Tatars are the second largest nation in Russia after the Russians. According to the 2010 census, they make up 3.72% of the population of the entire country. These people, who joined the Muscovite state in the second half of the 16th century, over the centuries managed to preserve their cultural identity, carefully treating historical traditions and religion.
Any nation is looking for its origins. The Tatars are no exception. The origin of this nation began to be seriously investigated in the 19th century, when the development of bourgeois relations accelerated. The national self-consciousness of the people, the identification of its main features and characteristics, the creation of a single ideology were subjected to a special study. The origin of the Tatars throughout this time remained an important topic of study for both Russian and Tatar historians. The results of this many years of work can be conditionally represented in three theories.
The first theory is connected with the ancient state of Volga Bulgaria. It is believed that the history of the Tatars begins with the Turkic-Bulgarian ethnic group, which emerged from the Asian steppes and settled in the Middle Volga region. In the 10th-13th centuries they managed to createown statehood. The period of the Golden Horde and the Muscovite state made some adjustments to the formation of the ethnic group, but did not change the essence of Islamic culture. At the same time, we are talking mainly about the Volga-Ural group, while other Tatars are considered as independent ethnic communities, united only by the name and history of joining the Golden Horde.
Other researchers believe that the Tatars originate from the Central Asian ethnic groups who moved to the west during the Mongol-Tatar campaigns. It was the entry into the Ulus of Jochi and the adoption of Islam that played the main role in uniting disparate tribes and forming a single nationality. At the same time, the autochthonous population of the Volga Bulgaria was partially exterminated, and partially ousted. The alien tribes created their own special culture, brought the Kypchak language.
The Turkic-Tatar origins in the genesis of the people are emphasized by the following theory. According to it, the Tatars count their origin from the great Turkic Khaganate, the largest Asian state of the Middle Ages of the 6th century AD. The theory recognizes a certain role in the formation of the Tatar ethnos as the Volga Bulgaria and the Khazar Khaganate, as well as the Kypchak-Kimak and Tatar-Mongolian ethnic groups of the Asian steppes. The special role of the Golden Horde, which rallied all the tribes, is emphasized.
All the above theories of the formation of the Tatar nation emphasize the special role of Islam, as well as the period of the Golden Horde. Based on historical data,researchers differently see the origins of the origin of the people. Nevertheless, it becomes clear that the Tatars originate from the ancient Turkic tribes, and historical ties with other tribes and peoples, of course, had an impact on the current image of the nation. Carefully preserving the culture, language and religion, the Tatars managed not to lose their national identity in the face of global integration.
