Bashkir

The majority ethnic group of the autonomous republic of Bashkir in Russia. The Bashkirs are agriculturalists and have been Muslims since the 13th century. The Bashkir language belongs to the Turkic branch of the Altaic family, and has about 1 million speakers.

They have been known since the 9th century, when they were nomadic pastoralists and some of them spoke an Ugrian language related to Hungarian. Russian colonization led to several Bashkir uprisings in the 17th and 18th centuries. A Bashkir nationalist government was formed in Orenburg 1917, but joined the Bolsheviks 1919.

Around 42% of the population consider Tatar, rather than Bashkir, as their native language. They acknowledged the supremacy of the Volga Bulgarians and the Golden Horde, then of the Kazan, Nogay, Siberian Khanates, and from 1557, that of Muscovy. Today some have become Russian Orthodox Christians.