CHUVASHIA, an A.S.S.R. in the Russian Socialist Federal Soviet Republic, created as an autonomous area by decree in June, 192o, and declared an autonomous republic in April, 1925. Area, 18,413sq.km. Its boundaries are west, Nizhegorod; south, Ulianovsk; east, Tatar A.S.S.R.; north, Marii autonomous area. East of the Nizhegorod province, from the junction of the Sura river with the Volga river, begins the forest area in which many Finno-Turkish tribes maintained their linguistic and racial indi viduality against the advancing waves of Slav colonization. Of these tribes the Chuvash occupy the area between the right bank of the Sura and Volga and are thus nearest to Moscow. The population (1926), includes Chuvash 8o%, Great Rus sians 18%, Tatars and Marii (Cheremiss). The urban population is 42,O35, of whom 85% are Great Russians. In the south and west the republic is forested, but towards the north and east the forest only remains in patches. Deforestation is progressing rap idly; 7o% of the timber annually cut is not replaced. From an cient times lumbering, sawmilling and the making of wooden ar ticles, e.g., furniture, oak rivets, barrels, wagons, shovels, have been the chief occupation of the Chuvash, and 94% of the koustar (peasant) industries are of this nature. The Alatyr district is noted for its koustar furniture industry. Agriculture is poorly developed, owing to poor soils and climatic conditions and to the primitive methods adopted. The soils are podzolized or degraded soils and liched black soils (see RUSSIA, Soils). The climate is severe ; snow lies for the five months from October to April, and the rivers are frozen. There are fierce storms in winter and spring and in June and July thunderstorms are frequent. The prevailing winds are south-west and in the hot summer they bring sand from the steppe, so that the crops are covered with dust. In 1924-25 the extent of ploughed land was 43.3%, and of forest 35.1%. Oats and rye occupy 8 5 % of the sown area and wheat only 2.2 % ; other small crops are spelt, buckwheat, barley, millet, peas, lentils, flax, hemp and potatoes, but there was a serious deterioration in agriculture during the 1914-21 period. Even the 1925 harvest was 40% less than in pre-war times. The Chuvash suffered very severely during the Civil War and in the 192o-21 famine: the population fell from 745,00o in 1914 to in 1920, and the effects of the hardships of that terrible time are still evident in the survivors, and in the lack of horses, working cattle and farm implements.
The chief agricultural exports are oats by waterway to Lenin grad and by rail to Moscow, and eggs and poultry. Small quan tities of honey, apples and hops are also exported. Though Chu vash horses, cattle, sheep and pigs are underfed and undersized, cattle, meat, wool and hides are exported. The standard of living is low and the imports are mainly salt, kerosene and iron goods, but in spite of the few cultural needs of the people there are 65 bazaar centres and four annual fairs. Cheboksari, on the Volga river, the administrative centre, is a river port with an electric plant and a radio station, and its fair is the most important. It also has sawmills, printing works, dried fruit, starch and syrup industries. The only other industrial concern is the Yadrinsk oil pressing factory, which employed 2,000 men in pre-war times (I,000 in 1925). Distilling, leather work, flour milling, hemp, fulling and metal industries of a koustar and semi-koustar type are carried on, and there are six steam flour mills. The Volga and Sura rivers provide navigable waterways in the summer. The Kazan to Kanash railway, linking through Arzamas in the Nizhe gorod province, is the shortest route to Moscow. Kanash (for merly Shikhran) is an important timber and grain centre and from it a branch line goes south west through Alatyr, also a grain and timber centre, with an elevator. Plans for the development of the republic include the linking of Kanash to Cheboksari, and the development of a peat industry.
The percentage of illiteracy is high; in 192o only 23.2% of the population could read and write. The Soviet Government has in augurated a policy of instruction in the vernacular, which belongs to the Tatar or Turkish group, but has many Finno-Ugrian idioms. A Chuvash daily paper is issued and in Cheboksari a Chuvash theatre and museum have been established; literacy is greatly increasing. The Chuvash are of Finno-Tatar origin, round-headed, flat-featured and light-eyed ; they are thought by some to be the descendants of the ancient Bolgars. Their preferences at present are for agriculture of a somewhat primitive type, and for small peasant industries, rather than for industrial occupations. The rapid deforestation of the area, its proximity to Moscow and the central productive region, combined with the effects of improved communications, will inevitably alter their outlook.