Kemerovo Oblast also known as Kuzbass after the Kuznetsk Basin

Kuznetsk Basin

The Kuznetsk Basin in southwestern Siberia, Russia, is one of the largest coal mining areas in the world, covering an area of around . It lies in the Kuznetsk Depression between Tomsk and Novokuznetsk in the basin of the Tom River...

, is a federal subject

Federal subjects of Russia

Russia is a federation which, since March 1, 2008, consists of 83 federal subjects . In 1993, when the Constitution was adopted, there were 89 federal subjects listed...

 of Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

 (an oblast

Oblast

Oblast is a type of administrative division in Slavic countries, including some countries of the former Soviet Union. The word "oblast" is a loanword in English, but it is nevertheless often translated as "area", "zone", "province", or "region"...

), located in southwestern Siberia

Siberia

Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...

, where the West Siberian Plain

West Siberian Plain

The West Siberian Plain is a large plain that occupies the western portion of Siberia, between the Ural Mountains in the west and the Yenisei River in the east, and by the Altay Mountains on the South-East. Much of the plain is poorly drained and consists of some of the world's largest swamps and...

 meets the South Siberian mountains. The oblast, which covers an area of 95500 square kilometres (36,872.8 sq mi), shares a border with Tomsk Oblast

Tomsk Oblast

Tomsk Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . It lies in the southeastern West Siberian Plain, in the southwest of the Siberian Federal District. Its administrative center is the city of Tomsk. Population:...

 in the north, Krasnoyarsk Krai

Krasnoyarsk Krai

Krasnoyarsk Krai is a federal subject of Russia . It is the second largest federal subject after the Sakha Republic, and Russia's largest krai, occupying an area of , which is 13% of the country's total territory. The administrative center of the krai is the city of Krasnoyarsk...

 and the Republic of Khakassia in the east, the Altai Republic

Altai Republic

Altai Republic is a federal subject of Russia . Its capital is the town of Gorno-Altaysk. The area of the republic is . Population: -Geography:...

 in the south, and Novosibirsk Oblast

Novosibirsk Oblast

Novosibirsk Oblast is a federal subject of Russia located in southwestern Siberia. Its administrative and economic center is the city of Novosibirsk. Population: -Overview:...

 and Altai Krai

Altai Krai

Altai Krai is a federal subject of Russia . It borders with, clockwise from the south, Kazakhstan, Novosibirsk and Kemerovo Oblasts, and the Altai Republic. The krai's administrative center is the city of Barnaul...

 in the west. Its ethnic composition is predominantly Russian

Russians

The Russian people are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Russia, speaking the Russian language and primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries....

, but Ukrainians

Ukrainians

Ukrainians are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine, which is the sixth-largest nation in Europe. The Constitution of Ukraine applies the term 'Ukrainians' to all its citizens...

, Tatars

Tatars

Tatars are a Turkic speaking ethnic group , numbering roughly 7 million.The majority of Tatars live in the Russian Federation, with a population of around 5.5 million, about 2 million of which in the republic of Tatarstan.Significant minority populations are found in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan,...

, and Chuvash

Chuvash people

The Chuvash people are a Turkic ethnic group, native to an area stretching from the Volga Region to Siberia. Most of them live in Republic of Chuvashia and surrounding areas, although Chuvash communities may be found throughout all Russia.- Etymology :...

 also live in the oblast. Population:

The climate

Climate

Climate encompasses the statistics of temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind, rainfall, atmospheric particle count and other meteorological elemental measurements in a given region over long periods...

 of the oblast is continental: winter

Winter

Winter is the coldest season of the year in temperate climates, between autumn and spring. At the winter solstice, the days are shortest and the nights are longest, with days lengthening as the season progresses after the solstice.-Meteorology:...

s are cold and long, summer

Summer

Summer is the warmest of the four temperate seasons, between spring and autumn. At the summer solstice, the days are longest and the nights are shortest, with day-length decreasing as the season progresses after the solstice...

s are warm, but short. The average January temperature is -17...-20°C, the average in July is +17...+18 °C. Average annual precipitation ranges from 300 mm on the plains and the foothills of up to 1,000 mm or more in mountainous areas. The duration of the frost-free period lasts 100 days in the north area up to 120 days in the south of the Kuznetsk Basin.

History

The oblast was established on January 26, 1943, but it has considerably older antecedents. The oldest city in Kemerovo Oblast is Novokuznetsk

Novokuznetsk

Novokuznetsk is a city in Kemerovo Oblast, Russia. It serves as the administrative center of Novokuznetsky District, but it is not administratively a part of it...

, founded in 1618, soon after Cossack

Cossack

Cossacks are a group of predominantly East Slavic people who originally were members of democratic, semi-military communities in what is today Ukraine and Southern Russia inhabiting sparsely populated areas and islands in the lower Dnieper and Don basins and who played an important role in the...

 ataman

Ataman

Ataman was a commander title of the Ukrainian People's Army, Cossack, and haidamak leaders, who were in essence the Cossacks...

 Yermak

Yermak Timofeyevich

Yermak Timofeyevich , Cossack leader, Russian folk hero and explorer of Siberia. His exploration of Siberia marked the beginning of the expansion of Russia towards this region and its colonization...

's push into Siberia. Novokuznetsk is also the largest city in the oblast, exceeding even the administrative center, Kemerovo

Kemerovo

Kemerovo is an industrial city in Russia, situated on the Tom River, east-northeast of Novosibirsk. It is the administrative center of Kemerovo Oblast, located in the major coal mining region of the Kuznetsk Basin...

, in terms of size. Kemerovo Oblast is one of Russia's most urbanized regions, with over 70% of the population living in its nine principal cities.

Economy

Kemerovo Oblast is one of Russia's most important industrial regions, with some of the world's largest deposits of coal. The south of the region is dominated by metallurgy

Metallurgy

Metallurgy is a domain of materials science that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their intermetallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are called alloys. It is also the technology of metals: the way in which science is applied to their practical use...

 and the mining

Mining

Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...

 industry, as well as mechanical engineering

Mechanical engineering

Mechanical engineering is a discipline of engineering that applies the principles of physics and materials science for analysis, design, manufacturing, and maintenance of mechanical systems. It is the branch of engineering that involves the production and usage of heat and mechanical power for the...

 and chemical production. The Evraz Group

Evraz Group

Evraz Group is one of the world's biggest vertically integrated steel production and mining businesses, with operations mainly in Russia. In 2008, Evraz Group produced 17.7 million tonnes of crude steel.-Overview:...

 and an ore subsidiary Evrazruda operate iron ore mining and processing facilities along with the Raspadskaya

Raspadskaya

Raspadskaya:* Raspadskaya - largest coal mine in Russia* Raspadskaya * FC Raspadskaya...

, Yuzhkuzbassugol, the Siberian holding company SIBPLAZ

SIBPLAZ

SIBPLAZ Interbranch holding is one of Russia’s leading mining, metallurgical and chemical companies, producing coal, anthracite, coke, nickel, aluminium, zinc, lead, titan, group of rare metals, and engaging in mineral oil and conducts oil production and gas exploration in Siberia...

, coal and coking coal

Coke (fuel)

Coke is the solid carbonaceous material derived from destructive distillation of low-ash, low-sulfur bituminous coal. Cokes from coal are grey, hard, and porous. While coke can be formed naturally, the commonly used form is man-made.- History :...

 mines there. The northern area of the region is more agricultural. The region has a dense railway network, including the Trans-Siberian Railway

Trans-Siberian Railway

The Trans-Siberian Railway is a network of railways connecting Moscow with the Russian Far East and the Sea of Japan. It is the longest railway in the world...

, which passes through the oblast. Prokopevsk, Kiselevsk, and Andzhero-Sudzhensk are coal-producing centers, and Novokuznetsk is the center of the engineering industry.

Individual farms occupy 113,000 hectares of land. The largest crops are vegetables and potatoes, and meat and dairy products are also important. Cattle and pig farming, beekeeping

Beekeeping

Beekeeping is the maintenance of honey bee colonies, commonly in hives, by humans. A beekeeper keeps bees in order to collect honey and other products of the hive , to pollinate crops, or to produce bees for sale to other beekeepers...

, and fur farming

Fur farming

Fur farming is the practice of breeding or raising certain types of animals for their fur.Fur used from wild caught animals is not farmed, and is instead known as 'free range fur' because the animals have lived their lives free and natural in the wild....

 are expanding. Wheat

Wheat

Wheat is a cereal grain, originally from the Levant region of the Near East, but now cultivated worldwide. In 2007 world production of wheat was 607 million tons, making it the third most-produced cereal after maize and rice...

, barley

Barley

Barley is a major cereal grain, a member of the grass family. It serves as a major animal fodder, as a base malt for beer and certain distilled beverages, and as a component of various health foods...

, and oat

Oat

The common oat is a species of cereal grain grown for its seed, which is known by the same name . While oats are suitable for human consumption as oatmeal and rolled oats, one of the most common uses is as livestock feed...

 cultivation predominates in the northern part of the region.

Culture

A network of cultural and arts institutions, including 783 libraries, 826 clubs, 3 exhibition halls, 35 museums, 137 children's music and art schools, 18 parks of culture and rest, 5 mid-level special educational institutions, and 10 theater performance schools have been established for the public.

There are more than 1,500 historical and cultural monuments in Kemerovo Region, 27 of which are of federal significance (14 archeological, 6 historical, 5 architectural, and 2 artistic monuments). The most unusual of these is the Tomsk Trivia (Tomskaya pisanitsa) monument in the village of Pisanaya, Yashkinsky District, which is considered an especially valuable site of the Russian Federation. The most important monuments of the Kuzbass include the 18th- and 19th-century historical and architectural museum at Kuznetsk Fortress in Novokuznetsk

Novokuznetsk

Novokuznetsk is a city in Kemerovo Oblast, Russia. It serves as the administrative center of Novokuznetsky District, but it is not administratively a part of it...

, a group of monument

Monument

A monument is a type of structure either explicitly created to commemorate a person or important event or which has become important to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, or simply as an example of historic architecture...

s and historic sites on the former Siberian Highway (Moscow-Irkutsk), and the Shestakovsky historical and cultural complex of archeological monuments and paleontological sites in Chebulinsky District.

Honors

A minor planet

Minor planet

An asteroid group or minor-planet group is a population of minor planets that have a share broadly similar orbits. Members are generally unrelated to each other, unlike in an asteroid family, which often results from the break-up of a single asteroid...

 2140 Kemerovo

2140 Kemerovo

2140 Kemerovo is a main-belt asteroid discovered on August 3, 1970 by L. Chernykh at Nauchnyj.- External links :*...

 discovered in 1970 by Soviet

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

 astronomer Tamara Mikhailovna Smirnova

Tamara Mikhailovna Smirnova

Tamara Mikhailovna Smirnova was a Russian astronomer.From 1966 to 1988 she was a staff member of the Institute of Theoretical Astronomy at Leningrad. She co-discovered the periodic comet 74P/Smirnova-Chernykh, along with Nikolai Stepanovich Chernykh. She has also discovered various asteroids...

is named after Kemerovo Oblast.