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Tuva (; ), or Tyva (; ; ), 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 dynasty and Nomadic empire Khanate. 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 Separatism violence against Russians triggered an exodus and OMON special police deployment.
, 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. , 61.8% adhere to Buddhism, and 8% to Tengrism or Tuvan shamanism.
From 1758 to 1911, Tuva was part of China's Qing dynasty and administered by Outer Mongolia. During the Xinhai Revolution in China, Russian Empire formed a Separatism movement among the Tuvans while there were also pro-independence and pro-Mongol groups.L. Zhazhmsran. 1995 Tsar Nicholas II agreed to the third petition by Tuva's leadership in 1912, establishing a protectorate over the then-independent state. Some Russians, such as merchants, travellers, and explorers, had already settled in Tuva at that time. Tuva became nominally independent as the Uryankhay Republic before being turned into a Russian protectorate as Uryankhay Krai under Tsar Nicholas II, on 17 April 1914.
A Tuvan capital was established, called Belotsarsk (Белоца́рск; literally, "(Town) of the White Tsar"). Meanwhile, in 1911, with the collapse of the Qing, Mongolia seceded from China, entering Russia's sphere of influence. Following the Russian Revolution of 1917 that ended the imperial autocracy, most of Tuva was occupied from 5 July 1918 to 15 July 1919 by Alexander Kolchak's White Army troops. Pyotr Ivanovich Turchaninov was named governor of the territory. In the autumn of 1918, the southwestern part was occupied by Chinese troops and the southern part by Mongol troops led by Khatanbaatar Magsarjav.
From July 1919 to February 1920, the communist Red Army controlled Tuva but from 19 February 1920 to June 1921 it was occupied by China (governor was Yan Shichao traditional,), until their expulsion by the Bolsheviks in 1921. On 14 August 1921, the established the Tuvan People's Republic, popularly called Tannu-Tuva. In 1926, the capital (Belotsarsk; Khem-Beldyr since 1918) was renamed Kyzyl, meaning "red". The Tuvan People's Republic was de jure an independent state Interwar period. The state's ruler, Chairman Donduk Kuular, sought to strengthen ties with Mongolia and establish Tibetan Buddhism as the state religion. This unsettled the Soviet Union, which orchestrated a coup carried out in 1929 by five young Tuvan graduates of Moscow's Communist University of the Toilers of the East.
In 1930, the pro-Soviet regime discarded the state's Tuvan alphabet designed for Tuva by Russian linguists. In 1943, Cyrillic script replaced Latin. Under the leadership of Party Secretary Salchak Toka, ethnic Russians were granted full citizenship rights and Buddhist and Mongol influences on the Tuvan state and society were systematically curtailed.
Tuva was annexed by the Soviet Union in 1944, with the approval of Tuva's Little Khural (parliament), but without a referendum on the issue. It became the Tuvan Autonomous Oblast, within the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, after the Soviet victory in World War II. Salchak Toka, leader of the Tuvan People's Revolutionary Party, was given the title of First Secretary of the Tuvan Communist Party and became the de facto ruler of Tuva until his death in 1973. The territory became the Tuvan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic on 10 October 1961.
In February 1990, the Khostug Tyva (Tuvan Democratic Movement) was founded by Kaadyr-ool Bicheldei, a Philology at the Kyzyl State Pedagogical Institute. The party aimed to provide jobs and housing (both in short supply), and improve the status of the Tuvan language and culture. It called for the upgrading of Tuva to a full republic of the Soviet Union, and later for an independence referendum. Later in the year, there was a wave of attacks against Tuva's sizeable Russian community, including sniper attacks on trucks, and attacks on outlying settlements, with 168 reportedly murdered. Russian OMON special police units were eventually called in. For supporting the 1991 Soviet coup attempt, the Tuvan local government was forced to resign. Many Russians moved out of the republic during this period. Historian Mark Beissinger attributed the failure of the Tuvan nationalist movement, compared to contemporary movements across the Soviet Union, to the movement's weaker urban networks. Tuva has remained remote and difficult to access.
Tuva was a signatory to the 31 March 1992 treaty that created the Russian Federation. On 22 October 1993, a new constitution was drawn up for the republic, creating a 32-member parliament (Supreme Khural) and a Grand Khural, which deals with local legislation. The constitution was approved by 53.9% (62.2% according to another source) of Tuvans in a referendum on 12 December 1993."Tyva republic approves own constitution", BBC Monitoring Service, December 15, 1993. At the same time, the official name was changed from Tuva (Тува) to Tyva (Тыва).
Major rivers include:
| 1970 | 233 | 6,559 | 1,938 | 4,621 | 28.2 | 8.3 | 19.8 | |
| 1975 | 253 | 6,950 | 2,306 | 4,644 | 27.5 | 9.1 | 18.4 | |
| 1980 | 272 | 7,133 | 2,748 | 4,385 | 26.2 | 10.1 | 16.1 | |
| 1985 | 287 | 8,110 | 2,624 | 5,486 | 28.3 | 9.1 | 19.1 | |
| 1990 | 309 | 8,116 | 2,664 | 5,452 | 26.3 | 8.6 | 17.7 | 3.22 |
| 1991 | 304 | 7,271 | 2,873 | 4,398 | 23.9 | 9.5 | 14.5 | 2.97 |
| 1992 | 303 | 6,545 | 3,006 | 3,539 | 21.6 | 9.9 | 11.7 | 2.68 |
| 1993 | 302 | 6,130 | 3,480 | 2,650 | 20.3 | 11.5 | 8.8 | 2.50 |
| 1994 | 303 | 6,076 | 4,086 | 1,990 | 20.1 | 13.5 | 6.6 | 2.46 |
| 1995 | 304 | 6,172 | 4,010 | 2,162 | 20.3 | 13.2 | 7.1 | 2.47 |
| 1996 | 305 | 5,705 | 4,110 | 1,595 | 18.7 | 13.5 | 5.2 | 2.25 |
| 1997 | 305 | 4,908 | 3,954 | 954 | 16.1 | 12.9 | 3.1 | 1.91 |
| 1998 | 306 | 5,267 | 3,631 | 1,636 | 17.2 | 11.9 | 5.4 | 2.02 |
| 1999 | 306 | 4,894 | 4,142 | 752 | 16.0 | 13.5 | 2.5 | 1.86 |
| 2000 | 306 | 4,871 | 4,170 | 701 | 15.9 | 13.6 | 2.3 | 1.83 |
| 2001 | 305 | 4,992 | 4,165 | 827 | 16.3 | 13.6 | 2.7 | 1.85 |
| 2002 | 305 | 5,727 | 4,576 | 1,151 | 18.8 | 15.0 | 3.8 | 2.10 |
| 2003 | 305 | 6,276 | 4,633 | 1,643 | 20.6 | 15.2 | 5.4 | 2.28 |
| 2004 | 304 | 6,127 | 4,090 | 2,037 | 20.2 | 13.5 | 6.7 | 2.19 |
| 2005 | 303 | 5,979 | 4,326 | 1,653 | 19.8 | 14.3 | 5.5 | 2.11 |
| 2006 | 302 | 5,950 | 3,802 | 2,148 | 19.7 | 12.6 | 7.1 | 2.06 |
| 2007 | 302 | 7,568 | 3,687 | 3,881 | 25.1 | 12.2 | 12.9 | 2.60 |
| 2008 | 303 | 7,874 | 3,526 | 4,348 | 26.0 | 11.6 | 14.3 | 2.68 |
| 2009 | 305 | 8,242 | 3,666 | 4,576 | 27.0 | 12.0 | 15.0 | 2.97 |
| 2010 | 307 | 8,262 | 3,566 | 4,696 | 26.9 | 11.6 | 15.3 | 3.03 |
| 2011 | 308 | 8,478 | 3,403 | 5,075 | 27.5 | 11.0 | 16.5 | 3.25 |
| 2012 | 310 | 8,266 | 3,471 | 4,795 | 26.7 | 11.2 | 15.5 | 3.35 |
| 2013 | 311 | 8,111 | 3,399 | 4,728 | 26.1 | 10.9 | 15.2 | 3.42 |
| 2014 | 313 | 7,921 | 3,419 | 4,502 | 25.3 | 10.9 | 14.4 | 3.48 |
| 2015 | 315 | 7,489 | 3,258 | 4,231 | 23.8 | 10.3 | 13.5 | 3.39 |
| 2016 | 317 | 7,421 | 3,112 | 4,309 | 23.2 | 9.8 | 13.4 | 3.35 |
| 2017 | 320 | 6,977 | 2,788 | 4,189 | 21.9 | 8.7 | 13.2 | 3.19 |
| 2018 | 323 | 6,539 | 2,857 | 3,682 | 20.2 | 8.8 | 11.4 | 2.97 |
| 2019 | 326 | 6,158 | 2,718 | 3,440 | 18.6 | 8.3 | 10.3 | 2.72 |
| 2020 | 330 | 6,582 | 3,024 | 3,601 | 20.0 | 9.2 | 10.8 | 2.97 |
| 2021 | 332 | 6,629 | 3,028 | 3,558 | 20.0 | 9.1 | 10.9 | 2.94 |
| 2022 | 5,997 | 2,867 | 3,130 | 17.9 | 8.6 | 9.3 | 2.51 | |
| 2023 | 5,738 | 2,986 | 2,752 | 16.9 | 8.8 | 8.1 | 2.44 | |
| 2024 | 5,352 | 3,257 | 2,095 | 15.8 | 9.6 | 6.2 | 2.29 | |
| Tuvans | 97,996 | 57.0% | 135,306 | 58.6% | 161,888 | 60.5% | 198,448 | 64.3% | 235,313 | 77.0% | 249,299 | 82.0% | 279,789 | 88.7% |
| Russians | 68,924 | 40.1% | 88,385 | 38.3% | 96,793 | 36.2% | 98,831 | 32.0% | 61,442 | 20.1% | 49,434 | 16.3% | 31,927 | 10.1% |
| Khakas people | 1,726 | 1.0% | 2,120 | 0.9% | 2,193 | 0.8% | 2,258 | 0.7% | 1,219 | 0.4% | 877 | 0.3% | 359 | 0.1% |
| Others | 3,282 | 1.9% | 5,053 | 2.2% | 6,725 | 2.5% | 9,020 | 2.9% | 7,526 | 2.5% | 4,427 | 1.4% | 3,483 | 1.1% |
| 121,093 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. | ||||||||||||||
During the period from 1959 to 2010, there was more than a doubling of ethnic Tuvans. The Russian population growth slowed by the 1980s and decreased by 70% since 1989. The official languages are Tuvan language (Turkic) and Russian language (Slavic languages).
Outside Kyzyl, settlements have few if any Russian inhabitants and, in general, Tuvans use their original language as their first language. However, there is a small population of Old believers in the Republic scattered in some of the most isolated areas. Before Soviet rule, there were a number of large ethnic Russian Old Believer villages, but as atheism spread, the believers moved deeper and deeper into the taiga in order to avoid contact with outsiders. Major Old Believer villages are Erzhei, Uzhep, Unzhei, Zhivei and Bolee Malkiye (all in the Kaa-Khemsky District). Smaller ultra-Orthodox settlements are found further upstream.
Ethnic Russians make up 27.4% of the population (as of the 2021 census) in Kaa-Khemsky District, one of the most remote regions in Tuva. The population is mostly Old believers. Russians account for 18.9% of the population in Piy-Khemsky and 16.4% in Kyzyl.
The Tuvan people – along with the Yellow Uyghurs in China – are one of the only two Turkic groups who are primarily adherents to Tibetan Buddhism, which coexists with native shamanistic traditions.
Tuvans were first exposed to Buddhism during the 13th and 14th centuries, when Tuva entered into the composition of the Mongol Empire. The earliest Buddhist temples uncovered by archaeologists in the territory of Tuva date to the 13th and 14th centuries. During the 16th and 17th centuries, Tibetan Buddhism gained popularity in Tuva. An increasing number of new and restored temples are coming into use, and there has been an upward trend in the number of novices being trained as monks and lamas in recent years. Religious practice declined under the restrictive policies of the Soviet period, but is now flourishing.
According to a 2012 survey, 61.8% of the population of Tuva adheres to Buddhism, 8% to Tengrism or Tuvan shamanism, 1.5% to the Russian Orthodox Church, the Old Believers or other forms of Christianity, 1% to Protestantism. In addition, 7.7% follow other religions or did not give an answer to the survey. 8% of the population declares to be "spiritual but not religious" and 12% to be atheism.
The head of Tuva is the chairman of the government and serves a five-year term which can be renewed. The first Chairman of the Government was Sherig-ool Oorzhak. On 3 April 2007, Russian president Vladimir Putin nominated Sholban Kara-ool, 40, a former champion wrestler, as the Chairman of the Government of Tuva. Kara-ool's candidacy was approved by the Khural on 9 April 2007. Kara-ool served from 2007 until 2021. The third and current Tuvan head of government is Vladislav Khovalyg.
Tuva's legislature, the Great Khural, has 32 seats as of 2023; each deputy is elected to serve a five-year term.
In the 2024 Russian presidential election, which critics called rigged and fraudulent, President Vladimir Putin won 95.37% of the vote in Tuva.
Tuva is served by Kyzyl Airport.
The Tuvan craft tradition includes carving the soft stone, agalmatolite. A frequent motif is hand-held-sized animals, such as horses.
Important archaeological excavations in Tuva include Arzhaan-1 and Tunnug 1, dating to the ninth century BC. (2026). 9781402026553 ISBN 9781402026553 and Arzhaan-2, where Scythian art in great variety, and over 9,000 decorative gold pieces were unearthed. A collection of gold jewelry from this site is on display at the National Museum Aldan-Maadyr in Kyzyl.
Festivals celebrating Tuvan traditions include the ecological film festival "The Living Path of Dersu", the Interregional Festival of National Cultures "Heart of Asia". It has become a tradition to hold the international festival of live music "Ustuu-Khuree", the International Symposium "Khoomei – the Phenomenon of the Culture of the Peoples of Central Asia", the Regional Competition-Festival of Performers on National Instruments "Dingildai", the International Felt Festival "Patterns of Life on Felt" Pop songs "Melodies of the Sayan Mountains".
In Tuva, shamanism peacefully coexists with Buddhism. Buddhism is associated with many folk rituals, calendar holidays, and folk medicines in Tuva. Centers of Buddhism in Tuva are Khuree – temples, temple complexes; the temple complex Tsechenling in Kyzyl is the residence of Khambo Lama, head of Buddhism in Tuva. Treasures of the old Slavonic culture in the Asian Tuva saved along with the values of other peoples – children's folklore ensemble "Oktay" from the city of Kyzyl in the course several ethnographic expeditions in the old believers ' settlements were able to collect an extensive collection of samples of ancient singing art.
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