Tannu Tuva (1921-1944)

The Turkic ethnography spreads widely between Türkiye to Central Asia and parts of Russia. And yes, it is true that both Turkish and Turkic have the same origin as the Turkish language belongs to the larger Turkic family group, although these languages have distinct written and oral formats. At present, over 170 million people belong to the above mentioned language family and while the countries are independent and have their own identities, there were temporary sovereigns who belonged to the end-trail of colonial era. One such territory was the Tannu Tuva People's Republic (1921 to 1944), followed by Tuvan Autonomous Oblast (1941 to 1961), Tuvan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (1961 to 1991) and finally assimilating into Russia post 1991.  But the Tuvans have been a predominantly nomadic tribe only to encounter fierce world politics in the 20th century. The Tuvans carry forward their rich cultural identity that's religiously inclined towards Buddhism and Shamanism, perform Khuresh, a traditional wrestling game that gives them dignity, ambitions and a sense of pride. They also have a unique music style of Khöömei, a throat-singing art form that's similar to that of the Mongolian Höömei. 

Tuva or Tangnu Wulianghai had been part of the greater Northern Yuan (locally, Ikh Yuan), the immediate successor to the Mongol Empire starting from the 13th century. The tribe neighboured the Buryats, the largest group in the southern Siberia, Khongodor, Zasagt, Alair, Atagans etc. that made a conglomeration of Khalka Mongol tribes all across Central Asia. The fall of the Yuans was succeeded by the disintegrated fragments of Mongol Khanates in the 17th century. They stretched from the borders of today's Manchuria to Altai Republic of Russia and the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Province of China. But these fragmented Mongols were soon to be taken over by the Qing Dynasty of China, that lasted for over two centuries. During this time, Tuva was known in Mongolian as Tangnuu Uriayangkhay. 

The fall of the Qing Dynasty in 1912 led China break into three major factions - Mongolia, Republic of China and Tibet. All three were tied up with a singular Chinese identity and while Tibet became a bloodbath in the 50s and onwards, Mongolia declared a definite independence in 1921. And this was the time when China was in what is known as Warlord Era, where numerous factions had to be united in one single string of Chinese nationalism. Mongolia also had one section separated out declaring independence for a temporary period in the 20s, known as the Tannu Tuva People's Republic (Respublika Tannu Tuva Ulus), a section northwest of Mongolia. And just one year short of World War 2's end, in 1944 Tuva got assimilated into the Soviet Union by the name of Tuvan Autonomous Oblast. The country that consisted of the Tannu-Ola mountains and the Sayan mountain range, was prominent on world maps between the 20s to the 40s. 

The country was officially recognised and a treaty of friendship was signed between the USSR and Tannu Tuva in 1925. The Russian recognition traced a decade back during the end of the First World War, when it was declared as a Russian protectorate in 1917, although the Congress of Russian colonists suggested for annexation of the country into theirs. Why didn't it join Mongolia then? It's because back in 1911 when Mongolia declared itself independent for the first time from China, it claimed itself over Tagna Uriankhay - a territory that largely corresponds to Tannu Tuva - but Russia rejected this claim and thus started the phase of Touva (Tannu Tuva) as being a Russian protectorate. And the reason for the Russian claim goes even back when in the mid-19th century, Russian settlement of Tuva began. 

Tuva was also occupied by both the Chinese and Russian forces between 1919 to 1921 and it was from the Russians that Tuvans declared independence in 1921. But the Russian assimilation of this timid and relatively weaker republic had already started and although Mongolia was not as powerful as its neighbours, it did hold prominence in the region because of its cultural and historic dominance. In 1943, the orthography of Tuvan was switched to Cyrillic from its former mixed system of Uyghur and Mongolian scripts. Parallelly, the legitimacy of Mongolia was being questioned by China who considered it as part of its own for the next two decades. Fate of both Mongolia and Tuva changed towards the end of the War when in 1944, Tuva got annexed by the Soviet Union and by 1946, Mongolia was finally recognised as an independent nation by China. 

Today, the fate of Tuva is restricted to only one of the 21 Republics of Russia and its name is hardly known to many outside the history intelligentsia.