Inventing the past: Discussion at the Round table “The Queen of All "Suembika"”

On April 24, 2025, the Round table “The Queen of All "Suembika": Image and its transformation in the historical memory of the Russian and Tatar peoples” was held at the Marjani Institute of History of the Tatarstan Academy of Sciences. Due to the fact that the topic of historical memory with an emphasis on common places of memory as a space for cultural consensus and overcoming conflicts is important from a scientific and practical point of view, the editors of the Historical Ethnology journal decided to publish the transcript of the meeting. It includes the text of the report of the leading researcher of the Institute, Doctor of Historical Sciences I.L. Izmailov and the discussion that arose around it. Syuyumbike was the ruler of the Kazan and Kasimov Khanates. The time of her reign fell on the period of the conquest of Kazan by the Moscow Tsar Ivan IV and the internecine wars of the medieval Turkic-Tatar states (mid–16th century). The historical role of this woman was outstanding and tragic. There is a popular legend associated with her name that Syuyumbike threw herself off the tower of the Kazan Kremlin in the name of her beloved one. However, this gate tower was built only at the end of the 17th century. The purpose of the Round table discussion was to consider the question of why Syuyumbike became an iconic figure in the historical memory of the Tatars and how her image was formed over several centuries. The participants of the discussion came to the conclusion that Syuyumbike’s image began to form in the 17th century and received its final form during the period of nation-building among the Tatars at the beginning of the 20th century. The special place of this woman in historical memory was predetermined by multiple factors. 1) Owing to the work of writers and poets of Russia during the era of Romanism, who were the first to publicly construct the image of Syuyumbike. 2) Its association by the Tatar people and the Tatar intelligentsia with a tragic period of the national history, the limitations of the Russian Empire in terms of pedaling the theme of the Turkic-Tatar khanates rulers, who were men and whose fates were not so dramatic. 3) Gender, which imparted emotionality to the image and the basis for its perception through motherhood. 4) Finally, the nature of historical memory itself, which presupposes the obligatory presence of a pantheon of heroes who sacrifice themselves for the sake of the people. Sacrifice, martyrdom, the tension of history are the main emotional foundations of the invention of the past.