Editing Sakha Republic (section)

==History==
{{Further|History of Siberia}}
{{More citations needed section|date=March 2010}}

===Pre-history===
[[Siberia]], and particularly Sakha, is of [[Paleontology|paleontological]] significance, as it contains bodies of [[Prehistory|prehistoric]] animals from the [[Pleistocene]] [[Epoch (geology)|Epoch]], preserved in ice or [[permafrost]]. In 2015, the frozen bodies of [[Panthera leo spelaea#Specimens|Dina and Uyan the cave lion cubs]] were found. Bodies of [[Yuka (mammoth)|Yuka]] and another [[woolly mammoth]] from [[Oymyakon]], a [[woolly rhinoceros]] from the [[Kolyma River]], and [[bison]] and [[horse]]s from [[Yukagir]] have also been found.<ref name=Thesiberiantimes2015>{{Cite web|title = Meet this extinct cave lion, at least 10,000 years old – world exclusive|url = http://siberiantimes.com/science/others/news/n0464-meet-this-extinct-cave-lion-at-least-10000-years-old/|website = siberiantimes.com|access-date=January 30, 2016}}</ref> In June 2019, the severed yet preserved head of a [[Evolution of the wolf#Pleistocene wolves|large wolf from the Pleistocene]], dated to over 40,000 years ago, was found close to the Tirekhtyakh River.<ref name="LiveScience 06-2019">{{cite news |last=Saplakoglu |first=Yasemin |title=Severed Head of a Giant 40,000-Year-Old Wolf Discovered in Russia |newspaper=[[Live Science]] |url=https://www.livescience.com/65677-severed-head-ancient-wolf-russia.html |date=2019-06-10 |access-date=2020-05-16}}</ref><ref name="SiberianTimes 06-2019">{{cite news |newspaper=[[The Siberian Times]] |title=Still snarling after 40,000 years, a giant Pleistocene wolf discovered in Yakutia |url=https://siberiantimes.com/science/casestudy/news/still-snarling-after-40000-years-a-giant-pleistocene-wolf-discovered-in-yakutia/ |date=2019-06-07 |access-date=2020-05-16}}</ref><ref name="TheGuardian 06-2019">{{cite news |agency=[[Reuters]] |title=Frozen wolf's head found in Siberia is 40,000 years old |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/13/frozen-wolfs-head-found-in-siberia-is-40000-years-old |date=2019-06-13 |access-date=2020-05-16}}</ref>

[[Ymyakhtakh culture]] ({{Circa|2200}}–1300 BC) was a Late Neolithic culture of Siberia, with a very large archaeological horizon. Its origins were in Sakha, in the [[Lena River]] basin. From there it spread both to the east and to the west.<ref>{{cite journal |author=Kicki Näslund |url=https://www.academia.edu/10336011 |title=Short summary of Siberian pre-history and cultures |website=Academia.edu}}</ref>

===Early history===
The [[Turkic peoples|Turkic]] [[Yakuts|Sakha people]] or ''Yakuts'' 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 around [[Lake Baikal]] to the [[Lena River|middle Lena]] due to pressure by the Buryats, a Mongolic group.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Jordan |first1=Bella Bychkova |last2=Jordan-Bychkov |first2=Terry G. |date=2000 |title=Siberian Village: Land and Life in the Sakha Republic |publisher=University Of Minnesota Press |page=38 |isbn=978-0816635696}}</ref>

The Sakha displaced earlier, much smaller populations who lived on hunting and reindeer herding, introducing the [[pastoralism|pastoralist]] economy of Central Asia. The indigenous populations of [[Paleosiberian languages|Paleosiberian]] and [[Tungusic peoples|Tungusic]] stock
were mostly [[Cultural assimilation|assimilated]] to the Sakha by the 17th century.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.spri.cam.ac.uk/resources/rfn/sakha.html |title=Scott Polar Research Institute — Republic of Sakha|publisher=Spri.cam.ac.uk|access-date=February 25, 2014}}</ref>

===Russian conquest===
{{Main|Russian conquest of Siberia}}

The [[Tsardom of Russia]] began its conquest of the region in the 17th century, moving east after the defeat of the [[Khanate of Sibir]]. [[Tygyn Darkhan|Tygyn]], a king of the [[Khangalassky District|Khangalassky]] 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 Autonomous Okrug|Chukotka]], [[Kamchatka]] and [[Sakhalin]]). Kull, a king of the [[Megino-Kangalassky District|Megino-Khangalassky]] Sakha, began a Sakha conspiracy by allowing the first stockade construction.{{citation needed|date=May 2011}}
[[File:Map of Yakut oblast.jpg|thumb|right|1821 map of Yakutsk Oblast.]]

In August 1638, the Moscow Government formed a new administrative unit with the administrative center of Lensky Ostrog (Fort Lensky), the future city of [[Yakutsk]], which had been founded by [[Pyotr Beketov]] in 1632.

The arrival of Russian settlers at the remote [[Russkoye Ustye]] in the [[Indigirka]] delta is also believed to date from the 17th century.<ref>A. I. Gogolev, "История Якутии: (Обзор исторических событий до начала ХХ в.)" ([http://www.ysu.ru/facultet/kfi/books/HistoryOfYakutiya.htm History of Yakutia: Review of Historical Events to the beginning of the 20th century] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050527010736/http://www.ysu.ru/facultet/kfi/books/HistoryOfYakutiya.htm |date=May 27, 2005 }}) Yakutsk, 1999.</ref> The [[Siberian 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 called ''Yakutyane'' (Якутя́не) or Lena Early Settlers (ленские старожилы). However, the influx of later settlers had assimilated themselves into the Russian mainstream by the 20th century.

===Russian Empire===
In an administrative reform of 1782, [[Irkutsk Governorate]] was created. In 1805, [[Yakutsk Oblast]] was split from Irkutsk Governorate.<ref>{{Cite EB1911|wstitle= Yakutsk (province) | volume= 28 |last1= Kropotkin |first1= Peter Alexeivitch |author1-link=Peter Kropotkin|last2= Bealby |first2=John Thomas|pages = 898&ndash;899 |short= 1}}</ref>
[[File:Kate Marsden leaving Yakutsk.jpg|left|thumb|British explorer and missionary [[Kate Marsden]] in [[Yakutsk]], 1891]]
Yakutsk Oblast in the early 19th century marked the easternmost territory of the Russian Empire, including such [[Russian Far East|Far Eastern]] (Pacific) territories as were acquired, known as Okhotsk Okrug within Yakutsk Oblast. With the formation of [[Primorskaya Oblast]] in 1856, the Russian territories of the Pacific were detached from Sakha.

[[File:Члены Сибирской областной Думы 1917.jpeg|thumb|right|Members of the Siberian Regional Duma from Yakutsk, 1917]]
The Russians established agriculture in the [[Lena River]] basin. The members of religious groups who were exiled to Sakha in the second half of the 19th century began to grow [[wheat]], [[oat]]s, and [[potato]]es. The [[fur trade]] established a cash economy. Industry and transport began to develop at the end of the 19th century and in the beginning of the [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] period. This was also the beginning of [[geological]] prospecting, [[mining]], and local [[lead]] 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 writer [[Nikolay Chernyshevsky]]; [[Doukhobor]]s, [[conscientious objector]]s whose story was told to [[Leo Tolstoy]] by [[Vasily Nikolaevich Pozdnyakov|Vasily Pozdnyakov]]; the [[Socialist Revolutionary Party]] member and writer [[Vladimir Zenzinov]], who left an account of his Arctic experiences; and Polish socialist activist [[Wacław Sieroszewski]], who pioneered in ethnographic research on the Sakha people.

A Sakha national movement first emerged during the [[1905 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 the [[State Duma (Russian Empire)|State 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.<ref>{{cite book |last=Forsyth |first=James |date=1992 |title=A History of the Peoples of Siberia: Russia's North Asian Colony |publisher=Cambridge University Press |pages=167–168 |isbn=978-0521477710}}</ref>

===Soviet era===
Sakha was home to the last stage of the Russian Civil War, the [[Yakut Revolt]]. On April 27, 1922, former Yakutsk Oblast was proclaimed the [[Yakut Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic|Yakut ASSR]], although in fact the eastern part of the territory, including the city of Yakutsk, was controlled by the [[White movement|White Russians]].
[[File:Platon Oyunsky 1921.jpeg|left|thumb|217x217px|Platon Oyunsky, who wrote the traditionally-oral [[olonkho]] epics]]
The early Soviet period saw a flourishing of Sakha literature as men such as [[Platon Oyunsky]] wrote down in writing the traditionally oral and improvised [[olonkho]], in addition to composing their own works. Many early Sakha leaders, including Oyunsky, died in the [[Great Purge]].
[[File:MapYakut-1928-1323.jpg|alt=Map of the Autonomous Yakut SSR, 1928|thumb|Autonomous Yakut SSR, 1928]]
Sakha experienced significant collectivization [[First five-year plan (Soviet Union)|between 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.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Jordan |first1=Bella Bychkova |last2=Jordan-Bychkov |first2=Terry G. |date=2000 |title=Siberian Village: Land and Life in the Sakha Republic |publisher=University Of Minnesota Press |pages=64–65 |isbn=978-0816635696}}</ref>

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 of [[korenizatsiya]], usage of the Sakha language was restricted in urban areas such as Yakutsk, which became primarily Russian-speaking.

===Post-Soviet era===
{{Expand section|date=April 2025}}
In 1992, after the [[fall of the Soviet Union]], Sakha was recognized in Moscow as the Sakha (Yakutia) Republic under the jurisdiction of the Russian Federation. Sakha is historically part of Russian Siberia, but since the formation of the [[Far Eastern Federal District]] in 2000, it is administratively part of the [[Russian Far East]].{{Importance inline|date=April 2025}}