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| 2754 The matchmaker Anastasia, painting by Nikolai Vassilievich Ovchinnikov, 1978 |
The Chuvash people are a Turkic ethnic group, native to an area stretching from the Volga Region to Siberia. Most of them live in Republic of Chuvashia and surrounding areas, although Chuvash communities may be found throughout the Russian Federation. The closest ancestors of the Chuvashes seem to be the Volga Bulgars. They have been subjected to much influence, not only from Russian and Turkic peoples, but also from neighboring Finnic tribes. Racially, the Chuvash seem to be a mixed Finnic and Turkic type.
