The poetics of newspaper publications by J. Seydahmet (Kırımer): journalism and narrative short fiction in the mirror of the First Crimean Tatar Kurultai (1917-1918)

Archive of Scientific Articles

ISSUE:

Philology. Theory & Practice. 2026. Volume 19. Issue 10

COLLECTION:

National Literatures of Russia

All issues

Abstract. The study aims to conceptualize the poetics of J. Seydahmet’s newspaper publications during the First Crimean Tatar Kurultai period (1917-1918) as an integrated literary-rhetorical system of civic mobilization. Its genesis is traced through the transition from the early enlightenment-oriented journalism of the “Terciman” (“The Interpreter”) newspaper to the topical political rhetoric of “Millet” (“The Nation”), where the concepts of Jadidism acquire specific generic and metaphorical forms. This study introduces a novel approach by developing and applying an integrative macro- and micropoetic analytical model to this source base, thereby interpreting the author’s literary legacy not merely as a body of historical evidence, but as a unified literary-rhetorical framework. The results demonstrate that the publication year of the prose collection “Unutulmaz közyaşları” (“Unforgettable Tears”) is revised to 1918 based on the Rumi calendar, superseding the traditionally cited 1916, while the early manifesto “Yigirminci asırda tatar milleti…” (“The Oppressed Tatar Nation…”) is textually demarcated into clandestine (1910) and official printing (1912) stages. Furthermore, in the foreign editions of the hybrid story-feuilleton “Milliy duyğu” (“National Feeling”), the socio-critical edge is attenuated by substituting the cross-cultural markers of inequality (“мадам” (madam) and “барышня” (miss)) with the autochthonous terms “qadınlar” and “qızlar”. Simultaneously, the metaphor of tears (közyaşlar) evolves from capturing collective trauma in “Terciman” into an instrument of cognitive awakening for the nation. Jean-Marie Guyau’s concept of psychological suggestion serves as the rhetorical foundation for the mobilizing appeals in “Millet”, whereas in the hybrid fiction pieces “Milliy duyğu” and “Cın Mambet” (“Possessed Mambet”), the concept of will (irade) shifts from a state of spiritual deficiency to a core category of character (seciye). Finally, the historiographical reception of the author is shown to shift from B. Chobanzade’s sociological critique to a deliberate strategy of silencing within Soviet academic discourse of the 1930s, specifically in the works of Academician A. Krymsky.