2.  In Kemerovo oblast’ live 2,763,135 people. Of course different nations live in Kuzbass. Most are Russians, Poles, Ukrainians, Belarusians. But indigenous people take a special place.

3.  Before the colonization of Kemerovo region, there lived Tomskie Tatars, Shors and Teleuts. The colonization of Kuzbass started in 1618. The first deposit of coal was discovered near the current city of Kemerovo by Michael Volkov in 1721. At the beginning of XX century in Kemerovo region started building coal enterprises.

5.  Indigenous peoples in Kemerovo region are Shors and Teleuts. All over Russia there are about 13,000 Shors, of which 11,000 live in Kemerovo region. Teleuts living in the region are about two and a half thousands. These Turkic-speaking people live in the south and south-east of the region mainly in mountain taiga areas, which received at the beginning of the XX century Mountain Shoria name. Main occupations of Shors are agriculture, including beekeeping, and traditional farm crafts - hunting, fishing, gathering pine nuts.

8.  There are still a small number of Kalmaks living in some villages of Yurga and Yashkino rural areas. They descend from a small group of Teleuts. Close conjugal or religious ties between Kalmaks and Kazan and Siberian Tatars led to the formation of an ethno- territorial group of Iskitim Tatar-Kalmaks. The Tatars, in their turn, both Siberian and Kazan Tatars, live in Prokopievsk, Kemerovo,Novokuznetsk,Anzhero- Sudzhensk,yurga and other cities of Kuzbass

10.  The indigenous peoples make a lot of effort to preserve their customs, traditions,culture and language. Some of their representatives are famous all over Kuzbass and Russia: the founder of Shor literature F.Chispiyakov, the author of the teleut dictionary L.Ryumina, the members of the Russian Writers Union L. Chulzhanova, V.Boriskin and S.Totysh, the Shor poets S.Torbokov and N.Belchegeshev, the professor,specialist in Shor folklore and founder of the Shor Language Department A.I.Chudoyakov.

12.  Kuzbass is proud of its people: farmers,doctors, actors, engineers, teachers, miners, builders, bank workers, bankers, accountants. And also Kuzbass is a birthplace of many famous people. For example:

13.  Alexey Leonov - retired Soviet and Russian cosmonaut and Air Force Major General who, on 18 March 1965, became the first human to conduct an extra-vehicular activity, also known as spacewalk.

14.  Sergei Zinovjev- Russian professional ice hockey player. He is a twice World Champion (2008, 2009) for the Russian national team.

15.  Mikhail Yevdokimov -a Russian entertainer and politician.

16.  Viktor Loginov- popular Russian actor and television personality.

17.  Inna Makarova is a Soviet and Russian film actress, National actress of the USSR, Stalin Prize Laureate.