On March 25, the 1st All-Russian Congress of Tatar Local Studies worked at the National Center “Kazan”.

The work of the congress was attended by the government of the Republic of Tatarstan, deputies of the State Council of RT, public and religious figures, representatives of the Tatar intelligentsia. Delegates to the congress were elected 250 people from 35 regions of the Russian Federation. Irkutsk, Novosibirsk, Omsk, Astrakhan regions, the Krasnoyarsk Territory and the Republic of Kazakhstan are represented from the most remote regions. The largest delegation (apart from the Republic of Tatarstan) from the Republic of Bashkortostan, they were visited by three dozen local ethnographers.

The delegates of the congress were welcomed by the chairman of the executive committee of the World Congress of Tatars, Rinat Zakirov.

In his speech, Rinat Zakirov noted that the Tatar local historians appeared along with the national historiography that appeared at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Many prominent Tatar historians, such as Shigabutdin Mardzhani, Khusain Faizkhanov, Kayum Nasyri, Hadi Atlasi, Riza Fakhretdin, were closely involved in local history issues. A powerful push, which received the Tatar local history, allowed to conduct active research until the end of the twentieth century. But the policy of totalitarianism brought to naught the national study of local lore.

The new rise of Tatar local history began in the second half of the XX century. This upswing was especially bright at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries. Today we see hundreds of local lore, but they are not organized and coordinated. But their efforts in recent years published a large number of books on the history of Tatar villages.

This huge work of hundreds of local historians and allows you to hopefully make plans for the future. Local studies are a serious and difficult occupation. And the work of this congress, the use of its platform for an open exchange of opinions, the experience of specialists, historians, journalists will be useful for all of us, “said Rinat Zakirov.

Greeting of the President of the Republic of Tatarstan to the delegates of the congress was read by the Deputy Chairman of the State Council of the Republic of Tatarstan Rimma Ratnikova.

Then the delegates began to exchange views. Interesting speeches were made by Deputy Chairman of the Executive Committee of the World Congress of Tatars Kamil Ablyazov, Director of the Institute of the Tatar Encyclopedia of Regional Studies of the RT RT Iskander Gilyazov, Army General Makhmut Gareyev, Director of the Gulliver Altin Crimean Museum-Reserve, writer and historian Fauriya Bayramova, writer and historian Nurulla Garif and others .

The speech of Doctor of Historical Sciences, senior researcher of the Institute of History named after Sh. Marjani of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tajikistan Damir Iskhakov was devoted to the urgent need to create an organization uniting the efforts of Tatar local lore specialists. He outlined the goals and objectives of the society of Tatar historians of local lore.

This initiative was supported by delegates to the congress. The Council of the Society of Tatar Local History was elected.

At the congress  the award-winning executive committee of the World Congress  was elected, a number of Tatar ethnographers were awarded.