Tiumen Oblast

a part of the RSFSR. Formed Aug. 14, 1944. Washed by the Kara Sea in the north; includes Khanty-Mansi and Iamal-Nenets autonomous okrugs and the islands of Belyi, Olenii, Sibiriakova, Vil’kitskogo, Shokal’skogo, and Neu-pokoeva. Area, 1,435,200 sq km. Population, 1,636,000 (1976). Tiumen’ Oblast is divided into 36 raions and has 13 cities and 30 urban-type settlements. The administrative center is the city of Tiumen’. The oblast was awarded the Order of Lenin of June 9, 1967.

Natural features. Tiumen’ Oblast is situated on the Western Siberian Plain, with elevations to 285 m in the Sibirskie Uvaly. In the west lie the eastern slopes of the Urals. The lower areas of the plain are swampy and contain many lakes. Petroleum and gas deposits were discovered in the oblast in the 1950’s and 1960’s; on the eastern slopes of the Urals there are deposits of brown coal, of iron and other ores, and of sand used in construction.

The climate is continental. Winters in the north are long and cold, with an average January temperature of –28.9°C (at the settlement of Tazovskii). Summers are short and cool, with an average July temperature ranging from 15.3°C (at the village of Tarko-Sale) to 3.6°C (on Belyi Island). In the central part of the oblast the average January temperature is -23.3°C (in Kazym), and the average July temperature ranges from 15.9°C (at the settlement of Berezovo) to 17.6°C (in Khanty-Mansiisk). In the south the average January temperature is –18.6°C (in Ishim) or –16.7°C (in Tiumen’); the average July temperature is 18.6°C (in Tiumen’). Annual precipitation ranges from 222 mm to 577 mm. Permafrost is widespread in the north; the growing season in the south ranges from 157 to 162 days, and in Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, from 115 to 125 days.

The principal river in Tiumen’ Oblast is the Ob’ (approximately 1,500 km long), with its largest tributary, the Irtysh (approximately 900 km). The main tributaries of the Ob’ are the Bol’-shoi Iugan, Bol’shoi Salym, and Severnaia Sos’va on the left, and the Vakh, Kazym, and Polui on the right. In the northeast is the Nadym River, as well as the Taz and Pur rivers, which empty into Taz Bay. Of the oblast’s numerous lakes, the largest are located on Iamal Peninsula and in the south; they include Lakes Iarato Pervoe, Shuryshkarskii Sor, and Bol’shoi Uvat.

Soils are mainly podzolic sandy-loam and sandy, as well as peat-bog. Tundra soils predominate in the extreme north (on the Iamal and Gydan peninsulas), and meadow-chernozems and solonetzes, in the south. Along the river valleys are extensive areas of alluvial soils. Vegetation in the north is of the tundra type, with a narrow zone of forest tundra to the south. Much of the oblast is covered with taiga, consisting primarily of pine, fir, cedar, spruce, and larch; in the south there is forest steppe with birch groves. The timber reserves in Tiumen’ Oblast account for approximately 57 percent of all the forest resources of Western Siberia. There are large areas of swampy and solonchak meadows.

The oblast’s fauna includes reindeer, arctic fox, blue hare, lemming, willow ptarmigan, and snowy owl in the tundra zone, and elk, squirrel, Asiatic chipmunk, brown bear, wolverine, Siberian weasel, sable, wolf, and fox in the taiga; birds include capercail-lie, hazel hen, and nutcracker, as well as grouse in the forest steppe. Muskrat, mink, Barguzin sable, and beaver have been acclimatized. During the summer there are many aquatic birds (geese and ducks). The rivers and lakes abound with sterlet, sturgeon, nelma, muksun, burbot, and ide.

Population. Russians constitute 81 percent of the population of Tiumen’ Oblast (1970), Tatars 7.3 percent, and Ukrainians 1.8 percent. There are also Chuvash and Komi, and in the north, Khanty, Nentsi, and Mansi. The average population density is 1.1 persons per sq km. Most of the population is concentrated in the south, where the density reaches 15 to 25 persons per sq km. The proportion of urban dwellers has increased from 9 percent in 1913 to 57 percent in 1975. The most important cities are Tiumen’, Ishim, Tobol’sk, Ialutorovsk, and Salekhard. The cities of Surgut, Nefteiugansk, Nizhnevartovsk, Nadym, Urai, and Labyt-nangi grew as a result of the opening of petroleum and gas fields.

Economy. Between 1913 and 1975 the gross output of large-scale industry increased by almost 560 times; in 1960 it had increased by 82 times. The proportion of industry in the gross output of the oblast’s economy is 87.5 percent.

The basis of Tiumen’ Oblast’s economy is the petroleum and gas industry; in 1974, petroleum production totaled 111.4 million tons (953,000 tons in 1965) and gas production totaled 26.6 billion cu m (3.3 million cu m in 1965). The oblast is first in the USSR in petroleum production. The major fields are Samotlor (petroleum) and Urengoi and Medvezh’e (gas). The Ust’-Balyk-Omsk, Shaim-Tiumen’, Samotlor-Al’met’evsk, and Samotlor-Anzhero-Sudzhensk petroleum pipelines traverse the oblast, and the Nizhnevartovsk-Kurgan-Kuibyshev petroleum pipeline is under construction (1976). The construction of major petroleum and gas pipeline systems connecting Western Siberia with the Urals, the Volga Region, the Central Zone, and other areas of the USSR is near completion. The Surgut State Regional Electric Power Plant operates on petroleum by-product gas.

A large petrochemical combine is under construction (1976) in the region of Tobol’sk, and there is a chemical and pharmaceuticals plant and a plastics plant in Tiumen’.

Other industries in Tiumen’ Oblast are machine building, met-alworking, and shipbuilding, which are centered in Tiumen’ and include enterprises for instrument-making and the manufacture of machine tools, automobile and tractor electrical equipment, medical equipment, forging-and-pressing equipment, storage batteries, and construction machinery. There are ship-repair enterprises in Tiumen’, Tobol’sk, Salekhard, and Khanty-Mansiisk; agricultural machinery is manufactured in Zavodoukovsk.

The timber industry is also well developed. The amount of commercial timber exported totals 11 million cu m per year. The wood-products industry, represented by sawmilling and the production of plywood, dwellings, and furniture, has enterprises in Tiumen’, Salekhard, Ialutorovsk, Tobol’sk, Ishim, Surgut, and Sovetskii. A chipboard plant is being built (1976) in Tiumen’.

Tiumen’ Oblast occupies an important place in the stocking and catch of fish. The annual catch (which includes marine animals) totals approximately 30,000 tons, including half of all the whitefish caught in the RSFSR. There are four fish-processing combines, in Tiumen’, Khanty-Mansiisk, Surgut, and Berezovo. There are meat-packing and butter-making industries.

Of great importance in Tiumen’ Oblast is the construction-materials industry, producing bricks, prefabricated reinforced concrete, and keramzit, as well as light industry, whose enterprises include a worsted combine and sheepskin, spinning and net-weaving, and footwear factories in Tiumen’, a footwear factory in Ishim, and a carpet factory in Tobol’sk. Tobol’sk is well known for its decorative-arts objects made of carved bone and horn.

The oblast’s agriculture is based on livestock breeding and grain production; livestock breeding accounts for 66 percent of agricultural production. The oblast has 210 sovkhozes and 104 kolkhozes, including 14 associated with the fishing industry. In 1974, land suitable for agriculture totaled 4,142,000 hectares (ha), of which 1,723,000 ha were under cultivation, 1,403,000 ha in hayfields, and 1,001,000 ha in pastures. The area planted with grains (1975) was 1,107,000 ha, constituting 66 percent of the sown area; of the area planted with grains, 711,000 ha were sown in wheat. Feed crops occupied 510,000 ha (more than 30 percent of the total area under cultivation), and potatoes and vegetables occupied 44,700 ha (2.7 percent). Suburban farming is developing in the regions around Tiumen’, Tobol’sk, Surgut, and other cities.

Livestock are bred to obtain dairy products and meat. As of Jan. 1, 1976, the oblast had 947,000 head of cattle (including 339,000 dairy cows), 511,000 sheep and goats, and 247,000 swine. Most of the dairy cattle are raised in the regions along the Ishim River. Reindeer are bred in the northern regions (440,000 head, or 20 percent of all the reindeer in the USSR). The trapping of sable, arctic fox, marten, Siberian weasel, and muskrat is of great importance, and silver-black fox, arctic fox, and mink are raised on fur farms.

In 1976, Tiumen’ Oblast had 1,862.4 km of railroads. The Trans-Siberian Railroad crosses the southern part of the oblast. The Tiumen’-Tobol’sk-Surgut-Nizhnevartovsk railroad was built owing to the opening of local petroleum fields, and the Surgut-Urengoi railroad is under construction (1976). The Ivdel’-Sergino and Tavda-Sotnik railroads were constructed for the development of forest areas. River routes total 14,700 km; the main navigable rivers are the Ob’, Irtysh, and Tobol. Seagoing ships enter Ob’ Bay.

Tiumen’ Oblast has 11,458 km of automobile roads, including 662 km of hard-surfaced roads (the Tiumen’-Tobol’sk, Tiumen’-Ishim, and Tiumen’-Sverdlovsk highways). Air transportation is of great importance. The principal petroleum pipelines total 3,248 km in length, and the gas pipelines, 3,112 km.

INTERNAL DIFFERENCES. The Lower Tobol Region is the oblast’s most economically developed area, containing 8.5 percent of the territory, more than 50 percent of the population, and most of the metalworking and machine-building enterprises; there are also timber and fish-processing industries. The main cities are Tiumen’, Tobol’sk, Ialutorovsk, and Zavodoukovsk.

The Ishim Region contains 3.4 percent of the oblast’s territory and approximately 40 percent of the population. It is Tiumen’ Oblast’s main agricultural region, with about three-fifths of all the farmland. The region’s industrial enterprises process agricultural products, and there is also fur-farming. The main city is Ishim.

The Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug has an extensive petroleum-products industry, as well as timber and fish-processing industries, reindeer breeding, and fur farming. The Iamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug is a gas-producing region with fish-processing and wood-products industrial enterprises, reindeer breeding, fur farming, and a fur trade.

Education, cultural affairs, and public health. In the 1914–15 academic year, what is now Tiumen’ Oblast had 788 general-education schools with approximately 37,800 pupils, and one specialized secondary educational institution with 105 students. There were no institutions of higher education. In the 1975–76 academic year there were 1,468 general-education schools of all types with approximately 323,100 pupils, 53 vocational-technical educational institutions with 21,000 students, and 29 specialized secondary educational institutions within the State Vocational-Technical Education System with over 25,700 students. There were seven higher educational institutions, including Tiumen’ University, industrial, civil engineering, agricultural, and medical institutes in Tiumen’, and pedagogical institutes in Tobol’sk and Ishim; enrollment in these institutions totaled 26,100 students. In 1975 there were 87,900 children in 1,126 preschool institutions.

On Jan. 1, 1975, the oblast had 1,040 public libraries with 10,282,000 books and journals. Museums included the oblast museum of local lore and oblast art gallery in Tiumen’, the Salekhard Okrug Museum of Local Lore in Salekhard, and the Khanty-Mansi Okrug Museum of Local Lore in Khanty-Mansi-isk. The Museum-Preserve of the History of Architecture with its branches, an art gallery and the home of the Decembrist M. A. Fonvizin, is in Tobol’sk, and the Decembrist Memorial Museum with its branch, the home of the Decembrist I. D. Iakushkin, is in Yalutorovsk. The oblast has three theaters: oblast drama and puppet theaters in Tiumen’, and a state drama theater in Tobol’sk. There are also 1,397 clubs, 1,648 motion-picture projection units, and 44 extrascholastic institutions, including 29 palaces and houses of Pioneers, nine young technicians’ stations, and four young naturalists’ stations.

The oblast newspapers Tiumenskaia pravda (since 1918) and Tiumenskii komsomolets (since 1953) are published in Tiumen’ Oblast. All-Union Radio programs are broadcast 16 hours, and oblast radio programs two hours a day. Oblast television is transmitted 3.6 hours a day and the Central Television Network, 11.9 hours a day, on two stations.

As of Jan. 1, 1976, the oblast had 227 hospitals with 22,200 beds, or 12.7 beds per 1,000 persons. There were 4,400 physicians, or one physician per 362 persons. Health facilities included six Sanatoriums, houses of rest, and boarding houses. There are three tourist centers. Popular tourist steamship cruises take place along the Tobol and Irtysh.