Foreword: Tatars in Finland in the Transnational Context of the Baltic Sea Region

Abstract

The Tatar diaspora in Finland has attracted researchers for over a century, but studies traditionallyfocus on topics such as origins and general Tatar history, religion, identity or language. One of themost important aspects of research on Tatars both historically and today, however, is the transnationalcontext. Migrating from villages in Nizhny Novgorod province, often via the Russian capitalSaint Petersburg at the end of the nineteenth century, the forming Tatar diaspora communities inthe Baltic Sea region maintained, developed and extended their previous networks and also creatednew connections over national borders despite periods of political difficulties. New research aboutTatars in the Baltic Sea region – with the focal point of the Tatars in Finland and their connectionschiefly in Estonia, Russia and Sweden – was presented during a seminar called Tatars in Finland inthe Transnational Context of the Baltic Sea Region at the University of Helsinki in October 2018.Scholars from Finland, Sweden, Russia, Estonia and Hungary spoke about the past and present ofthe diaspora. A result of the seminar, this special issue of Studia Orientalia Electronica is dedicatedto new research on Tatars in a transnational context.