Ethnic Groups

Ethnic Composition of the CIS

Ethnically the Commonwealth of Independent States is one of the most diverse in the world. The peoples of the CIS belong chiefly to four main language groups: Indo-European, Altai, Caucasian and Ural. Within each language family there are clusters of linguistically similar peoples.

The Slavic language group consisting mostly of East-Slavic peoples, namely the Russians, Ukrainians and Belorussians, is the most sizable on the territory of the CIS. The Poles, Czechs and Slovaks also belong here.

The peoples of the Lett-Lithuanian (Baltic) language group, the Lithuanians and the Latvians as well as the Moldavians (the Romanian people) are closely related to the East Slavs by their culture and descent.

The peoples of the Iranian language group of the Indo-European family include the Tadjiks and the peoples of the Pamir (the Shugnan, the Rushan and other), as well as some Caucasian peoples such as the Ossetins, Tats, Talysh and Curds.

The Germans belong to the German language group. To the Germans they also attribute the Jews who believe their native language to be Yiddish (akin to German).

The Turkish group is the most sizable in the Altai language family. The territories inhabited by the Turkish peoples stretch from the Black Sea and the middle Volga in the West to the Chukotka Peninsula in the East. The Chuvash, Tatars, and Bashkirs belong to the peoples of the Volga Territories. The Nogai living to the South of the Volga Tatars share a similar language with them. The Balkars can de found in the foothills of the North Caucasus while the Kumyks inhabit the Caspian territories of Daghestan. The most numerous Turkish-speaking people of the Caucasus are the Azerbaijans. The Gagauz settled in the South of Moldova.

Central Asia and Kazakhstan are the regions where more than half of the Turkish-speaking population of the CIS lives. Here one can find the Uzbeks, Kazakhs, Turkmen, Kyrgyz, Karakalpaks and some clusters of the Uigurs.

Small in number, the Turkish-speaking nationalities such as the Tuvins, Altai, Khakass and Shors inhabit the Southwestern regions of Siberia and Altai-Sayan region. The Yakuts have settled on the territories northwest of the South Siberia Turks.

The Mongolian and Tungus groups also belong to the Altai language family. The Buryats, Evenks and small people groups of the Amur Territories such as the Nanai, Ulchi, Orochi and Udegei constitute the Mongolian group.

The Georgians (Gruzin) are the most numerous among the peoples of the Caucasian family. The Adzhars make up an ethnic group among the Georgians. The Adygei-Abkhaz group of this family consists if the Kabardins, Adygei, Cherkess and Abkhaz. On the other hand, the Chechens, Ingush, several nationalities of Daghestan such as the Avars, Lezgins (Lezghians), Dargins, Laks, Tabasarans and also about 20 small people groups of the Caucasus constitute the Nakh-Daghestan group.

The Finno-Ugrian peoples prevail within the Ural language family. They have dispersed mainly from the Baltic Sea to the Ural mountains. In the western part of this territory there are Estonians, Karyalans (Karelians), Veps and Shors, while in the East one can find the Mordvins, Mari (Cheremiss), Udmurt and Komi (Zyryan). The Saami (Lapps) inhabiting the Kola Peninsula take a separate place among the Finno-Ugrian peoples. The Ugrian sub-group of the same family consists of the Khants (Ostyak) and Voguls (Mansi).

To the North and East of the Khants and Mansi there are certain Samoyed peoples of the Ural language family. They are small in number, but they inhabit vast territories of tundra and taiga. The Nenets, Ents, Nganasan (Tavgi-Samoyed) and Selkup (Ostyak-Samoyed) belong here.

The eastern outskirts of the CIS are inhabited by the so-called Paleoasiatic peoples, the ancient inhabitants of these regions. They include the Chukchi, Koryaks, and Itelmen, whose languages are grouped into the Chukchi-Kamchatka family. The other two Paleoasiatic peoples, namely the Yukagirs living along the upper Kolyma River and the Nivkhi living along the lower Amur River speak their own languages. Small groups of the Eskimos have settled in the extreme North-East of the Chukotka Peninsula. The Aleuts live on the Komandor Islands. The Eskimo and Aleuts languages constitute a separate Eskimo-Aleut family.

List of Ethnic Groups in the CIS