Astrakhan Oblast

Astrakhan Oblast (Астраха́нская о́бласть, Astrakhanskaya oblast) is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast) located in southern Russia. Its administrative center is the city of Astrakhan. Population: 1,010,073 (2010 Census).

Geography
Astrakhan is traversed by the northeasterly line of equal latitude and longitude. Its southern border is the Caspian Sea, eastern is Kazakhstan, northern is Volgograd Oblast, and western is the Republic of Kalmykia.

It is within the Russian Southern Federal District.

History
The oblast was created on December 27, 1943, on parts of the territories of the abolished Kalmyk ASSR and Astrakhan Okrug of Stalingrad Oblast.

Project Vega
From October 8, 1980 to October 27, 1984, and under the leadership of Nikolai Baibakov, the USSR held fifteen deep underground nuclear tests for Nuclear Explosions for the National Economy at the site Vega in the Ryn Desert in the east of the oblast less than 50 km from downtown Astrakhan to create reservoirs for natural gas storage. Because of the detonation depth (975 to 1,100 meters) and relatively low yield (3.2 to 13.5 kilotons), no radiation was released to the environment. These blasts had lower yields than the Project Sapphire blasts, which were 40km south-southwest of Orenburg, to reduce any possible seismic destruction to nearby towns in the Volga delta including Astrakhan. At that time, the natural gas fields near Astrakhan, which are at a deplth of 3900 to 4,100 meters, could contain as much as 6 trillion cubic meters, which is an amount similar to Urengoy. In 2017, the Astrakhanskoye field, which is an area of 100km by 40km in the middle of the Astrakhan arch and is 60km northeast of Astrakhan, is the ninth largest in Russia and the largest in European Russia with an estimated gas in place of 102 e12cuft. The deposit is operated by Gazprom Dobycha Astrakhan which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Gazprom. The field produces large amounts of sulfur, too.

Politics


During the Soviet period, the high authority in the oblast was shared between three persons: The first secretary of the Astrakhan CPSU Committee (who in reality had the biggest authority), the chairman of the oblast Soviet (legislative power), and the Chairman of the oblast Executive Committee (executive power). Since 1991, CPSU lost all the power, and the head of the Oblast administration, and eventually the governor was appointed/elected alongside elected regional parliament.

The Charter of Astrakhan Oblast is the fundamental law of the region. The Legislative Assembly of Astrakhan Oblast is the province's standing legislative (representative) body. The Legislative Assembly exercises its authority by passing laws, resolutions, and other legal acts and by supervising the implementation and observance of the laws and other legal acts passed by it. The highest executive body is the Oblast Administration, which includes territorial executive bodies such as district administrations, committees, and commissions that facilitate development and run the day to day matters of the province. The Oblast administration supports the activities of the Governor who is the highest official and acts as guarantor of the observance of the oblast Charter in accordance with the Constitution of Russia.

Demographics


Population:

According to the 2010 Census, the ethnic composition was:
 * Ethnic groups
 * Russian 67.6%
 * Kazakh 16.3%
 * Tatar 6.6%
 * Ukrainian 0.9%
 * Nogay 0.8%
 * Chechen 0.8%
 * Azeri 0.9%
 * Kalmyk 0.7%
 * Armenian 0.6%
 * Roma 0.6%
 * Avar 0.5%
 * Lezgin 0.5%
 * Dargin 0.5%
 * Belarusians 0.3%
 * Others 2.4%
 * 95,217 people were registered from administrative databases, and could not declare an ethnicity. It is estimated that the proportion of ethnicities in this group is the same as that of the declared group.
 * Births (2008): 14,200 (14.2 per 1000)
 * Deaths (2008): 13,660 (13.6 per 1000)

2009 - 1.77 | 2010 - 1.76 | 2011 - 1.78 | 2012 - 1.93 | 2013 - 1.91 | 2014 - 1.97 | 2015 - 1.97 | 2016 - 1.93(e)
 * Vital statistics for 2012
 * Births: 15 304 (15.1 per 1000)
 * Deaths: 12 783 (12.6 per 1000)
 * Total fertility rate: 

Religion
According to a 2012 survey 46% of the population of Astrakhan Oblast adheres to the Russian Orthodox Church, 4% are Orthodox Christian believers who do not belong to any church or are members of other (non-Russian) Orthodox churches, 2% are unaffiliated generic Christians, 14% are Muslims, and 2% of the population adheres to the Slavic native faith (Rodnovery) or other folk religions of the region. In addition, 16% of the population declares to be spiritual but not religious, 6% is atheist, and 10% follows other religions or did not give an answer to the question.