Tatar entrepreneurship in socio-economic life of the Astrakhan mahalla in the early twentieth century

At the turn of the 19th–20th centuries, provincial Astrakhan was one of the recognized centers of the Tatar world in the Russian Empire. On the eve of the revolutionary upheavals, the Astrakhan Tatar-Muslim community took the second place in terms of the Tatar population, after Kazan. The Tatar Astrakhan community was formed throughout the 19th century and was ethnically represented by both local, Astrakhan Tatars and immigrant Tatars from the middle Volga and Ural provinces, who consti¬tuted 90% of the city's mahalla. Having moved to Astrakhan, they joined the socio-economic life of the region. The majority of the Tatar population of the Astrakhan community were engaged in trade (small-scale wholesale, retail, and huckstery) or various trades – baking, transportation, maintenance of public catering enterprises, etc. By property status they belonged to the small and middle bourgeoisie. With their involvement in the early twentieth century, the territory of the Tatar-Muslim community of Astrakhan-Mahalla, or Tatar Quarter (Tatarskaya Sloboda) adopted unique architectural features that have been preserved to the present day.