Udmurtia
Udmurtia, or the Udmurt Republic is a federal subject of Russia within the Volga Federal District. Its capital is the city of Izhevsk. Population: 1,521,420.
On November 4, 1920, Votsk Autonomous Oblast was formed. On January 1, 1932, it was renamed Udmurt Autonomous Oblast, which was then reorganized into the Udmurt ASSR on December 28, 1934. During World War II, many industrial factories were evacuated from Ukraine and western borderlands to Udmurtia.
The republic is located in the eastern portion of the Eastern European Plain, between the Kama and Vyatka Rivers.
Forests cover over 40% of the republic's territory. Most of the forests are coniferous.
The republic has a moderate continental climate, with warm summers and cold winters with a lot of snow.
Although as of 2007 the population was declining, the decline was more pronounced in urban areas. Out of the 19,667 births reported in 2007, 12,631 were in urban areas and 7,036 were in rural areas. Birth rates for rural areas are 25% higher than that of urban areas. Of the total of 21,727 deaths, 14,366 were reported in urban areas and 7,361 were in rural areas. Natural decline of population was measured at -0.16% for urban areas and an insignificant -0.07% for rural areas.
As of 2010, the area has recorded slight population growth.
According to the 2010 Census, Russians make up 62.2% of the republic's population, while the ethnic Udmurts only make up 28%. Other groups include Tatars, Ukrainians, Mari, and a host of smaller groups, each accounting for less than 0.5% of the republic's total population.
Over two thirds of the world population of Udmurts live in the republic.
According to a 2012 official survey, 33.1% of the population of Udmurtia adheres to the Russian Orthodox Church, 5% are unaffiliated generic Christians, 2% are Orthodox Christian believers without belonging to any church or members of other Orthodox churches, 4% are Muslims, 2% of the population adheres to the Slavic native faith or to Udmurt Vos, 1% adheres to forms of Protestantism, and 1% of the population are Old Believers. In addition, 29% of the population declares to be 'spiritual but not religious', 19% is atheist, and 3.9% follows other religions or did not give an answer to the question.
Udmurt Jews is special territorial group of the Ashkenazi Jews, which started to be formed in the residence areas of mixed Turkic-speaking, Finno-Ugric-speaking and Slavic-speaking population. The Ashkenazi Jews on the territory of the Udmurt Republic first appeared in the 1830s. The udmurt Jewry had formed the local Idiom on the base of the Yiddish of Udmurtia till the 1930s and features of Yiddish of migrants 'joined' into it ; as a result up to the 1970s and 1980s the Udmurt Idiom was divided into two linguistic subgroups: the central subgroup and the southern subgroup. One of the characteristic features of the Udmurt Idiom is a noticeable number of Udmurt and Tatar loan words.
In Udmurtia, there are eight professional theaters, a Philharmonic Society, and more than ten state and numerous public museums, which tell of the history and culture of Udmurtia and its people, like the Museum of History and Culture in Sarapul, or the Tchaikovsky Museum in Votkinsk. One of the oldest arms museums is located in Izhevsk, as well as the newer Kalashnikov Museum, which has recently become a general small-arms museum. Since the breakup of the Soviet Union a new, pan-Uralic cultural movement has evolved called 'Ethnofuturism'.
Higher education facilities include the Udmurt State University and Izhevsk State Technical University.
Video Empire produces videos read aloud. Use the information in this video at your own risk. We cannot always guarantee accuracy.
This video uses material from licensed with CC Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0. This video is licensed with CC Attribution-Share-Alike 3.0 In order to adapt this content it is required to comply with the license terms. Image licensing information is available via: