1883: Ismail Gasprinsky Publishes the Newspaper Tercuman

On April 10, 1883, in the Crimean town of Bakhchysarai, the first issue of a new newspaper appeared. Its title was Tercuman, a Crimean Tatar word meaning “interpreter” or “translator.” It was published by Ismail Gasprinsky, who had once served as the town’s mayor.

According to the Representative Office of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea (hereafter, the Presidential Representative Office), Crimean Tatars still mark April 10 as “Crimean Tatar Journalism Day.” In 2011, the reason the Mejlis, the Crimean Tatars’ representative body, and journalists chose that date was that it was the day Tercuman’s first issue appeared. This article looks at that newspaper and the man who created it.

From Mayor to Publisher

According to the entry “Gasprinsky Ismail-bey” (written by Tetiana Bykova, volume 2, 2004) in the Encyclopedia of the History of Ukraine (hereafter, the Institute of History’s encyclopedia) published by the Institute of History of Ukraine, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Gasprinsky (1851–1914) was born into a military family in the village of Avdzhikoi near Bakhchysarai, a village that no longer exists. The Presidential Representative Office gives his birthdate as March 20, 1851, and states the village disappeared in 1987.

According to the same encyclopedia, Gasprinsky studied at the village’s Islamic school (mekteb), then studied in Voronezh before moving on to a military cadet school in Moscow. He returned to Bakhchysarai in 1867 without graduating and taught at the Zincirli Medrese (an Islamic seminary). From 1871 to 1874 he lived in Paris, sending articles to Russian newspapers, and in 1874 moved to Istanbul. He returned home in 1877 and became mayor of Bakhchysarai. The entry “Tatars” in the Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine (IEU) at the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies (CIUS) at the University of Alberta gives his term as mayor as 1877–1881.

Ukraine’s Cabinet of Ministers, in Order No. 75-r of March 7, 2001, established an organizing committee to mark the 150th anniversary of Gasprinsky’s birth, calling him “an outstanding enlightener, humanist, and thinker of the Crimean Tatar people.”

Gasprinsky and Gaspirali: Two Names

The headword in Ukrainian-language encyclopedias is “Gasprinsky” (Гаспринський). IEU’s entry “Bakhchysarai” (updated 2023) calls him “Ismail bey Gasprinsky (aka Gaspirali),” explaining that this name comes from the Crimean town of Gaspra. The Institute of History’s encyclopedia likewise adds “Gaspirali” (Гаспралі) after its headword.

The newspaper’s title also has two forms. IEU’s “Tatars” entry writes it as “Tercuman-Perevodchik”—the Crimean Tatar “Tercuman” and Russian “Perevodchik” both meaning “interpreter, translator.” The Latin-script spelling also varies between sources: IEU’s “Bakhchysarai” entry uses “Tercüman,” while the Presidential Representative Office uses “Terciman.”

The First Issue, April 10, 1883

According to the Institute of History’s encyclopedia’s entry “Tercuman” (written by Mykola Kyriushko), the newspaper was published in Crimean Tatar and Russian, with the aim of informing Crimea’s Muslims about European culture, science, and law, and informing Russians about the lives and thinking of Muslims. It states the paper spread to many countries of the East.

An April 10, 2026, article by the Presidential Representative Office gives more detail. Preparations had begun in 1882, but bureaucratic approval took time, and the first issue did not appear until the spring of 1883. Its pages had two parts, one in Russian and one in Crimean Tatar; the first issue covered new imperial laws, the development of Turkic and Muslim newspapers, and women’s emancipation. It began as a weekly and later became a daily, read as far afield as the Ottoman Empire, the Caucasus, and Central Asia. The same article notes that the launch date was made to coincide, in form, with the centenary of the Russian Empire’s “annexation” of Crimea (1783), which the Crimean Tatar people regard as an occupation.

According to a March 20, 2025, article from the Presidential Representative Office, the newspaper was written using the Arabic script, as used in the Ottoman Empire, in a language based on the southern-coast dialect of Crimean Tatar. It states circulation reached as much as 16,000 copies at its peak.

Aiming at One Language, or a Crimean Tatar Newspaper?

Sources place the emphasis differently when describing Tercuman’s language.

• IEU’s “Tatars” entry (first published in volume 5 of the print encyclopedia, 1993) states that Gasprinsky’s movement promoted a single Turkic language common to all Turkic and Tatar peoples of the Russian Empire.
• The Institute of History’s encyclopedia describes the newspaper as having been published in “Crimean Tatar and Russian.”
• The Presidential Representative Office explains that it used a language based on the southern-coast dialect of Crimean Tatar, written in Arabic script.

The Presidential Representative Office cites Gasprinsky’s motto as “Unity in language, in thought, in deed.” Choosing language that would reach Turkic readers beyond Crimea, and being remembered as the start of Crimean Tatar-language journalism, are two sides of the same newspaper.

Schools of the “New Method”

Gasprinsky’s name is spoken of alongside not only the newspaper but also school reform. According to the Institute of History’s encyclopedia’s entry “Jadidism” (2004), this name comes from the Arabic “usul-i jadid” (“new method”), a movement to bring Islamic culture closer to European culture and modernize Muslim life. In Crimea it was Gasprinsky who began it, and it centered on establishing secular “new method” schools to reform education.

IEU’s “Bakhchysarai” entry writes that for Crimean Tatars, this meant literacy in Crimean Tatar and bringing contemporary subjects into what had been medieval-style Islamic schools (madrasas). The Presidential Representative Office notes that “new method” schools were the first to use classroom-based instruction and textbooks, that they introduced education for women, and that Gasprinsky devised a phonics-based method for teaching letters.

Publishing That Grew from the Newspaper

According to the Institute of History’s encyclopedia, Gasprinsky printed the Quran in three formats—large, medium, and small—which spread abroad and among Turkic peoples of the Russian Empire such as the Volga Tatars. He also published the weekly newspaper “Millet” (“Nation”) and the women’s weekly “Alemi Nisvan” (“Women’s World”), and printed his own short stories. The Presidential Representative Office also names the children’s paper “Alemi Sub’yan” (“Children’s World”) and a satirical newspaper, and states that the travel-narrative novel “Molla Abbas” was serialized in Tercuman from 1887 to 1889.

Among his written works, “Russian Muslims” (original title Russkoye musulmanstvo; the English rendering here is provisional), published in Simferopol in 1881, tops the list of his works given by the Institute of History’s encyclopedia.

Timeline: Gasprinsky and Tercuman

Year	Event	Source
1851	Born in the village of Avdzhikoi near Bakhchysarai (the Presidential Representative Office gives March 20)	Institute of History’s encyclopedia, Presidential Representative Office
1867	Returns to Bakhchysarai and teaches at the Zincirli Medrese	Institute of History’s encyclopedia
1871–1874	Lives in Paris, sending articles to Russian newspapers	Institute of History’s encyclopedia
1874	Moves to Istanbul	Institute of History’s encyclopedia
1877	Becomes mayor of Bakhchysarai (IEU gives 1881 as the end of his term)	Institute of History’s encyclopedia, IEU
1881	Publishes “Russian Muslims” (provisional translation) in Simferopol	Institute of History’s encyclopedia
1882	Preparations for the newspaper begin	Presidential Representative Office
1883	April 10: first issue of Tercuman appears in Bakhchysarai	Institute of History’s encyclopedia, Presidential Representative Office
1887–1889	Serializes the novel “Molla Abbas”	Presidential Representative Office
1914	Dies September 24; his son Refat continues the newspaper	Institute of History’s encyclopedia
1918	February 23: final issue	Presidential Representative Office
1921	A memorial museum to Gasprinsky opens in the building of the printing house that produced Tercuman	IEU
2001	The Cabinet establishes an organizing committee for the 150th anniversary of his birth (March 7)	Cabinet of Ministers order
2011	April 10 designated “Crimean Tatar Journalism Day”	Presidential Representative Office

Until When Was the Newspaper Published?

The year Tercuman ended is given differently by different sources.

• IEU’s “Tatars” entry (first published 1993) states it ran from 1883 to 1914.
• The same IEU’s “Bakhchysarai” entry (updated 2023) gives 1883–1918.
• The Institute of History’s encyclopedia’s “Tercuman” entry states that Gasprinsky’s son Refat continued publishing it after his father’s death on September 24, 1914, without giving an end year.
• The Presidential Representative Office states the final issue appeared on February 23, 1918, after the Bolsheviks had occupied Crimea.

1914 is the year the founder died; 1918 is the year the Presidential Representative Office says the final issue appeared.

A Nobel Peace Prize Candidate?

The Institute of History’s encyclopedia’s “Tercuman” entry states that his work with the newspaper led to Gasprinsky being nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1910. The Presidential Representative Office’s 2025 and 2026 articles likewise state he was nominated in 1910.

On the other hand, the Nobel Foundation’s publicly available database of nominations shows no name for Gasprinsky in the Peace Prize nomination lists for 1905 through 1914 (as of September 2026). Until this can be checked against the original records, whether a nomination was actually made is best read as the account given by the encyclopedia and the Presidential Representative Office, and not confirmed.

After the 1944 Deportation

After the Soviet government deported the Crimean Tatar people from Crimea in 1944, the Presidential Representative Office writes, many Crimean Tatar-language newspapers, magazines, and books were deliberately destroyed and have not survived.

Under Occupation Since 2014

In Crimea, occupied by Russia since 2014, Crimean Tatar television and radio stations have had to stop operating or move outside the peninsula, the Presidential Representative Office writes in its April 10, 2026, article.

Reading On from Tercuman

The Crimean Tatar language, written in Arabic script in Gasprinsky’s newspaper, was later forced to change its script to Latin and then Cyrillic; in 2021 Ukraine’s Cabinet set a 31-letter Latin alphabet. That history is covered in our article on the Crimean Tatar Latin alphabet. The 2021 law recognizing the Crimean Tatars as an indigenous people is covered in our article on the indigenous peoples law, and the ornek ornamental tradition is covered in our article on ornek.

Gasprinsky’s daughter Shefika (1886–1975), who led a movement among Crimean Muslim women, is also named in a Verkhovna Rada resolution (December 18, 2025, No. 4748-IX) setting Ukraine’s list of commemorative dates and anniversaries for 2026–27.