My name is Elia Egbert Holtrust and I have a deep passion for the indigenous peoples of Russia and their unique languages and cultures. I was born in Belgium in 2005 and I have been obsessed with Russia for a long time. Since detailed information in English about the lesser known peoples and languages of Russia is rather scarce, I decided to create a website myself that would try to provide an overview of the people groups native to the Russian Federation. Although this project is still in its early stages, I am actively working on expanding and refining the content whenever I find some free time.

Enjoy reading what's already available!

Elia E. Holtrust

1. The flags of the 10 largest ethnic groups in the Russian Federation according to the 2021 demographic census.

A Brief Introduction

The territory of the Russian Federation extends across no fewer than ten time zones, from Europe to the Far East in Asia. It is the largest country in the world and covers approximately one sixth of the land area of the earth. It has frozen tundras, vast mountain ranges with eternal snow, endless steppes, enormous rivers and the largest forests in the world. Russia is a world in itself, with a great diversity of peoples, cultures, climates and ecosystems. In contrast to its immense surface area, Russia only has approximately 147,000,000 inhabitants. This puts it in 9th place among countries by population. Although the vast majority of the population consists of Russians (approx. 80%), over 190 other ethnic groups reside in the country. In the list on your right, however, only the indigenous peoples of the Russian Federation are enlisted.

2. The Russians, Tatars and Chechens are respectively the first, second and third largest ethnic groups in the Russian Federation. (sources: see below)