The Tatars are a Turkic people who live in Asia and Europe who were one of the five major tribal confederations in the Mongolian Plateau in the 12 century CE. They were numbered at more than 5 million in the late 20th century and lived mainly in west-central Russia along the course of the Volga River and to the east towards the Ural Mountains and also in western Siberia.

Williams, Brian Glyn. The Crimean Tatars: the diaspora experience and the forging of a nation. Vol. 2. Brill, 2001.

Perhaps the most extensive historical account of the Russian conquest and annexation of the Siberian region can be found in Benson Bobrick’s East of the Sun: The Epic Conquest and Tragic History of Siberia. Within it, a thorough account is given on the 400 year history of the region’s interactions with the Russian empire. For more context and information on any time within this period, refer to this piece as the central hallmark for Siberian history.

Benson Bobrick, East of the Sun: The Epic Conquest and Tragic History of Siberia (New York: Poseidon Press, 1992).