Sakha, officially the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), is a republic of Russia, and the largest federal subject of Russia by area. It is located in the Russian Far East, along the Arctic Ocean, with a population of one million. Sakha comprises half of the area of its governing Far Eastern Federal District, and is the world's largest country subdivision, covering over .Rosstat (Russian Statistical Service), 2010 (xls). Retrieved 15 June 2012. Yakutsk, which is the world's coldest major city, is its capital and largest city.
The republic has a reputation for an extreme and severe climate, with the second lowest temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere being recorded in Verkhoyansk and Oymyakon (second only to Summit Camp, Greenland), and regular winter averages commonly dipping below in Yakutsk. The hypercontinental tendencies also result in warm summers for much of the republic.
Sakha was first home to hunting-gathering and reindeer-herding Tungusic and Paleosiberian peoples such as the Evenks and Yukaghir. Migrating from the area around Lake Baikal, the Turkic Sakha people first migrated to the middle Lena River sometime between the 9th and 16th centuries, likely in several waves, bringing the pastoral economic system of Inner Asia with them.
The Russians colonised and incorporated the area as the Yakutsk Oblast into the Tsardom of Russia in the early-mid 17th century, obliging the indigenous peoples of the area to pay fur tribute. While the initial period following the Russian conquest saw the Sakha population drop by 70%, the Imperial period also saw the expansion of the native Yakuts from the middle Lena along the Vilyuy River to the north and the east displacing other indigenous groups. Yakutia saw some of the last battles of the Russian Civil War, and the Bolshevik authorities reorganised Yakutsk Oblast into the autonomous Yakut ASSR in 1922. The Soviet era saw the migration of many Slavs, specifically Russians and Ukrainians, into the area.
On 27 September 1990, the area became the Yakutskaya-Sakha Soviet Socialist Republic, and on 27 December 1991, it became the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia).
Etymology The exonym Yakut comes from the Evenk term Yako (also yoqo, ñoqa, or ñoka), which was the term the Evenks used to describe the Sakha. This was in turn picked up by the Russians. The Yukaghirs, another neighbouring people in Siberia, use the exonym yoqol ~ yoqod- ~ yoqon- (Tundra Yukaghir) or yaqal ~ yaqad- ~ yaqan- (Kolyma Yukaghir).
The self-designation Sakha may be of the same origin (*jaqa > Sakha following regular sound changes in the course of development of the Yakut language) as the Evenk and Yukaghir exonyms for the Yakuts. It is pronounced as Haka by the Dolgans, whose language is a close relative of the Yakut language.Victor P. Krivonogov, "The Dolgans’Ethnic Identity and Language Processes." Journal of Siberian Federal University, Humanities & Social Sciences 6 (2013 6) 870–888.
Geography
Borders: internal: Chukotka Autonomous Okrug () (East and Northeast), Magadan Oblast () (East), Khabarovsk Krai () (Southeast), Amur Oblast (South), Zabaykalsky Krai (South), Irkutsk Oblast (South and Southwest), Krasnoyarsk Krai (West). water: Arctic Ocean (including Laptev Sea and Eastern Siberian Sea) (North). Highest point: Peak Pobeda () Maximum N–S distance: Maximum E–W distance:
Sakha stretches to the Henrietta Island 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. After Nunavut was separated from Canada's Northwest Territories in 1999, Sakha became the largest subnational entity (statoid) in the world, with an area of , slightly smaller than the territory of India (), but still slightly larger than Argentina.
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 favourite 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 stands of fir and pine begin to appear in the south. Taiga forests cover about 47% of Sakha and almost 90% of the cover is larch.
The Sakha Republic is the site of Pleistocene Park, a project directed at recreating Pleistocene tundra grasslands by stimulating the growth of grass with the introduction of animals which thrived in the region during the late Pleistocene – early Holocene period.
Time zones
Sakha is the only federal subject of Russia which uses more than one time zone. Sakha spans three time zones.Federal law on the calculation of time, Official internet portal of legal information of the Russian Federation . Like the rest of Russia, it does not use daylight saving time. Map Time zone Abbr. Areas Yakutsk Time YAKT UTC+09:00 Most of the republic's territory VLAT UTC+10:00 Districts of Oymyakonsky, Ust-Yansky and Verkhoyansky Magadan Time MAGT UTC+11:00 Districts of Abyysky, Allaikhovsky, Momsky, Nizhnekolymsky, Srednekolymsky and Verkhnekolymsky
Rivers
The largest river is the navigable Lena River (). As it moves northward, it includes hundreds of small tributaries located in the Verkhoyansk Range. Lena River Vilyuy River () Lena River tributary Markha River () Vilyuy River tributary Morkoka River () Markha River tributary Tyung River () Vilyuy River tributary Aldan River () Lena River tributary Amga River () Aldan River tributary Maya River () Aldan River tributary Uchur River () Aldan River tributary Olyokma River () Lena River tributary Linde River () Lena River tributary Nyuya River () Lena River tributary Olenyok River () Kolyma River () Indigirka River () Selennyakh River () Indigirka River tributary Alazeya River () Anabar River () Yana River () Adycha River () Yana River tributary Oldzho River () Yana River tributary Bytantay River () Yana River tributary
Lakes
There are over 800,000 lakes in the republic. Major lakes and reservoirs include: Lake Bolshoye Morskoye Lake Bustakh Emanda Lake Mogotoyevo Nedzheli Lake Nerpichye Lake Ozhogino Lake Suturuokha Tabanda Ulakhan-Kyuel Vilyuy Reservoir
Mountains
Sakha's greatest mountain range, the Verkhoyansk Range, runs parallel and east of the Lena River, forming a great arc that begins in 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 (). The second highest peak is Peak Mus-Khaya reaching .
The Stanovoy Range borders Sakha in the south.
Peninsulas The Republic's extensive coastline contains a number of peninsulas; from west to east the most prominent are: Uryung-Tumus Peninsula Nordvik Peninsula Terpyay-Tumsa Peninsula Bykovsky Peninsula Buor-Khaya Peninsula Manyko Peninsula Shirokostan Peninsula Merkushina Strelka Peninsula Lopatka Peninsula Dogukan Peninsula
Islands From west to east, the main islands of Sakha are: Preobrazheniya Island Bolshoy Begichev Island Maliy Begichev Island Peschany Island Salkay Island Orto Ary Daldalakh Dyangylakh Island Dunay Islands Leykina Island Islands of the Lena Delta Brusneva Island Muostakh Island Ulakhan Ary Island Yarok Island Shelonsky Islands Makar Island Stolbovoy Island New Siberian Islands (by far the largest group) De Long Islands Medvezhyi Islands Kolesovsky Island Kolesovskaya Otmel Gabyshevskiy Island Kamenka Island Markhayanovskiy Island Gusmp Island Sukhanyy Island
Natural resources
Sakha is well endowed with raw materials. The soil contains large reserves of oil, gas, coal, diamonds, gold, silver, tin, tungsten and many others. Sakha produces 99% of all Russian diamonds and over 25% of the diamonds mined in the world.
Climate Sakha is known for its extremes in climate, with the Verkhoyansk Range being the coldest area in the Northern Hemisphere. Some of the lowest natural temperatures ever recorded have been here. The Northern Hemisphere's Pole of Cold is at Verkhoyansk, where the temperatures reached as low as in 1892 and 1885, and at Oymyakon, where the temperatures reached as low as in February 1934.
+Average daily maximum and minimum temperatures for selected locations in YakutiyaCityJuly (°C)July (°F)January (°C)January (°F) Aldan 23.0/11.1 73.4/52.0 −21.3/−30.1 −6.3/−22.2 Neryungri 22.3/11.2 72.1/52.2 −26.2/−33.2 −15.2/−27.8 Olyokminsk 25.1/12.2 77.2/54.0 −26.0/−33.9 −14.8/−29.0 Oymyakon 23.0/6.9 73.4/44.4 −42.1/−49.3 −43.8/−56.7 Verkhoyansk 23.4/10.0 74.1/50.0 −41.6/−47.7 −42.9/−53.9 Yakutsk 25.8/13.1 78.4/55.6 −34.0/−39.8 −29.2/−39.6 Saskylakh 16.8/7.5 62.2/45.5 −30.1/−37.5 −22.2/−35.5 Tiksi 12.7/4.7 54.9/40.5 −25.9/−33.1 −14.6/−27.6
Average annual precipitation: (central parts) to (mountains of Eastern Sakha).
Administrative divisions
History
Prehistory Siberia, and particularly Sakha, is of paleontological significance, as it contains bodies of prehistoric animals from the Pleistocene Epoch, preserved in ice or permafrost. In 2015, the frozen bodies of Dina and Uyan the cave lion cubs were found. Bodies of Yuka and another woolly mammoth from Oymyakon, a woolly rhinoceros from the Kolyma River, and bison and horses from Yukagir have also been discovered. In June 2019, the severed but preserved head of a large wolf from the Pleistocene, dated to over 40,000 years ago, was found close to the Tirekhtyakh River.
Ymyakhtakh culture (–1300 BC) was a Late Neolithic culture of Siberia, with a very large archaeological horizon. Its origins were in Sakha, in the Lena River basin. From there it spread both to the east and to the west. Early history The Turkic Sakha people or Yakuts may have settled the area as early as the 9th century or as late as the 16th century, though most likely there were several migrations. They migrated northward from around Lake Baikal to the middle Lena due to pressure by the Buryats, a Mongolic group.
The Sakha displaced earlier, much smaller populations who lived on hunting and reindeer herding, introducing the pastoralist economy of Central Asia. The indigenous populations of Paleosiberian and Tungusic stock were mostly assimilated into the Sakha by the 17th century. Russian conquest
The Tsardom of Russia began its conquest of the region in the 17th century, moving east after the defeat of the Khanate of Sibir. Tygyn, a king of the Khangalassky Sakha, granted territory for Russian settlement in return for a military pact that included war against indigenous rebels of all Northeastern Asia (Magadan, Chukotka, Kamchatka and Sakhalin). Kull, a king of the Megino-Khangalassky Sakha, began a Sakha conspiracy by allowing the first stockade construction.
In August 1638, the Moscow Government formed a new administrative unit with the administrative center at Lensky Ostrog (Fort Lensky), the future city of Yakutsk, which had been founded by Pyotr Beketov in 1632.
The arrival of Russian settlers at the remote Russkoye Ustye in the Indigirka delta is also believed to date from the 17th century.A. I. Gogolev, "История Якутии: (Обзор исторических событий до начала ХХ в.)" (History of Yakutia: Review of Historical Events to the beginning of the 20th century ) Yakutsk, 1999. The Siberian Governorate was established as part of the Russian Empire in 1708.