The Volga Tatars or simply Tatars are a Kipchak-Bulgar Turkic ethnic group native to the Volga-Ural region of Eastern European Russia. They are subdivided into various subgroups. Volga Tatars are the second-largest ethnic group in Russia after ethnic Russians. Most of them live in the republics of Tatarstan and Bashkortostan. Their native language is Tatar, a language of the Turkic language family. The predominant religion is Sunni Islam, followed by Orthodox Christianity.
"Workers of the world, unite!", written in the Tatar Arabic script on illustrated flag of TASSR. (Kazan Kreml Museum, 2023).
Märcani Mosque in Kazan
Head of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov (left) and former head Mintimer Shaimiev during the Izge Bolgar zhyeny festivities, dedicated to the 1,121st anniversary of the adoption of Islam by Volga Bulgaria.
Xäydär Bigiçev (1949-1998), Mishar Tatar from Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, soloist of the Tatar Opera and Ballet Theater named after Musa Jalil, award-winning folk artist.
The Tatars, formerly also spelt Tartars, is an umbrella term for different Turkic ethnic groups bearing the name "Tatar" across Eastern Europe and Asia. Initially, the ethnonym Tatar possibly referred to the Tatar confederation. That confederation was eventually incorporated into the Mongol Empire when Genghis Khan unified the various steppe tribes. Historically, the term Tatars was applied to anyone originating from the vast Northern and Central Asian landmass then known as Tartary, a term which was also conflated with the Mongol Empire itself. More recently, however, the term has come to refer more narrowly to related ethnic groups who refer to themselves as Tatars or who speak languages that are commonly referred to as Tatar.
Orkhon inscriptions in Old Turkic
Ottoman miniature of the Szigetvár campaign showing Ottoman troops and Crimean Tatars as vanguard
Volga Tatars in traditional clothing
Mausoleum of Canike in Crimea, Qırq Yer