New additions week 45 - 2013 (2)

After the nice new note from Rhodesia I received earlier this week another great addition to my collection arrived yesterday. Country number 198: Tannu Tuva! Before I started collecting banknotes I had never even heard of this nation or seen its banknotes. Some background information seems in order.

The Tuvan People's Republic (or People's Republic of Tannu Tuva 1921 – 1944) was a partially recognized independent state in the territory of the former Tuvan protectorate of Imperial Russia also known as Uryankhaisky Krai. It was a satellite state of the Soviet Union that is now known as the Tuva Republic within the Russian Federation. The Soviet Union and the Mongolian People's Republic were the only countries to recognize its independence.

Following the Russian Revolution of 1917, Communist troops took Tuva in January 1920. The chaos accompanying this era allowed the Tuvans to again proclaim their independence. On 14 August 1921, the Bolsheviks (supported by Russia) established a Tuvan People's Republic, called Tannu Tuva until 1926. Tannu refers to the Tannu-ola Mountains while Tuva is derived from the ethnicity Tuvan. The capital Khem-Beldir was eventually renamed Kyzyl ('red' in Tuvan). A treaty between the Soviet Union and the Mongolian People's Republic in 1926 affirmed the country’s independence. No other countries formally recognized it, although it appeared on maps and globes produced in the United States.

The area that was the Tuvan People's Republic is now known as Tyva Republic within the Russian Federation.