Russia - The Republic of Mordovia. Map, economy, travel, news, arts, media, and business

Overview:
The Republic of Mordovia is located in the centre of European part of Russia in the Volga basin at the crosspoint of the most important routes from the Centre to the Ural region, Siberia, the Volga region, Kazakhstan and Middle Asia. Total occupied area is 26.2 thousand sq. km. The Republic stretches from west to east for about 280 km (between longitudes 42ш 12'E and 46ш 43'E) and from north to south for 55 to 140 km (between latitudes 53ш 40'N and 55ш 15'N). It borders the Nizhny Novgorod region in the north, the Ulyanovsk region in the east, the Penza region in the south, the Ryazan region in the west and Chuvashya Republic in the northwest.
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The Republic is divided into 22 administrative districts. There are 7 towns within its territory, among them Saransk, Ruzaevka, Kovylkino are under republican subordination and Ardatov, Insar, Krasnoslobodsk, Temnikov are under district subordination. The capital of the Republic is Saransk with population of 336 000 people (2003) which is situated 600 km away from Moscow.

The population of Mordovia has been estimated at 899.6 thousand people as on 1st January 2003, comprising 540.6 thousand urban residents and 359.0 thousand rural residents. The dominating religion of the Republic population is Orthodox Christianity.

The state national official languages are Mordovian (moksha, erzia) and Russian. The Mordovian language belongs to Finnish group of Ural-Altay language family and it is spoken by 1/3 of the Republic population.

The region is a part of the Volga-Vyatka economic region. The main industrial centres are Saransk and Ruzaevka.

The Republic of Mordovia is situated in Eastern-European plain therefore its land relief is comparatively simple being high-hilled in the south-eastern part and flat and low mostly in the valley of the Moksha river and its tributary streams in the west and north-west.