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A number of people from different nationalities comprises the Russian Federation Ethnic Groups. The Soviet Union, prior to its collapse, was home to people from about 100 different nationalities. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, these people started staying in their respective independent nations. However, Russia, considered being the direct successor of the Soviet Union still consists of the same number of ethnic types in its population. The current Russian population therefore, is a mix of large number of ethnic minorities and the Russian majority.
The Russian Federation Ethnic Groups can be broadly divided among four groups – the Slavs, the Altaic group, the Uralic group and the Caucasus group. Of these groups, the Slavs constitute the majority of people – about 85 percent of the total population. The other three groups form the rest of the 15 percent population.
The Altaic group consists of people who mainly speak Turkic languages. They include the Dolgans, Kalmyks, Evenks, Buryats, Bashkirs, Chuvash, Nogay, Yakuts, Balkars, Karachay and Kumyks. This population generally resides above the Arctic Circle, the southern part of Ural Mountains, in the middle Volga, and the North Caucasus.
The Finnic people mainly constitute the Uralic group. They live in far northwest, the upper Volga, and the Urals. The Uralic group comprises of Mordovians, Komi, Mari, Karelians and Udmurts. Caucasus Mountains’s northern slopes are home to the Caucasus group. The Caucasus group comprises of the Chechens, Dagestani, Kabardins, Cherkess, Adyghs and Ingush.
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