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Thehistory of Sakha is the events that took place inSakha; from theprehistoric period, to theSoviet-era, and into modern history.
Siberia, and particularly Sakha, is ofpaleontological significance, as it contains bodies ofprehistoric animals from thePleistoceneEpoch, preserved in ice orpermafrost. In 2015, the frozen bodies ofDina and Uyan the cave lion cubs were found. Bodies ofYuka and anotherwoolly mammoth fromOymyakon, awoolly rhinoceros from theKolyma River, andbison andhorses fromYukagir have also been found.[1] In June 2019, the severed yet preserved head of alarge wolf from the Pleistocene, dated to over 40,000 years ago, was found close to the Tirekhtyakh River.[2][3][4]
Ymyakhtakh culture (c. 2200–1300 BC) was a Late Neolithic culture of Siberia, with a very large archaeological horizon. Its origins were in Sakha, in theLena River basin. From there it spread both to the east and to the west.[5]
TheTurkicSakha people orYakuts may have settled the area as early as the 9th century or as late as the 16th century, though most likely there were several migrations. They migrated up north from aroundLake Baikal to themiddle Lena due to pressure by the Buryats, a Mongolic group.[6]
The Sakha displaced earlier, much smaller populations who lived on hunting and reindeer herding, introducing thepastoralist economy of Central Asia. The indigenous populations ofPaleosiberian andTungusic stockwere mostlyassimilated to the Sakha by the 17th century.[7]
TheTsardom of Russia began its conquest of the region in the 17th century, moving east after the defeat of theKhanate of Sibir.[8][9][10]Tygyn, a king of theKhangalassky Sakha, granted territory for Russian settlement in return for a military pact that included war against indigenous rebels of all North Eastern Asia (Magadan,Chukotka,Kamchatka andSakhalin).[8][9][10] Kull, a king of theMegino-Khangalassky Sakha, began a Sakha conspiracy by allowing the first stockade construction.[8][9][11]
In August 1638, the Moscow Government formed a new administrative unit with the administrative center of Lensky Ostrog (Fort Lensky), the future city ofYakutsk, which had been founded byPyotr Beketov in 1632.[8][9][10]
The arrival of Russian settlers at the remoteRusskoye Ustye in theIndigirka delta is also believed to date from the 17th century.[12] TheSiberian Governorate was established as part of the Russian Empire in 1708.
Russian settlers began to form a community in the 18th century, which adopted certain Sakha customs and was often calledYakutyane (Якутя́не) or Lena Early Settlers (ленские старожилы). However, the influx of later settlers had assimilated themselves into the Russian mainstream by the 20th century.[8][9][10]
In an administrative reform of 1782,Irkutsk Governorate was created. In 1805,Yakutsk Oblast was split from Irkutsk Governorate.[13]
Yakutsk Oblast in the early 19th century marked the easternmost territory of the Russian Empire, including suchFar Eastern (Pacific) territories as were acquired, known as Okhotsk Okrug within Yakutsk Oblast. With the formation ofPrimorskaya Oblast in 1856, the Russian territories of the Pacific were detached from Sakha.
The Russians established agriculture in theLena River basin. The members of religious groups who were exiled to Sakha in the second half of the 19th century began to growwheat,oats, andpotatoes. Thefur trade established a cash economy. Industry and transport began to develop at the end of the 19th century and in the beginning of theSoviet period. This was also the beginning ofgeological prospecting,mining, and locallead production. The first steam-powered ships and barges arrived.
Sakha's remoteness, compared to the rest of Siberia, made it a place of exile of choice for both Tsarist and Communist governments of Russia. Among the famous Tsarist-era exiles were the democratic writerNikolay Chernyshevsky;Doukhobors,conscientious objectors whose story was told toLeo Tolstoy byVasily Pozdnyakov; theSocialist Revolutionary Party member and writerVladimir Zenzinov, who left an account of his Arctic experiences; and Polish socialist activistWacław Sieroszewski, who pioneered in ethnographic research on the Sakha people.
A Sakha national movement first emerged during the1905 Revolution. A Yakut Union was formed under the leadership of a Sakha lawyer and city councilor by the name of Vasily Nikiforov, which criticized the policies and effects of Russian colonialism, and demanded representation in theState Duma. The Yakut Union acted to make the city council of Yakutsk stand down and was joined by thousands of Sakha from the countryside, but the leaders were arrested and the movement fizzled out by April 1906. Their demand for a Sakha representative in the Duma, however, was granted.[14]
After theOctober Revolution, the anti-Bolshevik forces of Sakha created the Committee for the Protection of the Revolution, which supported the idea of convening a Constituent Assembly. On July 1, 1918, the Red Guard detachment of A. S. Rydzinskyoccupied Yakutsk. The executive committee of the Soviet of Workers' Deputies was created in the city, headed by M. K. Ammosov. Soviet authorities were also formed inVilyuysk, in theNyurbinsky andSuntarsky district, and in other uluses. As a result of thedefeat of the White Guard troops in Siberia in late 1919 - early 1920, Soviet power was restored in Sakha.
On April 20, 1920, by the decision of theSibrevkom, Yakutsk Oblast was included in was included in the Irkutsk province as a special district. On August 21, 1920, by the decision of the same Sibrevkom, Sakha was given the status of a province.[15] In the summer of 1921, Georgy Lebedev was appointed secretary of the Yakut Bureau of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) by the Siberian Committee, and Alexei Kozlov was appointed chairman of the Revolutionary Tribunal. In Yakut historiography, the period of leadership of Georgy Lebedev, Alexei Kozlov and Anton Ageev is usually called the "triumvirate". The "triumvirate" began to pursue a policy ofred terror and ultra-communism in Sakha.
In September 1921, an anti-Soviet uprising broke out in Sakha. On October 6, the White Guard detachment of Valerian Bochkarev capturedOkhotsk. By 1922, the uprising had engulfed almost all of Sakha. The rebels turned to the Russian émigré circles inHarbin for help, from where a large White Guard detachment was sent to help them. In March 1922, the rebels created theProvisional Yakut Regional People's Administration inChurapcha. The rebels approached Yakutsk, a state of siege was introduced in the city. A large detachment of Nestor Kalandarishvili arrived to help the Yakut Bolsheviks, but Kalandarishvili himself, along with his group, died in an ambush nearTekhtyur. During the Battle of Everstovaya Zaimka near Tulagino and the Battle of Kildyam, thesiege of Yakutsk was lifted.[16]
On March 10, a party meeting headed by Platon Oyunsky accused Lebedev, Kozlov and Ageev of left-wing deviation and serious mistakes that led Sakha to an uprising. It was revealed that Georgy Lebedev had previously been the editor of the ultra-right newspaper "Free Siberia", then as part ofIgnatov's group at the10th Congress of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) he opposed theNEP. Alexei Kozlov was aright-wing SR and joined the Communist Party only in 1921. Lebedev, Kozlov, and Ageev were removed from the leadership and on the night of March 10-11 they were arrested by the Kalandarishvilists.
On June 21, during the battle near the village of Nikoltsy, the rebels suffered a crushing defeat and, after thecapture of Churapcha, began to retreat towards Okhotsk. By October 1, the uprising was generally suppressed, but in the fall, a detachment of Anatoly Pepelyaev arrived to help the Yakut rebels. Pepelyaev hoped to take Yakutsk and begin the seizure of Siberia, thereby rekindling the civil war. The dramaticsiege of Sasyl-Sysy was the last major battle of theRussian Civil War. After thecapture of Amga by the Reds, thebattle of Bilistyakh, and the lifting of the siege of Sasyl-Sysy, Pepelyaev's detachment began to retreat towards Okhotsk, where Pepelyaev was arrested by the Reds.
The last White Guards in the north of Sakha surrendered by the end of 1923.
In 1924, anuprising began in Sakha, which was caused by the actions of the Bolsheviks: the closure of ports for foreign trade, trade restrictions, interruptions in the import of goods from the mainland, the confiscation of reindeer from private owners, the seizure of vast pastures for industrial new buildings. In 1925, the rebels concluded an armistice with the Soviet authorities and laid down their arms.
However, in 1927, anew uprising began under the leadership of the Yakut lawyer Pavel Ksenofontov (a graduate of the Faculty of Law of Moscow University, an employee of the Ministry of Finance of the RSFSR). After its suppression in 1928, 128 people were shot, 130 received various prison terms, some of them were not related to the uprising. Among the repressed were prominent representatives of the intelligentsia who knew nothing about the uprising or even condemned it.
In mid-1929, after the uprising of the confederalists of 1927-1928, on the tip of the center, a wholesale purge of non-party people disloyal to the new government and members of the local Communist Party itself, accused of counterrevolution, began. This became the reason and reason for a new uprising against Soviet power in the north of Sakha, later called theBulun uprising. It was subsequently suppressed in 1930.
Sakha was home to the last stage of the Russian Civil War, theYakut Revolt. On April 27, 1922, former Yakutsk Oblast was proclaimed theYakut ASSR, although in fact the eastern part of the territory, including the city of Yakutsk, was controlled by theWhite Russians.
The early Soviet period saw a flourishing of Sakha literature as men such asPlaton Oyunsky wrote down in writing the traditionally oral and improvisedolonkho, in addition to composing their own works. Many early Sakha leaders, including Oyunsky, died in theGreat Purge.
Sakha experienced significant collectivizationbetween 1929 and 1934, with the number of households experiencing collectivization rising from 3.6% in 1929 to 41.7% in 1932. Policies by which the Sakha were harshly affected resulted in the population dropping from 240,500 in 1926 down to 236,700 at the 1959 census.[17]
Sakha's demographics shifted wildly during the Soviet period as ethnic Russians and Ukrainians, among other groups, settled the area en masse, primarily in Yakutsk and the industrial south. Previously, even Yakutsk had been primarily Sakha and Sakha-speaking. With the end ofkorenizatsiya, usage of the Sakha language was restricted in urban areas such as Yakutsk, which became primarily Russian-speaking.
Following thedissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991, theYakut Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was officially reconstituted as theRepublic of Sakha (Yakutia), a federal subject within the newly formedRussian Federation.[18] In April 1992, Moscow formally recognized this status, granting Sakha significant autonomy; most notably, a 1992 agreement allowing the republic to retain 20% of its diamond industry profits, a landmark concession deviating from decades of centralized resource extraction.[19]
During the early 1990s, Sakha saw a rise in ethnic and nationalist activism. Political movements such asSakha Omuk (founded 1990) and the more radicalSakha Keskile promotedYakut sovereignty, resource self‑management, and cultural revival. These movements led to the republic's 1990 declaration of sovereignty (celebrated each year on September 27) and a gradual shift away from the ethnic suppression of theSoviet era.[18][19][20]
Economically, Sakha faced the tumultuous transition to a market economy amid systemicSoviet collapse. The regional government actively supportedprivatization of state enterprises, offered tax incentives, subsidies, and direct investment to buffer the population from economic shocks.[20][21][22] The republic also passed legislation in the 1990s to protectIndigenous land use rights and foster the creation ofclan-based communities, reinforcing traditional livelihoods.[19]
In 2000, Sakha was incorporated into the newly createdFar Eastern Federal District, one of eight federal districts established byPresident Vladimir Putin to centralize administrative oversight.[19][23][24] While this shift integrated Sakha intoFar East economic development initiatives—includingtax incentives,special economic zones, and infrastructure investments—these programs have often favoured industrial and extractive interests, occasionally sidelining Indigenous land rights.[19]
Under Putin,federal centralization increased. Regional autonomy has been curtailed through legal reforms—such as a 2009 removal of sovereignty references from the republic’s constitution and renaming the republic’s presidential post in 2014—and through restrictions on local veto powers regarding resource projects.[19] At the same time, Sakha’s economy, driven by mining (diamonds, gold, uranium, oil, and natural gas), has shown resilience. Wages in the region now outpace national averages when adjusted for cost of living.[21]Yakutsk remains the hub of administrative and economic leadership, buoyed by tourism and essential infrastructure projects, though remote areas still lag behind.[20][21][25]