Ural Federal District (Russia(1)--part: Sverdlovsk and Tyumen(2) Oblasts

How is the land laid out?

There are only two geophysical zones, both of which continue outside of the two oblasts: the Ural Mountains and the West Siberian Lowland(3).

In these two oblasts the Ural Mountains are divided into two sections: the narrow north(4) and the low center(5). Southwestern Sverdlovsk Oblast straddles the central section, which does not reach 1,000 meters, while northwestern Sverdlovsk and Tyumen Olbast include only the crests, approaching 2,000 meters, and the eastern slopes of the northern section.

West Siberian Lowland

The greatest of the rivers is the Ob', the loweer course of which is in Tyumen Oblast. Its main tributary, the Irtysh(6), joins the Ob' within Tyumen. At a sharp bend in the Irtysh it is joined by the Tobol, which flows north out of Kazakhstan(7).

Who lives there?

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

Tatar and religions

There is one city of over a million: Yekaterinburg(8).

Who was there before?

Russian conquest

Uralic peoples and Samoyedic peoples

north
east of Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug and east and southwest of Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, and northeast of southern Tyumen Oblast
southeast and south of southern Tyumen Oblast
southwest of southern Tyumen Oblast, and south of Sverdlovsk Oblast
southwest of Sverdlovsk Oblast
west of Sverdlovsk Oblast
northwest of Sverdlovsk Oblast and west of Khanty-Mansi and Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrugs

Other broad topics

Ural Federal District

Footnotes

(1) More strictly transliterated from Russian as Rossija or Rossiya.
(2) T'umen is an alternate transliteration from Russian.
(3) Zapadno-Sibirskaya (or Sibirskaja) Nizmennost' in transliterated Russian.
(4) 'North' in transliterated Russian is severnyy or severnyj.
(5) 'Center' in transliterated Russian is seredniy or serednij.
(6) The Ob'-Irtysh combination is the second longest river in Asia, and the fifth longest in the world.
(7) More strictly transliterated as Qazaqstan or Kazakstan.
(8) Jekaterinburg or Ekaterinburg in alternate tansliterations from Russian. Formerly Sverdlovsk.