The territory of Russia is large and diverse. On its expanses, beautiful in its versatility nature, other miracles, already created by man. In addition, the territories of the largest country in the world are sheltered by dozens of different nations. This is the greatest wealth of an amazing hospitable state.
We know that many nationalities live in Russia - Russians, Udmurts, Ukrainians. And what nations still live in Russia? Indeed, in far corners of the country for centuries small and little-known, but interesting peoples with their unique culture have lived.
The national composition of the population of Russia
We will say right away that Russians make up about 80% of the total population. A complete list of the peoples of Russia would be very long. According to some reports, more than 200 different nationalities are registered. This information is current as of 2010.
We will begin our acquaintance with the rest of the national composition of Russia with the most common. Large nationalities are those that are present in the state in an amount of more than 1 million.
Tatars
The ratio of the Tatar nationality among all others in the country is 3.8%. This nationality has its own language and regions of greatest distribution.
In addition, it includes several ethnic groups: Crimean Tatars, Volga-Urals, Siberian and Astrakhan. Most of them live in the Volga region.
Ukrainians
We continue our short excursion on the topic of what peoples live in Russia and move on to the Ukrainians. Their number in Russia is 2% of the total population. According to some historical references, the name of the nationality comes from the word "outskirts", which served as the basis for the name of the country - Ukraine.
Ukrainians living in Russia continue to honor their traditions, celebrating holidays according to their customs, putting on folk clothes. The peculiarity of Ukrainian clothes is embroidery in a variety of colors. The main symbolic colors in the ornaments are red and black.
Bashkirs
The ratio of the Bashkirs to the entire population of the country is 1.2%. The territories where most of these people live are Altai, Tyumen, and other regions of Russia (Orenburg, Sverdlovsk, Kurgan, and others).
Ethnologists to this day did not agree on where the name of nationality came from and what it means. The most common interpretations are “main wolf”, “separate people”, “brother-in-law of the Ugrians”. In the aggregate of various assumptions, about 40.
The culture of the Bashkirs is significant in their songs, tales, ditties.
Chuvashs
Next, let's talk about the Chuvash, answering the question of what peoples live in Russia. Chuvash nationality makes up 1.1% of the population of Russia. Most Chuvash live in Tatarstan, Samara and many other regions of the country, Krasnoyarsk Territory. And today their main occupation is handicraft, animal husbandry and agriculture.
The Chuvash culture is amazingly beautiful and interesting. They have their own ancient developed mythology. National clothes are extremely diverse, with many dozens of different cuts, color options.
Chechens
Chechens in Russia are about 0.9% of the total population. This is one of the most severe peoples in the country. Moreover, they are distinguished by wit, they are characterized by courage and endurance.
The peculiarity of Chechen songs is their deep, incomparable melancholy homesickness. There is a lot of motive for exile in their poetry and songs. Such poetry is no longer found in any folklore.
You can notice the similarity of the Chechen people with the Circassian and Lezgin. The explanation for this is simple: all three nationalities belong to a single Caucasian.
And we continue to reveal the most interesting question about which peoples live in Russia.
Armenians
In the population of Russia, Armenians make up 0.8%. Their culture is very ancient. Its roots can be traced back to Greek culture. A special flavor of this nation is created by their indefatigable cheerfulness, hospitality.
Armenian music appeared before our era. And today we know many world singers with Armenian roots. Among them are the French singer Charles Aznavour, David Tukhmanov, Jivad Gasparyan and many others.
Armenian clothes are distinguished by luxury, pretentiousness. And children's costumes are simply irresistible, which is not seen in other nations.
We now know what peoples inhabit Russia, but this is far from all. In the far corners of a vast country there are still peoples who are not so many in number, but their culture is so diverse and interesting that we simply cannot help but recall them.
Small nations
Russians know quite a lot about peoples whose numbers exceed 1 million. But there are also small nations of Russia that you might not even hear about in your entire life.
So, in the Volga-Vyatka region for many centuries such nationalities as Mari, Mordovians live. The server area is native to Karelians, Komi, Sami, Nenets. In the Urals, Komi-Permyaks, Udmurts live. In the Volga region, Kazakhs and Kalmyks have long settled.
Western Siberia is the homeland for the Selkups, Altaians, Mansi, Khanty, Shors, Eastern Siberia is for Tuvans, Buryats, Khakasses, Dolgans, Evenks.
In the Far East there live such nationalities as the Yakuts, Koryaks, Evens, Udege, Nanai, Orochi and many other peoples, the number of which is very small.
The peculiarity of small nations is that they have preserved and still honor their ancient pagan beliefs. They are characterized by following animism (animating objects of nature and animals) and shamanism (faith in shamans - people who speak with spirits).
How many peoples live in Russia in total?
In 2002, a pan-European population census was conducted . The data collected also included information on the ethnic component of the population of countries. Then, interesting information was received about what peoples live in Russia, and about their numbers.
Census indicators in Russia have shown that representatives of 160 different nationalities live in the country. This figure is simply huge in comparison with European countries. On average, people from 9.5 nationalities live in them. Globally, Russia's performance is also high.
It is interesting that in 1989, when a similar census was conducted in Russia, a list of 129 nationalities was compiled. The reason for this difference in performance, according to experts, is the possibility of self-determination as belonging to a particular nationality. This opportunity appeared in 1926. Previously, different peoples of Russia ranked themselves as Russians, based on the geopolitical factor.
Dynamics in the ratio of nationalities
According to experts in research on demographic issues, in recent years the number of Ukrainians in Russia has tripled. Belarusians also became much smaller, like Mordovians.
The number of Armenians, Chechens, Azerbaijanis, Tajiks increased. Some of them even became one of which there are more than a million in Russia.
The dynamics in the ratio of nationalities is believed to be influenced by several factors. One of them is the decline in the birth rate, which has been reflected throughout the country. The other is emigration.
A large number of Jews left Russia. Russian Germans also emigrated from the country.
Positive dynamics are observed in small indigenous peoples. On the contrary, there have been more of them in recent decades. Thus, we see that the question of which peoples inhabit Russia is always relevant for study due to its dynamics.
And only Russians live somewhere?
We learned that many different nationalities live in Russia, in addition to Russians. Many who have discovered for themselves how many peoples live in Russia may be wondering if there is a place in which only Russians live.
The answer is clear: there is no region with a completely homogeneous composition of the Russian population. Only the Central region, Central Black Earth, North-West are close to this. All other territories of the country are full of different nationalities.
conclusions
In the article, we examined what peoples live on the territory of Russia, learned what they are called and where they are most widespread. Once again we were convinced how rich the country is not only in natural resources, but also in human resources, and this is many times more important.
In addition, we learned that the national composition of the population of Russia is not somewhat static. It changes over the years under the influence of various factors (migration, the possibility of self-determination, etc.).
We hope that the article was interesting for you: it helped to make a mental journey through the expanses of Russia and introduced you to such different, but so hospitable and interesting inhabitants. Now we can, without hesitation, tell anyone who wants it, if he becomes interested in what peoples live in Russia.