 So before I begin, this video is a follow-up to one I did a few months ago about the Russian federal subjects. I highly recommend you check it out. Anyway, as I said at the end of that video, I'll be doing a few more videos about the Russian government in general, and today's production delves deeper into the ethnic enclaves within the Russian federation, with the republics and autonomous occrokes. Russia, as I sure hope you have figured out, is a vast country. With large countries comes large diversity, and Russia, unlike Japan, is no exception. Because of this, the Russian government has given some of its major regional minority groups a form of their own federal subjects. With that said, let's jump right into the republics and autonomous occrokes of Russia. I will start with the more numerous and well-known type of region, republics. To be precise, there are 22 of them, spread out across the entirety of Russia. They can be broken into different categories based on ethnicity and language groups. Republics of Uralic, Turkic, Caucasian, Iranic, and Mongolic can be found. The Uralic republics are Karelia, Mordovia, Mariel, Udmurtia, and the Komi Republic. Turkic republics are a bit more spread out across the country, and include Crimea, Karachay-Sharkesia, Tuvashia, Tatarstan, Bashkortistan, Tuva, Harkasia, Yakutia, also called Sakha, and the Altai Republic. The Caucasian republics are all in the southwest of Russia, and include Carbadino-Balkaria, Ingushetia, and Chechnya. Dagestan is an interesting case, as it encompasses a diverse population of both different kinds of Caucasian and Turkic ethnic groups. The two Mongolic republics are Buryatia, and weirdly enough Kalmykia in Europe, which fun fact is the only Buddhist majority region in Europe. The final republic of North Nesetia is of Oronic origin. Though these republics are named for a certain ethnic group, it should be noted that due to hundreds of years of internal migration within the country, a few, in fact roughly half, have Russians as the majority population. As a result of having a large population of different peoples in the republics, each have an additional official language alongside Russian, as well as their own constitution and national anthems. However, this is where the autonomy of the republics ends. Due to many issues regarding the status and autonomy of republics after the fall of the Soviet Union, and the problems included within the Chechen wars in the 1990s, republics gradually began to lose their self-governing, and no longer had the status of being sovereign states represented by the Russian government. Bashkortistan and Tataristan were the final republics to hold such autonomy, with the authority in both states being handed completely over to the federal government in 2005 and 2017, respectively. Despite losing such governmental autonomy, the republics still have their own regional identities, with the aforemented regional language status and national anthems. Still, it can be seen that with the loss of such autonomy from the federal government, the republics are not much different than other federal subjects, and many have called the end of Tataristan's autonomy to be the end of the Federation, making Russia a unitary state. Slightly off topic, but twice as interesting, is the proposed republics that never came to be. During the 90s, several people living in oblast and cries descended the lack of autonomy from the central government they had in respect to republics, and tried to form their own republics out of existing subjects. The most notable attempts occurred in 1993, with the Ural Republic proposed to exist in the territory of Sferdlovsk Oblast. Though the idea initially gained traction, and was supported by then-president Borysyotsyn at the time, the proposed republic was dissolved in November the same year. Other interesting attempts to create republics out of cries included the Yenisei republic in Irkutsk, the Siberian republic in Novosibirsk, and the Primorsky republic in Primorsky cry. Two that may have had a better shot at becoming republics if they were a little more populace are the Chukotka Republic and the Nenets Republic, which are both currently autonomous okrugs. But what are autonomous okrugs? Well, I can say that their history is a bit less controversial, considering they have already started with less autonomy than their counterparts in the republics, and the people represented by these okrugs are all peaceful people of the Arctic region, and I'll get to how they're governed in a second. These okrugs all have Russian majorities, but the majority is much smaller in these places than say it would be in an oblast or cry due to the large presence of a minority group, which, guess what, gives the region's additional language rights. The languages of 3 out of 4 belong to the Uralic family, with the Nenets and Yamalonenets falling under the Samoyedic branch, and the Chantimansi Okrug having the namesake peoples and languages belonging to the Ugric branch with Hungarian. The most unique autonomous okrug, both in ethnicity and the way it's governed, as you will see soon, is the Chukotka Okrug. The Chukchi language, belonging to the Chukotko Kamchatkin language in eastern Siberia, is official there, with Yupik being a significant minority. The autonomous okrugs are all federal subjects, as stated by the Russian constitution, but are a bit unique as they are administered both directly by the central government, and additionally exist as a district in another oblast or cry, in most cases. If you watched my last video, you'll remember me stating that the Nenets Okrug exist as part of Achengels Oblast, and the Yamalonenets and Chantimansi Okrugs exist within Tumen Oblast. Again, this is where Chukotka is unique, as it exists solely as a directly governed province, and is not supported aid to another oblast, though it formerly was to Magadan Oblast in the fateful 1993 breakup. Some interesting things to note about autonomous okrugs, there used to be a lot more, totaling 10. The Agenburyats and Ust-Orda Okrugs, both with Mongolian populations, used to exist as enclaves within and subordinate to Zabakalski cry and Irkutsk Oblast, but since 2008 they were merged with those subjects. Kamchattski cry doubled in size in 2007 after absorbing its autonomous okrug of Koryakia, whose language of Koryak is closely related to Chukchi. The Evengk and Taimir Okrugs were both merged with Krasnoyarsk cry in 2007 also. Evengki is a language in the Tungusik branch, which includes Manchu in north eastern China. Finally, the Komi Permyak Autonomous Okrug, with the Uralokomi language being spoken there, united with Perm cry in 2005. With all that said, I should not forget to mention autonomous oblasts. They were mainly created to serve the interests of smaller nations in the Soviet Union and were subordinated to cries. However, after 1990 this clause was removed. There were five, but the Adige, Altayin, Karchaychakesyan, and Khakasyan Autonomous Oblasts became republics, while leaving the Jewish Autonomous Oblasts in the dust as the soul remaining of its kind. It is governed no differently from other oblasts or cries, except it has Hebrew as an official language alongside Russian. Not like anybody speaks Hebrew there though. So to recap, republics are nominally autonomous regions with ethnic minorities with their own languages, constitutions, and national anthems. Autonomous Okrugs are directly governed by the federal government and an oblast's government, except for Chukotka, which is only governed directly from Moscow, and these Okrugs have language rights for minorities. Finally, the Autonomous Oblast works just like other oblasts, but has Hebrew as an official language alongside Russian. If you have made it this far, you might as well like, subscribe, and share this video, and we're approaching 1000 subscribers fast, so I highly suggest you hit that subscribe button for more videos and international governments in the near future. See you next time.