Volga Tatars are a group of
TatarsTatars , sometimes spelled Tartars, are a Turkic ethnic group mainly inhabiting Russia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan. They numbered 10 million in the late 20th Century, which includes all subgroups of Tatar people, such as...
, most of whom occupy the central portion of the
Ural MountainsThe Ural Mountains are a mountain range that runs roughly north-south through western Russia. They are usually considered the natural boundary between Europe and Asia....
.
Kazan (Qazan) Tatars
The majority of Volga Tatars are Kazan (Qazan) Tatars. They are the majority of the population of
TatarstanRepublic of Tatarstan is a federal subject of the Russian Federation . Its size is 68,000 km² with a population of 3,800,000. Its capital is Kazan...
, one of the constituent
republics of RussiaThe Russian Federation is divided into 83 federal subjects , 21 of which are republics. The republics represent areas of non-Russian ethnicity. The indigenous ethnic group of the republic that gives the republic the name is known as the "titular nationality"...
.
During the 11th-16th centuries, numerous
TurkicThe Turkic peoples are Eurasian peoples residing in northern, central and western Eurasia. They speak languages belonging to the Turkic language family. They share, to varying degrees, certain cultural traits and historical backgrounds...
tribes lived in what is now
RussiaRussia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
and
KazakhstanKazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a country situated in Eurasia that is ranked as the ninth largest country in the world. It is also the world's largest landlocked country. Its territory of 2,727,300 km² is greater than Western Europe...
. The present territory of Tatarstan was inhabited by the
Volga BulgarsVolga Bulgaria or Volga-Kama Bolghar, is a historic Bulgar state that existed between the seventh and thirteenth centuries around the confluence of the Volga and Kama rivers in what is now Russia. Today, both the Republics of Tatarstan and Chuvashia are considered to be descendants of Volga...
, a people whose origins are uncertain, but who scholars consider to have been Turkic. The Bulgars settled on the Volga River in the 8th century and converted to Islam in 922 during the missionary work of
Ahmad ibn FadlanAhmad ibn Fadlān ibn al-Abbās ibn Rašīd ibn Hammād was a 10th century Arab Muslim writer and traveler who wrote an account of his travels as a member of an embassy of the Abbasid Caliph of Baghdad to the king of the Volga Bulgars, the Kitāb ilā Mulk al-Saqāliba...
. On the Volga, the Bulgars mingled with Scythian and
Finno-UgricFinno-Ugric is a group of languages in the Uralic language family, comprising Finnish, Estonian, Hungarian and related languages.It comprises the Finno-Permic and Ugric language families.-Status:...
speaking peoples. After the
Mongol invasion of EuropeThe Mongol invasions of Europe, under the leadership of Subutai, centered on the destruction of East Slavic principalities, such as Kiev and Vladimir...
from 1241,
Volga BulgariaVolga Bulgaria or Volga-Kama Bolghar, is a historic Bulgar state that existed between the seventh and thirteenth centuries around the confluence of the Volga and Kama rivers in what is now Russia. Today, both the Republics of Tatarstan and Chuvashia are considered to be descendants of Volga...
was defeated, ruined, and incorporated into the
Golden HordeThe Ulus of Jochi or the Golden Horde is an East Slavic designation for the Mongol—later Turkicized—Muslim khanate established in the western part of the Mongol Empire after the Mongol invasion of Rus' in the 1240s: present-day Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Kazakhstan, and the Caucasus...
.
Much of the population survived, and there was a certain degree of mixing between it and the Kipchak Tatars of the Horde during the ensuing period. The group as a whole accepted the language of the Kipchaks and the ethnonym "Tatars" (although the name
BulgarsThe Bulgars were originally semi-nomadic people, probably of Turkic descent, originating in Central Asia, who from the 2nd century onwards conquered different parts of Europe...
persisted in some places), while the invaders eventually converted to Islam. Two centuries later, as the Horde disintegrated, the area became the territory of the Kazan khanate, which was ultimately conquered by Russia in 1552. There is some debate among scholars as to the extent of that mixing and the share of each group as progenitors of the modern Kazan Tatars. It is widely accepted that demographically, most of the population was directly descended from the Bulgars. Nevertheless, some emphasize the contribution of the Kipchaks on the basis of the ethnonym and the language, and consider that the modern Tatar ethnogenesis was only completed upon their arrival. Others prefer to stress the Bulgar heritage, sometimes to degree of equating modern Kazan Tatars with Bulgars. They argue that although the Volga Bulgars did not keep their language and their name, their old culture and religion have been preserved. According to scholars who espouse this view, there was very little mixing with Mongol and Turkic aliens after the conquest of Volga Bulgaria, especially in the northern regions that ultimately became
TatarstanRepublic of Tatarstan is a federal subject of the Russian Federation . Its size is 68,000 km² with a population of 3,800,000. Its capital is Kazan...
. Some people even advocate the change of the ethnonym from "Tatars" to "Bulgars" - a movement known as
BulgarismBulgarism is a political movement for the use of the Bolgar ethnonym among Kazan Tatars. It rejects the use of Tatar in favor of the Volga Bulgars, who are considered to be the ancestors of modern-day Volga Tatars. Therefore, Bulgarism is a narrow term for those Volga Tatars refusing to be called...
.
Population figures
In the 1910s, they numbered about half a million in the area of
KazanKazan is the capital city of the Republic of Tatarstan, Russia, and one of Russia's largest cities. It is a major industrial, commercial and cultural center, and remains the most important center of Tatar culture. Since April 2009 Kazan has the legal right to brand itself as the "Third Capital" of...
. Some 15,000 belonging to the same stem had either migrated to
RyazanRyazan is a city in the Central Federal District of Russia and the administrative center of Ryazan Oblast. It is on the Oka River south-east of Moscow. Its population is 521,560 ; 514,638...
in the center of Russia (what is now European Russia) or had been settled as prisoners during the 16th and 17th centuries in
LithuaniaLithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the southernmost of the three Baltic states. Situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, it shares borders with Latvia to the north, Belarus to the southeast, Poland, and the Russian exclave of...
(
VilniusVilnius Vilnius Vilnius as of 2008. It is the seat of the Vilnius city municipality and of the Vilnius district municipality. It is also the...
,
GrodnoHrodna or Grodno , is a city in Belarus. It is located on the Neman River , close to the borders of Poland and Lithuania . It has 325,164 inhabitants...
, and
PodoliaThe region of Podolia is an historical region in the west-central and south-west portions of present-day Ukraine, corresponding to Khmelnytskyi Oblast and Vinnytsia Oblast. Northern Transnistria, in Moldova is also a part of Podolia...
). Some 2,000 resided in St. Petersburg, where they were mostly employed as coachmen and waiters in restaurants. In Poland, they constituted one percent of the population in the district of Płock.
Kazan Tatars number nearly 7 million, mostly in Russia and the republics of the former
Soviet UnionThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
. While the bulk of the population is found in
TatarstanRepublic of Tatarstan is a federal subject of the Russian Federation . Its size is 68,000 km² with a population of 3,800,000. Its capital is Kazan...
(nearly 2 million) and neighbouring regions, significant numbers of Kazan Tatars live in Central Asia, Siberia, and the Caucasus. Outside of Tatarstan, urban Tatars usually speak
RussianRussian is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages, and the largest native language in Europe...
as their first language (in cities such as
MoscowMoscow is the capital and the largest city of Russia. It is also the largest metropolitan area in Europe, and ranks among the largest urban areas in the world. Moscow is a major political, economic, cultural, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the world, a...
, Saint-Petersburg, Nizhniy Novgorod,
UfaUfa is the capital of the Republic of Bashkortostan, Russia Ufa is the one of the largest cities of Russia, administrative, political, economic, scientific and cultural center of the republic. Population: 1,021,500 ; 1,042,437...
, and cities of the
UralUral may refer to one of the following:*Ural Mountains*Ural *Ural River*Urals Federal District*Urals economic region*Ural-4320, Ural-375D and Ural-5323, Soviet and Russian military trucks*IMZ-Ural, a Russian motorcycle manufacturer....
and western Siberia).
See also:
Tatar languageThe Tatar language is a Turkic language spoken by the Tatars.-Geographic distribution:Tatar is spoken in Russia , Central Asia, Ukraine, Poland, China, Finland and Turkey....
Noqrat Tatars
Tatars live in Russia's
Kirov OblastKirov Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . Its administrative center is the city of Kirov.-Time zone:Kirov Oblast is located in the Moscow Time Zone . UTC offset is +0300 /+0400 ....
and
TatarstanRepublic of Tatarstan is a federal subject of the Russian Federation . Its size is 68,000 km² with a population of 3,800,000. Its capital is Kazan...
. Their dialect have many
Kozla MariThe Mari language , spoken by more than 600,000 people, belongs to the Finno-Ugric branch of the Uralic language family. It is spoken primarily in the Mari Republic of the Russian Federation as well as in the area along the Vyatka river basin and eastwards to the Urals...
words and they have admixture of Finno Ugrian Maris. Their number in 2002 was around 5.000 people.
Perm (Ostyak) Tatars
Kazan Tatars live in Russia's
Perm KraiPerm Krai is a federal subject of Russia that came into existence on December 1, 2005 as a result of the 2004 referendum on the merger of Perm Oblast and Komi-Permyak Autonomous Okrug...
. Some also comprise an admixture of Komi Permyaks. Some Tatar scholars (as Zakiev) name them
OstyakOstyak on its own or in combination, can refer, especially in older literature, to several Siberian peoples and languages:* Ostyak:** Khanty people** Khanty language* Yenisei Ostyak:** Ket people** Ket language* Ostyak-Samoyed:...
Tatars. Their number is (2002) c.200.000 people.
Keräşen Tatars
Many Kazan Tatars were forcibly Christianized by
Ivan the TerribleIvan IV Vasilyevich , known in English as Ivan the Terrible was Grand Prince of Moscow from 1533. The epithet "Grozny" is associated with might, power and strictness, rather than poor performance, horror or cruelty...
during the 16th century, and later, during the 18th century.
Some scientists suppose that
SuarsThe Suars were a Turkic-speaking people, probably of Hunnish descent, who lived in Eastern Europe in Middle Ages....
were ancestors of the Keräşen Tatars, and they had been converted to Christianity by
ArmeniansThe Armenians are a nation and ethnic group which originated in the Caucasus and the Armenian Highland. It is estimated that there are 8 million Armenians around the world. There is a large concentration of Armenians in the Caucasus, especially in Armenia, and there is a significant presence in...
in the 6th century while they lived in the Caucasus. Suars, like other tribes which later converted to Islam, became Volga Bulgars, and later the modern
ChuvashThe Chuvash are a Turkic-speaking people. According to the Russian census of 2002, the Chuvash population in Russia numbered 1 637 200; 889 268 of these lived in Chuvashia...
(who are mostly Christian) and Kazan Tatars (mostly Muslims).
Keräşen Tatars live all over
TatarstanRepublic of Tatarstan is a federal subject of the Russian Federation . Its size is 68,000 km² with a population of 3,800,000. Its capital is Kazan...
. Now they tend to be assimilated among
ChuvashThe Chuvash are a Turkic-speaking people. According to the Russian census of 2002, the Chuvash population in Russia numbered 1 637 200; 889 268 of these lived in Chuvashia...
and
TatarsTatars , sometimes spelled Tartars, are a Turkic ethnic group mainly inhabiting Russia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan. They numbered 10 million in the late 20th Century, which includes all subgroups of Tatar people, such as...
. Eighty years of
AtheisticAtheism can be either the rejection of theism,or the position that deities do not exist.In the broadest sense, it is the absence of belief in the existence of deities....
Soviet rule made Tatars of both faiths not as religious as they once were. Russian names are largely the only remaining difference between Tatars and Keräşen Tatars.
Some Turkic (
KumanKuman may refer to:*Küman, a municipality in Azerbaijan*Cumans, an ancient people*Cuman language, their language*Kuman language in Papua New Guinea*Kuman language in Uganda...
) tribes in
Golden HordeThe Ulus of Jochi or the Golden Horde is an East Slavic designation for the Mongol—later Turkicized—Muslim khanate established in the western part of the Mongol Empire after the Mongol invasion of Rus' in the 1240s: present-day Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Kazakhstan, and the Caucasus...
were converted to Christianity in the 13th and 14th centuries (
NestorianismNestorianism is the doctrine that the two individual natures of Christ, the human and the divine, are joined in conjunction rather than in hypostatic union. The doctrine is identified with Nestorius , Archbishop of Constantinople...
). Some prayers, written in that time in the
Codex CumanicusThe Codex Cumanicus was a linguistic manual of the Middle Ages, designed to help Catholic missionaries communicate with the Cumans, a nomadic Turkic people. It is currently housed in the Library of St. Mark, in Venice ....
, sound like modern Keräşen prayers, but there is no information about the connection between Christian Kumans and modern Keräşens.
Nağaybäks
The Nağaybäks are Tatars who became
CossackCossacks were originally members of military communities in the uninhabited borderland areas in the steppe that lies North of Black Sea...
s (border keepers), generally Russian Orthodox, they live in the
UralUral may refer to one of the following:*Ural Mountains*Ural *Ural River*Urals Federal District*Urals economic region*Ural-4320, Ural-375D and Ural-5323, Soviet and Russian military trucks*IMZ-Ural, a Russian motorcycle manufacturer....
mountains; the Russian border with
KazakhstanKazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a country situated in Eurasia that is ranked as the ninth largest country in the world. It is also the world's largest landlocked country. Its territory of 2,727,300 km² is greater than Western Europe...
during the 17th and 18th centuries. Nagaybäks are claimed to be descendants of Tatarized Ugrian Magyar tribes which did not move toward Pannonian Plain but remained in so called Magyar "Urheimat".
The biggest Nağaybäk village is
ParizhParizh is a village in Nagaybaksky District of Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia, located on the south border of the district. Population: 2,390 ....
, Russia, named after
FrenchFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
capital
ParisParis is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
; due to Nağaybäk's participation in
Napoleonic warsThe Napoleonic Wars were a series of conflicts declared against Napoleon's French Empire and changing sets of European allies by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionized European armies and played...
.
Tiptär Tatars
Like Noğaybaqs, although they are Sunni Muslims. Some Tiptär Tatars speak Russian or
BashkirThe Bashkir language is a Turkic language.-Speakers:Speakers of the Bashkir language mostly live in the Russian republic of Bashkortostan. Substantial number of the speakers also live in Chelyabinsk, Orenburg, Sverdlovsk, Samara and Kurgan Oblasts, Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug—Yugra, Tatarstan...
. According to Mishär and some Finnish scholars, Tiptärs are part of the Mişärs which moved to Urals and
YaikThe Ural , known as Yaik before 1775, is a river flowing through Russia and Kazakhstan. It arises in the southern Ural Mountains and ends at the Caspian Sea. Its total length is 1,511 mi...
to serve in Russian frontier guarding troops after the fall of the Khanate of Kazan.
Mişär Tatars
Mişär or Mishar Tatars are a group of Volga Tatars. They stemmed from a mixture of
BurtasBurtas or Bortas were a tribe of uncertain ethnolinguistic affiliation inhabiting the steppe region north of the Caspian Sea in medieval times...
and another people of Kipchak descent, populating
Mishar YurtMishar Yurt was semi-independent principality of Golden Horde at the border of Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod and Ryazan duchies. At the epoch of Volga Bulgaria those land, originally settled by Mordvins, also was settled by Turkic peoples, tended to be converted to Islam...
in the Middle
Oka RiverOka is a river in central Russia, the largest right tributary of the Volga. It flows through the regions of Oryol, Tula, Kaluga, Moscow, Ryazan, Vladimir and Nizhny Novgorod and is navigable over a large part of its total length, as far upstream as to the town of Kaluga. Its length exceeds 1500 km...
area and Meschiora. They then received a further admixture consisting of the local
Finno-UgricThe Finno-Ugric peoples is a historic linguistic group of peoples in Europe who speak Finno-Ugric languages, such as the Finnic and the Ugric peoples...
and
SlavicThe Slavic Peoples are an ethnic and linguistic branch of Indo-European peoples, living mainly in eastern and central Europe. From the early 6th century they spread from their original homeland to inhabit most of eastern Central Europe, Eastern Europe and the Balkans...
tribes. They speak a Western dialect of the
Tatar languageThe Tatar language is a Turkic language spoken by the Tatars.-Geographic distribution:Tatar is spoken in Russia , Central Asia, Ukraine, Poland, China, Finland and Turkey....
. Originally they lived in
TambovTambov Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . Its administrative center is the city of Tambov.Population was estimated at 1,144,800 as of 2005, down from 1,320,763 recorded by the 1989 Census. The 2002 Census number was 1,178,443. Area 34,300 km
2.-Time zone:Tambov Oblast is...
,
PenzaPenza Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . It is located in the Volga Federal District. The administrative center is Penza.Area: 43,200 km²; population: 1,452,941 .-Time zone:...
,
RyazanRyazan Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . It has an area of 39,600 km² and a population of 1,227,910...
oblasts of Russia, and in
MordoviaRepublic of Mordovia or Mordvinia is a federal subject of Russia . The direct romanization of the republic's name is Respublika Mordoviya....
, some western districts of Tatarstan. Later, after the fall of Kazan, some of them resettled in the east, in Southern Tatarstan and Bashkortostan, where they are known as
Meshcheryaks, plus in
FinlandThe Finnish Tatar community, about 800 people, is recognized as a national minority by the government of Finland, which considers their language as a non-territorial language under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages....
.
Qasím Tatars
Qasim Tatars are Mishär Tatars which moved after 1396 to Meshchora hillfort upland near
RyazanRyazan is a city in the Central Federal District of Russia and the administrative center of Ryazan Oblast. It is on the Oka River south-east of Moscow. Its population is 521,560 ; 514,638...
Principality wast of
Oka RiverOka is a river in central Russia, the largest right tributary of the Volga. It flows through the regions of Oryol, Tula, Kaluga, Moscow, Ryazan, Vladimir and Nizhny Novgorod and is navigable over a large part of its total length, as far upstream as to the town of Kaluga. Its length exceeds 1500 km...
. After the battle of Suzdal some Kazan Tatar noble families joined them. The Qasím Tatars' population numbers around 1100 persons. (See
Qasim KhanateQasim Khanate or Kingdom of Qasim was a Tatar territorial formation , vassal of Russia, which existed from 1452 till 1681 in the territory of modern Ryazan Oblast in Russia with its capital Kasimov, in the middle stream of the Oka River...
)
Astrakhan Tatars
Astrakhan Tatars (nearly 70,000) are a group of Tatars descendant of
Astrakhan KhanateThe Khanate of Astrakhan was a Tatar feudal state that appeared after the collapse of the Golden Horde. The Khanate existed in the 15th and 16th centuries in the area adjacent to the mouth of the Volga river, where the contemporary city of Astrakhan/Hajji Tarkhan is now located.The Khanate was...
's agricultural population, living mostly in
Astrakhan OblastAstrakhan Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . Its administrative center is the city of Astrakhan.-Time zone:Astrakhan Oblast is located in the Moscow Time Zone...
. During the 2000 census of Russia, most of Astrakhan Tatars identified themselves as common Tatars and few determined themselves to be Astrakhan Tatars.
Text from Britannica 1911:
- The Astrakhan
Astrakhan is a major city in southern European Russia and the administrative center of Astrakhan Oblast. The city lies on the Volga River, close to where it discharges into the Caspian Sea. Population: 502,800 ; 504,501 ; 509,210 .-Medieval history:Astrakhan' is situated in the Volga Delta, rich...
Tatars number about 10,000 and are, with the Kalmyks all that now remains of the once so powerful Astrakhan empire. They also are agriculturists and gardeners, whereas some 12,000 Kundrovsk Tatars still continue the nomadic life of their ancestors.
While Astrakhan (Ästerxan) Tatar is a mixed dialect, around 43,000 have assimilated to the Middle dialect. Their ancestors are
KhazarsThe Khazars were a semi-nomadic Turkic people who dominated the Pontic steppe and the North Caucasus from the 7th to the 10th century CE. The name 'Khazar' seems to be tied to a Turkic verb form meaning "wandering"....
,
KipchaksKipchaks were an ancient Turkic people who originally formed part of the group of Kimäks in Siberia along the middle reaches of Irtysh or along the Ob. Around the middle of the eleventh century they split off from the bulk of the Kimaks and departed in the direction of Europe...
, and some Volga Bulgars—Volga Bulgars had trade colonies in modern
AstrakhanAstrakhan Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . Its administrative center is the city of Astrakhan.-Time zone:Astrakhan Oblast is located in the Moscow Time Zone...
and
VolgogradVolgograd Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . Its administrative center is the city of Volgograd.Area: 113,900 km²; population: 2,699,223 .-External links:...
oblasts of Russia.
Language
The Volga Tatars speak a
Turkic languageThe Turkic languages constitute a language family of some thirty languages, spoken by Turkic peoples across a vast area from Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean to Siberia and Western China, and are considered to be part of the proposed Altaic language family.Turkic languages are spoken by some...
(with a sizable complement of Russian and Arabic words — see
Tatar languageThe Tatar language is a Turkic language spoken by the Tatars.-Geographic distribution:Tatar is spoken in Russia , Central Asia, Ukraine, Poland, China, Finland and Turkey....
). Because it is understandable to all groups of Tatars, as well as to the neighboring
ChuvashChuvash may refer to:*Chuvash people*Chuvash language*Chuvashia, a republic in Russia*Çuvaş, Azerbaijan...
and
BashkirsThe Bashkirs, are Turkic people indigenous to Bashkortostan, Russia. Groups of Bashkirs also live in the republic of Tatarstan, as well as in Perm Krai and Chelyabinsk, Orenburg, Kurgan, Sverdlovsk, Samara, and Saratov Oblasts of Russia.-Overview:...
, the language of the Volga Tatars became a literary language in the 15th century (
iske tatar teleOld Tatar language was a literary language used among the Muslim Tatars from the Middle Ages till the 19th century....
). The old literary language included many Arabic and Persian words. Nowadays, the literary language substitutes European and Russian words for Arabic ones.
Tatar language dialects
There are 3 dialects: Eastern, Central, Western.
The western dialect (Mishar) is spoken by the Mishärs, the Middle dialect is spoken by Qazan Tatars and Astrakhan Tatars, and the Eastern (Sibir) dialect is spoken by some groups of Tatars in
RussiaRussia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
's
NovosibirskNovosibirsk Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . Its administrative center is the city of Novosibirsk.-Overview:...
,
TomskTomsk Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . It lies in the southeastern West Siberian Plain, in the southwest of the Siberian Federal District. Viktor Kress has been governor of the oblast since 1991....
and
TyumenTyumen Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . Its administrative center is the city of Tyumen. It has administrative jurisdiction over two autonomous okrugs, Khantia-Mansia and Yamalia. Tyumen is the largest city, with over half a million inhabitants...
oblasts by
Siberian TatarsThe Siberian Tatars are a sub-group of the Tatars, sometimes considered a separate ethnic group. They speak Siberian Tatar, which is a dialect of Tatar. Their ancestry was partly from Turkic, Ugric, Mongolic and Samoyedic tribes, but their main ancestors were the Kypchaks...
.
Middle Tatar is the base of literary for the Volga Tatar Language. The Middle dialect also has subdivisions. Middle dialect as well as Bashkir is a language of Bolgar-Kypchak group, whereas western and eastern form dialect continuum, merging with Kypchak-Nogai group languages.
Volga Tatar diaspora
Places where Volga Tatars live include:
- Ural
Ural may refer to one of the following:*Ural Mountains*Ural *Ural River*Urals Federal District*Urals economic region*Ural-4320, Ural-375D and Ural-5323, Soviet and Russian military trucks*IMZ-Ural, a Russian motorcycle manufacturer....
and Upper KamaKāma is pleasure, sensual gratification, sexual fulfillment, pleasure of the senses, desire, eros, the aesthetic enjoyment of life in Sanskrit. In Hinduism, kāma is regarded as the third of the four goals of life : the others are duty , worldly status and salvation...
(since 15th century) 15th century—colonization, 16th-17th century—re-settled by Russians; 17th-19th—exploring of the Urals, working in the plants
- West Siberia (since 16th century): 16th—from Russian repressions after conquering of Khanate of Kazan by Russians 17th–19th—exploring of West Siberia; end of 19th—first half of 20th—industrialization, railways constructing; 1930s–Stalin's repressions; 1970s–1990s—oil workers
- Moscow (since 17th century): Tatar feudals in the service of Russia, tradesmen, since 18th—Saint-Petersburg
- Kazakhstan (since 18th century): 18th–19th centuries—Russian army officers and soldiers; 1930s–industrialization, since 1950s—settlers on virgin lands - re-emigration in 1990s
- Finland
The Finnish Tatar community, about 800 people, is recognized as a national minority by the government of Finland, which considers their language as a non-territorial language under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages....
(since 1804): (mostly Mişärs) – 19th – Russian military forces officers and soldiers, and others
- Central Asia (since 19th century) (Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan, officially the Republic of Uzbekistan , is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia, formerly part of the Soviet Union...
, TurkmenistanRepublic of Turkmenistan is a country in Central Asia. Until 1991, it was a constituent republic of the Soviet Union, the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic...
, TajikistanTajikistan , officially the Republic of Tajikistan , is a mountainous landlocked country in Central Asia. Afghanistan borders it to the south, Uzbekistan to the west, Kyrgyzstan to the north, and People's Republic of China to the east...
, KyrgyzstanKyrgyzstan , officially the Kyrgyz Republic, is a country in Central Asia. Landlocked and mountainous, it is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the southwest and China to the east....
; for XinjiangXinjiang is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China and also claimed by the territory of the Republic of China.-Names:Older English-language reference works often refer to the area as Chinese Turkestan, Sinkiang, East...
see Chinese TatarsThe Chinese Tatars form one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China.Their ancestors are Volga Tatar tradesmen who settled mostly in Xinjiang....
) – 19th Russian officers and soldiers, tradesmen, religious emigrants, 1920-1930s – industrialization, Soviet education program for Central Asia peoples, 1948, 1960 – help for Ashgabat and Tashkent ruined by earthquakes. - re-emigration in 1980s
- Caucasus, especially Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan , formally the Republic of Azerbaijan , is a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west, and Iran to the south...
(since 19th century) – oil workers (1890s), bread tradesmen
- Northern China (since 1910s) – railway builders (1910s) - re-emigrated in 1950s
- East Siberia (since 19th century) - resettled farmers (19th), railroad builders (1910s, 1980s), exiled by the Soviet government in 1930s
- Germany and Austria - 1914, 1941 – prisoners of war, 1990s - emigration
- Turkey, Japan, Iran, China, Egypt (since 1918) – emigration
- England, USA, Australia, Canada, Argentina, Mexico – (1920s) re-emigration from Germany, Turkey, Japan, China and others. 1950s – prisoners of war from Germany, which did not go back to the USSR, 1990s – emigration after the break up of USSR
- Sakhalin, Kaliningrad, Belarus, Ukraine, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Karelia – after 1944-45 builders, Soviet military personnel
- Murmansk Oblast, Khabarovsk Krai, Northern Poland and Northern Germany (1945 - 1990) - Soviet military personnel
- Israel – wives or husbands of Jews (1990s)
See also
- Tatar language
The Tatar language is a Turkic language spoken by the Tatars.-Geographic distribution:Tatar is spoken in Russia , Central Asia, Ukraine, Poland, China, Finland and Turkey....
- Tatar alphabet
Two scripts are currently used for the Tatar language: Cyrillic and Latin.-Introduction:While a Tatar version of the Latin alphabet called Jaŋalif had been in use during the 1930s, there is controversy in the matter of Latin-based Tatar alphabet for İdíl-Ural Tatar. One dimension of the...
- Finnish Tatars
The Finnish Tatar community, about 800 people, is recognized as a national minority by the government of Finland, which considers their language as a non-territorial language under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages....
- Tatars of Kazakhstan
The Volga Tatars of Kazakhstan are a minority in Kazakhstan, and make up 1.5% of the population. There are 249,000 Volga Tatars living in Kazakhstan accordingly to 1999 census ....
- Chinese Tatars
The Chinese Tatars form one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China.Their ancestors are Volga Tatar tradesmen who settled mostly in Xinjiang....