Chuvashia.

History

The Chuvash descend from the Bulgar and Suvar Turkic tribes and see themselves as heirs to Volga Bulgaria. In 1552, during Ivan the Terrible's campaign against Kazan, Chuvash princes swore allegiance to Moscow, and between the 17th and mid-19th centuries most Chuvash became Orthodox Christians. Cheboksary was first mentioned in 1469 and became a town in 1781. The Chuvash Autonomous Oblast was created on 24 June 1920 and became an autonomous republic in 1925.

Culture & traditions

Chuvash is written in a modified Cyrillic script adopted in 1871 and shares official status with Russian. Chuvash embroidery is known for its intricate patterns, and the Akatuy festival is one of the key folk traditions. The republic has six professional theatres, including opera, drama and puppet companies, and some 627 architectural monuments, among them the Vvedensky Cathedral in Cheboksary. The Civil War commander Vasily Chapayev and the cosmonaut Andriyan Nikolayev were born here.

Nature

Chuvashia has more than two thousand rivers, chief among them the Volga, the Sura and the Tsivil, and about four hundred lakes. Forests cover roughly a third of the land. Protected areas include the Prisursky Nature Reserve and Chavash Varmane National Park. Here the Volga widens into the Cheboksary Reservoir.

Sport

Chuvashia is famous for its race-walking school, which produced Vera Sokolova, Olimpiada Ivanova, Yelena Nikolayeva and Vladimir Andreyev. In 2008 Cheboksary hosted the IAAF World Race Walking Cup. The city also has a basketball club, the Cheboksary Hawks.

Food & drink

The republic is Russia's main hop-growing centre and has a long brewing tradition; Cheboksary even has a beer museum. Chuvash cooking rests on meat, grains, vegetables and milk. Festive tables feature shyrtan, a lamb's stomach stuffed with meat and fat, and khuplu, meat-filled pies. Among the simpler dishes, try pultăran, a soup of herbs with butter and milk.

Practical information

Flights land at Cheboksary Airport (CSY). The rail junction at Kanash links the republic with Moscow, the Urals and Siberia, and the M-7 highway from Nizhny Novgorod to Kazan runs through Chuvashia. The republic is on Moscow time. The climate is temperate continental, around −13 °C in January and +19 °C in July, with snow lying from late November to late March. Summer is the best time to visit.

What to see

• Cheboksary Bay — the locals' favourite place for a stroll by the Volga.
• Mother Patroness Monument — one of Cheboksary's landmarks.
• Vvedensky Cathedral — a church built in the 16th–17th centuries.
• Beer Museum — the story of Chuvash hops and brewing.
• Chuvash National Museum — the history and culture of the Chuvash.
• Chavash Varmane National Park — the republic's protected forests.

Cities on the map

• Cheboksary 480,741