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Founding
Founding of Tatarstan
federal subject of Russia
- 30 August 1990
- Kazan
- Europe
Founding
federal subject of Russia
Fetching the article from Wikipedia…
Tatarstan, officially the Republic of Tatarstan, sometimes also called Tataria, is a republic of Russia located in Eastern Europe. It is a part of the Volga Federal District; and its capital and largest city is Kazan, an important cultural centre in Russia. The region's main source of wealth is oil with a strong petrochemical industry.
The republic borders the oblasts of Kirov, Ulyanovsk, Samara, and Orenburg, as well as the republics of Mari El, Udmurtia, Chuvashia, and Bashkortostan. Tatarstan has strong cultural, linguistic and ethnic ties with its eastern neighbour, Bashkortostan, which is also a republic of Russia. The area of Tatarstan is 68,000 square kilometres (26,000 mi2), occupying 0.4% of the total surface of the country. As of the 2021 census, the population of Tatarstan was 4,004,809.
The earliest known organised state within the boundaries of Tatarstan was Volga Bulgaria, which adopted Islam in 922. This is celebrated yearly in the city of Bolgar. Other historical predecessors of Tatarstan include the Golden Horde and the Khanate of Kazan, before ultimately being conquered by Russia. In 1920, the modern Tatar state, known as the Tatar ASSR, was founded as an autonomous republic of the Russian SFSR. It was renamed the Republic of Tatarstan in 1992 and became a federal subject of Russia.
The official languages of the republic are Tatar and Russian. The head of Tatarstan is Rustam Minnihanov. Religious leaders include the mufti Kamil Samigullin and the metropolitan bishop Cyril Nakonechny.
"Tatarstan" derives from the name of the ethnic group—the Tatars—and the Persian suffix -stan (meaning "state" or "country" of, an ending common to many Eurasian countries). Another version of the Russian name is "Татария" (Tatariya), which was official along with "Tatar ASSR" during Soviet rule.
Alternative spelling of the Persian suffix -stan would use i/e after a consonant. For example, Turkish spells Tatarstan as "Tataristan", and occasionally in Tatar, it is "Tatarıstan" (Татарыстан).
In addition to the official "Tatarstan respublikası", the name Tatarstan Cömhüriyäte (Татарстан Җөмһүрияте, from Arabic جمهورية) is used as well.
The republic is located in the centre of the East European Plain, approximately 800 kilometres (500 mi) east of Moscow. It lies between the Volga River and the Kama River (a tributary of the Volga), and extends east to the Ural Mountains.
Oak is the dominant tree species on 87% of the total area, followed by aspen, linden, birch, and Scots pine. The total forest cover has decreased from 51.2% to 17.1% over the last 300 years.
The Volga-Kama Nature Reserve is situated in Tatarstan.
Major rivers include:
Major reservoirs of the republic include:
The biggest lake is Kaban. The biggest swamp is Kulyagash.
The major natural resources of Tatarstan include oil, natural gas and gypsum. It is estimated that the republic has over one billion tons of oil deposits.
Tatarstan's administrative and territorial divisions form 43 municipal districts and 2 urban districts (Kazan and Naberezhnye Chelny), as well as 39 urban settlements and 872 rural settlements.
The earliest known organised state within the boundaries of modern Tatarstan was Volga Bulgaria (c. 700–1238). The Volga Bulgars had an advanced mercantile state with trade contacts throughout Inner Eurasia, the Middle East, and the Baltic, and maintained its independence despite pressure from such powers as the Khazars, the Kievan Rus', and the Cuman-Kipchaks. Islam was introduced by missionaries from Baghdad around the time of Ibn Fadlan's journey in 922.
Volga Bulgaria finally fell to the armies of the Mongol prince Batu Khan in the late 1230s (see Mongol invasion of Volga Bulgaria). The inhabitants, a large number of whom were killed and the rest mixing with the Golden Horde's Kipchaks, became known as the Volga Tatars. In the 1430s, the region again became independent as the base of the Khanate of Kazan, with its capital established in Kazan, 170 km (110 mi) up the Volga from the ruined capital of the Bulgars.
The Khanate of Kazan was conquered by the troops of Tsar Ivan the Terrible in the 1550s, with Kazan being taken in 1552. A large number of Tatars were forcibly converted to Christianity and were culturally Russified. Cathedrals were built in Kazan; by 1593, all mosques in the area had been destroyed. The Russian government forbade the construction of mosques, a prohibition that was not lifted until the 18th century, during the reign of Catherine the Great. The first mosque to be rebuilt under Catherine's auspices was constructed in 1766–1770.
In the 19th century, Tatarstan became a centre of Jadidism, an Islamic movement that preached tolerance of other religions. Under the influence of local Jadidist theologians, the Bulgars were renowned for their friendly relations with other peoples of the Russian Empire.
During the Civil War of 1918–1920 Tatar nationalists attempted to establish an independent republic (the Idel-Ural State, Idel being the name of the Volga in Tatar) along with the neighbouring Bashkirs. Initially supported by the Bolsheviks, the state existed up until March 1918, when high-ranking members of its parliament were arrested by the Bolsheviks (who had turned on the state and denounced it as bourgeois) before the official declaration of its constitution. The Soviets later set up the Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, which was established on 27 May 1920. The boundaries of the republic did not include a majority of the Volga Tatars. The Tatar Union of the Godless were persecuted in Joseph Stalin's 1928 purges.
A famine occurred in the Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in 1921–1922 as a result of the policy of war communism. The famine deaths of between 500,000 and 2 million Tatars in the Tatar ASSR and in the Volga-Ural region in 1921–1922 was catastrophic as half of the Volga Tatar population in the USSR died.
Starting in the 1960s, schools opened in Tatarstan that taught Russian as an official second language, as it was necessary in order to individually advance in the broader Soviet society. By the 1980s, few schools still taught the Tatar language.
On 30 August 1990, Tatarstan declared its sovereignty with the Declaration on the State Sovereignty of the Tatar Soviet Socialist Republic and in 1992 Tatarstan held a referendum on the new constitution, promoted by Tatarstan's President Shaymiyev and supervised by Helsinki Commission staff. Parliament opposition revolved around the Russian faction Narodovlastie (People's Power). Some 62% of those who took part voted in favour of the constitution, with ethnic Tatars supporting it much more than Russians. In the new constitution, Tatarstan is defined as a Sovereign State. However, the referendum and constitution were declared unconstitutional by the Russian Constitutional Court. Articles 1 and 3 of the Constitution as introduced in 2002 define Tatarstan as a part of the Russian Federation, removing the "sovereignty" term.
On 15 February 1994, the Treaty On Delimitation of Jurisdictional Subjects and Mutual Delegation of Authority between the State Bodies of the Russian Federation and the State Bodies of the Republic of Tatarstan and Agreement between the Government of the Russian Federation and the Government of the Republic of Tatarstan (On Delimitation of Authority in the Sphere of Foreign Economic Relations) were signed. The power-sharing agreement was renewed on 11 July 2007, though with much of the power delegated to Tatarstan reduced.
On 20 December 2008, in response to Russia recognising Abkhazia and South Ossetia, the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People organisation declared Tatarstan independent and asked for United Nations recognition. However, this declaration was ignored both by the United Nations and the Russian government. On 24 July 2017, the autonomy agreement signed in 1994 between Moscow and Kazan expired, making Tatarstan the last republic of Russia to lose its special status.
Population: 4,004,809 (2021 census); 3,786,488 (2010 census); 3,779,265 (2002 census); 3,637,809 (1989 Soviet census).
Note: TFR source.
There are about 2 million ethnic Tatars and 1.5 million ethnic Russians in Tatarstan, along with significant numbers of Chuvash, Mari, and Udmurts, some of whom are Tatar-speaking. The Ukrainian, Mordvin, and Bashkir minorities are also significant. Most Tatars are Sunni Muslims, but a small minority known as Keräşen Tatars are Orthodox Christians, some of whom regard themselves as being distinct from other Tatars even though most Keräşen dialects differ only slightly from the Central Dialect of the Tatar language.
Despite many decades of assimilation and intermingling, some Keräşen demanded and were awarded the option of being specifically enumerated in 2002. This has provoked great controversy, however, as many intellectuals have sought to portray the Tatars as homogeneous and indivisible. Although listed separately below, the Keräşen are still included in the grand total for the Tatars. Another unique ethnic group, concentrated in Tatarstan, is the Qaratay Mordvins.
Tatar and Udmurt Jews are special territorial groups of the Ashkenazi Jews, which started to be formed in the residential areas of mixed Turkic-speaking (Tatars, Kryashens, Bashkirs, Chuvash people), Finno-Ugric-speaking (Udmurts, Mari people) and Slavic-speaking (Russians) populations. The Ashkenazi Jews first appeared in Tatarstan in the 1830s. The Jews of Udmurtia and Tatarstan are subdivided by cultural and linguistic characteristics into two territorial groups: 1) Udmurt Jews (Udmurt Jewry), who lived on the territory of Udmurtia and the north of Tatarstan; 2) Tatar Jews, or Kazan Jews (Tatar Jewry or Kazan Jewry), who lived mainly in the city of Kazan and its agglomeration.
In accordance with the Constitution of the Republic of Tatarstan, the two state languages of the republic are Tatar and Russian. According to the 2002 Russian Federal Law (On Languages of Peoples of the Russian Federation), the official script is Cyrillic. Linguistic anthropologist Dr. Suzanne Wertheim notes that "some men signal ideological devotion to the Tatar cause by refusing to accommodate to Russian-dominant public space or Russian speakers", whilst women, in promoting "the Tatar state and Tatar national culture, index their pro-Tatar ideological stances more diplomatically, and with linguistic practices situated only within the Tatar-speaking community... in keeping with normative gender roles within the Tatar republic."
As of 2012, Islam was the most common faith in Tatarstan, adhered to by 53.8% of the estimated 3.8 million population. Most of the remaining population is either Russian Orthodox Christian or non-religious.
The muftiate of Tatarstan is the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of the Republic of Tatarstan, led by Kamil Samigullin.
Established in 922, the first Muslim state within the boundaries of modern Russia was Volga Bulgaria from which the Tatars inherited Islam. Islam was introduced by missionaries from Baghdad around the time of Ibn Fadlan's journey in 922. Islam's long presence in Russia also extends at least as far back as the conquest of the Khanate of Kazan in 1552, which brought the Tatars and Bashkirs on the Middle Volga into Russia.
In the 1430s, the region became independent as the base of the Khanate of Kazan, a capital having been established in Kazan, 170 km up the Volga from the ruined capital of the Bulgars. The Khanate of Kazan was conquered by the troops of Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible in the 1550s, with Kazan being taken in 1552. Some Tatars were forcibly converted to Christianity and cathedrals were built in Kazan; by 1593, mosques in the area were destroyed. The Russian government forbade the construction of mosques, a prohibition that was not lifted until the 18th century by Catherine II.
In 1990, there were only 100 mosques, but by 2004 this number had risen to well over 1,000. As of 1 January 2008, as many as 1,398 religious organizations were registered in Tatarstan, of which 1,055 were Muslim. In September 2010, Eid al-Fitr as well as 21 May, the day the Volga Bulgars embraced Islam, were made public holidays.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Tatarstan”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.