Amur Krai (Аму́рский край) orPriamurye (Приаму́рье 'Circum-Amur') were unofficial names for the Russian territories by theAmur River used in the lateRussian Empire that approximately correspond to modern Amur Oblast.
Amur Oblast is located in the southeast of Russia, between theStanovoy Range in the north and theAmur River in the south, and borders with theSakha Republic in the north,Khabarovsk Krai and theJewish Autonomous Oblast in the east,Heilongjiang of China in the south, and withZabaykalsky Krai in the west. TheStanovoy Range forms the dividing line between the Sakha Republic and Amur Oblast and spreads across the oblast's entire northern border. TheAmur–Zeya andZeya–Bureya Plains cover about 40% of the oblast's territory, but the rest is hilly. Several mountain ranges rise to the south of the Stanovoy Range, including theSelemdzha Range parallel to it, as well as theEzop,Yam-Alin and theTuran ranges stretching along the oblast's southeastern border with Khabarovsk Krai.[9]
Many rivers flow through the oblast, especially in the north, accounting for 75% of thehydropower resources in theRussian Far East. Most of the oblast is in the Amur'sdrainage basin, although the rivers in the northwest drain into theLena and the rivers in the northeast drain into theUda. The longest rivers include the Amur,Bureya,Gilyuy,Nyukzha,Olyokma,Selemdzha, andZeya. The Zeya begins in the mountains in the northeast, and its middle reaches are dammed to create the hugeZeya Reservoir, which sprawls over 2,400 square kilometers (930 sq mi).
Climate is temperate continental, with cold, dry winters and hot, rainy summers. Average January temperatures vary from −24 °C (−11 °F) in the south to −33 °C (−27 °F) in the north. Average July temperatures are +21 °C (70 °F) in the south and +18 °C (64 °F) in the north. Annualprecipitation is about 850 mm (33 in).
Dwarf Siberian pine andalpine tundra grow at higher elevations andlarch forests with small stands of flat-leavedbirch andpine forests grow alongside the river plains. These larch andfir-spruce forests form the watershed of the Selemdzha River. The Bureya and Arkhara Rivers, southeast of the Selemdza, have the richest remaining forests in the oblast withKorean pine,Schisandra chinensis,Mongolian Oak, and other Manchurian flora. The Zeya–Bureya Plain, located between the Zeya, Amur, and Bureya Rivers, has the highest biodiversity in Amur Oblast. 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.
Amur Oblast has considerable reserves of many types of mineral resources; proven reserves are estimated to be worth US$400 billion. Among the most important are gold (the largest reserves in Russia), silver,titanium,molybdenum,tungsten, copper, andtin. There are also an estimated 70 billion tons ofbituminous coal andlignite reserves. 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 impurities; the ore contains 69.9% iron. Amur Oblast is also a promising source oftitanium, with the Bolshoy Seyim deposit being the most important.[10]
According to theBei Shi (Dynastic History of Northern Dynasties) and theSui Shu (Chronicles of theSui dynasty), both Chinese records, this area belonged originally to the territory one of the five semi-nomadicShiwei, the Bo Shiwei tribes (Chinese:钵室韋). Their settlements were located on the north of the Yilehuli Mountains in the upper reaches of theNen River, south of theStanovoy Range, west of theBureya and theMalyi Khingan ranges and reaching theOkhotsk Sea on the northeast. They brought tributary presents to theTang court and disappeared at the dawn of the tenth century with the foundation of theLiao empire.
Later, in the 13th century, the middle-Amur and theZeya River basin area became the homeland of theDaurs and (further south) theDuchers. The ancestors of the Daurs are thought to be closely related to theKhitans and theMongols, while the Duchers may have been a branch of theJurchen people, later known as theManchus.
The region received its first influx of Russian settlers in the mid-seventeenth century. They were looking for a more temperate climate as an escape from the north. After theOpium 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 theTrans-Siberian Railroad.
In April 1920, theFar Eastern Republic, with its capital in Chita, was formed from Amur, Transbaikal,Kamchatka,Sakhalin, and Primorye regions as a democratic "buffer" state in order to avoid war with Japan. It existed until November 1922, when it joined theRussian SFSR.
In 1948, Amur Oblast was finally separated from Khabarovsk Krai and Chita Oblast to become an independent region of the RSFSR. Rapid economic growth based on gold production began at that time, and living standards improved with the arrival of young specialists. As the Far Eastern District expanded, the demand for services such as electric power andhousing also increased, which stimulated a new round of construction projects. New cities were built, along with theZeya Hydroelectric Power Plant (Zeiskaya GES), which still supplies electricity to most of the Far Eastern District.[12] On 21 May 1998 Amur alongsideIvanovo,Kostroma,Voronezh Oblast, and theMari El Republic signed a power-sharing agreement with the federal government, granting it autonomy.[13] This agreement would be abolished on 18 March 2002.[14]
According to a 2012 survey[24] 25.1% of the population of Amur Oblast adheres to theRussian Orthodox Church, 5% are unaffiliated generic Christians, 1% is an Orthodox believer without belonging to any church or adheres to other (non-Russian)Orthodox churches, and 1% is an adherent ofIslam. In addition, 41% of the population declares to be "spiritual but not religious", 24% isatheist, and 2.9% follows other religions or did not give an answer to the question.[24]
The industrial section contributes 18.3% to the total GRP.[10] 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 includeOAO Svobodny Railroad Car Repair Plant,OAO Blagoveshchensk October Revolution Ship Building Plant andOAO Bureya-Kran.[10]
Mining and quarrying amounted to 19.9% of industrial output in 2007.[27] Amur Oblast ranks sixth in Russia for gold mining, and has the largest gold reserves in the country. The largest gold mine in the region is Pioneer, part of Petropavlovsk PLC who also own the Albyn, Malomir and Pokrovskiy mines in the region. There is a large site ofuranium mining and processing facilities inOktyabrsky, near the Russia–China border.[28] 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 companyOOO 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.[10]
Amur Oblast enjoys an energy surplus: its energy consumption in 2007 was 6.9 TWh, while production was 9.3 TWh. Electricity output in 2007 was 9.9 TWh. The most important electricity producer is theZeyskaya Hydroelectric Power Station with an installed capacity of 1,330 MW and a yearly output of 4.91 TWh. The station is owned byRusHydro. The company also owns the 2,010 MWBureyskaya Hydroelectric Power Station, opened in 2009. Its annual output is 7.1 TWh.[10]
The Amur Region is the primary producer ofsoybean in Russia. By 1940, 65 thousand hectares of land in Amur had been cultivated with soybeans, and by 1972 soybean made up 592 thousand hectares of land in Amur, compared to 650 thousand hectares of soybean crops in the whole of the USSR. During the Soviet period, this made up a significant proportion of the economy of Far Eastern Russia.[29] By 2019, the Amur Region's share of Russian soybean production had declined to 28 percent due to increased cultivation of soybean in other regions, though it still remains Russia's largest soybean producer.[30] The region in 2019 produced approximately 1 million tonnes of soybean, many of which are exported to neighboring China. While in the past the harvested soybean was shipped west, in recent years due to increased Chinese demands multiplesoybean oil plants have opened in the region.[31] In 2019, Chinese companies owned or leased some 100 thousand hectares out of the 1.3 million hectares of farmland.[32]
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, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Philippines; textiles and footwear from China; and machinery and equipment from Ukraine and Japan.[10]
In July 2010, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin announced that the area would be the site of a newVostochny Cosmodrome ("Eastern Spaceport"), to reduce Russian dependence on theBaikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.[33] The first rocket launch from the site took place on 28 April 2016.[citation needed]
^"В Госдуму пройдут представители восьми партий" [Representatives of eight parties will pass to the State Duma]. Амурская правда. September 21, 2021.Archived from the original on September 25, 2021. RetrievedSeptember 20, 2022.
^Shandala N, Filonova A, Titov A, Isaev D, Seregin V, Semenova V, and Metlyaev EG (2009),Radiation situation nearby the uranium mining facility, 54th Annual Meeting of the Health Physics Society, July 12–16, 2009, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
Амурское областное Собрание. №40-ОЗ 13 декабря 1995 г. «Устав (Основной Закон) Амурской области», в ред. Закона №384-ОЗ от 7 июля 2014 г. «О внесении изменений в Устав (Основной Закон) Амурской области». Вступил в силу через десять дней после официального опубликования. Опубликован: "Амурская правда", №295–296, 20 декабря 1995 г. (Amur Oblast Assembly. #40-OZ December 13, 1995Charter (Basic Law) of Amur Oblast, as amended by the Law #384-OZ of July 7, 2014On Amending the Charter (Basic Law) of Amur Oblast. Effective as of the day which is ten days after the official publication.).
Дударев, В. А.; Евсеева, Н. А. (1987). И. Каманина (ed.).СССР. Административно-территориальное деление союзных республик (in Russian). Moscow.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
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, 2005On Improving the Information System Serving the Organs of the State Power and the Local-Self Government of the Oblast. ).
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