Sakha stretches to the Henrietta Islands in the far north and is washed by the Laptev and Eastern Siberian Seas of the Arctic Ocean. These waters, the coldest and iciest of all seas in the northern hemisphere, are covered by ice for 9-10 months of the year. New Siberian Islands are a part of the republic's territory. Sakha is the statoid with the largest territorial area in the world with 3,103,200 square kilometres.
Sakha can be divided into three great vegetation belts. About 40% of Sakha lies above the Arctic circle and all of it is covered by permafrost which greatly influences the region's ecology and limits forests in the southern region. Arctic and subarctic tundra define the middle region, where lichen and moss grow as great green carpets and are favorite pastures for reindeer. In the southern part of the tundra belt, scattered stands of dwarf Siberian pine and larch grow along the rivers. Below the tundra is the vast taiga forest region. Larch trees dominate in the north and, in the south, stands of fir and pine begin to appear. Taiga forests cover about 47% of Sakha and almost 90% of this cover is larch.
Time zones
Sakha spans three different time zones:
Yakutsk Time Zone (YAKT/YAKST). UTC offset is +0900 (YAKT)/+1000 (YAKST). Covers the republic's territory to the west of the Lena River as well as the territories of uluses located on the both sides of the Lena River.
Vladivostok Time Zone (VLAT/VLAST). UTC offset is +1000 (VLAT)/+1100 (VLAST). Covers most of the republic's territory located between 127°E and 140°E longitude.
Magadan Time Zone (MAGT/MAGST). UTC offset is +1100 (MAGT)/+1200 (MAGST). Covers most of the republic's territory located east of 140°E longitude.
Navigable Lena River (4,310 km), as it moves northward, includes hundreds of small tributaries located in the Verkhoyansk Range. Other major rivers include:
Sakha's greatest mountain range, the Verkhoyansk Range, runs parallel and east of the Lena River, forming a great arc that begins the Sea of Okhotsk and ends in the Laptev Sea.
The Chersky Range runs east of the Verkhoyansk Range and has the highest peak in Sakha, Peak Pobeda (3,003 m). Recent satellite photos, however, revealed that Peak Mus-Khaya may in fact be a higher point, reaching 3,011 m.
Further east lie the gold-rich Kolyma Mountains, which stretch all the way to Chukotka.
Sakha is well endowed with raw materials. The soil contains large reserves of oil, gas, coal, diamonds, gold, and silver. 99% of all Russian diamonds are mined in Sakha, accounting for over 25% of the world's diamond production.
Climate
Sakha is known for its climate extremes, with the Verkhoyansk Range being the coldest area in the northern hemisphere. The Northern Hemisphere's Pole of Cold is at Oymyakon, where the temperatures reached as low as −72.2°C in January of 1926.
Average January temperature: −28°C (coast) to −50°C (other territories).
Average July temperature: +2°C (coast) to +19°C (central parts).
Average annual precipitation: 200 mm (central parts) to 700 mm (mountains of Eastern Sakha).
According to the 2002Census, Yakuts at 432,290 make up 45.5% of the republic's population. Other groups include Russians (390,671, or 41.2%), Ukrainians (34,633, or 3.7%), Evenks (18,232, or 1.9%), Evens (11,657, or 1.2%), Tatars (10,768, or 1.1%), Buryats (7,266, or 0.8%), Belarusians (4,236, or 0.5%), and a host of smaller groups, each accounting for less than 0.5% of the total population. 2,630 people (0.3%) did not indicate their nationalities during the Census.
Official languages are Sakha, also known as Yakut, spoken by approximately 25% of the population, and Russian. The Yakut language is Turkic with Mongolian influence and some borrowings from Sakha's Paleosiberian indigenous peoples.
Population: 949,280 (2002)
Urban: 609,999 (64.3%)
Rural: 339,281 (35.7%)
Male: 464,217 (48.9%)
Female: 485,063 (51.1%)
Females per 1000 males: 1,045
Average age: 30.0 years
Urban: 31.0 years
Rural: 27.4 years
Male: 30.0 years
Female: 26.6 years
Number of households: 305,017 (with 937,954 people)
Urban: 212,593 (with 600,696 people)
Rural: 92,424 (with 337,258 people)
History
The Sakha arrived relatively recently in 13th century to their current geographical area from Central Asia. They are heterogeneous of Turkic and Mongolian origin. They conquered the indigionous hunter-gatherer tribes and began to call themselves "Sakha", after Sakhastan, an historic nation-state in Persia. "Sakha" may be cognate with Saxe, Saki, Scythian, etc., historic tribes that were famous and dominant in Central Asia.
The Evenki referred to the Sakha as "Yako" and this term was adopted by the Russians when they began arriving in the region in the early 17th century. Tygyn, a king of the Khangalassky Yakuts, granted territory for Russian settlement in return for military pact that included war against indigenous rebels of all North Eastern Asia (Magadan, Chukotka, Kamchatka and Sakhalin). King of Mengeler-Khangalastar Yakuts, Kull began a Sakha conspiracy by allowing his relative Tygyn to enter into tricky pact with Russians in plan to conquer all of North Eastern Asia in centuries to come. The Lensky Ostrog (Fort Lensky), the future city of Yakutsk, was founded by Pyotr Beketov, a Cossack, on September 25, 1632 (the date of the first stockade construction). In August of 1638, the Moscow Government formed a new administrative unit with the administrative center of Lensky Ostrog, which cemented the town's ascendancy in the territory.
Russians established agriculture in the Lena River basin. The members of religious groups who were exiled to Sakha in the second half of the 19th century began to grow wheat, oats, and potatoes. The fur trade established a cash economy. Industry and transport began to develop at the end of the 19th century and in the beginning of the Soviet period. This was also the beginning of geological prospecting, mining, and local lead production. The first steam-powered ships and barges arrived.
On April 27, 1922 former "Yakolskaya land" was proclaimed the Yakut ASSR, and in 1992, after the fall of the Soviet Union, it was recognized in Moscow as the Sakha (Yakutia) Republic under the jurisdiction of the Russian Federation.
The supreme legislative body of state authority in Sakha is a bicameral State Assembly known as the Il Tumen. The government of the Sakha (Yakutia) Republic is the executive body of state authority.
Sakha National Congress (see External Links below) represents religious, political, financial, economic, cultural interests of Sakhastan and its Turkic-language Sakha nation for the benefit of entire population of historical borders of Sakhastan that include Sakha, Magadan, Chukotka, Kamchatka, and Sakhalin.
Economy
Industry generates 43% of the gross national product of Sakha, stemming primarily from mineral exploitation. Industrial enterprises are concentrated in the capital Yakutsk, as well as in Aldan, Mirny, Neryungri, Pokrovsk, and Udachny. The diamond, gold and tin ore mining industries are the major focus of the economy. Uranium ore is beginning to be mined. Turkic-language Sakha are in Tengrianism religion, politics, government, finance, economy and cattle-breeding (horses for sport and cows for milk and meat). The Paleoasian indigenous peoples are hunters, fishermen, and reindeer herders.
Transportation
Water transport ranks first for cargo turnover. There are six river ports, two sea ports (Tiksi and Zelyony Mys). Four shipping companies, including the Arctic Sea Shipping Company, operate in the republic.
Air transport is the most important for transporting people. Airlines connect the republic with most regions of Russia. Yakutsk airport has an international terminal.
Two federal roads pass the republic. They are Yakutsk—Bolshoy Never and Yakutsk—Kolyma. The Berkakit—Aldan railroad is currently in operation. It links the Baikal Amur Mainline with the industrial centers in South Sakha.
The majority of the population believe in the sun-worship Tengrianism common to Turkic-language people of Central Asia or believe in demons of the night Paleoasian indigenous shamanists or said by Russians to belong to the Russian Orthodox Church.
Lenin was the best known of Vladimir Ulyanov’s revolutionary pseudonyms. He is believed to have created it to show his opposition to Georgi Plekhanov, who used the pseudonym Volgin, after the Volga River. Ulyanov picked the Sakha's Lena River, which flows in the opposite direction, and is longer.
