The Republic of Mordovia is located in the centre of the European part of Russia on the Central European plane in the basin of the river Volga, at the crossroads of the most important roads from the Centre to the Urals, Siberia, the Volga region, Kazakhstan and the Middle Asia. The territory of the Republic is more, then 26 thousand sq. km. The capital of the Republic - Saransk - has population near 340 thousand people. Distance from Moscow – almost 700 km. Mordovia is surrounded by large cities and industrial centers — Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan, Samara, Penza, Ryazan etc.
Most of Mordovian territory is covered by forests; half of these areas is covered with pine forests. In the Eastern and Western parts dominated by birch forests. Mainly in the central and western parts of concentrated lime wood.
Favor to many forests, the climate of Mordovia is soft (in Mordovia not very hot in summer and not very cold in winter) and agriculture is developed here. Speaking of flora and fauna, there ar4e many different plants are growing here and many different animals living here.
Earliest archaeological signs of human beings in the area of Mordovia are from the Neolithic era. Later, Mordvins were under the influence of both Volga Bulgaria and Kievan Rus.
The Mongols conquered vast areas of Eastern Europe in the 13th century. They established the Golden Horde in 1241, subjugating the area of Mordovia. Mordvins fought against Mongols. Mordvin lands were under the Mongols until 1430s (when The Golden Horde disintegrated).
When Ivan IV of Russia annexed the Khanate of Kazan in 1552, the Mordvin lands were subjugated to the Russian tsars. The Mordvin elite rapidly adopted Russian language and customs. In the 18th century, the Latin alphabet was used in writing Mordvin, but from the mid-19th century, Cyrillic was used.
During the Russian revolution and civil war, Mordovia was held by Bolsheviks from the beginning of the war. When the Bolsheviks prevailed in the war, Mordovia became a part of the Russian SFSR. The Mordovian Okrug was founded at the end of 1920s, and it was elevated to the status of an autonomous oblast in 1930. The autonomous oblast was transformed into the Mordovian Autonomous Socialist Soviet Republic in 1934.
When the Soviet Union disintegrated, the Mordovian ASSR proclaimed itself the Republic of Mordovia in 1990, and remained a part of the Russian Federation. The Republic of Mordovia in its present form has existed since January 25, 1994.
During the Soviet era, two written languages were developed, one based on the Erzya dialect in 1922 and one on the Moksha dialect in 1923, both using Cyrillic script.
Mordovia is a multinational republic. Mordva, Russians, Tatars, Belorussians, Ukrainians, Udmurts, Armenians and other nations live on its territory. The Mordvins account for about one-third of the people living in the republic. Only 300,000 but local scientists maintained, that 20 million peoples from the whole Solar system have Mordovian roots,
The dominating religion of the Republic population is Orthodox Christianity.
