Sakhalin Oblast

Sakhalin Oblast
Сахалинская область (Russian)
—  Oblast  —
Flag of Sakhalin Oblast Coat of arms of Sakhalin Oblast
Anthem: Anthem of Sakhalin Oblast
Coordinates: 50°33′N 142°36′E / 50.550°N 142.600°E / 50.550; 142.600Coordinates: 50°33′N 142°36′E / 50.550°N 142.600°E / 50.550; 142.600
Political status
Country	Russia
Federal district	Far Eastern[1]
Economic region	Far Eastern[2]
Established	January 2, 1947
Administrative center	Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk
Government (as of March 2011)
- Governor	Alexander Khoroshavin[3]
- Legislature	Oblast Duma
Statistics
Area (as of the 2002 Census)[4]
- Total	87,100 km2 (33,629.5 sq mi)
Area rank	37th
Population (2010 Census)[5]
- Total	497,973
- Rank	72nd
- Density[6]	5.72 /km2 (14.8 /sq mi)
- Urban	79.7%
- Rural	20.3%
Time zone(s)	VLAT (UTC+11:00)[7]
	VLAT (UTC+11:00)[7]
ISO 3166-2	RU-SAK
License plates	65
Official languages	Russian[8]
Official website

Sakhalin Oblast (Russian: Сахали́нская о́бласть, tr. Sakhalinskaya oblast, IPA: [səxɐˈlʲinskəjə ˈobləsʲtʲ]) is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast) comprising the island of Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands. The oblast has an area of 87,100 square kilometers (33,600 sq mi). Its administrative center and the largest city is Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. Population: 497,973 (2010 Census).^[5]

Besides people from other parts of the former Soviet Union, the oblast is home to Nivkhs and Ainu, with the latter having lost their language in Sakhalin recently.

Some territories of Sakhalin Oblast (four islands, the southern ones of the Kuril archipelago) are claimed by Japan.

Demographics

Population: 497,973 (2010 Census);^[5] 546,695 (2002 Census);^[9] 709,629 (1989 Census).^[10]

Vital statistics for 2012

• Births: 6 316 (12.8 per 1000)
• Deaths: 6 841 (13.8 per 1000) ^[11]

Total fertility rate:^[12]
2009 - 1.59 | 2010 - 1.56 | 2011 - 1.57 | 2012 - 1.71 | 2013 - 1.77(e)

Ethnic groups:^[5] 409,786 ethnic Russians are the largest group, followed by 24,993 Koreans, 12,136 Ukrainians and a whole host of smaller groups, including 219 Japanese (0.05%). The ethnic composition of the oblast in 2010 was as follows:

• Russians: 86.5%
• Koreans: 5.3%
• Ukrainians: 2.6%
• Tatars: 1%
• Belarusians: 0.6%
• 24,035 people were registered from administrative databases, and could not declare an ethnicity. It is estimated that the proportion of ethnicities in this group is the same as that of the declared group.^[13]

Religion

Religion in Sakhalin Oblast (2012)^[14][15]

  Russian Orthodox (21.6%)

  Unaffiliated Christian (4%)

  Other Orthodox (2%)

  Rodnover (1%)

  Protestant (1%)

  Spiritual but not religious (37%)

  Atheist (15%)

  Other or undeclared (18.4%)

According to a 2012 official survey^[14] 21.6% of the population of Sakhalin Oblast adheres to the Russian Orthodox Church, 4% are unaffiliated generic Christians, 2% adheres to other Orthodox Churches, 1% of the population adheres to Slavic Rodnovery (Slavic Neopaganism), 1% adheres to forms of Protestantism. In addition, 37% of the population deems itself to be "spiritual but not religious", 15% is atheist, and 18.4% follows other religions or did not give an answer to the question.^[14]

History

The indigenous people of Sakhalin are the Nivkhs, Oroki, and Ainu minorities.

The first Europeans to explore the waters around Sakhalin Island were Ivan Moskvitin and Martin Gerritz de Vries in the mid-1600s, Jean-François de La Pérouse in 1787 and Adam Johann von Krusenstern in 1805. Early maps of Sakhalin reflect the uncertainty of the age as to whether or not the land mass was attached to the Asian continent. The fact that it is not connected was conclusively established by Mamiya Rinzō, who explored and mapped Sakhalin in 1809 and definitively recorded by Russian navigator Gennady Nevelskoy in 1849.

Japanese settlement on Sakhalin dates to at least the Edo period. Ōtomari was established in 1679, and cartographers of the Matsumae domain mapped the island, and named it “Kita-Ezo”. During the Ming and Qing dynasties China considered the island part of its empire, and included the Sakhalin peoples in its "system for subjugated peoples". At no time though was any attempt ever made to establish an Imperial military presence on the island. Japan, concerned about Russian expansion in northeast Asia, unilaterally proclaimed sovereignty over the whole island in 1845. Russian settlers ignored this claim (and the similar claim of China) however, and beginning in the 1850s, established coal mines, administration facilities, schools, prisons, churches on the island. The Xiazhes were killed or forced to move to the Asian mainland.

In 1855, Russia and Japan signed the Treaty of Shimoda, which declared that both nationals could inhabit the island: Russians in the north, and Japanese in the south, without a clear boundary between. Russia also agreed to dismantle its military base at Ootomari. Following the Opium War, Russia forced the Qing to sign the Treaty of Aigun and Convention of Peking, under which China lost all territories north of Heilongjiang (Amur) and east of Ussuri, including Sakhalin, to Russia. A Czarist penal colony was established in 1857, but the southern part of the island was held by the Japanese until the 1875 Treaty of Saint Petersburg (1875), when they ceded it to Russia in exchange for the Kuril islands. After the Russo-Japanese War, Russia and Japan signed the Treaty of Portsmouth of 1905, which resulted in the southern part of the island below 50° N passing to Japan; the Russians retained the other three-fifths of the area. South Sakhalin was administrated by Japan as Karafuto-chō (樺太庁), with the capital Toyohara, now known as Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk.

This Japanese D51 steam locomotive stands outside present day Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk Railway Station Sakhalin Island, Russia

In August 1945, the Soviet Union took over the control of Sakhalin. The Soviet attack on South Sakhalin started on August 11, 1945, about a month before the Surrender of Japan in World War 2. The 56th Rifle Corps consisting of the 79th Rifle Division, the 2nd Rifle Brigade, the 5th Rifle Brigade and the 214 Armored Brigade attacked the Japanese 88th Division. Although the Red Army outnumbered the Japanese by three times, they couldn't advance due to strong Japanese resistance. It was not until the 113th Rifle Brigade and the 365th Independent Naval Infantry Rifle Battalion from Sovietskaya Gavan (Советская Гавань) landed on Tōrō (塔路), a seashore village of western Sakhalin on August 16 that the Soviets broke the Japanese defense line. Japanese resistance grew weaker after this landing. Actual fighting continued until August 21. However, this was relatively limited in scope. From August 22 to August 23, most of the remaining Japanese units announced truce. The Soviets completed the conquest of Sakhalin on August 25, 1945 by occupying the capital of Sakhalin, then known as Toyohara. Japanese sources claim that 20,000 civilians were killed during the invasion.

Shakhtyorsk narrow gauge railway 750 mm (2 ft 5 ¹⁄₂ in), Shakhtyorsk

Post-war

Since January 2, 1946, Sakhalin Oblast, in its present form, was officially defined and integrated as a part of Russia. The Japanese who had been living there before mostly repatriated to Japan, but at least one-third of Koreans were refused repatriation; stuck on the island, they and their descendants became known as the Sakhalin Koreans.

The status of the Kuril Islands remains disputed. The issue remains a major strain on Japanese-Russian relations. Even now, no official peace treaty has been signed between the two nations.^[16]

Japan renounced its claims of sovereignty over southern Sakhalin in the Treaty of San Francisco (1952), having already abolished Karafuto Prefecture as a legal entity on June 1, 1949. However, that treaty did not explicitly approve Russian sovereignty over southern Sakhalin. From Japan's official position, Sakhalin's attribution has not yet been determined, and it is marked as No Man's Land on Japanese maps. Nevertheless, Japan currently has a Consulate-General in Sakhalin's capital city.

On September 1, 1983, the Soviets downed Korean Air Lines Flight 007, carrying 269 occupants, including U.S. Cong. Larry McDonald, west of Sakhalin Island near the smaller Moneron Island.

On May 28, 1995, an earthquake measuring 7.5 on the Richter scale occurred, killing 2,000 people of the town of Neftegorsk.

Ainu

As of the 2002 census, 333 residents of the oblast still identified themselves as ethnic Japanese.^{[citation needed]} Data on Ainu population is not available; "Ainu" may have been either included in the "Other" category or the Ainus may have identified themselves as "Japanese" during the census. Tanner Peter is a world renown author on the subject of "Ainu" population and he himself leads a recognition society for their ethnic representation in government.^{[citation needed]}

Most of the 888 Japanese people living in Russia (2010 Census) are of mixed Japanese-Ainu ancestry, although they do not acknowledge it (full Japanese ancestry gives them the right of visa-free entry to Japan^[17])

Post-war population

According to the first post World War II Soviet Census in 1959, the population of the oblast numbered 649,405. That figure dropped slightly to 615,652 in 1970 before rising to 661,778 in 1979 and peaking at 710,242 in 1989. Throughout this time period, the Russian population increased slightly in percentage from 77.7% in 1959 to 81.6% in 1989. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the population of the oblast has declined sharply. Compared with the Soviet 1989 Census, the population of the Oblast according to the Russian 2002 Census had declined by 163,547 or 23.0%. Indeed the population of 546,695 recorded in 2002 is the lowest on record since the oblast was created.

Oil, gas, and coal

Several Russian, French, South Korean, British, Canadian and American oil and gas companies have been either drilling or prospecting for oil and gas on the island since the mid-1990s.^[18] Coal and some manganese had been mined there by the Soviet authorities since the 1920s.

Law and government

The governor Alexander Vadimovich Khoroshavin was appointed on August 9, 2007.^[19]

Administrative divisions

Tourism

Due to restrictions, the entire Sakhalin Oblast and its internal and territorial waters except for Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk are considered to be border zone which means that the freedom of movement for foreigners is dramatically restricted and any movement outside of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk requires registration to the Federal Security Service (FSB) and the Border Guard. Scuba diving and recreation on the seacoast is permitted only in places defined by the Border Guard.^[20]

Sister relations

• Hokkaidō, Japan^[21]

References

External links

• Media related to Sakhalin Oblast at Wikimedia Commons
• (Russian) Official website of Sakhalin Oblast
• (English) Official website of Sakhalin Oblast
• Steam and the Railways of Sakhalin