Life in a small Tatar village in the Urals of Russia _ Cooking iconic Tatar dish Chak Chak

Russia's true greatness lies not in its area, but in its people. There are more than 190 ethnic groups, each with a story to tell. Stories full of hope and despair, and of joy and sadness. Today we will be traveling 1400 km away from Moscow to meet the biggest ethnic minority in Russia – the Tatars. Welcome to Barda, my friends. It's a tiny town in the Urals, in Perm region of Russia. In Russian we name this place Село, which in English is either a very small town or a village. And I believe that it's something between a town and a village. And it's a really special town, because it's a Tatar settlement in mid-Urals, where you can experience all the aspects of the genuine Tatar culture. And I actually spent many years of my childhood here. So, let me show you around this place. Barda is a small village located about 100 km away from city Perm, with population about 8000 people. It's inhabited mostly by Tatars, Bashkirs and Russians. According to the National Population Census, there are about 5 million Tatars living in Russia, and more than 1.5 million of them live in the Volga and Urals regions. Today I will introduce you to the Tatar people, culture and food. But first, a quick tour in Barda village. Now we're in the very center of the village. I cannot believe that I'm making a video from Barda town. For the record, today it's minus 18 Celsius, which is, by the way, a lot warmer than in the morning, it was minus 26 before. Absolutely in every Russian city and a town you will find a set of the following things. The Lenin street, the Lenin monument, and the department store, which is across the street. Well, and maybe the tank. Tanks. From the Lenin street we enter this small square. The signs here are in Russian and in Tatar language. And this monument is Barda potato. Yep, you heard me right. That's a potato. I came to a square located nearby my previous school. I went to this school from the 1st till the 4th grade, so the whole elementary school. I went there. Also on this square you can see the characters of Tatar fairy tales. This one is named Shurale. It's some scary man. And this is a woodcutter, who actually killed Shurale. And this is the statue of the most famous Tatar poet, Gabdula Tukai. Now he has a snow hat. Gabdula Tukai is a classic of the Tatar literature, and he is considered to be the founder of the modern Tatar language. And he was only 26 years old when he died. He lived such a short life, but he is the most famous person in the Tatar world. By the way, classes in this school and in all the schools in this town are in Russian, but there are obligatory Tatar classes for everyone, even if you are Russian. You have to study the Tatar language if you study in these schools. And there is also a newspaper in the Tatar language of this village, and a TV channel, which is fully in Tatar. There aren't many attractions to see in the village, but believe me, I have a lot more things to share in this video. The best thing that represents the Tatar culture is traditional cuisine, especially Tatar sweets. We won't go to a cafe, though. We will visit the local bakery. It's my first time to be in a real bakery, and not just a usual bakery. Here they make bread, some other pastries, cookies, and the most iconic Tatar dish – chak-chak. So, let's see the whole process. What's in this dough? How long does it take to make it? In the morning? Yes, in the morning. How long? Eight hours. Do you come here every day for eight hours? Yes. How much chak-chak will you get from this dough? Fifteen kilograms. So, where do we start? We take one piece and start rolling it. It's called zhgutik, right? Yes. It should be thin, right? Yes. Try some more. I'm in a real bakery, and someone is really going to eat this chak-chak, buy it in a store. Wow. And these chak-chaks are sold in a shop, right? Yes. Wow, so someone is going to eat my chak-chak? Yes. I hope they will like it. How many zhgutiks do you make a day? Let's count. 500? 1000? Not 500, I don't know. So, the dough stays for an hour, then this, and then you cook it. So, to make one chak-chak, it takes about two hours, right? Yes. Can I try to cut a couple of them? The smaller, the better, right? They should be the same size. Look how small they are. Really small little pieces. Guys, now I know how to make chak-chak. So, if my YouTube channel doesn't go well, I can work at the bakery. Tell me, what's going on here? I put the chak-chak in the water and cook it for 5 minutes. Then I take the chak-chak out of the water and put it on a plate. How long does it need to be cooked? About 5-7 minutes. And then the chak-chak is ready. Is it all in honey? Yes. Is it honey? It's vegetable oil. Look, so here is the ready chak-chak. It smells so good. There are actually many different types of chak-chak. So, this one is named dry chak-chak. It is without honey. Then this one is a traditional chak-chak. You can also decorate it anyhow, with flowers for example. And now we are making this one. You can see that there are very small rounds. And finally, here we can see all the ready products that are going to different cafes and shops. We made it! Look at the ready chak-chak that I also put my effort. And how many different types of them. Wow! Even Christmas edition chak-chak. This all goes to different shops of the village. I can't believe that chak-chak that I've made is going straight to the shop. Someone is going to have tea with chak-chak from Ali from Russia. And he is not even going to know it. Wow! This is so cool. Another iconic Tatar dish is gubadiya, which is a many-layer hearty pie. So, this one is gubadiya, right? Yes, gubadiya. I don't know how to call it. First, we need to peel the meat. And then we need to cut it. And where is the meat? Before we start the preparation, we need to grate the raisins, raisins and raisins. Then we need to fry the raisins. And then we fry the dough. Stuffing and dough. Then we will cut the portion that goes on top. We make a lot of different pastries. We don't make any other pastries than shakshak. We make shakshak for our in-laws' anniversaries. It's our tradition. We don't make any other pastries than shakshak. Shakshak is a symbol of unity. It's a symbol of happiness. It's a symbol of being together. It's a symbol of happiness. It's a symbol of being together. And it was so good! Or temly, which means delicious in Tatar. By the way, write in the comments if shakshak or gubadia are similar to any traditional pastries in your country. And now let's go back to the streets of Barda. Every year the biggest national holiday of the Tatars, Savantuy, is celebrated in this village. It's the holiday where Tatars celebrate the end of field works, where they wear their traditional costumes, sing, play games. And I actually made a video about that holiday in this village this summer. You can watch it in the link in the description of the video. But today I'm not showing you the costumes and the holiday of the Tatars, but a normal ordinary life. Today it's Thursday, which is a really special day for this village, because every Thursday there is an outdoor market where sellers from the city Perm and other towns come here to sell some stuff. So let's see what they have. Here they sell some shoes. And you also can see food here. Like nuts or dry fruits. And kolbasa. It's like a Russian kind of sausages. And I'm here to buy new shoes actually, because I realized that mine are suitable for winters of Moscow or St. Petersburg, but not for winters of the Urals or other northern towns of Russia. So I need to find something really warm that's going to keep me alive in these conditions. Some ushanka hats here. I already have one actually, because other hats are just not suitable for winters. Oh, and here are the warmest shoes that you can find. And valenki. That's what I need. I'm getting more stylish here. Am I stylish? So I'm trying on different valenki here, and actually I got so cold, but the seller told me that I actually can take valenki and go somewhere inside to try them on, because here it's too cold, and I asked if I should pay, and she said no, you can take them, go somewhere inside and try them on. It's fine, it's like trust level 1000. So I'm going to try them on somewhere, probably in that shop. I bought these ones. I have new valenki now, let's go. I'm not afraid of the cold anymore. Guys, in this village there is the only in Perm region ethnographic museum devoted to Tatars living in this region. So it's time for me to explore the history of my ancestors. Everything in this museum is in two languages, Russian on the left and Tatar on the right. You can see that the Tatar alphabet uses the Cyrillic letters, but some of them are different. For example, we don't have this letter in Russian, which is or this or, for example, this is And this letter looks like in English, and we don't have it in Russian, and the sound is as in English, which is so curious. And here they talk about cultural events in Barda region. Look how many events which were created to save the culture of Barda, Tatars and Bashkirs. So I will try to tell you what I understood from the information on these walls. And I also talked to the woman in the museum. So, at first on this territory, there were Finno-Ugric groups living. Then in the 12th century came the natives of Bulgars, and they were the ancestors of Gainians. There was a man Gainidin. He was the leader of Gainian Bashkirs. The Gainian Bashkirs. And they were the ancestors of Tatars living here. And in Perm region now there are lots of ethnographic different groups of Tatars. I have a tradition on my channel to hide Matryoshka dolls in places that I go to. Inside the doll there is a note from me and 100 Russian rubles. In Barda I left it in the museum of the local history. Just tell anyone from the staff in the museum the code ELLY from Russia, and they will give it to you. I hope that someone will visit this small Tatar village and find the doll. I have a friend who is a Tatar singer. She has her own group. And today I came to their rehearsal. Gulnur, what is the name of your group? Are these usually Tatar songs? Which ones do you sing more often, Tatar or Russian? In Barda usually everyone speaks in Tatar or Russian? Are there any features that belong to the Tatars? Tatars are beautiful, hospitable, modest. But there is also impudence, of course. Impudence is the second happiness. And what is the proverb? The best guest is a Tatar. The uninvited guest is worse than a Tatar. There is also such an anecdote. For example, a Jew, when he found out that a Tatar was born, cried. Why do they say that? I don't know. They are a purposeful nation. They are ready to help in everything. They want to be the first everywhere. In my childhood I never got bored here. I would go skiing to the forest, which is a 10-minute walk from the town center. I would go ice skating, hang out with my friends. But at the same time I always understood how big the world is. And I didn't want to be stuck in this village without ever getting to know new countries, cultures, meeting new people. So I promised myself that I would discover the world. And now I'm doing that. And I hope that you enjoy the discoveries that I'm sharing here on my channel. Guys, and do let me know in the comments what you think about this Tatar village in Meteorals. Would you ever like to visit it? And please let me know about any ethnic settlements in your country. Do you also have such settlements with some ethnic groups? What kind of ethnic groups and how do these settlements look like? And I hope that you did enjoy watching this video. The grass is always greener on the other side. If you were born in a small town, you dream about big cities. A person from a crowded city desires to escape to a calmer place. I keep showing you the life of different people. You might admire their life. Maybe you even try to be like them. But remember that your own life is no worse. And maybe that could be the very moment when someone would give anything to be like you.