Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation
Federal Agency for Education GOU VPO
All-Russian Correspondence Institute of Finance and Economics
Department of Economics, Management and Marketing
Test work in economic geography
Characteristics of the Urals: location, population, resources
Lecturer: Izobilina V.N.
Student: Tyubaeva Yulia Dmitrievna
Faculty: Finance and credit
Arkhangelsk 2010
Plan
Introduction
1. The composition of the district
2.Resources
3. Population
4. Branches of specialization
5.Problems of development of the region
Bibliography
Introduction
The Urals is a kind of economic region within Russia. The peculiarity of the region and its specialization are determined by the geographical location, natural resources, economy and population.
The geographical position at the turn of Europe and Asia made the Urals, as it were, a link between the European and Asian parts of Russia. The composition and boundaries of the Ural Federal District have developed historically. In the 18th century, the Perm province was located on both sides of the Ural Range, uniting Ufa, Perm, Yekaterinburg, Shadrinsk, Verkhoturye, Irbit. By the end of the 19th century, the production-territorial structure of the Greater Urals was formed, which included the Western industrial and Southern agricultural regions, the territory of which is now part of the Volga Federal District, and the Gornozavodsk industrial and Trans-Ural agricultural regions, which today belong to the Urals Federal District. In 1924, the Ural Region was formed, which, by its borders and composition, predetermined the formation of the Ural Federal District. Until 1934, the Ural region included the territories of modern Sverdlovsk, Chelyabinsk, Kurgan regions, Tyumen region with the Yamalo-Nenets and Khanty-Mansiysk districts, as well as the Perm region. The Ural economic region, consisting of five regions (Sverdlovsk, Chelyabinsk, Perm, Orenburg, Kurgan) and two republics (Bashkir and Udmurt), provided before the collapse of 22% of the Union's production of coke, 30% of ferrous metals, 16% of plastics, 50% of potash fertilizers, 60 % bauxite. In 2000, by decree of the President of Russia V.V. Putin, the Ural Federal District was formed as a new form of territorial administration. The economy of the Urals began to take shape back in early XVII century, but develops especially rapidly at the beginning of the 18th century. after the reforms of Peter I. Soon the area becomes the leading industrial base of Russia. The Urals, called the "supporting edge of the state", bore the main economic burden during the years of the Great Patriotic War.
The edge of the state", endured the main economic burden during the Great Patriotic War.
1. URAL FEDERAL DISTRICT - administrative-territorial unit Russian Federation, includes six subjects of the Russian Federation in the Urals and in Western Siberia: Kurgan, Sverdlovsk, Tyumen, Chelyabinsk regions, Khanty-Mansiysk, Yamalo-Nenets districts. The center of the Urals Federal District is the city of Yekaterinburg, where the representative office of the President of Russia in the Urals Federal District is located. Big cities: Yekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk, Tyumen, Magnitogorsk, Nizhny Tagil, Kurgan, Surgut, Nizhnevartovsk, Zlatoust, Miass, Kamensk-Uralsky. The Ural Federal District is located at the junction of two parts of the world - Europe and Asia, which are different in their natural and economic conditions. The region stretches in the meridional direction for thousands of kilometers from the Arctic Ocean and the Polar Urals to the steppes of the Southern Urals and Kazakhstan. The territory of the district covers the eastern slopes of the Northern, Polar and Subpolar Urals, as well as the spaces of the West Siberian Plain, from the Urals in the west to the borders of the Yenisei basin in the east; from the Southern Urals with forest-steppe and steppe plains of the Trans-Urals and Cis-Urals in the south to the coast of the Kara Sea with coastal islands in the north. The area of the district is 1.79 million square kilometers (10.5% of the territory of Russia. The territory of the region exceeds the combined territories of Germany , France, Great Britain and Spain.The enterprises of the district produce more than 15% of the gross regional product of the country and 20% of the entire industrial output of the Russian Federation.About 40% of taxes are collected here for the federal budget.
2. The Ural Federal District occupies a leading position in the Russian Federation in terms of mineral reserves. The natural resources of the district are very diverse and have a huge impact on the specialization and level of development of industry in the district. Most of the subjects of the district have large deposits of mineral raw materials - mineral raw materials, fuel, non-metallic minerals. In terms of reserves of certain types of mineral resources (copper ores, asbestos, potash salts), the district occupies a leading position in the world. Fuel resources are represented by all main types: oil, natural gas, coal, oil shale, peat. The industry is based on industries developing on the basis of the use of its local natural resources: iron, copper, aluminum, nickel ores, mining and chemical raw materials, forest resources. The degree of concentration industrial production county is four times higher than the national average. The industry is represented by the fuel industry, mechanical engineering, ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy. These industries are the backbone of the Okrug's economy, which remains oriented towards raw materials. The natural resources of the Ural Federal District are 68% of Russian oil reserves, 91% of natural gas reserves, 14% of iron ore, 27% of manganese ores, 8% of gold, 8% of copper. 38.4% steel, 37% rolled ferrous metals. Most of Russia's oil and gas resources are concentrated in the district. In the Khanty-Mansiysk and Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrugs, oil and gas fields have been explored and are being exploited, which contain 66.7% of the Russian oil reserves (6% of the world) and 77.8% of the Russian gas (26% of the world reserves). Accordingly, gas (92% of the total Russian) and oil (65%) production plays a leading role in the Okrug's economy. The total average long-term resources of river runoff (local) in the Urals Federal District is 380 km 3, the largest number of them is concentrated in the Tyumen region (including the Khanty-Mansiysk and Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrugs) - 90%, which is due to the water content of the Ob River. The Ob has the largest catchment area in Russia - 2,990 thousand km 2 and ranks third in Russia after the Lena and the Yenisei in terms of water content (average annual discharge is 5270 m 3 /s). The poorest in water resources is the Kurgan region, where the average long-term resources are estimated at about 1 km3.
3. More than 12 million people or more than 8% of the country's population live in the district. The administrative center is the city of Yekaterinburg, with a population of about 1.3 million people. Population density - 7 people per sq. km; 80.1% of the population lives in cities. The Okrug belongs to the urbanized regions, 80% of its population are urban dwellers. The Sverdlovsk and Chelyabinsk regions are characterized by the highest degree of urbanization. The highest population density is in the central and southern parts of the federal district, where the density reaches 42 people per sq. km. National composition: Russians - 10.24 million (82.74%), Tatars - 636 thousand (5.14%), Ukrainians - 355 thousand (2.87%), Bashkirs - 266 thousand (2.15%), Germans - 81 thousand (0.65%), Belarusians - 79 thousand (0.64%), Kazakhs - 74 thousand (0.6%), Azerbaijanis - 66 thousand (0.54%). In the Khanty-Mansiysk and Yamalo-Nenets districts, about 5% of the population is made up of the indigenous peoples of the North - Khanty, Mansi, Nenets, Selkups.
4. The branches of market specialization of the industrial complex of the Urals are the oil and gas industry, ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy, heavy engineering, chemical, forestry and woodworking industries.
A large branch of market specialization of the Ural Federal District is mechanical engineering. The district has developed heavy engineering (production of mining and metallurgical, chemical, petrochemical equipment), energy (production of turbines, steam boilers), transport, agricultural, tractor construction. The most rapidly developing electrical engineering, instrumentation and machine tools. The main centers are Yekaterinburg (Uralmash, Uralkhimmash, Uralelektrotyazhmash), Kurgan (Kurganselmash), Novouralsk (CJSC Ural Automotive Plant), etc. Mechanical engineering is the main consumer of metallurgical products. It accounts for 8.5% of the industrial output of the district (in the Kurgan region - 48%, in the south of the Tyumen region - 25%, in the Sverdlovsk region - 17.8%, in the Chelyabinsk region - 12.5%). The Ural Federal District produces 85% of all domestic continuous casting machines and equipment for them, 64% of freight railcars. According to a certain nomenclature, many enterprises of the district are monopolists. Transport plays a huge role in the development of the Ural Federal District. The region is dominated railway transport The Trans-Siberian Railway passes through the district. Oil pipeline transport is of great importance: oil pipelines such as Nizhnevartovsk - Anzhero-Sudzhensk - Irkutsk, Surgut - Polotsk, Nizhnevartovsk - Ust-Balyk - Omsk, gas pipelines Urengoy - Pomary - Uzhgorod, Urengoy - Chelyabinsk are widely known. Export. In the structure of exports from the Urals, the main positions are occupied by oil and gas, then - products of metallurgy, mechanical engineering, chemical and forestry complex. In terms of export volume, the Ural Federal District surpasses all other districts. The structure of imports to the UFD is dominated by goods of light industry, food industry, medicines, machinery and equipment, ores and concentrates. Ferrous metallurgy of the Urals is represented by all stages: from mining to production of rolled products. The smelting of ferrous metals (the main part of iron and steel) is carried out by the Magnitogorsk and Nizhny Tagil plants, as well as the Chelyabinsk metallurgical plant. The largest centers of ferrous metallurgy: Magnitogorsk, Chelyabinsk, Nizhny Tagil, Novotroitsk, Yekaterinburg, Serov, Zlatoust, etc. At present, 2/3 of the smelting of iron and steel falls on the Chelyabinsk and Orenburg regions (part of the Greater Urals). With a significant development of pig metallurgy (steel smelting exceeds pig iron production), enterprises with a full cycle play the main role. They are located along the Eastern slopes of the Ural Mountains. On the Western slopes, the conversion metallurgy is located to a greater extent. The Urals is one of the main regions for the production of steel pipes for oil and gas pipelines. Its largest enterprises are located in Chelyabinsk, Pervouralsk and Kamensk-Uralsk. According to the German metallurgist Herman, the total productivity of the ironworks in Russia in 1674. reached 150 thousand pounds (about 2400 tons). In the 18th century, after the reforms of Peter the Great, Russia took the first place in the world in iron smelting, accounting for more than a third of the world's iron production. Russia exported a significant part of pig iron and iron (30-80%) abroad, mainly to England, where the lack of wood sharply limited the smelting of pig iron. Inexhaustible reserves of wood fuel and cheap serf labor were at that time the advantages of Russia in the production of ferrous metals. The main metallurgical region was the Urals. On the territory of the Urals there are such ferrous metallurgy enterprises as: Magnitogorsk Metallurgical Plant (MMK), Mechel, Chelyabinsk Pipe Rolling Plant (ChTPZ), Ashinsky Metallurgical Plant, Satka Metallurgical Plant, Zlatoust Metallurgical Plant, Magnitogorsk Hardware and Metallurgical Plant (MMMP), "Magnezit ”, Chelyabinsk Electrometallurgical Plant (ChEMK), Zlatoustovsky District, Turgoyakskoye District, Bakalskoye District, Satka Metallurgical Plant, Russian Metallurgical Company (these enterprises are located in the Chelyabinsk Region). NTMK, Alapaevsky Metallurgical Plant, Seversky Pipe Plant (STZ), Sinarsky Pipe Plant (SinTZ), Pervouralsky Novotrubny Plant (PNTZ), Serov Metallurgical Plant (Serov), Verkh-Isetsky Metallurgical Plant (VIZ), Saldinsky Metal Plant are located in the Sverdlovsk Region , Verkhnesinyachikhinsky Metallurgical Plant (VSMZ), Ural Plant of Precision Alloys (UZPS), Revdinsky Hardware and Metallurgical Plant (RMMP), Nizhneserginsky Metallurgical Plant, Bogoslovskoye Mining Department, Vysokogorsky GOK, Kachkanarsky GOK (Vanadium), Pervouralsk Mining Department, DINUR, Sukholozhsky Refractory, Refractories (g Bogdanovich), Serov Ferroalloy Plant (SZF), Klyuchevskiy Ferroalloy Plant (KZF). In addition, large metallurgy enterprises are located on the territory of the economic (Greater) Urals: Izhstal (Udmurtia), Gubakhinsky coke plant (Perm region), Orsk-Khalilovsky metallurgical plant (Orenburg region), Beloretsk metallurgical plant (Bashkorkostan), Chusovoy metallurgical plant plant, Kamastal, Ural metal (Perm region), etc. There are four large pipe enterprises in the Urals - ChTPZ, Pervouralsky Novotrubny, Seversky Pipe and Sinarsky Pipe. The non-ferrous metallurgy of the Ural region is also distinguished by a high level of development and is represented by the production of copper, zinc, nickel, aluminum, etc. Significant reserves of copper as an associated component are concentrated in iron ore deposits. Non-ferrous metallurgy enterprises are represented by the Ural Mining and Metallurgical Company (UMMC), OK RUSAL, Verkhne-Salda Metallurgical Production Association, OAO Ufaleynickel and dozens of other well-known enterprises. Moreover, the share of high processing at some enterprises reaches 65%. Among the enterprises of non-ferrous metallurgy, we will name such as the Yekaterinburg plant for the processing of non-ferrous metals, the Kamensk-Uralsky plant for the processing of non-ferrous metals, the Kamensk-Uralsky metallurgical plant, the Corporation Verkhne-Saldinskoye metallurgical production association - AVISMA, the Polevskoy cryolite plant, the Revda plant for the processing of non-ferrous metals, the Russian Copper Company, Sredneuralsky copper smelter, Sukholozhsky plant Vtortsvetmet, Ural and theological aluminum plants, Uralredmet, Uralelectromed, Svyatogor, etc. It should be noted that non-ferrous metallurgy enterprises of the Urals are seriously dependent on raw materials. The issue of raw material security was so acute that raw materials had to be imported from other regions and even from abroad.
National Unity Day is celebrated in Russia on November 4th. For the Southern Urals, with its multinational way of life, this holiday is especially important, because about 40 peoples live in the Chelyabinsk region.
National Unity Day is celebrated in Russia on November 4th. For the Southern Urals, with its multinational way of life, this holiday is especially important, because about 40 peoples live in the Chelyabinsk region.
Although the largest ethnic group in the Chelyabinsk region is the Russians, this people is not indigenous: the first Russian settlements arose in the South Urals only in late XVII century in the Techa river basin.
From the point of view of ethnography, Russian South Urals are divided into three groups: descendants of the Orenbur Cossacks, Russian mining (mainly workers) and ordinary peasants, - Andrei Rybalko, associate professor of the Faculty of History and Philology of the ChelGU, Candidate of Historical Sciences, told Gubernia. - Tatars are also a non-indigenous people, consisting of several ethnographic groups. In the Southern Urals, mainly Volgoural Tatars live. They, like the Russians, came to the territory of the Southern Urals during the time of land development in the 17th century.
But the Bashkirs are an indigenous people, like the Kazakhs. There are several districts in the Chelyabinsk region where the Bashkir population predominates: Argayashkiy, Kunashaksky, Kaslinsky, Kizilsky. The Kazakhs appeared earlier than the Russians in the steppe regions of the Southern Urals. There they are present in almost all settlements, but there are villages in the Kizilsky and Nagaybaksky districts where they make up the majority.
The ten dominant peoples in the Southern Urals include Ukrainians - the descendants of Ukrainian settlers of the late XIX - early XX centuries, as well as Germans, Belarusians, Armenians - they are dispersed throughout the territory. Quite a few representatives of the Mordovians. In the Uisky district there is a Mordovian village of Gusary, there is also a Cossack Mordovian settlement - Kulevchi in the Varna region, there are many of them in the Troitsky, Chesmensky and Verkhneuralsky regions.
The ten largest ethnic groups are closed by the Nagaibaks - this people lives compactly only in the Chelyabinsk region. This is mainly the Nagaybaksky district - Ferchampenoise, Paris, part in the Chebarkulsky district, as well as in the Uysky: Varlamovo, Popovo, Lyagushino, Bolotovo, Krasnokamenskoye. They speak a language that is linguistically considered Tatar, although they themselves prefer to call it Nagaybak. By religion, the Nagaybaks are Orthodox, and before the revolution they were part of the Orenburg Cossack army- said Associate Professor, Candidate of Historical Sciences Andrey Rybalko.
Each people is original, people remember and honor their national customs and traditions.
Daria Nesterova
Initially, the Urals were populated by newcomers from Siberia and the southeastern regions. Then, in the process of settling the vast Eurasian expanses, representatives of different civilizations (European and Asian) settled on its territory. These were the tribes of Finns, Ugric peoples, Scythians, Arabs, Bulgars, Turks, and others. The Russians appeared here only in the 11th century.
Now the Urals is one of the most multinational regions of Russia, although Russians form the basis of this motley ethnic composition (more than 80%). Significant groups of the population form the Bashkirs and Udmurts in their republics, and the share of Ukrainians is also high.
Due to the multinationality in the Urals, several religions still coexist. Various pagan cults were practiced among the Ugric population. Among the peoples of the northern and southern Urals, who had the closest ties with the Russian state, Christianity became the dominant religion. The south of the region gravitated more towards the Volga Bulgaria, therefore, here, from time immemorial, Muslim traditions are strong.
Peoples of the Turkic group who profess Islam live in Bashkiria: Bashkirs (22% of the population of the republic), Tatars (28%).
Udmurts live in Udmurtia. These are the people of the Finno-Ugric group. Old names of the people (Aryans, Aryans, Vedas, Otyaks, Votyaks). Udmurts are the second largest people in the republic (33%), Russians make up 59% of the population.
National composition: Russians - 10.24 million (82.74%), Tatars - 636 thousand (5.14%), Ukrainians - 355 thousand (2.87%), Bashkirs - 266 thousand (2.15%), Germans - 81 thousand (0.65%), Belarusians - 79 thousand (0.64%), Kazakhs - 74 thousand (0.6%), Azerbaijanis - 66 thousand (0.54%). In the Khanty-Mansiysk and Yamalo-Nenets districts, about 5% of the population is made up of the indigenous peoples of the North - Khanty, Mansi, Nenets, Selkups.
The population of the Ural region is over 20 million people. The average density is 25 people/km², but the residents are distributed very unevenly: from 5 people/km² in Komi-Permyatsky autonomous region up to 100 people/km² and more in the industrial regions of the Middle Urals. The majority of the population lives in the Sverdlovsk, Chelyabinsk, Perm regions of Bashkortostan.
The Ural population is growing slowly. The natural increase in the region is negative. The outflow of the population to other regions of the country is significant. The main reasons for migration are harsh climatic conditions, poor development of social infrastructure, rising unemployment, difficulty in finding employment for women, and a catastrophic environmental situation. Only in recent years, due to the outflow of the Russian population from the states of Central Asia, the number of people entering the region began to exceed the number of people leaving it. Mostly young people leave the region. Therefore, the population of the Urals is aging from year to year.
The administrative center is the city of Yekaterinburg, with a population of about 1.3 million people. Population density - 7 people per km²; 80.1% of the population lives in cities. The Okrug belongs to the urbanized regions, 80% of its population are city dwellers. The Sverdlovsk and Chelyabinsk regions are characterized by the highest degree of urbanization. The highest population density is in the central and southern parts of the federal district, where the density reaches 42 people per km².
The Ural lies in the depths of the Eurasian continent, so its climate is continental. In addition, from the north it is open to winds blowing from the Arctic Ocean, and from the south - from the arid regions of Kazakhstan. Winters in the Urals are quite severe everywhere, with deep snows (except for the steppes of the Trans-Urals). Even in the very south, the temperature drops below -40°C. Summer in the taiga zone is relatively warm and humid, and in the steppe zone it is hot, droughts are common, dry winds and dust storms occur. The temperature here rises to +40°. In the mountains, the climate changes with height: on the peaks it is much harsher and wetter.
The nature of the Southern Urals differs sharply from the nature of the Northern Urals. In summer, in the dry steppes of the Mugodzhary ridge, the earth warms up to 30-40`C. Even a weak wind raises whirlwinds of dust. The Ural River flows at the foot of the mountains along a long depression of the meridional direction. The valley of this river is almost treeless, the current is calm, although there are also rapids.
The stone belt of the Urals and the adjacent elevated, ridged, less often flat plains of the Cis-Urals extend in the meridian direction from the shores of the Arctic Ocean in the north to the semi-desert regions of Kazakhstan in the south in the form of a narrow (100 - 400 km) strip: for more than 2500 km they separate the East - European and West Siberian plains. The axial part of the region - the Ural Mountains - consist of a system of low ridges and massifs, composed of Paleozoic sedimentary or crystalline rocks and separated by intermountain depressions. The highest of these ranges, rising above 1200 - 1500 m, are located in the Subpolar (Mount Narodnaya - 1875 m), Northern (Mount Telnosiz - 1617 m) and Southern (Mount Yamantau - 1640 m) Urals. The low-mountain massifs of the Middle Urals are much lower, usually not higher than 600 - 800 m. The railway crossing the Urals here passes through passes at elevations of only about 400 m. The western and eastern foothills of the Urals and the foothill plains are often dissected by picturesque deep river valleys.
The Urals, despite its relatively low altitude, serves as an important climatic frontier: the climates of the Cis-Urals and the Trans-Urals differ markedly. The air masses coming from the west are delayed by the barrier of the mountains: on its western slope, up to 600 - 800 mm (and in the mountains of the Subpolar Urals even up to 1200 - 1500 mm) of precipitation falls, in the east of the region - in the Trans-Urals - they are 200 - 300 mm less. In winter, the Urals prevent the spread of cold Siberian air to the west, and therefore the climate of the eastern regions of the region is more continental - frosts are stronger here, and snow falls less.
There are many rivers and rivers in the Urals and the Urals, the total flow of which exceeds 150 cubic meters. km per year. The most full-flowing are those that begin on the western slopes and carry their waters to the Kama or Pechora, the rivers of the eastern slope belonging to the Ob basin are less water-bearing.
The large length of the region in the meridian direction causes significant changes in climatic conditions and the diversity of its landscapes. On the Ural plains, therefore, a system of natural zones is clearly expressed - from the tundra in the north to the steppe in the south. In mountainous regions, landscapes change depending on the height of the terrain and the nature of the relief, forming systems of altitudinal belts. They are most fully represented in the mountains of the Southern Urals, where the plains adjacent to the mountains and the lower parts of the slopes are occupied by steppe and forest-steppe landscapes. Above is a belt of mixed, and then mountain-taiga forests, changing at an altitude of 1000 - 1100 m with mountain tundra, meadows and stone placers. To the north, the boundaries of these belts decrease.
In general, taiga and mountain-taiga landscapes are most characteristic of the Urals and the Ural plains. And although as a result of intensive centuries-old exploitation of forests, their area has noticeably decreased, nevertheless, forest landscapes occupy a little less than 60% of the region's territory. The forests of the Urals are very diverse. In the Cis-Urals and on the western slopes, mainly dark coniferous taiga of spruce and fir prevails, giving way in the south to mixed and even broad-leaved forests. The eastern slopes are more characterized by deciduous and secondary birch forests, as well as arrays of beautiful pine forests. In the south, especially on the plains of the Southern Trans-Urals, chernozem steppes dominate, already largely plowed and occupied by grain crops. Among the natural regions of the Russian Federation, the Urals stands out primarily for its exceptional variety of mineral resources. More than 12 thousand deposits of various minerals are known here.
A prominent role among them is played by deposits of iron, nickel and copper ores, chromites, bauxites, platinum, gold, asbestos, graphite, precious and ornamental stones, associated mainly with crystalline rocks of the eastern slope. The bowels of the western and southern regions of the Urals, composed mainly of sedimentary rocks, contain deposits of potash and common salt, coal, oil and natural gas, limestone and dolomite. Timber reserves of vast forests are also of great economic importance, and in the south - lands suitable for agricultural use.
More than 19 million people live in the Urals - more than 8% of the total population of Russia. Since the time of its settlement by Russians, i.e. over the course of four centuries, several million inhabitants moved to the Urals. The largest migration waves were in the 18th century, when tens of thousands of families of serfs and craftsmen were resettled to the Urals to work at metallurgical plants, and in the second half of the 19th century. after the abolition of serfdom. In 1913, more than 10 million people lived in the Urals. The inhabitants of the central provinces, who fled from serfdom or were forcibly transported to the Urals, and in the post-reform period, crushed by poverty and homelessness, the so-called free migrants constituted the main contingent of migrants in the pre-revolutionary past.
In the Soviet years, the resettlement to the Urals did not decrease. During the years of socialist industrialization, the Urals showed a huge demand for labor. between the 1926 and 1939 censuses. The population of the Urals increased annually by an average of almost 2.5%. A large influx of residents was during the Great Patriotic War in connection with the evacuation of hundreds of factories and factories from the western regions. The total population of the Urals during the years of Soviet rule almost doubled, while the national average during this time it grew by 46%. Average age population of the Urals is lower than the national average.
The resettlement in the post-revolutionary period entailed not only an increase in the population, but also its redistribution across the territory of the Urals. The bulk of the inhabitants who arrived in the Urals during the years of socialist construction were absorbed by the cities of Sverdlovsk and Chelyabinsk regions where large-scale industrial construction was taking place at that time. Their population has more than tripled compared to pre-revolutionary times. At the same time, the area of the most dense settlement expanded, covering the Southern and part of the Northern Urals, where powerful industrial centers arose (Serovsko-Karpinsky, Magnitogorsk, Orsk-Mednogorsk). The development of virgin and fallow lands, the involvement in the industrial exploitation of new deposits of minerals and forest resources led to a certain shift of the population to the outlying areas. In the post-war period, the southeastern and northeastern regions of the Urals had higher population growth rates than the average Urals. In recent years, the flow of new settlers has significantly decreased. The growth of the population of the Urals is now occurring almost exclusively due to natural increase. In some years, there was even some outflow of the population to other regions of the country.
Features of the settlement of the Urals, its position on the routes of movement of ancient peoples to the west, and at a later time - on the routes of migration to the east, extremely diverse natural conditions and resources partially determined the diversity national composition local population. Here, residents of the taiga and steppe regions, natives of their harsh north and sultry south, farmers of the central regions and nomads of the Central Asian deserts found their usual living conditions and economic activities. The most mixed population is in the Cis-Urals. Representatives of several dozen nationalities live in the Urals. The areas of their settlement are intertwined and form a motley mosaic. The very ethnically mixed population of the Ural cities and many rural settlements. The most numerous in the Urals are Russians, Tatars, Bashkirs, Udmurts, Komisco-livestock rural settlements. The size of the villages increases as you move south. The number of inhabitants in some of them reaches several thousand people. At the same time, the population density is decreasing. Many settlements developed along the ancient routes, especially along the Siberian route. In the past, their population was engaged in carting. Now these are predominantly agricultural villages and villages, differing from neighboring settlements only in that they are stretched out.
The main features of the distribution of the population of the Urals is determined by the geography of industry. The mining Urals, the most industrially developed part of the Urals, has the highest population density. The Cis-Urals, and especially the flat Trans-Urals, are much less populated. The population density also varies greatly between the northern and southern regions. Udmurtia and the Chelyabinsk region are especially densely populated, and much less so are the Orenburg and Kurgan regions. In the mining part of the Urals, almost the entire population is concentrated along the eastern and western foothills, and the group location of cities has led to an extremely high population density in industrial hubs. Here it reaches several hundred people per square kilometer. At the same time, the main part, with the exception of the railroad lanes, has a very sparse population - up to 3 - 4 people per 1 km 2, and even less in the northern regions. In the flat regions of the Urals, the population density approaches the average Urals. It is higher in the Cis-Urals and lower in the Trans-Urals. Significant differences in population density also exist between the forest, forest-steppe and steppe regions of the Cis-Urals and Trans-Urals. It ranges from 5 people in the south of the steppe belt to 50 people in the forest-steppe and in the south of the forest zone. Due to the predominance of the rural population, whose share in these areas reaches 60 - 70%, there are no such jumps in population density as in the mining part. The population density increases only along the rivers and old roads and reaches 50-60 people per 1 sq. km in some places. .
The rural settlements of the Urals are exceptionally diverse. The north of the Perm and Yekaterinburg regions is characterized by a rare network of settlements, medium in size, with a large number lumber camps. Almost all the settlements here, like beads, are "strung" on the threads of the rivers. In the mountainous parts of the Perm, Yekaterinburg and Chelyabinsk regions, rural settlements are mainly grouped near industrial cities and towns, and in the extensions of mountain valleys they are confined to agricultural centers. The center and south of the Perm region, the southeast of the Yekaterinburg region and Udmurtia are characterized by a significant amount of agricultural land development in the forest zone and numerous agricultural settlements confined to these lands, mostly of medium size. The center and south of the Chelyabinsk, Kurgan and Orenburg regions are characterized by a type of rural settlement, characteristic of areas of continuous agricultural development in the forest-steppe and steppe zones with large tracts of arable land, with a predominance of medium and large villages. Common here, especially since the development of virgin lands, state farm settlements.
As an economic region, the Urals includes the Perm Territory, Sverdlovsk, Chelyabinsk, Kurgan, Orenburg regions, the territories of the Republics of Bashkortostan and Udmurtia.
There are three subdistricts in the Ural Economic Region: Sredneuralsky ( Sverdlovsk region), West Ural (Bashkortostan and Udmurtia, Perm region), South Ural (Orenburg, Kurgan, Chelyabinsk regions).
The Middle Urals subdistrict specializes in metallurgy, ferrous and non-ferrous, heavy and power engineering, chemical and timber industries. This is the most powerful industrial region of the Urals.
The West Ural subregion stands out for its oil and petrochemical industries, transport engineering and machine tool building.
The South Ural subdistrict is notable for its developed ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy and tractor construction. A large gas-industrial TPK is being formed in the Orenburg region. This subregion occupies a leading place in the agricultural production of the Urals.
The climate of different parts of the Urals is not the same and varies both in the direction from north to south and from west to east. The climate of the foothills has much in common with the climate of the adjacent valleys. Differences in air temperatures in the north and south of the Urals are especially noticeable in summer, and differences between mountainous and flat areas are also great. Forests cover the Ural Mountains almost all the way. The forest zone in the north of the region (there are industrial developments of timber) is replaced by a zone of forest-steppes and steppes in the south of the Ural region. There are fertile lands.
On both sides of the mountains and to the south of them, in the wide valley of the Ural River, there are steppes, mostly plowed, with rich black soil. This is the main agricultural region of the Urals.
The South Ural exports part of the produced grain outside the region. The agriculture of the Southern Urals has the greatest interregional cooperation. Here, in the expanses of the black earth steppes of the Orenburg, Chelyabinsk, Kurgan regions and Bashkiria, a powerful grain region was formed. The main grain crop is wheat. Significant areas in the Orenburg region, Cis-Urals are occupied by sunflower. In the steppes and forest-steppes of the Southern Urals and Trans-Urals, various branches of animal husbandry are combined with grain farming - from fine-fleeced and semi-fine-fleeced sheep breeding in the south of the grain belt to dairy and meat animal husbandry and pig breeding in its more northern parts. An economy of the same type is typical for the Trans-Ural forest-steppe in the southeast of the Sverdlovsk region, for certain areas in the center of the Perm region and for the south of Udmurtia. In most of the territory of the Perm Cis-Urals and Udmurtia, flax growing is developed, there are grain crops and dairy and meat animal husbandry. Around large cities and clusters of industrial settlements, suburban areas are becoming more and more distinct. Agriculture specializing in the production of vegetables, potatoes, milk, eggs, pork, beef, poultry. In the rest of the Urals - in mountain zone, in the northern taiga regions - agriculture is represented only by individual centers of agriculture (vegetables, potatoes) and livestock.
The conditions for farming in the Ural region are good, but they are not the same in the northern, middle and southern parts, depending on the climatic conditions and the terrain. In the north, dairy cattle breeding, poultry farming prevail, in the south - meat, dairy and meat animal husbandry, sheep breeding, and pig breeding.
The territory of the district due to its internal position between the western and eastern economic zones, having different levels of economic development and different specializations, provides transit links between them.
Transport routes pass through the Urals, crossing the entire territory of Russia from the western borders to Pacific Ocean. From the east, the district receives raw materials and fuel, and manufacturing products from the west, and also exports its products to all economic regions of the Russian Federation.
Especially great importance in the Ural region have roads passing through Chelyabinsk and Yekaterinburg. The Kama River crosses the territory only in the northwest and serves the transportation of timber cargo. Gas from Orenburg is transported via a gas pipeline through Samara, Sterlitamak, Zainek, Novopskov, Uzhgorod to European countries. The length of the gas pipeline from Orenburg to the western border former USSR- 2750 km. All pipelines from Western Siberia pass through the Ural region.
Perm region.
The center is the city of Perm. The territory is 160 thousand square kilometers. The population is 3.1 million people. The main rivers are Kama, Chusovaya, Koiva, Vyshera. Industry: mining of coal, oil, gas, potash and table salt, mechanical engineering, chemical industry, ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy. Agriculture: animal husbandry, cereals, vegetable growing. There are two large gold-bearing regions in the Perm region - Krasnovishersky and in the Koiva river basin.
Sverdlovsk region.
The center is the city of Yekaterinburg (until 1990 - Sverdlovsk). Territory - 194 thousand square kilometers. The population is 4.7 million people. The main rivers are the Ob and Kama basins. Industry: ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy, mechanical engineering, chemical, light, woodworking, paper industries, mining of iron and copper ores, bauxite, coal.
Chelyabinsk region.
The center is the city of Chelyabinsk. The territory is 87 thousand square kilometers. The population is 3.6 million people. The main rivers are Ural, Miass. Lakes - Uvildy, Turgoyak. Industry - ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy, mining (ferrous and non-ferrous metal ores, coal, magnesite). Agriculture - animal husbandry, cereals, vegetable growing, horticulture.
The Chelyabinsk region in terms of industrial production is one of the five largest territorial entities of Russia, second only to Moscow, St. Petersburg, Moscow and Sverdlovsk regions.
Orenburg region.
The center is the city of Orenburg. The territory is 124 thousand square kilometers. The population is 2.1 million people. The main river is the Ural. Industry: ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy, mechanical engineering. Gas, chemical, light industries, extraction of oil, iron, copper, nickel ores. Agriculture - cereals, animal husbandry. Today, the Orenburg region is one of the 7 - 8 largest Russian suppliers of agricultural products.
Kurgan region.
The center is the city of Kurgan. The territory is 71 thousand square kilometers. The population is 1.1 million people. The main rivers are Tobol, Iset. Industry: mechanical engineering, light industry, food industry. Agriculture: cereals, animal husbandry.
There are many resorts in the Kurgan region. Near the city of Shardinsk there are mineral springs close in chemical composition to "Essentuki-4". The regional "defense industry" is known for infantry fighting vehicles and tractors - wheeled and tracked.
Republic of Bashkortostan.
The capital is the city of Ufa. The territory is 142 thousand square kilometers. The population is 4 million people. The main rivers are Belaya and Ufa. Industry: oil refining, petrochemical, mechanical engineering, metalworking, light industry, food, oil and coal production. Agriculture: cereals, vegetable growing, animal husbandry, beekeeping.
Republic of Udmurtia.
The capital is the city of Izhevsk. The territory is 42.1 thousand square kilometers. The population is 1.6 million people. The main rivers are Kama, Vyatka. About 1/2 of the territory is covered with forest. Industry: mechanical engineering, metalworking, metallurgy, forestry, woodworking, oil production, chemical, glass, light, food; peat extraction. The main industrial centers: Izhevsk, Sarapul, Glazov. Agriculture: animal husbandry, cereals, flax growing.
The main problems of the Ural region arising from natural conditions include the following.
The industry of the Urals has grown so much that now not only fuel is being imported into the region, which became a shortage here several decades ago, but also about half of the iron ore needed by its metallurgy and a significant part of the raw materials for the copper smelting industry. In some industrial sub-regions of the Eastern and Southern Urals, there is a lack of water resources. The resources of coniferous forests in the old forest industrial zones of the Urals have been noticeably depleted.
Lack of water supply to the industrial centers of the Urals, which are the largest consumers of water. Many cities are experiencing an acute shortage of water, some are limited in territorial reserves for growth.
In the northern part of the Ural region, climatic conditions are not very favorable: a large amount of precipitation, a long winter, the penetration of cold air, and low temperatures. As a result, there are difficult conditions for living - lack of fuel, lack of water, infertile land. That is, we have to import most of the products necessary for the life of the population, and this requires large material costs.
In the southern part of the Urals, in the conditions of the steppe, the climate is sharply continental, which is manifested in the general lengthening of winter, the reduction of transition periods, and the increase in frost risk at the beginning and end of summer. It is characterized by cold snowy winters and warm (even hot) summers. During the year, in this part of the Urals, there is a predominance of winds from the eastern, southwestern and western directions. The average annual wind speed is from 3.6 to 4.8 m/s. The recurrence of calms is quite high, it varies from 6 to 15% of the total time. The wind regime is determined by seasonal features, atmospheric circulation. In the cold - intensification, the most repeated southern and southwestern. According to the amount of precipitation, the southern part of the Ural region belongs to the zone of unstable moisture, mostly insufficient. characteristic feature climate is its aridity. Summer precipitation does not have time to soak into the soil, as high air temperatures contribute to its rapid evaporation. Precipitation in the region is distributed unevenly.
Urgent measures to resolve require social problems. Of great importance are the problems of improving the demographic situation, especially the increase in the birth rate, the reduction of mortality, the aging of the population, and its employment.
Also, the high urbanization of cities, internal migration of the population, the movement from the countryside to the city, gave rise to a situation of shortage of labor resources in villages, villages, in agriculture, and led, in turn, to an increase in unemployment in large industrial centers. For example, in large regions (in Sverdlovsk, Chelyabinsk, etc.) there is hidden unemployment, but the number of registered unemployed is growing. In the Urals, there is an influx of migrants from the North and the states - the former Soviet republics.
Along with the general ones, there are also some problems specific to the Urals. They are associated, for example, with the improvement of the production structure, which is especially important for coal towns in connection with the development of coal deposits.
All problems are closely intertwined. The population's problems are closely intertwined with production, social, resource, and environmental problems. Projecting a set of these problems onto the territory, one can speak of a hierarchy of territorial zones. At its "upper" level, it is proposed to single out the largest territorial formations of the Urals - "belts" with a predominance of different types problems:
reconstruction of industrial, urbanized territories ("techno-belt").
improvement of agricultural production and rural settlement ("agro-belt").
preservation of ecologically clean, untouched territories of the Urals, their use for protected, scientific, recreational purposes ("eco-belt").
Of interest is the concretization of these problems, their analysis at the lower levels of the territorial hierarchy. These problems include:
formation of TPK at the interregional, interdistrict level;
implementation on an interacting basis of rational territorial cooperation and specialization of regions and republics of the Urals;
development of unified comprehensive plans, concepts, forecasts for the development of large territorial zones of the region with similar development issues;
development and re-specialization of fuel-producing complexes on the western slope of the Urals;
a unified strategy and tactics for the use of timber resources in the northern part of the region;
reconstruction of the mining strip of the UER;
development of agriculture in the Non-Chernozem zone;
complex development of the Ural Chernozem region.
