Amur Oblast

Amur Oblast (English) Амурская область (Russian)
-  Oblast  -
Coordinates:
Coat of arms of Amur Oblast	Flag of Amur Oblast
Anthem	none
Political status
Country	Russia
Political status	Oblast
Federal district	Far Eastern[1]
Economic region	Far Eastern[2]
Administrative center	Blagoveshchensk
Official language	Russian[3]
Statistics
Population (2002 Census)[4]	902,844 inhabitants
- Rank within Russia	59th
- Urban[4]	65.8%
- Rural[4]	34.2%
- Density	2.48 /km2 (6.4 /sq mi)[5]
Area (as of the 2002 Census)[6]	363,700 km2 (140,425.4 sq mi)
- Rank within Russia	14th
Established	October 20, 1932
License plates	28
ISO 3166-2:RU	RU-AMU
Time zone	YAKT/YAKST (UTC+9/+10)
Government (as of June 2009)
Governor[7]	Oleg Kozhemyako[8]
Legislature	Legislative Assembly[9]
Charter	Charter (Basic Law) of Amur Oblast
Official website[10]
http://www.amurobl.ru/

Amur Oblast (Russian: Аму́рская о́бласть, Amurskaya oblast) is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast), situated about 8,000 kilometers (5,000 mi) east of Moscow on the banks of the Amur and Zeya Rivers. It shares its border with the Sakha Republic in the north, Khabarovsk Krai and the Jewish Autonomous Oblast in the east, People's Republic of China in the south, and Zabaykalsky Krai in the west. Amur Oblast had a population of 869,600 in 2008.^[11]

Amur Krai (Аму́рский край) or Priamurye (Приаму́рье) were unofficial names for the Russian territories by the Amur River used in the late Russian Empire that approximately correspond to modern Amur Oblast.

The administrative center of the oblast, Blagoveshchensk, is one of the oldest settlements in the Russian Far East, founded in 1856. It is a traditional center of trade and gold mining. The territory is accessed by two railroads, the Trans-Siberian railway and the Baikal Amur Mainline.

Geography

The Stanovoy Range forms the dividing line between the Sakha Republic and Amur Oblast and spreads across the oblast's entire northern border. Dwarf Siberian pine and alpine tundra grow at higher elevations on these mountains and larch forests with small stands of flat-leaved birch and pine forests grow alongside the river plains. The Zeya River begins in these mountains in the northeast. The middle reaches of this great river were dammed to create the huge Zeysky Reservoir, which sprawls over 2,500 square kilometers (1,000 sq mi) between the Stanovoy Range and a southern parallel range running across the center of the oblast. The low lands between these two mountain ranges make up the Upper Zeysky Plain, which is primarily marshland with larch and pine forests. South of the second ridge is the vast Amur River plain which covers up to 40% of the oblast.

Along the eastern border of Amur Oblast is another series of mountains separating the Amur from Khabarovsk Krai. These larch and fir-spruce forests form the watershed of the Selemdzha River, which flows south into the Zeya, continues to the city of Blagoveschchensk, and then into the Amur River. Southeast of the Selemdzha are the Bureya and the Arkhara Rivers, which have the richest remaining forests in the oblast with Korean pine, Limmonik, Mongolian Oak, and other Manchurian flora. The Zeya, Amur, and Bureya Rivers form a cradle for the highest biodiversity in Amur Oblast—the Zeysko-Burenskaya Plain. Much of this plain has been burned for agriculture, but large patches still remain. Japanese Daurian and Far Eastern western cranes nest here, as well as a host of other rare birds.

Natural resources

Amur Oblast has considerable reserves of many types of mineral resources; proven reserves are estimated to be worth $400 billion. Among the most important are gold (the largest reserves in Russia), silver, titanium, molybdenum, tungsten, copper, tin, etc. Black coal and lignite reserves are estimated to be 70 billion tons. Probable iron deposits are estimated to be 3.8 billion tons. The Garin deposit is fully explored and known to contain 389 million tons of iron ore. Estimated reserves of the deposit are 1,293 million tons. The deposit's ore contains a low concentration of detrimental inpurities; the ore contains 69,9% iron. Amur Oblast is also a promising source of titanium, with the Bolshoy Seyim deposit being the most important.^[12]

History

400s-900s

According to the Bei Shi (Dynastic History of Northern Dynasties) and the Sui Shu (Chronicles of the Sui Dynasty), both Chinese records, this area belong originally to the territory one of the five semi-nomadic Shiwei, the Bo Shiwei tribes(Chinese: 钵室韋). Their settlements were located on the north of the Yilehuli Mountains in the upper reaches of the Nen River, south of the Stanovoy Range, west of the Bureinsky and the Malyi Khingan ranges and reaching the Okhotsk Sea on the northeast. They brought tributary presents to the Tang court and disappeared at the dawn of the 10th century with the foundation of the Liao empire.

Medieval period

Later, in the 13th century, the middle-Amur and the Zeya River basin area became the homeland of the Daurs and (further south) the Duchers. The ancestors of the Daurs are thought to be closely related to the Khitans and the Mongols, while the Duchers may have been a branch of the Jurchen people, later known as the Manchus.

1600s-1850s

The area was later occupied by Manchu people before their conquest of China, it was returned to the Qing Dynasty in the Treaty of Nerchinsk and annexed by Russia in 1858 by the Treaty of Aigun between Russia and Qing Dynasty.

The oblast received its first influx of Russian settlers in the mid-17th century. They were looking for a more temperate climate as an escape from the north. After the Opium War, when the Chinese Empire was exposed to the outside world, Russian explorers once again moved to the region (mostly Cossacks and peasant farmers). The last influx of people arrived upon the completion of the Trans-Siberian Railroad.

Administrative divisions

The largest urban centers of the oblast are Blagoveshchensk (219,000 inhabitants), Belogorsk (67,400), Svobodny (63,900), Tynda (40,100), and Raychikhinsk (24,500).^[13]

Demographics

According to the 2002 Census, ethnic Russians, at 831,004, made up 92% of the population. Other prominent ethnic groups in the Oblast include Ukrainians at 31,475 (3.5%), Belorussians at 7,827 (.8%), and Tatars at 4,889 (.5%). The rest of the residents identified with over 120 different ethnic groups, with each ethnic group making up less than .5% of the population. A small number of respondents (1,447 people) chose not to state their ethnicity.^[14]

• Total population: 902,844
  • Urban: 594,386 (65.8%)
  • Rural: 308,458 (34.2%)
  • Male: 435,483 (48.2%)
  • Female: 467,361 (51.8)
• Females per 1000 males: 1073
• Average age: 33.5 years
  • Urban: 32.9 years
  • Rural: 34.9 years
  • Male: 31.3 years
  • Female: 36.1 years
• Number of households: 329,650 (with 876,241 people)
  • Urban: 220,774 (with 577,222 people)
  • Rural: 108,876 (with 299,019 people)

Vital Statistics for 2007

Source

• Births: 10,956
• Birth Rate: 12.37 per 1000
• Death Rate: 14.17 per 1000
• Net Immigration: -3.9 per 1000
• NGR: -0.18% per Year
• PGR: -0.57% per Year

Vital Statistics for 2008

• Births: 11,290 (12.98 per 1000)
• Deaths: 13,117 (15.08 per 1000)^[15]

The economically active population amounts to 463,100 people (52.6% of total resident population.) Unemployment in 2006 was 5.5%.^[12] Amur Oblast is one of the few federal subjects in Russia where natural decline of population worsened in 2008. Population in 2008 was 869,600, while in 2002 it was ^[11] 902,844 (2002 Census);^[4] 1,057,781 (1989 Census).^[16].

Economy

Gross regional product per capita in 2007 was 131,039.60 rubles, while the national average was 198,817 rubles.^[17]

Industry

The industrial section contributes 18.3% to the total GRP.^[12] The most important industrial sector in 2007 was manufacturing, constituting 25.7% of the industrial output. The sector is dominated by food products and beverages, which constitute 13% of industrial output. Machine building includes shipbuilding machinery, lifting and transport vehicles, mining equipment, agricultural machinery, metal assemblies and goods, electrical appliances and electrical machines and tools. The largest engineering companies in the oblast include OAO Svobodny Railroad Car Repair Plant, OAO Blagoveshchensk October Revolution Ship Building Plant and OAO Bureya-Kran.^[12]

Mining and quarrying amounted to 19.9% of industrial output in 2007. Amur Oblast ranks sixth in Russia for gold mining, and has the largest gold reserves in the country. There is a large site of uranium mining and processing facilities in Oktyabrsky, near the Russia–China border.^[18] There are plans to develop other mineral deposits as well, such as titanium, iron, copper, nickel, apatite, etc. Total coal production amounts to 3,398 tons. As of 2007, four coal deposits are being operated by the company OOO Amur Coal, and two more have been explored. In total, the oblast is estimated to have over 90 deposits of lignite and black coal, with overall reserves of 70 billion tons. In addition, fuel extraction amounted to 2.9% of industrial output.^[12]

Energy

Amur Oblast enjoys an energy surplus; it's energy consumption in 2007 was 6.9 billion kWh, while production was 9.3 kWh. Electricity output in 2007 was 9.9 billion kWh. The most important electricity producer is the Zeyskaya Hydroelectric Power Station with an installed capacity of 1,330 MW and a yearly output of 4.91 billion kWh. The station is owned by OAO GidroOGK. The company is planning to open a new 2,000 MW hydroelectric plant (Bureyskaya Hydroelectric Power Station) in 2009. It will produce a yearly output of 7.1 billion kWh.^[12]

Agriculture

Gross agricultural product in 2006 was $462.612 million. This includes crop output ($244.07 million) and livestock and farming products ($139.77). Amur Oblast produces 60% of Russia's national output of soybean with a yearly production of about 240,000 tons.^[12]

Foreign trade

The oblast's main foreign exports are raw timber (1,172,900 cubic meters going to China, North Korea, Japan, Kazakhstan and Ukraine), metal goods (68,300 tons to China and Kazakhstan), and machinery, equipment and transport (12,300 tons to China, Japan, South Korea, Kazakhstan and Ukraine.) Main foreign imports are food and beverages from China, Kazakshtan, Uzbekistan and Philippines; textiles and footwear from China; and machinery and equipment from Ukraine and Japan.^[12]

Sister province

• Chungnam, South Korea.

References

• Амурское областное Собрание. №40-ОЗ 13 декабря 1995 г. «Устав (основной закон) Амурской области», в ред. Закона №389-ОЗ от 21 сентября 2007 г. (Amur Oblast Assembly. #40-OZ December 13, 1995 Charter (Basic Law) of Amur Oblast, as amended by the Law #389-OZ of September 21, 2007. ).
• Губернатор Амурской области. Постановление №607 от 25 октября 2005 г. «О совершенствовании системы информационного обеспечения органов государственной власти и местного самоуправления области». (Governor of Amur Oblast. Resolution #607 of October 25, 2005 On Improving the Information System Serving the Organs of the State Power and the Local-Self Government of the Oblast. ).
• Information concerning the Shiwei tribes and their relationship with the Khitans
• (Russian) History of Amur Oblast
• (English) Amur oblast landscapes views

External links