Until the beginning of the XX century, almost any Turkic population of the Russian Empire was referred to as ‘Tatar.’
In addition to the local Turkic peoples, a diaspora of Volga Tatars had been forming in the Caucasus for centuries.
The first Volga Tatars appeared in the region during the Persian campaign of Peter I (1722–1723), in which about 30,000 service Tatars participated. Many of them remained in the region for the construction of fortresses and military service.
However, the ‘golden age’ of migration occurred during the late XVIII and early XIX centuries.
The rapid growth of the oil industry in Baku attracted thousands of Tatars from the Volga region (especially from the Simbirsk, Penza, and Samara provinces).
The Tatar intelligentsia played a major role in the life of the Caucasus, particulsrly in the XIX century.
For example, Ibragim Valluilovich Teregulov (1852–1921) organized the translation into the Tatar language and the publication of plays by A. N. Ostrovsky and A. K. Tolstoy there.