The Republic of Mordovia
(Республика Мордовия)

The Republic of Mordovia is located in the centre of European part of Russia in the Volga basin. Total occupied area is 26.2 thousand sq. km. The Republic stretches from west to east for about 280 km and from north to south for 55 to 140 km. It borders the Nizhny Novgorod region in the north, the Ulyanovsk region in the east, the Penza region in the south, the Ryazan region in the west and Chuvash Republic in the northeast.

The Republic is divided into 22 administrative districts. There are 7 towns within its territory, among them Saransk, Ruzaevka, Kovylkino are under republican subordination and Ardatov, Insar, Krasnoslobodsk, Temnikov are under district subordination. The capital of the Republic is Saransk with population of 336 000 people (2003) which is situated 600 km away from Moscow.

The Constitution of the Republic of Mordovia was adopted on the 21st September 1995.

The population of Mordovia has been estimated at 899.6 thousand people as on 1st January 2003. Mordovia is a multinational republic. Mordva, Russians, Tatars, Belorussians, Ukrainians, Udmurts, Armenians and other nations live on its territory. The Republic of Mordovia is one of the densely populated areas in the centre of Russia. The population density is five times higher than all over Russia on the average.

The dominating religion of the Republic population is Orthodox Christianity. The state national official languages are Russian and Mordovian (moksha, erzia). The Mordovian language belongs to Finno-Ugric group of Ural-Altay language family.

The region is a part of the Volga-Vyatka economic region. The main industrial centres are Saransk and Ruzaevka. Mordovia is located at the joint of forest and steppe natural zones therefore its landscape is extremely different including dark forests, forest-steppe, black fertile lands and traces of Middle Russian highland, marshes and sands, rivers and lakes, chalk mountains and smooth contours of black fertile areas. There are hot summer days and freezing winter frosts. There are more than 200 species of birds and about 60 species of mammals.

Agro-climatic resources of Mordovia are rather favourable for development of many branches of agriculture. Hot temperature is sufficient for planting winter rye, spring and winter wheat, barley, potatoes, hemp, forage crops.

Stable political climate in Mordovia enables growth of economic potential.

1. What is the population of the Republic?

2. When was the constitution of the Republic adopted?

3. Do you know any famous people of the Republic of Mordovia?

4. What are the official languages in the Republic?

5. What are the main industrial centres of the Republic?