Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug in the context of "Khanty people"

Autonomous okrugs, (Russian: автономный округ, romanized: avtonomnyy okrug) which are also referred to as "autonomous districts" or "autonomous areas" are a type of federal subject of the Russian Federation and simultaneously an administrative division type of some federal subjects. As of 2024, Russia has four autonomous okrugs of its 83 federal subjects. The Chukotka Autonomous Okrug is the only okrug which is not subordinate to an oblast. The Nenets Autonomous Okrug is a part of Arkhangelsk Oblast, the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug and the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug are parts of Tyumen Oblast.

According to the Constitution of the Soviet Union, in case of a union republic voting on leaving the Soviet Union, autonomous republics, autonomous oblasts, and autonomous okrugs had the right, by means of a referendum, to independently resolve whether they will stay in the USSR or leave with the seceding union republic, as well as to raise the issue of their state-legal status.

Khanty (also spelled Khanti or Hanti), previously known as Ostyak (/ˈɒstjæk/), is a branch of the Ugric languages composed of multiple dialect continua. It is varyingly considered a language or a collection of distinct languages spoken in the Khanty-Mansi and the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrugs in Siberia. It belongs to the wider Uralic language family. There were thought to be around 7,500 speakers of Northern Khanty and 2,000 speakers of Eastern Khanty in 2010, with Southern Khanty being extinct since the early 20th century. The number of speakers reported in the 2020 census was 13,900.

The Khanty language has many dialects. The western group includes the Obdorian, Ob, and Irtysh dialects. The eastern group includes the Surgut and Vakh-Vasyugan dialects, which in turn are subdivided into 13 other dialects. All these dialects differ significantly from each other by phonetic, morphological, and lexical features to the extent that the three main "dialects" (northern, southern and eastern) are mutually unintelligible. Thus, based on their significant multifactorial differences, Eastern, Northern and Southern Khanty may be considered separate but closely related languages.

Komi (коми кыв, komi kyv, IPA: [komi kɨv] ), also known as Zyran, Zyrian or Komi-Zyryan (зыран коми кыв, zyran komi kyv), is the native language of the Komi (Zyrians). It is one of the Permic languages; the other regional varieties are Komi-Permyak, which has official status, and Komi-Yazva.

Komi is spoken in the Komi Republic and other parts of Russia such as Nenetsia and Yamalia. There were 285,000 speakers in 1994, which decreased to 160,000 in 2010.

Tyumen Oblast (Russian: Тюме́нская о́бласть, romanized: Tyumenskaya oblastʹ) is a federal subject (an oblast) of Russia. It is located in Western Siberia, and is administratively part of the Ural Federal District. The oblast has administrative jurisdiction over two autonomous okrugs: the Khanty-Mansi and Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. The oblast, including its autonomous okrugs, is the third-largest federal subject by area, and has a population of 3,395,755 (2010).

Tyumen is the largest city and the administrative center of the oblast, and the first Russian city in Siberia.

The Nenets (Nenets: ненэй ненэче, romanized: nenəj nenəče; Russian: ненцы, romanized: nentsy), in the past also called 'Samoyeds' or 'Yuraks', are a Samoyedic ethnic group native to the Russian Arctic, in the Russian Far North. According to the latest census in 2021, there were 49,646 Nenets in the Russian Federation, most of them living in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Nenets Autonomous Okrug and Taymyrsky Dolgano-Nenetsky District stretching along the coastline of the Arctic Ocean near the Arctic Circle between Kola and Taymyr peninsulas. The Nenets people speak either the Tundra or Forest Nenets languages. In the Russian Federation they have a status of Indigenous small-numbered peoples. Today, the Nenets people face numerous challenges from the state and oil and gas companies that threaten the environment and their way of life. As a result, many cite a rise in locally based activism.