Sakha Republic
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| Sakha (Yakutia) Republic (English) Республика Саха (Якутия) (Russian) Саха Республиката (Sakha) |
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|---|---|
 Location of the Sakha Republic in Russia |
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| Coat of Arms | Flag |
 Coat of arms of the Sakha Republic |
 Flag of the Sakha Republic |
| Anthem: National Anthem of the Sakha Republic | |
| Capital | Yakutsk |
| Established | April 27, 1922 |
| Political status Federal district Economic region |
Republic Far Eastern Far Eastern |
| Code | 14 |
| Area | |
| Area - Rank |
3,103,200 km² 1st |
| Population (as of the 2002 Census) | |
| Population - Rank - Density - Urban - Rural |
949,280 inhabitants 58th 0.3 inhab. / km² 64.3% 35.7% |
| Official languages | Russian, Sakha |
| Government | |
| President | Vyacheslav Shtyrov |
| Chairman of the Government | Yegor Borisov |
| Legislative body | State Assembly (Il Tumen) |
| Constitution | Constitution (Basic Law) of the Sakha (Yakutia) Republic |
| Official website | |
| http://www.sakha.gov.ru/ | |
The Sakha (Yakutia) Republic (Russian: Респу́блика Саха́ (Яку́тия); Sakha: Саха Республиката) is a federal subject of Russia (a republic). The direct romanization of the republic's name is Respublika Sakha (Yakutiya) in Russian and Sakha Respublikata in Sakha.
Contents |
[edit] Geography
- Borders:
- internal: Chukotka Autonomous Okrug (E), Magadan Oblast (E/SE), Khabarovsk Krai (SE), Amur Oblast (S), Chita Oblast (S), Irkutsk Oblast (S/SW), Evenk Autonomous Okrug (W), Taymyr Autonomous Okrug (W/NW).
- water: Arctic Ocean (including Laptev Sea and Eastern Siberian Sea) (N).
- Highest point: Peak Pobeda (3,003 m) or Peak Mus-Khaya (3,011 m).
- Maximum N->S distance: 2,500 kilometers (1,553.5 mi)
- Maximum E->W distance: 2,000 kilometers (1,242.8 mi)
Sakha stretches to the Henrietta Islands in the far north and is washed by the Laptev and Eastern Siberian Seas of the Arctic Ocean. These waters, the coldest and iciest of all seas in the northern hemisphere, are covered by ice for 9-10 months of the year. New Siberian Islands are a part of the republic's territory. After Nunavut was separated from Canada's Northwest Territories, Sakha became the largest subnational entity (statoid) in the world, with an area of 3,103,200 km²
Sakha can be divided into three great vegetation belts. About 40% of Sakha lies above the Arctic circle and all of it is covered by permafrost which greatly influences the region's ecology and limits forests in the southern region. Arctic and subarctic tundra define the middle region, where lichen and moss grow as great green carpets and are favorite pastures for reindeer. In the southern part of the tundra belt, scattered stands of dwarf Siberian pine and larch grow along the rivers. Below the tundra is the vast taiga forest region. Larch trees dominate in the north and, in the south, stands of fir and pine begin to appear. Taiga forests cover about 47% of Sakha and almost 90% of this cover is larch.
[edit] Time zones
Sakha spans three different time zones:
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Yakutsk Time Zone (YAKT/YAKST). UTC offset is +0900 (YAKT)/+1000 (YAKST). Covers the republic's territory to the west of the Lena River as well as the territories of uluses located on the both sides of the Lena River.
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Vladivostok Time Zone (VLAT/VLAST). UTC offset is +1000 (VLAT)/+1100 (VLAST). Covers most of the republic's territory located between 127°E and 140°E longitude.
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Magadan Time Zone (MAGT/MAGST). UTC offset is +1100 (MAGT)/+1200 (MAGST). Covers most of the republic's territory located east of 140°E longitude.
[edit] Rivers
Navigable Lena River (4,310 km), as it moves northward, includes hundreds of small tributaries located in the Verkhoyansk Range. Other major rivers include:
- Vilyuy River (2,650 km)
- Olenyok River (2,292 km)
- Aldan River (2,273 km)
- Kolyma River (2,129 km)
- Indigirka River (1,726 km)
- Olyokma River (1,320 km)
- Yana River (872 km)
- Alazeya River
- Amga River
- Anabar River
- Markha River
- Maya River
- Muna River
- Nyuya River
- Sedennyakh River
- Tyung River
[edit] Lakes
There are over 700 lakes in the republic. Major lakes and reservoirs include:
- Mogotoyevo Lake
- Nedzheli Lake
- Nerpichye Lake
- Vilyuyskoye Reservoir
[edit] Mountains
Sakha's greatest mountain range, the Verkhoyansk Range, runs parallel and east of the Lena River, forming a great arc that begins the Sea of Okhotsk and ends in the Laptev Sea.
The Chersky Range runs east of the Verkhoyansk Range and has the highest peak in Sakha, Peak Pobeda (3,003 m). Recent satellite photos, however, revealed that Peak Mus-Khaya may in fact be a higher point, reaching 3,011 m.
Further east lie the gold-rich Kolyma Mountains, which stretch all the way to Chukotka.
The Stanovoi Range borders Sakha in the south.
[edit] Natural resources
Sakha is well endowed with raw materials. The soil contains large reserves of oil, gas, coal, diamonds, gold, and silver. 99% of all Russian diamonds are mined in Sakha, accounting for over 25% of the world's diamond production.
[edit] Climate
Sakha is known for its climate extremes, with the Verkhoyansk Range being the coldest area in the northern hemisphere. The Northern Hemisphere's Pole of Cold is at Oymyakon, where the temperatures reached as low as −72.2°C in January of 1926.
- Average January temperature: −28°C (coast) to −50°C (other territories).
- Average July temperature: +2°C (coast) to +19°C (central parts).
- Average annual precipitation: 200 mm (central parts) to 700 mm (mountains of Eastern Sakha).
[edit] Administrative divisions
[edit] Demographics
The official languages are both Russian and Sakha, also known as Yakut, which is spoken by approximately 25% of the population.
The Yakut language is Turkic with Mongolian influence and some borrowings from Sakha's Paleosiberian indigenous peoples.
- Population: 949,280 (2002)
- Urban: 609,999 (64.3%)
- Rural: 339,281 (35.7%)
- Male: 464,217 (48.9%)
- Female: 485,063 (51.1%)
- Females per 1000 males: 1,045
- Average age: 30.0 years
- Urban: 31.0 years
- Rural: 27.4 years
- Male: 30.0 years
- Female: 26.6 years
- Number of households: 305,017 (with 937,954 people)
- Urban: 212,593 (with 600,696 people)
- Rural: 92,424 (with 337,258 people)
- Vital statistics: (2005)
- Births: 13,591 (birth rate 14.3)
- Deaths: 9,696 (death rate 10.2)
- Ethnic groups: According to the 2002 Census the national composition is • 432,290 Yakuts (45.54%), • 390,617 Russians(41.15%), • 34,633 Ukrainians (3.65%), • 18,232 Evenks (1.92%), • 11,657 Evens (1.23%), • 10,755 Tatars (1.13%), • 7,266 Buriats (0.77%), • 4,236 Belarusans (0.45%), • 2,764 Armenians (0.29%), • 2,355 Bashkirs (0.25%), • 2,293 Azeris (0.24%), • 2,283 ethnic Germans (0.24%), • 2,255 Moldovans (0.24%), • 2,072 Mordovians (0.22%), • 1,815 Koreans (0.19%), • 1,700 Chuvash (0.18%), • 1,454 Kirgiz (0.15%), • 1,272 Dolgins (0.13%), • 1,272 Uzbeks (0.13%), • 1,105 Tajiks (0.12%), • 1,097 Yukagirs (0.12%), • 1,000 Ingush (0.11%), and other groups of less than one thousand persons each. (0.28% of the inhabitants declined to state their nationality on the census questionnaire.)[1]
Historical population figures are shown below:
| census 1939 | census 1959 | census 1970 | census 1979 | census 1989 | census 2002 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yakuts | 233,273 (56.5%) | 226,053 (46.4%) | 285,749 (43.0%) | 313,917 (36.9%) | 365,236 (33.4%) | 432,290 (45.5%) |
| Dolgans | 10 (0.0%) | 64 (0.0%) | 408 (0.0%) | 1,272 (0.1%) | ||
| Evenks | 10,432 (2.5%) | 9,505 (2.0%) | 9,097 (1.4%) | 11,584 (1.4%) | 14,428 (1.3%) | 18,232 (1.9%) |
| Evens | 3,133 (0.8%) | 3,537 (0.7%) | 6,471 (1.0%) | 5,763 (0.7%) | 8,668 (0.8%) | 11,657 (1.2%) |
| Yukaghir | 267 (0.1%) | 285 (0.1%) | 400 (0.1%) | 526 (0.1%) | 697 (0.1%) | 1,097 (0.1%) |
| Chukchis | 400 (0.1%) | 325 (0.1%) | 387 (0.1%) | 377 (0.0%) | 473 (0.0%) | 602 (0.1%) |
| Russians | 146,741 (35.5%) | 215,328 (44.2%) | 314,308 (47.3%) | 429,588 (50.4%) | 550,263 (50.3%) | 390,671 (41.2%) |
| Ukrainians | 4,229 (1.0%) | 12,182 (2.5%) | 20,253 (3.0%) | 46,326 (5.4%) | 77,114 (7.0%) | 34,633 (3.6%) |
| Others | 14,723 (3.6%) | 20,128 (4.1%) | 27,448 (4.1%) | 43,695 (5.1%) | 76,778 (7.0%) | 58,826 (6.2%) |
[edit] History
The Sakha arrived relatively recently in 13th century to their current geographical area from Central Asia. They are heterogeneous of Turkic and Mongolian origin. They conquered the indigenous hunter-gatherer tribes and began to call themselves "Sakha", the origin of which is not clear, therefore much debated. [2] The Evenki referred to the Sakha as "Yako" and this term was adopted by the Russians when they began arriving in the region in the early 17th century. Tygyn, a king of the Khangalassky Yakuts, granted territory for Russian settlement in return for military pact that included war against indigenous rebels of all North Eastern Asia (Magadan, Chukotka, Kamchatka and Sakhalin). King of Mengeler-Khangalastar Yakuts, Kull began a Sakha conspiracy by allowing his relative Tygyn to enter into tricky pact with Russians in plan to conquer all of North Eastern Asia in centuries to come. The Lensky Ostrog (Fort Lensky), the future city of Yakutsk, was founded by Pyotr Beketov, a Cossack, on September 25, 1632 (the date of the first stockade construction). In August of 1638, the Moscow Government formed a new administrative unit with the administrative center of Lensky Ostrog, which cemented the town's ascendancy in the territory.
Russians established agriculture in the Lena River basin. The members of religious groups who were exiled to Sakha in the second half of the 19th century began to grow wheat, oats, and potatoes. The fur trade established a cash economy. Industry and transport began to develop at the end of the 19th century and in the beginning of the Soviet period. This was also the beginning of geological prospecting, mining, and local lead production. The first steam-powered ships and barges arrived.
On April 27, 1922 former "Yakolskaya land" was proclaimed the Yakut ASSR, and in 1992, after the fall of the Soviet Union, it was recognized in Moscow as the Sakha (Yakutia) Republic under the jurisdiction of the Russian Federation.
[edit] Politics
The head of government in Sakha is the President. The first President of Sakha was Mikhail Yefimovich Nikolayev. As of 2007, the president is Vyacheslav Anatolyevich Shtyrov, who was elected on January 27, 2002.
The supreme legislative body of state authority in Sakha is a bicameral State Assembly known as the Il Tumen. The government of the Sakha (Yakutia) Republic is the executive body of state authority.
Sakha National Congress represents religious, political, financial, economic, cultural interests of Sakha Republic and its Turkic-language Sakha nation for the benefit of entire population of historical borders of Sakha Republic that include Sakha, Magadan, Chukotka, Kamchatka, and Sakhalin.[citation needed]
[edit] Economy
Industry generates slightly above 50%[citation needed] of the gross national product of Sakha, stemming primarily from mineral exploitation. Industrial enterprises are concentrated in the capital Yakutsk, as well as in Aldan, Mirny, Neryungri, Pokrovsk, and Udachny. The diamond, gold and tin ore mining industries are the major focus of the economy. Uranium ore is beginning to be mined. Turkic-language Sakha are in Tengrianism religion, politics, government, finance, economy and cattle-breeding (horses for sport and cows for milk and meat). The Paleoasian indigenous peoples are hunters, fishermen, and reindeer herders.
[edit] Transportation
Water transport ranks first for cargo turnover. There are six river ports, two sea ports (Tiksi and Zelyony Mys). Four shipping companies, including the Arctic Sea Shipping Company, operate in the republic.
Air transport is the most important for transporting people. Airlines connect the republic with most regions of Russia. Yakutsk airport has an international terminal.
Two federal roads pass the republic. They are Yakutsk—Bolshoy Never and Yakutsk—Kolyma. The Berkakit—Aldan railroad is currently in operation. It links the Baikal Amur Mainline with the industrial centers in South Sakha.
[edit] Education
The most important facilities of higher education include Yakut State University and Yakut State Agricultural Academy.
[edit] Religion
Before the arrival of the Russian Empire, the majority of the population believed in the sun-worship Tengrianism common to Turkic-language people of Central Asia, or in Paleoasian indigenous shamanism with both 'light' (community leading) and 'dark' (healing through spirit journey) shamans. Under the Russians, the population was putatively converted to the Russian Orthodox Church and required to take Orthodox Christian names, but in practice generally continued to follow traditional religions. During the Soviet era, most or all of the shamans died without successors. Currently there is interest and activity toward renewing the traditional religions.
[edit] Miscellaneous
- Sakha became the largest country subdivision in the world, when Nunavut separated from Canada's Northwest Territories.
- Lenin was the best known of Vladimir Ulyanov’s revolutionary pseudonyms. He is believed to have created it to show his opposition to Georgi Plekhanov, who used the pseudonym Volgin, after the Volga River. Ulyanov picked the Sakha's Lena River, which flows in the opposite direction, and is longer.
[edit] References
- ^ (2002). "National Composition of Population for Regions of the Russian Federation" (XLS). 2002 Russian All-Population Census. Retrieved on 2006-07-20.
- ^ Scott Polar Research Institute - Republic of Sakha
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- (Russian) Official website of the government of Sakha Republic
- (Russian) Photo gallery at the site of the Ministry of Construction of the Sakha Republic with pictures of residential buildings, schools, colleges, hospitals, theaters, stadiums, etc. constructed in Yakutia
- (English) (Russian) Official website of the Ministry of Foreign Relations of Sakha (in development)
- (Sakha) Orto Doydu - Samples of music, songs and video in Sakha
- (English) Yakutia Organized - Independent Travelogues, Photo Blogs, General Info
- (Russian) Official website of the Yakut State University
- (English) Information on Sakha from Scott Polar Research Institute
- (Russian) History of Yakutia
- (English) Anthem of Sakha
Western Turkic
Azerbaijan1 • 
Bashkortostan2 • 
Chuvashia2 • 
Cyprus - 
Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus3 • 
Gagauzia4 • 
Kabardino-Balkaria2 •
Karachay-Cherkessia2 • 
Karakalpakstan5 • 
Kazakhstan • 
Tatarstan2 • 
Turkmenistan • 
Turkey • 
Uzbekistan • 
Xinjiang6
Eastern Turkic
Altai Republic2 • 
Khakassia2 • 
Kyrgyzstan • 
Sakha2 • 
Tuva2
Notes: (1) Includes the Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic; (2) A federal subject of the Russian Federation; (3) See Cyprus dispute;
(4) Gagauzia is a territorial autonomous unit of Moldova; (5) Karakalpakstan is an autonomous republic of Uzbekistan; (6) Xinjiang Uyghur is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China
