Economic Modernisation in Tataria and its Impact on Social and Ethnic Stratification

Abstract

Economic and social change, and especially the uneven spread of economic and social modernisation amongst various ethnic groups, plays a tremendous role in shaping modern nations and their attitudes towards one another - this is a seminal idea that has inspired many Western scholars in their study of modern nationalism.¹ In this chapter we shall analyse the impact of economic modernisation on the Tatars and Russians in Tatarstan. This analysis is limited to the period after the revolution of 1917 because in Tataria this modernisation started in earnest only after the revolution. Our goal here is to establish basic characteristics of the society that has emerged in Tatarstan as a result of 70 years of modernisation. Our major focus will be on the comparative position of the Tatars and Russians in the republic. This brief sociological profile of the two ethnic groups will be useful for understanding relations between them and the nature of grievances that have been brought up by the Tatar national movement in the late 1980s.