The Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, abbreviated as Tatar ASSR or TASSR, was an autonomous republic of the Russian SFSR. The resolution for its creation was signed on 27 May 1920 and the republic was proclaimed on 25 June 1920. Kazan served as its capital.
The territory of the TASSR was a part of Kazan, Simbirsk, and Ufa Governorates (or gubernias) of the Imperial Russia before the October Revolution of 1917.
Kazan is the largest city and capital of Tatarstan, Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Volga and the Kazanka rivers, covering an area of 425.3 square kilometres (164.2 square miles), with a population of over 1.3 million residents, and up to nearly 2 million residents in the greater metropolitan area. Kazan is the fifth-largest city in Russia, being the most populous city on the Volga and within the Volga Federal District.
Historically, Kazan was the capital of the Khanate of Kazan, and was conquered by Ivan the Terrible in the 16th century, at which point the city became a part of the Tsardom of Russia. The city was seized (and largely destroyed) during Pugachev's Rebellion (1773ā1775), but was later rebuilt during the reign of Catherine the Great. In the following centuries, Kazan grew to become a major industrial, cultural and religious centre of Russia. In 1920, after the Russian SFSR became a part of the Soviet Union, Kazan became the capital of the Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (Tatar ASSR). Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Kazan remained the capital of the Republic of Tatarstan.
The Volga Tatars or simply Tatars (Tatar: ŃŠ°ŃŠ°ŃŠ»Š°Ń, romanized:Ā tatarlar; Russian: ŃŠ°ŃŠ°ŃŃ, romanized:Ā tatary) are a Turkic ethnic group native to the Volga-Ural region of western Russia, and contains multiple subgroups. Tatars are the second-largest ethnic group in Russia after ethnic Russians. They are primarily found in Tatarstan, where they make up 53.6% of the population. Their native language is Tatar, and are primarily followers of Sunni Islam.
"Tatar" as an ethnonym has a very long and complicated history, and in the past was often used as an umbrella term for different Turkic and Mongolic tribes. Nowadays it mostly refers exclusively to Volga Tatars (known simply as "Tatars"; Tatarlar), who became its "ultimate bearers" after the founding of Tatar ASSR (1920ā1990; now Tatarstan). The ethnogenesis of Volga-Ural Tatars is still debated, but their history is usually connected to the Kipchak-Tatars of Golden Horde (1242ā1502), and also to its predecessor, Volga Bulgaria (900sā1200s), whose adoption of Islam is celebrated yearly in Tatarstan. After the collapse of the Golden Horde, ancestors of modern Tatars formed the Khanate of Kazan (1438ā1552), which lost its independence to Russia after the Siege of Kazan in 1552.
The 1921ā1922 famine in Tatarstan was a period of mass starvation and drought that took place in the Tatar ASSR as a result of the Russian Civil War, in which 500,000 to 2,000,000 peasants died. The event was part of the greater Russian famine of 1921ā22 that affected other parts of what became the Soviet Union, in which up 5,000,000 people died in total. According to Roman Serbyn, a professor of Russian and East European history, the Tatarstan famine was the first man-made famine in the Soviet Union and systematically targeted ethnic minorities such as Volga Tatars and Volga Germans.
Leninogorsky District (Russian: ŠŠµŠ½ŠøŠ½Š¾Š³Š¾ĢŃŃŠŗŠøŠ¹ ŃŠ°Š¹Š¾ĢŠ½; Tatar: ŠŠµŠ½ŠøŠ½Š¾Š³Š¾ŃŃŠŗ ŃŠ°Š¹Š¾Š½Ń) is a territorial administrative unit and municipality of the Republic of Tatarstan within the Russian Federation. The district is located in the southeast of the republic and encompasses an area of 1843.2 square kilometers (about 711.6 sq mi). According to the 2010 census, the municipality had a population of 22,700 people. The main city Leninogorsk is not included within the administrative structure of the district.
The settlement of Pismyanka on the site of modern Leninogorsk arose in 1795. In the 19th century, the Novopismyanskaya volost was part of the Bugulminsky county (uyezd) of the Orenburg province, and then subsequently became a part the Samara province. In August 1955, the settlement of Pismyanka which was then part of the Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, was redesignated as a city and named Leninogorsk in honor of the revolutionary Vladimir Lenin. The Novopismyansky district was renamed to Leninogorsky in concert with these developments.