View source for Volga Tatars

{{Infobox ethnic group
| group     = Volga Tatars
| image     = 
| pop       = c. 6.8 million<!--see below-->
| region1   = {{flag|Russia}} :
*{{flag|Tatarstan}} : 2,012,571
*{{flag|Bashkortostan}} : 1,009,295
*{{flag|Moscow}} : 149,043
| pop1      = 5,310,649
| ref1      = <ref>[http://www.perepis-2010.ru/results_of_the_census/tab5.xls Russian Census 2010: Population by ethnicity] {{ru icon}}</ref>
| region2   = {{flag|Uzbekistan}}
| pop2      = 467,829
| ref2      = <ref>{{cite web|url=http://ula.uzsci.net/portal/library/atlas/ethnic_minorities.pdf |title=Uzbekistan – Ethnic minorities |publisher= |accessdate=2011-06-03}}</ref>
| region3   = {{flag|Kazakhstan}}
| pop3      = 203,371
| ref3      = <ref name="Численность населения Республики Казахстан по отдельным этносам на 1 января 2012 года">Агентство Республики Казахстан по статистике: [http://www.stat.kz/publishing/2012/%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BC%D0%BE%D0%B3%D1%80%D0%B0%D1%84%D0%B8%D1%8F/%D0%90%D0%BF%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%BB%D1%8C/12_2011_%D0%91-15-10-%D0%93.rar Численность населения Республики Казахстан по отдельным этносам на 1 января 2012 года]</ref>
| region4   = {{flag|Ukraine}}
| pop4      = 73,304
| ref4      = <ref>{{cite web|url=http://2001.ukrcensus.gov.ua/eng/results/general/nationality/|title=About number and composition population of Ukraine by data All-Ukrainian census of the population 2001|work=Ukraine Census 2001|publisher=State Statistics Committee of Ukraine|accessdate=27 September 2012}}</ref>
| region5   = {{flag|Turkmenistan}}
| pop5      = 36,355
| ref5      = <ref name="Итоги всеобщей переписи населения Туркменистана по национальному составу в 1995 году.">'''Asgabat.net'''-городской социально-информационный портал :[http://asgabat.net/turkmenistan/itogi-vseobschei-perepisi-naselenija-turkmenistana-po-nacionalnomu-sostavu-v-1995-godu.html Итоги всеобщей переписи населения Туркменистана по национальному составу в 1995 году.]</ref>
| region6   = {{flag|Kyrgyzstan}}
| pop6      = 28,334
| ref6      = <ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.stat.kg/stat.files/din.files/census/5010003.pdf |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20131113151445/http://www.stat.kg/stat.files/din.files/census/5010003.pdf |archivedate=November 13, 2013 }}</ref>
| region7   = {{flag|Azerbaijan}}
| pop7      = 25,900
| ref7      = <ref>http://www.azstat.org/statinfo/demoqraphic/en/AP_/1_5.xls</ref>
| region8   = {{flag|Turkey}}
| pop8      = 25,500
| ref8      = <ref>{{cite web|url=http://joshuaproject.net/people_groups/15284/TU|title=Tatar in Turkey|author=Joshua Project|publisher=|accessdate=10 May 2015}}</ref>
| region9   = {{flag|China}}
| pop9      = 5,000
| ref9      = 
| region10  = {{flag|Lithuania}}
| pop10     = 4,000
| ref10    =
| region11  = {{flag|Estonia}}
| pop11     = 1,981
| ref11    = <ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.stat.ee/34267|title=Population by ethnic nationality|publisher=[[Statistics Estonia]]|accessdate=30 March 2016}}</ref>
| region12  = {{flag|Finland}}
| pop12     = 900
| ref12     = 
| languages = [[Tatar language|Tatar]], [[Russian language|Russian]]
| religions = [[Sunni Islam]] Majority<br>[[Kryashens|Orthodox Christian]] Minority<br>[[Irreligion]]
| related   = [[Bashkirs]], [[Chuvash people]]
}}
[[File:Vasnetsov Tatary Idut.jpg|thumb|Warriors of the [[Golden Horde]] raid upon Moscow.]]

The '''Volga Tatars''' are a [[Turkic peoples|Turkic]] ethnic group, native to the [[Volga-Ural region]], [[Russia]]. 
They are in turn subdivided into various subgroups. They compose 53% of the population of [[Tatarstan]]. Volga Tatars are Russia's second-largest ethnicity.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.interpretermag.com/kazan-tatars-see-no-future-for-themselves-in-putins-russia/ |title=Kazan Tatars See No Future for Themselves in Putin’s Russia |publisher=The Interpreter |date=24 March 2014}}</ref>

==Volga Tatar history==
Tatars inhabiting the Republic of Tatarstan, a federal subject of Russia, constitute one third of all Tatars, while the other two thirds reside outside Tatarstan. The formation of some of the communities residing outside Tatarstan took place before the [[Russian Revolution]] of 1917 due to Tatars being specialized in trading.<ref name="princeton">{{cite web |url=http://www.princeton.edu/~turkish/aatt/tatar.htm |title=TATAR. THE LANGUAGE OF THE LARGEST MINORITY IN RUSSIA |publisher=Princeton University}}</ref>

The emergence of ethnonym "Tatar" is disputed, with two theses trying to explain its origins. Mongol thesis, according to which etymology can be traced back to the Chinese "Ta-Tan" or "Da-Dan", is more widely accepted than Turkic one.<ref name="rorlich"/> Ethnonym "Tatar" first emerged in the fifth century CE/AD.<ref name="brittanica">{{cite web |url=http://www.britannica.com/topic/Tatar |title=Tatar |publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica}}</ref>

The 14th century saw the spread of [[Sunni Islam]] among the Tatars.<ref name="brittanica"/> Tatars became subjects of Russia after the [[Siege of Kazan]] in 1552.<ref name="gorenburg"/> Since Russians linked Tatars with the Mongol [[Golden Horde]] (that ruled Russia in the 13th century), they began to negatively stereotype the Tatar people. Due to these negative stereotypes, some of which persist in modern Russian society, recently some Tatar intellectuals have been trying to link Tatar heritage with the historic [[Bulgars|Bulgar]] population of today's Tatarstan. Russians were using the Tatar ethnonym during the 18th and 19th centuries to denote all Turkic inhabitants of the Russian Empire, however the Turkic peoples of the Russian Empire before the emergence of the Soviet Union did not usually self-identify as Tatars.<ref name="gorenburg">{{cite web |url=http://src-h.slav.hokudai.ac.jp/coe21/publish/no7_ses/chapter04.pdf |title=TATARS AS MESO-NATION |author=DMITRY GORENBURG}}</ref> Up to the end of the 19th century, Volga Tatars mainly identified themselves as Muslims until the rehabilitation of the ethnonym Tatar occurred.<ref name="rorlich">{{cite web |url=http://groznijat.tripod.com/fadlan/rorlich1.html |title=1. The Origins of the Volga Tatars |author=Azade-Ayshe Rorlich |publisher=Stanford University}}</ref> Russian officials used literary Tatar language to interact with the [[Turkic peoples]] of the [[Russian Empire]] before the end of the 19th century. Volga Tatar role in the Muslim national and cultural movements of the Russian Empire before the 1917 Revolution is significant and this situation continued even after 1917.<ref name="princeton"/> Tatar authorities attempted in the 1990s to reverse the [[Russification]] of Tatarstan that took place during the Soviet period.<ref name="gorenburg"/>

===Bulgarism===
"Bulgarism" is a term for the position that the Volga Tatars are significantly descended from the [[Volga Bulgars]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://members.tripod.com/~Groznijat/fadlan/rorlich1.html|title=A. Rorlich - Origin of the Volga Tatars|publisher=|accessdate=10 May 2015}}</ref><ref>[[Great Soviet Encyclopedia]], article on ''Tatarstan''.</ref><ref>Viktor Aleksandrovich Shnirelʹman, Who gets the past?: competition for ancestors among non-Russian intellectuals in Russia, Woodrow Wilson Center Press, 1996, ISBN 0-8018-5221-8, ISBN 978-0-8018-5221-3. Limited preview at Google Books [https://books.google.com/books?id=4iwHp8amsdEC&source=gbs_navlinks_s] (Chapter ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=4iwHp8amsdEC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_v2_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q=The%20Rivalry%20for%20the%20Bulgar%20Legacy&f=false The Rivalry for the Bulgar Legacy]'').</ref>

A more accepted position, however, is that the Volga Tatar ethnogenesis was completed upon the arrival of the [[Kipchaks]], [[Cumans]] and [[Mongols]] to the lands inhabited by the Volga Bulgars.{{citation needed|date=November 2015}}

==Volga Tatar subgroups==
===Kazan (Qazan) Tatars===
The majority of Volga Tatars are Kazan Tatars. They form the bulk of the Tatar population of Tatarstan. Traditionally, they inhabit the left bank of [[Volga river]].<ref>Татары (Серия «Народы и культуры» РАН). М.: Наука, 2001. — P.36.</ref>

[[Khazar]] invasions forced Bulgars, Turkic people, to migrate from the [[Azov]] steppes to the Middle Volga and lower [[Kama River|Kama]] region during the first half of the eighth century.<ref name="rorlich"/> In the period of 10th–13th centuries, Turkic peoples, including Kipchaks, migrated from southern [[Siberia]] to Europe. They played a significant role in the [[Mongol invasion of Rus']] in the 13th century. Tatar ethnogenesis took place after Turkic peoples, who were mixed with the Bulgars and other local inhabitants of the Volga River area, kept Kipchak dialect and became Muslims. Several new Tatar states had emerged by the 1500s after the Golden Horde fell.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CquTz6ps5YgC |title=An Ethnohistorical Dictionary of the Russian and Soviet Empires |editor=James S. Olson |year=1994 |pages=624–625}}</ref> These states were [[Khanate of Kazan]], [[Astrakhan Khanate]], [[Khanate of Sibir]] and [[Crimean Khanate]].<ref name="brittanica"/>

Controversy surrounds the origin of the Tatar people, whether they are descended either from Bulgars or Golden Horde.<ref name="princeton"/> According to one theory, [[Kazan]] Tatar heritage can be traced back to Kipchaks of the Golden Horde, yet according to another theory, the Tatars emerged from the Bulgar culture which had survived the Mongol conquest of 1236–1237.<ref name="rorlich"/>

===Mishars===
[[Mishars]] (or Mişär-Tatars)  are an ethnographic group of Volga Tatars speaking [[Mishar Tatar dialect|Mishar]] dialect of the [[Tatar language]]. They comprise approximately one third of the Volga Tatar population. They are descendants of Cuman-Kipchak tribes who mixed with the [[Burtas]] in the Middle [[Oka River]] area and Meschiora. Nowadays, they live in [[Chelyabinsk Oblast|Chelyabinsk]], [[Ulyanovsk Oblast|Ulyanovsk]], [[Penza Oblast|Penza]], [[Ryazan Oblast|Ryazan]], [[Nizhny Novgorod Oblast|Nizhegorodskaya]] oblasts of Russia and in Tatarstan, [[Bashkortostan]] and [[Mordovia]].

===Qasím Tatars===
The Qasím Tatars have their capital in the town of Qasím ([[Kasimov]] in Russian transcription) in [[Ryazan Oblast]]. See "[[Qasim Khanate]]" for their history. Today, there are 1,100 Qasím Tatars living in Kasimov. There is no reliable information about their number elsewhere.

===Noqrat Tatars===
Noqrat Tatars live in Russia's Republic of [[Udmurtia]] and [[Kirov Oblast]]. In 1920s their number was around 15,000 people.

===Perm (Ostyak) Tatars===
Ethnographic subgroup of Kazan Tatars that lives in Russia's [[Perm Krai]]. Some Tatar scholars (as Zakiev) name them ''[[Ostyak]] Tatars''. Their number is (2002) c.130,000 people.

===Keräşens===
{{main|Kryashens}}
[[File:Korovin kazan.jpg|thumb|[[Ivan the Terrible]] subjugated the [[Tatar]]s and forcibly converted many of them to [[Christianity]].]]

A policy of Christianization of the Muslim Tatars was enacted by the Russian authorities, beginning in 1552, resulting in the emergence of Keräşens (Christianized Tatars).{{sfn|Brower|2001|p=271}}

Many Volga Tatars were forcibly Christianized by [[Ivan IV of Russia|Ivan the Terrible]] during the 16th century, and later, during the 18th century.

Some scientists suppose that the [[Sabir people|Suars]] were ancestors of the Keräşen Tatars, and had been converted to Christianity by [[Armenians]] 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 [[Chuvash people|Chuvash]] (who are Orthodox Christians) and Kazan Tatars (who are [[Muslims]]).

Keräşen Tatars live in much of the Volga-Ural area.  Today, they tend to be assimilated among the Chuvash and Tatars.  Eighty years of [[Atheism|Atheistic]] 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 Cuman tribes in the Golden Horde were converted to Christianity in the 13th and 14th centuries ([[Nestorianism]]).  Some prayers, written during that time in the ''[[Codex Cumanicus]]'', sound like modern Keräşen prayers, but the connection between Christian Cumans and modern Keräşens is unknown.

==1921–22 famine in Tatarstan==
{{main|1921–22 famine in Tatarstan}}
The famine deaths of 2 million Volga Tatars in [[Tatar ASSR]] and in Volga-Ural region in 1921–1922 was catastrophic as half of the [[Volga Tatar]] population in [[USSR]] died. This famine is also known as "terror-famine" and "famine-genocide" in Tatarstan.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books/about/Battle_with_Famine.html?id=UpJEtwAACAAJ&redir_esc=y|title=Battle with Famine|publisher=|accessdate=10 May 2015}}</ref> The Soviets settled ethnic [[Russians]] after the famine in Tatar ASSR and in Volga-Ural region causing the Tatar share of the population to decline to less than 50%.{{Citation needed|date=February 2016}} All-Russian Tatar Social Center (VTOTs) has asked the [[United Nations]] to condemn the 1921 Tatarstan famine as [[Genocide]] of [[Muslim]] Tatars.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://mariuveren.wordpress.com/2008/11/05/tatar-nationalists-ask-un-to-condemn-1921-famine-as-genocide/|title=Tatar Nationalists Ask UN to Condemn 1921 Famine as Genocide|work=MariUver|accessdate=10 May 2015}}</ref> The 1921–1922 famine in Tatarstan has been compared to [[Holodomor]] in [[Ukraine]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ukemonde.com/genocide/margolisholocaust.html|title=Seven million died in the 'forgotten' holocaust - Eric Margolis|publisher=|accessdate=10 May 2015}}</ref>

==Traditional culture==
{{refimprove section|date=April 2014}}

===Festivals===
Historically, the traditional celebrations of Tatars depended largely on the [[agricultural cycle]].

Spring/summer period
* [[Sabantuy]]
* [[Sowing]]
* Dzhien

Fall/winter period
* Pomochi
* Nardugan

===Cuisine===
{{main|Tatar cuisine}}
[[File:Qistibi.jpg|thumb|left|200px|[[Qistibi]]]]
[[File:Fresh ayran.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Glass mug of fresh ''susurluk [[ayran]]ı'' with a head of froth]]
Tatar cuisine is rich with hot soups (şulpa), dough-based dishes ([[qistibi]], [[pilmän]], [[öçpoçmaq]], [[peremech]], etc.) and sweets (çäkçäk, göbädiä, etc.). Traditional Tatar beverages include  [[ayran]], [[katyk]] and [[kumys]].

==Population figures==
In the 1910s, they numbered about half a million in the area of [[Kazan]]. Nearly 2 million Volga Tatars died in man-made [[1921–22 famine in Tatarstan]] by [[Joseph Stalin]]. Some 15,000 belonging to the same stem had either migrated to [[Ryazan]] in the center of Russia (what is now European Russia) or had been settled as prisoners during the 16th and 17th centuries in [[Lithuania]] ([[Vilnius]], [[Hrodna|Grodno]], and [[Podolia]]). Some 2,000 resided in [[St. Petersburg, Russia|St. Petersburg]].
Volga-Ural Tatars number nearly 7 million, mostly in Russia and the republics of the former [[Soviet Union]]. While the bulk of the population is found in Tatarstan (around 2 million) and neighbouring regions, significant number of Volga-Ural Tatars live in [[Siberia]], Central Asia, and the Caucasus.  Outside of Tatarstan, urban Tatars usually speak [[Russian language|Russian]] as their first language (in cities such as [[Moscow]], [[Saint-Petersburg]], [[Nizhniy Novgorod]], [[Ufa]], and cities of the [[Ural (region)|Ural]] and Siberia).

==Volga Tatar diaspora==
[[File:Ареал расселения татар в России. По данным Всероссийской переписи населения 2010 года.png|thumb|Tatar-inhabited areas in Russia according to the [[Russian Census (2010)|Russian Census of 2010]]]]
[[File:C0569-Kstovo-Muslim-cemetery.jpg|thumb|A Tatar [[cemetery]] in [[Nizhny Novgorod Oblast]].]]
{{Unreferenced section|date=September 2011}}
Places where Volga Tatars live include:

* [[Ural (region)|Ural]] and Upper [[Kama River|Kama]] (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&ndash;19th—exploring of West Siberia; end of 19th—first half of 20th—industrialization, railways constructing; 1930s&ndash;[[Joseph Stalin]]'s repressions; 1970s&ndash;1990s—oil workers
* Moscow (since 17th century): Tatar feudals in the service of Russia, tradesmen, since 18th—Saint-Petersburg
* [[Tatars of Kazakhstan|Kazakhstan]] (since 18th century): 18th&ndash;19th centuries—Russian army officers and soldiers; 1930s&ndash;industrialization, since 1950s—settlers on virgin lands - re-emigration in 1990s
* [[Finnish Tatars|Finland]] (since 1804): (mostly Mişärs) – 19th – Russian military forces officers and soldiers, and others
* Central Asia (since 19th century) ([[Uzbekistan]], [[Turkmenistan]], [[Tajikistan]], [[Kyrgyzstan]]; for [[Xinjiang]]  see [[Chinese Tatars]]) &ndash; 19th Russian officers and soldiers, tradesmen, religious emigrants, 1920–1930s &ndash; industrialization, Soviet education program for Central Asia peoples, 1948, 1960 &ndash; help for Ashgabat and Tashkent ruined by earthquakes. - re-emigration in 1980s
* Caucasus, especially [[Azerbaijan]] (since 19th century) &ndash; oil workers  (1890s), bread tradesmen
* [[Brazil]] (19th century): With the end of the colonial period, after the abolitionist movement, Brazil stimulated the coming of Europeans to the country, mainly Italians, Germans and Slavs. Among these Slavs came Tatars who went mainly to [[Paraná (state)|Paraná]] and [[Rio Grande do Sul]]
* Northern [[Chinese Tatars|China]] (since 1910s) &ndash; 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 &ndash; prisoners of war, 1990s - emigration
* Turkey, Japan, Iran, [[Chinese Tatars|China]], Egypt (since 1918) &ndash; emigration
* England, USA, Australia, Canada &ndash; (1920s) re-emigration from Germany, Turkey, Japan and [[Chinese Tatars|China]]. 1950s &ndash; prisoners of war from Germany, which did not go back to the USSR, 1990s &ndash; emigration after the breakup of USSR
* Sakhalin, Kaliningrad, Belarus, Ukraine, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Karelia &ndash; after 1944-45 builders, Soviet military personnel
* Murmansk Oblast, Khabarovsk Krai, Northern Poland and Northern Germany (1945–1990) - Soviet military personnel
* Israel &ndash; wives or husbands of Jews (1990s)

==See also==
{{commons|Tatar people}}

*[[Tatars]]
*[[Morza|Tatar nobility]]
*[[Chinese Tatars]]
*[[Crimean Tatars]]
*[[Lipka Tatars]]
*[[Finnish Tatars]]
*[[Tatars of Kazakhstan]]
*[[Tartary]]
*[[Little Tartary]]
*[[Idel-Ural State]]
*[[1921–1922 famine in Tatarstan]]

==References==
{{reflist|2}}
*{{EB1911}}

==External links==
{{commons|Tatar xalıq kiemnäre}}
*[http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+su0112) Tatars in Congress Library (1989)]
*[http://members.tripod.com/~Groznijat/fadlan/rorlich1.html The Origins of the Volga Tatars]
*[http://www.tatar.net/ Tatar.Net]
*{{ru icon}} [http://www.tatar.info/]
*{{ru icon}} [http://www.tatarisem.narod.ru/ Tatar Name]
*{{ru icon}} [http://www.tatar-history.narod.ru/ Tatar history]
*{{ru icon}} [http://www.tatarlar.ru/ Tatar world-wide server]
*{{ru icon}} [http://www.tatarimena.ru/ Tatar Names]
*{{ru icon}} [http://www.xacitarxan.narod.ru/antropos.htm Anthropology of Tatars. By  R.K. Urazmanova and S.V. Cheshko]
*{{ru icon}} {{tt icon}} [http://kitap.net.ru/ Tatar Electronic Library]
*{{ru icon}} {{tt icon}} [http://www.tatshop.ru/ Tatar music & video catalog]

== Further reading ==
* {{cite book|last=Bukharaev|first=Ravil|title=Islam in Russia: The Four Seasons|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vIy3AwAAQBAJ|year=2013|publisher=Routledge}}
* {{cite book|author1=Danier R. Brower|author2=Edward J. Lazzerini|title=Russia's Orient: Imperial Borderlands and Peoples, 1700-1917|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kJVoeibaNykC|year=2001|publisher=Indiana University Press |ref={{sfnref|Brower|2001}} }}

{{Tatars}}
{{Turkic peoples}}
{{Ethnic groups of Russia}}

[[Category:Tatar topics|*Volga]]
[[Category:Tatar people]]
[[Category:Ethnic groups in Russia]]
[[Category:Ethnic groups in Uzbekistan]]
[[Category:Ethnic groups in Kazakhstan]]
[[Category:Ethnic groups in Ukraine]]
[[Category:Khanate of Kazan]]
[[Category:Qasim Khanate]]
[[Category:Volga Tatars| ]]
[[Category:History of Ural]]