Dagestan

Republic of Dagestan
Республика Дагестан (Russian)
—  Republic  —

Flag
Coat of arms
Anthem: State Anthem of the Republic of Dagestan
Coordinates: 43°06′N 46°53′E / 43.100°N 46.883°E / 43.100; 46.883
Political status
CountryRussia
Federal districtNorth Caucasian
Economic regionNorth Caucasus
EstablishedJanuary 20, 1921
CapitalMakhachkala
Government (as of October 2017)
 • HeadSergey Melikov (acting)
 • LegislaturePeople's Assembly
Statistics
Area (as of the 2002 Census)
 • Total50,300 km2 (19,400 sq mi)
Area rank52nd
Population (2010 Census)
 • Total2,910,249
 • Rank12th
 • Density57.86/km2 (149.9/sq mi)
 • Urban45.2%
 • Rural54.8%
Time zone(s)MSK (UTC+04:00)
ISO 3166-2RU-DA
License plates05
Official languagesRussian; Aghul, Avar, Azerbaijani, Chechen, Dargwa, Kumyk, Lezgian, Lak, Nogai, Rutul, Tabasaran, Tat, Tsakhur
Official website
Map of Dagestan

Dagestan, officially the Republic of Dagestan, is a federal subject of the Russian Federation in the North Caucasus region. Dagestan has a population of nearly 3 million, and its people are known as Dagestani. Its capital city is Makhachkala.

Etymology

The name comes from two combined Turkic and Persian words, dag which means mountain in the Turkic languages, and stan which means land in the Persian language. Therefore, the literal translation of Dagestan is Land of the Mountains.

People

Dagestan has the status of "republic" in Russia and has its own constitution and official languages. Republics in Russia are the home of its ethnic minorities (those who are not Russians), and usually one or two nationalities have a majority of the population in each republic. But in Dagestan, there are over 30 different nationalities (the largest of which are the Avar, Dargwa, Lak, Lezgian, Rutulians, Tabasaran), and none of these form a majority. This is because the mountains in the region make it hard for people to move around. These people speak 30 different languages, but use Russian as their lingua franca to communicate between each other.

Most people of Dagestan are Muslim and belong to the Shafi`i school of Sunni Islam.

Famous people

Sources

References

  1. ↑ Президент Российской Федерации. Указ №849 от 13 мая 2000 г. «О полномочном представителе Президента Российской Федерации в федеральном округе». Вступил в силу 13 мая 2000 г. Опубликован: "Собрание законодательства РФ", №20, ст. 2112, 15 мая 2000 г. (President of the Russian Federation. Decree #849 of May 13, 2000 On the Plenipotentiary Representative of the President of the Russian Federation in a Federal District. Effective as of May 13, 2000.).
  2. ↑ Госстандарт Российской Федерации. №ОК 024-95 27 декабря 1995 г. «Общероссийский классификатор экономических регионов. 2. Экономические районы», в ред. Изменения №5/2001 ОКЭР. (Gosstandart of the Russian Federation. #OK 024-95 December 27, 1995 Russian Classification of Economic Regions. 2. Economic Regions, as amended by the Amendment #5/2001 OKER. ).
  3. ↑ Всероссийский Центральный Исполнительный Комитет. Декрет от 20 января 1921 г. «Об Автономной Дагестанской Социалистической Советской Республике». (All-Russian Central Executive Committee. Decree of January 20, 1921 On Autonomous Dagestan Socialist Soviet Republic. ).
  4. 1 2 Constitution, Article 8
  5. ↑ Федеральная служба государственной статистики (Federal State Statistics Service) (2004-05-21). "Территория, число районов, населённых пунктов и сельских администраций по субъектам Российской Федерации (Territory, Number of Districts, Inhabited Localities, and Rural Administration by Federal Subjects of the Russian Federation)". Всероссийская перепись населения 2002 года (All-Russia Population Census of 2002) (in Russian). Federal State Statistics Service. Retrieved 2011-11-01.
  6. ↑ The density value was calculated by dividing the population reported by the 2010 Census by the area shown in the "Area" field. Please note that this value may not be accurate as the area specified in the infobox is not necessarily reported for the same year as the population.
  7. ↑ Official throughout the Russian Federation according to Article 68.1 of the Constitution of Russia.
  8. ↑ According to Article 11 of the Constitution of Dagestan, the official languages of the republic include "Russian and the languages of the peoples of Dagestan"
  9. ↑ Solntsev et al., pp. XXXIX–XL