INDIGENOUS PEOPLE OF

KUZBASS

INDIGENOUS PEOPLE In Kemerovo oblast’ live 2,763,135

people. Of course different nations live in Kuzbass . Most are Russians, Poles, Ukrainians, Belarusians. But indigenous people take a special place.

THE COLONIZATION OF KEMEROVO Before the colonization of Kemerovo

region, there lived Tomskie Tatars, Shors and Teleuts. The colonization of Kuzbass started in 1618. The first deposit of coal was discovered near the current city of Kemerovo by Michael Volkov in 1721. At the beginning of XX century in Kemerovo region started building coal enterprises.

TOMSKIE TATARS

SHORS AND TELEUTS Indigenous peoples in Kemerovo region are

Shors and Teleuts. All over Russia there are about 13,000 Shors, of which 11,000 live in Kemerovo region. Teleuts living in the region are about two and a half thousands. These Turkic-speaking people live in the south and south-east of the region mainly in mountain taiga areas, which received at the beginning of the XX century Mountain Shoria name. Main occupations of Shors are agriculture, including beekeeping, and traditional farm crafts - hunting, fishing, gathering pine nuts.

SHORS

TELEUTS

KALMAKS There are still a small number of Kalmaks

living in some villages of Yurga and Yashkino rural areas. They descend from a small group of Teleuts. Close conjugal or religious ties between Kalmaks and Kazan and Siberian Tatars led to the formation of an ethno-territorial group of Iskitim Tatar-Kalmaks. The Tatars, in their turn, both Siberian and Kazan Tatars, live in Prokopievsk, Kemerovo,Novokuznetsk,Anzhero-Sudzhensk,yurga and other cities of Kuzbass

KALMAKS

TRADITIONS The indigenous peoples make a lot of

effort to preserve their customs, traditions,culture and language. Some of their representatives are famous all over Kuzbass and Russia: the founder of Shor literature F.Chispiyakov, the author of the teleut dictionary L.Ryumina, the members of the Russian Writers Union L. Chulzhanova, V.Boriskin and S.Totysh, the Shor poets S.Torbokov and N.Belchegeshev, the professor,specialist in Shor folklore and founder of the Shor Language Department A.I.Chudoyakov.

TRADITIONAL COSTUMES OF SHORS

KUZBASS AS A BIRTHPLACE Kuzbass is proud of its people:

farmers,doctors, actors, engineers, teachers, miners, builders, bank workers, bankers, accountants. And also Kuzbass is a birthplace of many famous people. For example:

Alexey Leonov - retired Soviet and Russian cosmonaut and Air Force Major General who, on 18 March 1965, became the first human to conduct an extra-vehicular activity, also known as spacewalk.

Sergei Zinovjev- Russian professional ice hockey player . He is a twice World Champion (2008, 2009) for the Russian national team.

Mikhail Yevdokimov -a Russian entertainer and politician.

Viktor Loginov- popular Russian actor and television personality.

Inna Makarova is a Soviet and Russian film actress, National actress of the USSR, Stalin Prize Laureate.