The Other Tatars of Ukraine

Paul Goble

            Staunton, May 30 – When anyone speaks about the Tatars of Ukraine, they almost invariably focus on the Crimean Tatars. But there are other Tatars in that country, although their numbers, once large and important in many cities have declined since the disintegration of the USSR with many having emigrated either to Tatarstan or the West.

            In its continuing survey of Tatars living beyond the borders of Tatarstan, the Milliard.Tatar portal has now featured an article on these other Tatars in Ukraine and their numbers from the late nineteenth century to today (milliard.tatar/news/tatary-na-ukraine-perepisi-rossiiskoi-imperii-i-sssr-7570).

            Of the quarter million Tatars who lived in Ukraine at the end of the 19^th century, approximately 30,000 were Tatars from the Middle Volga and Siberia. They mostly came in search of work but some, especially in the Donbass, decided to settle permanently. And as early as 1905, this Tatar community built a mosque in Kharkhiv.

            In the first Soviet census in 1926, these Tatars were counted separately from the Crimean Tatars and numbered 22,281. As migrant workers from what had become the RSFSR, they were disproportionately male. By 1937, their number had increased slightly to 24,242. The larger figures from the 1939 Soviet census were clearly falsifications.

            The 1959 Soviet census counted 61,527 Tatars, of which only 193 were Crimean Tatars. The overwhelming majority of the latter remained in Central Asia to which they had been deported by Stalin. And in the 1970 Soviet census, there were 76,212 Tatars, of which only 3554 were Crimean Tatars.

            In the last two Soviet censuses, in 1979 and 1989, the Tatars continued to increase, with their number rising to 90,542 in the former, of which 6336 were Crimean Tatars, and with their total being 133,682, of whom more than 45,000 were Crimean Tatars, the Milliard.Tatar portal reports.

            Since 1991, ever more Crimean Tatars have returned to Ukraine; but many of the other Tatars have left for Tatarstan or further abroad. They likely number fewer than 70,000 at the present time, far smaller than the Crimean Tatars but a significant community that deserves to be remembered and supported.