Definitions of the Estonian Tatars

In Estonia the word “Tatar” covers several different groups with different relationships to Estonia. For clarity, a distinction is drawn between an Estonian Tatar and a Tatar in Estonia.

The main terms

Estonian Tatar — a person who is culturally Estonian and ethnically Tatar. This does not exclude keeping Tatar culture alongside Estonian culture.
Historical Estonian Tatar — a person whose Tatar family lived in the territory of Estonia already before the Soviet occupation.
Foreign-Estonian Tatar — a descendant of a historical Estonian Tatar who, during the occupation, integrated into the exile Estonian communities in Sweden, the United States and Australia.
Tatar in Estonia — a person who is culturally and ethnically Tatar with little or no cultural ties to Estonia.

Why the distinction matters

During the Soviet occupation hundreds of thousands of Russian-speaking people were settled in Estonia, among them Russian-speaking Tatars. As a result the historical, Estonian-speaking Estonian Tatars came to be conflated with the later Russian-speaking Tatar community. The historical Estonian Tatar community, however, is Estonian-speaking and bound to Estonian history.

See also the articles “The cultural genocide of the historical Estonian Tatars” and “The Estonian Tatar community in the Republic of Estonia (1918–1940).”