Bashkortostan

The Republic of Bashkortostan, or Bashkiria ( or ; Bashkir: ) is a federal subject of Russia (a republic).

Terminology

The direct transliteration of the republic's name in Russian is Respublika Bashkortostan or Bashkiriya, and the transliteration of the republic's name in Bashkir is Bašqortostan Respublikahy. In Tatar the republic's name is Başqortostan Respublikası.

Geography

Bashkortostan contains part of the southern Urals and the adjacent plains.

Area: 143,600 km².
Borders: Bashkortostan borders Perm Krai (N), Sverdlovsk Oblast (NE), Chelyabinsk Oblast (NE/E/SE), Orenburg Oblast (SE/S/SW), Tatarstan (W), and Udmurtia (NW).
Highest point: Mount Yamantaw (1,638 m).
Maximum N->S distance: 550 km.
Maximum E->W distance: over 430 km.
Average elevation: no data.

Time zone

Bashkortostan is located in the Yekaterinburg Time Zone (YEKT/YEKST). UTC offset is +0500 (YEKT)/+0600 (YEKST).

Rivers

There are over 13,000 rivers in the republic. Many rivers are parts of deepwater transportation system of European Russia; they provide access to ports of the Baltic and the Black seas.

Major rivers include:

Belaya (Ağidel) River (1,430 km)
Ufa (Öfö) River (918 km)
Sakmara River (760 km)
Ik (Iq) River (571 km)
Dyoma River (556 km)
Ay River (549 km)
Yuruzan River (404 km)
Bystry Tanyp River (345 km)
Sim River (239 km)
Nugush River (235 km)
Tanalyk River (225 km)
Zilim River (215 km)
Syun River (209 km)

Lakes

There are 2,700 lakes and reservoirs in the republic. Major lakes and reservoirs include:

Asylykül Lake (23.5 km²)
Qandrykül Lake (15.6 km²)
Urgun Lake (12.0 km²)
Pavlovskoye Reservoir (120.0 km²)
Nugushkoye Reservoir (25.2 km²)

Mountains

The republic contains part of the southern Urals, which stretch from the northern to the southern border. The highest mountains include:

Natural resources

The Republic of Bashkortostan is one of the richest territories of Russia in mineral resources. There are some 3,000 mineral resources deposits here. Bashkortostan is rich in crude oil reserves, and was one of the principal centers of oil extraction in the Soviet Union. Other major resources are natural gas, coal, ferrous metal ores, manganese, chrome, iron ores, non-ferrous metals ores (lead, tungsten), non-metallic ores (rock crystal, phluorite, islandic spar, surphur pyrites, barite, silicates, silica, asbestos, talcum), deposits of precious and semi-precious stones and natural stones (malachite, jade, granite).

The republic has enough mineral resources to provide its power and fuel complex as well as petro-chemical, chemical, agro-industrial complex, ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy, glass-making and ceramic branches with raw materials.

Bashkortostan is one of the major raw materials bases for Russia non-ferrous metallurgy. The republic has good deposits of lignite with high degree of bituminosity. This lignite can be used for obtaining a variety of different chemical products like mountain wax and resins, surface-active substances, gummy fertilizers, and other stimulants for plants growth. Mining-chemical raw materials (rock salt, lime, phosphorites, barytes, etc.) are quite substantial, and are utilized in the republic economy.

Bashkortostan is also rich in woods. The total territory covered with forests is about 62,000 km² . More than one third of the republic territory is covered with woods. The following types of trees dominate: birch tree, conifers, lime, oak, and maple. The general stock of timber according to some evaluation is 717.9 million m³. Bashkortostan forests have special sanctuaries and national parks. They cover more than 10,000 km².

Bashkortostan is also rich in springs and sources of mineral, medicinal, and drinking water.

Climate

Average annual temperature: 0.3 °C (mountains) to 2.8 °C (plains)
Average January temperature: -16 °C
Average July temperature: +18 °C
Average annual precipitation: no data

Administrative divisions

Main article: Administrative divisions of Bashkortostan.

Demographics

About a hundred nationalities inhabit Bashkortostan, including Russians (39%), Tatars (28%), Bashkirs (22%), Chuvash, Mari, Ukrainians, and Germans.

Spoken languages: Russian (~100%), Tatar (~30%), Bashkir (~20%).

It is believed by some Tatars that the 2002 Census misrepresented the numbers of Tatars and Bashkirs in favor of the latter^*.

Population: 4,104,336 (2002)
- Urban: 2,626,613 (70.8%)
- Rural: 1,477,723 (29.2%)
- Male: 1,923,233 (46.9%)
- Female: 2,181,103 (53.1%)
Females per 1000 males: 1,134
Average age: 35.6 years
- Urban: 35.2 years
- Rural: 36.4 years
- Male: 33.4 years
- Female: 37.7 years
Number of households: 1,429,004 (with 4,066,649 people)
- Urban: 931,417 (with 2,592,909 people)
- Rural: 497,587 (with 1,473,740 people)

Population development

Year	Population
1897	1,991,000
1913	2,811,000
1926	2,547,000
1939	3,158,000
1959	3,340,000
1970	3,818,000
1979	3,849,000
1989	3,950,000
2002	4,104,000
2005	4,078,800

History

People lived on the territory of modern Bashkortostan from time immemorial. First settlements were set up in early paleolithic period. But it was the bronze period which served as a spur to open up this territory. When people of Abashevo culture started settling here, they possessed high skills in manufacturing bronze tools, weapons, and decorations. They were the first to establish permanent settlements in the Southern Urals. The ethnonym Bashkirs first became known in the 9th century.

In the 10th century, the religion of Islam started to spread among Bashkirs, and in the 14th century it became a dominant religion. Up to the 16th century the territory of modern Bashkortostan was divided between Kazan and Siberia Khanates and Nogai Horde. The tribes that lived there were headed by bii (tribal heads). After Kazan surrendered to Ivan the Terrible in 1554–1555, representatives of western and north-western Bashkir tribes approached the Tsar with a request to voluntarily join the Muscovy.

Starting from the second half of the 16th century, Bashkiria's territory began taking shape as a part of the Russian state. In 1798 the Spiritual Assembly of Russia Muslims was established—an indication that the tsarist Government recognized the rights of Bashkirs, Tatars, and other Muslim nations to profess Islam and perform religious rituals. Ufa Governorate (guberniya), with a center in Ufa, was formed in 1865—another step towards territorial identification.

After the Russian revolution, Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (ASSR) within the Russian SFSR was established in 1919. During the Soviet period, Bashkiria was granted broad autonomous rights—the first among other Russian regions. The administrative structure of the Bashkir ASSR was based on principals similar to those of other autonomous republics of Russia.

The year 1932 was the starting point when the extraction of Bashkir crude oil began. At the end of 1943, large crude oil deposits (Tuymazy oil-field) were discovered. During the World War II, Bashkiria turned into one of the major regions of the Soviet Union to accommodate plants and factories evacuated from Western Russia, as well as great masses of people; all while providing the country with weaponry, fuel, and food-stuff. After the war, a good number of industrial brunches were further developed in Bashkiria, such as mining, machine building and especially oil-refining branches. Bashkiria's industry became a solid basis for further economic growth of all European outlying territories of Russia.

On October 11, 1990 the Supreme Soviet of the Republic adopted the Declaration on state sovereignty of the Bashkir SSR. On February 25, 1992 the Bashkir SSR was renamed the Republic of Bashkortostan.

On March 31, 1992 a Federative Compact "On separation of authorities and powers among federal organs of power of the Russian Federation and the organs of power of the Republic of Bashkortostan" was signed. On August 3, 1994 a Compact "On separation of authorities and mutual delegating of powers among the organs of power of the Russian Federation and the organs of power of the Republic of Bashkortostan" was signed.

Politics

The head of government in Bashkortostan is the President, who is elected for a four-year term. According to the Constitution, the President of the Republic of Bashkortostan guarantees rights and liberties of a person and a citizen, protects economic and political interests of the Republic of Bashkortostan, and secures legitimacy, law and order on its territory.

As of 2006, the president is Mortaza Ghöbäydulla uly Räximev (Murtaza Rakhimov), who was elected on December 17, 1993. Prior to the elections, Rakhimov was the Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Republic—the highest post at that time. Rakhimov was re-elected in December of 2003 in a poll condemned by the OSCE for exhibiting "elements of basic fraud."

The Republic's parliament is the State Assembly—Kurultai, popularly elected every five years. The one-chamber State Assembly has 120 deputies.

The Republic's Constitution was adopted on December 24, 1993. Article 1 of the Constitution stipulates that Bashkortostan is a sovereign state within Russia, it has all the state power in full volume beyond the limits of authority of the Russian Federation and the powers of the Russian Federation concerning the aspect of joint authority of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Bashkortostan. The Republic of Bashkortostan is a full-fledged subject of the Russian Federation on equal and agreed bases.

The relations of the Republic of Bashkortostan and the Russian Federation are at present based on the articles of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, the Constitution of the Republic of Bashkortostan, the Federative Compact (with amendments), the Agreement on Separation of authorities and powers and mutual delegating of powers among the organs of state power of the Republic of Bashkortostan.

The judicial power of the Republic is in the hands of courts: the Constitutional Court, the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeals, district Courts, and justices of the peace.

In full accord with universally recognized principles of international law, articles of European Charter on local self-government and the Constitution of the Russian Federation, the Republic of Bashkortostan ensures in its Constitution that local self-government is recognized and guarantied on the republic territory.

The Republic of Bashkortostan resolves all the issues of its administrative-territorial structure on its own. The list of districts and towns of the republican importance, municipalities as well as the order of establishing, amending and changing borders of municipalities and their names are stipulated by the Republic of Bashkortostan law "On administrative-territorial structure of the Republic of Bashkortostan and territory of municipalities".

Economy

Much of Bashkortostan's economy depends on its oil processing industry, which is a left-over from Soviet times and has seen little investment since the collapse of the USSR. Most of the industry, nominally privatized, has in fact been granted to the factions close to the president's family.

More than one half of Bashkortostan's industry is based in Ufa, the republic's capital.

**Major economic indices**
	2002	2003	2004
Gross regional product	214.8	279.7	n/a	billion roubles
Industrial production volume	161.7	192.1	354	billion roubles
Construction	1,408	1,471.5	1508.4	th.m.²
Agricultural produce	50.1	52.1	57.2	billion roubles
Investments into fixed capital	52.1	53.7	62.4	billion roubles
Accumulated foreign investments	71.7	97.6	157.1	million US$
Foreign trade turnover	2646	3045.3	3840.6	million US$
Export	2303.4	2724.4	3525.9	million US$
Import	342.3	320.9	314.7	million US$
Wholesale trade turnover	117.7	118.1	151.2	billion roubles

Education

The Republic of Bashkortostan possesses high scientific and technical potential. About 60 scientific organizations are active in Bashkortostan. Fundamental and applied scientific research work is under way at 12 Institutes UFA Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 29 Institutes of different branches of industry as well as design bureaus and organizations, chairs of Universities and Colleges.

The system of popular upbringing and teaching among Bashkir people took shape for centuries and its reflected in folklore, national customs, and traditions. When Islam spread in Bashkiria in the 10th century, the school education began to emerge gradually—religious schools were set under the supervision of mosques (maktabeh and madrasah).

Currently the Republic of Bashkortostan is the subject of the Russian Federation with versatile network of educational establishment. 12 higher educational establishments operate in the republic as well as 16 branches of leading Russian Universities and Colleges. Specialists graduate from them in about 200 trades and professions.

Education is primarily in Russian, Bashkir, and Tatar languages.

Culture

Folklore singing and dancing companies, a network of national theaters, museums, and libraries are on the rise; annual folk festivals became a tradition here.

Bashkortostan holds a leading position among all other Russian federal subjects on a number of museums, public libraries, book stocks, and municipal clubs.

The republic has seven Bashkir, four Russian, and two Tatar State Drama Theaters, the State Opera and Ballet Theater, the National Symphony Orchestra, "Bashkortostan" film-studio, thirty philharmonic collectives. The Bashkir state Folk dance ensemble named after F. Gaskarov is well-known.

The fame of Bashkir school of dancing is world renown—many of the students get high international awards at competitions in Russia and other countries of the world.

Three state programs in the cultural sphere have been adopted:

the program for further development of art and culture up to 2005;
"Peoples of Bashkortostan" Program for the years 2003–2012;
the Program for further study, revival and growth of folklore of Bashkortostan peoples.

Tourism

It can be said that nature awarded the republic with unimaginable beauty. Pure air of mountains and vast steppes, medicinal waters, medicinal muds—all these make Bashkortostan one of the leading healing places, the place of spas and resorts of Russia. Sanatoriums "Yangan-Tau", "The Green Grove", "Krasnousolsk", "Yumatovo" (the only place for mare’s milk treatment), "Yakty-Cool", "Assy", "Pine Grove" are the largest and the most popular health resorts of the Republic of Bashkortostan. Broad net of sites for recreation and tourism provide great opportunities: horse-riding, mountain-skiing, trekking, rafting and canoeing using all types of boats along clear rivers of the republic.

External links