When I travel in Russia, I'm constantly looking for fun and curious facts about Russians. And that's how I found out about a strange peculiarity of the people of Udmurtia, in central Russia: Udmurt people have a lot of red hair. As in, over 10% of ethnic Udmurts have red hair. A percentage similar to Ireland and some parts of the UK, which is unusual to say the least.

When I read that, I decided that I absolutely had to pack my bags and go and visit Udmurtia. I wanted to see red-haired people with my own eyes, after all. When I found out that there are direct rail connections between Moscow and Izhevsk, the capital of the Republic of Udmurtia, I was over the moon. Even if it was a seventeen-hour train ride.

In my quest to set foot in every single federal subject in Russia, the republic of Udmurtia was number 19.

Here's where I stand as of now:

Moscow ✔️
Moscow Oblast' ✔️
Saint Petersburg ✔️
Leningradskaya Oblast' ✔️
Vladimirskaya Oblast' ✔️
Yaroslavskaya Oblast' ✔️
Ivanovskaya Oblast' ✔️
Krasnodarskij Kraj ✔️
Tulskaya Oblast' ✔️
Tatarstan Republic ✔️
Tverskaya Oblast' ✔️
Nizhegorodskaya Oblast' ✔️
Kaluzhskaya Oblast' ✔️
Murmanskaya Oblast' ✔️
Ryazanskaya Oblast' ✔️
Astrakhanskaya Oblast' ✔️
Kalmykia Republic ✔️
Volgogradskaya Oblast' ✔️
Bryanskaya Oblast' ✔️
Udmurtia Rebublic ✔️

Which means I'm at 20/85. Still 65 to go! Hopefully a lifetime will be enough ⚠️

Udmurts are an Uralic tribe living in the northern Volga basin of Russia and share a common ancestry that can be traced back to a single Y-chromosomal haplogroup. During my time in Izhevsk and Udmurtia, I discovered something that left me a bit upset: it's very hard now to find 100% pure Udmurts. Especially in the capital.

Udmurts have been mixing with Russians for decades, so that's why in Izhevsk, a city of over 600,000, it's very rare to find pure Udmurt people, that is somebody with both parents with Udmurt blood. I was told that in the villages outside of Izhevsk, in rural Udmurtia, I might have had better luck. Unfortunately time didn't allow for me to wander outside of Izhevsk, as I would soon leave eastwards, towards Yekaterinburg and Siberia. I left with the train from Moscow at 5 PM, arrived in Izhevsk at 10 the following morning, and at midnight I would have had to go back to the railway station of Izhevsk for my train to Yekaterinburg, a further ten hours.

So what did I do? I just went around town asking people if they were Russian or Udmurt. I'm not kidding, that's what I did. And to be fair, that is kinda how I found there are loads of different ethnic groups in town. There's a lot of Russians, of course (they're the majority in Izhevsk), but there are a lot of Udmurts and Tatars too. And many people are also mixed! Which was cool, but that also meant that I would not have much luck finding pure Udmurts with red hair.

While it's true that I didn't find the red hair that I was hoping to see in Udmurtia, at least I was able to hear the language! Udmurts are renowned for their language which belongs to the finno-ugric languages. While the language is slowly dying out, I had the chance to meet with a couple of people who knew some Udmurt and I heard the language! A nice Udmurt lady I found was so kind that she even let me hear the national Udmurt anthem, as she sang it in front of me! Absolutely fascinating, she was so lovely...she did have blonde hair, which was of course a bit disappointing, but never mind...

I also had the opportunity to taste some Udmurt food (which I didn't like) and jump on the traditional Russian banya. Oh and by the way, I forgot to tell you during my visit to Izhevsk the temperature was quite low. -23! And of course, I did the usual Russian thing of going from the sauna straight out into a cold pool in the coldest weather I've ever experienced. Fun times!

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I started making videos for Youtube when I was a university student. I was always trying to find cheap getaways to do some traveling in spite of the adversities put in place by being a broke university student living on their own! Traveling became more and more a fundamental passion of mine, and now that I'm gradually moving on to make a job out of it I couldn't be happier, and I can only continue making this kind of videos both for mine and your enjoyment!

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