Russian Far East
Russian Far East | |
---|---|
Largest city | Khabarovsk |
Area | |
• Total | 6,952,600 km2 (2,684,400 sq mi) |
Population (2021) | |
• Total | 7,975,762 |
• Density | 1.1/km2 (3.0/sq mi) |
The Russian Far East (Russian: Дальний Восток России, romanized: Dalniy Vostok Rossii, pronounced [ˈdalʲnʲɪj vɐˈstok rɐˈsʲiɪ]) is a region in Northeast Asia. It is the easternmost part of Russia and the Asian continent; and is administered as a part of the Far Eastern Federal District, which is located between Lake Baikal in eastern Siberia and the Pacific Ocean. The area's largest city is Khabarovsk, followed by Vladivostok. The region shares land borders with the countries of Mongolia, China, and North Korea to its south, as well as maritime boundaries with Japan to its southeast, and with the United States along the Bering Strait to its northeast.
Although the Russian Far East is often considered as a part of Siberia abroad, it has been historically categorized separately from Siberia in Russian regional schemes (and previously during the Soviet era when it was called the Soviet Far East).[1]
Terminology
In Russia, the region is usually referred to as simply the Far East (Russian: Дальний Восток, romanized: Dal'niy Vostok). What is known in English as the
Geographical features
Fauna
Order Galliformes
Family Tetraonidae
- Hazel grouse[2]
- Siberian grouse[3]
- Black grouse[4]
- Black-billed capercaillie[5]
- Willow ptarmigan[6]
- Rock ptarmigan[7]
Family Phasianidae
Order Artiodactyla
- Sika deer
- Snow sheep
- Caribou
- Elk
- Wild boar
- Siberian roe deer
- Manchurian wapiti[8]
- Siberian musk deer[9]
Order Carnivora
Family Canidae
Family Felidae
Family Ursidae
- Ussuri black bear[12]
- Eurasian brown bear[13]
- East Siberian brown bear
- Kamchatka brown bear
- Ussuri brown bear
- Polar bear
Flora
History
Russian expansion
Administrative history
Several entities with the name "Far East" existed in the first half of the 20th century, all with rather different boundaries:
- 1920–1922: the Far Eastern Republic, which included Transbaikal, Amur, Primorskaya, and Kamchatka Oblasts and northern Sakhalin;
- 1922–1926: Far-Eastern Oblast , which included the Amur, Transbaikal and Kamchatka Governorates and others;
- 1926–1938: Far-Eastern Krai, which included the present-day Primorsky and Khabarovsk Krais.
Until 2000 the Russian Far East lacked officially-defined boundaries. A single term "Siberia and the Far East" (Сибирь и Дальний Восток) often referred to Russia's regions east of the
In 2000 Russia's
Defined by the boundaries of the federal district, the Far East has an area of 6.2 million square kilometres (2,400,000 sq mi)—over one-third of Russia's total area.
Russo-Japanese War
Russia in the early 1900s persistently sought a warm-water port on the
The war ended in September 1905 with a Japanese victory following the fall of Port Arthur and the failed Russian invasion of Japan through the Korean Peninsula and
Soviet era
Between 1937 and 1939, the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin deported over 200,000 Koreans to Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, fearing that the Koreans might act as spies for Japan. Many Koreans died on the way in cattle trains due to starvation, illness, or freezing conditions. Soviet authorities purged and executed many community leaders; Koryo-saram were not allowed to travel outside of Central Asia for the next 15 years. Koreans were also not allowed to use the Korean language and its use began to become lost with the involvement of the Koryo-mar dialect and the use of Russian.
Development of numerous remote locations in the Soviet Far East relied on
Soviet–Japanese conflicts
During the
Indeed, Japan turned its military attention to Soviet territories. Conflicts between the Japanese and the Soviets frequently happened on the border of Manchuria between 1938 and 1945. The first confrontation occurred in Primorsky Krai, the
The clashes ended shortly before and after the conclusion of
World War II
Both the Soviet Union and Japan regarded the Primorsky Krai as a strategic location in World War II, and clashes over the territory were common. The Soviets and the other Allies considered it a key location for the planned invasion of Japan through Korea; Japan viewed it as a key location to begin a mass invasion of Eastern Russia. The Primorsky Krai served as the Soviet Union's Pacific headquarters in the war to plan an invasion for allied troops of Korea in order to reach Japan.
After the Soviet invasion, the USSR returned Manchukuo and
Cold War
During the Korean War, Primorsky Krai became the site of extreme security concern for the Soviet Union.
Incursions of American reconnaissance aircraft from Alaska sometimes happened. Concerns of the Soviet military caused the infamous Korean Air Lines Flight 007 incident in 1983.
Russian Federation
Russian Homestead Act
In 2016,
Demographics
Population
According to the 2021 Census, the Far Eastern Federal District had a population of 7.98 million. Most of it is concentrated in the southern parts. Given the vast territory of the Russian Far East, 6.3 million people translates to slightly less than one person per square kilometer, making the Russian Far East one of the most sparsely populated areas in the world. The population of the Russian Far East has been rapidly declining since the
Ethnic Russians and Ukrainians make up the majority of the population.
Cities
75% of the population is urban. The largest cities are:
- Vladivostok
- Khabarovsk
- Ulan-Ude
- Chita
- Komsomolsk-on-Amur
- Blagoveshchensk
- Yakutsk
- Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky
- Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk
- Nakhodka
- Ussuriysk
Traditional ethnic groups
The original population groups of the Russian Far East include (grouped by language group):
- Mongolic: Buryats
- Turkic: Sakha
- Aleuts, Siberian Yupiks(Yuits)
- Manchus
Transportation
The region was not connected with the rest of Russia via domestic highways until the
Uniquely for Russia, most cars have
Railways are better developed. The Trans-Siberian Railway and Baikal–Amur Mainline (since 1984) provide a connection with Siberia (and the rest of the country). The Amur–Yakutsk Mainline is aimed to link the city of Yakutsk to the Russian railway network. Passenger trains connect to Nizhny Bestyakh as of 2013.
Like in nearby Siberia, for many remote localities, aviation is the main mode of transportation to/from civilisation, but the infrastructure is often poor.
Maritime transport is also important for delivering supplies to localities at (or near) the Pacific and Arctic coasts, and for shipping exports, especially oil, gas and ores.
See also
Footnotes
- JSTOR 2754796.
- ^ "Northern Hazelhen (Tetrastes bonasia). Photo Gallery.Birds of Russian Far East". fareastru.birds.watch. Retrieved June 18, 2020.
- ^ "Siberian Grouse (Falcipennis falcipennis). Photo Gallery.Birds of Russian Far East". fareastru.birds.watch. Retrieved June 18, 2020.
- ^ "Northern Black Grouse (Lyrurus tetrix). Birds of Russian Far East". fareastru.birds.watch. Retrieved June 18, 2020.
- ^ "Black-billed Capercaillie - eBird". ebird.org. Retrieved June 18, 2020.
- ^ "Willow Ptarmigan (Lagopus lagopus). Photo Gallery.Birds of Russian Far East". fareastru.birds.watch. Retrieved June 18, 2020.
- ^ "Rock Ptarmigan (Lagopus muta). Photo Gallery.Birds of Russian Far East". fareastru.birds.watch. Retrieved June 18, 2020.
- ISBN 978-0-8117-0496-0. Retrieved January 30, 2016.
- . Retrieved November 19, 2021. Database entry includes a brief justification of why this species is of vulnerable.
- PMID 12547918. Archived from the original(PDF) on February 4, 2016. Retrieved January 30, 2016.
- . Retrieved November 19, 2021.
- . Retrieved November 19, 2021.
- . Retrieved November 19, 2021.
- .
- .
- ^ "Официальный интернет-портал правовой информации". publication.pravo.gov.ru. Archived from the original on February 5, 2022. Retrieved November 4, 2018.
- the treaty of 2004, whereas the western half then reverted to China.
- ^ "On Russia's Far Eastern Frontier, Vast Stretches Of Free Land, But Little Interest". RFE/RL. September 20, 2020.
- ^ "В России посчитали всех "праворуких"". auto.vesti.ru. Retrieved April 24, 2017.
Bibliography
- Beer, Daniel. The house of the dead: Siberian exile under the tsars (Vintage, 2017).
- Bobrick, Benson/ East of the Sun: the Epic Conquest and Tragic History of Siberia, (NY: Poseidon Press, 1992)
- Forsyth, James. History of the Peoples of Siberia, (Cambridge: University Press 1992)
- Glebov, Sergei. "Center, Periphery, and Diversity in the Late Imperial Far East: New Historiography of a Russian Region." Ab Imperio 2019.3 (2019): 265–278.
- Hartley, Janet M. Siberia, A History of the People, (New Haven: Yale University Press 2014)
- Haywood, A.J. Siberia: A Cultural History, (Oxford UP, 2010)
- Monahan, Erika. The merchants of Siberia: Trade in early modern Eurasia (Cornell UP, 2016).
- Naumov, Igor. History of Siberia, (London: Routledge, 2006)
- Reid, Anna. The Shaman's Coat: A Native History of Siberia, (NY: Walker & Comp., 2002)
- Stolberg. Eva-Maria (ed.), Siberian Saga: a History of Russia's Wild East, (2005)
- Vajda (ed.), Edward J.Languages and Prehistory of Central Siberia, (Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 2004)
- Wood, Alan. The History of Siberia, (London: Rutledge, 1991)
- Wood, Alan. Russian Far East 1581 -1991, (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2011)
External links
- Meeting of Frontiers: Siberia, Alaska, and the American West (includes materials on Russian Far East)
- Дальневосточный федеральный округ at WGEO