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Belgorod Region
// GENERAL INFORMATION
Belgorod Region is affectionately called "Belgorodchina." Local historians have determined that Belgorod, the present-day capital of Belgorod Region, was built in the time of Prince Vladimir [956-1015; Grand Prince of Kiev 980-1015]. Thus, the city is actually 1000 years old, not 400 as previously thought. Cities that once formed defensive lines against nomadic tribes when these lands were being opened up still remain. Today, the Kursk magnetic anomaly has brought new life to these and other new cities in Belgorod Region, cities like Belgorod, Stary Oskol, Novy Oskol, Korocha, and Valuiki.
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The city of Belgorod is located 700 km south of Moscow; it has a population of 339 000. The region's second-largest city, Stary Oskol, has a population of 212 000. The total population of the region is 1 476 100 people.
Belgorod Region is located in the southern European part of the Russian Federation in the Central Black Earth region at the intersection of railways and highways. It borders on Kursk and Voronezh regions and Ukraine. The region has a temperate continental climate with an average January temperature of -8.7 °C and an average July temperature of +21 °C. Precipitation ranges from more than 500 mm in the northwest to about 450 mm in the southeast. The vegetation period is 185-190 days.
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Belgorod Region is the jewel of the Central Black Earth region. The enormous mineral reserves of the Kursk magnetic anomaly are located here, and the region is famous for its rich black soils and farmland. Topographically, it is a hilly plain with a maximum elevation of 276 in the north and extensively cut by ravines and gullies. The relatively shallow Seversky Donets, Oskol, Tikhaya Sosna (Don basin), and Vorskla (Dnieper basin) rivers flow through the region, and there are also many ponds. Pine and oak forests grow on the sandy terraces of the left banks of the Seversky Donets, Oskol, and other rivers. Steppe meadow vegetation is found on the slopes of the ravines and gullies and on river floodplains. The region's diverse wildlife provides excellent opportunities for hunting and fishing.
Belgorod Region is an industrial and agricultural area with considerable potential. Industry is represented by a strong mining and metallurgical complex based on rich iron ore deposits, engineering and metalworking companies, and companies of the chemical, food, building material, and construction industries. Their products are in demand on the domestic market and are exported to more than 30 countries.
The region is one of Russia's largest producers of agricultural products such as grain, sugar, sunflowers, meat, and milk. Belgorod Region is the major livestock producer of the Central Black Earth region.
Well developed railway and highway networks, an international airport in Belgorod, and systematic modernization of the regional telephone system make Belgorod Region one of Russia's ten most attractive regions for investments.
HISTORY
The city of Belgorod is one of the main centers of the Russian Central Black Earth region. It is located on the right bank of the Seversky Donets River on the southern edge of the Central Russian Uplands and has more than once played a historical role in Russia's fortunes.
The city's exact founding date is unknown. It was first mentioned as a population center in 1237. In the opinion of historian Nikolai Karamzin, the princes Nozdrevaty and Volkonsky built Belgorod in 1593 (considered to be the founding year) on the orders of Tsar Fedor Ivanovich [the son of Ivan the Terrible]. It was built close to the Muravsky Road, the shortest route from the Crimea to Moscow. As a defense against frequent raids by Crimean Tatars, the city was surrounded by earthworks and became the strongest fortress of the Belgorod Defensive Line (a defensive fortification line on the southern border of the Russian state). The fortress was relocated twice: from White Mountain (Belaya Gora) to the lower left bank of the Seversky Donets River (now the site of the Old City) in the first half of the 17th century and then in 1651 to the southern part of the city towards the swampy mouth of the Vezelka River near the Nikolaevsky Monastery completed in 1599 [Holy Trinity (Svyato-Troitsky); abolished in 1843].
The frequently repeated idea that the name of the fortress came from the white chalk mountain, Belaya Gora, has become firmly fixed in people's minds without any consideration of the fact that their forebears did not use the word currently popular word "Belgorye". The chronicles record other names: Belaya Vezha (vezha means a tent or other lightweight dwelling), Belograd, and Belogorodye. Understanding the secret of the name means understanding the spirit of the city's builders and developers. [The name Belgorod means "white city" in Russian.]
In the 17th century, the city became the main military administrative center for the entire border "frontier" (ukraina). The Belgorod regiment was formed in 1658 to fight against Polish and Turkish forces in Ukraine, in the Northern War (1700-1721), and in other campaigns.
The city kept its strategic importance until the mid-18th century. It lost its status as a fortress in 1785, when the Crimea and Novorossiysk territory were annexed to Russia. Immigrants from the northern (Great Russian) and southern (Little Russian or Ukrainian), and Polish-Lithuanian lands settled in the city. From 1667 to 1833, Belgorod was the spiritual center of the Ukrainian province. When Russia was divided into eight provinces in 1708, the city became part of Kiev Province. It became a district city of Kursk Governorship in 1779 and then of Kursk Province in 1796.
By the early 18th century, the city was already an important industrial and cultural center. A school attached to the Deanery, the first higher educational institution, and several Slavonic-Latin schools were opened in 1772, and a theological seminary was opened in 1790 (moved to Kursk in 1882). A small public school was opened in the early 19th century (later a city school).
By the end of the 19th century, Belgorod had 16 churches, 2 cathedrals, 2 monasteries, and 12 educational institutions. Twenty-six factories supplied their products to both the local population and other cities. The Kursk-Kharkov railway line passed through the city in 1869, which further strengthened ties between Belgorod and Ukraine. At this time, high-quality chalk was being quarried near the city, part of which was burned to obtain lime and part ground and sent to Moscow and Kharkov. There was also trading in cattle, grain, tallow, leather, wax, and manufactured articles. Beekeeping (along with beeswax factories), melon growing, and market gardening were well developed. Belgorod itself was famous for its many orchards.
The names of the princes F.I. and F.F. Volkonsky (the remains of the ancestral estate have been preserved) and hero of the Russo-Turkish and other wars M.T. Drenyakin are connected with this city.
During the Second World War, fierce battles raged in Belgorod from June through August 1943 against the German invaders (during the battle of Kursk in 1943). The city was liberated on August 5, 1943, and along with the city of Orel, became known as the "city of the first salute."
One of the features of Belgorod's architecture is the harmonious coexistence of its religious and secular buildings. A fragment of the two-story Deanery is all that remains of the huge complex of the Nikolaevsky Monastery. In 1701, the foundations of Uspensko-Nikolaevsky Cathedral (1709) and Pokrovskaya Church (1711) were laid west of the monastery while Peter the Great was visiting Belgorod. The buildings were similar in style to the so-called "St. Petersburg baroque"; part of the cathedral has been preserved. The monumental Smolensky Cathedral with a massive bell tower on the two-tiered refectory (built in 1725; restored) was built on the east side of the city center near a former market square. Northeast of it stands a Polish-Lithuanian Catholic church (begun in the 19th century; rebuilt), and northwest of it is Spasko-Preobrazhensky Cathedral (1820) located on a hillside. The remains of secular buildings of the 19th and early 20th centuries that have been preserved in the city center include two former gymnasia for men and women, the former Veinbaum hotel and store, and a three-story women's gymnasium (1904).
Belgorod underwent extensive reconstruction starting at the end of the 1940s. The location of the main city square (on the site of the ruins of a convent) was determined in 1955 according to the plan for the city center (originally laid out according to the master plan of 1768). New residential districts were formed as Belgorod was transformed into a major industrial center: in the north in the late 1950s and especially on Kharkov Mountain in the south in the late 1960s.
On the eastern outskirts of Belgorod, in the former settlement of Pushkarnaya, the stone church of Aristratig Mikhail (1844) with its columned portico rises up on a hillside.
Another point of interest is the Church of the Archangel Michael (Mikhaila Arkhangela; 1804-1811) in the former settlement of Borisovka 47 km from Belgorod [the ancestral estate of Count B.P. Sheremetev (a general in the time of Peter the Great) and a center of icon painting and other artistic crafts]. The remains of a former 18th century estate can be seen in the village of Golovchino west of Borisovka; and the remains (ditches, ramparts, and a one-cupola church in the center) of one of the strongest fortresses (1640) of the Belgorod Defensive Line have been preserved in the old village of Khotmyzhsk (formerly a city) near Golovchino on the right bank of the Vorskla River.
RESOURCES
Belgorod Region has an abundance of mineral reserves such as iron ore and building materials. Russia's main iron ore reserves are located here, and 80% of the mineral reserves of the Kursk magnetic anomaly are concentrated in Belgorod deposits. The largest of these are the Lebedinskoe, Stoilenskoe, Yakovlevskoe, and Pogremetskoe deposits, which form the basis of the region's powerful mining and metallurgical complex. In addition, local companies explore for and produce building materials such as dolomite, bauxite, apatite, chalk, cement marl, sand, refractory clay, granite, and copper-nickel ore. Deposits of noble and rare metals have recently been discovered as well.
Belgorod Region is an industrially developed area with many processing and other plants; therefore, the environment is under considerable strain.
Centuries of mineral production, the development of the building material and mining industries, and the use of chernozem (black earth) soils for commercial livestock breeding have all had a harmful effect on the environment.
The ecological situation is most serious in the areas of the Starooskolsko-Gubkinsky industrial district where iron ore and other minerals of the Kursk magnetic anomaly are produced and processed. A total of 15 000 hectares of land are occupied by quarries and industrial facilities.
Comprehensive use of economic minerals and land conservation are pressing problems for the region. Only 17.5% of coproduced mineral resources, e.g., crystalline schist, chalk, clay, and sand, are used; and there is no systematic reclamation of disturbed lands. The negative impact of mining operations on the ecological state of the Yamskoi section of the Alekhin State Central Black Earth Biosphere Preserve is a cause for concern. Drilling and blasting, spoil banks, dry beaches of sludge ponds and tailing pits, mining and smelting companies, and power generation are major sources of air pollution.
Motor vehicles also cause considerable damage to the region's environment. More than 70% of all emissions consist of vehicle exhausts. Total contaminant emissions in 1999 amounted to 79 390 tons, including 23 250 tons of solids and 56 140 tons of liquids. Although more than 86% of these contaminants were neutralized, air pollution still remains an urgent problem.
There is a careless attitude towards water resources in Russia, and the people of Belgorod Region are no exception. According to data of the state water survey, the region used 339.05 million m3 of water in 1999, including 106.47 million m3 for production needs.
A total of 190.07 million m3 of effluent was discharged in 1999; this includes 78.16 million m3 of effluent treated to standard quality. The total volume of polluted effluent in this period was 30.86 million m3, of which 0.17 million m3 entered water bodies untreated.
Industrial enterprises without on-site treatment plants, large livestock farms and complexes, pesticide- and fertilizer-containing surface runoff from farmland, and runoff from communities without sewage systems harm the rivers of Belgorod Region. The percolation beds for effluents containing hazardous substances from the Shebekino Chemical Plant (Shebekinsky khimichesky zavod) pose the threat of surface and subsurface water pollution.
Most of the farmland in Belgorod Region is located on slopes and is exposed to water erosion. This impairs soil fertility by degrading the physical properties of the soil, increasing the formation of overconsolidated layers, and polluting the soil.
At present, there are 51.6 million tons of industrial wastes in the region, including 330 000 tons of toxic wastes and 1 million tons of domestic wastes. Only 700 000 tons of these wastes are recycled; the rest is stockpiled in tailing pits, industrial dumps, and sludge ponds. There is no waste treatment: wastes are simply taken to dumps, where they accumulate and cause serious harm to the environment.
In order to improve the ecological situation in the region, it will be necessary to modernize industrial on-site treatment facilities; develop a better system for reclaiming industrial and domestic wastes; build a garbage reprocessing plant and a solid domestic waste treatment site; and set up companies to reclaim and neutralize toxic wastes.
ECONOMY
Mining, metallurgy, and agriculture are the leading economic sectors in Belgorod Region. One-third of Russian ore (the region has more than 40% of Russia's iron ore reserves) and the best grades of steel and rolled products are produced here. Other developed sectors include the engineering, chemical, processing, light, and building material industries.
The region produces up to 15% of all Russian grain, sugar, and vegetable and animal oils and a significant share of the milk and meat. It is also among the country's leaders in residential construction (2/3 of which is individual) and exceeds the Russian average figure for commissioned housing per thousand residents. A series of social programs are also being carried out: social and cultural facilities are being built a rapid rate and new educational institutions are being opened, including a group of buildings at Belgorod State University. Installation of gas service in the region has been completed, and a large-scale road construction and urban improvement program is being carried out.
Iron ore production and processing form the basis of the region's industry. Ore and refined products are supplied to metallurgical plants in Russian cities and foreign countries. The engineering and metalworking industry specializes in boiler manufacturing, the chemical industry, equipment production and maintenance, and mining machinery. The region's largest companies are AOOT Belgorod Power Engineering Plant (Belenergomash) and OAO Belgorod Electrical Engineering Plant (Belgorodsky elektromekhanichesky zavod). Other developed industries include instrument making, pharmaceuticals, the light industry and food sectors, and production of building materials (cement, bricks, whitewash, roofing slate, and tiles). The largest companies in the building materials sector are ZAO Belgorod Cement (Belgorodtsement) and AOOT Belgorod Asbestos Cement (Belgorodasbotsement); and the food industry is represented by companies such as OAO Konprok, AOOT Krupa, AOOT Belmyaso, AOZT Tsitrobel, and OAO Belgorod Dairy (Belgorodsky molochny kombinat).
Companies of the region's mining and smelting industry include AO Lebedinsky Mining and Concentrating Combine (LGOK), whose high-quality iron ore concentrate is supplied to Russian metallurgical plants and also exported; AO Stoilensky Mining and Concentrating Combine (SGOK; strip mining); AO Kombinat KMAruda (deep mining); and AO Oskolsky Electric and Metallurgical Combine (OEMK), the largest plant of its kind in the world (with a capacity of 1.8 million tons of high-quality steel and 1.5 million tons of rolled metal per year).
Work is underway on the Yakovlesky underground mine with a productivity of 4.5 million tons of high-grade iron ore. More than 500 joint ventures operate in the region; the largest of these are the Russian-Panamanian Belgorod Cement (Belgorodsky tsement), the Russian-Yugoslavian Enkha (instrumentation), the Russian-British Oleokhim (cleaning agents), and the Russian-Bulgarian Bulgstar and Bulgartabak-Belgorod.
Conditions in Belgorod Region are favorable for agriculture. Eighty percent of the region's total area (2 145 000 hectares) consists of farmland. Grain, legumes, industrial and fodder crops, vegetables, and potatoes are all cultivated here. Large livestock breeding complexes have been set up in grain-growing and sugar-beet-processing districts, where byproducts are used as feed. As a result of a reorganization of agricultural companies, 247 joint stock companies and 18 agricultural cooperatives now operate in the region. The workers at 55 collective farms (kolkhoz) and 29 state farms (sovkhoz) decided to retain their status. The agricultural sector also includes 35 companies in the meat, dairy, sugar, and canning industries; more than 100 construction companies; and 120 agricultural service companies and organizations.
Grain growing for fodder, food products, and seed is the leading form of plant cultivation. About 40-50% of the region's arable land is sown in winter wheat, barley, oats, rye, buckwheat, millet, and corn. Sugar beets are the most extensively cultivated industrial crop; they are grown in all regions, but most of the sown area is in the western and central districts. Sunflowers are the second-largest industrial crop; they are grown in the central and eastern districts. Essential oil-bearing plants, coriander, and anise are grown in much smaller quantities, mainly in the southeastern part of the region. Vegetables, fruit, and berries are typically grown in suburban areas around the larger cities, e.g., Belgorod, Stary Oskol, and Gubkin. The area sown under fodder crops such as alfalfa, clover, peas, rapeseed, forage root crops, and silo corn is increasing as livestock breeding develops.
Beef and dairy cattle, pigs, poultry, and sheep are all raised in the region. Dairy farming is the leading livestock sector, although natural conditions are more favorable for beef cattle. Production of fast-maturing animals like pigs and poultry is growing more dynamically. Large pig-farming complexes have been set up in Belgorodsky and Gubinsky districts and poultry-farming enterprises, in Borisovsky, Belgorodsky, Korochansky, Starooskolsky, and Gubkinsky districts.
The region's numerous ponds are extensively used to breed and raise fish. More than 20 fish farms have been set up to raise carp and bester [a beluga-sterlet hybrid]; and a fish-processing plant in Borisovka produces smoked and dried fish.
There are processing plants in nearly every city and town in the region. The largest of these are the Belgorod, Valuiki, and Stary Oskol integrated plants, which produce a wide range of whole- and cultured milk products. Butter is produced at oil plants in the towns of Ivnya, Prokhorovka, Rakitnoe, and Tomarovka and in the cities of Shebekino and Korocha; canned milk is produced in Alekseevka and Volokonovka. The oil-pressing industry is concentrated in the cities of Alekseevka and Valuiki and the towns of Chernyanka and Veidelevka. Output includes sunflower oil and essential oils of coriander and anise. Graivoron, Rovenki, and Velikomikhailovka are noted for cheese. The Belgorod, Borisovka, Stary Oskol, Novy Oskol, and Krasnogvardeiskoe fruit- and vegetable-canning plants represent the canning industry. Fruit- and berry-processing plants are located in the city of Korocha and the town of Troitsky. The flour and cereal industry and the associated baking and feed industries are also well developed. The flour and cereal industry is concentrated in Belgorod, Stary Oskol, and Valuiki; and there are large feed mills in Belgorod, Shebekino, Troitsky, and Chernyanka. The Belgorod Citric Acid Plant (Belgorodsky zavod limonnoi kisloty) uses molasses left over from sugar refining.
TOURISM
Belgorod Region's particular geographical location has a great influence on the use of its territory for recreation, medical treatment, and tourism. On the one hand, the region is close to the capital; and on the other hand, it is close to the main traditional recreational areas such as the Crimea, the Caucasus, the Sea of Azov, and the Black Sea. Vacationers head south to the sea and the mountains in summer and north to the central region for educational and cultural tours.
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