Altai People Group

EDITOR’S NOTE: Below is some basic information about the Altai people group. The Engage Russia team will be visiting the Altai people group over the next few weeks and months and will be posting videos, photos, and print materials from those trips as soon as they become available. If you are interested in getting more information about the Altai, or creating a partnership in that area, send an email to TellMeMore@EngageRussia.org.

The Altai Republic

The Altai People are a group of related mountain peoples living beside the streams of the Altai complex of mountain ranges.

The Altaians formed a part of the ancient Turkic kingdoms of Central and East Asia, among them the Kök-Türk and Uigur, then later the Kara-Kitay and the Kitan, who ruled briefly in China at the end of the twelfth century; the Altai region was part of the Mongol Empire in the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries.

The Altaians submitted to the czarist forces and were incorporated into the Russian Empire in the mid-eighteenth century, at the time of the Russian incursion into Dzungaria.

The Altai were originally nomadic, with a lifestyle based on hunting / trapping and pastoralism (mainly cattle, sheep, goats), but many of them settled as a result of Russian influence. In regard to religion, some of the Altai remain Shamanists, while others (in a trend beginning in the mid-19th century) have converted to the Orthodox. (The Altai mission took shape under Saint Makarii Glukharev, Apostle to the Altai.) In 1904, a religious movement called Ak Jang or Burkhanism arose, perhaps in response to Russian colonization.

With the rise of the 1917 revolution, the Altay attempted to make their region a separate Burkhanist republic called Oryot, but their support for the Mensheviks during the Civil War led to the venture’s collapse after the Bolshevik victory and the rise of Stalin. In the 1940s, the Altay were accused of being pro-Japanese, and the word “oyrot” was declared counterrevolutionary. By 1950, Soviet industrialization had cost the Altay 80% of their population. Ethnic Altaians currently make up about 31% of the Altai Republic’s population.

Text Source: Wikipedia – 2009, everyculture.com