Kreshen Tatars

Kreshen Tatars

 

(in Russian, Kriasheny, a distortion of kreshchenye, “the baptized”), an ethnic group of Kazan Tatars; descendants of Tatars who were forcibly converted to Orthodoxy in the 16th to 18th century. They live mainly in the Tatar ASSR. The Kreshen Tatars speak the same language as the Kazan Tatars and have a common culture with them (they are distinguished primarily by Russian given names and surnames).