The Museum of Contemporary History of Russia has taken over the baton of the popular exhibition project "Visiting the Tatars", which has already been held in 9 regions of Russia. This exhibition is the real encyclopedia of the national culture of Tatar people, clearly and fascinatingly telling about their everyday life, holidays, centuries-old rituals and customs.

The exhibition focuses on the large ethnographic collection of the late XIX – early XX century of 118 museum items, including complexes of female Tatar costumes, authentic household items, clothing items, tools, tableware, furniture and musical instruments. Of the jewelry, collar pendants, baldrics, earrings, bracelets are vividly represented.

Decorative and applied art handicrafts play the significant role in the exhibition. Examples of traditional Tatar art of leather-patterned mosaics stand out in this group of objects: famous ichigi are shoes made of colored leather, and slippers with soft and hard soles, as well as pillows and panels with floral ornaments. Feature of Tatar national decorative design is graphics: for example, letters of the Arabic alphabet, made in the complex script, decorate shamail for the interior of houses. Several modern stylized samples of shamail are on display at the exhibition.

Exhibition is decorated with works of fine art – more than a hundred works by contemporary artists of Russia and other countries, which appeared because of international art symposiums in Yelabuga. They depict the rituals and customs of Tatars, stories from the folk epic, memories about childhood and small homeland, sights of Tatarstan. Thus, series of works by the People's Artist of the Republic of Tatarstan Mikhail Kuznetsov is dedicated to the Sabantuy holiday, celebrated at the end of spring fieldwork with wide festivities; this ancient holiday of fertility and well-being has long been known outside Tatarstan and has become holiday of friendship in 58 regions of Russia and 30 countries of the world.

The exhibition project "Visiting Tatars" is based on the collection of Yelabuga State Museum-Reserve, as well as the works of folk artist Ahsan Fatkhutdinov from Nizhnekamsk Comprehensive Museum and jewelry from the Museum of the Kazan College of Folk Arts and Crafts. The exhibition was made possible thanks to the commonwealth and close cooperation of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Tatarstan, the Union of Museums of Russia, the representative offices of the Republic of Tatarstan in the Russian regions, the National Council of the World Congress of Tatars, the Union of Artists of Russia.