Sakha Republic (Yakutia)

• Main Author: Mandelstam Balzer, Marjorie
• Format: Book Part
• Language: English
• Published: Cornell University Press 2022
• Subjects: Sakha; Yakutsk; Sakha language; Sakha Republic; Yakut; Yakutia
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.7591/cornell/9781501759772.003.0002

This chapter discusses the ebbs and flows of permissible Sakha activism within the context of a social and political landscape that has changed radically during the post-Soviet period. Since 2015, Sakha language rights have brought crowds to the streets of the capital Yakutsk, especially since many thought cultural sovereignty was already won. Sakha-language proficiency and Sakha identity are correlated in the republic, often in highly emotional terms. Beyond language recovery politics, a limited sovereignty has been celebrated. How did “center-periphery” relations become so dysfunctional? Understanding key historical legacies of differentially perceived interethnic and center-periphery relations provides a framework for understanding societal change and the crystallization of Sakha (Yakut) identity. The chapter concludes by assessing the interrelationship of social and spiritual values and political change.