Republic of Bashkortostan (Респу́блика Башкортоста́н; Башҡортостан Республикаһы) or Bashkiria (Башки́рия) is a federal subject of Russia (a republic). It is located between the Volga river and the Ural Mountains. Its capital is Ufa.
First settlements on the territory of modern Bashkortostan were set up in early paleolithic period. But it was the bronze age which served as a spur to populate 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, 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 bi (tribal heads). After Kazan fell 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, firstly as Little Bashkortostan, but then all Ufa Governorate was incorporated to the newly established republic. 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 industries were further developed in Bashkiria, such as mining, machine building and especially oil-refining. Bashkiria's industry became a solid basis for further economic growth of all European outlying territories of Russia.
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.
As of 2007, 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 2003 in a poll condemned by the OSCE for exhibiting "elements of basic fraud."
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".
More than half of Bashkortostan's industry is based in Ufa, the republic's capital.
|Gross regional product||214.8||279.7||n/a||billion roubles|
|Industrial production volume||161.7||192.1||354||billion roubles|
|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$|
|Foreign trade turnover||2646||3045.3||3840.6||million US$|
|Wholesale trade turnover||117.7||118.1||151.2||billion roubles|
Major rivers include:
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.
According to the 2002 Census the ‘national composition’ was • Russian 36.32% • Bashkir 29.76% • Tatar 24.14% • Chuvash 2.86% • Mari 2.58% • Ukrainian 1.35% • Mordovian 0.63% • Udmurt 0.55% • Belarusians 0.42% • Armenian 0.21% • German 0.20% • Uzbek 0.13% • Azeri 0.12% • Kryashen 0.11% • Kazakh 0.10% • Tajik 0.07% • Jewish 0.06% • and various other groups of less than two thousand persons each. An additional 0.11% of the inhabitants declined to state their nationality on the census questionnaire. Historical figures are shown below:
|census 1926||census 1939||census 1959||census 1970||census 1979||census 1989||census 2002|
|Bashkirs||625,845 (23.5%)||671,188 (21.2%)||737,744 (22.1%)||892,248 (23.4%)||935,880 (24.3%)||863,808 (21.9%)||1,221,302 (29.8%)|
|Russians||1,064,707 (39.9%)||1,281,347 (40.6%)||1,418,147 (42.4%)||1,546,304 (40.5%)||1,547,893 (40.3%)||1,548,291 (39.3%)||1,490,715 (36.3%)|
|Tatars||621,158 (23.3%)||777,230 (24.6%)||768,566 (23.0%)||944,505 (24.7%)||940,436 (24.5%)||1,120,702 (28.4%)||990,702 (24.1%)|
|Chuvash||84,886 (3.2%)||106,892 (3.4%)||109,970 (3.3%)||126,638 (3.3%)||122,344 (3.2%)||118,509 (3.0%)||117,317 (2.9%)|
|Mari||79,298 (3.0%)||90,163 (2.9%)||93,902 (2.8%)||109,638 (2.9%)||106,793 (2.8%)||105,768 (2.7%)||105,829 (2.6%)|
|Ukrainians||76,710 (2.9%)||99,289 (3.1%)||83,594 (2.5%)||76,005 (2.0%)||75,571 (2.0%)||74,990 (1.9%)||55,249 (1.3%)|
|Others||113,232 (4.2%)||132,860 (4.2%)||129,686 (3.9%)||122,737 (3.2%)||115,363 (3.0%)||111,045 (2.8%)||123,222 (3.0%)|
It is believed by some Tatars that the 2002 Census misrepresented the numbers of Tatars and Bashkirs in favor of the latter The reality is that ethnic identity in northwestern Bashkortostan is extremely fluid, and many people in that region have changed their ethnic identification, usually under pressure from the authorities of Bashkortostan which are trying to artificially increase the ratio of ethnic Bashkirs within the population of the republic.
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.
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 renowned—many of the students get high international awards at competitions in Russia and other countries. World-renowned ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev, as a child, was encouraged to dance in Bashkir folk performances and began his dancing career in Ufa.
Three state programs in the cultural sphere have been adopted: