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// Republics
// Adygea, Republic of >>
// Altai (Gorno-Altai), Republic of >>
// Bashkortostan, Republic of >>
// Buryatia, Republic of >>
// Chechnya, Republic of >>
// Chuvashia, Republic of
// Dagestan, Republic of >>
// Ingushetia, Republic of >>
// Kabardino-Balkaria, Republic of >>
// Kalmykia, Republic of >>
// Karachayevo-Cherkessia, Republic of >>
// Karelia, Republic of >>
// Khakassia, Republic of >>
// Komi, Republic of >>
// Mari El, Republic of >>
// Mordovia, Republic of >>
// North Ossetia, Republic of >>
// Sakha (Yakutia), Republic of >>
// Tatarstan, Republic of >>
// Tuva, Republic of >>
// Udmurtia, Republic of >>
// Territories (Krai)
// Altai Territory >>
// Khabarovsk Territory >>
// Krasnodar Territory >>
// Krasnoyarsk Territory >>
// Primorye (Maritime) Territory >>
// Stavropol Territory >>
// Regions
// Amur Region >>
// Arkhangelsk Region >>
// Astrakhan Region >>
// Belgorod Region >>
// Bryansk Region >>
// Chelyabinsk Region >>
// Chita Region >>
// Irkutsk Region >>
// Ivanovo Region >>
// Kaliningrad Region >>
// Kaluga Region >>
// Kamchatka Region >>
// Kemerovo Region >>
// Kirov Region >>
// Kostroma Region >>
// Kurgan Region >>
// Kursk Region >>
// Leningrad Region >>
// Lipetsk Region >>
// Magadan Region >>
// Moscow Region >>
// Murmansk Region >>
// Nizhny Novgorod Region >>
// Novgorod Region >>
// Novosibirsk Region >>
// Omsk Region >>
// Orel Region >>
// Orenburg Region >>
// Penza Region >>
// Perm Region >>
// Pskov Region >>
// Rostov Region >>
// Ryazan Region >>
// Sakhalin Region >>
// Samara Region >>
// Saratov Region >>
// Smolensk Region >>
// Sverdlovsk Region >>
// Tambov Region >>
// Tomsk Region >>
// Tula Region >>
// Tver Region >>
// Tyumen Region >>
// Ulyanovsk Region >>
// Vladimir Region >>
// Volgograd Region >>
// Vologda Region >>
// Voronezh Region >>
// Yaroslavl Region >>
// Federal Cities
// Moscow >>
// St. Petersburg >>
// Autonomous Areas (Okrugs)
// Agin-Buryatia Autonomous Area >>
// Chukotka Autonomous Area >>
// Evenk Autonomous Area >>
// Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Area >>
// Komi-Permyak Autonomous Area >>
// Koryak Autonomous Area >>
// Nenets Autonomous Area >>
// Taimyr (Dolgan-Nenets) Autonomous Area >>
// Ust-Ordynsky Buryat Autonomous Area >>
// Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Area >>
// Autonomous Regions
// Jewish Autonomous Region >>
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Chuvash Republic
// GENERAL INFORMATION
The Chuvash Republic was formed in 1992 (it had been an Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic since April 21, 1925). It occupies a relatively small area (18 300 km2) and has a population of 1 360 800 people (60% live in urban areas). The Chuvash Republic has the fourth-highest population density in the Russian Federation. It is located in the European part of Russia in the Volgo-Vyatsky economic region. Chuvashia is surrounded by the industrially developed centers of Russia: it borders on Nizhny Novgorod Region in the west, the Republic of Mari El in the north, the Republic of Tatarstan in the east, and on the Republic of Mordovia and Ulyanovsk Region in the south. The republic's geographic location and existing transportation links favor the development of economic sectors oriented to imports of raw materials and fuel and exports of most of the goods produced in the republic.
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The republic is made up of 21 administrative districts, 9 cities, 8 urban communities, 349 rural administrations, and 1727 rural communities. The capital of the republic is the city of Cheboksary (founded in 1469). Cheboksary is situated on the eastern part of the Russian Plain along the central course of the Volga; the right bank is on the Privolzhskaya Upland, while the left bank or Zavolzhe is on a swampy plain (elevations to 266 m).
There are railway, motor, water, and air transport connections with other regions.
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The republic has a temperate continental climate with temperatures ranging from +19 °C in July to -13 °C in January. Precipitation is up to 450 mm annually. Soddy-podzolic and gray forest soils and leached chernozems (black earth) are the main soil types. The Chuvash Republic possesses a unique natural environment. The Volga, Sura, and Tsivil rivers are the sources of water reserves, along with the four hundred lakes scattered like pearls throughout the republic. The forests that cover a third of Chuvashia's territory, mainly along the Sura River and in the Zavolzhe, are among the republic's riches. They consist of upland oak woods, mixed forests, and pine forests. Typical animal species include elk (moose), bears, wolves, wild boars, hares, foxes, martens, and otters. Mineral resources are represented by a number of nonmetallic minerals, including peat, sand, clay, gypsum, dolomite, carbonate, and oil shale. Data from recent geological surveys indicates the presence of oil and gas fields in the republic.
The main points of interest are architectural monuments of the Old City dating from the 17th and 18th centuries, the regional museum of Chuvash folk art, and the V.I. Chapaev Museum in Cheboksary and the memorial museum homes of sculptor S.D. Erzya and academician and shipbuilder A.N. Krylov in Alatyr.
HISTORY
The Turkic-speaking Volga-Kama Bulgars, who settled the area in the last quarter of the first millennium B.C. and mingled with the local Finno-Ugric tribes, played one of the main roles in the emergence of the indigenous population of the Chuvash Republic. In the 13th and 14th centuries A.D., they migrated here in especially large numbers as a result of the defeat of Volga-Kama Bulgaria by the Mongol-Tatars. The Chuvash lands were added to the Kazan Khanate in the 15th century, by which time the formation of the Chuvash nation was essentially complete. Cheboksary was first mentioned in the chronicle in 1469. Russian chronicles indicate that the ship-borne army of voivode (army commander) I.D. Run rested here on the night May 19 and 20 of that year on their way to Kazan. Following the defeat of the Kazan Khanate in a war with the Muscovite tsar, the territory of present-day Chuvashia passed to the Russian state in the mid-16th century. After forcible Christianization in the 18th century, the territory of the Chuvash became part of Kazan and Simbirsk provinces. Ivan IV, the first of the Russian tsars here, decided to fortify Cheboksary, and in 1553, a governor-general was sent there with an army. A fortress was built in Cheboksary in 1555. Ivan IV ordered this place to be sanctified. An official document dated May 26, 1555, speaks of the need to reach and determine the place "where the sacred cathedral church of the Feast of the Presentation of the Virgin (Vvedeniya Prechistoi) should be" and to "mark the place where the city should be." The wooden walls of the Cheboksary citadel were raised at that time, but burned in 1704. Feast of the Presentation (Vvedensky) Cathedral still stands on a hill as a witness to the building of the fortified city. The churches and cathedrals were made of stone.
Many architectural monuments of past centuries are preserved in Cheboksary, giving the city distinctiveness and a unique beauty. The old part of the city is conventionally divided into the Western and Eastern hillsides, the Central part, and Vladimirskaya Hill.
Vladimirskaya Hill is the part of the city that several centuries ago received merchant ships that came up the deep Cheboksarka River. The large complex of buildings of the Trinity (Troitsky) Monastery is located on the Western Hillside, while the Central part is the site of Troitsky Cathedral, the gateway Church of Fedor Stratilat, and the Church of the Tolgskaya Icon of the Mother of God (Tolgskoi bozhei materi); on the Eastern Hillside formed by the high bank of the Volga and Cheboksary Bay, there are interesting monuments of the stone architecture of early masters in the area of the river port and Kalinin Street. The building of the Resurrection (Voskresenskaya) Church (1758) on Kalinin Street is an example of the original native art of the old masters, including stonemasons, artists, engravers, blacksmiths, stone- and woodcarvers, gilders, and casters. There is also the Monument of Glory raised in Cheboksary in honor of the 35th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War (World War II).
A coat of arms was granted to the city in 1781. The city's present coat of arms, approved in 1969 for the celebration of Cheboksary's 500th anniversary, uses the old emblem of five ducks flying in a field.
RESOURCES
The Chuvash Republic has significant reserves of commercial minerals. There is a large proven deposit of gypsum separated by layers of anhydrite and dolomite. Processing tests have shown that the gypsum rock is suitable for obtaining plaster, and high-strength gypsum can be obtained with additional processing. The republic also has reserves of building materials like cement and bentonite clays. A rottenstone deposit [a decomposed form of siliceous limestone] has been explored in Alatyrsky District. Processing tests have shown that this siliceous raw material is suitable for producing heat-insulating materials. Phosphorite deposits are located in the southern and southwestern parts of the republic, along with extensive deposits of oil shale. Peat deposits are found throughout the republic.
Comprehensive geological and geophysical exploration is being carried out in order to study and identify oil and gas fields in the Chuvash Republic. The results obtained show the presence of promising oil and gas reservoirs with reserves of 71 million tons.
Forests cover 30.8% of the Chuvash Republic; government forest management agencies own 94% of them, and agricultural enterprises and organizations own the remaining 6%. The forests fulfill mainly water-conservation, sanitary, and protective functions, but they are also an important source of timber.
The Volga with many large and small rivers (2356) flowing into it is the main river flowing through Chuvashia (for a length of 127 km). There are also more than 350 lakes in Chuvashia, of which 250 are floodplain lakes and the rest are sink lakes.
ECONOMY
The Chuvash Republic is located in the eastern European part of Russia and belongs to the Volgo-Vyatsky economic region.
The republic is distinguished in the Russian territorial division of labor by an industry-oriented economy and the predominance of manufacturing industries. More than 200 industrial enterprises operate in Chuvashia, more than two-thirds of them in Cheboksary. Industry accounts for more than 60% of the gross output product, and more than 30% of the working-age population is employed in industry. Chuvashia's economy specializes in engineering and metalworking, light industry, forestry and woodworking, and the food industry. The main industrial centers are Cheboksary, Novocheboksarsk, Kanash, Alatyr, and Shumerlya.
Enterprises in the Chuvash Republic have the right to enter the foreign market independently. The number of exporting companies is growing steadily and currently stands at 144. Intergovernmental trade and economic cooperation agreements and the work of trade and economic representatives of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Chuvash Republic in the CIS and other foreign countries have a positive influence on the development of foreign economic relations. The republican Ministry of Foreign Relations is responsible for coordinating foreign economic activities. The Government of the Chuvash Republic is carrying out a policy of developing the republic's foreign economic ties through set of measures aimed at improving trade and economic cooperation with foreign countries. These measures are oriented toward the development of economic ties, rationalization of production and technical cooperation, increasing investment activity, and the creation of an infrastructure for foreign economic activities that meets present-day requirements.
The transportation infrastructure creates favorable conditions for business and tourism. Motor transport accounts for the largest traffic volumes. Cheboksary is on one of the main highways of the Russian Federation leading from Moscow to the industrial regions of Tatarstan, the Southern Urals, and Western and Eastern Siberia. The highway through Saratov and Volgograd runs north-south to the southern regions of Russia. The republic has well-developed rail connections with 428.4 km of operating railway lines. The city of Kanash, one of Russia's most important railway junctions, is located in the Chuvash Republic.
Cheboksary Airport accepts nearly all types and sizes of cargo and passenger planes. The international section of the airport was opened in October 1995.
AUTHORITIES
According to the Constitution of the Chuvash Republic, state authority is exercised by the Government of Chuvashia as the highest body headed by the President and the republican State Council.
The new Constitution was drawn up by the administrative authorities and was passed by the State Council on November 30, 2000. In it, the Chuvash Republic is assigned a status defined thus: "Chuvashia is a republic (state) that is part of the Russian Federation." The Constitution also regulates the functioning of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, the manner of the organization and activities of republic's legislative and executive bodies, courts, attorney general's office, and local government, and the procedure for developing economic relations, while at the same time protecting the rights and freedoms of the individual and the citizen.
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