Altai Republic

The Altai Republic (Template:Lang-ru; Altay: Алтай Республика) is a federal subject of Russia (a republic). The direct transliteration of the republic's Russian name is Respublika Altay, and the transliteration of the Altay name is Altay Respublika. It is a different administrative entity from the neighboring Altai Krai.

Geography

The republic is situated in the very center of Asia at the junction of Siberian taiga, steppes of Kazakhstan and semi-deserts of Mongolia. Forests cover about 25% of the republic's territory.

• Area: 92,600 km².
• Borders:
  • internal: Kemerovo Oblast (N), Khakassia (NE), Tuva (E), and Altai Krai (W/NW).
  • international: Mongolia (SE), China (S), and Kazakhstan (S/SW).
• Highest point: Mount Belukha (4,506 m).
• Maximum N->S distance: 360 km.
• Maximum E->W distance: 380 km.

Time zone

The Altai Republic is located in the Novosibirsk Time Zone (NOVT/NOVST). UTC offset is +0600 (NOVT)/+0700 (NOVST).

Rivers

More than 20,000 water courses stretch through the Republic, making up for more than 60,000 km worth of waterways. The largest rivers are the Katun and the Biya, the junctions of which form the Ob River, one of the longest rivers in Siberia.

Lakes

The hydrographic network of the Republic includes approximately 7,000 lakes, adding up to a total area of more than 700 km². The largest lake is Lake Teletskoye, which is 80 km long and 5 km wide, has an area of 230.8 km², and has a maximum depth of 325 m. The mountain lakes of Altai contain enormous freshwater reserves of the highest quality; Lake Teletskoye alone contains more than 40 km³ of the purest water. Potential use of underground water storage is evaluated at 22 million m³ per day, while the present use constitutes only about 44,000 m³ per day.

Shavlo Lake in Northern Chuysky Range

Mountains

The most striking geographical aspect of the Republic of Altai is its mountainous terrain. The Republic is situated within the Russian part of the Altay Mountains system, which covers a large part of the Republic and continues into neigboring Kazakhstan, Mongolia and China. The region continues to experience periodic notable seismic activity, which is visually made apparent through the mountains' characteristically high and often unscalable mountain ridges which are separated by narrow and deep river valleys. The Republic's highest peak, Mount Belukha (4,506 m), is the highest point in Siberia.

Natural resources

Water resources are among the most important natural resources of the Republic. Mineral and hot springs are popular destinations for tourists and locals, sought for their theraputic effects. Additionally, Altai glaciers contain a great amount of fresh water. The general volume of ice for registered Altai glaciers comes to a total of 57 km³, 52 km³ of which is water. The total water stock of the glaciers exceeds the average annual effluence of all Altai rivers, which are equal to 43 km³ per year. The largest glaciers are: Bolshoy Taldurinsky (35 km²), Mensu (21 km²), Sofiysky (17 km²), and Bolshoy Maashey (16 km²).

Mineral resources in the region primarily include gold, silver, iron ores, and lithium, in addition to other smaller amounts of minerals. The large city of Barnaul in neighboring Altai Krai was originally founded as a processing center for minerals from the Altai region, although the mineral extraction industry today is much smaller than in the past.

Climate

The republic has temperate continental climate with relatively short and hot summers (June-August) and long, cold and at some places very frosty winters (November-March).

In general, the climate of the southeastern areas of the republic (Ulagansky and Kosh-Agachsky Districts) is harsher that the climate of the northern and northeastern areas.

• Average annual temperature: +1°C to -6.7°C.
• January temperature range: -9.2°C to -31°C.
• July temperature range: +11°C to +19°C.
• Average annual precipitation: 100-1000 mm.

Administrative divisions

Main article: Administrative divisions of the Altai Republic

Demographics

As per the 2002 Census, ethnic Russians make up 57.4% of the republic's population, while the ethnic Altay people at 62,192 is only 30.6%. Other groups include Kazakhs (6.0%), Telengits (2,368, or 1.2%), Tubalars (1,533, or 0.8%), Ukrainians (1,437 or 0.7%), and a host of smaller groups, each accounting for less than 0.5% of the total population.

	census 1939	census 1959	census 1970	census 1979	census 1989	census 2002
Altay	39,285 (24.2%)	38,019 (24.2%)	46,750 (27.8%)	50,203 (29.2%)	59,130 (31.0%)	67,9951 (33.5%)
Russians	114,209 (70.4%)	109,661 (69.8%)	110,442 (65.6%)	108,795 (63.2%)	115,188 (60.4%)	116,510 (57.4%)
Kazakhs	4,280 (2.6%)	4,745 (3.0%)	7,170 (4.3%)	8,677 (5.0%)	10,692 (5.6%)	12,108 (6.0%)
Others	4,405 (2.7%)	4,736 (3.0%)	3,899 (2.3%)	4,365 (2.5%)	5,821 (3.1%)	6,334 (3.1%)

1. including 2368 Telengits, 1533 Tubalars, 931 Kumandins and 830 Chelkans, which were not recognized as separate nationalities in the censuses prior to 2002

• Population: 202,947 (2002)
  • Urban: 53,538 (26.4%)
  • Rural: 149,409 (73.6%)
  • Male: 96,572 (47.6%)
  • Female: 106,375 (52.4%)
• Females per 1000 males: 1,102
• Average age: 30.5 years
  • Urban: 29.4 years
  • Rural: 30.9 years
  • Male: 29.0 years
  • Female: 32.0 years
• Number of households: 69,004 (with 200,100 people)
  • Urban: 19,864 (with 55,578 people)
  • Rural: 49,140 (with 147,522 people)
• Vital statistics (2005)
  • Births: 3,502 (birth rate 17.2)
  • Deaths: 3,170 (death rate 15.5)

History

The national autonomy for the Altai people was created on June 1, 1922 as Oyrot Autonomous Oblast (Ойро́тская автоно́мная о́бласть), part of Altai Krai. On January 7, 1948 it was renamed Gorno-Altai Autonomous Oblast (Го́рно-Алта́йская автоно́мная о́бласть). In 1991 it was reorganized into the Gorno-Altai Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (ASSR). In 1992 it was renamed as the Altai Republic.

Politics

The head of government in Altai Republic is the Head of the Republic, popularly elected for a four-year term. As of 2006, the Head of the Republic is Alexander Vasilyevich Berdnikov, who succeeded Mikhail Lapshin in this post. The supreme legislative body of the republic is the State Assembly—El Kurultai, with 41 deputies popularly elected every four years.

The Republic's Constitution was adopted on June 7, 1997.

Economy

Altai Republic is more agricultural than industrial, with the most developed industries being foodstuffs, non-ferrous metallurgy, chemicals, gold mining, footwear, dairying and timber.

Transportation

Due to geographical peculiarities of the Republic, two means of transport — motor transport (over 90% of all kinds of traffics) and air transport (passenger traffic and transport of mail) — were developed. Motor transport is the prevailing one. The extent of automobile roads is more than 3,500 km, 572 km of which is the main motor highway, the route of Federal importance Novosibirsk-Biysk-Tashanta (Chuysky Highway).

Education

There is one university (Gorno-Altaysk State University), 12 colleges, and 205 secondary schools in the republic.

Religion

The traditional religion of the native Altaians is shamanism; of the Russians, Orthodox Christianity. Tibetan Buddhism has recently begun making some inroads by way of neighboring Mongolia and Tuva.

From 1904 until the 1930's, most Altaians had converted away from shamanism, to a new religious movement called Burkhanism (or Ak Jang, the "white faith"). Burkhanism remains an important component of Altaian national consciousness, and is now being revived in several forms.

Russian New Age followers of Agni Yoga often go on pilgrimage to Mount Belukha.

See also

• Music of Altai

External links

• Template:En icon Official website of the Altai Republic.
• Template:Ru icon Official website of the Altai Republic.
• Template:Ru icon Template:En icon Gorno-Altaysk State University.
• Template:De icon Altai-Portal
• Template:En icon Tourism in Altai.
• Template:En iconTemplate:De iconTemplate:Ru icon Altai branch book & economic support