The impact of continental empires as a factor in the development of the Crimean Tatar society
The article analyzes the features of the political and social institutions of Turkey and Russia in the 16<sup>th</sup>-18th centuries: the problem is considered in the context of the impact of the Ottoman and Russian empires on the modernization processes experienced by the Crimean Tatars society. A certain similarity in the historical development of continental empires is noted, the military-fief system and the system of millets in the Ottoman state, on the one hand, are compared, on the other, the institution of the nobility as a service class, endowed by the king with lands, and the peculiarities of the formation of the imperial elite from representatives of various confessional groups in Russia. The problems of the transformation of internal political processes into a factor affecting neighboring countries are correlated, the complexity of the formation of identity and the associated problem of the development of the central, historical regions of imperial states are shown. The process of the gradual formation of the identity of the Crimean Tatars is shown, the obstacles to the implementation of the necessary reforms associated with the control carried out by the Ottoman Empire are shown The factors of the weakening of the Ottoman state are considered: the loss of the former flexibility of political institutions, the disintegration of the administrative-judicial system, a kind of vicious circle, when the military-fief system, due to its characteristics, depends on military conflicts, but at the same time, defeat on the battlefield due to its disintegration. leads to a crisis of state power. If the 17th century for Turkey became a kind of continuation of the old era, the «Golden Age», then for the Muscovite kingdom it turned into a stage that prepared Westernization and the necessary reforms. The positive role of the unambiguous recognition by the Russian Empire of the Crimean Tatar elite, whose representatives, after the annexation of Crimea, were subject to the rights of the nobility, was noted. Remaining connected with the further prospects for the formation of the Crimean Tatar secular culture, the possibilities for the development of modern education, this fact becomes one of the prerequisites for the formation of the national intelligentsia.