Regional flags and emblems
PROFILE
Established 24 June 1920 as Chuvash Autonomous Area; from 1925 Chuvash Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, from 1990 Chuvash Soviet Socialist Republic, from 1992 Chuvash Republic.
Capital Cheboksary
The Chuvash Republic is part of the Central Federal District
Area 18,300 sq km
Population 1 167 400 (2024)
Ethnic groups
(2020 National Census, %)
Chuvash – 63,7
Russian – 30,70
Tatar – 2,71
Other – 2,86
Administrative divisions (2024)
Municipal districts – 21
City districts – 5
Geography and climate
The region is in the east of the East European Plain, mostly on the right bank of the Volga River, between its tributaries the Sura and Sviyaga. The configuration of terrain is a plain.
The Chuvash Republic borders on the republics of Tatarstan, Mordovia, Mari El, as well as the Nizhny Novgorod and Ulyanovsk regions.
There are over 2,300 rivers, 656 reservoir ponds and 113 lakes. The main rivers are the Sura, Tsivil, Kirya, Bezdna, Kubnya, Bula.
The climate is continental. January temperatures average –11.5°C; July temperatures average 18.6°C.
The republic is home to two state nature reserves, Prisursky and Chavash Varmane, as well as several regional nature sanctuaries and an ethnic and nature park.
Government
The legislative branch is represented by the State Council of the Chuvash Republic, which is the permanent, representative and only body of legislative authority in the republic.
The State Council has 44 deputies elected for five years, with 22 of them running in single-mandate constituencies and the other 22 in the single electoral district, where winners are identified in proportion to the number of votes cast for lists of candidates nominated by electoral associations. The current State Council of the Chuvash Republic was elected in September 2021. Its term expires in September 2026.
The Chuvash Republic’s executive branch consists of the Head of the Chuvash Republic and the Cabinet of Ministers of the Chuvash Republic.
The Head of the Chuvash Republic is the republic’s highest-ranking official who heads the republic’s executive branch, elected for a five-year term by the citizens of the Russian Federation who permanently reside in the republic. The term of the current Head of the Chuvash Republic expires in September 2025.
The Cabinet of Ministers of the Chuvash Republic is the supreme permanent executive body of the Chuvash Republic vested with state authority. The Head of the Chuvash Republic appoints the Prime Minister of the Chuvash Republic with the approval of the State Council of the Chuvash Republic. If the Head of the Chuvash Republic takes office as the head of the Cabinet of Ministers of the republic, the Prime Minister of the Chuvash Republic will not be appointed.
Economy and natural resources
The industrial complex takes the leading place in the economy of Chuvashia and includes the following types of economic activities: manufacturing (about 87% in the structure of industry), distribution and production of electricity, gas and water, mining.
Mineral and raw material potential of the republic is comprised of large deposits of solid raw materials used for producing masonry and tiles, expanded loam and clay materials, mortar sand, carbonate rocks, rottenstone, gypsum and anhydrite, as well as sand-gravel aggregate, peat and sapropel. Over 50 underground reservoirs of groundwater and mineral groundwater have been identified and explored. Mineral water resources in the republic are practically unlimited, as is the wide range of varieties of water discovered.
Industrial output accounts for about 30% of the regional GDP. Manufacturing is supported by the production of electrical engineering, electronic and optical equipment, machines and equipment, transport vehicles, chemicals and foods. Electrical engineering and chemicals have become the main driver of industry’s growth.
Among the largest industrial enterprises are the Tractor Plants Concern, the Ilyenko ELARA Research and Production Complex, Cheboksary Aggregate Plant, Cheboksary Electric Apparatus Plant.
Chemical and consumer goods industries have a considerable share in the industrial potential of the republic, alongside with engineering.
Novocheboksarsk is a major power industry centre. The Cheboksary Hydroelectric Power Station and Russia’s largest factory that produces solar energy modules using cutting-edge innovative technologies are situated there.
The republic’s agriculture almost completely meets the basic food needs of the population. The main agricultural branches are grain production, potato and hop growing, beef and dairy cattle breeding, pig breeding, poultry farming and bee farming.
The republic has set up the Corporation for the Development of the Chuvash Republic, which targets the coordination of infrastructure development processes and drafting concrete investment projects for the republic.
Chuvashia is a large transport hub with crisscrossing railroads, motorways and waterways. It also has air and pipeline transport. The main motorway connecting Moscow with Tatarstan, South Urals, Western and Eastern Siberia runs through the territory of the republic.
Culture and tourism
The territory of the Chuvash Republic has rich historical and cultural heritage, with over 700 objects designated as history and cultural monuments. The greatest number of them is situated in the cities of Alatyr, Cheboksary, Mariinksy Posad, Tsivilsk, Yadrin, and the village of Poretskoye.
Many of them are remarkable architectural monuments, such as the 17th century Cathedral of the Presentation in Cheboksary, the 18th century Kievo-Nikolayevsky Convent in Alatyr, the 18th−19th Tikhvinsky Convent in Tsivilsk, and the 19th century Ascension church in Semyonovskoye, Poretsky District. The republic can boast Tigashevo archeology complex, an archaeological monument of the federal significance known far beyond Chuvashia.
Among places of interests are the Chuvash National Museum, the Museum of Combat Glory, the Republican State Art Museum, the Science and Technology Museum of History of Tractors, the Vasily Chapayev Museum, various archeological monuments of the Abashevo and Balanovo cultures, as well as nature parks and reserves and monasteries and churches.
The Mikhailov International Opera Festival is one of the most impressive cultural events in the republic alongside the Cheboksary International Film Festival.
The Springs of Russia national folk art festival has a special place among cultural events. It is held annually on June 24, Republic Day.
Residents of Chuvashia can enjoy a myriad of tours devoted to health, culture, education, religion, hunting and fishing, and can enjoy cruises and tours on the Volga as well on land by bus.
The Yasna, a centre for domestic and foreign tourists, is an ethnic and environmental complex, which was set up as part of the Creating “Ethnic Chuvashia” Tourist and Recreational Cluster initiative.