Tatar Youth Organization Formed in Orenburg Last Year Increasingly Active

Paul Goble

    Staunton, May 12 – Berge, Tatar for “Together,” is a Tatar youth organization in Orenburg, the land bridge between Bashkortostan and the nations of the Middle Volga, on the one hand, and Kazakhstan, on the other. Formed last fall, it is led by Ilfat Batyrshin, who has now given an extensive interview about it.

    The 27-year-old chef and businessman is a native of a Tatar village in Orenburg and has sought to make contact with other Tatars in that oblast and promote the survival and flourishing of his national community (milliard.tatar/news/ilfat-batyrsin-interes-u-tatarskoi-molodezi-k-svoei-kulture-v-orenburgskoi-oblasti-est-xotya-popadayutsya-i-te-komu-eto-bezrazlicno-7446).

    According to Batyrshin, the group operates under the slogan “We are Together. We Can Do It and We are Moving Forward;” but he acknowledges that most of those who take part in its activities are products of Tatar-speaking homes. Those where Russian has displaced Tatars show much less interest.

    The Berge organization has regular meetings and hosts a variety of cultural events, he continues. It also seeks to develop ties with Tatar activists in Tatarstan and elsewhere in the hopes that such cooperation will inspire greater action among that national community in what is now a predominantly ethnic Russian region.

    The group maintains sites on social media, Batyrshin says; and in this way, it reaches out to a larger audience than just those who take part in its activities immediately. For background on the Orenburg corridor and the importance of Tatars and Bashkirs there, see windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2025/04/russian-commentators-adopt-updated.html as well as the sources cited therein.