Tuva or Tyva, officially the Republic of Tyva, is a republic of Russia. Tuva lies at the geographical center of Asia, in southern Siberia. The republic borders the federal subjects of the Altai Republic, Buryatia, Irkutsk Oblast, Khakassia, and Krasnoyarsk Krai, and shares an international border with Mongolia to the south. Tuva has a population of 336,651 (2021 census). Its capital city is Kyzyl, in which more than a third of the population reside.
Starting in the medieval period, Tuva was controlled by a series of Chinese dynasties and nomadic khanates. In 1758, Tuva came under the Qing dynasty, the last imperial dynasty of China, as the Tannu Uriankhai region of Outer Mongolia. Tuva broke away as the Uryankhay Republic following the 1911 Xinhai Revolution that created the Republic of China. In 1914 it became the Russian protectorate of Uryankhay Krai, and in 1921 was replaced by the nominally independent Tuvan People's Republic (known officially as Tannu Tuva until 1926), recognized only by its neighbors the Soviet Union and Mongolia, before being annexed into the former's Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic in 1944. In 1990, during the dissolution of the Soviet Union, a wave of separatist violence against ethnic Russians triggered an exodus and OMON special police deployment.
, ethnic Tuvans make up 88.7% of the population. They speak the Tuvan language as their native tongue. Ethnic Russians make up 10.1% and speak the Russian language. Both languages are official and widely understood in the republic. The Great Khural is the regional parliament of Tuva. , 61.8% adhere to Buddhism, and 8% to Tengrism or Tuvan shamanism.
History
The territory of Tuva has been controlled by the Xiongnu (209 BC93 AD) and the Xianbei state (93–234), Rouran Khaganate (330–555), Tang dynasty (647–682), Yenisei Kyrgyz Khaganate (7th–13th century), Mongol Empire (1206–1271), Yuan dynasty (1271–1368), Northern Yuan dynasty (1368–1691), Khotgoid Khanate and Zunghar Khanate (1634–1758).History of Mongolia, Volume II, 2003. Medieval Mongol tribes, including Oirats and Tumeds, inhabited areas which are now part of the Tuvan Republic.
From 1758 to 1911, Tuva was part of China's Qing dynasty and administered by Outer Mongolia. During the Xinhai Revolution in China, Tsarist Russia formed a separatist movement among the Tuvans while there were also pro-independence and pro-Mongol groups.L. Zhazhmsran. 1995 Tsar Nicholas II agreed to the third petition by Tuva's leadership in 1912, establishing a protectorate over the then-independent state. Some Russians, such as merchants, travellers, and explorers, had already settled in Tuva at that time. Tuva became nominally independent as the Uryankhay Republic before being turned into a Russian protectorate as Uryankhay Krai under Tsar Nicholas II, on 17 April 1914.
A Tuvan capital was established, called Belotsarsk (Белоца́рск; literally, "(Town) of the White Tsar"). Meanwhile, in 1911, with the collapse of the Qing, Mongolia seceded from China, entering Russia's sphere of influence. Following the Russian Revolution of 1917 that ended the imperial autocracy, most of Tuva was occupied from 5 July 1918 to 15 July 1919 by Alexander Kolchak's White Russian troops. Pyotr Ivanovich Turchaninov was named governor of the territory. In the autumn of 1918, the southwestern part was occupied by Chinese troops and the southern part by Mongol troops led by Khatanbaatar Magsarjav.
From July 1919 to February 1920, the communist Red Army controlled Tuva but from 19 February 1920 to June 1921 it was occupied by China (governor was Yan Shichao [traditional, Wade–Giles transliteration: Yan Shi-ch'ao]), until their expulsion by the Bolsheviks in 1921. On 14 August 1921, the Bolsheviks established the Tuvan People's Republic, popularly called Tannu-Tuva. In 1926, the capital (Belotsarsk; Khem-Beldyr since 1918) was renamed Kyzyl, meaning "red". The Tuvan People's Republic was de jure an independent state between the World Wars. The state's ruler, Chairman Donduk Kuular, sought to strengthen ties with Mongolia and establish Tibetan Buddhism as the state religion. This unsettled the Soviet Union, which orchestrated a coup carried out in 1929 by five young Tuvan graduates of Moscow's Communist University of the Toilers of the East.
In 1930, the pro-Soviet regime discarded the state's Mongol script in favor of a Latin alphabet designed for Tuva by Russian linguists. In 1943, Cyrillic script replaced Latin. Under the leadership of Party Secretary Salchak Toka, ethnic Russians were granted full citizenship rights and Buddhist and Mongol influences on the Tuvan state and society were systematically curtailed.
Tuva was annexed by the Soviet Union in 1944, with the approval of Tuva's Little Khural (parliament), but without a referendum on the issue. It became the Tuvan Autonomous Oblast, within the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, after the Soviet victory in World War II. Salchak Toka, leader of the Tuvan People's Revolutionary Party, was given the title of First Secretary of the Tuvan Communist Party and became the de facto ruler of Tuva until his death in 1973. The territory became the Tuvan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic on 10 October 1961.
In February 1990, the Khostug Tyva (Tuvan Democratic Movement) was founded by Kaadyr-ool Bicheldei, a philologist at the Kyzyl State Pedagogical Institute. The party aimed to provide jobs and housing (both in short supply), and improve the status of the Tuvan language and culture. It called for the upgrading of Tuva to a full republic of the Soviet Union, and later for an independence referendum. Later in the year, there was a wave of attacks against Tuva's sizeable Russian community, including sniper attacks on trucks, and attacks on outlying settlements, with 168 reportedly murdered. Russian OMON special police units were eventually called in. For supporting the 1991 Soviet coup attempt, the Tuvan local government was forced to resign. Many Russians moved out of the republic during this period. Historian Mark Beissinger attributed the failure of the Tuvan nationalist movement, compared to contemporary movements across the Soviet Union, to the movement's weaker urban networks. Tuva has remained remote and difficult to access.
Tuva was a signatory to the 31 March 1992 treaty that created the Russian Federation. On 22 October 1993, a new constitution was drawn up for the republic, creating a 32-member parliament (Supreme Khural) and a Grand Khural, which deals with local legislation. The constitution was approved by 53.9% (62.2% according to another source) of Tuvans in a referendum on 12 December 1993."Tyva republic approves own constitution", BBC Monitoring Service, December 15, 1993. At the same time, the official name was changed from Tuva (Тува) to Tyva (Тыва).
Geography
The Tyva Republic is situated in the far south of Siberia. Its capital city is Kyzyl, located near the geographic "center of Asia". The eastern part of the republic is forested and elevated, while the western part is a drier lowland.
Borders: internal: Khakassia (NW/N), Krasnoyarsk Krai (N), Irkutsk Oblast (N/NE), Buryatia (E), Altai Republic (SW/W) international: Mongolia (Bayan-Ölgii Province, Khövsgöl Province, Uvs Province and Zavkhan Province) (S) (border line length: ) Highest point: Mount Mongun-Tayga, Maximum N–S distance: Maximum E–W distance: over Area:
Rivers There are over 8,000 rivers in the Tuvan Republic, including the upper course of the Yenisei River, the fifth longest river in the world. Most of the republic's rivers are Yenisei tributaries. There are also numerous mineral springs in the area.
Major rivers include:
Yenisei River (also called Ulug-Khem) Kantegir River Khemchik River Maly Yenisei River (also called Ka-Khem or Kaa-Khem) Upper Yenisei River (also called Biy-Khem or Bii-Khem)
Lakes
There are numerous lakes in Tuva, many of which are glacial and salt lakes, including Todzha Lake, a.k.a. Azas Lake (100 km2) – the largest in the republic, and Uvs Lake (shared with Mongolia and a World Heritage Site).
Mountains
The Tuva Republic is made up of a mountain basin, about in altitude, encircled by the Sayan and Tannu-Ola mountain ranges. Mountains and hills cover over 80 percent of its territory. Mongun-Tayga ("Silver Mountain", ) is the highest point in the republic and is named after its glacier.
Administrative divisions
Demographics Population:
Vital statistics YearsAverage population (×1000)Live birthsDeathsNatural changeCrude birth rate (per 1000)Crude death rate (per 1000)Natural change (per 1000)Fertility rates 1970 233 6,559 1,938 4,621 28.2 8.3 19.8 1975 253 6,950 2,306 4,644 27.5 9.1 18.4 1980 272 7,133 2,748 4,385 26.2 10.1 16.1 1985 287 8,110 2,624 5,486 28.3 9.1 19.1 1990 309 8,116 2,664 5,452 26.3 8.6 17.7 3.22 1991 304 7,271 2,873 4,398 23.9 9.5 14.5 2.97 1992 303 6,545 3,006 3,539 21.6 9.9 11.7 2.68 1993 302 6,130 3,480 2,650 20.3 11.5 8.8 2.50 1994 303 6,076 4,086 1,990 20.1 13.5 6.6 2.46 1995 304 6,172 4,010 2,162 20.3 13.2 7.1 2.47 1996 305 5,705 4,110 1,595 18.7 13.5 5.2 2.25 1997 305 4,908 3,954 954 16.1 12.9 3.1 1.91 1998 306 5,267 3,631 1,636 17.2 11.9 5.4 2.02 1999 306 4,894 4,142 752 16.0 13.5 2.5 1.86 2000 306 4,871 4,170 701 15.9 13.6 2.3 1.83 2001 305 4,992 4,165 827 16.3 13.6 2.7 1.85 2002 305 5,727 4,576 1,151 18.8 15.0 3.8 2.10 2003 305 6,276 4,633 1,643 20.6 15.2 5.4 2.28 2004 304 6,127 4,090 2,037 20.2 13.5 6.7 2.19 2005 303 5,979 4,326 1,653 19.8 14.3 5.5 2.11 2006 302 5,950 3,802 2,148 19.7 12.6 7.1 2.06 2007 302 7,568 3,687 3,881 25.1 12.2 12.9 2.60 2008 303 7,874 3,526 4,348 26.0 11.6 14.3 2.68 2009 305 8,242 3,666 4,576 27.0 12.0 15.0 2.97 2010 307 8,262 3,566 4,696 26.9 11.6 15.3 3.03 2011 308 8,478 3,403 5,075 27.5 11.0 16.5 3.25 2012 310 8,266 3,471 4,795 26.7 11.2 15.5 3.35 2013 311 8,111 3,399 4,728 26.1 10.9 15.2 3.42 2014 313 7,921 3,419 4,502 25.3 10.9 14.4 3.48 2015 315 7,489 3,258 4,231 23.8 10.3 13.5 3.22 2016 317 7,421 3,112 4,309 23.2 9.8 13.4 3.17 2017 320 6,977 2,788 4,189 21.9 8.7 13.2 3.03 2018 323 6,539 2,857 3,682 20.2 8.8 11.4 2.80 2019 326 6,158 2,718 3,440 18.6 8.3 10.32.56 2020 330 6,582 3,024 3,601 20.0 9.2 10.8 2.78 2021 332 6,629 3,028 3,558 20.0 9.1 10.9 2.75 2022 5,997 2,867 3,130 17.9 8.6 9.3 2.51 2023 5,738 2,986 2,752 16.9 8.8 8.1 2.44 2024 5,352 3,257 2,095 15.8 9.6 6.2 2.29 2025 2.20 Source:
Average life expectancy: Tuva: 56.5 (average male and female, UNDP data); Russia: (UN data) Male 59 (world rank 166); Female 73 (127)
Ethnic groups According to the 2021 census, Tuvans make up 88.7% of the population. Other groups include Russians (10.1%), and a host of smaller groups, each accounting for less than 0.5% of the total population. Ethnicgroup 1959 census 1970 census 1979 census 1989 census 2002 census 2010 census 2021 census1 Number % Number % Number % Number % Number % Number % Number % Tuvans 97,99657.0% 135,30658.6% 161,88860.5% 198,44864.3% 235,31377.0% 249,29982.0% 279,78988.7% Russians 68,92440.1% 88,38538.3% 96,79336.2% 98,83132.0% 61,44220.1% 49,43416.3% 31,92710.1% Khakas 1,7261.0% 2,1200.9% 2,1930.8% 2,2580.7% 1,2190.4%8770.3%3590.1% Others 3,2821.9% 5,0532.2% 6,7252.5% 9,0202.9% 7,5262.5%4,4271.4%3,4831.1% 121,093 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.
During the period from 1959 to 2010, there was more than a doubling of ethnic Tuvans. The Russian population growth slowed by the 1980s and decreased by 70% since 1989. The official languages are Tuvan (Turkic) and Russian (Slavic).