The 'Sakha (Yakutia) Republic' (; ) 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. It is the largest sub-national governing body by area in the world.
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'':
★ ''Maximum E->W distance'':
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.
Time zones
Sakha spans three different time zones:
#
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.
#
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.
#
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.
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
Lakes
There are over 700 lakes in the republic. Major lakes and reservoirs include:
★
Mogotoyevo Lake
★
Nedzheli Lake
★
Nerpichye Lake
★
Vilyuyskoye Reservoir
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.
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.
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).
Administrative divisions
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
Belarusians (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
Kyrgyz (0.15%), • 1,272
Dolgans (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%) |
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 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 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 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 the former "Yakolskaya land" was proclaimed the Yakut
ASSR, although in fact the eastern part of the territory, including the city of Yakutsk, was controlled by the
White Russians (see
Yakut Revolt). In 1992, after the fall of the Soviet Union, Yakutia was recognized in Moscow as the Sakha (Yakutia) Republic under the jurisdiction of the Russian Federation.
''
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. Ulyanov, however, had no disagreement with Plekhanov when he first began to use the name.
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 unicameral State Assembly known as the ''Il Tumen''. The government of the Sakha (Yakutia) Republic is the executive body of state authority.
Economy
Industry generates slightly above 50% 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.
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.
Education
The most important facilities of higher education include
Yakut State University and
Yakut State Agricultural Academy.
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.
References
1.
2. Scott Polar Research Institute - Republic of Sakha
See also
★
Music of Sakha
★
Lake Khaiyr
External links
★
Official website of the government of Sakha Republic
★
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
★
Official website of the Ministry of Foreign Relations of Sakha (in development)
★
Orto Doydu - Samples of music, songs and video in Sakha
★
Kyym - weekly newspaper
★
Yakutia Organized - Independent Travelogues, Photo Blogs, General Info
★
Official website of the Yakut State University
★
Information on Sakha from Scott Polar Research Institute
★
History of Yakutia
★
Anthem of Sakha
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