The Tatar are a Turkic people that live mainly in the Republic of Tatarstan (a member of the Russian Federation), in the Middle Volga region, in Europe. Although they share the denomination with the Crimean Tatar they are not directly related to them, as ‘Tatar’ (or Tartar, influenced by the Greek word for hell) was a blanket term for the many horse-riding Altaic peoples of Eurasia.

They are descendants of the Golden Horde that conquered Russia and ruled it for some time, but for the last centuries they have been in a minorized position in Imperial Russia, Soviet Union and Russian Federation. Only half of the population in Tatarstan is Tatar.

Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov ‘Lenin’ was himself half-Tatar. In Russia it is a common saying that most Russians have Tatar heritage, even in the far past.