Geography of Russia: EGP of the Volga region

Against the background of other Russian economic and geographical regions, the Volga Federal District has its particularly advantageous characteristics, which include the central position between the European and Asian parts of the country. Very often in the context of an advantageous transit situation, the Volga region is considered simultaneously with the Urals, on the territory of which the border between Europe and Asia passes. For a large number of parameters, the EGP of the Urals and the Volga region are similar, but there are also significant differences. Both regions are important from the point of view of transport communication of parts of the country that are remote from each other.

Such different Volga region: EGP, natural conditions and resources

The Volga region stretched from north to south for almost fifteen hundred kilometers, from the confluence of the Volga with the Kama to the mouth in the Astrakhan region, where the great river flows into the Caspian Sea.

In most of the region there is a favorable climate for agriculture, fertile or chernozem soils are widespread. However, in its southern part the climate becomes noticeably drier, the soil is poorer, and agriculture acquires the features of a risky one. This is due to the fact that in the south of the Volga, steppe winds blowing from Central Asia reign, and summer dry winds that can destroy the entire crop.

EGP of the Volga region: minerals

The situation of the Volga region is also beneficial due to the fact that on its territory there are numerous deposits of such minerals as oil, gas, sulfur, saltpetre. And we can talk about a fairly even distribution throughout the whole of the Volga. Oil fields are located on the territory of both Tatarstan and Astrakhan Oblast.

However, the oil-bearing strata of the region have been severely depleted during production and are the second largest in the country after the West Siberian oil province. Under these conditions, newly discovered gas condensate fields are gaining importance.

Another important resource of the Volga region is sulfur, large deposits of which are located on the territory of the Samara, Saratov and Ulyanovsk regions, as well as the Republic of Tatarstan. Mainly it is extracted from dolomites, marls and limestone clays, as well as limestones, which make up one of the most common breeds of the Volga region.

Initially, the extraction of sulfur was carried out mainly in the territory of Tatarstan. This was due to the small depths of bedding of useful material, which often reveals itself directly on the surface or immediately under a small layer of alluvial rocks.

Population of the region

Despite the fact that most of the population in the vast region is Russian, it is historically multinational, multilingual and culturally diverse.

In a broad sense, the Volga region includes such regions as the Republic of Mordovia, Tatarstan, Bashkiria, Perm Krai, Samara, Volgograd and Astrakhan Oblasts, which means that its population speaks dozens of languages, since the territory of the region was historically inhabited by numerous nationalities. However, Russian is still the language of the majority.

Transport infrastructure

By itself, the EGP of the Volga region has to use it for transit, directed both from the south to the north, and from the west to the east. In the Povolzhsky economic region there are such large transport hubs as Astrakhan with its port and Kazan with a large railway station.

Also on the territory of the region are numerous oil and gas pipelines delivering raw materials from Western Siberia to the processing enterprises of Tatarstan and Bashkiria, in which they extract their own.

Another important and long-used transport route is the Volga River, which for many centuries provided a link between the north of the East European Plain and the Caspian region. With the introduction of numerous hydraulic structures and canals, transit from countries with access to the Caspian Sea has become possible. Today, the ports in the Caspian can be accessed to the Baltic and North Seas, using transport systems of the Volga-Baltic and White Sea-Baltic river routes, as well as a network of canals around Moscow.

Environmental problems and solutions

However, the active use of the profitable EGP of the Volga region has led to the fact that in the region environmental problems have been increasingly manifested, caused by intensive river navigation and a large number of industrial enterprises on the river banks.

Today, the question of excessive regulation of the Volga runoff, which was led by the active construction of dams for hydroelectric power stations in the middle of the 20th century, is becoming ever more acute.

Thus, characterizing the EGP of the Volga region according to the plan, it is worth mentioning the following features:

• Diversity of natural resources;
• Transit position at the crossroads of significant transport routes;
• Favorable climate;
• High-quality transport infrastructure.