The Russian republic Tyva

Tyva is one of the smallest regions of the Russian Federation. During the Soviet period it had a status of so called Autonomous Soviet Republic (ASSR). More precisely it is number 77 out of the 84 Russian regions when it comes to size. It is located in Central Asia, in the Southern part of Eastern Siberia on the border to Mongolia. The distance between Moscow and the capital of Tyva, the city of Kyzyl, is 4,668 km.

Historically, human activities were first detected here some 20,000 years ago (stones age). A Tyva tribe of humans gets cultivated around the year 1,000 a.c. Thereafter Tyva was controlled by various Asian tribes such as hunnes, turks, kirgiizi. During the 13th and 14th centuries Tyva was part of the Ginghis Khan Empire.

During the 18th century Tyva was conquered by the Manchurians. In 1914 Tyva became a Russian protectorate, and during 1921 – 1944 it was an independent republic. Thereafter Tyva was integrated into the Soviet Union with varying status. Since 1994 Tyva is called the Tyva Republic and is a member of the Russian Federation.

Tyva occupies an area of 170,500 square kilometres. The landscape is full of high mountains and deep valleys. Mountainous terrain occupies 82% of the region and plain land (step’) accounts for 18%. The highest peak is Mongun-Taiga reaching 3,970 m.

The absolute geometric centre of Asia is located in Kyzyl. This is evidenced by a monument erected in the city. The neighbours of Tyva are Mongolia in the South, Buryatiya in the East, Altai in the West and Khakassiya and Irkutsk in the North West and North East.

The population amounted to 310,300 by the end of 2002, whereof one third lived in the capital Kyzyl. All in all, half of the population is living in cities and the other half is rural. Ethnically one third of the population consists of Russians (as of 1989) while as the local Tyvinnians (Asian people) represent nearly all the remaining 2/3. A little percentage of other ethnic groups exists.

The economy of the republic is small, and Tyva is dependent on contributions from the Russian federal budget. Main occupation is cattle farming and other agriculture. The climate is continental with a temperature low mark of some – 58 C in winter and a highest temperature in summer time of + 40 C. Some parts of the region have permafrost.

The regional administration of the republic is headed by its Prime Minister. His name is Kara-ool Sholban Valeryevich. He was elected for a five year term in April 2007.

The nature is very rich with large areas of forests and lots of lakes and rivers. These house a large variety of flowers and animals. Here live typically Northern as well as Southern animals – reindeer, camel, yak, bear, wolf, lynx. Tyva is popular hunting ground.

Tyva also holds fairly big amounts of natural resources. According to the republic’s official homepage in the internet there exist about 2,000 deposits of non-ferro and base metal including some 20 large deposits. These are minerals such as cobolt, litium and bituminous coal etc. The most significant are Kaa-kheem (coal), Ak-Douvrak (asbestos), Khouvu-Aksyn (nickel-cobolt), Tardan (gold), Ak-Sug (copper, molybden, gold and silver).