RUSSIA - Sakha (Yakutia) Republic - Республика Саха (Якутия) / Саха Өрөспүүбүлүкэтэ

Sakha, also known as "Yakutia" or "Yakutiya" (Russian: Якутия, tr. Yakutiya, Yakut: Саха Сирэ), and officially known as the "Republic of Sakha (Yakutia)" (Russian: Республика Саха (Якутия), tr. Respublika Sakha (Yakutiya), Yakut: Саха Өрөспүүбүлүкэтэ, romanized: Sakha Öröspüübülükete, is a federal Russian republic. It had a population of 958,528 at the 2010 Census, mainly ethnic Sakha and Russians. Comprising half the Far Eastern Federal District, it is the largest subnational governing body by area in the world at 3,083,523 square kilometers (1,190,555 sq mi). Its capital is the city of Yakutsk. It is also known for its extreme and severe climate, with the lowest temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere being recorded in Verkhoyansk and Oymyakon, and regular winter averages commonly being below −35 °C (−31 °F) in Yakutsk. The hypercontinental tendencies also result in very warm summers for much of the republic.

Sakha was first home to hunting-gathering and reindeer herding Tungusic and Paleosiberian peoples such as the Evenks and Yukaghir. Migrating from the area around Lake Baikal, the Turkic Sakha people first settled the middle Lena sometime between the 9th and 16th centuries, likely in several waves, bringing the pastoral economy of Central Asia with them. Sakha was incorporated as Yakutsk Oblast into the Russian Empire in the early-mid 17th century, and the indigenous peoples of the area were made to pay yasak. While the initial period following Russian conquest saw the Sakha population drop by 70%, the czarist period also saw the expansion of the Sakha ethnic group out of the Middle Lena and along the Vilyuy River, the north, and the east, displacing other indigenous groups. Sakha was home to some of the last fighting in the Russian Civil War, and Yakutsk Oblast was reorganized into the Yakut ASSR in 1922. The Soviet period saw the migration of many ethnic Russians and Ukrainians into the area. The modern Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) was established in 1991 following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The exonym Yakut comes from the Evenk term Yаkо, which was the term the Evenks used to describe the Sakha. This was in turn picked up by the Russians. The name Sakha is of Turkic origin. The borders are : internal: Chukotka Autonomous Okrug (660 km)(E), Magadan Oblast (1520 km)(E/SE), Khabarovsk Krai (2130 km)(SE), Amur Oblast (S), Zabaykalsky Krai (S), Irkutsk Oblast (S/SW), Krasnoyarsk Krai (W).

Sakha stretches to the Henrietta Island in the far north and is washed by the Laptev and Eastern Siberian Seas of the Arctic Ocean. These waters, the coldest and iciest of all seas in the Northern Hemisphere, are covered by ice for 9–10 months of the year. New Siberian Islands are a part of the republic's territory. After Nunavut was separated from Canada's Northwest Territories, Sakha became the largest subnational entity (statoid) in the world, with an area of 3,083,523 square kilometers (1,190,555 sq mi), slightly smaller than the territory of India (3.3 million km²).

Sakha can be divided into three great vegetation belts. About 40% of Sakha lies above the Arctic circle and all of it is covered by permafrost which greatly influences the region's ecology and limits forests in the southern region. Arctic and subarctic tundra define the middle region, where lichen and moss grow as great green carpets and are favorite pastures for reindeer. In the southern part of the tundra belt, scattered stands of dwarf Siberian pine and larch grow along the rivers. Below the tundra is the vast taiga forest region. Larch trees dominate in the north and stands of fir and pine begin to appear in the south. Taiga forests cover about 47% of Sakha and almost 90% of the cover is larch. The Sakha Republic is the site of Pleistocene Park, a project directed at recreating Pleistocene tundra grasslands by stimulating the growth of grass with the introduction of animals which thrived in the region during the late Pleistocene — early Holocene period. 

In recent years, global warming has caused the melting of previously frozen soils. Thousands of homes are in danger of collapsing in the mud in summer, while northern villages are overwhelmed by floods. There are over 800,000 lakes in the republic, Sakha's greatest mountain range, the Verkhoyansk Range, runs parallel and east of the Lena River, forming a great arc that begins in the Sea of Okhotsk and ends in the Laptev Sea.  The Chersky Range runs east of the Verkhoyansk Range and has the highest peak in Sakha, Peak Pobeda (3,147 m). The second highest peak is Peak Mus-Khaya reaching 3,011 m. The Stanovoy Range borders Sakha in the south. Sakha is well endowed with raw materials. The soil contains large reserves of oil, gas, coal, diamonds, gold, silver, tin, tungsten and many others. Sakha produces 99% of all Russian diamonds and over 25% of the diamonds mined in the world. Sakha is known for its climate extremes, with the Verkhoyansk Range being the coldest area in the Northern Hemisphere. Some of the lowest natural temperatures ever recorded have been here. The Northern Hemisphere's Pole of Cold is at Verkhoyansk, where the temperatures reached as low as −67.8 °C (−90.0 °F) in 1892, and at Oymyakon, where the temperatures reached as low as −71.2 °C (−96.2 °F) in January 1924.

On April 27, 1922, former Yakutsk Oblast was proclaimed the Yakut ASSR, although in fact the eastern part of the territory, including the city of Yakutsk, was controlled by the White Russians. Sakha experienced significant collectivization between 1929 and 1934, with the number of households experiencing collectivization rising from 3.6% in 1929 to 41.7% in 1932. Policies by which the Sakha were harshly affected resulted in the population dropping from 240,500 in 1926 down to 236,700 at the 1959 census. In 1992, after the fall of the Soviet Union, Sakha was recognized in Moscow as the Sakha (Yakutia) Republic under the jurisdiction of the Russian Federation. Sakha is historically part of Russian Siberia, but since the formation of the Far Eastern Federal District in 2000, it is administratively part of the Russian Far East.

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