ISSUE OF NATIONALITIES AND DEMONSTRATION OF DISSENT BY THE TATAR COMMUNITY IN THE 1960S-1980'S
The paper reviews the forms of non-conformist ideas manifestation on the issue of nationalities by the Tatar community. They took form of numerous general public petitions to the authorities expressing the general discontent with the insufficient attention to the Tatar ethnic culture and the inferior "autonomous" status of Tatarstan. The formation of several informal opposition groups in the Tatar intellectuals community with their independent interpretation of various phenomena and existence of strong internal links within such opposition may be considered an important indicator of maintaining the civil and national identity of the Tatars under the Soviet regime.