Natural resources include gypsum, sand, clay, sapropel deposits, phosphorite, and peat.

[13] The ancestors of the Chuvash were Bulgars and Suars, Oghur Turkic tribes residing in the Northern Caucasus in the 5th to 8th centuries.

In the 7th and 8th centuries, a part of the Bulgars left for the Balkans, where, together with local South Slavs, they established the state of modern Bulgaria.

Later Mongol and Tatar rulers did not intervene in local internal affairs as long as tribute was paid annually to Sarai.

When the power of the Golden Horde began to diminish, local Mişär Tatar Murzas from Piana and Temnikov tried to govern the Chuvash area.

During Ivan the Terrible's war of conquest against the Khanate of Kazan, in August 1552, the Chuvash Orsai and Mari Akpar Tokari princes swore their loyalty to the Grand Duchy of Muscovy at Alatyr on the Sura River.

To gain support from the local population, Lenin ordered the creation of a Chuvash state within the Russian SFSR.

During the Soviet period, the high authority in the republic was shared between three persons: The first secretary of the Chuvashia CPSU Committee (who in reality had the biggest authority), the chairman of the oblast Soviet (legislative power), and the Chairman of the Republic Executive Committee (executive power).

Since 1991, CPSU lost all the power, and the head of the Republic administration, and eventually the governor was appointed/elected alongside elected regional parliament.

In addition, 24% of the population declares to be "spiritual but not religious", 1% is atheist and 2.3% follows other religions or did not answer to the question.

The republic is Russia's center for growing hops and is famous throughout the country for its long history of beer brewing.

The republic's system of roads, railroads, waterways, and airports closely ties the region with others in and outside of Russia.

It also forms a connection via Chuvashia through the southern suburbs of Cheboksary and Novocheboksary to the Mari El Republic and the Vyatka Highway.

In the eastern part of Chuvashia, the federal road A-151 runs from Tsivilsk through Kanash, Komsomolskoye, Chkalovskoye, Karabay-Shemursha, Shemursha to Ulyanovsk and Saratov.

Automobiles, trucks, and buses are the major forms of transportation, with the republic ranking fourth in highway density in all of Russia.

[13] Cheboksary is situated on one of the main highways of the Russian Federation leading from Moscow to the industrial areas of Tatarstan, the southern Urals, and Siberia.

Extensive public and private bus systems connect all towns within the republic with each other and with the surrounding regions.

Via Kanash, the rail system connects the major towns in Chuvashia with the big industrial centers of eastern Siberia, the Urals, and Moscow.

Express trains to and from Moscow are available every day, with the overnight journey taking approximately fourteen hours each way.

In 1965, their total length was 145 kilometers (90 mi): All lines were closed in the economic uncertainty after the breakup of the Soviet Union.

To the west, the Volga River connects Cheboksary with Nizhny Novgorod, Yaroslavl, Moscow and the northern regions of Russia.

[13] The international Cheboksary Airport receives both cargo and passenger aircraft of practically all types and sizes.

The Chuvash Republic, along with Mordovia, has produced some of the best modern race walkers, such as Vera Sokolova, Olimpiada Ivanova, Yelena Nikolayeva and Vladimir Andreyev.

The Chuvash Republic is also represented by the basketball team Cheboksary Hawks, which performs in the Russia Superleague 2.