Kazan Tatars have Declined in Number in Central Asia by Almost 50 Percent since End of Soviet Times

Paul Goble
    Staunton, Feb. 27 – Like many other non-Russian nations, the Kazan Tatars have declined in number outside their home republic in recent decades; but in addition, they have declined in number outside the current borders of the Russian Federation. This second decline may be even more important for Kazan than the first.
    That is because one of the most important political resources Kazan has long had in its dealings with Moscow is its ability to draw on diaspora communities in other Muslim republics and countries in order to promote Moscow’s influence. Now Tatarstan’s ability to do that may be waning and with it, the usefulness of Kazan for Moscow along with it.
    The Milliard-Tatar portal has completed a survey of the decline in Tatar numbers in the former Turkic Muslim republics of the Soviet Union. It has published both articles on Tatars in all of them and an article summarizing this decline in Central Asia as a whole (milliard.tatar/news/tatary-kazaxstana-kak-menyalas-cislennost-nacii-za-poslednie-sto-let-6737, milliard.tatar/news/tatary-uzbekistana-kak-menyalas-cislennost-nacii-za-poslednie-sto-let-6764, milliard.tatar/news/tatary-v-turkmenistane-pik-rozdaemosti-i-skolko-zivet-nasix-soplemennikov-seicas, milliard.tatar/news/tatary-v-kirgizii-kak-menyalas-cislennost-nasix-soplemennikov-6860, milliard.tatar/news/tatary-v-azerbaidzane-kogda-poyavilis-gde-zili-i-pik-cislennosti-6980 and milliard.tatar/news/s-1989-po-2024-gody-cislennost-tatar-v-respublikax-centralnoi-azii-umensilas-pocti-v-2-raza-7017).
    In the summary article, Eldar Samigullin, a Bishkek scholar, says that in 1989, the Kazan Tatars formed 2.18 percent of the population of the countries of Central Asia. Today, they form only 0.58 percent, a change that reflects both the growth of the indigenous population of that region and the decline in the number of Tatars there from 851,000 to 460,000.
    Nearly a third (31 percent) of those leaving have resettled in Tatarstan, another third (36 percent) in other regions of the Russian Federation, and yet a final third, Samigullin says, have gone to Europe, the United States or other countries. Most have left because they fear assimilation and because the Central Asian countries haven’t supported their communities.