Tatarstan
Autonomous republic in the eastern Russian Federation; area 68,000 sq km/26,255 sq mi; population (1990) 3,658,000 (48% Tatars, 43% Russian). The capital is Kazan. There are oil, natural gas, chemical, textile, and timber industries; and there is arable and dairy farming.
Geography
The region is in the basins of the Volga and Lower Kama rivers. It is mostly wooded steppe with
podzol soil. Cities include Chistopol, Naberezhniye Chelny, and Bugulma.
History
A territory of the Volga-Kama Bulgar state from the 10th century, when Islam was introduced, Tatarstan was conquered by the Mongol Golden Horde in 1236. It was the capital of the powerful Khanate of Kazan until annexed by Russia in 1552, an autonomous republic from 1920, and an independent republic in the Russian Federation from 1992.
| In August 1990 the republic's assembly upgraded Tatarstan to full republic status, proclaiming its economic and political ‘sovereignty’, and in April 1991 there were popular demonstrations in support of this action. In June 1991 it refused to participate in the Russian presidential election, and in March 1992 declined to be party to a federal treaty, signed in Moscow by 18 of Russia's other 20 main political subdivisions. A referendum held on 21 March 1992 favoured Tatarstan becoming a sovereign state within Russia, but an agreement was finally concluded in February 1994 with Moscow, by which Tatarstan was accorded a high degree of autonomy within the Russian Federation. |
