Tuva

Tuva (/ˈtuːvə/; Russian: Тува [tʊˈva]), or Tyva (/ˈtɪvə/; Tuvan: Тыва [tʰɤ̀ʋɐ]; Russian pronunciation: [tɨˈva]), officially the Republic of Tyva, is a republic of Russia. Tuva lies at the geographical center of Asia, in southern Siberia. The republic borders the federal subjects of the Altai Republic, Buryatia, Irkutsk Oblast, Khakassia, and Krasnoyarsk Krai, and shares an international border with Mongolia to the south. Tuva has a population of 336,651 (2021 census). Its capital city is Kyzyl, in which more than a third of the population reside.

From the medieval period, Tuva was controlled by a series of Chinese dynasties and nomadic khanates. In 1758, Tuva came under the Qing dynasty, the last imperial dynasty of China, as the Tannu Uriankhai region of Outer Mongolia. Tuva broke away as the Uryankhay Republic, following the 1911 Xinhai Revolution that created the Republic of China. In 1914 it became the Russian protectorate of Uryankhay Krai, and in 1921 was replaced by the nominally independent Tuvan People's Republic (known officially as Tannu Tuva until 1926), recognized only by its neighbors the Soviet Union and Mongolia, before being annexed into the former's Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic in 1944. In 1990, during the dissolution of the Soviet Union, a wave of separatist violence against ethnic Russians triggered an exodus and OMON special police deployment.

As of 2021, ethnic Tuvans make up 88.7% of the population. They speak the Tuvan language as their native tongue. Ethnic Russians make up 10.1% and speak the Russian language. Both languages are official and widely understood in the republic. The Great Khural is the regional parliament of Tuva. As of 2012, 61.8% adhere to Buddhism, and 8% to Tengrism or Tuvan shamanism.