Tatars | Research & Encyclopedia Articles

The name Tatars (also spelled Tartars) refers to several Turkic peoples and ethnic groups living in Asia and Europe, among them the Astrakhan Tatars, Budjak Tatars, Crimean Tatars, Dobrudja Tatars, Siberian Tatars, and Volga-Ural Tatars. The most populous group, the Volga-Ural Tatars, numbered approximately 6.7 million people in1989. They are the Russian Federation's second-largest nation, and together with the Astrakhan and Siberian Tatars are usually called just Tatars.

Subgroups of the Volga-Ural Tatars include the Kasimov Tatars, Kazan Tatars, Mishars, and Kryashens. In turn, the Kazan Tatars include Central, Teptyar-Bashkir, Southeastern, Perm, Chepets, and Ichkin groups. The Mishars are further subdivided into Northern, Southern, Lyambir, and Ural groups; the Kasimov Tatars comprise the White Aimak, Black Aimak, Black Zipun, and Bastan groups; and the Kryashens include Kazan-Tatar Kryashens, Yelabuga, Nagaibek, Molki, and Chistopol groups.

The Crimean Tatars consist of three main groups: the Nogais, Tats, and Yaliboylus. All Crimean Tatars were exiled from Crimea (then part of Russia; now in Ukraine) to Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan in 1944 for alleged collaboration with the Germans during World War II. They regained their civil rights in 1956 and have been permitted to return to Crimea since the late 1980s. They live mostly in Crimea (250,000), Turkey (possibly 5 million, though most are assimilated) and Uzbekistan (250,000).

The Budjak Tatars live in Romania, mostly around Medgidia, Mangalia and Kostence. They number about 25,000 people. The Dobrudja Tatars live mostly in Bulgaria. According to a 1992 census, only 4,515 Bulgarians identified themselves as Tatars. These Bulgarian Tatars are scattered throughout northeastern Bulgaria, especially around Dobrich. Dohric, Vetovo, Rousse, Varna and Shoumen are the towns with the largest Tatar communities. The only remaining Tatar village is Onogour (in Dohrich district).

All Tatars speak related dialects, except for Polish, Lithuanian, and Belorussian Tatars, who have lost their Tatar language and speak, respectively, Polish, Lithuanian, and Belorussian.

The ancestors of Tatars created numerous states, such as the Hun kingdoms in Central Asia (204 BCE–216 CE) and central Europe (376–454 CE), Avarian khaganate, or kingdom (562–803), Great Bulgaria (603;en640), and Volga Bulgaria (910–1236) in Europe; and the first and second Turkic khaganates (551–742) and Khazarian khaganate (560–969) in Europe and Asia.

The term Tatar was first mentioned in the epitaph of the Turkic khagan (king) Bilge and his brother Kul-Tegin in the eighth century CE. Together with the Mongols, the Tatars conquered vast territories in Asia and Europe in the thirteenth century under Genghis Khan and set up the largest land empire the world has ever known, the Mongol empire. The western part of this Empire later became known as the Golden Horde, which flourished in the fourteenth century. At that time, several Tatar cities were larger than any contemporaneous European city. Both nomadic and settled Turkic and non-Turkic peoples of the Golden Horde contributed to the melting pot known as Tatars. Kipchak, a Turkic language, became the common language for the Tatars.

In the fifteenth century, after the Golden Horde had broken up into several Tatar states, the languages and cultures of the population of those states continued developing. Different territories had different proportions of the same components (Turkic peoples of Europe and Asia) and numerous non-Turkic elements, including Finno-Ugrians (Mordva, Udmurts, Maris), Slavs (Russians, Ukranians), Jews, and so forth. In addition, the Tatars captured many people from neighboring countries, including Latvians and Poles, and incorporated them into the Tatar states, which led to the development of particularities in the dialects and cultures of the descendants of Golden Horde Tatars.

Later all the Tatar states were subjugated by the growing Russian state. The majority of the Tatars continued to identify themselves as such, but with modifying words (for example, Crimean Tatars); others, such as the Balkars, Bashkirs, Karachays, Kazakhs, and so forth, took one of numerous tribal names. Furthermore, the presence of "Tatar" in an ethonym does not mean that the group in question is particularly close to other groups that use the word. For example, the language and culture of the Kazan Tatars are much closer to those of the Bashkirs than they are to those of Crimean Tatars.

Though many Russian noble families were of Tatar origin and Tatars had a great positive influence on Russian history, the rulers of Russia divided the Tatars into a variety of ethnic and territorial groups, declaring them separate nations and giving separate language status to their dialects. This Russian policy continues today.

Most Tatars are Sunni Muslims, though the Kryashens are Orthodox Christians. Tatars are not very devout Muslims; they never were very devout, even when they lived in their own independent states. Most Tatars go to the mosque only twice a year, during two biggest Muslim feasts. Usually during these feast days, after visiting the mosque, Tatars go home or visit one another and drink vodka. Drinking alcohol is not compatible with being a Muslim and Arab Muslims bitterly condemn Tatars for this habit. There are also certain Tatar groups, descended from Golden Horde Tatars and now known as Karaims and Krymchaks, who are of the Jewish faith. The contemporary Tatar lifestyle does not differ significantly from that of surrounding peoples, although Tatars do have a greater inclination toward trading and entrepreneurship than do Russians and other neighboring peoples. Being Tatar is still something of which young people are proud, even if they no longer speak Tatar.

With the foundation of the Soviet Union in the 1920s, the Volga-Ural and Crimean Tatars were established in the Tatar and Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republics, respectively, in 1920 and 1921. The Crimean Republic was dissolved in 1945, and now Tatars have only one state in the Russian Federation: the Republic of Tatarstan. It is situated in the Volga and Kama river basin, with the City of Kazan as the capital.

Irek Bikkinin

Rorlich, Azade-Ayse. (1986) The Volga Tatars: A profile in national resilience. Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press, Stanford University.

Schamiloglu, Uli. (2002, in press) The Golden Horde: Economy, Society, and Civilization in Western Eurasia, Thirteenth-Fourteenth Centuries. Madison, WI: Turko-Tatar Press.

Urazmanova, Raufa, and Sergei Cheshko, eds. (2001) Tatary (Tatars). Moscow: Nauka.

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