Astrakhan Oblast

Geography

Geological structure and relief of the Astrakhan region Astrakhan Region is located in the south-east of the East European Plain within the Caspian lowland, in temperate latitudes, in the zone of deserts and semi-deserts. The region stretches in a narrow strip on both sides of the Volga-Akhtuba floodplain at a distance of over 400 km. as it close to Caspian sea, and Volga river has been flowed for many years, Volga Delta has been formed.so the land mainly used as pastures . Astrakhan Region has been stretched from northern point lies on the border with Volgograd region at 48 ° 52 's Latitude. And . M, south - on the shores of the Caspian Sea - 45 ° 31 's. Latitude m . The westernmost point is located in Chernoyarsky District on the border with the Volgograd region - 44 ° 58 '. . D, east - on one of the small islands of the delta of the Volga in Volodarsky District 49 ° 15 'in. d. The main landscape of the region is represented Mologa-undulating desert plain complicated huge amounts of mounds, sand, dry ravines, lakes, karst landforms, and others.

the Caspian Sea is located at 27 m below Sea level. And the absolute level increases to north, and in the northern part of the region, plus reach 15–20 m The highest point is Mount Bogda large - 161.9 m, located in the northeast region.

The Time zoneis UTC + 4, like Samara, the local time is ahead of Moscow 1 hour.

The area belongs to the Volga regions, the . The geographical location of the Astrakhan region peculiar. It is located on the border between Europe and Asia, the Volga gives access to five seas.

Astrakhan region borders:

In the north - with Kazakhstan (with the West Kazakhstan region) In the north-west - with the Volgograd Oblast To the east and north-east - with Kazakhstan (from Atyrau region) In the west and south - with Republic of Kalmykia in southern border is the Caspian Sea

Water

Surface water Astrakhan region presented the Volga River with numerous watercourses (about 900 units), fresh and salt water bodies (about 1,000 units) and the largest closed water basin of the planet - the Caspian Sea.

Natural resources

Natural resources in Astrakhan region are: natural gas, salt, gypsum. Oil reserves can be estimated at 300 million tons, the depth of 2 to 5 km.

In the 1950s it was discovered Fisheries gas field, which marked the beginning of gasification Astrakhan and several villages.

In August 1976 the Astrakhan serogazokondensatnoe field was discovered. It is located 70 km north-east of Astrakhan, with an area of 2,500 km² . Industrial reserves of hydrocarbons only in the left-bank part of the deposit amount to 2.588 trillion.with 412 million tons of gas condensate.

nature reserves

The current network of protected areas in the region, including state reserves, hunting grounds and national natural monuments, was formed in the 70s-80s of XX century. There is network of protected areas (PAs) of the Astrakhan region consisting: 2 state nature reserves, 3 biological reserves and 35 natural monuments.

Flora and fauna

The modern fauna of the Astrakhan region has more than 9000 species. It is home to aquatic and terrestrial animals - the inhabitants of the steppe, desert, semi-desert landscape. Astrakhan region floristically part of the Afro-Asian desert region and in the Caspian Sea area of the Aral-Caspian (Turan) province of Iran-Turan region of the Holarctic. For the district is characterized by the Caspian littoral-Turan tsirkumkaspiyskie endemic species and the Northern Caspian.

Climate

The climate of the Astrakhan region is continental, dry. Winter with little snow, with frequent thaws and unstable snow cover, but some days are quite intense cold during the invasion of cold air masses from Kazakhstan and the Urals. Hot summer. The climate is also characterized by large annual and daily amplitudes of air temperature, low rainfall and high evaporation of moisture.

The average annual air temperature varies from north to south from +10 °C to +8 °C. The coldest month - January, the average temperature is -10 ... -20 °C. The highest average temperature is +35 ... + 45 °C observed in July.

The annual precipitation of 180–200 mm in the south to 280–290 mm in the north area. The greatest amount of precipitation in the period from April to July. In the summer of torrential rains accompanied by thunderstorms and sometimes hail.

History

The oblast was created on December 27, 1943, on parts of the territories of the abolished Kalmyk ASSR and Astrakhan Okrug of Stalingrad Oblast.

From 1980 to 1984, the USSR held a series of nuclear tests in the oblast less than 50 km from downtown Astrakhan.

Politics

During the Soviet period, the high authority in the oblast was shared between three persons: The first secretary of the Astrakhan CPSU Committee (who in reality had the biggest authority), the chairman of the oblast Soviet (legislative power), and the Chairman of the oblast Executive Committee (executive power). Since 1991, CPSU lost all the power, and the head of the Oblast administration, and eventually the governor was appointed/elected alongside elected regional parliament.

The Charter of Astrakhan Oblast is the fundamental law of the region. The Legislative Assembly of Astrakhan Oblast is the province's standing legislative (representative) body. The Legislative Assembly exercises its authority by passing laws, resolutions, and other legal acts and by supervising the implementation and observance of the laws and other legal acts passed by it. The highest executive body is the Oblast Administration, which includes territorial executive bodies such as district administrations, committees, and commissions that facilitate development and run the day to day matters of the province. The Oblast administration supports the activities of the Governor who is the highest official and acts as guarantor of the observance of the oblast Charter in accordance with the Constitution of Russia.

Demographics

Population: 1,010,073 (2010 Census); 1,005,276 (2002 Census); 998,114 (1989 Census).

According to the 2010 Census, the ethnic composition was:

2009 - 1.77 | 2010 - 1.76 | 2011 - 1.78 | 2012 - 1.93 | 2013 - 1.91 | 2014 - 1.97 | 2015 - 1.97 | 2016 - 1.93(e)

Religion

According to a 2012 official survey 46% of the population of Astrakhan Oblast adheres to the Russian Orthodox Church, 4% are Orthodox Christian believers who do not belong to any church or are members of other (non-Russian) Orthodox churches, 2% are unaffiliated generic Christians, 14% are Muslims, and 2% of the population adheres to the Slavic native faith (Rodnovery) or other folk religions of the region. In addition, 16% of the population declares to be spiritual but not religious, 6% is atheist, and 10% follows other religions or did not give an answer to the question.

Economy

Industrial complex economic center of the region - Astrakhan - presented shipbuilding, pulp and paper industry, fish processing industry. Leading industries - mechanical engineering, power engineering, food industry. The region is practically inexhaustible reserves of gas, oil, sulfur. In general, the city's industry remains unprofitable. This is mainly the effect of the fuel industry, which accounts for one-third of industry losses, as well as shipbuilding, radio and electricity. In this industry losses compared to 2002 decreased by 28.9%.

Akhtubinsky District Located in the north-eastern part of the region. Its territory is a military training ground, branches of defense industry enterprises. The main enterprise - JSC "Bassol" (food production), OJSC "Mineral Knauf" (construction materials), JSC "PRSI Akhtubinsky" (mechanical engineering), JSC "Cannery" and CJSC "Akhtubinsky meat-packing plant."

Kamyzyaksky District due to Volga Delta Is a leader in the Astrakhan region in the production and processing of agricultural products. The main directions of agriculture - horticulture, melon, rice agriculture and meat and dairy cattle breeding. district industry is represented by the following industries: shipbuilding (one of the oldest enterprises - JSC "Volga-Caspian Shipyard"), light, printing, milling industry, production of construction materials and others.

industry

The fuel industry is the main industry of the Astrakhan region, because of the Astrakhan gas condensate field, the largest in the European part of Russia. On the basis of the gas condensate field work Astrakhan gas complex, including gas fields and gas processing plant. The complex is specialized in the production of technical gas sulfur motor gasoline, diesel and fuel oil, propane-butane fraction. In the developed mechanical engineering (shipbuilding, Forging equipment, compressors, etc.). Compared with the 1990s, by 2003, significantly increased the share of fuel industry Astrakhan region of the Russian Federation (from 8% to 60%) and electricity (from 2% to 11%), due to the critical state of fishery resources in the Caspian basin has decreased markedly the share of food industry (from 36% to 9%), and there was reduction in the share of light industry (from 27% to 1%). Best rates per capita for the production of machine tools - 4 (fourth place among all types of industrial products accounted for by region), natural gas, primary processing of oil.

Agriculture

Agricultural lands make up more than 3.4 million hectares. Employment in this area for vegetable crops area are the largest among all the subjects of Russian Federation. On the sidelines of the field of 350 ths. Tons of tomatoes grown annually, peppers, aubergines, courgettes, cucumbers, carrots, beets, onions and cabbage. Traditionally in the Astrakhan region is the production of rice, which is grown along the Volga. The climatic conditions of the region make it possible to get two crops of potatoes a year. Introduction of high-quality seed domestic, Dutch and German varieties is the determining factor in getting high, stable yields. Astrakhan Region is one of the few Russian regions, which not only preserved but also increased the number of livestock. Every year in the region held a regional exhibition of breeding livestock. Cattle presented major dairy breeds: Simmental, Red Steppe and highly productive black and motley. The leading branch of livestock is sheep Astrakhan region. The region has a unique gene pool of sheep tonkorunnoj, Karakul, mjasosherstnyh edilbaevskoy and rocks, provides a great opportunity for the production of wool. More recently began development of meat sheep. see Kalmyk cattle

transport

In Astrakhan, length of railways - 849 km and length of roads paved - 4031 km and length of railways waterways - 1443 kilometer. The main navigable rivers are the Volga, Bakhtemir, Buzan, Bolda, Akhtuba, Kizan, Tsarev. Volga River is accessible to black sea by Volga–Don Canal. The international Airport is Narimanovo Airport.