Welcome to Udmurtia!

The Udmurt Republic is a sovereign republic within the Russian Federation. It is situated in the Western part of the Middle Urals between the Kama and Vyatka rivers. The distance between Izhevsk, the capital of the Udmurt Republic, and Moskow, the capital of the Russian Federation, is 1325 km. The republic covers an area of 42.1 thousand sq. km which is equal to 0.25 % of the total area of the Russian Federation.

In the West and North the Udmurt Republic borders on the Kirov region, in the East on the Perm region, in the South on Bashkorkostan and Tatarstan. At the end of the 12 th century the first Russian settled down on the territory of Udmurtia. Many of them came from the Novgorod Lands, the fact which explains some peculiarities of the Russian pronunciation and folklore in Udmurtia. The capture of Kazan provided access to this area. The Udmurts are one of the oldest Eastern-Finnish nations in the north-west woodland Urals.

In the Russian sorces of the 14th early 19th centuries Udmurts are mentioned under the names «ari», «arsk people», «chud otezkaya», «votyaki». These people called themselves «udmurts», «udmorts». Total number of the Udmurts people is about 750 000 which makes them the second Eastern-Finnish nation in Russia and the fifth Finno-Ugric nation in the world. The majority of Udmurts live in Udmurtia.

The climate in Udmurtia is temperate continental with cold winters and rather warm summers. Average temperatures in January range from -15.50 C in the North to -14.20 C in the South, in July range from 17.50 C to 19.00 C accordingly. In the Udmurt Republic the most treasured areas are valuable tracts of forest, nature reserves and land plots with natural medicinal factors.

The are 19 sanatoria, 10 holiday resorts and hotels, a balneological mud-cure health resort in Varzi-Yatchi, a tourist center and 3 tourist clubs. Local forest animals are the fox, marten, ermine, badger, wolf, rodents . Muskrats have been acclimatized to the local conditions and beaver reserves have been created. Among game-birds are hazel-grouse, wood-grouse, heath-cock, and partridge. Breams, roaches, perches, ides and burbots are found in local rivers.

The main natural resources are timber and oil. Musical talent of the Udmurt people gave birth to a great number of outstanding professional and amateur composers. Ensemble of Song and Dance «Italmas», theater of folk song «Aikai», folklore ensemble «Zangari», Russian ensemble of the Song and Dance «Tanok» are very popular in Udmurtia. Town Votkinsk is the nature land of great Russian composer Tchaikovsky.

Traditional musical festival took place in this town every year. Fundamental sight of Udmurt Republic is National Centre of Decorate-Applied Art and trades. There are many workshop, which engage artistic treatment of wood, weaving, needlework, knitting, embroidery.