Bashkiria or Bashkortostan is located in the Southern Urals. A tourist trip to Bashkiria is interesting for two reasons. The first is the region's rich natural resources. The landscapes of the Urals and the Southern Urals proper with rivers, lakes, waterfalls, mountains and caves make it possible to implement interesting programs for ecological, hiking, sports and even extreme tourism. The second reason is the unique opportunities in terms of ethnographic tourism. Bashkiria is a "melting pot" of nationalities living in the region and a mixture of cultures. Some areas of the region are dominated by Russians, others by Bashkirs, and there are areas with a majority of Tatars, Belarusians or Maris. In one trip, you can visit Orthodox churches or mosques, take part in the Sabantuy national holiday or celebrate Orthodox Easter.
Ufa is the capital of the republic and one of
the Russian millionaires. This is, in general, a very young city that
grew up after the war, but there is also an old part in it, which is
well preserved by Ural standards. Mosques, the high bank of the Belaya
River and the one-story building areas adjacent to the center give a
special flavor to old Ufa. Above the river there is a monument to
Salavat Yulaev - the symbol of Bashkiria, there are still many carved
wooden houses in the quiet streets, here are curious modern buildings in
the national style, an extensive national museum and the best museum of
archeology and ethnography in the Urals: in short, in Ufa you can easily
spend both at least a day and you will see a lot of things that are not
shown in other places.
Sterlitamak is
the second largest city in Bashkiria and the center of a large
industrial agglomeration that combines all facets of the chemical
industry from oil refining to soda production. The historical center of
Sterlitamak is small and not very cozy, but in it you can see a lot of
pre-revolutionary stone houses, colorful wooden houses with colored
shutters almost rooted into the ground, as well as an old wooden mosque
and a good example of a modern mosque. There are also carved wooden
houses in Sterlitamak, some of the best in the republic. To the east of
the city there are hills standing separately in the steppe - Ishimbay
and Sterlitamak shikhans.
Ishimbuy is a
pioneer of the oil industry in the region, the capital of the Second
Baku, a city of labor prowess and glory, which is part of an industrial
agglomeration of three cities - Sterlitamak, Ishimbay and Salavat. In
the city, oil production and oil refining began in Bashkiria, light
industry enterprises, a plant that produces all-terrain vehicles, and an
oil refinery are operating. The city is built up with typical buildings
and is known for its professional drafts school. There are many
monuments in Ishimbay, which gives the city an unforgettable style.
Salavat is the third largest city
in the region, the former settlement of Ishimbaya, founded after the war
in connection with the construction of a petrochemical plant. You should
not look for anything historical in the city, but its center contains a
good ensemble of Soviet architecture, several modern churches and
mosques are nearby, and the Neftekhimik Palace of Culture, made in the
national style, crowns all this. Salavat is also proud of a separate
city tram line that delivers workers to industrial enterprises. The
plant, located far from the city center, is perfectly visible from the
road to Sterlitamak and is an infernal spectacle.
Beloretsk is the only old factory town in
Bashkiria that has preserved its traditional metallurgical profile, a
huge factory pond, and even some industrial buildings of the early 20th
century. The center of Beloretsk, on the contrary, was built up after
the war and is a good, and most importantly, a very cozy ensemble of
Stalinist architecture. A staggering and unparalleled wooden bridge was
thrown across the pond to the plant, popularly known as the
“metallurgist's path”. To the east of Beloretsk, the highway crosses the
Ural Range, here are ski resorts: this is perhaps the most picturesque
part of the Southern Urals, which can be seen simply from the road.
Neftekamsk
Oktyabrsky
Birsk
Kumertau
Meleuz
Belebey
Abzakovo is a ski resort halfway between Beloretsk and Magnitogorsk,
the largest in Bashkiria. This area, with wide valleys and smooth, as if
on purpose, rounded peaks, is one of the most beautiful in the Southern
Urals. It is interesting not only in winter, but also in summer, when
you can walk in the surrounding mountains, see picturesque gorges and
waterfalls, or visit the ancient city of Verkhneuralsk, located in the
steppe near the eastern slopes of the Ural Range.
Iremel is a place
for those who want to see real mountains in the Urals. The peak of the
same name has a solid height of 1582 m (this is the second of the main
peaks of the Southern Urals) and is characterized by a rapid change of
natural zones: there is a forest along the slopes, and there is already
a rocky tundra at the top, but it is quite possible to conquer this peak
in one day.
Bashkiria National Park does not contain high mountains.
Its charm lies in the rocky banks of the rivers and numerous karst
caves, one of which collapsed, forming a unique karst bridge. There are
also beautiful landscapes outside the park: for example, the
Muradymovskoye Gorge, which is part of the Bashkir Ural Biosphere
Reserve.
The village of Chishmy is located an hour's drive from Ufa
and would not differ from hundreds of other settlements near the
station, if there were not two mausoleums from the times of the Golden
Horde in it at once - a completely unique case for Russia. On the way to
Chishmy, there is the only ethnographic museum in the whole of Bashkiria
in Yumatovo, and then the path lies to the Susak-Tau and Satyr-Tau
mountains - picturesque hills-outliers standing in the middle of a flat
forest-steppe
Shulgan-Tash is a small nature reserve created to
protect traditional beekeeping. Tourists are shown a sight of a
different kind - Kapova Cave, in which cave paintings of primitive man
have been preserved. On the way to the reserve, there is a beekeeping
museum and mountain villages, where you can see traditional Buryat
cemeteries or, for example, the remains of the old Demidov factory.
Red Key
Bashkiriya National Park
South Ural Reserve
People usually go to Bashkiria for natural attractions, although city
lovers will also have something to see here. On the map, Bashkir sights
are located unevenly: almost all of them are located in the eastern part
of the republic, and the Ural Range is to blame. Its southern part is
divided approximately equally between Bashkiria and the Chelyabinsk
region, and the highest point of the Southern Urals - Mount Yamantau -
fell just into the Bashkir part. Where the mountains are lower, rocky
remnants rise above the forest - for example, Inzersky Zubchatki.
Finally, even lower, the rocks form river valleys, and one of such
places is the Arsky stone on the Belaya River. In general, there are
dozens, if not hundreds, of interesting mountain landscapes on the
territory of Bashkiria: they exist both near civilization and far from
it. There are several protected natural areas on the territory of the
republic, including the Bashkir Reserve, the National Park of Bashkiria
and the Shulgan-Tash Reserve. The latter is also interesting from an
ethnographic point of view as a place where the traditional Bashkir
craft, beekeeping, is preserved.
In the area of the Orenburg
highway, mountains give way to hilly forest-steppe. In this area, the
gently sloping treeless mountains that suddenly appear in the middle of
the steppe are interesting: the Sterlitamak shikhans, as well as the
massif of the Demsky Mountains southwest of Ufa. Of the numerous caves,
only Kapova (Shulgan-Tash Reserve) is easily visited, where prehistoric
drawings are located.
There are two major archaeological sites in
Bashkiria: the already mentioned rock paintings in the Kapova Cave and
the Akhunov menhirs - something like an ancient sanctuary. Oddly enough,
there are also two medieval monuments - these are the mausoleums of the
XIV-XV centuries. near the village of Chishmy. They belong to no more
than a dozen buildings left in Russia from the Golden Horde. The rest of
the Bashkir monuments are not older than the second half of the 18th
century. There are old stone buildings in many cities of the republic,
but almost everywhere they are thinned out and crushed by modern
buildings. There are no merchant cities comparable to Irbit, Shadrinsk
or Sarapul in Bashkiria, and if anything in this genre deserves
attention here, then only the center of Ufa. On the contrary, the areas
of wooden buildings are very interesting and colorful, whether they are
wonderful carved houses in Ufa, one-story shacks grown into the ground
in Sterlitamak, or picturesque villages located in the mountains. A
couple of hundred years ago, dozens of metallurgical plants worked on
the territory of present-day Bashkiria, but only one of them survived -
in Beloretsk (and that is rather conditional). The ruins of the old
workshops are still found in the villages and villages of mountainous
Bashkiria.
Skiing
Bashkiria rests on the western slopes of the Urals. The
famous Abzakovo ski resort is located on the territory of the republic,
although it is more convenient to get to it from the territory of the
Chelyabinsk region - from Magnitogorsk. The same story with the ski
center on Lake Bannoe - in fact, this is all around Magnitogorsk. But
there are ski resorts in Sterlitamak (Kush-Tau), Salavat (Zirgan-Tau)
and Beloretsk (Mratkino), as well as in Ufa itself (Ak-Yort).
Checkers
Drafts have received professional development in the
republic. There is a professional drafts club "Ishimbay" in Ishimbay.
There are two state languages - Russian and Bashkir, but in fact
there is a trilingualism in the region: in addition to the state
languages, the Tatar language is widely spoken. The Tatar and Bashkir
languages are mutually intelligible, therefore Tatars and Bashkirs in a
conversation with each other can speak their own language. To an
outsider, these languages are indistinguishable. The Russian population
most often does not own either one or the other, and is wary of studying
them.
Inscriptions and signs are usually made in two languages:
Russian (bottom or left) and Bashkir (top or right). Bashkir belongs to
the Turkic languages, uses the Cyrillic alphabet with nine additional
letters. Previously, the Bashkir language used Arabic letters and the
Latin alphabet.
By plane
The only operating passenger airport is located in Ufa.
It operates flights to Moscow, St. Petersburg, the cities of the Volga
region and Western Siberia, as well as international flights to Central
Asia, Dubai and Istanbul.
If you are traveling to the mountainous
part of Bashkiria (Beloretsk, Sibay), it is convenient to use the
Magnitogorsk airport, which has regular connections with Moscow. The
airport is even located on the territory of the republic, but
Magnitogorsk itself is already in the Chelyabinsk region.
Not far
from the western border of Bashkiria are the airports of Bugulma,
Izhevsk and Naberezhnye Chelny-Nizhnekamsk (Begishevo), but all of them
only make sense if you are then taken to Bashkiria by car, as the bus
service in these parts leaves much to be desired, and through Ufa you
will reach faster.
By train
The main line
Samara-Chelyabinsk-Petropavlovsk-Omsk passes through Ufa, so there is a
fairly large flow of trains, including Siberian and Kazakh ones, and in
the western direction you can reach Moscow or the cities of the Volga
region. Several times a day trains come from Ulyanovsk via Dimitrovgrad.
Another major railway goes from Kazan through the Udmurt Sarapul to
Yekaterinburg, crossing Bashkiria in its northern part, which is
unlikely to be of interest to travelers, but here you can transfer to a
bus and go deep into the republic. There is also a railway in the
direction of Orenburg, but there is practically no passenger traffic
along it.
By bus
Ufa is connected by bus with the capitals and
major cities of most neighboring regions: Yekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk,
Magnitogorsk, Perm, Izhevsk, Kazan, Orenburg. The distances are long,
the trip will take a whole day. Private minibuses are much more nimble,
but they do not call in cities along the way.
In addition to
long-distance interregional routes, there is regular local communication
between Bashkir Beloretsk and Chelyabinsk Magnitogorsk. Other cities in
the eastern part of Bashkiria (Uchaly, Sibay) are also tied to
Magnitogorsk and Chelyabinsk to a large extent.
From Bugulma
(Tatarstan) several times a day there are buses to Oktyabrsky.
By
car
Federal highways M5 "Ural" and M7 "Volga" pass through Bashkiria
from Samara and Kazan, respectively. In Ufa, these routes merge and go
on as a whole to Chelyabinsk. From the south, the P240 highway leads
from Orenburg to Ufa. From Perm, the best route is along the Kama to the
city of Osa and from there through Birsk to Ufa. Finally, from the side
of Udmurtia, the difficulty is that there is only one permanent
automobile crossing across the Kama - this is the dam of the Votkinskaya
hydroelectric power station in the city of Chaikovsky. A shorter route
is a ferry crossing between Sarapul and Neftekamsk.
Traveling around Bashkiria will require a fair amount of skill from
the traveler. All natural attractions are located away from major cities
and public transport routes. If you don't have a car and aren't prepared
to take a taxi or rely on hitchhiking luck, it's worth considering using
the services of a tour operator. All local companies offer short tours
around the republic, including a visit to two or three sights, a
transfer, an overnight stay at camp sites and, possibly, meals in the
national style. This is a fairly convenient and not too expensive
option.
There is no local aviation in Bashkiria, although from
time to time there are attempts to revive it.
Suburban rail
service is available on most lines, however, only electric trains around
Ufa (to the village of Chishmy and the city of Asha, but the latter is
already in the Chelyabinsk region) and two suburban trains on the line
to Beloretsk with a change at Inzer station are of practical value to
the traveler. There are few trains in the southern direction to
Sterlitamak-Kumertau, and they run twice as slow as buses.
Bus
routes are operated by Bashavtotrans, whose website has full timetables
and ticket sales. Private carriers mainly work on interregional routes,
which are not very convenient for moving within the republic, since
long-distance express buses travel the shortest route and do not call
into cities along the road.
The roads of Bashkiria usually have
good coverage. Four-lane sections - P240 (Orenburg highway) from Ufa to
Sterlitamak and M7 about 80 km west of Ufa. The rest of the roads are
two-lane.
There are several car rental companies in Ufa.
Bashkir national food is akin to the cuisines of other Turkic
peoples. It is closest, of course, to the Tatar one, but simpler and
somehow larger: for example, if the Tatar dessert chak-chak consists of
thin sticks of dough doused with honey, then in the Bashkir version the
sticks reach the size of corn flakes. In Bashkiria, fewer spices are
used, most often limited to simple salt and pepper. Horse meat occupies
a considerable place in the Bashkir cuisine.
The most affordable
Bashkir pastries are served in all canteens, cafeterias and roadside
cafes. You can buy it with you, but it is better to eat it right on the
spot warmed up:
Uchpochmak - a triangle of thin dough stuffed
with meat, potatoes and onions
Elesh - resembles uchpochmak, but has
a round shape and is stuffed with chicken with potatoes and prunes
Belish (belyash, peremyach) - yeast dough pie stuffed with meat and
onions
Gubadya - a closed pie with salty or sweet filling (meat,
rice, dried fruits); in Bashkiria often takes the form of individual
pies
The most national dish that you can try in public catering
is beshbarmak (bishbarmak) - boiled meat with noodles. Thick soups based
on meat and noodles - ulush, urya - are also common. Any restaurant
related to national cuisine will also offer more international oriental
dishes: shurpa, manti, ayran or similar drinks, and so on.
Honey
is considered the main Bashkir national product. It is sold in ordinary
shops and souvenir shops, in markets and just on the roads. Another
characteristic product is horsemeat sausage, including kazy, which is
often consumed boiled: including as part of beshbarmak.
It comes from the ethnonym of the Bashkirs - Bashkort (Bashk.
Bashkort) and the suffix -stan (Persian ستان - "country").
The
first mention of the area in the form of Bashgurd in the work of
Fazlallah Rashid-ad-din "Oguz-name" refers to the VIII century. The
names Bashgird, Bashgird, Baskardia, Bashgirdiya and others were
universally known in Arabic-Persian and Western sources of the Middle
Ages.
In the XVI-XVII centuries, in Russian sources, the
territory of residence of the Bashkirs was designated as the Ufimsky
district or Bashkiria. Initially, the name was used in the form of
Bashkirs, Bashkirdiya, Bashkir Territory, Bashkir Province.
According to the Constitution of the Russian Federation, the name of the
subject of the Russian Federation: the Republic of Bashkortostan.
According to the Constitution of the Republic, the names Bashkortostan
and the Republic of Bashkortostan are equivalent.
Bashkortostan is located on the western slopes of the Southern Urals and in the Cis-Urals. The highest point on the territory of the republic is Mount Yamantau (1640 meters). The length of Bashkortostan from north to south is 550 km, from west to east - 430 km. The Republic of Bashkortostan is in the MSK+2 time zone. The offset of the applicable time from UTC is +5:00
There are three main regions in the geological structure of the
republic: Western, Southern and Mountainous Bashkortostan.
The
republic has deposits of oil (about 200 registered deposits), natural
gas (projected reserves of more than 300 billion m³), coal (about 10
deposits, balance reserves up to 0.5 billion tons), iron ore (more than
20 deposits, balance reserves of about 100 million tons), copper (15
deposits) and zinc, gold (over 50 deposits), rock salt, high-quality
cement raw materials.
There are more than 12,000 rivers and about 2,700 lakes, ponds and reservoirs in Bashkortostan. Underground water sources are rich. The largest rivers: Belaya (Agidel) (1430 km) and its tributaries Ufa (918 km), Dema (535 km), Sim (239 km), Nugush (235 km), Urshak (193 km), Ashkadar (165 km), Sterlya (94 km). The largest number of lakes is located in the Trans-Ural part of the republic. Almost all lakes of the Bashkir Trans-Urals have an oblong shape and are elongated parallel to the mountain ranges. These lakes are abundant in fish (up to 40 species). Among the lakes of the western part of the republic, the largest are: Aslykul, which has an area of 18.5 km², and Kandrykul, with an area of 12 km².
Forests occupy more than 40% of the territory of the republic. In the
Cis-Urals, these are mixed forests, in the western foothills,
mountainous regions and the Bashkir Trans-Urals there are
pine-deciduous, birch forests and dark coniferous taiga. In the
Cis-Urals, forest-steppes with birch and oak forests, forb-feather grass
steppes are also common, in addition, the steppes extend into the
Trans-Ural regions. The soils are mainly gray forest, chernozem,
sod-podzolic.
On the territory of the republic there are 77
species of mammals, about 300 species of birds, 42 species of fish, 11
species of reptiles, 10 species of amphibians, 15 thousand species of
insects, 276 species of spiders, 70 species of ticks, 120 species of
mollusks, 140 species of crustaceans, about 1000 species of worms .
Among those listed in the Red Book of Bashkortostan are 18 species of
mammals, 49 species of birds, 7 species of fish, 3 species of
amphibians, 6 species of reptiles and 29 species of invertebrates,
including 28 species of insects.
There are three reserves in the republic (Bashkir Reserve, South Ural Reserve, Shulgan-Tash Reserve), 1 biosphere reserve, 1 national park (Bashkiria National Park), 29 reserves, 5 natural parks (Asylykul, Zilim , "Iremel", "Kandrykul", "Muradymovskoe Gorge"), 183 natural monuments, the Botanical Garden-Institute, 7 health-improving areas and resorts (districts of the mountain and sanatorium protection of the sanatoriums "Green Grove", "Karagay", "Yumatovo" and resorts "Krasnousolsky", "Yangan-Tau", "Yakty-Kul", "Assy" and others). The total area of specially protected natural areas is 1064.7 thousand hectares (6.9% of the area of the republic).
The climate is continental. Average annual temperature: +0.3 °C in
the mountains and +2.8 °C in the plains. Average January temperature:
-18 °C, July: +18 °C.
The number of sunny days per year ranges
from 287 in Aksenov and Beloretsk to 261 in Ufa (the smallest number of
days is in December and January, the largest is in the summer months).
The average absolute minimum air temperature is -41 °C, the absolute
maximum: +42 °C. A stable transition of air temperature through 0°
occurs on April 4-9 in spring and October 24-29 in autumn, in
mountainous regions on April 10-11 and October 17-21, respectively. The
number of days with positive air temperature is 200-205, in the
mountains 188-193. The average date of the last frost is May 21-30, the
latest is June 6-9, and in the northern and mountainous regions June
25-30. The average date of the first frost is September 10-19, the
earliest is August 10-18.
300 ... 600 mm of precipitation falls
annually, there is a rather sharp differentiation of precipitation over
the territory of the republic, and their amount depends primarily on the
nature of atmospheric circulation. The influence of the Ural Mountains
is especially strong here. On the western slopes of the Ural Mountains,
the annual precipitation reaches 640–700 mm, on the eastern slopes it
does not exceed 300–500 mm, and in the western flat part of
Bashkortostan it is 400–500 mm. 60-70% of precipitation falls during the
warm season (from April to October). The maximum daily precipitation
falls on the summer months (78–86 mm).
The earliest date for the
appearance of snow cover is September 12–20, the earliest date for the
formation of stable snow cover is October 16–24, in mountainous areas it
is October 5–12, the average date for snow cover is November 3–13. The
average date of snow cover melting is April 14-24. The number of days
with snow cover is 153-165, in mountainous areas - 171-177. The average
and maximum depth of the snow cover is 36-55 cm, the maximum height can
reach 106-126 cm. The average density of the snow cover at the highest
height is 240-300 kg/m³.
The territory of the Southern Urals was characterized by an abundance
of vegetation, livestock and stone raw materials, which attracted people
from various regions.
The earliest monument of human habitation
on the territory of the modern Republic of Bashkortostan is the
Urta-Tube (Mysovaya) site near Lake Karabalykty, dating back to the
Early and Middle Paleolithic. Images of mammoths, woolly rhinos, horses
and other animals on the walls of the Kapova cave (Shulgan-Tash) date
back to the Late Paleolithic (36,400 years ago).
According to one
version, the domestication of the horse took place on the territory of
historical Bashkortostan, as evidenced by the oldest remains of a
domestic horse at the sites of Mullino II and Davlekanovo II, dating
from C-14 at the turn of the 7th-6th millennium BC.
In the
Mesolithic era, there is a significant increase in the population in the
current territory, as evidenced by various archaeological sites of this
period in the Bashkir Trans-Urals. The Neolithic era is characterized by
a transition to a productive economy of agriculture and pastoralism.
From the middle of the 2nd to the beginning of the 1st millennium
BC, in the Bronze Age, the period of intensive development of the
territory of the Southern Urals begins and is associated with the
arrival of the tribes of the Abashev culture. The Abashevites had a high
level of bronze processing and the manufacture of tools from it.
The first mention of the area in the form of Bashgurd in the work of
Fazlallah Rashid-ad-din "Oguz-name" is dated to the VIII century.
The names Bashgird, Bashgird, Baskardia, Bashgirdiya and others were
known in the Arabic-Persian sources of the Middle Ages. About the
country of the Bashkirs, its people and customs were reported in the
9th-13th centuries by the Arab geographers Ahmed Ibn Fadlan and
al-Balkhi, the Italian monk Plano Carpini and the Dutchman Guillaume de
Rubruk. The name of the Bashkort people is first found in the
description of Sallam Tarjeman (first half of the 9th century). The Arab
geographer Idrisi in the 12th century wrote about two regions of the
Bashkirs "internal and external" and mentioned the Bashkir cities of
Nemzhan, Gurkhan, Karakiya, Kasra and Masra. In Russian chronicles, the
first mention of the Bashkir land dates back to 1469.
In the
X-XIII centuries, the western part of the Bashkirs was part of the Volga
Bulgaria.
From 1220 to 1234, the Bashkirs fought against the
Mongols, actually holding back the onslaught of the Mongol invasion to
the west. The Mongol-Bashkir war lasted 14 years. In the Secret History
of the Mongols, the Bashkirs are listed among the peoples who showed the
strongest resistance to the Tatar-Mongols.
In the XIII-XIV
centuries, the entire territory of the settlement of the Bashkirs was
part of the Golden Horde. The Bashkirs receive the right to beat
(labels), that is, in fact, territorial autonomy as part of the Mongol
empire. In the legal hierarchy of the Mongolian state, the Bashkirs
occupied a privileged position.
After the collapse of the Golden
Horde, most of Bashkiria was a special governorship of the Nogai Horde,
the territory of the eastern Bashkirs was part of the Siberian Khanate,
and the lands of the western Bashkirs were part of the Kazan Khanate.
By 1557, on the basis of an agreement, the European part of Bashkiria
was annexed to Russia. This accession took place 5 years after the Kazan
Khanate rejected voluntary accession to the Russian state in 1552, in
connection with which it was conquered and ceased to exist. By the
beginning of the 17th century, after the conquest of the Siberian
Khanate by Russia, the final entry of the peripheral territories where
the Bashkirs lived into Russia actually took place.
Until about
the middle-end of the 17th century, the presence of Bashkiria as part of
Russia was nominal, since Bashkiria was not integrated into the
institutions of Russian statehood for a long time. The Zakamskaya
defensive line, erected in the middle of the 17th century, actually
represented the border between Bashkiria and Russia. Thus, Bashkiria was
isolated not only administratively, but also territorially. Only in the
second half of the 17th century did Russia begin to interfere in the
internal life of the Bashkirs, violating contractual terms, which led to
the first uprisings of 1662-1664 and 1681-1684.
There are three
versions about the entry of the Bashkirs into Russia: voluntary, forced
and voluntary-compulsory. The Bashkir shezher reflects the nature of
contractual relations with the tsarist government, certain conditions
for entry and their immutability unilaterally. The Bashkirs were given
the full right to dispose of their territory, to have their own army,
administration, and religion on it. The exclusivity of relations between
the Bashkirs and Russia is reflected in the "Cathedral Code" of 1649,
where the boyars, under pain of confiscation of property, were forbidden
to seize land from the Bashkirs in any way. The Bashkirs also had the
right to extract salt. Somewhat later, the tsarist authorities violated
certain terms of the treaties (the seizure of patrimonial lands, an
increase in taxes, the destruction of self-government, forced
Christianization, etc.), which repeatedly led to the emergence of
Bashkir uprisings. The most difficult for the Bashkirs is the uprising
of 1735-1740. During this uprising, many of the hereditary lands of the
Bashkirs were taken away and transferred to the Meshcheryak servicemen.
According to the estimates of the American historian A. S. Donnelly,
every fourth person from the Bashkirs died.
From the second half
of the 16th century to the beginning of the 19th century, the Bashkirs
occupied a vast territory from the left bank of the Volga in the
southwest to the upper reaches of the Tobol in the east, from the Sylva
River in the north, including the entire left bank of the Volga, to the
middle course of the Yaik (Ural) in the south, that is were located in
the Middle and Southern Urals, in the Urals, as well as in the Volga and
Trans-Urals.
In the XVI-XVII centuries, in Russian sources, the
territory of residence of the Bashkirs was designated as the Ufimsky
district or Bashkiria. Initially, the name was used in the form of
Bashkirs, Bashkirdiya, Bashkir province.
In 1708, the region was
included in the Kazan province as the Ufa province, which since 1719 was
renamed the Ufa province. In 1774, the Ufa province became part of the
newly created Orenburg province.
By decree of April 10 (21),
1798, the Bashkir population of the region was transferred to the
military service class (Bashkir army) and was obliged to carry out
border service on the eastern borders of Russia. With the annexation of
Kazakh lands to Russia in 1731, the territory of historical Bashkiria
became one of the many internal regions of the empire, and the need to
involve the Bashkirs in the border service disappeared.
In 1865,
the Ufa province was formed by dividing the Orenburg province into Ufa
and Orenburg, which consisted of the Ufa, Belebeevsky, Birsk, Zlatoust,
Menzelinsky and Sterlitamak counties.
The Bashkir cavalry
regiments fought in the ranks of the Russian army as part of the militia
of Minin and Pozharsky, took part in the liberation of Moscow from the
troops of the Commonwealth in 1612, and their role in the Patriotic War
of 1812 was noticeable.
On November 15 [November 28], 1917, the Bashkir Central Shuro
proclaimed and approved by the Constituent Congress of Bashkurdistan the
national-territorial autonomy of Bashkurdistan, the first
national-territorial autonomy in Russia. On November 16 [November 29],
1917, the decision was published.
After the proclamation of the
territorial autonomy of Bashkurdistan, the question of the borders of
the republic arose. The Constituent Kurultai of Bashkurdistan approved
two projects: "Small Bashkiria" and "Greater Bashkiria". There was also
a third project proposed by Ahmet-Zaki Validi, which provided for the
largest territorial formation of all considered. Due to the events of
the Civil War, only the first project was implemented. As a result, the
autonomous republic of Bashkurdistan arose within the borders of "Little
Bashkiria".
On March 20, 1919, the “Agreement of the Central
Soviet Power with the Bashkir Government on the Soviet Autonomous
Bashkiria” was signed in Moscow. By signing this document, Soviet Russia
recognized the first national-territorial autonomy in its composition,
which had existed since 1917. In accordance with the agreement, the
Autonomous Bashkir Soviet Republic was formed. The term "Little
Bashkiria" was further applied to the ASSR. On March 23, 1919, the text
of the agreement was published in the Izvestia newspaper of the
All-Russian Central Executive Committee. This day is considered the
official date of the formation of the Bashkir Autonomous Soviet
Socialist Republic.
On August 12, 1920, the Decree of the
All-Russian Central Executive Committee "On the inclusion of the city of
Sterlitamak in the Ufa province into the territory of the Bashkir
Republic" was signed.
According to the decree of June 14, 1922,
by the decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee “On the
expansion of the boundaries of the Autonomous Bashkir Socialist Soviet
Republic”, the Ufa province was annexed to the Bashkir Republic. "Small
Bashkiria" was expanded to the limits of "Big Bashkiria", which united
up to 87% of the Bashkirs. The city of Ufa becomes the official capital
of the republic. The term "Greater Bashkiria" was used until the
abolition of the canton-volost division in 1930.
On March 27,
1925, the draft constitution (basic law) of the republic was adopted. On
June 23, 1937, in accordance with the new constitutions of the USSR
(1936) and the RSFSR (1937) - the Constitution of the BASSR of 1937, and
on May 30, 1978 - the Constitution of the BASSR of 1978.
During
the Great Patriotic War, more than 100 industrial enterprises, dozens of
hospitals, a number of central state bodies, and 278,000 refugees were
evacuated to the Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. During
the war years, a large number of military units were trained on the
territory of the republic. An important role for industry and the army
was played by oil production, explored in the republic before the war.
The inhabitants of the republic provided significant financial
assistance to the Red Army, collecting tens of millions of rubles for
the construction of aircraft and tanks. The title of Hero of the Soviet
Union was awarded to 280 residents of the Bashkir Autonomous Soviet
Socialist Republic.
In the postwar period, new cities (Salavat,
Kumertau) appeared in the Bashkir ASSR as centers for the development of
petrochemistry, mechanical engineering and aviation. New railways and
roads were created. In the 1960s-1980s, industry, agriculture and
construction developed rapidly in the Bashkir Autonomous Soviet
Socialist Republic. In 1980, the population of Ufa exceeded one million
people.
On October 11, 1990, the Declaration of State Sovereignty
was proclaimed by the Supreme Council of the Republic. According to the
declaration, the republic was transformed into the Bashkir SSR -
Bashkortostan, and on February 25, 1992 it was renamed the Republic of
Bashkortostan.
On March 31, 1992, Bashkortostan signed the
Federal Treaty on the delimitation of powers and subjects of
jurisdiction between the state authorities of the Russian Federation and
the authorities of the sovereign republics in its composition and the
Appendix to it from the Republic of Bashkortostan, which determined the
contractual nature of relations between the Republic of Bashkortostan
and the Russian Federation.
On December 24, 1993, the
Constitution of the Republic of Bashkortostan was adopted, which
approved the post of President of the Republic (since 2015 - the Head of
the Republic of Bashkortostan).
The population of the republic according to the State Statistics
Committee of Russia is 4,080,684 people. (2023). It ranks first in
Russia among the republics in terms of population. Population density -
28.55 people / km² (2023). Urban population - 62.23% (2539327). 31.34%
of the population lives in the capital of the republic, the city of Ufa
and the adjacent Ufa municipal district. The least densely populated are
the Zilairsky (3 people/km²), Beloretsky (3.7 people/km²) and Burzyansky
municipal districts (4 people/km²). The highest density of the rural
population is observed in the Ufimsky (37 people/km²), Karmaskalinsky
(30 people/km²), Chishminsky (29 people/km²) and Tuimazinsky (27
people/km²) municipal districts.
2015 for the republic was marked
by natural population growth (59,196 births, 54,107 deaths). However,
due to the migration outflow (56.9 thousand departed, 51.0 thousand
arrived), the total population decreased by 806 people or 0.02% compared
to 2014.
The national composition of Bashkortostan according to
the All-Russian census of 2010: Russians - 36%, Bashkirs - 29.5%, Tatars
- 25.4%, Chuvashs - 2.7%, Maris - 2.6%, Ukrainians - 1%, people of
others nationalities - 2.7%. In total, representatives of 160
nationalities live in the republic.
The economy of the republic is characterized by a diversified
structure with high indicators of the complexity of development. In
recent years, Bashkortostan has managed to achieve significant economic
diversification. So, for example, the extraction of minerals in the
structure of the gross product of the republic in 2009 was 8.1%, and in
2012 it was already 2.9%. The main specialization is still
manufacturing, primarily oil refining. The Republic ranks first among
the constituent entities of the Russian Federation in terms of oil
refining, gasoline production, diesel fuel production, cattle
population, milk and honey production.
In 2012, the volume of GRP
exceeded 1 trillion rubles. At the end of 2015, the figure is 1 trillion
421 billion rubles or 349.9 thousand per capita. In terms of growth
rates, Bashkortostan is among the top five among the regions of Russia.
The total amount of taxes and fees in 2015 on the territory of the
republic amounted to 266.3 billion rubles. 146.7 billion of them went to
the territorial budget, deductions to the federal budget amounted to
119.6 billion or 45% of the total revenue.
The volume of
investments in the republic in 2015 amounted to 316 billion rubles.
Among the priorities for the Government of Bashkortostan is to increase
the share of investments in the GRP segment to 25% by 2019.
At
the end of 2014, the republic ranked first in Russia in terms of the
share of profitable enterprises. 82.9% of enterprises in the region are
profitable. The national average is 68.42%.
The republic has a
positive balance of foreign trade turnover: $12.5 billion in 2013
(export: $13.7 billion, import: $1.2 billion). At the end of 2014,
Bashkortostan maintained foreign trade relations with more than 104
countries of the world.
In 2014, Bashkortostan was recognized by
the Expert RA rating agency as a region with minimal economic risks. In
October 2014, the international rating agency Standard & Poor's
confirmed the republic's credit rating at BBB, with a stable outlook.
Noting strong liquidity, very low debt levels and moderately strong
financials, S&P specialists still do not rule out a downgrade to BBB -
the outlook is negative due to the negative impact of the Russian
regional finance system, as well as a possible downgrade of the
sovereign rating of the Russian Federation. In accordance with the
criteria of the organization, a single region cannot be assigned a
rating higher than the level of the country as a whole.
The
capital of the republic, the city of Ufa, according to the Forbes rating
is one of the best cities in Russia for doing business.
The largest industrial centers: Ufa, Sterlitamak, Ishimbay, Salavat,
Neftekamsk, Tuimazy, Oktyabrsky, Beloretsk. A high concentration of
production is characteristic, about half of industrial production is
produced in Ufa.
The most important industries are oil refining
(Bashneft-UNPZ, Bashneft-Novoil, Bashneft-Ufaneftekhim), chemistry and
petrochemistry (Gazprom neftekhim Salavat, Ufaorgsintez, Shkapovskoye
and Tuimazinskoye GPP), oil production (Bashneft-Dobycha LLC). The oil
refining complex of the republic is one of the largest in Europe.
Mechanical engineering and metalworking are developed (LLC NPF "Paker").
There is also a woodworking industry and the production of building
materials.
Until 1917, about 100 enterprises of various types
were located on the territory of modern Bashkortostan, and the share of
industry in the economy was 15%.
In the 1930s, the Council of
People's Commissars of the USSR adopted a resolution "On the development
of industry in the Bashkir ASSR." During these years, the foundation of
the oil industry in the republic was laid.
On May 16, 1932, on
the territory of the modern large industrial city of Ishimbay, for the
first time in the entire Urals and the Volga region, the first drop of
"black gold" was mined.
Due to the dominance of the oil industry,
the decline in industrial production in the 1990s in Bashkortostan was
less severe than in the manufacturing regions. At the same time, due to
the depletion of oil reserves, its production dropped sharply in
1980-2006 from 39.2 million tons to 11.0 million tons.
The level of development of the economy of Bashkortostan largely
determines the state of the electric power industry (13% of the
industrial product). Its basis is thermal power plants: Karmanovskaya
GRES, Ufimsky CHPP-1, CHPP-2, CHPP-3 and CHPP-4 in Ufa, CHPP in
Sterlitamak and Salavat, Zauralskaya CHPP in Sibay and Kumertau CHPP.
The construction of the Bashkir NPP was suspended after the Chernobyl
accident.
According to the federal program for the development of
nuclear energy (2005), it is possible to resume the construction of the
Bashkir nuclear power plant in the city of Agidel.
In the 1980s,
in the Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, local enterprises
produced wind turbines with a capacity of up to 30 kilowatts. However,
after the collapse of the Soviet Union, developments in this direction
were suspended. According to the former head of Bashkirenergo, Shamil
Abdurashitov, with due attention from the republican government,
Bashkiria, thanks to its scientific base, could today be one of the
world leaders in the field of wind energy: “This market would be ours,
we would supply half the world with our stations, and Bashkiria would be
the eastern center of the wind industry.”
At the beginning of the
21st century, alternative energy in the republic began to gradually
revive. An experimental wind power plant with a capacity of 2.2 MW is
located in the vicinity of the village of Tyupkildy in the Tuymazinsky
district. Until 2018, it is planned to create seven solar power plants
with a total capacity of 59 MW in the southern regions. In October 2015,
the first stage of the Buribaevskaya SPP with a capacity of 10 MW was
put into operation in the Khaibullinsky district, which became the first
industrial SPP in the republic. Bugulchanskaya SES and Isyangulovskaya
SES also function. In January 2015, the village of Severny (Abzelilovsky
district) completely switched to supply from a wind-solar power plant,
thus becoming the first settlement in the republic with a completely
autonomous power supply based on renewable energy sources.
In 2009, there were 189 large and medium-sized, 4511 small enterprises in the construction industry in the republic. The volume of construction work in Bashkortostan in 2000 amounted to 15.7 billion rubles, in 2005 - 46.4 billion rubles, in 2006 - 56.2 billion rubles, in 2007 - 83.1 billion rubles, in 2008 - 102 .7 billion rubles, 2009 - 80.6 billion rubles. For 2014, it is one of the leaders in Russia in terms of housing commissioning and ranks first in the Volga Federal District.
Agriculture of the grain-livestock direction. Wheat, rye, oats,
barley (grain crops) and sugar beet, sunflower (industrial crops) are
grown. Meat and dairy cattle breeding, meat and wool sheep breeding,
poultry farming, horse breeding, koumiss production and beekeeping are
developed in the republic. Bashkir honey is widely known in Russia.
By the beginning of 2009, there were 916 organizations for the
production of agricultural products, 4214 peasant (farmer) households,
588 thousand personal subsidiary farms in Bashkortostan. In 2007, 285.6
thousand people were employed in the republic's agriculture.
The
Bashkir chernozems, which occupy a third of the territory of the
republic, up to eight meters deep, are among the most fertile in the
world, and cause high crop yields.
There are 78 credit institutions operating on the territory of the
republic: 11 are directly registered in the territory of Bashkortostan
and 67 are represented by branches. The territorial body of the Central
Bank of the Russian Federation is the National Bank of the Republic of
Bashkortostan, which includes 10 cash settlement centers.
According to the Minister of Foreign Economic Relations and Congress
Activities Margarita Bolycheva, Bashkortostan is successfully developing
international trade with China, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and the CIS
countries. There are representative offices in Turkey, Kazakhstan and
Belarus, it is planned to open a representative office of Bashkortostan
in Uzbekistan. The republic offers high-quality competitive products:
aluminum, rubber, honey, oil and fat products.
Bashkortostan is a region with a high potential for tourism and
recreation. Among the key factors that determine its high
competitiveness in the Russian and international tourism markets, a
significant number of natural attractions and historical and cultural
heritage are distinguished.
Popular in the republic are river
rafting, visits to natural attractions, spa treatment, ski tourism. Due
to the diversity of natural landscapes, Bashkortostan is sometimes
called the second Switzerland, while noting the shortcomings, among
which is the insufficient development of tourism as an industry that
generates sustainable income.
The sanatorium and resort complex
of Bashkortostan for 2016 includes 31 sanatoriums and dispensaries, 170
recreational institutions. The number of vacationers in the sanatoriums
of the republic in 2013 amounted to 255 thousand people. It is noted
that health tourism is constrained not by the absence of those wishing
to come to rest in the republic, but by a limited number of rooms.
Demand for health services in the republic exceeds supply, the load of
some sanatoriums exceeds 100%. Due to the lack of calculation of the
unregistered part of the tourist flow in the region, the quantitative
assessment of domestic and inbound tourism seems to be greatly
underestimated. In a number of municipal districts rich in natural
attractions, there is a massive, almost uncontrolled flow of tourists.
The hotel fund of Ufa for 2016 includes 106 hotels and hotels, the
number of rooms of which is 3,641 rooms for 6,443 beds. The average
annual occupancy level of Ufa hotels is 60-70%. The number of tourists
who visited Ufa in 2015 amounted to 650 thousand people, the estimate of
the State Committee for Tourism for 2016 is about one million people. A
large share of the tourist flow to the capital of the republic is made
up of business tourists, who account for about 80-90% of all arrivals.
Guests of the capital, whose goal is educational tourism, make up about
10-20%.
In 2013, the volume of tourist services amounted to 4.28
billion rubles (1st place in the Volga Federal District, 7th place in
the Russian Federation), sanatorium and health services - 4.02 billion
(1st place in the Volga Federal District, 4th place in the Russian
Federation), hotel services - 3.75 billion rubles (1st place in the
Volga Federal District, 6th place in the Russian Federation). Thus, the
total volume of the main types of paid services in the tourism sector
exceeded 12 billion rubles, which corresponds to approximately 1% of the
gross product of Bashkortostan.
The factors hindering the
development of tourism in the region include the insufficient level of
development of infrastructure and services, as well as the low
popularity of unique natural objects, especially outside of Russia. The
disadvantages also include the high cost of living in hotels and
sanatoriums, which sometimes leads to an unreasonably expensive price /
quality ratio. Other weaknesses include a short summer, changeable
weather and insufficient logistics. The latter implies the absence of an
extensive network of roads and firms specializing in the transportation
of tourists to certain places of rest.
Since 2016, the project
"Discover the Republic" has been implemented, aimed at developing
domestic tourism and organizing recreation among the inhabitants of the
region and its guests. The purpose of the portal is to collect
information about the sights of the region. The site provides an
opportunity to independently create a travel itinerary in accordance
with individual budgetary possibilities and accommodation needs. Tour
operators, carriers and other companies engaged in the field of
republican tourism are invited to participate in it.
Highways M5 "Ural", M7 "Volga", highways P240 Ufa - Orenburg, Ufa -
Birsk - Yanaul, Sterlitamak - Beloretsk - Magnitogorsk, Birsk - Tastuba
- Satka, Ufa - Inzer - Beloretsk, Sermenevo - Baymak - Akyar - pass
through the region. Orsk, Beloretsk - Uchaly - Miass and Meleuz -
Magnitogorsk.
By air, the region is connected with dozens of
cities in Russia, the CIS countries, as well as with the cities of
Greece, China, the United Arab Emirates, and Turkey. Ufa has the largest
airport in the region.
The Bashkir region of the Kuibyshev
Railway of Russian Railways operates in the republic, there are railway
lines and branches of the Gorky and South Ural railways. Navigable
rivers: Belaya and Ufa. Developed pipeline transport. The car park is
growing every year.
There are 1,644 preschool educational institutions, 1,587 secondary schools, 10 state universities, 17 university branches, 3 non-state independent and 8 branches of non-state universities in Bashkortostan. Scientific organizations are represented by universities of the republic and branch research institutes (about 80 organizations). In 1991, the Academy of Sciences of the Bashkir SSR was established; earlier, since 1951, the Bashkir branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences worked.
As of December 31, 2016, 168 medical organizations functioned in the Republic of Bashkortostan, including 163 medical organizations subordinate to the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Belarus (of which 22 are autonomous, 131 budgetary organizations, 10 state unitary enterprises of sanatorium-resort organizations); 5 medical organizations subordinate to the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation. The availability of medical care is provided by 162 medical and preventive medical organizations (157 state, 5 federal subordination).
On the territory of Bashkortostan, the leading religions are Sunni Islam (67% of the total number of religious organizations) and Orthodox Christianity (22%). There are 1,445 religious associations operating in more than 22 directions in the republic. Until 1990 there were 15 mosques. In the short post-perestroika time, the leadership of the republic managed to mobilize the necessary resources and build its own mosque for almost every municipal/rural entity. As of 2010, more than 1000 mosques, over 200 Orthodox churches and more than 60 places of worship of other confessions are functioning.
The original culture of the republic is made up of its national and genre diversity and includes elements of folklore, education, science, architecture, music, theater, dance, fine arts, religion, literature, etc.
More than 100 sports are developing in Bashkortostan, more than 75 regional sports federations are accredited.
The main part of the region is covered by radio repeaters of TV
stations. In addition to the central channels from Moscow, local
television and radio broadcasts are distributed in Bashkortostan. Most
of the republic's territory is covered by mobile communications, digital
television, and high-speed Internet.
In Soviet times, the
following newspapers were published: "The Council of Bashkortostan"
("Soviet Bashkiria", from 1918), in the Bashkir language; "Soviet
Bashkiria" in Russian; "Kyzyl tan" ("Red Dawn", from 1918), in Tatar;
"Leninse" ("Leninets", since 1923), in Bashkir and Russian;
"Bashkortostan Pioneers" ("Pioneer of Bashkiria", since 1930), in the
Bashkir language; magazines: "Agidel" (since 1930), "Bashkortostan kyzy"
("Daughter of Bashkiria", since 1968), "Khenek" ("Pitchfork", since
1925), "Bashkortostan ukytyusykhy" ("Teacher of Bashkiria", since 1924),
"Pioneer" (since 1930), in the Bashkir language; "Agitator's Notebook"
(in Bashkir, Russian and Tatar).
At present, the main printed
media in Bashkortostan are the newspapers "Respublika Bashkortostan",
"Bashkortostan", "Kyzyl Tan", "Nedelya", "Ana", "Atna" and others. Local
municipal, public and advertising newspapers are published in the cities
and districts of the republic.
On February 1, 2019, the Bank of Russia issued commemorative coins of the “100th Anniversary of the Republic of Bashkortostan” series into circulation, namely: silver with a face value of 3 and gold with a face value of 50 rubles.