ABSTRACT

The Republic of Sakha (Yakutiya) is situated in eastern Siberia on the Laptev and Eastern Siberian Seas. Two-fifths of the Republic’s territory lies within the Arctic Circle. To thewest it borders KrasnoyarskKrai. IrkutskOblast and Transbaikal Krai lie to the south-west, Amur Oblast to the south, Khabarovsk Krai and Magadan Oblast to the south-east, and the Chukot Autonomous Okrug to the north-east. The main river is the Lena, which drains into the Laptev Sea through a large swampy delta. Apart from the Central Yakut Plain, the region’s territory is mountainous, and four-fifths is taiga (forested marshland). Sakha is the largest federal unit in Russia, occupying an area of 3,083,523 sq km (1,190,554 sq miles), making it larger than Kazakhstan, itself the second largest country, after Russia, in Europe or the former USSR. The north of the Republic lies within the Arctic zone, whereas the south has a more temperate climate.