russians and the loss of national freedom left deep scars in the historical memory of the Tatars. In different periods, many literary works have been written both in Turk (including Tatar) languages and Russian about the collapse of the Kazan Khanate and the historical past of the Tatars. The focus of all these works is the image of Hanbike (Queen) Süyümbike as the symbol of national freedom of the Tatar people, a smart and beautiful woman, having a sad destiny. For the Tatar people, Süyümbike, the last Queen of the Kazan Khanate, is a figure spoken with both sadness and love. The name of Süyümbike has become a symbol of the missed national state and freedom for the Tatars, who were forced to send their Queen to Moscow in 1551 as a hostage, and later lost their state because of the Russian occupation of the Kazan Khanate in 1552. In the study, the analysis of the works written by Tatar writers and poets at the beginning of the XX century and devoted to Queen Süyümbike and Minaret (Tower) of Süyümbike (which survived to stay in the center of Kazan Kremlin after the conquest of Kazan) has been made by using the hermeneutic method.

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