Uryankhay Republic

The Uryankhay Republic was a short-lived state in the Tuvan lands of southern Siberia, proclaimed after the collapse of Qing rule in the Xinhai Revolution of 1911 and lasting until the establishment of the Russian protectorate of Uryankhay Krai in April 1914. The region, known to the Chinese as Tannu Uriankhai, had been under Qing suzerainty since the mid-eighteenth century, while Russian settlers and traders had been moving in since the 1830s after gold was discovered, and by 1909 some nine thousand Russians lived there. When the Qing dynasty fell, Tuvan leaders declared independence, but they were divided over whether to seek Russian protection, to return to Chinese rule or to remain fully independent, while the new Republic of China claimed the territory. Appeals for protection against Chinese reincorporation led Russia to take the country under its wing, and on 17 April 1914 it was proclaimed the protectorate of Uryankhay Krai, administered from Belotsarsk, the later Kyzyl. The republic was thus a brief interlude between Qing and Russian rule, and after the revolutions and civil war the territory became the Tuvan People's Republic in 1921.