Russia - Eurasia / China

The Aghuls are one of the indigenous peoples of Daghestan, culturally and linguistically akin to the Lezgins and Tabasarans. Traditionally the Aghuls identified themselves only by their village name (Khutkhul, Khorej, etc.).

Ainu

The Ainu are an indigenous people of northern Japan who also resided on the southern half of Sakhalin Island and the Kurile Islands in the former Soviet Union. Early in the twentieth century they numbered several thousand in the territories of the former Soviet Union.

Ajarians

Identification. The Ajarians, a historical-ethnographic group within the Georgian nationality, are the major inhabitants of Ajaría (in Georgian, Ach'ara), one of the oldest provinces of Georgia.

Aleuts

Identification. Until the end of the eighteenth century the Aleuts inhabited the western tip of the Alaska Peninsula and the islands of the Aleutian Archipelago, a chain of volcanic treeless islands that extends in an arc from the Alaska Peninsula westward and separates the Bering Sea from the Pacific Ocean.

Altaians

Andis

Armenians

ETHNONYMS: Self-designation: Hay. Other names include Armyanin (Russian) and Somekhi (Georgian).

Ashkenazim

Identification. "Ashkenaz" refers to the first settlements of Jews in northwestern Europe, on the banks of the Rhine, and to the culture, conservative of sources and customs, as developed through study of Torah (which can refer to the first five books of the Old Testament, the entire Old Testament, or all of Jewish law) and Talmud (a collection of laws and traditions).

Asiatic Eskimos

ETHNONYMS: Yupik (self-designation); depending on the territory inhabited: Nevuga Yupiga, Singhinem Yupiga, Sivugam Yupiga, Ungazim Yupiga; Russian adaptations include Chaplintsy (Unazitsky), Naukantsy, and Sireniktsy.

Avars

ETHNONYMS: Maarulal (self-designation meaning "mountain language"); exoethnonyms: Avar, Haibulu, Khundzi Yarussa. The ethnonym "Avar" became established during the last thirty or forty years and comes from the literary tradition (medieval chronicles).

Azerbaijani Turks

ETHNONYMS: Azerbaijanis (used since 1937 in Soviet Azerbaijan); Azeris.

Balkars

ETHNONYMS: The Balkars or Malkars are designated by other peoples in over a dozen ways, including Alan, Asi (Osi), Asiat, Balqar, Basiani, Basman, Belkyur, Bulgar, Malkan, Malqar, Musavi, Osson, Ovsi, and Saviar. Their most general self-designation is "Taulu" (i.e., mountaineer).

Bashkirs

Identification. The Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (BASSR) was one of the sixteen autonomous republics and other autonomous areas that comprised the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic (RSFSR).

Belarussians

Identification. Belarussians are a majority in the nation of Belarus.

Bukharan Jews

Buriats

Carpatho-Rusyns

Identification. Carpatho-Rusyns are a national minority who have never enjoyed independent statehood.

Chechen-Ingush

Chukchee

Chuvans

Identification. "Chuvans" is an official and popular name of the small group of creolized natives in Pacific Northeastern Siberia who are occasionally listed among the twenty-six titular Soviet Arctic and Siberian minorities (the so-called Peoples of the North).

Chuvash

Identification. The Chuvash live in Russia, primarily in the Chuvash Republic but also in Tatarstan and Bashkirstan and in the Ulianov, Kuibyyshev, and Saratov areas, where they migrated in the seventeenth to eighteenth centuries.

Circassians

Crimean Tatars

Dargins

Dolgan

Don Cossacks

Identification. Originally the Cossacks were free mercenaries who resided in a no-man's-land.

Dungans

Identification. The Dungans are a small ethnic minority, the descendants of the Chinese Muslims who crossed the Russian border from China over 100 years ago.

Estonians

Identification. The Estonians are a nominally Lutheran and Orthodox people inhabiting their own nation on the Baltic Sea and having their own language and culture despite having been dominated by foreign powers over most of their history.

Even

Identification. The Even, like the related Evenki, are singularly distinguished—not only among the peoples of the North and of Siberia, but also among the peoples of the world—by the fact that such a small population occupies such an enormous territory.

Evenki (Northern Tungus)

Gagauz

Identification. There is no exact information about the number of Gagauz in the world today.

Georgian Jews

The presence of Jews in Georgia, according to oral traditions and ancient literary works, dates back about 2,500 years. Despite considerable assimilation into Georgian society, Georgian Jews preserve their identity and see themselves as descendants of the ten branches of Israelites who were settled in Midia by Assyrian kings.

Georgians

ETHNONYMS: Kartveli (Georgian person), Sakartvelo (Georgia). Names for the country in other languages include Gruziya (Russian), Gurjistan (Persian), Iberia (Latin), Vrastan (Armenian).

Germans

Identification. The estimated 2,038,341 Germans who lived in Russia as of January 1989 constituted the single largest ethnic minority group without a settlement area of its own.

Greeks

Identification. The Greek population of the former USSR is the result of various waves of immigration: the Greeks of the Crimea, who settled in the Mariupol region in the 1770s; those who originate from Greece, including the few remaining political refugees who fled Greece after the civil war in 1948-1949; and those who came from the historical Pontus (in the Black Sea region of present-day Turkey) and settled along the Black Sea coast in Russia.

Gypsies

Ingilos

ETHNONYMS: Self-designation: Ingilo (eli). The word "Ingilo" is of relatively recent origin; it has been associated with the Old Turkish word yangili ("newly converted").

Itelmen

Identification. The Itelmen are an aboriginal people of Kamchatka Peninsula, an area in Russia with the status of an oblast (the center is Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskii).

Kalmyks

Identification. The Kalmyks are the Western Mongols, also known as the Oirats," who in the beginning of the seventeenth century undertook migration west, eventually to roam the steppes of the Volga, Don, and Kuban rivers.

Karachays

Identification and Location. The Karachays inhabit the northern Caucasus in the Karachay-Cherkess Autonomous Oblast (AO) of the Stravropolski Krai, in the following districts (raions): Karachay, Malo-Karachay, Zelenchuk, Ust'-Jegutin, and Prikuban.

Karaites

Karakalpaks

Karelians

Identification. The Karelians belong to the Baltic-Finnic branch of the Finno-Ugrian peoples.

Kazakhs

Identification. Kazakhs are a Central Asian people who live mainly in Kazakhstan, formerly the Kazakh SSR.

Ket

Khakas

Khanty

ETHNONYMS: As-iakh, Hante, Ostyak; local names include Beriozov, Irtysh Khanty, Lariak, Obdorsk, and Vasiugan.

Khevsur

ETHNONYMS: Self-designation: Qevsur; Literary Georgian: Khevsuri.

Khinalughs

ETHNONYMS: Khinalugh is the Azerbaijani name for the people and the village they inhabit. Their self-designations are: (1) Kätish, Kätsh khalk (the "people of Ketsh"); (2) Kättid (the "inhabitants of Ketsh").

Komi

Koreans

Identification. Koreans living in the former Soviet Union have traditionally identified themselves either as Koryo Saram (people who came during the Koryo dynasty, A.D.

Koryaks and Kerek

Identification. The Koryaks are the main aboriginal population of the Koryak Autonomous District (okrug, the center of which is Palana), a part of Kamchatka Oblast in Russia.

Kriashen Tatars

Krymchaks

Identification. The Krymchaks are a Jewish ethnic group located on the Crimean Peninsula on the northern Black Sea shores who spoke vernacular Crimean Tatar.

Kubachins

ETHNONYMS: Self-designation: Ugbug, Ugbugan.

Kumyks

Kurds

Identification, Location, and Demography. According to Statistical data for 1989, the total population of Kurds in the USSR was 152,717.

Kyrgyz

Identification. The Kyrgyz are a Turkic-Mongol people who live primarily in the mountainous regions of Central Asia, where their traditional livelihood was that of pastoral nomadism.

Laks

ETHNONYMS: Self-designation: Lakk (sing.), Lakkuchu (pl.). Former self-designations: Ghazi Kumukh or Qazi Qumukh, from the Arabic ghazi (warrior of the faith) and the Lak "Kumukh" (the cultural and political center of the Lak territory).

Latvians

Laz

Lezgins

Lithuanian Jews

Lithuanians

Identification. Lithuania is a Baltic nation bounded on the west by the Baltic Sea, on the north by Latvia, on the east and south by Belarus, and on the southwest by Poland and Russia.

Mansi

Identification. The Mansi, known in older literature as the "Voguls," are one of two Ugrian peoples who live in northwestern Siberia, just east of the Urals in the lowlands crossed by a number of rivers, many of which are tributaries of the Ob.

Maris

Meskhetians

Mingrelians

ETHNONYMS: Self-identification: Margali, Megreli. Others: Mingrelets, Tubal, Zanar.

Moldovans

Identification. Moldova, covering about 32,500 square kilometers, was geographically the next to the smallest of the fifteen republics of the former USSR.

Mountain Jews

Nanai

Identification. The Nanai reside in the Russian Far East, mainly in the Khabarovsk District, along the lower Amur River.

Nenets

Identification. The Nenets are the largest of the groups generally referred to as the "Samoyeds." The Samoyeds also comprise three other linguistically related ethnic entities: the Enets, the Nganasan, and the Selkup.

Nganasan

Nivkh

ETHNONYMS: Giliak, Gilyak; Giriya(a)ku, Nibuhi, Nikubun (Japanese). Forms with final -i as in Nivkhi and Gilyaki are Russian plurals.

Nogays

Old Believers

Orochi

The Orochi are one of the peoples of northern Russia, inhabitants of the Far East living in Khabarovsk Krai, mainly near the month of the Tumnin River; in the past they also lived along the tributaries of the Amur and on Lake Kizi. Their population in 1989 was 915 (in 1926 it was 647 and in 1970 it was 1,089).

Orok

Ossetes

Identification. The Ossetes mainly inhabit both sides of the central Caucasian mountain chain.

Pamir Peoples

Identification. In the Mountain-Badakhshan District of the Tajik Republic, in the deep, high mountain valleys of the western Pamirs live the Pamirians.

Poles

ETHNONYM: Polak (fem. Polka, pl.

Russian Peasants

Identification. The Russian peasants are part of the eastern branch of the Slavic ethnic unit.

Russians

Rutuls

Identification. The Rutuls are a people living in the Caucasus region of what is now southern Russia, in the southern part of Daghestan (Rutul District) in the valleys of the Samur River and its tributaries.

Saami

Selkup

Shors

Siberiaki

ETHNONYMS: Belarussian Siberians; Russian Siberians; Siberiachi; Siberian Cossacks; Sibiriaki; Slavic Siberians; Ukrainian Siberians. Local names include Kamenshchiki (of the Altai) and Semeiski (of Baikal).

Siberian Estonians

Currently, there are approximately 20,000 Estonians in Siberia. Most are descendants of the volunteer settlers who went there around the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries.

Siberian Germans

Identification. Approximately 400,000 Germans live in the southern regions of western Siberia today.

Siberian Tatars

Identification. At the present time there are thought to be over 500,000 Tatars in Siberia.

Svans

ETHNONYMS: Svan: Mushwæn (person), Shwæn (territory); in Georgian these are "Svani" and "Svaneti," respectively.

Tabasarans

Identification. The Tabasarans are an ethnic group of the former USSR; they live in southeastern Daghestan (the Khiv and Tabasaran districts, or raions), and some have resettled in the lowlands (in the villages of Mamedkala and Daghestanskie Ogni in the Derbent District) and the foothills (of the Tabasaran District).

Tajiks

Identification. Tajiks are a Central Asian people who live in Afghanistan, in republics of the former Soviet Union, and in China.

Talysh

Tats

Identification and Location. The Tats live in the Caucasus: in the Azerbaijan Republic and in Daghestan.

Tofalar

Identification. The Tofalar are an ethnolinguistic group and the indigenous people of an area called Tofalaria.

Tsakhurs

ETHNONYMS: Self-designation: Iiqhy. The ethnonyms Tsakhur (Ts'akhur) and Tsakhi are related to the name of the largest village, Tsakhur.

Turkmens

Tuvans

Udis

Identification and Location. The Udis inhabit eastern Transcaucasia, in the district center Vartashen and in settlements in the Nij Kutkashen Raion of the Azerbaijan Republic.

Udmurt

Identification. The Udmurt are an ethnic group who live primarily in the Udmurt Republic in Russia.

Uighur

Identification. The Uighur, a Central Asian ethnic group of the former Soviet Union, are a distinct ethnic group, although unlike larger Central Asian nationalities (such as Uzbek, Kazakh, or Kyrgyz), they are not identified with an autonomous republic.

Ukrainian Peasants

Ukraine is the land of the chernozem (black soil) and the breadbasket of the former Soviet Union. Because of the Ukraine's rich agricultural resources, the peasantry was the majority (75 percent) of its population prior to the Soviet Socialist Revolution.

Ukrainians

Identification. Ukrainians are the second-largest Slavic group in the world and they form the sixth-largest nation in Europe.

Uzbeks

Identification. Uzbekistan ranks third in population of the former republics of the USSR and is the largest of the four republics (Uzbekistan, Tajikstan, Turkmenistan, and Kyrgyzstan) formerly referred to as Soviet Central Asia.

Volga Tatars

Yakut

Identification. The Yakut, who prefer to call themselves "Sakha," live in Yakutia, the Sovereign Sakha Republic of the Russian Federation formed in 1992.

Yezidis

ETHNONYMS: Self-designation: Duasen (pi, Dâseni); Iz(e) di, Yazîdî. The origin of the term "Yezidi" is uncertain; many scholars believe it to be cognate with the Persian iixedy "deity, angel." The Yezidis are often referred to as "devil worshipers" by their Muslim and Christian neighbors.

Yukagir

Identification. The Yukagir are one of the smallest minorities in the former USSR.

Part Two Cultures of China

Achang

Bai

Blang

The Blang live primarily in Menghai County in the southwestern part of Yunnan Province, though some also live in Blang communities in nearby Lincang and Simao prefectures. They numbered 82,280 in 1990 and speak a language that belongs to the Mon-Khmer Branch of the South Asian Language Family.

Bonan

The Bonan numbered 12,212 in 1990, and they live primarily in four villages in Gansu Province. Their population has been growing rapidly; there were only about 5,600 in 1959.

Bouyei

The 2,545,059 Bouyei (1990 estimate) live in Guizhou Province, and they speak a language that belongs to the Zhuang-Dong Branch of the Sino-Tibetan Family. Although there is now a writing system for the Bouyei language, Han is often used in written communications.

Dai

Daur

The Daur are one of China's northern minorities. They numbered 121,627 in 1990.

De'ang

Dong

The 2,514,014 Dong (1990 census) live in numerous villages in the hills along the borders of Hunan, Guizhou, and Guangxi provinces. The Dong language, called Kam, belongs to the Zhuang-Dong Branch of the Sino-Tibetan Language Family.

Dongxiang

The Dongxiang population stood at 373,872 in 1990, having increased rapidly over the previous twenty years. The majority of Dongxiang live in Gansu Province, and a smaller number in Xinjiang Province.

Drung

One of the smallest minority groups of China, the Drung in 1990 numbered 5,816. They are located in northwestern Yunnan Province, near the Myanmar (Burma) border, and are spread over an area of a hundred miles along the valleys of the Dulong River.

Ewenki

Identification. The Ewenki are one of the fifty-five officially recognized minority nationalities of the People's Republic of China.

Gelao

Hakka

Han

Hani

Hezhen

Hui

Jing

The Jing live near the China-Vietnam border, mainly on three islands in the Gulf of Tonkin. The Fangcheng Multi-National Autonomous County (part of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region) is shared by Jing, Zhuang, Yao, and Han.

Jingpo

Jino

The Jino are a small group, numbering only 18,021, who live in Jinghong County, Xishuangbanna Prefecture, Yunnan Province. Their language belongs to the Tibeto-Burman Branch of the Sino-Tibetan Family and is most closely related to Yi and Burmese.

Kazak

The number of Kazak people in China in 1990 was 1,111,718; however, this represents only 13 percent of the entire Kazak population, most of whom reside in Kazakhstan. The Kazak in China live primarily in the Xinjiang Uigur autonomous Region, but some live also in western Gansu Province and in Qinghai Province.

Kirgiz

In 1962 the Kirgiz living in China numbered 66,000, but by 1990 their population had grown to 141,549. This latter figure, however, represents only 7 percent of the entire worldwide Kirgiz population, most of which lives in Kyrgyzstan.

Lahu

Identification. The Lahu are swidden farmers and hunters of the upland regions of southwestern Yunnan.

Lhoba

In 1990 the Lhoba numbered only 2,312. They live in the counties of Mainling, Medog, Lhunze, Nangxian, and Luoyu in southeastern and southern Tibet.

Li

The Li numbered 1,110,900 in 1990 and lived in Hainan Li and Miao Autonomous Prefecture on the island of Hainan, off China's southern coast, in Guangdong Province. (Hainan has since become a province in its own right.) The Li language belongs to the Zhuang-Dong Branch of the Sino-Tibetan Family.

Lisu

Manchu

Identification. From the seventeenth century to the early twentieth century, the Manchu played a key role in Chinese history as the rulers of the Qing dynasty.

Maonan

The Maonan are speakers of the Dong-Shui Branch of the Zhuang-Dong Language Family of Sino-Tibetan. Many also speak Han or Zhuang.

Miao

Moinba

The 7,475 (1990) Moinba live in southern Tibet, primarily in Medog, Nyingchi, and Cona counties. Their language is a member of the Tibeto-Burman Branch of the Sino-Tibetan Family; the Moinba language has many dialects.

Mongols

Mulam

Naxi

Nu

Oroqen

The Oroqen are one of the fifty-five officially recognized ethnic minorities of the People's Republic of China. They are found in Heilongjiang Province (Huma, Xunke, Aihui, and Jiayin counties) and the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region (mainly in Hulun Buir League).

Pumi

Qiang

Salar

About 70 percent of the 87,697 (1990) Salar people live in Xunhua Salar Autonomous County, Qinghai Province. Most of the remainder live in Hualong County, Qinghai Province, and in Linxia County, Gansu Province.

She

Identification. The She are one of China's officially recognized national minorities.

Shui

According to the 1990 census, 245,993 Shui live along the upper portions of the Long and Duliu rivers in southern Guizhou Province. The Shui language belongs to the Zhuang-Dong Branch of the Sino-Tibetan Family.

Tajik

China's 33,538 (1990) Tajik represent less than 1 percent of all Tajik people. The majority live in Tajikistan.

Tatars

Tatar peoples living in China represent only 1 percent of all Tatar peoples. The Tatar population in China was 4,837 in 1990, up from 4,300 in 1957.

Tibetans

Tu

Tujia

Uigur

Uzbeks

The small Uzbek population in China, which was counted at 14,592 in 1990, is but 1 percent of the total worldwide Uzbek population, most of whom live in Uzbekistan. The Uzbeks in China live in Xinjiang Province, primarily in Uzbek communities in cities adjoining the Russian border (Yining, Qoqek [Tacheng], Kashgar, Urumqi, Yarkant, and Kargilik [Yecheng]).

Wa

Xibe

The Xibe people numbered 172,847 in 1990, a sizable increase in population from the 82,629 enumerated in 1982. Many still live in Liaoning Province, and over half live in Xinjiang Province along the Ili River.

Yao

Yi

Yugur

As of 1990, 12,297 Yugur lived in the Hexi Corridor of Gansu Province, with 90 percent of them living in the Sunan Yugur Autonomous County. Those living in western Sunan speak Yohur, a language belonging to the Turkic Branch of the Altaic Family and closely related to Uigur and Salar; those living in the eastern part of the same county speak Enger, a language belonging to the Mongolian Branch of the Altaic Family and related to Bonan, Tu, and Mongolian.