TATAR REPUBLIC, an Autonomous Socialist Soviet Re public, created in 192o, in the Russian Republic and bounded on the south by the provinces of Ulianovsk and Samara, on the west by the Chuvash A.S.S.R. and the Marii Autonomous Area, on the north by Kirov province and the Udmurt A.S.S.R., and on the east by the province of Perm and the Bashkirian A.S.S.R. Area 67,241 square kilometers. Pop. (1926) 2,622,89o. The republic is drained by the 'Volga and Kama and their tributaries, the Vyatka, joining the Kama in the east, and the Svyaga flowing northwards to the Volga in the west. Forest—pine, fir and juniper in the north, and birch, ash, lime, alder, willow and elm in the south—occupies about 17% of the republic, and in the north there is some marsh land. Of the land favourable to cul tivation, 78% is tilled, agriculture being the main occupation of the people. Black earth is found in the south-west, along the valley of the Svyaga and in a few other places, the remaining soils being grey forest, clays and sands. The climate is conti nental, five months of the year having an average temperature below o° C, and the rainfall averages 16 in. per annum in good years, but may fail periodically, resulting in such famines as those of 1911 and 1921, these being caused by insufficient spring rain ; summer and autumn rains are more reliable. The prevailing winds are from the south-west, and often bring dust storms that cover the crops. In June and July thunderstorms with destructive hail are a frequent source of damage.
These difficult conditions, giv ing harvests for export in some years and reducing the region to famine in others, are an indication of the need for more inten sive forms of agriculture. Up to 192o there was no many-field system and the peasants mainly used old-fashioned instruments. The tragic holocaust of the famine year was specially severe in the Tatar area, and since that time about 5% of the fields are being tilled on more intensive lines, and there has been greater care in the choice of seeds and crops. Attempts are being made to encourage maize, potato and beet cultivation, and to diminish the sowing of buckwheat, which gives a very unreliable harvest. Some better instruments are gradually replacing the traditional ones. In 1926 there was a good harvest and over 300,00o tons of grain were available for export. Rye (48.8%), and oats (19-2%) are the chief crops. Others are buckwheat, millet, grasses, lentils, flax and hemp. The mineral wealth is not great.
Factory industries are mainly centred on Kazan (q.v.) which was the only town in 1926 with a population of over 16,000. The chief future for factory industry lies in food production, but this cannot be developed to an export industry until railway and road communication is improved. The leather industry dates hack to the Bolgar empire, and the Morocco and Russia leather of the Tatar Republic finds a ready market even beyond the U.S.S.R. The manufacture is at present mainly carried on in numerous small factories and in peasant artels. There is some flour-milling,
two factories produce agricultural machinery, three work in hemp and jute and one in linen goods. The present supply of wool is insufficient for factory production. Glass, bricks, lime, alabaster and silicate are produced. There are four printing presses produc ing Tatar magazines, papers and books. In pre-war times the koustar or peasant industries of the region flourished. The Gov ernment is taking measures to restore these industries, since they are a means of giving the peasant sufficient income to prevent the wandering in search of employment that has been such a feature of Russia, and they also provide for the workless and landless peasant. Among the varied peasant products, sleighs, tarantasses and carts are famous and are in demand in Siberia. Tatar guitars, dulcimers and violins are noted.
A great difficulty of the republic is its low rate of literacy, possibly 25% among men, certainly less among women. The position is difficult, partly because the budget of the republic at present shows a marked deficiency and school premises and materials are not available. The greatest difficulty, however, is the variety of languages. The Tatar population num bers 48.3%, Great Russians 43-1%, Chuvash 4.9%, Mordva 1.4% and various other nationalities 2.3%. Assimilation has hardly existed in the past and it is quite common for a village to have a group of Tatars in one section, of Finns in another and of Great Russians in another, each using its own language and follow ing its own customs. Under the Tsarist regime education was mainly Russian. Since the foundation of the republic, Tatar is the official language of the administration and in 1925 there were many more Tatar schools, but the training of teachers is a diffi culty, moreover the Tatar population is rural, and the greater proportion of the town population is Russian, and as there is a possibility of education in rural districts for about 30% of the children and in towns for about 70%, the problem is complex.
From the 5th century onwards there was a strong immigration of Bulgarians into the region; they formed an im portant khanate, Bolgari or Bolgary, 6o m. S. of Kazan being the centre; its ruins are still to be seen. This kingdom reached its zenith in the loth century, but was ruined by the Mongol invasion of the 13th century. Much intermixture between the Bolgars and the Mongols and also between local Finnish tribes has given the Volga Tatars a distinctive character. After the fall of the Golden Horde, these northern Tatars formed a khanate with Kazan as its centre, and there began the immigration into the region of refugee tribes, Mordva, Chuvash, Meschyeraks and Bashkirs. After the capture of Kazan in 1552, a policy of colonial Russian settlements on the Volga, with lines of forts to protect them from attacks by the natives was pursued. The problem facing the Tatar A.S.S.R. is the establishment of co-operation among these varied elements. (R. M. F.)