Leningrad Region
// GENERAL INFORMATION
Leningrad Region was formed on August 1, 1927. It is part of the Northwestern economic district of the Russian Federation and covers an area of 85 900 km2, which is about equal to the area of Austria or twice the area of countries like Denmark, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. The region borders on Pskov, Novgorod, and Vologda regions and the Republic of Karelia within Russia and has external borders with Estonia and Finland. According to the most recent data, the region has a population of 1 682 000 people, of whom 66% live in urban areas and 34% in rural areas. The region consists of 29 municipal formations, with 29 cities, 38 urban communities, and more than 3000 villages.
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The region is situated on the Pribaltiyskaya Lowland. Its northwestern part is located on the Karelian Isthmus, while the eastern and northeastern parts are situated on spurs of the Valdaiskaya and Olonetskaya uplands. Due to its location, the region has a moist temperate continental climate, with average January temperatures in the range of –9 to –11 °C and average July temperatures from +16 to +17 °C. The region lies within the southern taiga zone and was once covered with thick forests and bogs. Even today, despite centuries of development of these lands, forests cover nearly 40% of the region’s territory and bogs, about 12%.
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The rich natural landscapes are amazing in their diversity. The unusual combination of rocky islands in the Gulf of Vyborg and the vast Ladoga marshes with granite boulders on the Karelian Isthmus, rivers, and waterfalls attract large numbers of tourists. The Neva River with its distinctive geology divides the region into two zones: a northern zone belonging to Fennoscandia and a southern zone belonging to the Eastern European Plateau. The river’s banks are constantly moving in opposite directions, with the northern bank continually rising and the southern bank continually sinking. The explanation for this is the occasional occurrence of seismic activity in St. Petersburg itself. The region has 1800 lakes, the most important one of which is Lake Ladoga, the largest lake in Europe with a surface area of 18 135 km2. The total length of all the region’s rivers is about 50 000 km, the main ones being the Neva, Svir, Volkhov, and Vuoksa rivers. The Neva is a relatively young river that arose about 3000 years ago as the result of an inrush of water from Lake Ladoga into the Tosno River valley.
Among the many mineral resources found here the most commercially important ones are bauxite (Tikhvinskoye deposit), oil shale (Leningradskoye deposit), and phosphorite (Kingiseppskoye deposit). Peat reserves are estimated at 1.8 billion tonnes and oil shale reserves, at 5 billion tonnes. There are granite beds in the northern part of the region, and manganese ores have been discovered in the Gulf of Finland not far from St. Petersburg.
The region’s main industries are engineering, forestry, woodworking, pulp and paper, chemicals, fuel, nonferrous metallurgy, and power. Thanks to the unique landscape and the many remarkably preserved historical and architectural monuments, numerous recreational areas have been established and there is a well-organized tourist infrastructure, which helps increase revenues to the regional budget.
St. Petersburg is the center of Leningrad Region. The city founded by Peter the Great was Russia’s capital for many years and is rightly called the country’s northern capital. Many epochal historical events that fundamentally changed the lives of the Russian people took place here. Today, St. Petersburg is not only an important political center of Russia, but is also one of the world’s most beautiful cities. It is a genuine museum city, where visitors come to admire the splendid buildings put up in Peter the Great’s time, to see the many museums, and to wander along the famous Nevsky Prospekt.
HISTORY
The area of present-day Leningrad Region was inhabited as early as 9000–7000 B.C. Archaeological finds dating to this period prove the presence of an ancient population. Later, in the 5th century A.D., the area was inhabited by Finno-Ugric tribes who lived in settlements and engaged in agriculture, cattle-breeding, hunting, and fishing. Three hundred years later, Slavic tribes also migrated into these regions.
People became established in the new territory and founded settlements. Ladoga, the oldest Russian settlement in the northwest, was built in 750. For two centuries, Ladoga was the main political and economic center of Old Russia, but by the end of the 10th century, it lost its influence and Novgorod took its place.
By the 12th century, the coast of the Gulf of Finland and the territories on the banks of the Luga, Neva, Ladoga, and Volkhov rivers were part of the Novgorod Republic. In the 13th and 14th centuries, these lands were repeatedly attacked by Livonian knights and Swedish feudal lords. During this period, the people of Novgorod built the fortresses of Yam, Kopor’e, Oreshek, Korela, and Tiversky Gorodok in order to defend Russia’s northwestern borders.
During the Time of Troubles in the early 17th century, the northwestern part of the country was occupied by the Swedes and Russia was cut off from the Baltic Sea. In 1656–1658, Russian forces made an unsuccessful attempt to regain the lost territories, and the fight to win back the ancestral lands was resumed by Peter the Great only in 1700. This marked the beginning of the Northern War, which lasted until 1721, and the territory of present-day Leningrad Region was the site of fierce battles:
- in October 1702, Russian forces captured the fortress of Oreshek during a battle at the source of the Neva;
- in spring 1703, forces led by Field Marshal Sheremetev liberated the Izhora lands from Swedish occupation;
- on May 1, 1703, Russian forces seized the fortress of Nienshants (Swedish Nyenskans);
- on May 16, 1703, the fortress of Yam was liberated;
- on May 27, 1703, the fortress of Kopor'e was siezed.
In May 1703, Peter began building a new fortress known as St. Petersburg in order to secure the outlet to the Baltic Sea; and in spring 1704, the fort of Kronshlot (now Kronstadt) was built in the Gulf of Finland. At the same time, construction of the first ships for the Baltic fleet began at the Svir River dockyards in Lodeinoye Pole.
The continual threat of Swedish attacks on St. Petersburg finally ended after Russian forces took the cities of Vyborg and Korela in 1710. From then on, there were no further conflicts within the boundaries of modern-day Leningrad Region. In 1712, the royal court, the Senate, and foreign embassies moved to St. Petersburg, and thus the port city became the capital of Russia.
The Northern War ended with the signing of the Nishtadt peace treaty in 1721, which restored the ancient Izhora lands to Russia and also gave Russia the Karelian Isthmus, including Vyborg, and the territories of Estlandia, and Liflandia.
After the Northern War, St. Petersburg Province developed not only as the political and cultural capital of Russia, but also as an important economic center. In the early 18th century, factories were built on the Izhora, Syas, Tosna, Pudost, and Neva rivers and in the towns of Strelna and Peterhof outside St. Petersburg, and lime and other minerals were quarried. Many sawmills operated in the Novoladoga, Tikhvin, Yamburg, and Luga districts of the province.
In order to connect with the country’s central regions, the new capital needed transportation, and rivers were the main means of delivering goods to St. Petersburg. The Vyshnevolotskaya, Tikhvinskaya, and Mariynskaya waterways and the Staro-Ladozhsky, Syassky, and Svirsky canals were built during the 18th and 19th centuries. In the second half of the 19th century, the broader and deeper Novoladozhsky, Novosyassky, and Novosvirsky canals were built and the Mariynskaya waterway was repaired.
Construction of railways in the second half of the 19th century played a major role in the economic development of St. Petersburg Province:
- in 1837, the first St. Petersburg-Tsarskoye Selo railway was opened;
- in 1851, construction of the double-track Nikolaev railway connecting St. Petersburg with Moscow was completed;
- in the second half of the 19th century, St. Petersburg Province was crisscrossed by a whole network of railways, including the Finland, Baltic, Moscow-Vindava-Rybinsk, Warsaw, and Northern lines.
After the October Revolution, Petrograd Province lost its geopolitical importance in the northwestern part of the country. The capital was moved from Petrograd to Moscow, and Finland and the Baltic countries became independent states. In 1924, Petrograd Province was renamed Leningrad Province; and in 1927, it received regional status as a result of changes in the country’s political division.
At that time, Leningrad Region, like the country as a whole, entered a period of industrialization and collectivization. In the 1920s and 1930s, a high-capacity fuel and energy complex designed to serve Leningrad’s industries was established here. Development of peat deposits and slate quarrying began, logging was carried out, and new woodworking factories and paper mills were set up.
On June 22, 1941, German forces attacked the Soviet Union without declaring war. Luga District in Leningrad Region was the first place to be attacked by Hitler’s forces as they advanced toward Leningrad. In July 1941, a defensive line was raised here with the help of local residents, thanks to which the Soviet forces were able to hold off the attack on Leningrad for three weeks.
In mid-November 1941, the Road of Life was opened, which brought supplies and ammunition to the blockaded city of Leningrad. The road extended for 308 km, including 30 km over Lake Ladoga. On January 18, 1943, the blockade was breached on the Leningrad front, a momentous event that fundamentally altered the course of the war. The Soviet forces moved from the defensive to the offensive, which ended in victory on May 9, 1945, with the raising of the red flag over the Reichstag in Berlin.
In the difficult postwar years, Leningrad Region had to rebuild not only its industrial production facilities, but also the splendid monuments of its unique historical and cultural legacy. Many of the region’s cities were raised from the ruins by the labor of hundreds of thousands of restorers.
On November 30, 1966, Leningrad Region was awarded the Order of Lenin for the courage and heroism shown by its workers during the Second World War. Other cities also received awards, including Volkhov (Order of the October Revolution), Tikhvin (Order of the Patriotic War, Ist class), and Luga (Order of the Patriotic War, Ist class).
Today, Leningrad Region consists of 29 municipal formations, with 29 cities, 38 urban communities, and more than 3000 villages. More than 3900 historical and cultural monuments are preserved here. Leningrad Region also has a well-developed tourism infrastructure. A visit to cities like Priozersk, Tikhvin, Gatchina, Vyborg, Kingisepp, Lodeinoye Pole, Luga, Shlisselburg, Staraya Ladoga, and St. Petersburg will help you become better acquainted with the historical past.
RESOURCES
Compared to other Russian regions, Leningrad Region has relatively meager mineral reserves, although it has deposits of bauxite (Tikhvinskoye deposit) and phosphorite (Kingisepp District). In addition, due to its unique location and numerous bogs, the region has large reserves of peat and oil shale. Peat reserves are estimated at 1.8 billion tonnes and oil shale reserves, at 5 billion tonnes. Beds of limestone, clays, and vitreous sands are distributed throughout the region, and granite beds are found in the northern part. Small reserves of manganese ores have been discovered in the Gulf of Finland not far from St. Petersburg, as well as oil fields and diamond deposits.
The podzolic soils occurring throughout the region are notable for their low mineral content and therefore have to be enriched with organic or mineral fertilizers in order to obtain good harvests.
Forests of mainly pine and spruce cover about 40% of the region. The animal and plant life is rich and varied, with 60 species of mammals and 330 species of birds making their habitat here. However, future development of the forest industry is tied to renewal of the forest lands and improvement of the region’s environmental conditions.
The region’s greatest wealth is its water resources, consisting of the Gulf of Finland in the eastern part of the Baltic Sea, Lakes Ladoga and Onega, natural and artificial reservoirs, rivers, canals, and bogs.
Water covers about 13% of the region, not counting the Gulf of Finland and Lake Ladoga, in which about 80 species of fish are found. The largest areas covered by surface waters are found in Priozersk (14%), Vyborg (7%), and Slantsy (6%) districts, and the smallest areas (0.6%) in Volosovo and Tosno districts.
The Gulf of Finland, which occupies 7% of the area of the Baltic Sea, is Leningrad Region’s largest body of water. The following are the Gulf’s main characteristics:
- watershed - 421 000 km2,
- inflow of water - 109 km3 per year,
- area - 29 500 km2,
- average depth - 38 m,
- maximum depth - 115 m,
- volume of water - 1 125 000 km3,
- salinity - 3.5%,
- predominant direction of currents in the surface layer - counterclockwise.
The eastern part of the Gulf of Finland is called the Neva Inlet. The Gulf of Vyborg lies to the north, and Kopor’e, Luga, and Narva bays are cut into the south coast.
Leningrad Region has more than 41 600 lakes distributed very unequally throughout its territory. The northern part of the Karelian Isthmus (Vyborg and Priozersk districts) and the northeast (Podporozh’e District) have the highest concentration of lakes, and Volosovo District has the lowest. Small lakes with a surface area of less than 1 km2 and a depth of 2 m predominate. The largest lakes (surface area greater than 10 km2 and average depth of 10 m) are concentrated in the northern part of the Karelian Isthmus (Vuoksa, Sukhodolskoye, Pravdinskoye, Otradnoye, and Balakhanovskoye) and in Luga District (Vyal’e-Ostrechno, Samro, Vrevo, Cheremenetskoye, and Syabero). Largest of all are Lakes Ladoga and Onega. Lake Ladoga is the largest lake in Europe, with an area of 17 700 km2 (18 135 km2 with islands), a watershed of 280 000 km2, a length of 219 km, an average width of 83 km, an average depth of 51 m, and 1870 km of shoreline. Thirty-two rivers with lengths of more than 10 km flow directly into Lake Ladoga, but only the Neva River flows out of it. Lake Ladoga washes the territory of five districts in Leningrad Region: Volkhov (159 km of shoreline), Priozersk (132 km), Kirov (102 km), Vsevolozhsk (87 km), and Lodeinoye Pole (24 km).
Lake Onega forms part of Podporozh’e District, which has 38 km of shoreline within its boundaries. Lake Onega has a watershed of 63 000 km2, an area of 9720 km2 without islands, a length of 247 km, an average width of 40 km, and an average depth of 31 m.
More than 25 000 rivers and streams with a total length of more than 50 000 km flow through Leningrad Region. Rivers connect the region not only to other Russian regions, but also to foreign countries. The largest rivers are the Neva, Vuoksa, and Svir (flows out of Lake Onega) with the Oyat and Pasha tributaries; the Volkhov (flows out of Lake Ilmen), the Luga (flows in from Novgorod Region); and the Narva with the Plyussa (flows in from Pskov Region; the outfall passes through Slantsy District and empties into the Narvskoye Reservoir). The river system is relatively equally distributed throughout the region, with the exception of the Izhora Plateau. The system’s average density is 0.6 km/km2.
Six large reservoirs, the Narvskoye, Nizhnesvirskoye, Verkhnesvirskoye, Volkhovskoye, Luzhskoye, and Nizhne-Oredezhskoye with a net volume of about 0.45 km3, are located in the region. The largest is the Verkhnesvirskoye (230 km2) followed by the Narvskoye (191 km2). In addition to these, there are a number of smaller reservoirs on the Sista, Suma, Okhta, Oredezh, Izhora, Tikhvinka, and other rivers.
The area’s recreational resources and relatively moderate climate favor the development of recreation areas and tourism, which are important sources of budgetary revenues for Leningrad Region.
Each year, nearly two million people come to visit the region’s historical and cultural monuments; and the tourist, health, and holiday centers on the Karelian Isthmus have long been favorite places not only for visitors. The coast of the Gulf of Finland, Lake Ladoga, and the Vuoksa lake and river system are especially beautiful. The northeastern part of the region is also attractive to tourists with such cultural and historical monuments of Northwest Russia as the 12th-century Church of Saint George in Staraya Ladoga, the stone and wooden architecture dating from the 15th–18th centuries in Posvir’e, and many more.
The rich natural landscapes are amazing in their diversity. Large numbers of tourists come here to see the rocky islands of the Gulf of Vyborg and northern Ladoga, the granite blocks on the Karelian Isthmus, and the wonderful rivers and waterfalls. Visitors also marvel at the beauty of the deciduous and coniferous forests, the granite cliffs and caves, the healing underground waters and springs, and the dunes and sandy beaches. Where else can you find such diversity?
However, it must be noted that the region’s recreational resources are not developed enough. At present, there are 600 health and recreational centers in Leningrad Region, but given the ever-increasing stream of tourists, the number of centers will have to be increased.
AUTHORITIES
Leningrad Region was formed as an independent subject of the Russian Federation on August 1, 1927, and is part of the country’s Northwestern economic district. The region consists of 29 municipal formations, including 17 districts, 16 regional cities, 10 district cities, and 41 industrial communities. St. Petersburg is its center.
Representative (legislative) authority
The Leningrad Regional Legislative Assembly is the standing government representative body. It autonomously exercises its function using the Constitution of the Russian Federation, federal legislation, the Statute of Leningrad Region, and regional laws as guides. The Legislative Assembly is a legal entity. Acts passed by it are binding on all bodies and officials of state authorities and local governments of Leningrad Region, organizations, and private citizens.
Representatives of the Legislative Assembly are members of the Northwestern Interparliamentary Association. This cooperation gives parliamentarians from the Association’s member regions the opportunity to exchange experiences and work on bringing the legislation of Russian regions into closer agreement and to present initiatives for improving Russian legislation to federal authorities. They also settle problems of the state legal structure and the formation of regional local governments; regulate the economic and financial spheres and budgeting; and settle questions of interregional cooperation. Special attention is given to social problems.
Executive authority
The Leningrad Region Administration headed by the Governor exercises executive authority in the region. The head of the Administration is elected for a four-year term and represents the region both within Russia and abroad. In addition, he also independently forms various executive bodies and bears personal responsibility for the results of their activities. Under the powers granted to him by the region’s Statute, the Governor is authorized to:
- present a draft of the regional budget to the Legislative Assembly for approval and ensure its implementation;
- appoint and dismiss the heads of non-municipal territorial administrative formations in Leningrad Region;
- suspend acts of the Leningrad Regional Government if they contradict existing legislation;
- decide questions of the formation, reorganization, and dissolution of territorial agencies of federal government executive bodies in the region and appoint the appropriate officials;
- settle disputes arising between the Government and the Legislative Assembly of the region.
In addition to the powers listed above, the Governor has the right to:
- introduce bills in the Leningrad Regional Legislative Assembly;
- carry out general management of the region's economic activities;
- manage the financial resources of Leningrad Region;
- issue decrees and orders that are binding on private individuals and legal entities in the territory of Leningrad Region.
Judicial authority
Judicial authority is exercised by the courts of Leningrad Region, which are part of the unified court system of the Russian Federation. The manner of the formation and activities of judicial bodies in the region is regulated by federal laws.
Official site of the Leningrad Regional Legislative Assembly:
http://www.lenoblzaks.ru/
Official site of the Leningrad Region Administration:
http://www.lenobl.ru/
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