This period was marked by settlement of the area by Russians and attempts at conversion to Orthodox Christianity, provoking a number of rebellions among the Tatars and neighbouring groups.
In the late 18th and 19th centuries industry developed, economic conditions improved and Tatars achieved more equal status with Russians.
Around the time of the fall of the USSR in 1991 there were again moves for independence, but in 1994 the region, under the name of Tatarstan, became a constituent republic of the Russian Federation.
From the 4th century BCE much of the Volga–Kama basin was occupied by tribes of the İmänkiskä culture, who are thought to have been related to the Scythians, speakers of one of the Indo-European languages.
Around the beginning of the 1st century CE a new group, the so-called Pyanobor culture (probably of Finno-Ugric origin) appeared at the lower Kama.
During the great migrations of late antiquity Siberian Turkic and Finno-Ugric tribes settled the region east of the middle Volga and forced out the Pyanobor culture from the Kama basin.
In the early 10th century the Volga Bulgars converted to Islam, causing their culture to be greatly influenced by that of the Muslim Middle East.
In the first half of the 15th century, as the result of Golden Horde's collapse, the Khanate of Kazan emerged as the dominant power in the Volga–Kama region.
Under pressure from the Russians many Tatars emigrated to the Upper Kama, Trans-Kama area, Bashkortostan, the Urals and Siberia during the 16th and 17th centuries.
Restrictions in occupation, heavy taxation, and discrimination against non-Christians blocked the cultural and economic development of the Tatars.
The pan-Islamic Russian party Ittifaq al-Muslimin represented the growing nationalist camp within the State Duma.
Anti-communist Tatar revolutionaries declared the Idel-Ural State, but the Moscow Bolshevist government moved to prevent an independent Tatarstan on its flank.
The declaration, coupled with Kolchak's hostility, caused many Tatar and Bashkir troops to switch sides and fight for the Bolsheviks.
Ultimately, the victorious Communists subsumed Tatarstan within the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR), leading to large-scale emigration from the country, particularly among the upper class.
As a result of war communism policy the 1921-1922 Famine in Tatarstan had begun and annihilated nearly half a million people.
At first, Soviet rule favored mostly the Eastern Orthodox Church, and some Islamic religious streams were preserved (see Jadidism, Wäisi movement), but later they also were repressed.
In 1960s-1970s Tatar ASSR's industry was developed not only in the petrol sector; a major car plant, KamAZ was built in Naberezhnye Chelny, making this city become the second largest in the republic.
On December 20, 2008, in response to Russia recognizing Abkhazia and South Ossetia, the Milli Mejlis of the Tatar People declared Tatarstan independent and asked for United Nations recognition.