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So as you know last time I did the states of India and I asked you guys what country would you like me to do?

administrative divisions next and a lot of you said Russia

The problem is the Russian Federation is broken down into eighty-five federal subjects into five different categories

We don't really have a lot of time for eighty-five anything on geography now

however

we do have enough time to cover one of the categories the

Republics of Russia for those of you that don't know much about Russia

It is actually a very diverse country with lots of different types of people living in it. Not just Russians

The Republic's are kind of like the non Russian ethnic enclaves that have their own level of administration

these subjects have the right to establish their own language and

Constitution the other subjects don't have these rights today

There are 22 of them and I will try my best to explain here we go

The first one at the gaya capital Michael a minority group represented the ad to gay people

They are one of the twelve Circassian tribes and they are one of the three

Federal subjects that have Circassian people as their minority group they even use the circassian flag as their republic flag culturally

They are mountain folk. They have a series of traditions and customs they love playing music with those shiping violins that look like daggers

They have these really interesting traditional dances where they like go on their toes. It looks kind of painful they have these

hawlucha

Ruiz with cheese in them. There's a lot of ancient tradition here like they still have these table stone house things

Nobody quite knows exactly what they are some say that their tombs under tradition a groom is never supposed to meet his bride

parents insert offensive joke here the Altai Republic capital Coronel Altai

So minority group represented the Altai who are a Turkic group the Altai people come from ten different clans

There's a UNESCO heritage site that can be found here

The Koch plateau has these interesting stone structures that are believed to be burial sites

But some people say that they're like magnetic instruments that direct the cosmic energy of the universe. Yeah

There's a lot of new-age tourism in this area

It's also the place where they found the Siberian ice made in the I mean that was preserved in permafrost

Bashkortostan capital is oofah minority group represented the bosch skiers

This is the most populated republic out of all the Republic's it was the first ethnic autonomous area established in 1917

They come from the oral mountains and their flag even has the quraysh hour

It has seven petals representing the seven families that gave birth to the Bosch gear people's music is huge here

They even make woodwind flutes by chopping up Reed's from the core

I plant a capital city has a huge monument dedicated to this guy

He's like considered their hero further out east

Bharatiya Capital Rulon O'Day ethnic minority represented by about 30 percent of the population the boutots. They are a

mongolic people group who are actually related to the Mongols and the

Comics this Republic is right next to Lake Baikal Russia's largest and deepest lake in the world because of that

They're not allowed to really industrialize their area because they don't want to pollute the lake. It's so important culturally speaking

It's very interesting because they kind of like fuse Buddhism with shamanism. They have unique traditions like bone fortune-telling

They also have great hot springs supposedly the waters can heal you from like anything and everything

Now the next one you may have heard in the news a few times Chechnya capital Grozny

Obviously the minority group represented are the Chechen people at about 95 percent and they are the lowest alcohol drinking region of Russia

partially because of the Islam thing basically when Russia came in stalin got suspicious and exiled a lot of them to

Kazakhstan and then he brought them back and then in the 90s, they tried to declare independence, but then Russia was like, nope

And that's where the subsequent Chechen wars began. There's a series of separatist movements and terrorist attacks and to this day

It's kind of died down but the separatist activities still kind of lingers

It's like it could ignite if someone pushes the buttons, but right now it's kind of like kind of standstill

I mean the people just want to live their lives like normal. Otherwise though, they actually have very beautiful scenery

I mean if you're one of those like controversy region tourists, then this might you might want to put this on your bucket list

Chuvashia capital Cheboksary minority group represented at about two-thirds of the population the chuvash known as the silver people chuvash

People are kind of like the strange

outcasts cousins of the Turkic groups because their language is the most isolated and kind

Difficult for the other ones to understand it's kind of like the Icelandic of Turkic languages

But if there's one thing this place is famous for it has to be beer everybody knows, Chivas

Jia makes beer many households brew their own version and they add their own little secret

Ingredients and they have all these nice little happy songs and dances that go with it next one

Get ready because this has a lot of controversy if you're Ukrainian, you're not gonna like hearing this

But I kind of have to cover it Crimea capital Simferopol, which is also a federal city represented minority group being the Crimean Tatars

Who only make up about 12% of the population they used to be the majority?

But then again in former USSR times, they were exiled to who's becca stan, and then some of them were allowed to come back

However today the majority of the population is Russian. This is the largest dispute area with Russia and Ukraine today

basically

this whole area used to be under complete Ukrainian Authority then in 2014 a bunch of

Pro-russian separatists and the Russian military got involved and they issued a take over most countries across the world

Do not recognize this as a part of Russia, but it kind of operates in functions under Russian Authority today

It's really confusing also

it's kind of like a very geographically advantageous location as it kind of gives access to the Black Sea and then further to the

Mediterranean but yeah a hotbed of dispute

Oh, and there's ancient Greek sites over here as well because lots of history Dagestan the Gateway to the Caucasus capital

Makhachkala the minority group represented

There's actually not a single one, but it's kind of like 10 main minority groups largest ones being the Caucasian groups

the Avadh is darkins and there's also the Turkic ku mix and

Azerbaijanis overall over a hundred nationalities and over 30 languages are spoken in this area

It is the most racially diverse region in all of Russia about 80% of the population identifies as Muslim

The land has lots of beautiful mountains and forests and fortresses you come here chances are you will definitely find a burqa

Overcoat not burka bucha, the people here love to dance with daggers recently

Just like in Chechnya in 2008 and 2012

There was kind of like a wave of guerrilla warfare that was going on the Russian government got involved

It got kind of messy

But yeah

it's interesting because there's like so many different people groups and it's just they all have their own little story here in goosh area the

Smallest of all the federal subjects in Russia capital macaws minority group and it being the English. They are very similar to the Chechens

They're like the little brother of the Chechens and they speak almost the same language and their majority of them are Muslim back in World

War two time Stalin deported a lot of them to Kazakhstan and then when they were allowed to come back they realized a lot of

The Audion people took over what they claimed to be their land and there was a lot of internal conflict

Culturally today a lot of them. Don't really quite know the

Extent of their history since a lot of it depended on oral tradition and songs and just a heads up

This is probably one of the most poorest regions of all of Russia. And if you go there will be a lot of security

Checkpoints if you're a man, it's not really recommended that you grow a beard because you might be mistaken for an English rebel

I mean you guys have seen me with facial hair. So I'm I think I'll be good Cobb Rd

no bulk area capital Nalchik two main groups populate most of this area at about seventy percent copper today, who are

Circassians just like the other ones we talked about and the bulk of whom are Kipchak Turkic out of all the twelve

Circassian tribes the combat they are the largest ones and even though the majority of them identify as Muslim

There's still like about 12% that still kind of practiced the traditional hobbsy faith

It involves a lot of nature stuff and spirits land has beautiful gorges and hills and the tallest peak in all of Russia and Europe

If you consider it Europe people here are also known for being quite athletic

This guy won the first gold for Russia in the Rio Olympics

Kalmykia capital at least a minority group represented the comics who make up about 60% of the population

This is probably the strangest demographic anomaly in all of Russia

Why because kalmyks are the westernmost?

buddhist community in the entire world and they are the only region in all of Europe in which

Buddhism is the majority religion today

You can see traditional Buddhist temples all over the capital at least according to tradition their ancestors the koi rots

Migrated from Central Asia to find better land or maybe they try to escape from the Mongol tribes

Nobody really quite knows but the point is they came here and brought Buddhism

orally

the Russians made a lot of deals with them and then they deported them and then they brought them back and

Today, it looks really Buddhist the Russian Qatar ChaCha cassia capital chair kiss just like coppertino ball, Korea

They have two main groups the Turkic Connor Kai peoples and the circassian Turkish people's just like kabardino-balkaria

A portion of the population here still actually kind of maintains the ancient Circassian religions the people here love horse riding

There's also like a rite of passage

Like boys to becoming men when they're 9 years old like they have to get a whip from their father or grandfather

and ride the horse with that whip Corellia capital patrols votes minority group represented the karelians who are the lowest

Minority group in a republic at less than 10% The karelians are some of the last few remaining

Uralic peoples on the planet and they are the cousins of Finnish people. They speak a language. That is very similar

Some people say it's just a dialect of Finnish. However, unfortunately,

unless a

revival happens the future of the Karelian language and culture is

Looking kind of bleak and it's kind of dying out and even though this is the Russian Federation flag

The Karelian people have their own Karelian flag, which looks like this. They're known for making these really cool like egg pie

It's called Karelian pie, but it's like a pastry. It's really good. It's really good Takashi

Yeah

Capital Abakan minority group represented the cut costs most scholars agree that they are most likely related to the qgs people in

kyrgyzstan

The cool thing though is that this place was kind of like the crossroads where a lot of people passed through in ancient times

So it's kind of labeled as Siberia's archaeological Mecca. There's so many ancient sites found here

You have things like stones and obelisks

Ruined cities forts and rock drawings and they have that 7 story tall burial mound the Komi Republic capital

Six Evod, I don't even know at this point minority group represented to call me at about a quarter of the population

Call me is like the Ural Mountains

Capital it offers some of the best tourism for the dividing range

They have the virgin call me forest a UNESCO heritage site and this National Park, which is beautiful

They also kind of have a history of hosting some of the most brutal gulags in all of Russian history

But the forests are nice they have their own food and they have their own traditions based off of pre-christian shamanism

And they still kind of keep those traditions alive a little bit the madhuri el Republic capital

Yoshkar-ola minority group represented the Mari located in the Volga territory

The Madhuri people are kind of called like Europe's last pagans

These people actually do keep a lot of the pre-christian pagan traditions alive

It's kind of like what Russia used to look like before?

Christianity came in half of all the women know how to play the goose Lee a lot of times they have an all Mari prayer

Service in which the entire community comes together. They bring a lot of food

They sacrifice the bones skin and organs of an animal to the fire

Mordovia capitals saransk minority group represented the morphine

Here's the thing. The land here is pretty flat, but they still love like cross-country skiing

These people are really big on wood carving and they are really good at it

It's not uncommon to see a lot of traditional morphing houses that look like log cabins

it's like they they sand the wood very nice and well and they also have

disputable e the most famous puppet theater in all of Russia North Ossetia

Aulani capital Vladikavkaz minority group the Assyrians and they are the only

Iranian people group that have their own Republican Russia as and they're descended from people from Iran

But the thing is the majority of them are Christian

anyway

It was also historically part of the Silk Road and the people here made a lot of money back in the day today has lots

Of minerals and spa resorts, but then there's the controversy with South Ossetia

We talked about this in the Georgia episode internationally recognized as part of, Georgia

however

administratively it kind of falls under Russian jurisdiction since

2008 after the Russia Georgian War in order to get in from the Georgia side

You actually need a passport next one Yakutia or the sakha republic minority group represented the Yokota

This is a very unique spot in Russia. They are like the most East Asian looking people in Russia

They hold fast to their traditions. They have a lot of their own traditional costumes and food

They like to perform circus acts they love horses

I even have a summer festival in which everybody just kind of does their own cool thing

there's a ton of diamond mining out here and