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 Geography:
The Chuvash Republic is situated in the mid-Volga region. It borders the Mordovo Republic, the Mari Republic, the Republic of Tatarstan, and the Nizhni-Novgorod and Uljansk district of the Russian Federation. Area: 183,000 km2.
Capital: Shupashkar.
People:
Population
Chuvash are descendants of the Bulgar people. The population of Chuvash Republic is 1,4 million, of which Chuvash make up 68%. Other groups are Russians (26,7%), Tatars (2,7%) and Mordovians (1,4%). The total number of Chuvash is 2 million in the former Soviet Union of which 48% of them live in Chuvash.
Languages:
The Chuvash language belongs to the Turkic group of languages, said to be the only remaining branch of the Old-Bulgaric language.
Economy:
Important natural resources are minerals: gypsum, phosphor, carbonates, sand and clays. One third of the area of the republic is forest giving lumber, sawmilling and wooden articles. Chuvash exports agricultural and industrial products and consume goods including hop, potatoes, knit-wear, hosiery, textiles, leather goods and plastics.
Brief History:
The Turkic-speaking Volga-Kama Bulgars, who settled the area in the last quarter of the first millennium B.C. and mingled with the local Finno-Ugric tribes, played one of the main roles in the emergence of the indigenous population of the Chuvash Republic. In the 13th and 14th centuries A.D., they migrated here in especially large numbers as a result of the defeat of Volga-Kama Bulgaria by the Mongol-Tatars.
The Chuvash lands were added to the Kazan Khanate in the 15th century, by which time the formation of the Chuvash nation was essentially complete. Cheboksary was first mentioned in the chronicle in 1469. Russian chronicles indicate that the ship-borne army of voivode (army commander) I.D. Run rested here on the night May 19 and 20 of that year on their way to Kazan. Following the defeat of the Kazan Khanate in a war with the Muscovite tsar, the territory of present-day Chuvashia passed to the Russian state in the mid-16th century.
After forcible Christianization in the 18th century, the territory of the Chuvash became part of Kazan and Simbirsk provinces. Ivan IV, the first of the Russian tsars here, decided to fortify Cheboksary, and in 1553, a governor-general was sent there with an army.
A fortress was built in Cheboksary in 1555. Ivan IV ordered this place to be sanctified. An official document dated May 26, 1555, speaks of the need to reach and determine the place "where the sacred cathedral church of the Feast of the Presentation of the Virgin (Vvedeniya Prechistoi) should be" and to "mark the place where the city should be."
The wooden walls of the Cheboksary citadel were raised at that time, but burned in 1704. Feast of the Presentation (Vvedensky) Cathedral still stands on a hill as a witness to the building of the fortified city. The churches and cathedrals were made of stone.
Many architectural monuments of past centuries are preserved in Cheboksary, giving the city distinctiveness and a unique beauty. The old part of the city is conventionally divided into the Western and Eastern hillsides, the Central part, and Vladimirskaya Hill.
Vladimirskaya Hill is the part of the city that several centuries ago received merchant ships that came up the deep Cheboksarka River. The large complex of buildings of the Trinity (Troitsky) Monastery is located on the Western Hillside, while the Central part is the site of Troitsky Cathedral, the gateway Church of Fedor Stratilat, and the Church of the Tolgskaya Icon of the Mother of God (Tolgskoi bozhei materi); on the Eastern Hillside formed by the high bank of the Volga and Cheboksary Bay, there are interesting monuments of the stone architecture of early masters in the area of the river port and Kalinin Street.
The building of the Resurrection (Voskresenskaya) Church (1758) on Kalinin Street is an example of the original native art of the old masters, including stonemasons, artists, engravers, blacksmiths, stone- and woodcarvers, gilders, and casters. There is also the Monument of Glory raised in Cheboksary in honor of the 35th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War (World War II).
In 1868 being a part of the Russian Empire from 16th century, the revival of the Chuvash culture began.
In 1920 Chuvash became an Autonomous Republic within the former Soviet Union. The efforts to revive, sustain and safeguard the Chuvash culture were suppressed.
In 1989 The Chuvash Public Cultural Centre was founded and in 1993 the Chuvash National Congress voted to become member of UNPO.
An agreement was signed between the Chuvash and the Russian governments about the rebuilding of the Chuvash economy, the development of the regional agriculture and destruction of chemical weapons on Chuvash territory. Among the Chuvash there is much concern about the situation in Chechenia.
Chuvash, together with Mari, Udmurt and Tatarstan publicly declared their opposition to the Chechen war and called on their citizens to refuse to serve in the conflict.
Organizations:
Chuvash is represented by Chuvash National Congress in UNPO. Its goal is the revival of the Chuvash culture and the maintenance of the national identity of the Chuvash people.
Statistics:
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