Tatarstan, officially the Republic of Tatarstan, sometimes also called Tataria, is a

republic A republic, based on the Latin phrase ''res publica'' ('public affair' or 'people's affair'), is a State (polity), state in which Power (social and political), political power rests with the public (people), typically through their Representat ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

located in

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural and socio-economic connotations. Its eastern boundary is marked by the Ural Mountain ...

. It is a part of the Volga Federal District; and its capital and largest city is

Kazan Kazan; , IPA: Help:IPA/Tatar, ɑzanis the largest city and capital city, capital of Tatarstan, Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Volga and the Kazanka (river), Kazanka Rivers, covering an area of , with a population of over 1. ...

, 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 Samara, formerly known as Kuybyshev (1935–1991), is the largest city and administrative centre of Samara Oblast in Russia. The city is located at the confluence of the Volga and the Samara (Volga), Samara rivers, with a population of over 1.14 ...

and Orenburg, as well as the republics of Mari El,

Udmurtia Udmurtia, officially the Udmurt Republic, is a republics of Russia, republic of Russia located in Eastern Europe. It is administratively part of the Volga Federal District. Its capital city, capital is the types of inhabited localities in Russi ...

, Chuvashia and Bashkortostan. The area of the republic is , occupying 0.4% of the total surface of the country. As of the 2021 Census, the population of Tatarstan was 4,004,809. Tatarstan has strong cultural, linguistic and ethnic ties with its eastern neighbour, Bashkortostan, which is also a republic of Russia. The official languages of the republic are Tatar and Russian.

Etymology

"Tatarstan" derives from the name of the ethnic group—the

Tatars Tatars ( )Tatar
in the Collins English Dictionary are a group of Turkic peoples across Eas ...

—and the Persian suffix '' -stan'' (meaning "state" or "country" of, an ending common to many

Eurasia Eurasia ( , ) is a continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. According to some geographers, Physical geography, physiographically, Eurasia is a single supercontinent. The concept of Europe and Asia as distinct continents d ...

n countries). Another version of the Russian name is "" (), which was official along with " Tatar ASSR" during

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

rule. Correct spelling of the Persian -stan as a suffix would use i/e after a consonant. Turkish spells Tatarstan as "Tataristan", and occasionally in Tatar, it is "Tatarıstan" (Татарыстан).

Geography

The republic is located in the center of the East European Plain, approximately east of

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

. It lies between the Volga River and the Kama River (a

tributary A tributary, or an ''affluent'', is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream (''main stem'' or ''"parent"''), river, or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries, and the main stem river into which they ...

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 Aspen is a common name for certain tree species in the Populus sect. Populus, of the ''Populus'' (poplar) genus. Species These species are called aspens: * ''Populus adenopoda'' – Chinese aspen (China, south of ''P. tremula'') * ''Populus da ...

, 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.

Borders

* Neighbours:

Kirov Oblast Kirov Oblast ( rus, Кировская область, p=ˈkʲirəfskəjə ˈobləsʲtʲ) is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast) located in Eastern Europe. Its administrative center is the city of Kirov. As of the 2010 census, the population ...

(N), Udmurt Republic (N/NE),

Republic of Bashkortostan Bashkortostan, officially the Republic of Bashkortostan, sometimes also called Bashkiria, is a Republics of Russia, republic of Russia between the Volga, Volga river and the Ural Mountains in Eastern Europe. The republic borders Perm Krai to th ...

(E/SE), Orenburg Oblast (SE), Samara Oblast (S), Ulyanovsk Oblast (S/SW), Chuvash Republic (W), Mari El Republic (W/NW). * Highest point: * Maximum N–S distance: * Maximum E–W distance:

Rivers

Sviyazhsk Rozhdestvenskaya Street and pier 08-2016 img1

Major rivers include: * Azevka River * Belaya River * Ik River * Kama River * Volga River * Vyatka River * Kazanka River *

Zay River The Zay (; ) is a river in Russia, a left-bank tributary of the Kama (river), Kama. It is long, and its drainage basin covers .Kuybyshev Reservoir * Lower Kama Reservoir *

Zainsk Reservoir Zainsk Reservoir or Zay Reservoir (, ) is a reservoir of the Zay River near Zainsk, Tatarstan, Russian Federation. It was filled in 1963 to be a cooling pond for Zainsk TTP. It has surface area 20.5 km², a length 12 km, mean width 1.7&n ...

The biggest lake is Kaban. The biggest swamp is Kulyagash.

Hills

* Bugulma-Belebey Upland * Volga Upland * Vyatskiye Uvaly

Basins

* Ulema basin * Mesha basin

Natural resources

The major natural resources of Tatarstan include oil,

natural gas Natural gas (also fossil gas, methane gas, and gas) is a naturally occurring compound of gaseous hydrocarbons, primarily methane (95%), small amounts of higher alkanes, and traces of carbon dioxide and nitrogen, hydrogen sulfide and helium ...

and gypsum. It is estimated that the republic has over one billion tons of oil deposits.

Climate

* ''Average January temperature'': * ''Average July temperature:'' * ''Average annual temperature:'' + * ''Average annual

precipitation In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls from clouds due to gravitational pull. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, rain and snow mixed ("sleet" in Commonwe ...

'': up to

Administrative divisions

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 republic also recognises cities of republican significance, the list of which is established by th
Constitution of the Republic of Tatarstan
The districts consist of cities of district significance, urban-type settlements and rural settlements with subordinate territories that make up the primary level in the system of administrative-territorial structure of the Republic. Cities of national significance can be geographically divided into districts in the city.

History

Middle Ages

The earliest known organised state within the boundaries of Tatarstan was Volga Bulgaria (c. 700–1238). The Volga Bulgars had an advanced mercantile state with trade contacts throughout Inner

, the

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

, and the Baltic, which maintained its independence despite pressure by such nations as the Khazars, the Kievan Rus, and the

Cuman The Cumans or Kumans were a Turkic nomadic people from Central Asia comprising the western branch of the Cuman–Kipchak confederation who spoke the Cuman language. They are referred to as Polovtsians (''Polovtsy'') in Rus' chronicles, as " ...

- Kipchaks.

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

was introduced by missionaries from

Baghdad Baghdad ( or ; , ) is the capital and List of largest cities of Iraq, largest city of Iraq, located along the Tigris in the central part of the country. With a population exceeding 7 million, it ranks among the List of largest cities in the A ...

around the time of Ibn Fadlan's journey in 922. Bolgar archeological works

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 amount of them 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 The Khanate of Kazan was a Tatar state that occupied the territory of the former Volga Bulgaria between 1438 and 1552. The khanate covered contemporary Tatarstan, Mari El, Chuvashia, Mordovia, and parts of Udmurtia and Bashkortostan; ...

, a capital having been established in

, up the Volga from the ruined capital of the Bulgars. The Khanate of Kazan was conquered by the troops of Tsar

Ivan the Terrible Ivan IV Vasilyevich (; – ), commonly known as Ivan the Terrible,; ; monastic name: Jonah. was Grand Prince of Moscow, Grand Prince of Moscow and all Russia from 1533 to 1547, and the first Tsar of all Russia, Tsar and Grand Prince of all R ...

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 were destroyed. The Russian government forbade the construction of mosques, a prohibition that was not lifted until the 18th century by Catherine the Great. The first mosque to be rebuilt under Catherine's auspices was constructed in 1766–1770.

19th century

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. However, after the

October Revolution The October Revolution, also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution (in Historiography in the Soviet Union, Soviet historiography), October coup, Bolshevik coup, or Bolshevik revolution, was the second of Russian Revolution, two r ...

, religion was largely outlawed and all theologians were repressed.

20th century

During the

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

of 1918–1920 Tatar nationalists attempted to establish an independent republic (the Idel-Ural State, ''Idel'' being the name of the

Volga The Volga (, ) is the longest river in Europe and the longest endorheic basin river in the world. Situated in Russia, it flows through Central Russia to Southern Russia and into the Caspian Sea. The Volga has a length of , and a catchment ...

in Tatar) along with the neighbouring Bashkirs. Initially supported by the

Bolsheviks The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...

, 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 The Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, abbreviated as Tatar ASSR or TASSR, was an Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republics, autonomous republic of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Russian SFSR. The resolution for its crea ...

, 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 Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...

's 1928

purge In history, religion and political science, a purge is a position removal or execution of people who are considered undesirable by those in power from a government, another, their team leaders, or society as a whole. A group undertaking such an ...

s. A

famine A famine is a widespread scarcity of food caused by several possible factors, including, but not limited to war, natural disasters, crop failure, widespread poverty, an Financial crisis, economic catastrophe or government policies. This phenom ...

occurred in the

in 1921–1922 as a result of the policy of war communism. The famine deaths of between 500,000 and 2 million

Tatars Tatars ( )Tatar
in the Collins English Dictionary are a group of Turkic peoples across Eas ...

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 The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

died. Starting in the 1960s, schools opened in Tatarstan that taught Russian as an official

second language A second language (L2) is a language spoken in addition to one's first language (L1). A second language may be a neighbouring language, another language of the speaker's home country, or a foreign language. A speaker's dominant language, which ...

, as it was necessary in order to individually advance in the broader Soviet society. By the 1980s, few schools still taught the Tatar language.

Present day

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 South Ossetia, officially the Republic of South Ossetia or the State of Alania, is a landlocked country in the South Caucasus with International recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, partial diplomatic recognition. It has an offici ...

, the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People organisation declared Tatarstan independent and asked for

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

recognition. However, this declaration was ignored both by the

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.

Demographics

Population:

Settlements

Vital statistics

Life expectancy in Russian subject -Tatarstan

Note: TFR source.

Ethnic groups

There are about 2 million ethnic

Tatars Tatars ( )Tatar
in the Collins English Dictionary are a group of Turkic peoples across Eas ...

and 1.5 million ethnic

Russians Russians ( ) are an East Slavs, East Slavic ethnic group native to Eastern Europe. Their mother tongue is Russian language, Russian, the most spoken Slavic languages, Slavic language. The majority of Russians adhere to Eastern Orthodox Church ...

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. There is a fair degree of speculation as to the early origins of the different groups of Tatars, but most Tatars no longer view religious identity as being as important as it once was, and the religious and linguistic subgroups have intermingled considerably. Nevertheless, 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.

Jews

Tatar and Udmurt Jews are special territorial groups of the

Ashkenazi Jews Ashkenazi Jews ( ; also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim) form a distinct subgroup of the Jewish diaspora, that emerged in the Holy Roman Empire around the end of the first millennium CE. They traditionally speak Yiddish, a language ...

, which started to be formed in the residential areas of mixed Turkic-speaking (

Tatars Tatars ( )Tatar
in the Collins English Dictionary are a group of Turkic peoples across Eas ...

, Kryashens, Bashkirs, Chuvash people), Finno-Ugric-speaking ( Udmurts, Mari people) and Slavic-speaking (

) populations. The Ashkenazi Jews first appeared in Tatarstan in the 1830s. The Jews of

and Tatarstan are subdivided by cultural and linguistic characteristics into two territorial groups: 1) Udmurt Jews (Udmurt Jewry), who lived on the territory of

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.

Languages

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 The Cyrillic script ( ) is a writing system used for various languages across Eurasia. It is the designated national script in various Slavic, Turkic, Mongolic, Uralic, Caucasian and Iranic-speaking countries in Southeastern Europe, Ea ...

. 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."

Religion

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.2012 Arena Atlas Religion Maps
"Ogonek", No. 34 (5243), 27/08/2012. Retrieved 21/04/2017
Archived
Established in 922, the first Muslim state within the boundaries of modern Russia was Volga Bulgaria from which the

Tatars Tatars ( )Tatar
in the Collins English Dictionary are a group of Turkic peoples across Eas ...

inherited

. Islam was introduced by missionaries from

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 Tatars ( )Tatar
in the Collins English Dictionary are a group of Turkic peoples across Eas ...

and Bashkirs on the Middle

into Russia. In the 1430s, the region became independent as the base of the

, a capital having been established in

, 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 Catherine II. (born Princess Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst; 2 May 172917 November 1796), most commonly known as Catherine the Great, was the reigning empress of Russia from 1762 to 1796. She came to power after overthrowing her husband, Peter III ...

. In 1990, there were only 100 mosques, but by 2004 this number had risen to well over 1,000. as many as 1,398 religious organizations were registered in Tatarstan, of which 1,055 were

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

. In September 2010,

Eid al-Fitr Eid al-Fitr () is the first of the two main Islamic holidays, festivals in Islam, the other being Eid al-Adha. It falls on the first day of Shawwal, the tenth month of the Islamic calendar. Eid al-Fitr is celebrated by Muslims worldwide becaus ...

as well as 21 May, the day the Volga Bulgars embraced Islam, were made public holidays. The

Russian Orthodox Church The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC; ;), also officially known as the Moscow Patriarchate (), is an autocephaly, autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodox Christian church. It has 194 dioceses inside Russia. The Primate (bishop), p ...

is the second largest active religion in Tatarstan, and has been so for more than 150 years, with an estimated 1.6 million followers made up of

ethnic Russians Russians ( ) are an East Slavs, East Slavic ethnic group native to Eastern Europe. Their mother tongue is Russian language, Russian, the most spoken Slavic languages, Slavic language. The majority of Russians adhere to Eastern Orthodox Church ...

, Mordvins,

Armenians Armenians (, ) are an ethnic group indigenous to the Armenian highlands of West Asia.Robert Hewsen, Hewsen, Robert H. "The Geography of Armenia" in ''The Armenian People From Ancient to Modern Times Volume I: The Dynastic Periods: From Antiq ...

, Belarusians, Mari people,

Georgians Georgians, or Kartvelians (; ka, ქართველები, tr, ), are a nation and Peoples of the Caucasus, Caucasian ethnic group native to present-day Georgia (country), Georgia and surrounding areas historically associated with the Ge ...

, Chuvash and a number of Orthodox

Tatars Tatars ( )Tatar
in the Collins English Dictionary are a group of Turkic peoples across Eas ...

which together constitute 38% of the 3.8 million population of Tatarstan. On 23 August 2010, the "Orthodox monuments of Tatarstan" exhibition was held in Kazan by the Tatarstan Ministry of Culture and the Kazan Eparchy. At all public events, an Orthodox Priest is called upon along with an Islamic Mufti. The Muslim Religious Board of Tatarstan frequently organizes activities, like the ' Islamic graffiti Contest' which was held on 20 November 2011.

Politics

Kazan House of Tatarstan Government 08-2016

Tatarstan's

unicameral Unicameralism (from ''uni''- "one" + Latin ''camera'' "chamber") is a type of legislature consisting of one house or assembly that legislates and votes as one. Unicameralism has become an increasingly common type of legislature, making up nearly ...

State Council consists of 100 seats: fifty for representatives of the parties and fifty for deputies from the republic's localities. The Chairman of the State Council is Farit Mukhametshin, who has served since 27 May 1998. The government is the Сabinet of Ministers. The prime minister of the Republic of Tatarstan is Alexei Pesoshin. According to the Constitution of the Republic of Tatarstan, the Rais can be elected only by the people of Tatarstan, but due to Russian federal law, this law was suspended for an indefinite term. The Russian law on the election of governors says they should be elected by regional parliaments and that the candidate for Rais can be presented only by the

president of Russia The president of Russia, officially the president of the Russian Federation (), is the executive head of state of Russia. The president is the chair of the State Council (Russia), Federal State Council and the President of Russia#Commander-in-ch ...

. In December 2022, regional lawmakers voted to change the title of the head of the republic from ''president'' to ''rais'' (an Arabic title for "leader"); lawmakers were expected to adopt new amendments to Tatarstan's constitution so that it would be in line with the 2020 amendments to the Constitution of Russia and a federal law in 2021 which abolished regional presidencies. The title of president was seen as the last remaining symbol of federalism following the centralisation reforms under

Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who has served as President of Russia since 2012, having previously served from 2000 to 2008. Putin also served as Prime Minister of Ru ...

. Incumbent president Rustam Minnikhanov originally was to retain the title of president until his term expires in 2025 under transitional agreements, however he became Rais in February 2024.

Political status

The Republic of Tatarstan is a constituent republic of the

Russian Federation Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. Most of the Russian federal subjects are tied with the Russian federal government by the uniform Federal Treaty (The contract expired in 2017), but relations between the government of Tatarstan and the Russian federal government are more complex and are precisely defined in the

Constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organization or other type of entity, and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed. When these pri ...

of the Republic of Tatarstan. The following passage from the Constitution defines the republic's status without contradicting the Constitution of the Russian Federation:

Economy

Tatarstan is one of the most economically developed regions of Russia. The republic is highly industrialised and ranks second to Samara Oblast in terms of industrial production per km². In 2021, Tatarstan's

gross regional product Gross regional domestic product (GRDP), gross domestic product of region (GDPR), or gross state product (GSP) is a statistic that measures the size of a region's economy. It is the aggregate of gross value added (GVA) of all resident producer unit ...

was €40 billion, while GRP per capita was €10,000. The region's main source of wealth is oil. Tatarstan produces 32 million tonnes of crude oil per year and has estimated oil reserves of more than 1 billion tons. Industrial production constitutes 45% of the Republic's gross regional domestic product. The most developed manufacturing industries are petrochemical industry and machine building. The truck-maker KamAZ is the region's largest enterprise and employs about one-fifth of Tatarstan's workforce. Kazanorgsintez, based in Kazan, is one of Russia's largest chemical companies. Tatarstan's aviation industry produces Tu-214 passenger airplanes and helicopters. The Kazan Helicopter Plant is one of the largest helicopter manufacturers in the world. Engineering, textiles, clothing,

wood processing Wood processing is an engineering discipline in the wood industry comprising the production of forest products, such as pulp and paper, construction materials, and tall oil. Paper engineering is a subfield of wood processing. The major wo ...

, and food industries are also of key significance in Tatarstan. Hydroelectric power station in Naberezhnye Chelny

Tatarstan consists of three distinct industrial regions. The northwestern part is an old industrial region where engineering, chemical, and light industry dominate. In the newly industrial northeast region with its core in the Naberezhnye Chelny– Nizhnekamsk agglomeration, major industries are automobile construction, the chemical industry, and power engineering. The southeast region has oil production with engineering under development. The north, central, south, and southwest parts of the republic are rural regions. The republic has huge water resources—the annual flow of rivers of the Republic exceeds . Soils are widely diverse, with fertile soils covering approximately one-third of the territory that contribute to successful agricultural production. The main agricultural exports from Tatarstan are wheat, barley, and peas. Due to the high development of agriculture in Tatarstan (it contributes 5.1% of the total revenue of the republic), forests occupy only 16% of its territory. The agricultural sector of the economy is represented mostly by large companies as Ak Bars Holding and "Krasnyi Vostok Agro". The republic has a highly developed transport network. It mainly comprises highways,

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

lines, four navigable rivers — Volga (İdel), Kama (Çulman), Vyatka (Noqrat) and Belaya (Ağidel), and oil pipelines and airlines. The territory of Tatarstan is crossed by the main gas pipelines carrying natural gas from Urengoy and Yamburg to the west and the major oil pipelines supplying oil to various cities in the European part of Russia.

Tourism

There are three UNESCO world heritage sites in Tatarstan— Kazan Kremlin, Bulgarian State Museum-Reserve, and Assumption Cathedral and Monastery of the town-island of Sviyazhsk. The annual growth rate of tourist flow to the republic is on average 13.5%; the growth rate of the volume of services in the tourism sector is 17.0%. At the end of 2016, on the territory of the Republic of Tatarstan there were 104 tour operators, of which 32 dealt in domestic tourism, 65 in domestic and inbound tourism, 1 in domestic and outbound tourism, and 6 in all three. 404 collective accommodation facilities (CSR) operate in the Republic of Tatarstan; are subject to classification (183 in Kazan, 196 in other municipalities of the Republic of Tatarstan). 334 collective accommodation facilities received the certificate of assignment of the category, which is 88.1% of the total number of operating. In 2016, special attention was paid to the development of tourist centres of the Republic of Tatarstan—Kazan, Bolghar, the town-island of Sviyazhsk, Yelabuga, Chistopol, and Tetyushi. The growth of tourist flow in the main tourist centres of the Republic compared to 2015 amounted to an average of 45.9%. Elabuga ul spasskaya

Currently, sanatorium and resort recreation is developing rapidly in Tatarstan. There are 46 sanatorium-resort institutions in the Republic of Tatarstan. The capacity of the objects of the sanatorium-resort complex of Tatarstan is 8847 beds; more than 4300 specialists are engaged in the service of residents. In 2016, more than 160 thousand people rested in the health resorts of the Republic of Tatarstan. 22 health resort institutions of the Republic of Tatarstan are members of the Association of health resort institutions "Health resorts of Tatarstan," including 11 sanatoriums of PJSC "Tatneft." Since 2016, the Republic of Tatarstan has been operating the Visit Tatarstan program, the official tourism brand of the Republic, the purpose of which is to inform tourists, monitor the reputation of the Republic, develop the tourism potential of the regions of Tatarstan, conduct market research, create partner projects with local companies, and expand internationally. "Tatarstan: 1001 pleasure" is the main message that tourists receive. The Visit Tatar website, where there is information about the main sights and recreation in Tatarstan, is available in 8 languages: Tatar, Russian, English, Chinese, German, Spanish, Finnish, and Persian.

Tourist resources of historical and cultural significance

* Kazan Kremlin * Kazan University * Bolghar * Sviyazhsk * Temple of All Religions * Qolşärif Mosque * Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral * Söyembikä Tower * Millennium Bridge * Old Tatar Quarter * Galiaskar Kamal Tatar Academic Theatre * The Jalil Opera and Ballet Theatre * The National Museum of Tatarstan

Culture

Due to Islamic rules on artistic depictions, Tatars developed a uniquely geometric artistry, of which the craft of leather mosaic is a staple. They also observe certain pre-Islamic holidays, such as Sabantuy, which celebrates "the completion of spring sowing works." Kazan church edit1

Major libraries include Kazan State University

Nikolai Lobachevsky Nikolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky (; , ; – ) was a Russian mathematician and geometer, known primarily for his work on hyperbolic geometry, otherwise known as Lobachevskian geometry, and also for his fundamental study on Dirichlet integrals, kno ...

Scientific Library and the National Library of the Republic of Tatarstan. There are two museums of republican significance, as well as 90 museums of local importance. In the past several years, new museums appeared throughout the Republic. There are twelve theatrical institutions in Tatarstan. The state orchestra is the National Tatarstan Orchestra. In 1996, the Tatar singer, Guzel Ahmetova, cooperated with the German Eurodance group named Snap!, when she sang the lyrics of the song "Rame". Aida Garifullina was born in 1987 to a Tatar family in Kazan. Following studies in Nuremberg, Germany and Vienna, Austria, she has achieved fame as a lyric soprano, in high demand both on the international operatic stage and concert platform. She is also a celebrated recording artist and a promoter of the Tatar culture.

Sports

With 9,175 sports venues in Tatarstan, the republic is one of the leading sports regions in Russia. Since 1973, Kazan has been making efforts to expand its sports

infrastructure Infrastructure is the set of facilities and systems that serve a country, city, or other area, and encompasses the services and facilities necessary for its economy, households and firms to function. Infrastructure is composed of public and pri ...

, with sports being a "great source of pride" for the people of Kazan. Tatarstan has Rubin Kazan, a major European football team which has played in the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

and the

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (UEL), usually known simply as the Europa League, is an annual association football, football club competition organised since 1971 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European footb ...

. Twice Russian champions, Rubin Kazan play in the

Russian Premier League The Russian Premier League (RPL; , ''Rossiyskaya premyer-liga''; РПЛ), also written as Russian Premier Liga, is a professional association football league in Russia and the highest level of the Russian football league system. It was establis ...

. Also, Tatarstan has Unics Kazan which has gained a significant role in European basketball, playing in Euroleague and EuroCup for decades. It also has two KHL teams, the successful Ak Bars Kazan, which is based in the capital city of

, and the Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk, who play in the city of Nizhnekamsk. The state also has a Russian Major League team (the second highest hockey league in Russia), Neftyanik Almetyevsk, who play in the city of Almetyevsk. There are also two Minor Hockey League teams which serve as affiliates for the two KHL teams. A team also exists in the Russian Hockey League, the HC Chelny, which is based in the city of Naberezhnye Chelny. Another team plays in the MHL-B (the second level of junior ice hockey in Russia). Nail Yakupov is an ethnic Tatar who was drafted first overall in the 2012 NHL Entry Draft. Former ATP No. 1 Marat Safin and former WTA number 1 Dinara Safina are of Tatar descent. Victor Wild and Danil Sadreev are both Tatarstan Olympians, having won a bronze in parallel giant slalom and a silver in ski jumping, respectively. Kazan hosted the XXVII Summer Universiade in 2013, the FINA World championship in aquatic sports in August 2015, and the World Junior Championship for swimming in 2022.

Education

The most important facilities of higher education include Kazan Federal University, Kazan State Medical University, Kazan National Research Technological University, World Information Distributed University, Kazan National Research Technical University named after A.N.Tupolev and Russian Islamic University. All of these are located in the capital city, Kazan.

Public spaces

Tatarstan takes a unique participatory approach to the development of public spaces that has earned it recognition. The Tatarstan Public Spaces Development Programme aims to create spaces for meeting or recreation. The programme covers a wide spectrum of projects, including streets, squares, parks, river banks, pavilions, and sports facilities. Since 2016 (and continuing until 2022), the Architecturny Desant Architectural Bureau in Kazan has improved public spaces in each of Tatarstan's 45 municipal districts, from large cities to small villages. As of April 2019, the project had revamped 328 public spaces. By creating and rehabilitating public spaces, the programme aims to be a catalyst for positive social, economic, and environmental change. One notable example is the "Beach" at Almetyevsk, which includes public swimming pools and a terrace. Other examples include an amphitheatre in Black Lake Park, Kazan; the Central Square in Bavly; a children's playground in Bogatye Saby village, which has a unique wooden play structure; the Cube container centre in the green beach at Gorkinsko-Ometievsky forest, Kazan; and the square on Festival Boulevard, Kazan. The programme used an innovative participatory design approach, which later became mandatory for similar projects across Russia. This approach partners specialists with local residents at every stage of the project, from development, to implementation, to the ongoing use of the space. The Tatarstan Public Spaces Development Programme was announced as one of the six winners of the 2019 Aga Khan Award for Architecture. The jury was impressed by the programme's systematic approach and involvement of residents to decide the future of each space. Each public space expresses the unique identity of that particular place, tying in its history while incorporating traditional materials. Major goals of the projects include improving the quality of life for residents and improving the environment. The Arhitekturnyi Desant team aims to provide a high quality public space, no matter the size of the settlement, including quality design, infrastructure, and materials. Spending on the public spaces projects is helping the local economy. The number of street furniture manufacturers in the area, for example, has increased from 12 to 75 since the programme started.

Notes

References

Sources

* * * Госкомстат РФ. Государственный комитет Республики Татарстан по статистике. "Административно-территориальное деление Республики Татарстан" (''Administrative-Territorial Structure of the Republic of Tatarstan''). Казань, 1997.

External links

Official website of the Republic of Tatarstan

Official website of the Republic of Tatarstan

Official website of the Republic of Tatarstan

Tatar-Inform
information agency
Official Tourist Portal of the Republic of Tatarstan
{{Authority control States and territories established in 1920 Members of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization Tatar topics Regions of Europe with multiple official languages 1920 establishments in Europe Observer members of the International Organization of Turkic Culture Republics of Russia

Etymology

Geography

Borders

Rivers

Hills

Basins

Natural resources

Climate

Administrative divisions

History

Middle Ages

19th century

20th century

Present day

Demographics

Settlements

Vital statistics

Ethnic groups

Jews

Languages

Religion

Politics

Political status

Economy

Tourism

Tourist resources of historical and cultural significance

Culture

Sports

Education

Public spaces

See also

Notes

References

Sources

Further reading

External links