The Volga Tatars under Russian domination

Essay from the year 2001 in the subject Politics - Region: Russia, grade: 1.7 (A-), University of Leeds (POLIS), language: English, abstract: In 1990 the Supreme Soviet of the Tatar ASSR declared the sovereignty of the Tatar state. Since then the political leaders of Tatarstan have pursued a self-conscious, but moderate national policy within the Russian Federation that has become a leading example for many other national republics. A constitutional guarantee of the sovereignty by the RF as envisaged by Tatarstan would officially bring to an end some 450 years of Russian domination of the Tatars and their country: a situation that could at best be compared with first attempts of independent statehood that followed the Revolution. Is this, then, the story of a nation that at last is peacefully liberating itself from the Russian yoke that for centuries had threatened to bring indigenous national integrity to its knees? How severe was the damage done to the Volga Tatars, and has it been repaired? To answer these questions, the essay considers first of all two early phases of independent statehood and thereby comes to a general understanding of the term 'Volga Tatars'. Secondly, it distinguishes several phases of Russian domination and discusses their respective effects on the Volga Tatars. Special attention will be devoted to the Soviet period, so that finally an assessment of the national efforts in the 1990s can be made.