The 'Young Tatar' movement in the Crimea: 1905-1909

Abstract

During the 1905 revolution, a nationalist-revolutionary movement emerged among the Crimean Tatar intelligentsia, whose members were called the "Young Tatars." Strongly influenced by the Russian revolutionaries, the Young Tatars engaged in a political and social struggle involving a network of underground cells, as well as legal publications and enlightenment activities. They introduced the political concept of "fatherland," defined by the Crimea, thereby providing a territorial basis for national identity. While endorsing broader Turkic and Islamic allegiances, they concentrated primarily on the Crimean Tatar people as the starting point of their national identity.