Northeast of the West Siberian Lowland
East and south of the Central Siberian Platform
The majority--almost nine in ten--are Russian speakers, chiefly dwelling in the river valleys, along the trans-Siberian Railway, in a large area centered on Novosibirsk, and in ocean ports. Numerous small indinginous minorities exist, along with Ukrainians, Belarussians, Koreans and Tatars, making up most of the remaining ten plus percent. More than 19 in 20 people are Russian Orthodox Christian--at least in background; the degree of actual observance, given state hostility to religion, is not a reliable indicator of belief.
There is one city with more than a million residents, Novosibirsk. The smaller capital of the Far Eastern Federal District, Khabarovsk, sits at the confluence of the Ussuri and the Amur, near the Chinese border.
People arrived south of the tundra long ago--perhaps within a few thousand years of leaving Africa. More than 20,000 years ago the people or peoples who migrated to America must have lived here. (According to one theory this would have been one linguistic group, the Amerind.) About 11,000 years ago another migration occured and the Alaskan Beringian (or Peleo-Arctic) Culture has been identified with the Na-Dene lingusitic group. In any case the ancestors of the Na-Dene came from northeast Asia. Starting about three thousand years ago the ancesters of the Eskimo-Aleut lingusitic group migrated to America, excepting a small number of Yupiks(12) who still live on the Anadyr Peninsula. There are a number of other groups that probably lived in the area for a thousand years, perhaps much more: the Chukchi(13) in Chuthotka, Koryak(14) in the autonomous okrug north of the Kamchatka Peninsula, Itelmen on the peninsula itself, Nivkh(15) on the lower Amur and Sakhalin Island, Yukagir in the middle Kolyma river system, the Even(16) from the middle Lena basin to Kamchatka, the Evenki(17) south of the Stanovoy, the Nanai(18) on the lower Amur, and the Ket who live in spots in the Yenisey valley. As late as the 18th century there were also speakers of Arin, Assan and Kot--languages related to Ket. Samoyedic groups may have migrated northward thousands of years ago to spread out over much of the western tundra. The Nenets live on both sides of the Yenisey, the Enets in the Taimyr Peninsula and the lower Yenisey, and the Nganasan in and near the Taimyr. Perhaps in response to the Mongolian expansion a Turkic group left the Lake Baykal region and moved northeast to become the Yakut(19). An offshoot of the Yakut moved west to the Taimyr to become the Dogan. Near the Altay are several Turkic groups. Their linguistic ancesters--in fact the linguistice ancestors of the Mongolian group, the Tungusic languages like Even and Evenki, and the Turkic group--perhaps started here and spread east and west. Still remaining here are the Altai, the Khakas, the Shor and the Tofa. In Pre-Baykalia and Trans-Baykalia are the Mongols, speaking the Buryat dialect. Mongols have been in the area since at least the 12th century, probably much longer.
Almost of these groups originally practiced shamanist religions, but most current speakers are Christians, converting under Russian rule. The chief exceptions are the Mongols and the Altay Turkic groups, who follow Lamist Buddhism. The Mongols adopted this after conquering Tibet, and its use was spread under their influence.
The Russian conquerors and fur traders arrived in the 17th century, bringing with them other groups prominent in their empire, sometimes willingly, sometimes as prisoners. The last movement was that of Koreans who moved north along the eastern Russian coast, but most of these were forcibly relocated to Uzbekistan by Stalin.
north of Krasnoyarski Krai from the Severnaya Zemlya eastward
Sakha Republic north of 65 degrees North
north of Chukotka Autonomous Okrug west of Cape Bellingsa
north of Chukotka Autonomous Okrug east of Cape Bellingsa
east from the end of the Anadyr Peninsula
east from north of the Komandorskiye (Komandorskije) Islands
east from south of the Komandorskiye Islands
south from Sakhalin Island
southeast from Primorskiii Kray
southwest from Primorskii Kray
west from the south of Primorskii Kray
south from the the Far Eastern Federal District and east of Primorskii Kray
southeast of Chita Oblast
southwest of Chita Oblast and south of Buryatia
southwest of Irkutsk Oblast, southeast of Krasnoyarsk Kray and east of Gorno-Altay
southeast of Gorno-Altay
south of Gorno-Altay
west and southwest of Novosibirsk Oblast, southwest of Tomsk Oblast, west and south of Altay Krai and southwest of Gorno-Altay
west of northern Krasnoyarsk Kray
northwest of Krasnoyarsk Kray
Far Eastern Federal District
Siberian Federal District
Russo-Eurasia
(1) Rossija or Rossija in conventional transliteration from Russian.
(2) Also transliterated from Russian as Chabarovsk.
(3) Also transliterated from Russian as krai. It could be translated as frontier.
(4) Also transliterated from Russian as Primorskij Kray and also called the Maritime Kray or Krai.
(5) Unlike other autonomous okrugs, this one obtained legal separation from and equivalent status to Magadan Oblast.
(6) Also known as Yakutia.
(7) Also transliterated from Russian as Sachalin.
(8) Sibirskaya or Sibirskaja in conventional transliteration from Russian.
(9) Also transliterated from Russian as Krasnojarsk.
(10) Transliterated from Russian as Altai or Altaj.
(11) Translates from Russian as Newsiberia.
(12) Called Chaplinos by Russians.
(13) Or Luoraweltan.
(14) Or Nymylyan.
(15) Or Gilyak.
(16) Or Lamut.
(17) Or Tungus.
(18) Or Goldi
(19) Sakha in their own language.