Siberians

In Russian, the word "Siberian" is usually used as a designation for the ethnic Russian inhabitants of the region (like New Englanders in US), while indigenous minorities are referred to by the words "native peoples of Siberia" or "small peoples of Siberia". In anthropological contexts, as well as in common parlance, "Siberian" can also be used to denote the Indigenous peoples of Siberia. ==As sub-ethnic group==

In ethnology, the term is often used to refer to the Old-Timers (Starozhily or old settlers) — the earliest Russian population of Siberia during its Russian conquest in the 16th–17th centuries and their descendants. Later settlers, especially the second half of the 19th – early 20th centuries, were called "the Russian" (Siberian dialects: "Raseyskie") by the Siberians. The dialects of the Siberians were formed mainly on the basis of Northern Russian dialects. Ideologies of Siberian regionalism (Siberian nationalism) considered the Siberians to be a separate people from the Russians. Among contemporary ethnologists there are both opponents and supporters of this point of view. In 1918, under the control of the Siberian regionalists, there was a short-lived "Siberian Republic". In the course of 2002 and 2010 Russian Census, the ethnonym "Siberiak" was indicated as the main one by a small number of respondents. ==See also==