Chita Oblast

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Chita Oblast (Russian: Чити́нская о́бласть) (431,500 km², pop. 1,155,346 as of 2002 All-Russian Population Census) is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast) in south-east Siberia. Its administrative center is the city of Chita. Its governor is Ravil Geniatullin. It has extensive international borders with China (998 km) and Mongolia (868 km) and internal borders with Irkutsk and Amur oblasts, and the republics of Buryatia and Sakha (Yakutia). It contains the Agin-Buryat Autonomous Okrug.

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The territory that makes up today's Chita Oblast was first explored by Cossacks led by Pyotr Beketov in 1653. People began to move into and develop the area in order to strengthen Russia's border with China and Mongolia, extract mineral resources, and build the Trans-Siberian railway. In 1920, Chita became the capital of the Far East Republic, which merged with Russia in November 1922, a month before the Soviet Union was constituted.

The oblast is rich in ferrous, non-ferrous, rare, and precious metals, coal, charcoal, and mineral waters. Russia's estimated reserves of ores with a high uranium content are 145,400 tons. Most of these deposits are located in Chita Oblast, near Krasnokamensk, site of the Priargunskiy Mining and Chemical Combine (PMCC).[1] Forests cover about 60% of its territory. As a result, the oblast's main industries are metallurgy, fuel, and timber. It also has advanced light and food industries. Local agriculture focuses on cattle, sheep, and reindeer breeding.

[edit] Time zone

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Chita Oblast is located in the Yakutsk Time Zone (YAKT/YAKST). UTC offset is +0900 (YAKT)/+1000 (YAKST).

[edit] Administrative divisions

Main article: Administrative divisions of Chita Oblast

[edit] Major cities and towns

Chita 305,000
Krasnoborsk 56,000
Borzya 31,100
Petrovsk Zabaikalskiy 20,700
Nerchinsk 14,700
Shilka 14,500
Sherlovaya Gora 14,200
Baley 14,000

Birth Rate: Quite high at 13.77 (2004), but still there are more deaths than births.

(2005 official figures)

Administrative divisions of Russia

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Federal subjects

Republics	Adygea \| Altai \| Bashkortostan \| Buryatia \| Chechnya \| Chuvashia \| Dagestan \| Ingushetia \| Kabardino-Balkaria \| Karelia \| Khakassia \| Komi \| Kalmykia \| Karachay-Cherkessia \| Mari El \| Mordovia \| North Ossetia-Alania \| Sakha \| Tatarstan \| Tuva \| Udmurtia
Krais	Altai \| Khabarovsk \| Krasnodar \| Krasnoyarsk¹ \| Perm \| Primorsky \| Stavropol
Oblasts	Amur \| Arkhangelsk \| Astrakhan \| Belgorod \| Bryansk \| Chelyabinsk \| Chita \| Irkutsk² \| Ivanovo \| Kaliningrad \| Kaluga \| Kamchatka³ \| Kemerovo \| Kirov \| Kostroma \| Kurgan \| Kursk \| Leningrad \| Lipetsk \| Magadan \| Moscow \| Murmansk \| Nizhny Novgorod \| Novgorod \| Novosibirsk \| Omsk \| Orenburg \| Oryol \| Penza \| Pskov \| Rostov \| Ryazan \| Sakhalin \| Samara \| Saratov \| Smolensk \| Sverdlovsk \| Tambov \| Tomsk \| Tula \| Tver \| Tyumen \| Ulyanovsk \| Vladimir \| Volgograd \| Vologda \| Voronezh \| Yaroslavl
Federal cities	Moscow \| St. Petersburg
Autonomous oblast	Jewish
Autonomous okrugs	Aga Buryatia \| Chukotka \| Evenkia¹ \| Khantia-Mansia \| Koryakia³ \| Nenetsia \| Taymyria¹ \| Ust-Orda Buryatia² \| Yamalia