Finno Tatars

Finno-Tatars. 1. The collective name of all the peoples who form the western division of the Mongolo-Tatar or Ural-Altaic family. Of this division, which extends from the Lena basin, East Siberia, to Lapland, and from the Arctic Ocean to Asia Minor and the Balkan Peninsula, the chief branches are: - (1) Samoyedes; (2) Finns; (3) Uyrians; (4) Tatars or Turks. For details see under the several entries. 2. In a narrower sense, the expression Finno-Tatars is applied to several groups of eastern Finns in the Volga and Ural basins, who have become more or less assimilated in appearance and language to the surrounding Tatar populations. Such are the Bashkirs, numerous in the governments of Orenburg, Perm, Viatka, and Samara; the Mescheryaks of Orenburg; the Chuvashes'oi Kazan, Simbirsk, Samara, and Saratov; and the Tepyaks of Orenburg; total population 1,600,000.