One of the 22 republics of the Russian Federation. It is located in South Siberia, within the left-bank part of the middle reaches of the Yenisei river, in the territories of the Sayano-Altai upland and the Khakass-Minusinsk Hollow. The basis of the region's economy is hydropower and aluminum production.
The Khakas Autonomous Oblast was established in 1930 on the basis of the Khakass National Okrug. It was a part of the West Siberian Territory, and after its enlargement in 1934 - of the Krasnoyarsk Krai. In July 1991 the Khakas Autonomous Oblast withdrew from the Krasnoyarsk Krai and was transformed into the Republic of Khakassia.
The titular ethnic group is Khakas people. The defining marker of their differences from the titular nation of the country is, first of all, language. The Khakass language is linked to the Yenisei Turkic group of the Common Turkic branch of the Turkic languages. Their traditional religion is Shamanism, but in the XIX century, most Khakas people adopted Orthodoxy. According to the All-Russian Population Census of 2010, Khakas people make up only 12.1% of the republic's population, while the majority of the population is Russian (81.7%).
Khakassia is traditionally one of the regions with a relatively stable situation in inter-ethnic relations.