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'Irkutsk Oblast' (, ''Irkutskaya oblast'') is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast), located in south-eastern Siberia in the basins of Angara River, Lena, and Nizhnyaya Tunguska Rivers. The administrative center is Irkutsk.

Contents

Geography

Time zone

Climate

Economy

Administrative divisions

Demographics

See also

References

Geography

Irkutsk Oblast borders with the Buryat and Tuva Republics in the south and south-west, with Krasnoyarsk Krai in the west, with the Sakha Republic in the northeast, and with Chita Oblast in the east. It contains the enclave of Ust-Orda Buryat Autonomous Okrug, which will be merged into Irkutsk Oblast on January 1, 2008. The unique and world-famous Lake Baikal is located in the southeast of the region. Irkutsk Oblast consists mostly of the hills and broad valleys of the Central Siberian Plateau and of its eastern extension, the Patom Plateau.

Time zone

Irkutsk Oblast is located in the Irkutsk Time Zone (IRKT/IRKST). UTC offset is +0800 (IRKT)/+0900 (IRKST).

Climate

The climate varies from warm summer continental in the south to continental-subarctic in the northern part (: ''Dwc''). For almost half the year, from mid-October until the beginning of April, the average temperature is below [1]. Winters are very cold, with average high temperatures in Irkutsk of and average lows of in January. Summers are warm but short: the average high in July is and the average low is . However, by September, the weather cools down significantly to an average daily maximum of and an average daily minimum of [2][3]. More than half of all precipitation falls in the summer months, with the wettest month being July, with 96.2 mm (3.79 in) of rain. January is the driest month, with only 11 mm (0.4 in) of precipitation. Annual precipitation averages 419.8 mm (16.53 in)[4].

Economy

The main industries of Irkutsk Oblast are metals, energy, logging, oil and fuels, machine-building, chemicals, food industry, and hydroelectricity. The average wages in Irkutsk oblast are ten percent higher than in Russia overall.

Administrative divisions

Demographics

The population of the oblast is 2.77 million, from which 79.6% are urban, and 20.4% are rural. The density of the population is 3.5 people per square kilometer, whereas the average density for Russia is 8.7. Irkutsk is the administrative center, with population of 594,500. Other large cities are Angarsk (267,000 people), Bratsk (253,600 people), Usolye-Sibirskoye (104,300 people), and Ust-Ilimsk (107,200 people).
An interesting small ethnic group living in three villages (Pikhtinsk, Sredne-Pikhtinsk, and Dagnik) in the Zalari District of the oblast are the so-called "Bug Hollanders": descendants of Polish-speaking Lutheran farmers who had moved to Siberia from the then Russian Volhynia in 1911-1912 in search of affordable land. Although they had long lost German (or Dutch) language of their ancesors (even in the early 20th century they spoke Ukrainian and read Polish), they were still considered ethnic Germans, and during World War II were usually drafted for work in labor camps, instead of front-line military service.^[1]

See also

★ Music of Irkutsk

References

1. Olga Solovyova (Ольга Соловьева) "Bug 'Hollanders'" (БУЖСКИЕ ГОЛЕНДРЫ)