ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the contradictory tendencies toward ethnic integration and exclusivity in Tatarstan, as well as issues pertaining to the larger issues of Tatar nationalism and the Tatar independence movement. The ethnogenesis of the Tatars is complex, but one element in their lineage traced to the Mongol-Tatar hordes that arrived on the banks of the Volga in the early thirteenth century. After sweeping as far west as the Carpathian Mountains, the Golden Horde turned to the consolidation of its empire, establishing a khanate in the Volga region. The Tatar Public Center (TPC) was established in the summer of 1988 on the initiative of a small group of intellectuals to promote Tatar culture. The network of schools in which Tatar is the principal, if not the exclusive, language of instruction is being expanded, Tatar lyceums are being established, and courses in Tatar are being introduced into the curriculum of Russian-language schools.
