Tatar community in contemporary Klaipėda city (Lithuania) and its musical folklore dissemination: case study

ENThe present-day about 180.000 citizens population of Klaipėda is a mixture of Lithuanians (about 70%) living side-by-side with representatives of other ethnic and national groups (about 30% in sum total) invited and employed by the Soviet administration to rebuild the seaport of Klaipėda along with the shipbuilding and other urban industries (see: Safronovas 2005: 113–125). This process started in the period from 1950 to 1970 and lasted to the end of the Soviet occupation. Yet another segment of the population is constituted by the ethnic groups that have settled in Klaipėda in the last 20 years, after the state borders of independent Lithuania were opened to the rest of Western Europe. The Russian, Belorussian, German, Jewish, Ukrainian, Polish, Latvian, Tatar, Armenian, Azerbaijani, and other national minorities have become an integral part of the social and cultural life in contemporary Klaipėda. In light of these historical facts, the goal of the article is to discuss the possibilities of Tatar community, as the most representative Muslim national group to maintain and promote their ethnic roots and traditions in the city.