Why not all who are called Tatars are one people

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

One of the biggest confusion in the names of peoples in Russian history is with the Tatars. Why is the population of Tatarstan connected and not connected with the Mongol-Tatar yoke? Why are Crimean Tatars and Tatars on the Volga different peoples, but are called the same? Here's a quick guide to help you figure it out.

Invasion of the Mongols and the Kazan Khanate

The Tatars who came with the Mongols during the Western campaign are not like the same people who now live in Tatarstan. This is an Asian tribe that the Mongols conquered long before - and forcibly assimilated, killing all boys and men older than about three years old, so that the new generation grew up in obedience to the Mongols.

During the advent of the Mongol-Tatar army, where Tatarstan now stands, there was a large Bulgar Khanate - a fairly developed Muslim state founded by the once steppe, probably Turkic-speaking people - the Bulgars (the same people stands at the foundations of the Balkan country of Bulgaria). The khanate either traded or fought with the ancient Russian principalities, and on its territory lived various Finno-Ugric peoples - the most eastern Europeans.

The Bulgar Khanate and its allies did not submit to the invaders. They fought and most of the boys and men died as a result. The Mongols established their power and left a number of Tatar noble families to rule in the conquered lands. That is why the lands began to be called Tatar.

As for the common population, it did not mix with the newcomers for a long time, preferring to marry with the local peoples and the conquered Polovtsians. Over time, of course, the Mongol empire collapsed, the elite got used to it, and some of the Kazan Tatars really have the genes of the "Mongol" Tatars. That is why the Far Eastern features can sometimes be seen among the Tatars. But much more often there are European or steppe Turkic faces, which, of course, are also oriental, but differ greatly from the Mongolian ones.

There is a movement among the Tatars to regain the "original" name of the Bulgars, instead of wearing the derogatory name of the conquerors. Many who wish to be called Bulgars also mistakenly believe that Bulgars were Slavs - probably because Bulgaria is a Slavic country.

Tatars are not the only people to have adopted the name of their elite. The Bulgars in Bulgaria, for example, were a minority and therefore easily dissolved over time, and the Russian lands (and after that the people, whose ancestors were mainly the Ilmen Slovenes and the Ilmenian Chud) were called by the new Varangian masters, as the chronicler Nestor testifies. Varangian (Scandinavian) genes in modern Russians are also very few.

Crimean Tatars

Usually, when explaining how it happened that two different peoples bear the same name, they recall that in the Russian Empire practically all Turkic-speaking small peoples were called Tatars. In fact, here again, it seems, the Western campaign of the Mongol empire is involved.

It is believed that mainly the ancestors of the Crimean Tatars are the Polovtsians, a steppe Turkic-speaking people, who, however, probably mixed with their Iranian-speaking neighbors. The late Polovtsian code has survived, in which the Polovtsy definitely call themselves "Tatars".

The Polovtsi were the southern neighbors of the Bulgars. Naturally, during the Mongol invasion, some of them also grappled with the Mongols, and some left to the west or submitted. Those Polovtsy who were the first to reach the Crimea were not lucky - they were frightened, mistaken for the Mongols, about whom panic rumors had already spread, and were killed. Part of the Polovtsians scattered across Europe up to Italy. Some have sworn allegiance to the conquerors. Probably, in almost all western lands, the Mongols left exactly the Tatar rulers (or many Mongols have already adopted the name of the Tatars) with their troops. This would explain why a new wave of Polovtsians, who came to Crimea much later, called themselves Tatars.

By the way, the Polovtsians managed to greatly influence the conquerors and that is why many Turkic roots can be found in the Mongolian language. And even before the Western campaign, the Polovtsians were permanent allies of Bulgaria, mainly against Byzantium.

Subsequently, the Crimean Tatars developed under the strong influence of the Ottoman Empire, although they largely retained their own customs - for example, as in the steppe before that, women participated in the voting. Only now they were not allowed to speak, they expressed their will by ringing bells.

Literary and other Tatars

And yet, it is true how the word "Tatars" was used before the revolution. So, reading old novels, you can, on reflection, understand what the author calls Tatars, for example, Azerbaijan.

The legacy of this approach is partly due to the number of different Tatar peoples in Russia. For example, in addition to the Kazan Tatars, there are also Astrakhan Tatars (which, however, historically mixed with Kazan Tatars very actively), Siberian and some smaller groups, and historically there have been Orthodox Tatars - Kryashens and Nagaybaks. The latter are also called Tatar Cossacks.

Almost everyone who is called Tatars in our time are related to the Mongol empire and formed in the khanates that remained after its split. Genetics shows that their origin is very heterogeneous and it is even possible to say that some Tatars are more likely Europeans, while others are more likely different kinds of Asians.