Ural Federal District (Russia(1))

How is the land laid out?

Three geophysical zones

The Ural Mountains are divided into three sections: the narrow north(2), the low center(3) and the wide and taller south(4), most of which which is beyond the federal district. In no part do they reach 2,000 meters. In the center they do not reach 1,000 meters. The federal district includes much of the south central mountains--and also the northernmost of the southern ones--but otherwise its western boundary follows the crests.

West Siberian Lowland

The greatest of the rivers is the Ob', the lower course of which is in the federal district. Its main tributary, the Irtysh(5), joins the Ob' within the federal district. At a sharp bend in the Irtysh it is joined by the Tobol, which flows north out of Kazakhstan(6).

In the southwest of the federal district is the northwest of the Turgay Plateau.

Who lives there?

More than 12 million people live there, and about 17 in every 20 of them speak Russian as their first language. Probably most of the others learn it. About two in every 20 speak a miscellany of first languages, and the remaining one in 20 speak Tatar.

Tatar and religions

There are two cities of over a million: Chelyabinsk(7) and Yekaterinburg(8).

Who was there before?

Russian conquest

Turkic peoples

Uralic peoples including the Samoyedic peoples


Sverdlovsk and Tyumen Oblasts
Chelyabinsk and Kurgan Oblasts

Other broad topics

Russia
Asia
Europe
Russo-Eurasia

Footnotes

(1) More strictly transliterated from Russian as Rossija or Rossiya.
(2) 'North' in transliterated Russian is severnyy or severnyj.
(3) 'Center' in transliterated Russian is seredniy or serednij.
(4) 'South' in transliterated Russian is yuzhnyy or, with a diacritical on the z, yuznyj.
(5) The Ob'-Irtysh combination is the second longest river in Asia, and the fifth longest in the world.
(6) More strictly transliterated as Qazaqstan or Kazakstan.
(7) Or, with a diacritical on the c, Cel'abinsk in an alternate transliteration from Russian.
(8) Jekaterinburg or Ekaterinburg in alternate tansliterations from Russian. Formerly Sverdlovsk.