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Republic of Bashkortostan
// GENERAL INFORMATION
Republic of Bashkortostan is a democratic, constitutional, sovereign state within the Russian Federation expressing the will and interests of its multinational population. The republic possesses full state authority outside the realm of jurisdiction and powers of the Russian Federation in matters concerning joint jurisdiction of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Bashkortostan; determines and implements internal policy; participates in international relations within the limits of its authority; and has its own Constitution and legislation.
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The Republic of Bashkortostan was proclaimed a sovereign republic of the Russian Federation on October 11, 1990. The President is the head of state and the republic's highest official. The bicameral National Assembly, or Kurultai, is the highest legislative and representative body; and the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Bashkortostan is the highest executive body.
The Republic of Bashkortostan covers an area of 143 600 km2 or 0.8% of the total area of the Russian Federation. It occupies a large part of the Southern Urals, the adjacent Bashkirian part of the Ural foreplains, and the high plain belt of the Bashkirian Transural region. It borders on Perm and Sverdlov regions in the north, Chelyabinsk Region in the southeast, Orenburg Region in the south and southwest, the Republic of Tatarstan in the west, and the Udmurt Republic in the northwest. Its territory extends 550 km from north to south and 430 km from west to east between 51°31' and 56°34' north latitude and 53°10' and 59°59' east longitude.
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As of January 1, 1999, 4 110 300 people lived in the republic, including 2 540 200 in cities and 1 570 100 in rural areas. The Republic of Bashkortostan has the seventh-largest population among subjects of the Russian Federation.
People of nearly 100 different nationalities live in Bashkortostan, including Bashkirs, Russians, Tatars, Chuvash, Mari, Ukrainians, and Germans. The Bashkirs are the indigenous inhabitants.
There are 20 cities in the republic, the largest of which are Ufa, Sterlitamak, Salavat, Neftekamsk, and Oktyabrsky. The capital of the republic is Ufa, founded in 1574 and with a population of 1.1 million.
The Republic of Bashkortostan is located in a well-populated and developed part of the country. Major railway lines, pipeline routes, and highways pass through its territory, connecting the European part of the Russian Federation with the Urals and Siberia. The republic has direct railway connections to western Kazakhstan, the lower reaches of the Volga, the Northern Caucasus, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan. The Belaya River is part of the Unified Deepwater Transport System of European Russia, which provides the Republic of Bashkortostan with access to ports on the Caspian, Baltic, and Black seas and the Sea of Azov. The republic is a constituent part of the Ural economic region; it is second only to the Central region of the Russian Federation in scale of industrial development and adjoins the highly developed Volga and West Siberian economic regions.
A strong national economic complex has been formed in the republic, including diversified industry, agriculture, and a branching network of railways, highways, and pipelines. In 1994, the Republic of Bashkortostan accounted for 3.0% of national income, 3.6% of industrial production (fifth in volume of gross industrial output), and 3.8% of gross agricultural production in the Russian Federation. The republic has been awarded two Orders of Lenin (1935, 1957) and the Orders of the October Revolution (1969) and People's Friendship (1972). Ufa, the capital, has also been awarded the Order of the October Revolution (1974).
HISTORY
Bashkortostan is a country in the Southern Urals and adjacent areas that takes its name from the indigenous people, the Bashkir (Bashkort). Bashkiria, the Russian (Slavic) name for the country, was firmly established at the end of the 16th century. Initially, the forms Bashkir, Bashkirda, and Bashkirian Horde were used. The first written records of individual tribes of the Bashkir people are found in the works of Herodotus (5th century B.C.). Ptolomey's map (2nd century A.D.) showed the River Daiks (now the Ural River). The writings of Sallam Tarjeman (9th century) and Akhmed ibn-Fadlan (10th century) contain valuable information; and al-Balkhi (10th century) wrote that the Bashkirs were divided into two groups, one of which lived in the Southern Urals and the other near the Danube close to the borders of Byzantium. His contemporary, ibn-Ruste, noted that the Bashkirs were "an independent people occupying the territories on both sides of the Ural Mountains between the Volga, Kama, Tobol, and upper Yaik rivers. The 12th-century geographer Idrisi referred to Inner Bashkir, Outer Bashkir, and the Bashkirian cities of Nemzhan, Gurkhan, Karakiya, Kasra, and Masra.
From the second half of the 16th century to the beginning of the 19th century, the Bashkirs inhabited a territory from the left bank of the Volga in the southwest to the upper reaches of the Tobol in the east, and from the Sylva River in the north, including the entire left bank of the Volga, to the middle Yaik in the south. That is, they lived in the Central and Southern Urals and areas adjoining the Urals, including the Volga River valley and the Transural region.
Until the mid-19th century, the territory of the ancient Bashkir tribes was the basis of Bashkiria's administrative and territorial structure. In the time of the Golden Horde, the territory of Bashkortostan was divided into ulusy (regions) whose size was determined by the number of farmsteads or soldiers. After the breakup of the Golden Horde in the 14th century, Bashkortostan was divided among the Kazan and Siberian khanates and the Nogai Horde, and the people were under the jurisdiction of the governors general of Kazan, Osinsk, Siberia, and Nogai.
In the mid-16th century, the Bashkirs took out Russian citizenship on the basis of an agreement with the tsarist government. After Bashkiria joined the Russian state in the second half of the 16th century, its territory was included in Kazan District; and then in 1586, it was separated into Ufa District, which was divided into governorships (darugi) and small rural districts (volosti). The volost division applied only to the Bashkirs. In 1700, Ufa, Menzelinsk, Birsk, Zainsk, and Tabynsk were freed from district administration and became independent administrative centers subordinate to the district administrativion. In 1708, the city governments were abolished and Bashkiria became part of the provinces of Kazan and Siberia. Then in 1744, it was made part of Orenburg Province, which first consisted of subprovinces (Ufa, Isetsk, and Orenburg), and from 1781 on, of districts (Orenburg, Ufa, Sterlitamak, Birsk, Menzelinsk, Verkhny Ural, Troitsk, Chelyabinsk, and Bugulminsk). At the same time, the previous division into rural districts and councils of officials was retained. In 1781, Orenburg Province was reorganized into the Ufa Governorship consisting of Ufa and Orenburg regions. Ufa Region was further subdivided into eight districts and Orenburg Region, into four. In 1796, Ufa Governorship was transformed into Orenburg Province, which initially consisted of 10 districts and then 12 as of 1804. The border districts of Bashkiria became part of Perm, Vyatsk, and Samara (in 1851) provinces. The introduction of the canton system of administration was the next step toward unification of Bashkiria's administrative and territorial structure. The borders of the cantons were approximately those of the districts. On Bashkir's transition from military to civil administration and the formation of Ufa and Orenburg provinces from the Orenburg Governorship, Bashkiria was confirmed in 1865 as an all-Russian administrative and territorial division whose main units were the province, district, city, rural district, and village.
On November 15, 1917, the Bashkir regional soviet (council) elected by the 1st All-Bashkirian Congress in July 1917, declared the Bashkirian territories of Orenburg, Ufa, Perm, and Samara provinces an autonomous part of the Russian Republic. The council's decision was ratified by the 3rd All-Bashkirian Congress on December 8, 1917. On March 23, 1919, the Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Republic was proclaimed on the basis of the "Agreement between the Central Soviet Authorities and the Government of Bashkiria on the Soviet Autonomy of Bashkiria." The autonomous republic was established within the boundaries of so-called Little Bashkiria (Malaya Bashkiria) and included the southern, southeastern, and northeastern parts of its territory.
On May 19, 1920, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR passed the decree "On the State Structure of the Autonomous Soviet Bashkir Republic." In 1922, Ufa, Birsk, and Belebei districts of Ufa Region and mainly Bashkir rural districts of Zlatoustovsky District of the abolished Ufa Province became part of the Autonomous Soviet Bashkir Republic [Great Bashkiria (Bolshaya Bashkiria)]. By decree of the Bashkirian Central Executive Committee of July 6, 1922, the Bashkir language was recognized as an official language along with Russian.
The administrative and territorial units of Malaya Bashkiria consisted of cantons, districts, and village soviets. From November 1922 to August 1930, the republic within the borders of Great Bashkiria was divided into cantons and rural districts (originally 274 but consolidated into 105 in 1923-1924). Then in 1930, the cantons and rural districts were abolished and the republic was divided into 48 districts with a reduced number of village soviets by decrees of the Central Executive Committees and Councils of People's Commissars of the USSR (July 23, 1930) and the Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (BASSR, August 20, 1930). Ufa was made into an independent unit directly under the Bashkirian Central Executive Committee; and the cities of Beloretsk, Birsk, Belebei, and Sterlitamak were put under regional jurisdiction. On May 29, 1952, the BASSR was divided into Ufa and Sterlitamak regions; however, these were abolished in April 1953. The main units of the present-day administrative and territorial structure of Bashkortostan consist of districts, cities, urban communities, and village soviets.
On October 11, 1990, the Supreme Soviet of the republic proclaimed the Declaration of State Sovereignty confirming the status of the republic as a democratic constitutional state; and in February 1992, the republic was named the Republic of Bashkortostan. On March 31, 1992, a Federative Agreement on division of powers and areas of jurisdiction between government bodies of the Russian Federation and the sovereign republics within it and an Addendum to it from the Republic of Bashkortostan were signed, establishing the contractual nature of relations between the Republic of Bashkortostan and the Russian Federation.
On August 3, 1994, the Russian Federation and the Republic of Bashkortostan signed an Agreement entitled "On the Division of Areas of Jurisdiction and Mutual Delegation of Authority between Government Bodies of the Russian Federation and Government Bodies of the Republic of Bashkortostan." A new version of the Constitution of the Republic of Bashkortostan was adopted on November 3, 2000.
RESOURCES
Bashkortostan is rich in mineral reserves. Industrial development in the republic is closely linked to development of its raw mineral resources, since 69% of all industrial output comes from the fuel and chemical/petrochemical industries, engineering and metalworking, and ferrous and nonferrous metallurgy, whose operations are based on reserves of various commercial minerals.
The republic is the Russian Federation's third-largest oil producer after Tyumen Region and the Republic of Tatarstan and is the largest refiner. Bashkortostan also produces 10-12% of all copper in Russia (as concentrates) and 30% of all copper and 48% of all zinc in the Ural region. If associated gold from composite chalcopyrite deposits is included, the republic is the Ural region's second-largest gold producer. In addition, Bashkortostan is Russia's largest producer of rock salt (37%).
The territory of the Republic of Bashkortostan contains a wide range of various mineral resources. More than 3000 deposits and shows of 60 kinds of raw minerals have been discovered here. These include fuels, i.e., oil, natural gas, coal and lignite, and peat; metals, including copper, zinc, iron, manganese, aluminum, gold, and associated rare elements; and nonmetallic minerals, including raw materials for the chemical industry (rock salt, fluorspar, limestone, barite, and sulfur), agricultural minerals (phosphorus-bearing rocks, carbonate materials, zeolites, glauconites, peat, and sapropel), building materials (gypsum, high-strength crushed stone, etc.), facing and finishing stone, and optical raw materials. At present, there are 1170 registered deposits whose proven reserves form the basis of a powerful primary industry complex, including oil production and refining, ferrous and nonferrous metallurgy, chemicals, and building material production.
There are more than 50 known sources of mineral water, therapeutic mud, and thermal steam (gas) in the republic, around which well-known health and recreation centers have been built, for example, Yangantau, Krasnosolsk, Assy, Yumatovo, and Yaktykul.
Oil, copper, zinc, gold, silver (including composite chalcopyrite ores), iron ores, and rock salt are of federal significance. Mineral resources of regional significance include fluorspar, talc, smelting quartz, manganese ores, chrome ores, cobalt, nickel, barite, phosphorite, and magnesite.
Oil is the main component of Bashkortostan's raw mineral base, and oil production will remain a priority sector of the extractive industry for a long time to come.
At present, of the 177 listed oil fields, 156 are being developed, 12 are suspended, and 3 are being tested. Most of the fields are past their peak production rates and are at the late development stage with a high degree of water-cut production. Development levels of total initial reserves are 78.8% for oil and 27.7% for gas.
The republic's current hydrocarbon potential is still relatively high. In the next few years, it is planned to increase oil reserves through traditional prospecting and exploratory work at a fairly intensive level.
Bashneft Joint Stock Oil Company (ANK Bashneft), the republic's leading oil producer, is a major production, economic, and scientific complex involved in more than 20 kinds of activity. Bashneft carries out the complete work cycle from prospecting and exploratory work and development and oil field operation to preparation and delivery of marketable products. The company supplies 12 million tonnes of oil per year to the market and cooperates on a mutually beneficial basis with leading firms in more than 20 countries worldwide. Increasing the efficiency of oil field development is one of Bashneft's primary objectives. Nearly all the main techniques for increasing oil recovery from strata have been tested in the republic's oil fields, including those based on hydrodynamic, gas, thermal, microbiological, and physicochemical technologies. The company currently uses nearly 50 technologies and modifications of them.
Chalcopyrite (polymetallic sulfide) deposits are the basic raw material for the republic's nonferrous metallurgy industry. Four of the republic's 16 developed deposits-Yubileinoe, Podolskoe, Uchalinskoe, and Sibaiskoe-are among the largest in the Urals. As noted above, copper and zinc reserves make up 30 and 48% respectively, of total reserves of these metals in the Urals, and gold reserves in these deposits are estimated at hundreds of tonnes. Chalcopyrite ores have a composite structure containing copper, zinc, sulfur, lead, gold, silver, cadmium, tellurium, indium, gallium, germanium, and other elements. Eight deposits are in operation. The ore is processed at three concentrating mills with a total design capacity of 6.2 million tonnes of ore per year.
OAO Bashkir Engineering Company (OAO Bashkirsky MSK), OAO Uchalinsk Mining and Processing Company (OAO Uchalinsky GOK), and OAO Buribaev Mining and Processing Company (OAO Buribaevsky GOK) are the largest mining companies in the Ural nonferrous metallurgy sector. Their operations are based on proven reserves of composite chalcopyrite ore deposits that are the second most important mineral reserves of the republic's economy. Rock salt and limestone of the Sterlitamak mining area are the basis of a powerful industry for producing sodium hydroxide and chlorine and more than 100 designated derivatives based on them. Similarly, the iron ore deposits of the Beloretsk mining area (Zigazino-Komarovskaya group) have served as the basis for the formation and development of the complete-cycle Beloretsk Steel Works (Beloretsky MGK)
Numerous deposits of building materials provide a secure raw material base for Bashkortostan's well- developed construction industry. Along with the production of facing tiles and architectural goods made of natural stone, in the last few years, master craftsmen have been producing high-quality cut stone articles using Bashkortostan jasper, which is unequalled in its diversity. Works of the artists and craftsmen of the Bashkortostan House of Stone (Dom kamnya Bashkortostana) have received high ratings at All-Russian exhibitions in St. Petersburg and Ekaterinburg.
Gold production began in Bashkortostan in the 1830s. Present-day gold reserves are represented by fine alluvial gold (reserves up to 1 t); small (up to 3-4 t) deposits of gold-bearing "iron hats"; and primary gold-sulfide, gold-quartz-sulfide, and other deposits, the largest of which is the Murtykty deposit (30 t). Yearly gold production from these gold reserves is 500 kg. Hundreds of tonnes of gold reserves are contained in chalcopyrite ores, and up to 1500 tonnes per year are extracted from them.
Bashkortostan's long list of mineral resources, convenient geographical location, and developed infrastructure make the republic extremely attractive for both domestic and foreign investments in the extractive industry.
ECONOMY
Present-day Bashkortostan is one of the most stable regions of Russia both economically and politically. Due to diversified industry structure it has become a donor for the whole country's budget. Republic's GDP and basic macroeconomic figures place it within ten most developed regions of Russia, in some industries Bashkortostan maintains leading positions: every seventh ton of oil is processed in the republic, more than half of all Russia's butyl and isobutyl alcohols is produced here, as well as half of the country's soda ash and chemical weed and pest killers, the greater part of caustic soda, polyethylene, and synthetic resins and plastics.
Industry makes up nearly half of republic's GDP volume and provides 65% of republic's taxes for the budgets of all levels. The republic's industrial potential is based on fuel and energy complex whose production share amounts to 40%, which is followed by the engineering and chemical industries, which produce about 16-17% of total volume, power industry - 10% and food industry - 8% of all production. All the leading industries have been showing economic growth over the past years. Industry restructuring, performed by the government has decreased the dominant position of fuel and energy complex, while the share of construction materials production, engineering, light, medical, glass and china industries has grown.
For the republic with every third resident living in the country, agriculture plays a very important role. The volume of republic's agricultural production places it among the three leading agricultural regions of Russia. Bashkortostan is virtually self-sufficient and practically provides bread for itself. About 60-70% of products sold in local stores are produced in Bashkortostan. There are various forms of property developing in the region. The production share of agricultural enterprises is 44%, the population produces about 54% and farms - about 2% of all agricultural production. All the produce is marked for its high quality: Bashkortostan is the medal winner of many All-Russian and international agricultural fairs and exhibitions.
AUTHORITIES
The republic is governed according to the principle of separation of legislative, executive, and judicial powers.
A local government acting independently within the limits of its authority is one of the foundations of the constitutional system in the Republic of Bashkortstan. Local government bodies are formed in accordance with the laws of the Republic of Bashkortostan and the Russian Federation.
The Republic of Bashkortostan decides questions of its administrative and territorial structure independently. The procedure for forming, changing, and abolishing administrative and territorial units, the criteria for classifying communities in the republic as urban or rural areas, and questions concerning the administrative and territorial structure are regulated by republican legislation. All forms of ownership are recognized and guaranteed equal protection in the Republic of Bashkortostan.
The President of the Republic of Bashkortostan is the republic's head of state and highest official. He acts as guarantor of human and civics rights and freedoms in the republic; ensures observance of the Constitution and laws of the Republic of Bashkortostan, as well as international contracts and agreements of the Republic of Bashkortostan; and defends the sovereignty of the Republic of Bashkortostan and its economic and political interests.
Many countries have an elected President as head of state. The office of President was instituted in the USSR in 1990 and in the Republic of Bashkortostan in 1991. Under the Constitution of the Republic of Bashkortostan of 1993, the President is head of state and the "highest official representing the Republic of Bashkortostan within the republic and in international relations" (Art. 91). The President is elected by the citizens of the republic for a five-year term. The powers of the President are established in the Constitution (Art. 95). In addition his functions as guarantor of rights and freedoms and the republic's Constitution, Laws, and international contracts and defender of the republic's interests, the President has the right to initiate legislation and declare a state of emergency in the republic. Unlike the President of the Russian Federation, the President of the Republic of Bashkortostan does not have the right to dissolve or suspend the activities of any lawfully elected government body (Art. 96). The President of the Republic of Bashkortostan may be removed from office by the National Assembly (Kurultai).
The National Assembly (Kurultai) of the Republic of Bashkortostan is the highest representative and only legislative body. It is elected for a four-year term and has a bicameral structure consisting of the House of Representatives and the Legislative House.
The Legislative House is a permanent legislative body, whereas the House of Representatives assembles as necessary, but no less than four times per year. The Kurultai adopts the Constitution of the Republic of Bashkortostan, introduces amendments to it, determines internal and foreign policy jointly with the President, settles questions relating to boundary changes, determines the administrative and territorial structure, approves the national budget, and carries out other activities within its jurisdiction. The Kurultai's powers are defined by the Constitution of the Republic of Bashkortostan (1993). The first elections to the Kurultai were held on March 5, 1995.
The Cabinet of Ministers, which forms the Government of the Republic of Bashkortostan, is the republic's executive body. It is accountable to the National Assembly and the President. The Cabinet is formed by the President, who appoints the Prime Minister with the consent of the National Assembly. The Deputy Prime Minister, ministers, chairmen of government committees, and department heads are appointed and dismissed by the President on the Prime Minister's proposal. Heads of other agencies and organizations in the Republic of Bashkortostan may be included in the Government.
The Cabinet of Ministers is authorized to decide all questions of government administration not within the jurisdiction of the National Assembly or the President. It manages economic processes and the monetary and credit system; drafts and implements the national budget; adopts measures to develop science and technology and for the rational use, protection, and renewal of natural resources; coordinates the development and implementation of programs to develop and preserve the cultural values of the people of Bashkortostan; and defends the republic's interests in its relations with the Russian Federation and its subjects. The Cabinet of Ministers carries out its activities through resolutions and decrees and by monitoring their fulfillment.
The Constitutional Court of the Republic of Bashkortostan, the Supreme Court of the Republic of Bashkortostan, the Arbitration Court of the Republic of Bashkortostan, district courts, and magistrates exercise judicial authority in the republic.
Justice in the Republic of Bashkortostan is administered only by the courts and is called upon to protect the rights and freedoms of citizens proclaimed and guaranteed in the Constitution and laws of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Bashkortostan; the constitutional structure of the Republic of Bashkortostan and its political and economic systems; and the rights and legitimate interests of companies, institutions, and organizations. Courts martial of the Russian Federation operate in the Republic of Bashkortostan. Local (district) and city courts administer justice by hearing and settling civil and criminal cases, as well as administrative offences. The Superior Court of Arbitration of the Republic of Bashkortostan is the highest economic court in the republic; it settles economic disputes arising from civil legal relations between companies, organizations, and institutions or from legal relations in the area of management.
Official Site of the Republic of Bashkortostan:
http://www.bashkortostan.ru
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