Adygea ( ), officially the Republic of Adygea or the Adygean Republic, is a

republic A republic, based on the Latin phrase ''res publica'' ('public affair' or 'people's affair'), is a State (polity), state in which Power (social and political), political power rests with the public (people), typically through their Representat ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. It is situated in the

North Caucasus The North Caucasus, or Ciscaucasia, is a subregion in Eastern Europe governed by Russia. It constitutes the northern part of the wider Caucasus region, which separates Europe and Asia. The North Caucasus is bordered by the Sea of Azov and the B ...

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural and socio-economic connotations. Its eastern boundary is marked by the Ural Mountain ...

. The republic is a part of the Southern Federal District, and covers an area of , with a population of roughly 496,934 residents. It is an

enclave An enclave is a territory that is entirely surrounded by the territory of only one other state or entity. An enclave can be an independent territory or part of a larger one. Enclaves may also exist within territorial waters. ''Enclave'' is so ...

within

Krasnodar Krai Krasnodar Krai (, ) is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Russia (a krai), located in the North Caucasus region in Southern Russia and is administratively a part of the Southern Federal District. Its administrative center is the t ...

and is the fifth-smallest Russian federal subject by area.

Maykop Maykop is the capital city of Adygea, Russia, located on the right bank of the Belaya River. It borders Maykopsky District, from which it is administratively and municipally independent, to the east and south; Giaginsky District to the north, ...

is the capital and the largest city of Adygea, home to one-third of the republic's population. Adygea is one of Russia's

ethnic An ethnicity or ethnic group is a group of people with shared attributes, which they collectively believe to have, and long-term endogamy. Ethnicities share attributes like language, culture, common sets of ancestry, traditions, society, re ...

republics, primarily representing the indigenous Circassian people that form 25% of the Republic's population, while

Russians Russians ( ) are an East Slavs, East Slavic ethnic group native to Eastern Europe. Their mother tongue is Russian language, Russian, the most spoken Slavic languages, Slavic language. The majority of Russians adhere to Eastern Orthodox Church ...

form a majority at 60%, and with minority populations of

Armenians Armenians (, ) are an ethnic group indigenous to the Armenian highlands of West Asia.Robert Hewsen, Hewsen, Robert H. "The Geography of Armenia" in ''The Armenian People From Ancient to Modern Times Volume I: The Dynastic Periods: From Antiq ...

and

Ukrainians Ukrainians (, ) are an East Slavs, East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine. Their native tongue is Ukrainian language, Ukrainian, and the majority adhere to Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodoxy, forming the List of contemporary eth ...

. The official languages of Adygea are Adyghe and Russian.

History

The Cherkess (Adyghe) Autonomous Oblast was established within the

Russian SFSR The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (Russian SFSR or RSFSR), previously known as the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and the Russian Soviet Republic, and unofficially as Soviet Russia,Declaration of Rights of the labo ...

on July 27, 1922, on the territories of the Kuban-Black Sea Oblast, primarily settled by the Adyghe people. At that time,

Krasnodar Krasnodar, formerly Yekaterinodar (until 1920), is the largest city and the administrative centre of Krasnodar Krai, Russia. The city stands on the Kuban River in southern Russia, with a population of 1,154,885 residents, and up to 1.263 millio ...

was the

administrative center An administrative centre is a seat of regional administration or local government, or a county town, or the place where the central administration of a commune, is located. In countries with French as the administrative language, such as Belgiu ...

. It was renamed Adyghe (Cherkess) Autonomous Oblast on August 24, 1922, soon after its creation. In the first two years of its existence the autonomous oblast was a part of the

, but on October 17, 1924, it was transferred to the jurisdiction of the newly created

North Caucasus Krai North Caucasus Krai (, ''Severo-Kavkazskiy kray'') was an administrative division (''krai'') within the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic of the Soviet Union. It was established on 17 October 1924. Its administrative center was Rost ...

within the RSFSR. It was renamed Adyghe Autonomous Oblast (AO) in July 1928. On January 10, 1934, the autonomous oblast became part of the new Azov-Black Sea Krai, which was removed from North Caucasus Krai. Maykop was made the administrative center of the autonomous oblast in 1936. Adyghe AO became part of

when it was established on September 13, 1937. On July 3, 1991, the oblast was elevated to the status of a republic under the jurisdiction of the Russian Federation.Official website of the Republic of Adygea
Основные сведения
The first President of the republic was Aslan Dzharimov, elected on 5 January 1992. Relations between the Adyghe and ethnic Russians in Adygea are currently good. Russians make up two-thirds of the population within Adygea. The current Head of Adygea is Murat Kumpilov.

Geography

Adygea lies in Russia's Southern Federal District of Eastern Europe, in the foothills of the Northwestern Caucasus in the

Caucasus Mountains The Caucasus Mountains * * Azerbaijani: , * * * * * * * * * * * is a mountain range at the intersection of Asia and Europe. Stretching between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, they are surrounded by the Caucasus region ...

System, with

plain In geography, a plain, commonly known as flatland, is a flat expanse of land that generally does not change much in elevation, and is primarily treeless. Plains occur as lowlands along valleys or at the base of mountains, as coastal plains, and ...

s in the northern areas and mountains in the southern area. Forests (mainly of European beech, oak, and maple) cover almost 40% of its territory. *''Area'' — . *''Borders'' — the Republic of Adygea is entirely surrounded by

. *''Highest point'' — Chugush Mountain: .

Rivers

The long Kuban River is one of the major navigable rivers in the Caucasus region. It forms part of the northern border between the Republic of Adygea and

.
Other rivers include: * Belaya River * Chokhrak River * Dakh River * Fars River * Khodz River * Kisha River * Bolshaya Laba River — ''(forming part of the eastern border between Adygea and Krasnodar Krai)'' * Psekups River * Pshish River * Sakhray River *Sukhoy Kurdzhips River — ''flows near the archaeological site at Mezmaiskaya cave''.

Lakes

The republic has no large lakes. However, it has several reservoirs: *, the largest in

*Oktyabrskoye Reservoir * Shapsug Reservoir *Tshchikskoye Reservoir (Тщикское) *Шенджийское *Четукское *Кужорское *Maykop Reservoir

Mountains

The republic's major mountains and peaks range in height from , and include: * Chugush Mountain — *

Mount Fisht Mount Fisht ( rus, Фишт, p=ˈfʲiʂt; ) is a peak located in the western Caucasus Mountains, in the Republic of Adygea, southwestern Russia. Description Fisht forms together with the peaks of Oshten and Pshekhu-Su the so-called Fisht-Oshte ...

— *Oshten Mountain *Pseashkho Mountain *Shepsi Mountain

Natural resources

The republic is rich in oil and

natural gas Natural gas (also fossil gas, methane gas, and gas) is a naturally occurring compound of gaseous hydrocarbons, primarily methane (95%), small amounts of higher alkanes, and traces of carbon dioxide and nitrogen, hydrogen sulfide and helium ...

. Other natural resources include

gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

silver Silver is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag () and atomic number 47. A soft, whitish-gray, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and reflectivity of any metal. ...

tungsten Tungsten (also called wolfram) is a chemical element; it has symbol W and atomic number 74. It is a metal found naturally on Earth almost exclusively in compounds with other elements. It was identified as a distinct element in 1781 and first ...

, and

iron Iron is a chemical element; it has symbol Fe () and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, forming much of Earth's o ...

Climate

*''Average January temperature'': *''Average July temperature'': *''Average annual

precipitation In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls from clouds due to gravitational pull. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, rain and snow mixed ("sleet" in Commonwe ...

'': February 15, 2010, recorded the absolute maximum for the winter months—in the capital, the city of

, the temperature was .

Politics

The chief executive of the government of the Republic of Adygea is the

Head A head is the part of an organism which usually includes the ears, brain, forehead, cheeks, chin, eyes, nose, and mouth, each of which aid in various sensory functions such as sight, hearing, smell, and taste. Some very simple ani ...

(called "President" until May 2011), who is appointed for a five-year term. Proficiency in the

Adyghe language Adyghe ( or ; also known as West Circassian) is a Northwest Caucasian language spoken by the western subgroups of Circassians. It is spoken mainly in Russia, as well as in Turkey, Jordan, Syria, Iraq and Israel, where Circassians settled after ...

is a prerequisite for the candidate. The current Head, Murat Kumpilov (since January 27, 2017), succeeded Aslan Tkhakushinov, initially as acting Head of the region. There is also a directly elected State Council (''Khase'' or ''Xase''—not to be confused with the Adyghe Khase, a union of Adyghe who supported Sovmen for a second term), which comprises the Council of Representatives and the Council of the Republic. Both councils are elected every five years and have 27 deputies each. The Republic sends three representatives to the parliament of the Russian Federation; one to the

State Duma The State Duma is the lower house of the Federal Assembly (Russia), Federal Assembly of Russia, with the upper house being the Federation Council (Russia), Federation Council. It was established by the Constitution of Russia, Constitution of t ...

and the other two to the Federation Council. The Constitution of the Republic of Adygea was adopted on May 14, 1995.

Administrative divisions

The Republic of Adygea is administratively divided into seven districts (''

raion A raion (also spelt rayon) is a type of administrative unit of several post-Soviet states. The term is used for both a type of subnational entity and a division of a city. The word is from the French (meaning 'honeycomb, department'), and is c ...

s''), two cities/towns, and (at a lower administrative level) five

urban-type settlement Urban-type settlement, abbreviated: ; , abbreviated: ; ; ; ; . is an official designation for lesser urbanized settlements, used in several Central and Eastern Europe, Central and Eastern European countries. The term was primarily used in the So ...

s. Municipally, the republic is divided into two urban okrugs, five urban settlements, and 46 rural settlements. * Note "м.р." above is an abbreviation for "муниципальный район" (Municipal District)

Demographics

*Population: *Life expectancy: File:Life expectancy in Russian subject -Adygea.png, Life expectancy at birth in Adygea File:Life expectancy in Russian subject -Adygea -diff.png, Life expectancy with calculated differences File:Life expectancy in Russia -Krasnodar Krai.png, Life expectancy in Adygea, Krasnodar Krai and neighboring regions File:Life expectancy in Russia -Krasnodar Krai (after 2014).png, Zoomed version of the chart since 2014

Vital statistics

:Source
Russian Federal State Statistics Service

Ethnic groups

According to the 2021 Census, ethnic

make up 64.4% of the republic's total population, while the ethnic Adyghe are 25.7%. Other groups include

(3.3%),

Kurds Kurds (), or the Kurdish people, are an Iranian peoples, Iranic ethnic group from West Asia. They are indigenous to Kurdistan, which is a geographic region spanning southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran, northern Iraq, and northeastern Syri ...

(1.2%),

Romani people {{Infobox ethnic group , group = Romani people , image = , image_caption = , flag = Roma flag.svg , flag_caption = Romani flag created in 1933 and accepted at the 1971 World Romani Congress , po ...

(0.7%) and

(0.6%). # 50,304 people were registered from administrative databases, and could not declare an ethnicity. It is estimated that the proportion of ethnicities in this group is the same as that of the declared group. # Including 397 Kabardins and 16,133 Cherkess.

Religions

According to a 2012 survey which interviewed 56,900 people 35.4% of the population of Adygea adheres to the

Russian Orthodox Church The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC; ;), also officially known as the Moscow Patriarchate (), is an autocephaly, autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodox Christian church. It has 194 dioceses inside Russia. The Primate (bishop), p ...

, 23.6% to

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

, 3% are unaffiliated

Christians A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the world. The words '' Christ'' and ''C ...

and 1% are Orthodox Christian believers who do not belong to church or are members of other Orthodox churches. In addition, 19.8% of the population declares to be "spiritual but not religious" 8% is

atheist Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...

, and 8.6% follows other religions or did not answer to the question.

Education

Adyghe State University and Maykop State Technological University, both in the capital Maykop, are the two major higher education facilities in Adygea.

Economy

Even though it is one of the poorest parts of Russia, the republic has abundant forests and rich soil. The region is famous for producing

grain A grain is a small, hard, dry fruit (caryopsis) – with or without an attached husk, hull layer – harvested for human or animal consumption. A grain crop is a grain-producing plant. The two main types of commercial grain crops are cereals and ...

sunflower The common sunflower (''Helianthus annuus'') is a species of large annual forb of the daisy family Asteraceae. The common sunflower is harvested for its edible oily seeds, which are often eaten as a snack food. They are also used in the pr ...

s, tea,

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

, and other produce. Hog and sheep breeding are also developed. Food, timber, woodworking, pulp and paper, heavy engineering, and metal-working are the most developed industries.

Transportation

There is a small airport in

(

ICAO airport code The ICAO airport code or location indicator is a four-letter code designating aerodromes around the world. These codes, as defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization and published quarterly in ICAO Document 7910: ''Location Indic ...

URKM). Several rail lines pass through the republic.

Culture

The

(Адыгабзэ) is a member of the Northwest Caucasian language family. Along with Russian, Adyghe is the official language of the republic. There are 8 state and 23 public museums in the republic. The largest museum is the National Museum of the Republic of Adygea in Maykop.

Notable people

* Anatoly Berezovoy (1942—2014), Soviet pilot/cosmonaut. * Aslan Dzharimov (born 1936), first president of the Republic of Adygea. * Anna Kareyeva (born 1977), handball player. * Mukharby Kirzhinov (born 1949), weightlifter. * Andrei Kobenko (born 1982), footballer. * Nikita Kucherov (born 1993), ice hockey player. * Vladimir Nevzorov (born 1952), judoka. * Hazret Sovmen (born 1937), second president of the Republic of Adygea. * Aslan Tkhakushinov (born 1947), third president of the Republic of Adygea. * Aslan Tlebzu (born 1981), Adyghe folk musician. * Konstantin Vasilyev (1942—1976), painter.

References

Notes

Sources

* * * * *

External links

Адыгэ Республикэм и Лъэпкъ театр
(in Adyghe)
The Voice of Circassians (Adyghe Language)

Official website of the Republic of Adygea

Overview of the Republic of Adygea
(''

Kommersant (, , ''The Businessman'' or Commerce Man, often shortened to Ъ) is a nationally distributed daily newspaper published in Russia mostly devoted to politics and business. The TNS Media and NRS Russia certified July 2013 circulation of the daily ...

'' newspaper)
Official Website of the Adyghe State University

Official Website of the Adyghe State University

Official Website of the National Museum of the Republic of Adygea
{{DEFAULTSORT:Adygea, Republic of States and territories established in 1991 Southern Federal District Enclaves and exclaves Regions of Europe with multiple official languages Republics of Russia