Yakoutes

The Yakoutes , which name themselves Sakha, constitute Turkish people in the republic of Yakoutie.

The language Yakoute or sakha belongs to the septentrional branch of the languages belonging to the Turkish family. She especially counts approximately 456,000 speakers (Russian census of 2002) in the Republic of Yakoutie which belongs to the Federation of Russia, with some representatives in the areas of the Amour, of Magadan and Sakhaline, and in the Autonomous Districts of Taïmyr and Evenki. The population of Yakoutie is approximately 980.000 of which approximately 382.000 are Yakoutes, that is to say approximately 39% of the population in Yakoutie; this proportion had decreased during the Soviet domination because of the massive immigration and policies of displacement of population, but it since slightly increased. Being given the great number of speakers, it is considered that the language yakoute is a little less in danger that the majority of the other regional languages in the Federation of Russia.

The geography and the economy divide Yakoutes into two principal groups. Yakoutes of North are historically seminomad hunters, fishermen, and stockbreeders of yaks and reindeers, while Yakoutes, which also devote themselves to the breeding, deal especially of horses and cattle. The two groups lived in Yourte S and carried out a seminomad life moving their camp each year according to the winter and the summer.

Origin

The majority of the specialists believe that in the beginning Yakoutes emigrated of Olkhon and the area of the Lake Baïkal towards the basins of the Average Lena and the rivers Aldan and Vilioui, where they mingled with other indigenous populations with North with Russia like the Evens and the Evenks.

During years the 1620 Russians started to settle in their territory, annexed Yakoutie, imposed a tax on the furs and succeeded in repressing several rebellions of Yakoutes between 1634 and 1642. The gold discovery, and later the construction of Trans-Siberian, brought in the area a number of Russians always growing. Before the years 1820 almost all Yakoutes had been converted with the Russian Orthodoxe Church although they had preserved, and always preserve, a certain number of practices chamanists.

In 1919 the new Soviet government called the Socialist area République Soviet Autonome of yakoutie.

The policy of Stalin of collectivization, which started in 1928, because of thousands and of the thousands of deaths, that whose company yakoute really started to be restored only as from the years 1960.

An independent Republic yakoute was proclaimed by the Supreme Soviet of Yakoutie on August 15th, 1991, but, as in the area the Russians clearly carry it of number on Yakoutes, the thing was not carried out.

Random links: