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Kaluga Region
// GENERAL INFORMATION
Kaluga Region is a relatively small region (29 900 km2) situated on the East European Plain of central Russia between Moscow, Tula, Bryansk, Smolensk, and Orlov regions. The plain gradually gives way to the Smolensk Uplands (elevations to 279 m) in the western and northwestern parts of the region and the Central Russian Uplands in the eastern part. Scenic plains with numerous rivers and lakes bordered with spruce, pine, oak, and birch groves form the landscape of Kaluga Region.
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Kaluga Region is part of the Central Federal District and is in a very convenient and favorable location owing to the well-developed transportation network that is typical of this federal district. Major international highways and railway lines, e.g., Moscow-Kaluga-Bryansk-Kiev-Lvov-Warsaw, pass through the region.
The region was formed on July 5, 1944. It is divided into 24 districts, 4 cities under regional administration, 13 cities under district administration, and 14 industrial communities. The largest cities are Kaluga (the regional center), Obninsk, Lyudinovo, Kirov, and Maloyaroslavets. The region has a mainly urban population of around 1 081 200 people (805 000 urban residents and 276 200 rural residents).
Kaluga Region has a mild continental climate with an average January temperature of -5.2°C and an average July temperature of +18.2 °C. Annual precipitation ranges from 365 to 1000 mm.
Subsurface deposits of brown coal, phosphorite, refractory clay, quartz sand, limestone, gold, and diamonds have been discovered in the region. However, Kaluga Region's greatest wealth is its forests of mainly mixed coniferous and deciduous species. Forests cover nearly half of the region; estimated timber reserves are 190 million m3. The forests are the habitat of hoofed animals, martens, squirrels, hares, foxes, and many other animals. About 225 species of birds also nest in the region, and 37 species of fish inhabit the rivers and lakes.
Soils are mainly sod-podzolic and more fertile gray forest types suitable for agriculture. Dairy cattle, pig, and poultry farming and plant cultivation are the region's main agricultural sectors. The Oka, Desna, and more than 2000 other rivers and streams supply water to the region.
Russia's largest scientific research complex is located in Kaluga Region in the city of Obninsk. The research and development work carried out in the laboratories provides a solid basis for the development of high-tech industries. The most highly developed sectors in the region are engineering and metalworking, ferrous metallurgy, instrument making and electronics, construction, forestry, woodworking, and the light and food industries.
Human settlement in Kaluga Region dates back to the 15th to 13th centuries B.C. Tribes of Balts and Ugrians later occupied these lands before being conquered by Slavic tribes in the 8th and 9th centuries A.D. For several centuries after the founding of the Muscovite state, Kaluga's soldiers barred the way to conquerors and defended the borders. These lands were the location of fierce battles against the Tatar-Mongol horde.
There are 593 cultural monuments in the region, 470 of them of federal significance. Buildings preserved from past eras lend their unique and distinctive color to the cities and towns of Kaluga Region. The two-story stone Korobov mansion, the Zolotarev town estate built in the style of architect M.F. Kazakov, and the Empire-style Bilibin mansion are examples of late 17th century civil architecture. Skilled craftsmen and seamstresses had lived in Kaluga Region since early times. Their knowledge and mastery of their crafts were expressed in embroidery, pottery, metal smithing and founding, lacemaking, and basketry.
The city of Kaluga is the administrative, industrial, and cultural center of Kaluga Region. The oldest record of Kaluga dates back to 1371. According to this record, the city had previously belonged to Lithuania. Later, in 1389, Dmitry Donskoi willed Kaluga to his son: "…and Kaluga and Roshcha to be given to my son Prince Andrei." In the 16th century, the city was a major commercial port connecting Lithuania and Moscow. Kaluga is also the birthplace of space science, for it was here that the renowned scientist and space pioneer Konstantin Tsiolkovsky lived and worked. An astronautics museum was established in Kaluga as a memorial to him. Noted scientists like S.P. Korolev, A.N. Tupolev, I.P. Bardin, and many others were among the museum's founders.
The old city of Kozelsk, first mentioned in the chronicle in 1146, is located on the scenic banks of the Zhizdra River that flows through the Central Russian Uplands. The city has gone down in Russian history as the "fierce city," a name it received in the spring of 1238, when its residents fought to the bitter end against the Tatar-Mongol horde of Batu Khan. Ryazan and Moscow surrendered, Vladimir and Torzhok fell, and only the courageous people of Kozelsk held out against the enemy for seven weeks. The city has many religious and other old monuments dating to the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. Unique architecture gives it a distinctive and original character.
The district center of Lyudinovo is located in the southeastern part of Kaluga Region 188 km from Kaluga. It stretches out along the picturesque shores of a lake in the Lompad River. The city's name derives from the Old Russian word Lyudin, meaning a commoner, i.e., a peasant, artisan, or craftsman. Lyudinovo has a long history. Its inhabitants grew grain, hunted, fished, and traded in furs, hemp, pitch, and wax. As early as 1626, Lyudinovo already included " five peasant homesteads, two poor peasant homesteads, and four tenantless homesteads." A heavy palisade enclosed the settlement, protecting it from enemy raids. On October 17, 1777, Lyudinovo became a village of Zhizdrinsky District of the Kaluga governorship and finally became a regionally administered city on February 1, 1963.
The city of Obninsk is a little more than 40 years old. It was built on the site of the former settlements of Belkino, Pyatkhino, and Samsonovo mentioned in the Property Register (Pistsovaya kniga) of 1588-1589. The city is famous as a scientific community, where construction of the world's first nuclear power plant began in summer 1951.
Maloyaroslavets is located in the northeastern part of Kaluga Region 80 km from the capital. The earliest record of this town is the Church Deed (Dukhovnaya gramota) to a hero of the Battle of Kulikovo, V.A. Khrabry-Donskoi, dating from 1402. The city was named Yaroslavl in the 15th century in honor of the son of Prince Vladimir Andreevich. Then in the 16th century, the new ruler, Prince Ivan III of Moscow, renamed it to Yaroslavets Maly [i.e., Lesser Yaroslavets].
RESOURCES
The subsurface deposits of Kaluga Region are a vast storehouse of mineral reserves. Deposits of brown coal, peat, phosphorite, rottenstone [a decomposed form of limestone used as a powder or paste for polishing metal], gypsum, marl, mineral pigments, various kinds of sand and clay, and substantial reserves of mineral water have been discovered here. Geologists have also found deposits of zeolite-bearing rocks, quartz-glauconitic and titanium-zirconium sand, gold, and diamonds. Existing mineral deposits fully supply regional industries, and some minerals are exported to other Russian regions. Large brown coal reserves have been discovered northwest and southeast of Kaluga near the city of Sukhinichi and between Kirov and Spas-Demensky, and huge phosphorite deposits have been discovered in Khvastovichsky District and on the border of Dumnichisky and Lyudinovsky districts. There are 34 clay deposits with estimated reserves of 220 million m3 in the region, although only 14 deposits with 43 million m3 of reserves are being worked. The Ulyanovskoe deposit has the largest reserves. Altogether, the region's clay deposits make up 16% of all discovered clay reserves in Russia. The deposits are arranged in layers, with ceramic clays (used to make bricks, facing tiles, and ceramic sewer pipes) overlying refractory clays. A thick composite deposit consisting of limestone used to make crushed rock for construction and road building and ground limestone, expanded clay aggregate, palygorskite clay [a highly absorbent granular clay used to make pet litter, industrial absorbents, and drilling mud among other things], and brick loam has been discovered in Ferzikovsky District.
Much of the forest in Kaluga Region consists of mixed coniferous-deciduous species, with deciduous forest only in central and eastern areas. There are occasional mixed forests consisting mainly of birch and aspen. The vegetation varies from forest to steppe to meadow species. Some species are very rare, for example, Epipactis [an orchid], lady's slipper, orchis, water chestnut, feather grass, damson, and certain mosses. The adder's tongue, grape, wall, and ostrich ferns and the water plant Salvinia are all protected.
Agricultural land occupies more than 60% of the region's total area of 2 978 500 hectares. Most of this land is under cultivation (983 400 hectares); another 244 100 hectares are used for pasture, 135 800 hectares are covered by water meadows, and 15 600 hectares are fallow. The croplands are low in calcium, phosphorus, and other nutrients, and half are highly acidic. The more fertile gray forest soils are found mainly in the southeastern and central parts of Kaluga Region.
The region's animal life is diverse, with representatives of northern, Western European, and steppe species. There are 56 species of mammals, including the muskrat (a relict endemic species) and the giant noctule bat, which are listed in the Red Book of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN). There are also 10 species of amphibians, 6 species of reptiles, about 37 species of fish, and 225 species of birds. The black stork, osprey, golden eagle, sea eagle, peregrine falcon, and lanner falcon are protected. Among the enormous number of insect species, there are a few uncommon ones such as the hermit beetle, several species of bumblebees, and the Apollo butterfly.
Kaluga Region's water supply consists mainly of the Oka and Desna rivers, their tributaries, and 2043 other rivers and streams with a total length of 11 700 km. There are also 17 reservoirs with a total volume of 79 million m3, including 12 on the Oka (37.7 million m3) and Desna (5 million m3) rivers. The largest are the Lyudinovskoe (30 million m3), Brynskoe (14 million m3), Kirovskoe-Verkhnee (7.8 million m3), and the Milyatinskoe (7.6 million m3) reservoirs. In addition to their primary function of supplying water to the population, they are used for fishing and recreation. Fresh subsurface water has been discovered in 47 reservoirs with estimated resources of 987 000 m3 per day. These reservoirs are mainly located near the cities of Borov, Obninsk, Maloyaroslavets, Sukhinichi, Balabanov, and Kirov. Annual water consumption in the region is 170 million m3. Total available resources of the region's main water-bearing horizons are more than 1.6 million m3 per day.
In comparison with other regions, Kaluga Region has insignificant air and water pollution. The existing radioactive contamination is the result of accidents at Chernobyl and radiation facilities in Obninsk and Smolensk Region. Pollution levels in the Oka, Ugra, Shan, Zhizdra, Protva, and Volva rivers are low; somewhat higher levels have been recorded in the water supplies of the city of Kondrovo and the village of Lev Tolstoy.
The natural environment of Kaluga Region is scenic and beautiful. Deep rivers, numerous streams, abundant forests and wildlife help preserve the region's flora and fauna. Many protected areas have been established, and nearly every district has its own natural sites. The largest of these protected areas are Kaluzhskie Zaseki State Nature Preserve in Ulyanovsky District and Ugra National Park.
As of January 1, 2000, Kaluga Region had a population of 1.1 million. The able-bodied make up 50.2% of the population (542 800 people); 89.5% of them are employed in various economic sectors and 10.5% are unemployed, although only 4400 people are officially registered as unemployed. More than half (59%) of the working population is employed at large and medium companies. The number of contract and part-time jobs in the first eight months of 2000 was 303 700, or 1200 more than in the same period of 1999. The majority of unemployed are women (54%) and young people aged 16 to 29 (41%). Commercial organizations offer 59% of the available jobs. Since January 2000, 31 600 people have been removed from the unemployment register. In the first nine months of this year, 2300 unemployed people took vocational training and 64% of them found jobs. The number of trainees increased 135% compared to the previous year; more than half (62%) were people aged 16 to 29.
ECONOMY
Russia's largest scientific research complex is located in Kaluga Region in the city of Obninsk, which has the honor of being the country's first scientific city. The laboratories carry out innovative research and development work in the areas of atomic energy, space technology, robotics, radio equipment, and instrument making. Companies in the region manufacture state-of-the-art high-end products based on the latest technologies, e.g., turbines, gas turbine engines, various kinds of instruments, digital electronic devices, permanent magnets, automotive electrical equipment, high-precision power hydraulic systems, heavy railway track machinery, and sophisticated radar equipment. The finished products are exported to more than 80 countries. The region is also active in developing business ties with the governments and private businesses and organizations of Germany, Finland, India, the Czech Republic, and Bulgaria and expanding commercial partnerships with the CIS countries.
Engineering and metalworking are Kaluga Region's most important industrial sectors, with more than 900 companies, including 59 large and medium enterprises, about 600 small businesses, and 5 joint ventures. Companies in these sectors account for nearly 38% of overall industrial output, own 50% of the fixed production assets, and employ 59% of all industrial workers. In recent years, engineering has been the leading industry, followed by the structural metal industry and machinery and equipment repair. The situation in the sector is becoming more stable, which has decreased the number of unprofitable companies.
Most of the companies in instrument making and electronics industries were part of the ministries of the USSR's military-industrial complex and were noted for their high R&D, technological, and human resource potential. They included high-powered research institutes and design bureaus, which carried out research and development work along the most promising lines of technological development. State defense orders were the basis of their work. With the start of the economic and political reforms of the 1990s, companies in this sector found themselves in a very difficult situation. Defense orders either fell sharply or ceased altogether. The most successful companies set up production of electronic medical equipment, fire alarm systems, cash registers, taximeters, counters, and flowmeters. The production of automotive electronics has expanded and the quality has improved. Production of an element base and components for recording equipment has been set up, and commercial production of the Siemens HICOM 300 electronic digital ATC [address translation cache] has started. Despite the losses they have sustained, companies in this sector still have great technological and human resource potential and have developed and implemented a number of investment programs.
The construction industry is well developed in Kaluga Region. It includes companies founded in the 18th century, as well as large and medium companies founded within the last few years. They compete successfully with foreign firms on the Russian and CIS markets by offering high-quality products at much lower prices.
Despite the relatively small number of companies in forestry, there are some fairly large and successful ones. Two of them-the Kondrovo Paper Company (Kondrovskaya bumazhnaya kompaniya) and the Medynskaya Furniture Factory (Medynskaya mebelnaya fabrika)-are among companies that have earned the status of "Leader of the Russian Economy." Companies in this sector have a significant share of the Russian and CIS markets for matches, vegetable parchment, and paper hygiene, medical, and sanitary products. Matches, fiberboard, and paper products are also exported to foreign countries outside the CIS.
The product range and quality of kitchen furniture suites has increased. A number of companies have recently managed to attract funds from both foreign and Russian investors, acquire new equipment, and set up production of competitive products.
Light industry is not particularly well developed in Kaluga Region. Only a very small number of large and medium companies produce shoes, clothing, and knitted goods, and there is an almost total absence of large textile and fur manufacturers. Light industry in the region was hit particularly hard by the economic reforms of the 1990s.
The government of Kaluga Region is implementing an open, goal-oriented policy of creating the necessary conditions for business partners. Investment activities in the region are protected by legislation. Priority sectors for investment include engineering and the forest industry, and there is also emphasis on developing the processing sector of the agricultural industry and setting up nonpolluting and wasteless production facilities.
Structural reorganization of the leading industrial sectors, conversion of the defense industry complex, and land reform are being carried out in the region. The majority of large industrial companies have been reorganized into open joint-stock companies (OAO).
AUTHORITIES
District, city, and regional administrations represent executive authority in Kaluga Region. The Administration of Kaluga Region headed by the Governor is the region's highest executive body.
The Legislative Assembly of Kaluga Region headed by a Chairman is the region's legislative body. The structure of the Legislative Assembly also includes its committees and administration.
The region's state legal status necessary to create a legal basis for regional development is vested in the Charter of Kaluga Region.
CULTURE AND ART
As early as the 16th century, Kaluga was a major commercial port acting as a connecting link between Lithuania and Moscow. Back then, the city exported wooden utensils known far beyond the provincial boundaries. Starting in the 1680s, stone churches were built on the sites of wooden churches. By the latter half of the 18th century, there were 183 stone and 2235 wooden buildings in Kaluga. The 17th century Korobov mansion with its semidomes and patterned cornices is a fine example of the civil architecture of the period. Many other buildings of so-called "workplaces" have also been preserved. These include several administrative buildings connected by arches, e.g., the Zolotarev town estate, the Bilibin merchant mansion, and the Inn Court comprising several trading houses designed by the famous architect P.R. Nikitin.
Along with weaving, pottery, metalwork, lace, and basketry, Kaluga artisans displayed their skills in decorated clay children's toys and glazed tiles for decorating houses, both inside and out. More recently, the art of lacquer miniatures using modern methods and techniques and taking its themes from nature in Kaluga Region began developing in the 1980s.
Two theaters and two studios operate in Kaluga Region. The best known of these is the Kaluga State Drama Theater opened in 1777. The theater was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor for its achievements, and celebrated actors have appeared on its stage. The other theater is the Kaluga Municipal Puppet Theater founded during the Second World War. In addition to the theaters, there are two experimental studios: the TYuZ municipal experimental youth theater studio on ul. Telatralnoi in Kaluga and the DEMI experimental theater studio in Obninsk.
The region also has 22 museums, the largest of which are the Kaluga Regional Art Museum and the Kaluga Regional Museum of Local Lore. The art museum opened in 1918, starting with the private collection of Dr. N.I. Vasilev, who donated it to the city. The museum currently has more than 7000 exhibits of sculpture, drawings, and works by Russian and foreign artisans and craftsmen. The museum of local lore was founded in 1897 by members of the Scientific Archival Committee. It holds exhibits of 18th- to early 20th-century porcelain and faience [glazed earthenware] collections, antique clocks, and butterfly and beetle specimens from around the world from the collection of scientist and explorer M.M. Mesterhazy. The other 20 museums are branches of these two large museums.
The Kaluga Souvenir (Kaluzhsky Suvenir) dance ensemble is known far beyond Russia. It has performed in Romania, China, Germany, Canada, Poland, and Bulgaria. Another group, the Lazori folklore ensemble, was formed in Kaluga in 1983. Its repertoire is based on Russian folksongs, which they have performed in Poland, Italy, Spain, India, and South Korea.
In 1955, artists and critics in the region founded a union of artists and art critics with a membership of nearly 100 painters, graphic artists, sculptors, and artisans. More than 300 works are on display at the Obraz art gallery in Kaluga. Thirty prose writers and poets belong to the Kaluga Regional Writer's Organization whose most notable members include Vadim Terekhin, Vladislav Trefilov, V.A. Volkov, Yury Ubogy, and S.A. Vasilchikov.
Great writers, artists, and scientists have lived and worked in Kaluga. Writers G.R. Derzhavin, Aleksandr Pushkin, Nikolai Gogol, S.T. Aksakov, Lev Tolstoy, and V.G. Belinsky all spent time here, and Decembrists G.S. Batenkov, N.P. Svistunov, and E.P. Obolensky lived here after their Siberian exile.
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