The territory of Yakutia occupies northeastern part of Asian continent, stretching 2,000 km from north to south, and 2,500 km from west to east. Its area of 3,102 thousand sq km makes 1/5 of Russia, or almost 2/3 of Western Europe’s area. More than 40 percent of Yakutia’s territory lies above the Arctic Circle. It embraces three time-zones.
The capital of the Republic – Yakutsk – is 8,468 km away from Moscow. Yakutia borders with seven subjects of the Russian Federation: in the west – Krasnoyarsk Krai, in south-west and south — Irkutsk and Amur Oblasts, Zabaikalsky Krai, in south-east — Khabarovsk Krai, in the east – Magadan Oblast and Chukotka Autonomous Okrug.
The Republic is divided in 35 administrative units: 34 uluses (regions) and the city of Yakutsk. The Republic has completely transited to local government. As of January 1, 2008 there were 446 municipal units, including 34 municipal regions, 2 urban districts, and 410 towns and villages.
According to All-Russian Census of 2002, the Republic’s population makes 948.1 thousand people, with urban population making 64.2 percent, rural — 35.8 percent. Representatives of 126 nationalities
inhabit the Republic, including Yakuts — 45.5 percent, Russians — 41.2 percent, Ukrainians – 3.6 percent, Evenks — 1.9 percent, Evens — 1.2 percent. The density of population in the Sakha Republic (Yakutia) is low — 0.3 person per sq. km.
Natural conditions vary a lot within Yakutia: sharply continental climate results in temperature fluctuations range of about 100 degrees Celsius. The Republic is home to the northern hemisphere’s Pole of Cold, where extremely low temperatures were registered (down to — 71.2 degrees).
Yakutia has almost 700 thousand rivers and 800 thousand lakes. One of the ten greatest rivers of the planet — the Lena River — crosses the whole territory of the Republic from south to north. Other large rivers are Indigirka, Yana, and Kolyma. There is a little less than 1 mln cub m of fresh water and a lake per every habitant of Yakutia. Water bodies hold the most abundant fish reserves of about 90 valuable species.
72 percent of the Republic’s territory is covered with taiga, the rest represents forest-tundra, tundra, and arctic desert.
Yakutia Economy Video Presentation
(more info, different from the text above)
[media id="1"]
Run time: approx. 11 min.
Dubbing: in English (by a local student)
Link to the media file: http://askyakutia.com/wp-content/video/video1_en.flv
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