«Nizhgar» (nizgar.ru) is a website of the Tatars of Nizhny Novgorod, founded on June 17, 2005 as an online publication of the community; from 2007 it operated as the website of the national-cultural associations of Nizhny Novgorod Region, and today it is the official website of the Regional National-Cultural Autonomy of Tatars of Nizhny Novgorod Region (RNKATNО) [1][2][3].

The word "nizhgar"

«Nizhgars» is the self-designation of the Nizhny Novgorod Mishar Tatars, and it gave the website its name. Nizhny Novgorod philologist Alimzhan Orlov traces it to the ethnonym «mishar»: "Subsequently the ethnonym 'mishar' transformed into the term 'mizhgar – nizhgar'." He also cites a selective survey of 720 Leningrad Tatars conducted by G. V. Starovoitova in the 1970s: 27.2 percent identified as Kazan Tatars, 30.6 as Mishars, and nearly a quarter — those originating from the Nizhny Novgorod lands — recorded themselves as mizhgars or nizhgars [20].

Historian Damir Khayretdinov uses the same word as a scholarly term: in his work, nizhgars are the Nizhny Novgorod Mishar Tatars, one of the distinctive groups of the Tatar nation, who from the 17th–18th centuries migrated en masse from the Volga-Oka interfluve eastward and took the lead in the Muslim religious and public life of the Trans-Urals region [21]. In Nizhny Novgorod itself, the socio-political movement «Mishars-Nizhgars» appeared in 1993 [19].

The root has taken hold in the names of community projects: the journal «Nizhgar tatarlary», the television project «Nizhgars», the competition «Nizhgarsylu», the children's dance group «Nizhgarochki», and the Telegram channel nizgarlar [3][6][8].

Online publication of the Nizhny Novgorod Tatars (2005–2006)

The website was founded on June 17, 2005 under the name «Online publication of the Nizhny Novgorod Tatars "NIZGAR.RU"»; the domain nizgar.ru was registered through RU-CENTER on June 16, 2005 [2][24]. The founders of the publication were listed as RNKATNO and the Nizhny Novgorod youth movement «Yashlyar», later renamed «Nur» [2].

The editorial team formulated the project's goal as follows: "providing timely and reliable information about the life and concerns of Tatars in Russia and the Nizhny Novgorod Region, with respect for the widest variety of viewpoints, excluding nationalist and extremist ones." The resource itself was described as "a non-commercial informational and analytical electronic resource on the life and traditions of Tatars" that "specializes in national, religious, and social-cultural information from the Nizhny Novgorod Region, Russia, and the world"; the majority of publications were declared exclusive. Contact details given were the address info@nizgar.ru and the telephone number (8312) 430011 [2].

The first version was laid out as static pages: "Home," "Society," "Tatars in N. Novgorod," "Tatar Studies," "Gallery," "Catalog," "Forum," "Chat," "Guest Book." The header carried the line "Mirror of the site http://www.tatar.nnov.ru/"; at the bottom were counter.nn.ru counters numbered 13602, Mail.ru, and SpyLog [9].

In autumn 2005, the news feed consisted of community news and Muslim life in the Region: congratulations on the coming of Ramadan and a holiday sermon by the chairman of DUMNO, a meeting between Umar-Khazrat Idrisov and Governor Valery Shantsev, materials on the 625th anniversary of the Battle of Kulikovo, and a discussion of the idea of creating a Council of Ulema of Russian Muslims [9].

On 1 January 2006, the Independent Analytical Center "NATs" was established under the website, with its stated mission being "to assist national-cultural autonomies in forming civil society in the Nizhny Novgorod Region"; the center received its own sections — news, analysis, and ratings. At the same time, the "Faizkhanov Readings" of March 2006 were announced, an initiative of the Nizhny Novgorod Tatar autonomy and DUMNO [10].

Website of National-Cultural Associations (2007–2022)

In 2007, following a design update and a revision of editorial policy, the website became the official internet resource of two autonomies simultaneously — the Tatar and Azerbaijani autonomies of the Nizhny Novgorod Region — and the header was changed to "Website of the National-Cultural Associations of the Nizhny Novgorod Region" [1]. The static pages gave way to an engine with addresses of the modules.php type — the same engine used by IslamNN, the internet channel of DUMNO [11][23].

The Azerbaijani section received its own set of categories: "About RNKAANO," holidays and traditions, national cuisine, Azerbaijani names, culture, "From History," "Great Azerbaijanis," "Azerbaijani Lessons," and the newspaper Al-Hayat [12]. The February 2007 issue of Al-Hayat was presented on the website as the newspaper of Nizhny Novgorod's Azerbaijanis [16].

By the late 2000s, the Tatar section was divided into the following categories [11]:

  • News, analysis, commentary and interviews
  • Press releases
  • Events calendar
  • Photo reports
  • Tatar community
  • Holidays and traditions
  • National cuisine
  • Tatar names
  • Culture
  • From history
  • Distinguished Tatars
  • Veterans
  • Our youth
  • Tatar villages of the Region
  • Tatar language lessons
  • Newspaper «Mishar Dunyasy»
  • Supplement «Millyet»
  • Library
  • Encyclopedia
  • Charity
  • Dating service
  • Forum
  • Chat

What was on the second version of the site

The site maintained a separate page listing "Other ethnocultural associations of the Region" — nineteen organizations with the names of their leaders: the Ukrainian cultural society "Dzherello," the Nizhny Novgorod Armenian Community, the regional Tatar cultural society "Tugan Yak," the Azerbaijani cultural center "Dusluk," the National Korean Cultural Center, the Jewish cultural society "Tsvi Girsh" and the Nizhny Novgorod branch of the Russian Jewish Congress, the charitable foundation "Zabota Khesed Sara," the Ingrian Finns society "Inkerin Liitto," the Ingush cultural center "Magas," the Dagestani Cultural Center, the Mordva cultural center "Yalgat," the Tatar cultural and educational center "Yaktashlar," the ethnocultural association of Roma, the regional society of Russian Germans "Edinstvo," the Belarusian cultural organization, the "Georgian Community," the foundation for the revival of Jewish culture and religion, and the Mari ethnocultural society [13].

From 2008 to 2011, the site posted a bound file of the newspaper of the Nizhny Novgorod Tatars, "Mishär dönyasy" — from No. 12 (21) for June 2008 to No. 9–10 (64–65) for September–October 2011, each issue as a PDF with the issue's table of contents [14]. Alongside it sat a file of the Russian-language supplement "Millyat," with materials on the life of the community and DUMNO [15]. According to the "Tatar Encyclopedia," the newspaper has been published in Nizhny Novgorod since 2007, and the supplement together with it [19].

The "Encyclopedia" section was given over to the biographical dictionary "Nizhny Novgorod Tatars": the online version announced 558 biographical articles about Tatars of the Nizhny Novgorod area, arranged by letter of the alphabet; today only the table of contents remains, and the articles themselves do not open from the links [17]. The book was published by the Nizhny Novgorod publisher "Medina" in 2008, with Rifat Ibragimov as author and compiler; it contains about 600 articles in Tatar and Russian, and it was conceived as the opening volume of a "Nizhny Novgorod Tatar Encyclopedia" together with a "Mishar Dictionary," a collection of proverbs and sayings, the Tatar toponymy of the Nizhny Novgorod area, and a book of names and surnames. The dictionary also has its own website [18]. The publication of the 2008 dictionary is also noted by the "Tatar Encyclopedia" [19].

The feed of this version runs to 275 pages: the earliest entry is dated January 13, 2006, the last March 21, 2022, a note on the first meeting of the renewed Council of the Autonomy in its new office on Rozhdestvenskaya Street, where "an exhibition of Tatar items has been set up in the lobby," and the next room is arranged "to recall the furnishings of homes in Tatar villages." Since then, a banner reading "THE SITE IS UNDER RECONSTRUCTION" has sat above the feed [26].

Besides the feed, the site ran a forum, a web chat, and a dating service [11]; on the surviving copy their addresses no longer respond [26]. In the late 2000s the site gave the editorial email as admin@nizgar.ru; the "Feedback" page of the surviving copy suggests writing to the autonomy's address, rnkatno@mail.ru [27].

New Version (since 2023)

The current site is built on WordPress. Its feed opens with entries from February 18–21, 2023, and by June 2023 the new version was already at the main address [3][28]. The old site moved in its entirety to the subdomain oldsite.nizgar.ru and is labeled in the menu "News Archive (old version of the site)" [3][26].

Sections of the new version include "News," "Events," "Listings," "About Us," "Reports," "Activities," "Interviews," "Contacts," and "FAQ"; the page about the autonomy has been translated into English and Tatar, and the header features "Donate to the Autonomy" and "Become an Autonomy Activist" buttons [3][4].

Separate pages are dedicated to a map of Tatar selos and villages, an archive of the journal "Nizhny Novgorod Tatars. Nizgar Tatarlary," and a video section featuring the television project "Nizhgary": episodes from the first season of 2025 are hosted on the site, while 2026 episodes are on VK Video [3][6][8].

The editorial office and the autonomy share the same address — Nizhny Novgorod, Rozhdestvenskaya Street, 38E; email: rnkatno@mail.ru [3]. The site has a Telegram channel (t.me/nizgarlar) and a VKontakte community [3]. Subdomains of "Nizhgar" host websites for local autonomies — of Krasnooktyabrskiy [29] and Sergachsky [30] Districts, designed in the same style as the main site.

Who publishes it

The public organization "Regional National-Cultural Autonomy of Tatars of Nizhny Novgorod Region" was registered by the Main Directorate of the Russian Ministry of Justice for Nizhny Novgorod Region on July 28, 2004 [4].

It grew out of a civic movement of the late 1980s. In 1989, a group of Tatars in the regional capital — then the City of Gorky — proposed the idea of a Tatar cultural society; in December 1990, the idea was discussed by delegates who had come from the Krasnooktyabrskiy, Pilninskiy, Sergachsky, and Spassky Districts, from Dzerzhinsk, and from Gorky itself. The organizational work of establishing the Tugan Yak center was led by Alimzhan Orlov — the same author known for his research on the origins of the Nizhny Novgorod Tatars [5][20].

In July 2004, the RNKАТNO was founded on the basis of Tugan Yak and the local autonomies of Nizhny Novgorod and Dzerzhinsk; the organization's website names the spiritual leaders who helped bring it into being — U. Yu. Idrisova, D. V. Mukhetdinov, and G. S. Zakirov [5]. According to the Tatar Encyclopedia, the autonomy united organizations that had emerged between 1989 and 2000; operating under its umbrella are the women's group Ak Kalfak, the youth organizations Nur and Kharakhat, the Shatlyk club, and a theater studio [19].

The position of executive director was introduced in 2014, with the chair of the Council retaining representative functions [5]. Leadership of the autonomy by year [5]:

  • 2004–2014 — Chair of the Council G. S. Zakirov
  • 2014–2019 — Chair of the Council N. M. Khafizov, Executive Director R. A. Salikhzhanov
  • 2019–2021 — Chair of the Council R. A. Salikhzhanov, Executive Director R. A. Akhmadullina
  • from December 2021 — Chair of the Council M. G. Abdulganiyev, Executive Director T. N. Sharafutdinov

The community as described on the website

The RNKATNO includes four local autonomies — those of Nizhny Novgorod, Dzerzhinsk, and the Sergachsky and Krasnooktyabrskiy districts; it is itself a member of the World Congress of Tatars and of the Federal National-Cultural Autonomy of Tatars [4].

The website estimates the community's population at around 50,000 people. Tatars live in Nizhny Novgorod, Dzerzhinsk, and in compact settlements across thirty-four Tatar villages in the Krasnooktyabrskiy, Pilninskiy, Sergachsky, Spassky, Knyagininsky, and Sechenovskiy Districts; every one of these villages has at least one functioning Mosque, and Nizhny Novgorod itself has three [7].

In April 2026, Timur Sharafutdinov, the executive director of the autonomy, described the Tatar media landscape of the region as follows [22]:

the region already has a certain media environment — the Tatar-language newspaper Tugan Yak is active, Tatar-language radio broadcasting is in operation, and the television program Nizhgary is being aired, but without the appropriate infrastructure this work cannot develop to its full potential

— Timur Sharafutdinov, Executive Director of RNKATNO, interview with news agency Vremya N, 27 April 2026 [22]

Publications and projects of the Nizhny Novgorod Tatars

Publications produced and formerly produced by the community covered by Nizhgar
Publication / ProjectYearsDescription
"Mishär dönyası", newspaperfrom 2007A newspaper of the Nizhny Novgorod Tatars; issues from 2008–2011 are available on the website [14][19]
"Millät", supplementfrom 2007A Russian-language supplement to "Mishär dönyası"; issues from 2008–2009 are available on the website [15][19]
"Nizhny Novgorod Tatars. Nizhgar tatarlary", journalfrom 2014A bilingual journal; thirteen issues are on the website, the latest marking the 20th anniversary of the autonomy, 2024 [6][19]
"Al-Hayat", newspaper2007A newspaper of the Nizhny Novgorod Azerbaijanis, published in the Azerbaijani section of the website [16]
"Tugan yak", newspaperfrom 1990A Tatar-language newspaper in Sergach, with supplements "Shäkert" and "Yashlек" [19][22]
"Avylym khäbärlärе", newspaperfrom 1998A newspaper of the selo Urazovka in Krasnooktyabrskiy District [19]
"Nizhgary", television project2025–2026A television programme on VGTRK "Nizhny Novgorod", written and hosted by Zulfiya Syamiullina; episodes from the first season are available in the video section of the website [4][8][22]

Around the Site

In the Nizhny Novgorod Muslim web, "Nizgar" stood alongside IslamNN and the Medina publishing house: Nizgar's banner, captioned "Website of the National-Cultural Associations of Nizhny Novgorod Region," still hangs on the main page of islamnn.ru [23].

The address of the first version's mirror, tatar.nnov.ru, today redirects to names.nnov.ru — the administration page for the NNOV.RU zone [25]. The site nizgar.ru itself has been running for more than twenty years, with the domain paid up through June 2027 [24].

Over those twenty years, three versions of the site have succeeded one another at the same address, and each remains accessible to this day: the first — in the web archive, the second — at the subdomain oldsite.nizgar.ru, and the third — at nizgar.ru itself. Together they provide an unbroken feed of community news from 2006 to 2022, and three faces of a single address in the Nizhny Novgorod Internet — from static pages with hit counters of the mid-2000s to the current version [3][9][26].

Sources

  1. oldsite.nizgar.ru — "Nizhgar" — archived version of the Nizhny Novgorod Tatars' website — About the Project
  2. web.archive.org — "Nizhgar" — first version of the site in the web archive (archive)
  3. nizgar.ru — website of the Regional National and Cultural Autonomy of the Tatars of Nizhny Novgorod Region — Home page (archive)
  4. nizgar.ru — official website of RNKATNO — About Us: registration, governing bodies, composition of the Council (archive)
  5. nizgar.ru — official website of RNKATNO — From the History of the Regional National and Cultural Autonomy of the Tatars of Nizhny Novgorod Region (archive)
  6. nizgar.ru — bound volumes of the community magazine — The magazine "Nizhegorodskiye Tatary. Nizhgar Tatarlary" (archive)
  7. nizgar.ru — the site's reference page on the Nizhny Novgorod Tatars — The Nizhny Novgorod Tatars: Who Are They? (archive)
  8. nizgar.ru — the site's video section — Video: the television project "Nizhgary" and news reports (archive)
  9. web.archive.org — Web Archive — Internet publication of the Nizhny Novgorod Tatars "NIZGAR.RU," October 31, 2005 (archive)
  10. web.archive.org — Web Archive — Home page with sections of the Independent Analytical Center "NAC," February 10, 2006 (archive)
  11. web.archive.org — Web Archive — Website of the national and cultural associations of Nizhny Novgorod Region, September 1, 2009 (archive)
  12. oldsite.nizgar.ru — "Nizhgar" — archived version of the site — Site map: sections of the Tatar and Azerbaijani communities (archive)
  13. oldsite.nizgar.ru — "Nizhgar" — archived version of the site — National and cultural associations of the Region (archive)
  14. oldsite.nizgar.ru — "Nizhgar" — archived version of the site — The newspaper "Mishar donyasy": bound issues, 2008–2011 (archive)
  15. oldsite.nizgar.ru — "Nizhgar" — archived version of the site — The newspaper "Millyat": bound issues of the Russian-language supplement (archive)
  16. oldsite.nizgar.ru — "Nizhgar" — archived version of the site — The newspaper "Al-Hayat," No. 4 (February 2007)
  17. oldsite.nizgar.ru — "Nizhgar" — archived version of the site — Encyclopedia: the biographical dictionary "Nizhny Novgorod Tatars" (archive)
  18. nizhgar-tatar.narod.ru — "Nizhegorodskiye Tatary. Nizhgar Tatarlary" — website of the biographical dictionary — Home page: about the book and its author-compiler
  19. tatarica.org — Tatar Encyclopedia of the Institute of the Tatar Encyclopedia, Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tatarstan — Nizhny Novgorod Region
  20. idmedina.ru — Medina Publishing House (Nizhny Novgorod) — materials of the All-Russian Muslim Forum — A. M. Orlov. On the Question of the Meschera Origin of the Nizhny Novgorod Tatars (archive)
  21. cyberleninka.ru — "Privolzhsky Nauchny Vestnik," 2014 — open-access scholarly article — D. Z. Khayretdinov. The Nizhgars — Descendants of the Nizhny Novgorod Tatars: Ties with the Trans-Urals (archive)
  22. Vremya N — Timur Sharafutdinov: despite globalization, young people are drawn to their historical roots (archive)
  23. islamnn.ru — "IslamNN" — information channel "Islam in Nizhny Novgorod" — Home page: "Nizhgar" banner in the partners block (archive)
  24. nic.ru — RU-CENTER — Record for the domain NIZGAR.RU: created June 16, 2005 (archive)
  25. names.nnov.ru — Home page (archive)
  26. oldsite.nizgar.ru — "Nizhgar" — archived version of the site (2007–2022) — Archive home page: news feed and announcement of reconstruction (archive)
  27. oldsite.nizgar.ru — "Nizhgar" — archived version of the site — Feedback
  28. web.archive.org — Web Archive — RNKATNO website on the new engine, June 8, 2023 (archive)
  29. krokt.nizgar.ru — "Nizhgar" subdomain — website of the local autonomy — Local National and Cultural Autonomy of the Tatars of Krasnooktyabrsky Municipal Okrug (archive)
  30. sergach.nizgar.ru — "Nizhgar" subdomain — website of the local autonomy — Local National and Cultural Autonomy of the Tatars of Sergachsky Municipal Okrug (archive)