Humanities & Social Sciences 4 (2015 8) 793-804 ~ ~ ~ УДК 394=512.156 The Usinsk Tuvans in the XXI Century Victor P. Krivonogova b and Yaroslavna S. Mikhailovab аSiberian Federal University * 79 Svobodny, Krasnoyarsk, 660041, Russia Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology RAS 32a Lininskii pr., Moscow, 119991, Russia Received 01.12.2014, received in revised form 23.01.2015, accepted 03.02.2015 A small group of nomadic Tuvans have long lived in the south of Krasnoyarsk Krai, on the border with Tuva. <...> They were considered non-residents and, thus, were not taken into account by statistics until Tuva became a part of the USSR. <...> By the 1970-s they lived around Verkhneusinskoe and Nizhneusinskoe, Russian settlements, were engaged in cattle breeding. <...> Their separate residence contributed to the preservation of the Tuvan language and culture. <...> In 1990-s almost all the Tuvans moved to towns due to the cattle breeding reduction. <...> Their contacts with the Russians also increased largely. <...> The number of mixed marriages grew, and language and cultural assimilation started. <...> In the future a further growth of assimilation processes can be expected as the children predominantly speak Russian. <...> Keywords: the Usinsk Tuvans, modern ethnic processes, language assimilation, retreat from traditional practice, mixed marriages, miscegenation, processes of assimilation. <...> Only fragmentary data on their number and settlement in different periods are available (Datsyshen 2009, Istoriia Tuvy 2007, Potapov Victor P. Krivonogov and Yaroslavna S. Mikhailova. <...> The Usinsk Tuvans in the XXI Century 1969). <...> Only later, in the 1950-s, the information about them appeared in the records of Verkhneusinsk village council. <...> According to our estimates, the number of the Tuvans by 1972 was 476 people, or 15.6 % of the total population of the village council (as per the data in the village council’s register of farms). <...> However, their majority did not live in the villages, among the Russians, but rather in isolation, on numerous cattle camps within 10-30 miles around the settlements. <...> The Tuvans’ separate residence with the Russians helped to preserve the relative endogamy and the Tuvan language as a primary spoken and native one. <...> In 1950-s there were only 2 mixed families whereas in 1972 their number was 8 (8,7 % of the total number of Tuvan families). <...> Such families <...>