One of the 22 republics of the Russian Federation. It is located in the north-eastern part of Siberia. The largest region of the Russian Federation and the largest administrative-territorial unit in the world. The region ranks first in the Russian Federation by rating the total reserves of all types of natural resources. The industry of Yakutia is focused on extraction and enrichment of raw materials. The republic is rich in gold and diamonds.
The Yakut Autonomous Socialist Soviet Republic (YaSSR) was incorporated into the RSFSR in 1922. In 1990, the Declaration on State Sovereignty was adopted, in 1992 the Yakut ASSR was transformed into the Sakha (Yakutia) Republic.
The titular ethnic group is the Yakuts. Language is the defining marker of their differences from the titular nation of the country. The Yakut language (Sakha ) belongs to the Turkic group of languages. Before the arrival of Russians to the region, the traditional religion - Aiy - was widespread among the Yakuts. In the XVIII century, there was a mass process of Christianization, and nowadays most of the Yakuts are Orthodox Christians.
According to the All-Russia Population Census of 2010, the Yakuts constitute the majority of the region's population (49.9%), while the Russians - 37.8%.
It is one of the regions with low level of inter-ethnic tensions. The long-term coexistence of the Yakuts and Russians in the conditions of severe climate led to a rather high degree of mutual understanding and support. Conflict situations in interethnic relations are mainly connected to migration processes.