Indigenous people territories in modern Russian Federation

The Tatars find themselves among 100+ indigenous nations who populate the modern Russian Federation. Based on 2010 census Tatars form the largest non-Slavic ethnic group comprising of 3.9% of total population of Russian Federation.

Although the Tatars are scattered across the large areas within Russia, majority of them (about 7 million) reside in the  Republic of Tatarstan (the historic land of the modern Tatars). With its capital in Kazan, Tatarstan is a home and central focus of the Tatar (Volga or Kazan Tatars) culture, crafts and lifestyle.

The modern Tatars trace their roots to early nomads and Volga Bulgars who had settled in their indigenous territories (modern Tatarstan) in middle ages. After World War I, a vast group of the Volga Tatars migrated to the other parts of the world. These days, Tatar diasporas (comprising of roughly 3 million Tatars) are thriving in Finland, Australia, China, Belgium, USA, Canada, Ukraine, Afghanistan.

The Tatars speak the Tatar tongue (Altaic, Turkic language family) and have a culture, customs and traditions that are largely influenced by Islamic norms and mindsets. Tatars share language similarities and cultural origins with many Turkic-speaking ethnic groups. Based on lexicostatistical matrix of Turkic languages and according to the to recent article in Journal of Language Evolution, Tatar language exhibits more than 50% basic vocabulary similarities with at least 12 Turkic languages (Azeri, Bashkir, Crimean Tatars, Kazakh, Karachi, Khakas, Kyrgyz, Turkish, Turkmen, Tuvan, Uyghur, Uzbek). The modern written Tatar language is based on the Cyrillic script since 1938, prior to that it was in Latin and Arabic scripts, Uyghur writing and ancient Turkic runes.  

Tatar language is utilized actively by rural residents of Tatarstan. The urban residents tend to favor Russian, leaving Tatar language to deteriorate. Unpopularity of Tatar language in modern Tatarstan can be partially explained by language education policies of Russian Federation. Reduction of indigenous languages instruction and increase of Russian and English languages instructions are the current strategies. The absence of the alternatives of GED/SAT/ACT tests in native/Tatar language is also are contributing factor for Tatar language to be assumed as inferior and “not useful”. 

Below are some images of Tatar girls of 19th, 20th and 21st centuries who are pictured wearing Tatar traditional outwear. You can view more modern Tatar types in this video or enjoy Tatar folk tunes and colorful Tatar ethnic costumes while watching this traditional Tatar folk dance.