“Scientists have never denied the role of the Bulgars in the formation of the Volga Tatars”

March 11, 2019

At  the Galeyevsky mosque  over who they were to be called Tatars or Bulgars argued.

Supporters of the Tatar and Bulgarian ethnonym of the people met at the Galeyevsky Mosque of Kazan to debate and find the truth in the history of their origin.

The dispute between the Tatarists and the Bulgarians in the public and humanitarian spheres has a long history. As a rule, it flares up when the Tatar people experience another round of national awakening.

Before the 1917 revolution, the Tatars were in the most active phase of the formation of a nation and ethnic identity, and then historians and enlighteners were in search of truth, trying to study the issue of the origin of the people. Some associated it with the state of Volga Bulgaria and the Bulgars, and others with the Golden Horde. There were those who synthesized both approaches and actually took a conciliatory position.

Today, the Tatars have already formed as a nation, ethnic identity   has crystallized. Discussions with the question “Who are we, Tatars and Bulgars?” can be considered closed. Although there are people who raise their clan to the Bulgars and identify themselves with them. Despite this, the topic associated with Bulgarism today annoys the Tatar public and historians: there are fears that a single people is being split up, that detractors against them are plotting intrigues.