Chuvashia, officially known as Chuvash Republic — Chuvashia, is a republic of Russia located in Eastern Europe. It is the homeland of the Chuvash people. The republic's capital city is the city of Cheboksary. As of the 2010 Census, its population was 1,251,619.
Geography The Chuvash Republic is located in the center of European Russia, in the heart of the Volga-Vyatka economic region, mostly to the west of the Volga River, in the Volga Upland. It borders with the Nizhny Novgorod Oblast in the west, Mari El Republic in the north, the Republic of Tatarstan in the east and southeast, Republic of Mordovia in the southwest, and the Ulyanovsk Oblast in the south. There are over two thousand rivers in the republic – with the major ones being the Volga, the Sura, and the Tsivil – as well as four hundred lakes. Some of the Volga River valley reservoirs are in the north of the republic, and the Sura River flows towards the Volga along much of the republic's western boundary.
The climate is moderately continental, with the average temperatures ranging from in January to in July. Annual precipitation varies between , but is uneven from one year to another. Natural resources include gypsum, sand, clay, sapropel deposits, phosphorite, and peat. There are oil and natural gas deposits, although their extraction has not yet been commercially pursued. Forests, mostly in the south along the Sura River, cover approximately 30% of the land.
History
The ancestors of the Chuvash were Bulgars and Suars, Oghur Turkic tribes residing in the Northern Caucasus in the 5th to 8th centuries. In the 7th and 8th centuries, a part of the Bulgars left for the Balkans, where, together with local South Slavs, they established the state of modern Bulgaria. Another part moved to the Middle Volga Region (see Volga Bulgaria), where the Bulgar population that did not adopt Islam formed the foundation of the Chuvash people.
During the Mongol invasion of Volga Bulgaria, the steppe-dwelling Suar migrated north, where Volga Finnic tribes, such as the Mordvins and Mari lived. The Chuvash claim to be the descendants of these Suars who assimilated with the Mari. In 1242, they became vassals of the Golden Horde. Later Mongol and Tatar rulers did not intervene in local internal affairs as long as tribute was paid annually to Sarai. When the power of the Golden Horde began to diminish, local Mişär Tatar Murzas from Piana and Temnikov tried to govern the Chuvash area.
During Ivan the Terrible's war of conquest against the Khanate of Kazan, in August 1552, the Chuvash Orsai and Mari Akpar Tokari princes swore their loyalty to the Grand Duchy of Muscovy at Alatyr on the Sura River. Between 1650 and 1850, the Russian Orthodox Church sent Chuvash-speaking missionaries to try to convert the Chuvash to the Orthodox faith. A group of these missionaries created a written Chuvash language. Most of the Chuvash who stayed in the area became Orthodox Christians, but some remained pagan.
On 15 May 1917, the Chuvash joined the Idel-Ural Movement and in December 1917 joined the short-lived Idel-Ural State, when an agreement was reached with Tatar representatives to draw the eastern border of Chuvashia at the Sviyaga River. Between 1918 and 1919, the Russian Civil War encompassed the area. This ended with victory for the Bolsheviks. To gain support from the local population, Lenin ordered the creation of a Chuvash state within the Russian SFSR. On 24 June 1920, the Chuvash Autonomous Oblast was formed, which was transformed into the Chuvash ASSR in April 1925.
Administrative divisions
Politics
Until 2012, the Chuvash Republic officially had the status of a state. In the constitution of Chuvashia (version 6, dated 13 September 2011 No. 46), the following was fixed: "The Chuvash Republic is a republic (state) within the Russian Federation."
During the Soviet period, the high authority in the republic was shared between three persons: The first secretary of the Chuvashia CPSU Committee (who in reality had the biggest authority), the chairman of the oblast Soviet (legislative power), and the Chairman of the Republic Executive Committee (executive power). Since 1991, CPSU lost all the power, and the head of the Republic administration, and eventually the governor was appointed/elected alongside elected regional parliament.
The Charter of Republic of Chuvashia is the fundamental law of the region. The State Council of the Chuvash Republic is the republic's regional standing legislative (representative) body. The highest executive body is the Republic's Government, which includes territorial executive bodies such as district administrations, committees, and commissions that facilitate development and run the day to day matters.
Demographics Despite not being large, the republic is one of the most densely populated regions in the Russian Federation. Its population was
The capital and largest city of Chuvashia is Cheboksary, with a population of around 464,000 as of 2010. Cheboksary is situated mostly on the southern bank of the Volga in the northern part of the republic (one northern bank district was added in the second part of the 20th century), approximately east of Moscow. Nearby to the east is the next largest city, Novocheboksarsk, with a population of 124,000 as of 2010.
Settlements
Vital statistics
Source: Russian Federal State Statistics Service
Average population (× 1,000)Live birthsDeathsNatural changeCrude birth rate (per 1,000)Crude death rate (per 1,000)Natural change (per 1,000)Fertility rates 1970 1,227 22,465 10,993 11,472 18.3 9.0 9.3 1975 1,266 22,956 12,450 10,506 18.1 9.8 8.3 1980 1,302 22,612 13,908 8,704 17.4 10.7 6.7 1985 1,311 24,385 13,913 10,472 18.6 10.6 8.0 1990 1,339 21,116 13,545 7,571 15.8 10.1 5.7 2.12 1991 1,342 19,113 13,459 5,654 14.2 10.0 4.2 1.96 1992 1,346 16,673 14,141 2,532 12.4 10.5 1.9 1.72 1993 1,347 14,410 16,876−2,466 10.7 12.5−1.8 1.48 1994 1,345 14,498 18,003−3,505 10.8 13.4−2.6 1.48 1995 1,345 13,842 17,727−3,885 10.3 13.2−2.9 1.41 1996 1,343 13,542 16,880−3,338 10.1 12.6−2.5 1.37 1997 1,341 12,822 16,762−3,940 9.6 12.5−2.9 1.30 1998 1,339 13,300 15,957−2,657 9.9 11.9−2.0 1.34 1999 1,337 12,129 17,997−5,868 9.1 13.5−4.4 1.22 2000 1,331 12,363 18,640−6,277 9.3 14.0−4.7 1.25 2001 1,324 11,986 18,980−6,994 9.1 14.3−5.31.20 2002 1,314 12,956 19,808−6,852 9.9 15.1−5.2 1.30 2003 1,304 13,171 19,978−6,807 10.1 15.3−5.2 1.32 2004 1,295 13,734 19,371−5,637 10.6 15.0−4.4 1.38 2005 1,286 13,133 19,682−6,549 10.2 15.3−5.1 1.32 2006 1,277 13,291 18,900−5,609 10.4 14.8−4.4 1.34 2007 1,269 14,835 18,642−3,807 11.7 14.7−3.0 1.50 2008 1,262 14,967 18,436−3,469 11.9 14.6−2.7 1.51 2009 1,257 16,103 17,492−1,389 12.8 13.9−1.1 1.63 2010 1,252 16,174 18,186−2,012 12.9 14.5−1.6 1.65 2011 1,249 16,165 16,923−758 12.9 13.6−0.7 1.67 2012 1,245 17,472 16,607 865 14.0 13.3 0.7 1.83 2013 1,242 17,351 16,324 1,027 14.0 13.1 0.9 1.85 2014 1,240 17,224 16,535 689 13.9 13.3 0.6 1.88 2015 1,237 17,138 16,266 872 13.8 13.1 0.7 1.91 2016 1,236 16,403 16,258 145 13.3 13.1 0.2 1.87 2017 1,233 13,947 15,571−1,624 11.3 12.6 -1.3 1.65 2019 11,624 15,196−3,572 9.5 12.4 -2.9 2020 11,305 18,845−7,540 9.3 15.5 -6.2
Note: TFR
Ethnic groups According to the 2021 Census, ethnic Chuvash make up 63.7% of the republic's population. Other groups include Russians (30.7%), Tatars (2.7%), Mordvins (0.7%), and a host of smaller groups, each accounting for less than 0.5% of the total population. Ethnicgroup 1926 Census 1939 Census 1959 Census 1970 Census 1979 Census 1989 Census 2002 Census 2010 Census 2021 census Number % Number % Number % Number % Number % Number % Number % Number % Number %Chuvash 667,69574.6% 777,202 72.2% 770,351 70.2% 856,24670.0% 887,73868.4% 906,92267.8% 889,26867.7% 814,75067.7% 684,930 63.7%Russians 178,89020.0% 241,38622.4% 263,69224.0% 299,24124.5% 338,15026.0% 357,12026.7% 348,51526.5% 323,27426.9% 329,991 30.7%Tatars 22,6352.5% 29,0072.7% 31,3572.9% 36,2173.0% 37,5732.9% 35,6892.7% 36,3792.8% 34,2142.8% 29,092 2.7% Mordvins 23,9582.7% 22,5122.1%23,8632.2% 21,0411.7% 20,2761.6% 18,6861.4% 15,9931.2% 13,0141.1% 7,707 0.7%Others 1,3010.1% 6,7030.6% 8,5960.7% 10,9300.9% 14,8741.3% 19,6061.4% 23,5991.8% 18,2981.6% 23,085 2.2% 1 112,104 people were registered from administrative databases, and could not declare an ethnicity. It is estimated that the proportion of ethnicities in this group is the same as that of the declared group.
Genetics Osteopetrosis affects 1 newborn out of every 20,000 to 250,000 worldwide, but the odds are much higher in the Russian region of Chuvashia (1 of every 3,500–4,000 newborns) due to genetic traits of the Chuvash people.
Religion
According to a 2012 survey, 64.7% of the population of Chuvashia adheres to the Russian Orthodox Church, 4% are Orthodox Christian believers without belonging to any church or members of non-Russian Orthodox churches, 3% of the population (mostly Tatars) follow Islam, 3% are unaffiliated Christians, 1% follow indigenous faiths (Vattisen Yaly, Chuvash folk religion). In addition, 24% of the population declares to be "spiritual but not religious", 1% is atheist and 2.3% follows other religions or did not answer to the question.
Study of religion is compulsory for schoolchildren in Chuvashia. Of the students, approximately 76.9% are enrolled for Orthodox Studies, 16.0% for Secular Studies, 15.7% for World Religions Studies and 1.4% for Islamic Studies.
Education There are five higher educational institutions, including the Chuvash State University, the Chuvash State Pedagogical University, and the Chuvash State Agrarian University located in Cheboksary. These, together with 28 colleges and technical schools, are currently attended by approximately 45,000 students.
Economy
The Chuvash Republic is the most populous and fertile area in the middle Volga region. There are deciduous woodlands on fertile black earth. In agriculture, wheat and sugar-beet, pigs and beef cattle have become more important than the rye, oats, barley and dairy cattle which are typical for the whole area.
The republic is Russia's center for growing hops and is famous throughout the country for its long history of beer brewing. It is also a major center for electrical engineering, especially in the area of power transmission and control systems. Other leading industries are metalworking, electricity generation, and chemical manufacturing. There are also large timber-working mills at Shumerlin.
The largest companies in the region include Khimprom Novocheboksarsk (revenues of $ million in 2017), Accond (confectionery maker$, million), Cheboksary Instrument-Making Plant ($ million), NPP EKRA (power engineering$, million).
Transportation The transport network in the republic is one of the most developed in Russia. The republic's system of roads, railroads, waterways, and airports closely ties the region with others in and outside of Russia.
Roads Only four roads in the Chuvash Republic are classified as important federal highways. The most important is Highway M-7, which runs from Nizhny Novgorod through the northern parts of the republic from Yadrinsky Nikolskoye via Malye Tyumerli, Kalmykovo, Khyrkasy, Novye Lapsary, Kugesi, Shivlinsk, Staraya Tyurlema, to Kazan in the Republic of Tatarstan. It also forms a connection via Chuvashia through the southern suburbs of Cheboksary and Novocheboksary to the Mari El Republic and the Vyatka Highway. Part of this road is classified as a motorway, the only one in the republic. From Yadrinsky Nikolskoye, the federal road P-178 runs through Yadrin, Shumerlya, Alatyr, to Surskoye in Ulyanovsk Oblast and further to Ulyanovsk. In the eastern part of Chuvashia, the federal road A-151 runs from Tsivilsk through Kanash, Komsomolskoye, Chkalovskoye, Karabay-Shemursha, Shemursha to Ulyanovsk and Saratov. All other roads in Chuvashia are classified as local area roads.