Who are the Kreshen?

Few in Russia know of the existence of this people, although their history is rich and interesting. The Kreshen are an ethnic and confessional community whose members are scattered over a wide area in the Volga and Urals regions.

Although the community has not been counted separately since the 1920s, their numbers are estimated at between 300,000 and 600,000. Since they are surrounded by a community of several million Muslim Tatars, they are sometimes known as Christian Tatars but they do not recognise themselves as such.

Instead, they consider themselves to be descendants of a Turkish-speaking tribe which was baptised in the sixth century in the days of the Bulgarian empire.

A second wave of conversions was forced on them when they were baptised at the point of the sword by Ivan IV (‘Ivan the Terrible’) after he captured Kazan in 1552, and a third in the second half of the 18th century.

In the 1920s the Kreshens were classified by the government as being a specific people, they had their own newspapers, and they convened a national congress. Under Stalin, however, they lost their status and were included with the Tatars, and had their passports compulsorily altered.