Khabarovsk Krai

For other uses, see Khabarovsk (disambiguation).

Khabarovsk Krai Хабаровский край (Russian)
—  Krai  —
Flag Coat of arms
Anthem: none
Coordinates:
Political status
Country	Russia
Federal district	Far Eastern
Economic region	Far Eastern
Established	October 20, 1938
Administrative center	Khabarovsk
Government (as of May 2015)
• Governor	Vyacheslav Shport
• Legislature	Legislative Duma
Statistics
Area (as of the 2002 Census)
• Total	788,600 km2 (304,500 sq mi)
Area rank	4th
Population (2010 Census)
• Total	1,343,869
• Rank	34th
• Density	1.7/km2 (4.4/sq mi)
• Urban	81.8%
• Rural	18.2%
Population (January 2015 est.)
• Total	1,338,305
Time zone(s)	VLAT (UTC+10:00)
ISO 3166-2	RU-KHA
License plates	27
Official languages	Russian
Official website

Khabarovsk Krai (Russian: Хаба́ровский край, tr. Khabarovsky kray; IPA: [xɐˈbarəfskʲɪj kraj]) is a federal subject of Russia (a krai), located in the Russian Far East. It lies mostly in the basin of the lower Amur River, but also occupies a vast mountainous area along the coastline of the Sea of Okhotsk, an arm of the Pacific Ocean. The administrative center of the krai is the city of Khabarovsk. Population: 1,343,869 (2010 Census).

The indigenous people of the area are various Tungusic peoples (Evenks, Negidals, Ulchs, Nanai, Oroch, Udege) and Amur Nivkhs.

Geography

Khabarovsk Krai shares its borders with Magadan Oblast in the north, with the Sakha Republic and Amur Oblast in the west, with the Jewish Autonomous Oblast, China, and Primorsky Krai in the south, and is limited by the Sea of Okhotsk in the east. In terms of area, it is the fourth-largest federal subject within Russia.

Taiga and tundra in the north, swampy forest in the central depression, and deciduous forest in the south are the natural vegetation in the area.

History

According to various Chinese and Korean records, the southern part of Khabarovsk Krai was originally occupied by one of the five semi-nomadic Shiwei, the Bo Shiwei tribes and the Black Water Mohe tribes living respectively on the west and the east of the Bureinsky and the Lesser Khingan ranges.

In 1643, Vassili Poyarkov's boats descended the Amur, returning to Yakutsk by the Sea of Okhotsk and the Aldan River, and in 1649–1650 Yerofey Khabarov occupied the banks of the Amur. The resistance of the Chinese, however, obliged the Cossacks to quit their forts, and by the Treaty of Nerchinsk (1689) Russia abandoned her advance into the basin of the river.

Although the Russians were thus deprived of the right to navigate the Amur River, the territorial claim over the lower courses of the river was not settled in the Treaty of Nerchinsk of 1689. The area between Uda River and Greater Khingan mountain range (i.e. most of Lower Amuria) was left undemarcated and the Sino-Russian border was allowed to fluctuate.

Later in the nineteenth century, Nikolay Muravyov would conduct an aggressive policy with China by claiming that the lower reaches of the Amur River belonged to Russia. In 1852, a Russian military expedition under Muravyov explored the Amur, and by 1857 a chain of Russian Cossacks and peasants had been settled along the whole course of the river. In 1858, in the Treaty of Aigun, China recognized the Amur River downstream as far as the Ussuri River as the boundary between Russia and the Qing Empire, and granted Russia free access to the Pacific Ocean. The Sino-Russian border was later further delineated in the Treaty of Peking of 1860 when the Ussuri Territory (the Maritime Territory), which was previously a joint possession, became Russian.

Modern Khabarovsk Krai was established on October 20, 1938, when the Far Eastern Krai was split into the Khabarovsk and Primorsky Krais.

Administrative divisions

Main article: Administrative divisions of Khabarovsk Krai

Politics

Khabarovsk Krai Administration building

During the Soviet period, the high authority in the oblast was shared between three persons: The first secretary of the Khabarovsk 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 Khabarovsk Krai is the fundamental law of the krai. The Legislative Duma of Khabarovsk Krai is the regional standing legislative (representative) body. The Legislative Duma 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 Krai Government, 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 Krai Administration supports the activities of the Governor who is the highest official and acts as guarantor of the observance of the Charter in accordance with the Constitution of Russia.

Economy

Khabarovsk Krai is the most industrialized territory of the Far East of Russia, producing 30% of the total industrial products in the Far Eastern Economic Region. The machine construction industry consists primarily of a highly developed military-industrial complex of large-scale aircraft- and shipbuilding enterprises. The Komsomolsk-on-Amur Aircraft Production Association is currently one of among the krai's most successful enterprises, and for years has been the largest taxpayer of the territory. Other major industries include timberworking and fishing, along with metallurgy in the main cities, although the krai's own mineral resources are poorly developed. Komsomolsk-on-Amur is the iron and steel center of the Far East; a pipeline from northern Sakhalin supplies the petroleum-refining industry in the city of Khabarovsk. In the Amur basin, there is also some cultivation of wheat and soybeans. The administrative center, Khabarovsk, is at the junction of the Amur River and the Trans-Siberian Railway.

Demographics

Lenina Square in Khabarovsk

Population: 1,343,869 (2010 Census); 1,436,570 (2002 Census); 1,824,506 (1989 Census).

According to the 2010 Census, 91.8% of the population are Russians, 2.1% Ukrainians, 0.8% Nanais, 0.6% Tatars 0.6% Koreans and 0.4% Belarusians. 55,038 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.

In addition to the Nanai, other indigenous groups include the Evenks and Evens in the northern part of the province, and Ulchs in the lower Amur river (Ulchsky District). Some Nivkhs (Gilyak), an indigenous fishing people speaking an isolate language, live around the Amur river delta as well. Smaller groups indigenous to the area are Negidals (567), Orochs (686), and Udege (1,657) and Taz people (3) according to the 2002 census.

• Births (2009): 17,573 (12.5 per 1000)
• Deaths (2009): 19,115 (13.6 per 1000)
• Urban Births (2009): 13,612 (12.1 per 1000)
• Rural Births (2009): 3,961 (14.5 per 1000)
• Urban Deaths (2009): 15,472 (13.7 per 1000)
• Rural Deaths (2009): 3,643 (13.3 per 1000)

The birth rate for 2008 is 5.2% higher than that in 2007, and the death rate is 1.4% lower. Birth rate was recorded at 11.6 for 2007 (11.1 for Urban areas and 13.8 for Rural areas) per 1000 people. The death rate was 14.2 in 2007 (14.3 for Urban areas and 14.0 for Rural areas). Rural locations of Khabarovsk Krai had a positive natural growth of population in 2008 (for the first time in the last 16 years).

Vital statistics for 2012

• Births: 18 324 (13.6 per 1000)
• Deaths: 18 169 (13.5 per 1000)

Total fertility rate:
2009 - 1.59 | 2010 - 1.56 | 2011 - 1.57 | 2012 - 1.70 | 2013 - 1.74 | 2014 - 1.78(e)

Religion

Religion in Khabarovsk Krai (2012)

  Russian Orthodox (26.2%)

  Unaffiliated Christian (4%)

  Other Orthodox (1%)

  Muslim (1%)

  Spiritual but not religious (28%)

  Atheist (23%)

  Other or undeclared (16.8%)

According to a 2012 official survey, 26.2% of the population of Khabarovsk Krai adheres to the Russian Orthodox Church, 4% are unaffiliated generic Christians, 1% adheres to other Orthodox churches or is a believer in Orthodox Christianity who doesn't belong to any church, 1% is an adherent of Islam. In addition, 28% of the population declares to be "spiritual but not religious", 23% is atheist, and 16.8% follows other religions or did not give an answer to the question.

Education

There are the following institutions of higher education in Khabarovsk Krai.

• Pacific National University
• Far Eastern State University of Humanities
• Far Eastern State Medical University
• Khabarovsk State Academy of Economics and Law
• Far Eastern State Transport University
• Far Eastern Academy of Government Services
• Far Eastern State Physical Education University
• Khabarovsk State Institute of Arts and Culture
• Komsomolsk-on-Amur State Technical University
• Komsomolsk-on-Amur State Pedagogical institute

Sport

The 2015 Bandy World Championship was organized in Khabarovsk. Twenty-one teams were expected, which would have been four more than the record-making seventeen from the 2014 tournament, and the governor thinks the tournament will contribute to making bandy an Olympic discipline.

Sister relations

• South Gyeongsang Province, South Korea
• Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan

See also

• List of Chairmen of the Legislative Duma of Khabarovsk Krai
• Tourism in Khabarovsk Krai

References

Sources

• Хабаровская краевая Дума. Постановление №150 от 30 ноября 1995 г. «Устав Хабаровского края», в ред. Закона №152 от 23 декабря 2015 г. «О внесении изменений в статьи 26 и 34 Устава Хабаровского края». Вступил в силу 16 января 1996 г. Опубликован: "Тихоокеанская звезда", №№7–8, 13 и 16 января 1996 г. (Khabarovsk Krai Duma. Resolution #150 of November 30, 1995 Charter of Khabarovsk Krai, as amended by the Law #152 of December 23, 2015 On Amending Articles 26 and 34 of the Charter of Khabarovsk Krai. Effective as of January 16, 1996.).
• Президиум Верховного Совета СССР. Указ от 20 октября 1938 г. «О разделении Дальневосточного края на Приморский и Хабаровский края». (Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. Decree of October 20, 1938 On Splitting Far Eastern Krai into Primorsky and Khabarovsk Krais. ).
• Chaussonnet, Valerie (1995) Native Cultures of Alaska and Siberia. Arctic Studies Center. Washington, D.C. 112p. ISBN 1-56098-661-1

External links

• (Russian)—Official website of Khabarovsk Krai
• Information concerning the Shiwei tribes and their relationship with the Khitans
• (Russian)—Brief history of Khabaovsk Krai