Tatar ladies in higher educational institutions of the Russian empire (late 19th – early 20th century)

This article provides archival information about Tatar girls who studied at Russian universities at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. It informs about the educational institutions they attended, admission to schools and the learning environment conditions. During that period, women received education mainly in St. Petersburg. Raziya Kutluyarova was the first among Tatar ladies to study at higher medical courses. It is also known that Amina Batyrshina studied at that school, who later became famous as a doctor and public figure in the city of Baku. In addition, young Tatar women studied specialties related to various sectors of the national economy – polytechnics, trade, literary history, and natural sciences. Higher courses open to women were financed by private donations and from students’ income. Therefore, not everyone could study there. It is known that in 1906–1918 twelve Tatar ladies studied at the Faculty of History and Philology of Kazan Higher Courses. The article also touches on the issue of social activities of Tatar girls who received higher education. Among the girls who completed the courses, there are those who continued to receive higher education and engage in science. One of them, Maryam Gubaidullina, studied at the Kazan North-Eastern Institute of Archeology and Ethnography, gave lectures on the topic “Ethnography of the Kazan Tatars.” As an appendix to the article, a list of Tatar ladies who studied at women's higher courses before the October Revolution is presented.