From the Editors

336 От редакции / From the Editors Continuing Ab Imperio’s project “The State ofArt in History Writing on Nation and Empire,” this issue of the journal features a selection of materials on the construction of Tatar national history and on general problems of studying historical canons in respect to the history of the Volga region. Recently, the history of the Russian Mulsim community, the Tatars, and the Volga region has been attracting the attention of historians and political scientists. Recent studies of the processes of empire and nation-formation in the Volga region in Russian, American, and German historiography have greatly contributed to the overall perspective on the Russian empire and the Soviet Union and have undermined Western borderland specialists’ hegemony in studies of the history of empire and nationalism. The existence of the republic of Tatarstan in the federal structure of the Russian Federation and the role of the Tatar national factor (in the titular republic and diaspora) in political discussions on contemporary Russia provide additional motivation to study the debates on history and national identity in the given region.1 Materials in the present section explore major identity-related debates in the development of Tatar national history, review present-day research and educational (textbooks and narratives) trends, analyze the mutual influence of political and intellectual factors in identity formation, and relate the discussion of Tatar national history to general problems in studies of empire and nationalism in the post soviet space. From the EDITORS 1 Ab Imperio covered in detail the intellectual and political discussions involving the Tatar intellectuals and focused on Tatarstan that were brought up by the 2002 census, see Ab Imperio. 2002. No. 4. ...