It became a Russian protectorate in 1914 and was replaced by the nominally independent Tuvan People's Republic in 1921 (known officially as Tannu Tuva until 1926),[15] recognized only by its neighbors the Soviet Union and Mongolia, before being annexed into the former in 1944.

[17] Medieval Mongol tribes, including Oirats and Tumeds, inhabited areas which are now part of the Tuvan Republic.

[18] During the Xinhai Revolution in China, Tsarist Russia formed a separatist movement among the Tuvans while there were also pro-independence and pro-Mongol groups.

[19] Tsar Nicholas II agreed to the third petition by Tuva's leadership in 1912, establishing a protectorate over the then-independent state.

On 14 August 1921, the Bolsheviks established the Tuvan People's Republic, popularly called Tannu-Tuva.

The Tuvan People's Republic was de jure an independent state between the World Wars.

This unsettled the Soviet Union, which orchestrated a coup carried out in 1929 by five young Tuvan graduates of Moscow's Communist University of the Toilers of the East.

[24] In 1930, the pro-Soviet regime discarded the state's Mongol script in favor of a Latin alphabet designed for Tuva by Russian linguists.

Under the leadership of Party Secretary Salchak Toka, ethnic Russians were granted full citizenship rights and Buddhist and Mongol influences on the Tuvan state and society were systematically curtailed.

[26] In February 1990, the Tuvan Democratic Movement was founded by Kaadyr-ool Bicheldei, a philologist at the Kyzyl State Pedagogical Institute.

The party aimed to provide jobs and housing (both in short supply), and improve the status of the Tuvan language and culture.

Major Old Believer villages are Erzhei, Uzhep, Unzhei, Zhivei and Bolee Malkiye (all in the Kaa-Khemsky District).

[39] Ethnic Russians make up 27.4% of the population (as of the 2021 census) in Kaa-Khemsky District, one of the most remote regions in Tuva.

Tibetan Buddhism's present-day spiritual leader is Tenzin Gyatso, the fourteenth Dalai Lama.

[45] The Tuvan people – along with the Yellow Uyghurs in China – are one of the only two Turkic groups who are primarily adherents to Tibetan Buddhism, which coexists with native shamanistic traditions.

[48][49] According to a 2012 survey,[42] 61.8% of the population of Tuva adheres to Buddhism, 8% to Tengrism or Tuvan shamanism, 1.5% to the Russian Orthodox Church, the Old Believers or other forms of Christianity, 1% to Protestantism.

[42] The present flag of Tuva – yellow for prosperity, blue for courage and strength, white for purity – was adopted on 17 September 1992.

On 3 April 2007, Russian president Vladimir Putin nominated Sholban Kara-ool, 40, a former champion wrestler, as the Chairman of the Government of Tuva.

Tuva's legislature, the Great Khural, has 32 seats as of 2023; each deputy is elected to serve a five-year term.

In the 2024 Russian presidential election, which critics called rigged and fraudulent, President Vladimir Putin won 95.37% of the vote in Tuva.

[58] Tuva does not have a railway, although famous postage stamps in the 1930s, designed in Moscow during the time of Tuvan independence, mistakenly depict locomotives as demonstrating Soviet-inspired progress there.

[62] Important archaeological excavations in Tuva include Arzhaan-1 and Tunnug 1,[63] dating to the ninth century BC.

Shamanism presupposes the existence of good and evil spirits inhabiting mountains, forests and water, as well as the heavens and the underworld.

Treasures of the old Slavonic culture in the Asian Tuva saved along with the values of other peoples – children's folklore ensemble "Oktay" from the city of Kyzyl in the course several ethnographic expeditions in the old believers ' settlements were able to collect an extensive collection of samples of ancient singing art.