Glossary of "The Union Moujik"
| ABKHAZIA      | An autonomous republic in
  the former Georgia SSR. Now a rebellious secessionist region of Georgia and
  homeland to a Northwestern Caucasian-speaking people called Abkhazians. 
 | 
| ACRE | A coastal town in Northern
  Israel. 
 | 
| ADZHARIA      | An autonomous republic in
  the former Georgia SSR in the Southwest. The homeland
  of the Adzharians, an ethnographic Georgians group that is also found in
  Turkey. 
 | 
| AFULA | A small city located in
  the Galilee, Israel. 
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| ALMA-ATA | The capital of the former Soviet
  Republic of Kazakhstan, which is located
  in Central Asia. 
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| ARMENIA | A former
  Soviet Republic and now an independent nation in the Caucasus. 
 | 
| ASHKABAD | Capital of the former
  Soviet Republic of Turkmenistan, which
  is located in Central Asia 
 | 
| ASHKENAZIM | Jews descended from Jewish
  communities in Northern Europe 
 | 
| ASTRAKHAN | A city on the northern
  shores of the Caspian Sea in the Russian Federation, a center for caviar. 
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| AVAR | A Northeastern Caucasian
  people living mainly in the Russian republic of Dagestan and in Azerbaijan. 
 | 
| AZERBAIJAN | A former
  Soviet Republic and now an independent nation in the North Caucasus. Its people are
  Turkic speaking. 
 | 
| BAKU | The capital of the former Soviet
  Republic of Azerbaijan, located in the South Caucasus. 
 | 
| BALKARS | A people of the
  Circasssian or Cherkess group found in the autonomous Republic of
  Kabardino-Balkaria in the Russian Federation, situated in the North Caucasus. 
 | 
| BASHKIRS | A Turkic speaking people
  of the Russian Federation found mostly in the autonomous republic of
  Bashkhorstan. 
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| BELARUS | The former Soviet Republic
  of Byelorussia (White Russia), now an independent country in Eastern Europe.
  Belarus means “White Rus”. | 
| BELORUSSIA | A former soviet republic
  to the west, now an independent nation called Belarus or White Rus. It is the
  homeland of the East Slavic people in the northwestern part of European
  Russia (Central Russia or Western Russia) 
 | 
| BERBERS | Considered the indigenous
  peoples of North Africa, west of the Nile Valley, the Berber languages are of
  the Afro-asiatic linguistic group and their tongues are closely related to
  Semitic and Chadic languages. They speak a broad range of related dialects
  called Tamazight of which Tashelhiyt, Tarifit, Kabyle, Tuareg, Riffian, Atlas
  Tamazight and Shawiya (Chaouïa) are the most popular. Most of the Berber populations
  of North Africa have been Arabized to the extent that less than thirty
  percent of Berbers are native speakers of their mother tongue, leaving the
  number of speakers to range between 30-40 million. 
 | 
| BIROBIDZHN | The capital of the Jewish Autonomous
  Republic, a remote territory in the Russian Far East. 
 | 
| BULGARS | A people of Bulgarian
  descent found mostly in Moldavia. 
 | 
| BURYAKS | A people of Mongol stock
  in the Buryak autonomous Republic in Eastern Siberia and west of Lake Baikal
  in the Russian Federation. 
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| CAUCASIAN | A native of the Caucasus.
  Also used to describe a member of the white race or a person belonging to one
  of the main ethnological divisions of mankind, which is native to Europe,
  North Africa, Western Asia and Central Asia. 
 | 
| CAUCASUS | A region between the Black
  Sea and the Caspian Sea at the southeastern edge of Europe, lying south of
  the Volga and Don rivers. It is dissected from west to east by the Caucasus
  Mountain. 
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| CHECHEN | A people speaking the Nakh
  family of languages that belong to the broader Northeast Caucasian or
  Nakho-Dagestanian group of languages. 
 | 
| CHECHNYA | A self-declared
  independent Republic of the Russian Federation and homeland to the Chechen
  people. 
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| CHEREMIS | Also called Mari, they are
  a Finno-Ugric speaking nationality of the Volga-Finnic subgroup, found in the
  Russian Federation. 
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| CHERKESS       | Also called Circassians,
  the Cherkess are the largest family of the Northwest Caucasian or
  Abkhazo-Adyghean group of languages. It also comprises the Karbadinian and
  Adyghe speakers, peoples whose autonomous republics are in the Russian
  Federation. 
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| CHUKCHI         | The indigenous people of
  Chukotka Peninsula speaking an ancient language (Chukchi) of the
  Chukotko-Kamchatkan family of languages belonging to the larger Paleosiberian
  or Paleoasian group of languages. 
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| CHUMIKAN | A town in the Russian Far
  East. 
 | 
| CHUVASH | An autonomous Finno-Ugrian
  republic in the Russian Federation. 
 | 
| COLOURED | Also called Bruin
  Afrikaners (Brown Afrikaners) in Afrikaans, the term colored is used to
  describe the mixed-race people in South Africa, who are not fully Black,
  White, Indian, Asian or Black. The majority are Griqua. 
 | 
| COSSACKS      | Derived from a Turkic word
  meaning “free-wanderer” or “adventurer”, the Cossacks originated from Eastern
  Slavs who, in search of a new way of life, left the Slav principalities in
  the Dnieper basin and shared the nomadic way of life with peoples of the steppe,
  mostly of Turkic origin, with whom they intermarried. Constantly reinforced
  by escaped Serfs, the Cossacks had already formed nine groupings (voiskoi), each headed by an ataman,
  before they were absorbed into the Russian empire. The Don voiskoi was the largest and most
  important. Others included Kuban, Terek, Astrakhan, and Orenburg, Urals,
  Siberian, Trans-Baikal, Amur and Ussuri groupings. 
 | 
| CRIMEAN TATARS | A Turkic-speaking people
  of the Crimea Peninsula in Ukraine. They are made up of three sub-ethnic
  groups speaking different dialects. There is a large Crimean Tatar Diaspora
  abroad, especially in Turkey. 
 | 
| DAGESTAN | An autonomous republic in
  the Russian Federation populated by many nationalities in the Caucasus. The
  different indigenous nationalities are either Turkic speaking (20%) or
  Northeast Caucasian (Nakho—Dagestanian) 
 | 
| DUSHANBE | The capital city of Tajikistan, a former Soviet Republic in Central Asia and
  homeland to a Persian speaking people. 
 | 
| DRUZE | A people of mixed descent
  from Arab, Persian, Canaanite, and
  other peoples. The Druze people occupy the mountainous districts in the south
  of Syria and parts of Israel and Lebanon,
  and practice a religion that contains elements in the bible, in the Koran, and
  of Agnosticism, etc. 
 | 
| EILAT | A resort town and a
  bustling port at Israel’s southernmost tip, combining the Red Sea and the
  Negev Desert. 
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| ESTONIA | A former Soviet republic
  in the Baltic. Its people are Finno-Ugrian. 
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| EVENKI | A Tungusic people in
  Eastern Siberia. Formerly known as Tungus. 
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| FALASHA | Semitic-speaking Jews of
  Ethiopia believed to be the descendants of king Solomon and the Queen of
  Sheba. 
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| FRUNZE | The capital of Kyrgyzstan, a former Soviet Republic in Central Asia and
  homeland of Turkic-speaking peoples. 
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| GAGAUZINS | A Turkic-speaking people
  that are a minority in Moldavia. 
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| GEORGIA | A former
  Soviet Republic and an independent Orthodox nation in the South Caucasus. 
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| GERMANS (Volga) | Descendants of the
  Germanic-speaking peoples who were invited to settle in Russia during the
  reign of Catherine the Great. 
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| GILYAK | Otherwise known as the
  Nivkhs, the Gilyaks are an ancient people of North Sakhalin and the estuary
  region of the Amur river. Their language is often classified as a member of
  the Paleosiberian group of languages. 
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| GOPAK | A popular Ukrainian folk
  dance. 
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| GREAT  PATRIOTIC WAR | The Second World War (WW
  II), as it is called by citizens of the republics of the former Soviet Union. 
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| GRIQUA | An Afrikaans-speaking
  nation of mixed-race origin that came about from the intermarriages and
  sexual relations between the early European settlers and the indigenous
  Khoisan populations. 
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| GROZNY | The capital of Chechnya in the
  Caucasus of the Russian Federation. 
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| GYPSY  (TSYGAN) | A wandering people of
  Indian origin. Tsygans, Romanis or Gypsies are dark-skinned in complexion and
  speak a Romany dialect or language. 
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| HAIFA | The largest city in Northern Israel
  and a major port. 
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| HORA | Jewish folk dance. 
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| INGUSH | A people speaking one of
  the Nakh family of languages that belong to the broader Northeast Caucasian
  or Nakho-Dagestanian group of languages. 
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| INGUSHETIA | An autonomous republic in the Russian Federation, found in the Caucasus and
  homeland of the Ingush people of that region. 
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| JEW | A person of Hebrew descent
  or an adherent of Judaism, one of the world’s monotheistic religions. 
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| KALMYKS | The only Mongolic people
  or people of Mongolic nationality in Europe. Their homeland is today an
  autonomous republic northwest of the Caspian Sea in the Russian Federation. 
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| KARACHAI | A Turkic-speaking people
  of the north Caucasus. Found in the Karachay-Cherkessia Autonomous Republic
  in the Russian Federation that they share with the Cherkess or Circassians. 
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| KARBADIANS | A people of the Circassian
  or Cherkess family of the broader Northwest Caucasian languages, also called Abkhazo-Adyghean. Found mostly in the
  autonomous republic of Kabardino-Balkaria in the Russian Federation. 
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| KARAKALPAK | A Turkic people in
  Northern Uzbekistan with a homeland in an autonomous republic of the same
  name. 
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| KAZAKHSTAN | A former
  Soviet Republic and independent nation in the north of Central Asia and parts of
  Europe. Ethnic Kazakhs are Turkic speaking but are more Mongolic in genetic
  composition. 
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| KAZAN | Capital and largest city
  in the autonomous Republic of Tatarstan in the Northern Volga region of the
  Russian Federation. 
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| KIEV | The capital city of Ukraine and seat
  of the first East Slavic empire—Kievan Rus (Kievan Russia). 
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| KYRGYZSTAN | A former
  Soviet Republic in Central Asia. Ethnic Kyrgyzs are Turkic speaking. 
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| KHARKOV | Second largest city in
  Ukraine and the first industrial city, with a majority population of ethnic
  Russians. 
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| KISHINEV (CHISINAU) | The capital of the former Soviet
  republic of Moldavia in Eastern Europe.  
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| KOMI | A Finno-Ugrian people with
  an autonomous republic in the north of European Russia, in the Russian
  Federation. 
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| KOREANS | Found mostly in Central
  Asia, they were transferred from Asia, around the Primorski territory during
  the Second World War. They are a Mongoloid people. 
 | 
| KORYAK | A closely related people
  to the Chukchi, found mostly in the
  Kamchatka peninsula in the Far East of the Russian Federation. Koryaks speak
  a Palaeosiberian language. 
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| KUMYK | A Turkic-speaking people
  in the Russian Caucasus. 
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| KURDS | An Iranian-speaking people
  in the Middle East, with a few thousand in the former Soviet Union, mostly in
  the South Caucasus. 
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| KUBAN | Name of a River and
  Cossack group in the Northern Caucasus. 
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| KVAS | A Russian beer made from
  black or regular rye bread. 
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| KUKINGRAD | The capital of the Soyuz Republic. 
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| LAK | One of the several
  nationalities of Dagestan Republic in the Russian Federation, speaking the
  Lak language, which forms an isolated family in the Northeast Caucasian
  languages, also called Nakho-Dagestanian. 
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| LATVIA | A former
  Soviet Republic in the Baltic. Its Lettish people are of Lithuan origin. 
 | 
| LITHUANIA | A former Soviet republic
  in the Baltic. Ethnic Lithuanians are related to the Latvians. 
 | 
| LVOV (LVIV) | A city in the northwest of
  Ukraine in the Carpathian and stronghold of Ukrainian nationalists. 
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| MAGADAN | A city and capital of
  Magadan Oblast in the Russian Far East. It is also a major fishing center in the North Pacific. 
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| MAGYARS | The peoples of Hungary and
  elsewhere of Finno-Ugric speech. Found as a substantial minority in neighboring
  Slovakia, Rumania and Serbia. 
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| MARI | An autonomous republic in
  the Russian Federation. Also called Cheremis, they are a Finno-Ugrian people
  in the northern Volga region. 
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| MAZEPA, IVAN | A Zaporozhian Cossack and Hetman
  of the Left Bank Ukraine Hetmanate, he later switched his loyalty against the
  Russian Czar, siding with Sweden. He ended up in exile where he died. 
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| MAZURKA | A popular Polish folk
  dance. 
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| MESKHETS | A Turkic-speaking people
  of mixed Turkish and Georgian descent (from the ancient Meskhi tribe) who
  were deported by Iosif Stalin to Central Asia, accused of collaborating with
  the Germans. 
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| MESKHETI | A region of the ancient
  Meskhi tribe, that exists known today as the Georgian province of
  Samtskhe-Javakheti, known for having ethnic Armenians as the majority of its
  population. 
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| MIZRAHIM | Near-eastern or Oriental
  Jews, or people who descend from ancient Jewish communities in Muslim lands. 
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| MOLDOVIA | Former Soviet republic in
  Eastern Europe. Ethnic Moldovans are Latin speaking and are related to
  Rumanians. 
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| MONGOLIC | An Altaic group of
  languages spoken in scattered patches across the Eurasian landmass, with
  Mongolia being the center and the Kalmyks being the westernmost fringe. 
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| MOSCOW | The capital city of the former Soviet
  Union and the capital city of the
  Russian Federation. 
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| MUSCOVY | The principality of Moscow
  that was expanded under the Rurikovich dynasty and transformed through
  further expansions into the Russian empire under the Romanov dynasty. 
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| MORDVINIA | An autonomous republic in
  the upper Volga region in the Russian Federation. Its people are
  Finno-Ugrian. 
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| NAKH | The family of languages
  spoken by the Chechen, Ingush, Bats and Kist people of the Caucasus. It is
  recognized as a branch of the Northeast Caucasian group of languages. 
 | 
| NAKHICHEVAN | An Azerbaijani enclave and
  autonomous republic located between Armenian and Iranian territories. 
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| NARGONYY | A new settlement in
  Southern Yakutia. 
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| NARGONY- KARABAKH | An Armenian enclave in
  Azerbaijan that was wrestled from Azerbaijan by ethnic Armenians following
  the collapse of the Soviet Union. It is an unrecognized state today and
  constitutes one of the frozen conflicts in the post-Soviet world. 
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| NENET | A Samoyedic people of
  northern Siberia. 
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| ODESSA | A seaport on the Black
  Sea. It is also the capital of the Odessa region. The city was built and
  settled by a multinational population from all over the world, and was once
  the third city in the Russian Empire after Moscow and St. Petersburg. Odessa
  also exported its population back from where it had come from. 
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| OSSETS | A Caucasian people with an
  autonomous republic in the Russian Federation and an autonomous area in Georgia (Southern Ossetia). 
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| OSTYAK | Any of the members of the
  Finno-Ugric peoples inhabiting Western Siberia. They are divided into the
  Khanty, Yenisei, and Samoyedic Ostyaks. 
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| PENZHINO | A town in the Kamchatka. 
 | 
| PONTIAN  GREEKS | The Hellenic peoples of
  the Soviet Union mostly concentrated around the Black Sea shore, especially
  in Odessa in Ukraine. They are also scattered all over the former Soviet
  Union. 
 | 
| PUGACHEV,  EMELYAN | Don Cossack revolutionary
  leader who led a peasant uprising against the Russian monarchy in the 18th
  century. 
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| RAZIN, STEPAN | Don Cossack revolutionary
  leader who led a peasant uprising from the Volga region in the 17th century. 
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| RIGA | The capital city of the former Soviet
  republic of Latvia. 
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| RODINA | A Russian word for “Motherland.” 
 | 
| ROSH PINNA | A town in Northern Galilee,
  Israel. 
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| RUSSIA | Former Soviet republic,
  former empire—successor to Kievan Rus and today an independent country called
  The Russian Federation. Ethnic Russians, otherwise known as Great Russians
  are the distinct people who evolved from the East Slavic or Rus peoples of Central
  Europe. 
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| SABRA | An Israeli born Jew. 
 | 
| SAFED | A town in Northern
  Galilee, Israel. 
 | 
| SARANSK | A city in the Volga region
  in the Russian Federation. 
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| SEPHARDIM | Jews from Spain, Portugal,
  North Africa, and other Mediterranean areas. 
 | 
| SERBS | A Southern Slav people in
  Yugoslavia with pockets found in parts of the former Soviet Union. 
 | 
| SLAVS | People of Slavic speech, a
  division of Indo-European tongues. Divided into Eastern, Western and Southern
  Slavs. 
 | 
| SORBS | A Western Slav people
  found mostly in the eastern parts of Germany. 
 | 
| SOUTH  OSSETIA | A de facto independent
  republic within Georgia, which declared its independence in the 1990s,
  although its separation from Georgia has not been recognized by any other
  country. 
 | 
| SOYUZGRAD | The word means “Union
  city” in the Russian language. 
 | 
| STAVROPOL | A Russian city and oblast
  in the north Caucasus. Birthplace of Mikhail Gorbachev. 
 | 
| SUKHUMI | The
  capital of
  the Abkhazia Republic that seceded from Georgia. 
 | 
| TABASARANS | A nationality in the
  autonomous republic of Dagestan in the Russian Federation. The people speak
  Tabasaran, which is considered a language in the Lezgic family that belongs
  to the broader Northeast Caucasian languages, also called Nakho-Dagestanian. 
 | 
| TALININ | The
  capital of
  the former Soviet Republic of Estonia. 
 | 
| TASHKENT | The
  capital of
  the former Soviet Central Asian republic of Uzbekistan. 
 | 
| TATARS | A Mongolio-Turkic people
  of the former Soviet Union. Found mostly in Russia, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.
  They comprise Volga (Kazan) Tatars, Crimean Tatars, Lipka Tatars and Siberian
  (Baraba) Tatars. 
 | 
| TBILISI | The capital of the former Soviet
  republic of Georgia in the Caucasus. 
 | 
| TEL-AVIV | Meaning “hill of spring,”
  it is the first all-Jewish city in modern times. Originally named Ahuzat
  Bayit in 1909 when it was founded by 60 families in 1909. The name was
  changed to Tel Aviv in 1910. 
 | 
| TEMANIM | Yemeni and Omani Jews. 
 | 
| TIBERIAS | A town in Israel situated
  at the western shore of the Sea of Galilee, in a depression 205 meters below
  sea level. 
 | 
| TIRASPOL | Industrial heartland of
  the former Soviet republic of Moldavia and capital of the breakaway republic
  of Transnistria. 
 | 
| TRANSNISTRIA | A breakaway territory from
  the former Soviet republic of Moldavia. 
 | 
| TREPAK | A Russian-Ukrainian dance
  of Cossack origin, performed in a quick
  duple manner. 
 | 
| TUNGUS | The old name of the Evenks in
  Siberia and the Russian Far East. The Evenks, along with other Tungusic
  peoples, speak languages and dialects that are all part of the Altaic
  linguistic branch. 
 | 
| TURANIAN | A term formerly used in grouping
  together the Korean, Japanese, Caucasian, Dravidian languages; and the larger
  Ural-Altaic language division comprising Tungusic, Mongolic, Turkic,
  Samoyedic, and Finnic speakers. 
 The term is used also for
  the Paleosiberian speaking populations of north-eastern Siberia and some
  parts of the Russian Far East. Their languages do not have any linguistic
  relationship to each other, but are
  known to predate the more dominant Tungusic and latter Turkic languages that
  swept over the area. 
 | 
| TURKIC | A branch of the
  Ural-Altaic languages, stretching from modern day Turkey all the way to the Sakha Republic in the Russian Far East. 
 | 
| TUVA | An autonomous republic in
  the Russian Federation. Even though ethnic Tuvas or Tuvinians are
  Turkic-speaking, they are Mongolic, Turkic,
  and Samoyedic in descent. 
 | 
| VOLGA  TATARS | Volga Tatars constitute a
  majority in the autonomous republic of Tatarstan in the Russian Federation,
  whose capital is Kazan. They are a mixed Mongolio-Turkic people considered to
  have descended largely from the historic Volga Bulgars. 
 | 
| UDMURT | A Finno-Ugrian people of
  Central European Russia. They also constitute an autonomous republic in the
  Russian Federation. 
 | 
| UFA | A town in the Bashkir
  autonomous republic in the Russian Federation. 
 | 
| UIGHURS | A Turkic-speaking people
  found in the former Soviet republics of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, while the
  majority live in the Uighur homeland in the Sinkiang province in China. 
 | 
| VILNIUS | The capital of the former Soviet
  republic of Lithuania. 
 | 
| UKRAINE | A former Soviet republic, the heartland of the first Russian empire
  (Kievan Rus). Ukrainians or Little Russians are the distinct peoples who
  evolved from the East Slavic people of that area. 
 | 
| YAROSLAVL | Ancient Russian town and
  principality in the Russian Federation. 
 | 
| YAKUTIA  (SAKHA) | An autonomous republic in
  the Russian Federation, named after the
  indigenous Yakut people. 
 | 
| YAKUTS | A Turkic speaking people
  of the Russian Far East, mostly in the Yakutia Republic, known today as the Sakha Republic. 
 | 
| YAKUTSK | The capital of the Yakutia (Sakha)
  Autonomous Republic in the Russia Federation. 
 | 
| YEREVAN | The capital of the former Soviet
  republic of Armenia. 
 | 
| YUKAGHIR | A Paleosiberian-speaking
  people with a uniquely unrelated language, inhabiting the extreme northeast
  of Siberia, in the Russian Far East. 
 | 
| ZAPOROZHIAN  COSSACK | The Cossack group, host or
  voiskoi of Zaporozhia in Central
  Ukraine. It was first formed by former dwellers of Kievan Rus prior to and
  after the Mongol invasion, who found sanctuary in the steppes of the lower
  Dnieper region. Their numbers were swollen over the years by escaped serfs
  from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and from the growing Czarist Russia. 
 | 
| ZULU | The largest African or
  Bantu ethnic group in South Africa, speaking a language that belongs to the
  Nguni subgroup. Brought to prominence as a warrior people by the legendary
  Shaka, they spread beyond their homeland in what is today KwaZulu-Natal, to
  other parts of South Africa, Zimbabwe, Mozambique,
  and Swaziland. 
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