KHAKASSIA

'Republic of Khakassia' (; Khakass: Хакасия Республиказы) or 'Khakasiya' (Хака́сия) is a federal subject of Russia (a republic) located in south central Siberia.
It has an area of 61,900 km² (ranked 47th). Abakan is the administrative centre of Khakassia, and with a population of around 160,000 making it the largest city.
Khakas is a Turkic language with co-official status in the republic.

Contents

Time zone

Administrative divisions

Demographics

History

Economy

Views of Khakassia

See also

Time zone

Khakassia is located in the Krasnoyarsk Time Zone (KRAT/KRAST). UTC offset is +0700 (KRAT)/+0800 (KRAST).

Administrative divisions

Demographics

★ 'Population': 538,200 (2006 est.); 546,072 (2002 Census)

★ 'Vital statistics' (2005)

★
★ ''Births'': 6,198 (birth rate 11.5)

★
★ ''Deaths'': 9,411 (death rate 17.4)

★ 'Ethnic groups'
According to the 2002 Russian Census, ethnic Russians make up 80.3% of the republic's population, while ethnic Khakas are only 12.0%. Other groups include Ethnic Germans (1.7%), Ukrainians (1.5%), Tatars (4,001, or 0.7%), and a host of smaller groups, each accounting for less than 0.5% of the total population.

	census 1926	census 1939	census 1959	census 1970	census 1979	census 1989	census 2002
Khakas	44,219 (49.8%)	45,799 (16.8%)	48,512 (11.8%)	54,750 (12.3%)	57,281 (11.5%)	62,859 (11.1%)	65,421 (12.0%)
Russians	41,390 (46.6%)	205,254 (75.3%)	314,455 (76.5%)	349,362 (78.4%)	395,953 (79.4%)	450,430 (79.5%)	438,395 (80.3%)
Germans	46 (0.1%)	333 (0.1%)	10,512 (2.6%)	10,547 (2.4%)	11,130 (2.2%)	11,250 (2.0%)	9,161 (1.7%)
Ukrainians	836 (0.9%)	7,788 (2.9%)	14,630 (3.6%)	9,480 (2.1%)	10,398 (2.1%)	13,223 (2.3%)	8,360 (1.5%)
Others	2,381 (2.7%)	13,556 (5.0%)	22,938 (5.6%)	21,685 (4.9%)	23,622 (4.7%)	29,099 (5.4%)	24,735 (4.5%)

History

From the 6th century Khakassia was the core of the old Kyrgyz state. In the thirteenth century, following defeat by the Mongols, the majority of the Kyrgyz people migrated southwest to their current homeland in Central Asia (Kyrgyzstan). Modern Khakassians regard themselves as the descendants of those Kyrgyz who remained in Siberia. Khakassia was incorporated into the Russian state in 1707. In 1727 this was confirmed in a treaty between Russia and China. Tsarist policy was to deport convicted criminals from European Russia to Siberia and prisons were quickly constructed in Khakassia (1707 and 1718). Many prisoners stayed in the area on their release. Many of the indigenous Khakassian people converted to the Russian Orthodox church and were gradually forced to abandon their nomadic way of life. By the time of the Russian Revolution Russians made up approximately half of the population. Under Soviet rule autonomy was granted on 10 October 1930. During the 1920's and 30's the Soviet authorities resettled an estimated quarter of a million Russians in the region. These were followed by 10,000 Volga Germans deported in World War II. By the time of the 1959 census ethnic Khakassians represented little more than one in ten of the population. Khakassia was given full autonomous republic status in 1991.

Economy

The main industries in the republic are coal mining, ore mining, and timber.

Views of Khakassia

See also

★ Music of Khakassia