Search: “Russia”

Volga Federal District The Bashkirs became Muslim in the 13th Century, but the old paganism/folk religion remains strongly entrenched. Pray for binding of the powers that hold them. There were nearly 50 congregations of evangelicals by 2010 – up from only one in 1991. But Bashkir-speaking congregations number only a handful. Registration of churches is […]

Tatarstan has many minerals and good farmland, and a large degree of political and religious independence. The Tatar are Russia’s largest Muslim people (5.5 million), and Europe’s 2nd-largest. (More Tatars live outside Tatarstan than inside.) Only about 10% faithfully practise Islam, though it is a strong part of Tatar identity. Evangelical churches and groups increased […]

The Urals are a vast area, rich in minerals and resources. They are populated mostly by Russians and Ukrainians but include significant numbers of most of the least-evangelized peoples of the Russian Federation including Bashkirs, Tatars, Chuvash, Udmurt, Mari and Mordvinians. Pray for Christians to gain a burden for these peoples living outside of their […]

Southern Federal District Islam predominates in all the indigenous peoples except the Ossetians, a majority of whom are nominal Orthodox. Islamists, both local and foreign, work to radicalize Islam in this region and to subvert the complex ethnic, political, economic and religious factors of the North Caucasus conflicts into a jihad defined solely along religious […]

Northwestern Federal District In the Republic of Karelia, 74% of the population are Russian; only 10% are Karelian. The Karelian people consist of three groups: the Olonets Karelians, the North Karelians and Tver Karelians. Literature is published in the first two of these languages. The Orthodox, Lutherans and others minister to the Karelians. Praise God […]

Siberian Federal District The Buryat people live north of Mongolia, around Lake Baikal which contains 20% of the world’s fresh water. Half of Russia’s 450,000 Buryats live here, with the rest in the immediate neighbouring regions. They are the largest indigenous ethnic group in Siberia. Lamaistic Buddhism and shamanism have revived considerably since 1990. An […]

Far Eastern Federal District The indigenous peoples of the Russian Far East are small in population but unique. Spread across several federal subjects, they include the Evens (closely related to the Evenki of Siberia), Nanai, Koryak, Yupik and other even smaller groups. Indigenous, Russian, Korean and Western workers focus significant ministry on them. There are […]

The North Caucasus region is the poorest and least stable region in Russia. It has the highest unemployment, the highest birth rates, and widespread corruption. The region’s 7 republics contain 50 to 60 ethnic groups of Caucasus, Turkic, and Iranian origin. The North Caucasus peoples are among the least reached on earth, and they live […]

Unreached peoples. There are 78 ethnic minorities considered unreached, totalling over 13 million in population. Most expatriates and even Russian ministries focus on reaching ethnic Russians. Moscow operates as the centre of the former Soviet world, and nearly every ethnicity from the fSU can be found there. Most of these ethnicities are more accessible and […]