Worldwide Guide to Women in Leadership
Russia Substates  

See also Russia Heads

Avaristan (in Daghestan)

Circa 1823-1834 Reigning Princess Bahu Huh Bike
She appears to have been involved in the murder of her brother the Nutsal Gebek Janku ibn Mohammed (1801-02). He was succeeded as Nutsal (khan) by their father Mohammed ibn Umma and then by Sultan Ahmed Khan.The Caucasian Avars are an ethnic group living in southern Dagestan. The territory was under Russian domination 1802-43. She was succeeded by Hadji Murat (1834-36)

Circassia
The region in the foothills north of the Caucasus. The inhabitants, a sturdy, handsome folk with many often rapacious neighbors, have developed a warrior culture as a response to repeated invasions and slaving raids

Until early 300's B.C. Queen Regnant Tirghetau

Khanate of Ghazi-Ghumuq (in Daghestan)

Around the 1230s Princess Regnant Partu Pattima
As ruler of the kingdom of the Laks, a North Caucasian people which controlled significant portions of what is now Daghestan, she managed to unite the Laks into a formidable army and keep even the Mongol hordes at bay. The Laks being a warlike people, they managed to repel attacks from such invaders as Batu Khan, Timur Lenk, and Nadir Shah. She is regarded by modern Laks as "our Joan of Arc", but the principality later became ributary to Golden Horde and afterwards a Client Dynasty to the Mongols.

1838-1847 Joint Reigning Khanum Ummu Gulsum Bike
She first reigned together  with Mahmud Beg (1841-43), Gadji Yahya (1843 and finally with Abd ap-Rahman Beg (1843-47).
 

The Karachai
The Karachai is a Turkic people closely related to the Balkars, and were driven into the highlands of the North Caucasus by Mongols in the 13th century. Their territory was annexed by the Russian Empire in 1828 but they continued to resist Russian rule throughout the 19th century.

1630s Joint Reigning Princess Goshayah-biyche
She first reigned together with Kamgut and then with Elbuzduk and finally with
Giliaksan.

Khazars

720s-31 Princess Regnant Prisbit of the Khazars
The Khazars were a Jewish semi-nomadic steppe-people that lived in southern Russia between the Volga and Don rivers, northwest of the Caspian Sea.
 

Novgorod

1470s Legendary Resistance Leader Marfa Boretskaya
Also known as Marfa-posadnitsa - or Martha the Mayoress - and according to legend she led the Novgorodian opposition to Grand Prince Ivan III of Muscovy. Her reputation derives from the "Slovesa izbranna," a unique medieval account of events culminating in the Battle of Shelon' in 1471. Its anonymous author vilifies Marfa for conspiring to align Novgorod politically and ecclesiastically with Lithuania and alleges that her treasonous, heretical acts prompted Ivan III's retribution against Novgorod. This article correlates the literary portrait with other documentation, including charters, land cadasters, and chronicles. These sources confirm that Marfa Boretskaia was a wealthy widow, connected through kinship ties to a number of influential Novgorodian families, but not that she organized anti-Muscovite activities. Literary analysis identifies the "Slovesa izbranna" as a work of homiletic rhetoric. By exploiting misogynistic biases to demonize Marfa, the writer hoped to divert the blame for Novgorod's transgressions away from his clients, Archbishop Feofil and the ecclesiastical administration at the Cathedral of St. Sophia, and thus to forestall anticipated reprisals by Moscow against the Novgorodian church. Novgorod was finally conqured in 1478.

Tannu Tuva (Tyva)
Independent 1921, People's Republic 1926 and incorporated in the USSR as an Autonomous Republic in 1944

1942-44 Chairperson of the Presidium of the Little Hural Khertek Anchimaa-Toka (b. 1912)
She was a women's activist and a member of the Special Court which sentenced the former president Sat Churmit-Daji and others to be shot in 1938. She lived (1912-2008).

1962-80 Chairperson of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Autonomous Republic Baykara Sozhulbeyevna Dolchanmaa
(B. 1916-)      
 

A Polity located on the Taman Peninsula

Around 1419 Reigning Princess Bikhakhanim
She may have been of Circassian, Georgian, or Cuman origin, but it is suggested that she was Princess Bikhakhatun, daughter of the Georgian prince Beka II Jakeli (d. 1391), the ruler of Samtskhe and Klarjeti. She was marreid to Genoese Jew Simeone de Guizolfi, who through this marriage became ruler of that country under Genoese overlordship. One of his heirs, Zacharias de Guizolfi, was still reigning in 1482.

Tver

Regent 1461-72 Dowager Princess Anastasya Aleksandrovna of Suzdal
For Mikhail III. She died 1483

Ryazan

1483-87 and 1500-01 Regent Dowager Grand Princess Anna Vasilievna
Анна Васильевна became regent for her 16 year old son, Ivan, after the death of her husband, Vasily, who grew up in Moscow as Anna's father had been entrusted with the regency of Ryazan after the death Vasily's father, Ivan, in 1456. In her policy Anna tried to expand her domain, she visited often Moscow and due her diplomatic efforts the Pronsk principality was added to Ryazan. A major problem in Ryazan-Moscow relations was so-called ryazan ukraina, a huge steppe region in the basin of Don River. According to treaties, Ryazan was obliged not to settle in these lands, but many years Ryazan princes secretly colonized this area and during her regency this process become much more significant. When her son died, she became regent for her grandson until her own death. She was daughter of Grand Prince Vasily II of Moscow and Maria Yaroslavna of Borovsk, mother of 2 sons and 1 daughter, and lived (1451–1501).

1501-circa 10 Regent Dowager Grand Princess Agrippina Ivanovna Babicheva
After the death of her mother-in-law, Anna, she took over the government in the name of their son Ivan VI (1496-1500-16-34). In 1520 his cousin, Grand Prince Vasili III of Moscow invited him into Moscow and imprisoned him immediately after the arrival. In 1521 during the unrest caused by an invasion of the Crimean Khan Mehmed I Giray, Prince Ivan Ivanovich fled into the Grand Duchy of Lithuania where he received a small town of Stakliškės into lifetime possession, and Ryazan was finally annexed by Russia. She was widow of Ivan of Riazanj (1467-83-1500).

Vitebesk

Circa 1377-7? Princess Regnant Yolyana Aleksandrovna of Tver
She succeeded her husband

Borjegin-Sibil/Golden Horde (Mongols)

1257 Regent Ulaqci of Boraqcin  
Also ruler of Hwarizum Sahil in Mongolia

1662-67 Regent Fatima Sultan of Kasimov
1677-81 Sultan Regnant
First regent or Saiyia Burhan. The state was annexed by the Russian 1681 and she died the same year.

Volga Kalmykians (Lower Volga Area)

1724-37 Regent Dowager Princess Dharmapala
1741-45 Regent
For Cerlu Donduk and Donduk Ombu

1741 Regent Dowager Princess Gan
For Kandul  

Yaroslavl

1249-? Princess Maria Rurikova-Rostovsky

Last update 30.05.07