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{{short description|First-level administrative division of Russia}}{{redirect|Priamurye|a broader historical region|Russian Manchuria (Russia)|other uses|Amur (disambiguation){{!}}Amur}}{{about|the modern region|the historical region|Amur Oblast (Russian Empire)}}

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|image_coa=Amurskaja obl coa 2008.pngCoat of arms of Amur Oblast>Coat of arms|image_flag=Flag of Amur Oblast.svgFlag of Amur Oblast>Flag|anthem=|anthem_ref=|holiday|holiday_ref|political_status=Oblast|political_status_link=Oblasts of RussiaFar Eastern Federal District>Far EasternFar Eastern economic region>Far Eastern|adm_ctr_type=Administrative center|adm_ctr_name=Blagoveshchensk|adm_ctr_ref=Charter of Amur Oblast, Article 118|pop_2021census=766912|pop_2021census_rank=60th|urban_pop_2021census=68.1%|rural_pop_2021census=31.9%PUBLISHER=FEDERAL STATE STATISTICS SERVICE (RUSSIA)>ACCESSDATE=1 SEPTEMBER 2022, |pop_density|pop_density_as_of|pop_density_ref|pop_latest=811274|pop_latest_date=January 2014Russian Federal State Statistics Service>Federal State Statistics Service. Возрастно-половой состав населения на 1 января 2014 года {{Webarchiveweblink >date=March 4, 2016 }} {{in lang|ru}}|area_km2=361908|area_km2_rank=14th|established_date=October 20, 1932|established_date_ref=USSR. Administrative-Territorial Divisions of the Union Republics, p. 99|license_plates=28|ISO=RU-AMU|gov_as_of=July 2014Governor of Amur Oblast>Governor|leader_title_ref=Charter of Amur Oblast, Article 10|leader_name=Vasily OrlovAlexander Alexandrovich Kozlov {{webarchive >url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150708035042weblink ru}}Legislative Assembly of Amur Oblast>Legislative Assembly|legislature_ref=|website=http://www.amurobl.ru/|website_ref=Resolution No. 607, Section 1|date=December 2014}}Amur Oblast (, {{IPA-ru|ɐˈmurskÉ™jÉ™ ˈoblÉ™sʲtʲ|IPA}}) is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast), located on the banks of the Amur and Zeya rivers in the Russian Far East. Amur Oblast borders Heilongjiang province of the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the south.The administrative center of the oblast, the city of Blagoveshchensk, is one of the oldest settlements in the far east of the country, founded in 1856. It is a traditional center of trade and gold mining. The territory is accessed by two railways: the Trans-Siberian Railway and the Baikal–Amur Mainline. As of the 2021 Census, the oblast's population was 766,912.{{ru-pop-ref|2021Census}}

Names

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

Geography

Amur Oblast is located in the southeast of Russia, between Stanovoy Range in the north and the Amur River in the south, and borders with the Sakha Republic in the north, Khabarovsk Krai and the Jewish Autonomous Oblast in the east, Heilongjiang of China in the south, and with Zabaykalsky Krai in the west. The Stanovoy Range forms the dividing line between the Sakha Republic and Amur Oblast and spreads across the oblast's entire northern border. The Amur–Zeya and Zeya–Bureya Plains cover about 40% of the oblast's territory, but the rest is hilly. Several mountain ranges rise to the south of Stanovoy Range, including the Selemdzha Range parallel to it, as well as the Ezop, Yam-Alin and the Turan ranges stretching along the oblast's southeastern border with Khabarovsk Krai.Google EarthMany rivers flow through the oblast, especially in the north, accounting for 75% of the hydropower resources in the Russian Far East. Most of the oblast is in the Amur's drainage basin, although the rivers in the northwest drain into the Lena and the rivers in the northeast drain into the Uda. The longest rivers include the Amur, Bureya, Gilyuy, Nyukzha, Olyokma, Selemdzha, and Zeya. The Zeya begins in the mountains in the northeast, and its middle reaches are dammed to create the huge Zeya Reservoir, which sprawls over {{convert|2400|km2|sp=us}}.Climate is temperate continental, with cold, dry winters and hot, rainy summers. Average January temperatures vary from {{convert|-24|C}} in the south to {{convert|-33|C}} in the north. Average July temperatures are {{convert|+21|C}} in the south and {{convert|+18|C}} in the north. Annual precipitation is about {{convert|850|mm|sp=us}}.Dwarf Siberian pine and alpine tundra grow at higher elevations and larch forests with small stands of flat-leaved birch and pine forests grow alongside the river plains. These larch and fir-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 with Korean 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.

Natural resources

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, and tin. There are also an estimated 70 billion tons of Black coal and lignite 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 of titanium, with the Bolshoy Seyim deposit being the most important.BOOK, Russia: All Regions Trade & Investment Guide, CTEC Publishing LLC, 2008, Amur Region,weblink dead,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20110715214750weblink">weblink July 15, 2011,

History

Early history

According to the Bei Shi (Dynastic History of Northern Dynasties) and the Sui Shu (Chronicles of the Sui Dynasty), both Chinese records, this area belonged originally to the territory one of the five semi-nomadic Shiwei, the Bo Shiwei tribes ({{zh|c=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 Bureya 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 tenth century with the foundation of the Liao empire.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.The area was conquered by the Manchus in 1639–1640, after defeating the Evenk Federation led by Bombogor. It was returned to the Qing dynasty in the Treaty of Nerchinsk with the Tsardom of Russia.

Russian Empire

The region was annexed by Russia in 1858 in the Treaty of Aigun between Russia and the Qing dynasty. Amur Oblast was established with its center in Blagoveshchensk.Military Governors of the Amur Oblast. Part IIThe 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 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.

Modern history

In April 1920, the Far 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 the Russian SFSR.In January 1926, the territory of Amur Oblast was split between the East Siberian Krai and the Far Eastern Krai. The East Siberian Oblast was divided into Irkutsk Oblast and Chita Oblast in 1937 and the part of Amur within it became part of Chita Oblast. The Far Eastern Krai was divided into Khabarovsk Krai and Primorye Krai in 1938. The territory of Amur Oblast that was in Far Eastern Krai was included in Khabarovsk Krai.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 and housing also increased, which stimulated a new round of construction projects. New cities were built, along with the Zeya Hydroelectric Power Plant (Zeiskaya GES), which still supplies electricity to most of the Far Eastern District.WEB,weblink Amur Region, Kommersant.com, 2013-08-21, dead,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20121013034609weblink">weblink October 13, 2012, mdy-all, On 21 May 1998 Amur alongside Ivanovo, Kostroma, Voronezh Oblast, and the Mari El Republic signed a power-sharing agreement with the federal government, granting it autonomy.WEB,weblink Newsline - May 22, 1998 Yeltsin Signs More Power-Sharing Agreements with Regions, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, en, 2019-05-02, This agreement would be abolished on 18 March 2002.JOURNAL, Chuman, Mizuki, The Rise and Fall of Power-Sharing Treaties Between Center and Regions in Post-Soviet Russia,weblink Demokratizatsiya, 146, May 3, 2019,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20190308002915weblink">weblink March 8, 2019, dead,

Administrative divisions

The largest urban localities of the oblast are Blagoveshchensk, Belogorsk, Svobodny, Tynda, and Raychikhinsk.

Politics

The Governor of Amur Oblast since 2018 is Vasily Orlov.On 19 September 2021, elections to the Legislative Assembly of Amur Oblast were held. One self-nominee and seven parties entered the regional parliament: United Russia - 18 seats; the Communist Party of the Russian Federation - 3 seats; the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, A Just Russia – For Truth, the Party of Pensioners, New People, and Communists of Russia - one each place.WEB,weblink В Госдуму пройдут представители восьми партий, Representatives of eight parties will pass to the State Duma, Амурская правда, 2021-09-21, 2022-09-20, 2021-09-25,weblink live, The Chairman of the Legislative Assembly is (:ru:Дьяконов, Константин Викторович|Konstantin Dyakonov).WEB,weblink Законодательное Собрание Амурской области, Legislative Assembly of the Amur Oblast,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20140109012658weblink">weblink 2014-01-09, 2014-06-03, live,

Governors

• 1991 - Albert Krivchenko
• 1993 - Alexander Surat
• 1993 - Vladimir Polevanov
• 1994 - Vladimir Diachenko
• 1996 - Yuriy Lyashko
• 1997 - Anatoly Belonogov
• 2001 - Leonid Korotkov
• 2007 - Nikolay Kolesov
• 2008 - Oleg Kozhemyako
• 2015 - Alexander Kozlov
• 2018 - Vasily Orlov

Demographics

{{Historical populations|1897|118570|1926|412200|1939|634000|1959|717514|1970|793449|1979|937389|1989|1057781|2002|902844|2010|830103|2021|766912|type=|footnote=Source: Census data}}Population: {{ru-census|p2021=766,912|p2010=830,103|p2002=902,844|p1989=1,057,781}}

Ethnic groups{| class"wikitable"

weblink Federal State Statistics Service (Russia), Federal State Statistics Service, 30 December 2022, ! Ethnicity !Population !! Percentage| Russians | 95.2%| Ukrainians | 0.6%| Armenians | 0.4%|Uzbeks|2,328|0.3%| Azerbaijanis | 0.2%|Tatars|1,546|0.2%| Other Ethnicities| 3.0%| Ethnicity not stated | –

Settlements

{{Largest cities| country = Amur Oblast| stat_ref = 2021 Russian Census| list_by_pop =| div_name =| div_link = Administrative divisions of Amur Oblast{{!}}Administrative Division| city_1 = Blagoveshchensk| div_1 = Blagoveshchensky District, Amur Oblast{{!}}Blagoveshchensky District| pop_1 = 241,437| img_1 = Благовещенск-2011 (059).JPG| city_2 = Belogorsk, Amur Oblast{{!}}Belogorsk| div_2 = Belogorsky District| pop_2 = 61,440| img_2 = Площадь 30-летия Победы.jpg| city_3 = Svobodny, Amur Oblast{{!}}Svobodny| div_3 = Svobodnensky District| pop_3 = 48,517| img_3 = Новый дом, пер. Парниковый, 16.JPG| city_4 = Tynda| div_4 = Tyndinsky District| pop_4 = 28,625| img_4 = Tynda from right-bank.jpg| city_5 = Zeya, Russia{{!}}Zeya| div_5 = Zeysky District| pop_5 = 19,414| city_6 = Chigiri| div_6 = Blagoveshchensky District, Amur Oblast{{!}}Blagoveshchensky District| pop_6 = 18,538| city_7 = Shimanovsk| div_7 = Shimanovsky District| pop_7 = 16,488| city_8 = Raychikhinsk| div_8 = Raychikhinsk{{!}}Town of oblast significance of Raychikhinsk| pop_8 = 15,797| city_9 = Progress, Amur Oblast{{!}}Progress| div_9 = Progress, Amur Oblast{{!}}Town of oblast significance of Progress| pop_9 = 9,918| city_10 = Zavitinsk| div_10 = Zavitinsky District| pop_10 = 9,615}}Vital statistics for 2022:WEB, Information on the number of registered births, deaths, marriages and divorces for January to December 2022,weblink dead,weblink 2 March 2023, 21 February 2023, ROSSTAT, WEB, Birth rate, mortality rate, natural increase, marriage rate, divorce rate for January to December 2022,weblink dead,weblink 2 March 2023, 21 February 2023, ROSSTAT,

• Births: 6,967 (9.0 per 1,000)
• Deaths: 11,346 (14.7 per 1,000)

Total fertility rate (2022):WEB,weblink XLSX, ru:Суммарный коэффициент рождаемости, Total fertility rate, ru, Russian Federal State Statistics Service, 10 August 2023, 10 August 2023,weblink dead, 1.46 children per womanLife expectancy (2021):WEB,weblink Демографический ежегодник России, Federal State Statistics Service (Russia), Federal State Statistics Service of Russia (Rosstat), 2022-06-01, ru, The Demographic Yearbook of Russia, Total — 66.30 years (male â€” 61.75, female â€” 71.11)

Religion

{{Bar box|title=Religion in Amur Oblast as of 2012 (Sreda Arena Atlas)"Arena: Atlas of Religions and Nationalities in Russia". Sreda, 2012.2012 Arena Atlas Religion Maps. "Ogonek", â„– 34 (5243), August 27, 2012. Retrieved April 21, 2017. weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20170421154615weblink">Archived.|float=right|bars={{Bar percent|Russian Orthodoxy|DarkOrchid|25.1}}{{Bar percent|Other Orthodox|MediumOrchid|0.7}}{{Bar percent|Other Christians|DeepSkyBlue|4.8}}{{Bar percent|Islam|Green|0.6}}{{Bar percent|Spiritual but not religious|DarkSlateGray|41}}{{Bar percent|Atheism and irreligion|Black|23.6}}{{Bar percent|Other and undeclared|Gray|4.2}}}}According to a 2012 survey 25.1% of the population of Amur Oblast adheres to the Russian 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 of Islam. In addition, 41% of the population declares to be "spiritual but not religious", 24% is atheist, and 2.9% follows other religions or did not give an answer to the question.{{clear}}

Economy

Gross regional product per capita in 2007 was 131,039.60 rubles, while the national average was 198,817 rubles.Валовой региональный продукт на душу населения {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210224125746weblink |date=February 24, 2021 }} Федеральная служба государственной статистики

Industry

The industrial section contributes 18.3% to the total GRP. 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.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. 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 of uranium mining and processing facilities in Oktyabrsky, near the Russia–China border.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. 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.

Energy

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 the Zeyskaya Hydroelectric Power Station with an installed capacity of 1,330 MW and a yearly output of 4.91 TWh. The station is owned by RusHydro. The company also owns the 2,010 MW Bureyskaya Hydroelectric Power Station, opened in 2009. Its annual output is 7.1 TWh.The planned Erkovetskaya TPP project will be the largest thermal power plant in the world.{{Citation needed|date=December 2020}}

Agriculture

The Amur Region is the primary producer of soybean 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.JOURNAL, Boiarskaia, A I, Hasegawa, H, Boiarskii, B S, Lyude, A V, History of development of Soybean Production in the Amur Region and Far East District in the USSR, IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science, 2 September 2020, 548, 2, 022079, 10.1088/1755-1315/548/2/022079, 2020E&ES..548b2079B, 1755-1315, free, 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.JOURNAL, Selikhova, O A, Tikhonchuk, P V, Problems of rational varietal placement of soybean in the Amur region, IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science, 5 August 2020, 547, 1, 012033, 10.1088/1755-1315/547/1/012033, 2020E&ES..547a2033S, free, 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 multiple soybean oil plants have opened in the region.NEWS, Kurmanaev, Thomas Grove and Anatoly, A Surprise Winner From the U.S.-China Trade Spat: Russian Soybean Farmers,weblink 23 December 2020, Wall Street Journal, 21 February 2019, In 2019, Chinese companies owned or leased some 100 thousand hectares out of the 1.3 million hectares of farmland.NEWS, Why Chinese farmers have crossed border into Russia's Far East,weblink 23 December 2020, BBC News, 1 November 2019,

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, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Philippines; textiles and footwear from China; and machinery and equipment from Ukraine and Japan.

Vostochny cosmodrome

In July 2010, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin announced that the area would be the site of a new Vostochny Cosmodrome ("Eastern Spaceport"), to reduce Russian dependence on the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.WEB, Moskvitch, Katia,weblink BBC News – Russia to kick off construction of a new spaceport, Bbc.co.uk, July 20, 2010, August 21, 2013, The first rocket launch from the site took place on 28 April 2016.{{citation needed|date=December 2020}}

Sister province

• {{Flagicon|South Korea}} Chungnam, South Korea

References

Notes

{{Reflist}}

Sources

• {{RussiaBasicLawRef|amu}}
• BOOK, Дударев, Ð’. А., Евсеева, Н. А., И. Каманина, ru:СССР. Административно-территориальное деление союзных республик, 1987, ru, Moscow,
• RUSSIAN LAW, Губернатор Амурской области, Постановление, 607, 25 октября 2005 г., О совершенствовании системы информационного обеспечения органов государственной власти и местного самоуправления области, Governor of Amur Oblast, Resolution, 607, October 25, 2005, On Improving the Information System Serving the Organs of the State Power and the Local-Self Government of the Oblast

,

• weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20070926190143weblink">Information concerning the Shiwei tribes and their relationship with the Khitans
• {{in lang|ru}} weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20070928122031weblink">History of Amur Oblast

External links

{{Wikivoyage|Amur Oblast}}{{Commons category-inline}}

• EB1911, Amur (East Siberia), 1, Kropotkin, Peter Alexeivitch, Peter Kropotkin, 899–900, 1,

{{Subdivisions of Russia}}{{Amur Oblast}}{{Russian Far East}}{{Authority control}}{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2018}}