Scholars associate the formation of groups of Kryashens with the process of voluntary and violent Christianization of Muslim and Animist Volga Tatars during the 16th to 19th centuries.

[5][6][7][8][9] The first wave of Kryashens were the result of forced conversions soon after the Russian conquest of the Kazan and Astrakhan Khanates.

[10] A more lasting and significant presence of Kryashens emerged during a period of mosque destruction and anti-Muslim oppression from the Russian authorities during the 18th century.

[10][11] However, by the early 20th century, there was a significant Kryashen population that still continues to exist, though in smaller numbers than in the past.

The earliest literature was mainly religious in nature but around the 1910s a steady rise of secular works began being published.