Description
This book explores how the Volga Tatars, the largest ethnic minority within the Russian Federation, a Muslim minority, achieved a great deal of autonomy for Tatarstan in the years 1988 to 1992, but then lost this autonomy gradually over the course of the Putin era. It sets the issue in context, tracing the history of the Volga Tatars, the descendants of the Golden Horde whose Khans exercised overlordship over Muscovy in medieval times, and outlining Tsarist and Soviet nationalities policies and their enduring effects. It argues that a key factor driving the decline of greater autonomy, besides Putin’s policies of harmonisation and centralisation, was the behaviour of the minority elites, who were, despite their earlier engagement in ethnic mobilization, very acquiescent to the new Putin regime, deciding that co-operation would maximise their privileges.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction 2. Political History of the Volga Tatars: From the Medieval Ages to the End of Soviet Modernization 3. Institutional Legacy of the Tsarist and Soviet Nationality Policies 4. The Rise and Fall of Ethnic Mobilization in Tatarstan 5. The Rise and Fall of Sovereignty in Tatarstan: From Yeltsin’s to Putin’s Russia (1990-2020) 6. Conclusion
