Zabaykalsky Krai

• 1. Introduction

  ›

  Zabaykalsky Krai is a federal subject of Russia, the kind of region known as a krai, and it sits in the Russian Far East. Its administrative center is Chita. The census of 2010 counted 1,107,107 people living there. For a place that few outsiders could find on a map, it has a surprisingly layered past. Its borders were redrawn within living memory, and its land has belonged to a long line of steppe empires. This documentary asks who ruled these lands before Russia, why two separate regions chose to become one, and who calls the krai home today.

  1214

• 2. Borders and Lakes

  ›

  Zabaykalsky Krai lies inside the historical region of Transbaikalia, and its frontier with China runs for 998 km. That line touches two Chinese regions, Inner Mongolia and Heilongjiang.

  The border with Mongolia is shorter, at 868 km. It passes along three Mongolian provinces: Dornod, Khentii and Selenge.

  Within Russia, the krai has four neighbors. Irkutsk Oblast and Amur Oblast lie on two sides, while Buryatia and the Sakha Republic lie on others.

  The Khentei-Daur Highlands rise at the southwestern end of the krai. West of Chita, a group of lakes known as the Ivan-Arakhley Lake System fills the landscape.

  Long before anyone drew these borders, people were already leaving traces in the river gravels near Chita.

  1214

• 3. Peoples Before Russia

  ›

  The oldest evidence of human presence in the krai is between 35 and 150 thousand years old. It was found on the surface of ancient river gravels at Gyrshelunki, a tributary of the Khilok River near Chita. More early evidence comes from Ust-Menza, on the Chikoy River.

  Place names suggest an even less visible people. Based on toponyms, the area might once have been inhabited by a Yeniseian group that spoke an undocumented, now extinct language.

  Mongolic-related Slab Grave monuments stand in the Baikal territory. Later, a series of powers claimed the land. The Xiongnu Empire governed it from 209 BC to 93 CE, and the Mongolian Xianbei state followed from 93 to 234.

  The Rouran Khaganate held it from 330 to 555. The Mongol Empire ruled from 1206 to 1368, and the Northern Yuan from 1368 to 1691.

  Medieval Mongol tribes lived in the krai, among them the Merkit, the Tayichiud, the Jalairs and the Khamag Mongols.

  In the 17th century, some or all of the Mongolic-speaking Daurs lived along the Shilka, the upper Amur and the Bureya River. Their name gave the region the title Dauria, another name for Transbaikal, the Russian land east of Lake Baikal. Buryat-Mongols still live in the krai today.

  789

• 4. The Merger Vote

  ›

  In April 2006, regional authorities began preliminary work on joining Chita Oblast with the Agin-Buryat Autonomous Okrug. The governor of Chita Oblast, Ravil Geniatulin, took part. So did Bair Zhamsuyev, the mayor of the Agin-Buryat Autonomous Okrug, and Anatoly Romanov, the head of the regional parliament. Dashi Dugarov joined them in signing a letter to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin. On the 17th of November 2006, Putin supported the initiative.

  A referendum followed on the 11th of March 2007. Voters were asked whether the two regions should merge into a new federal subject called Zabaykalsky Krai. The Agin-Buryat territory would keep a special status defined by the new region's charter.

  In Chita Oblast, 90.29 percent of voters, or 535,045 people, said yes. Another 52,698 people, or 8.89 percent, voted no, and turnout was 72.82 percent.

  The Agin-Buryat area was even more decisive. There, 94 percent of voters, or 38,814 people, backed the union, against 5.16 percent, or 2,129 people. Turnout reached 82.95 percent.

  Putin signed the federal constitutional law creating the new subject on the 23rd of July 2007. The State Duma had adopted it on the 5th of July, and the Federation Council approved it on the 11th of July. The new krai itself was created on the 1st of March 2008.

  4611

• 5. Governors and Federal Ties

  ›

  On the 5th of February 2008, Ravil Geniatulin, the sitting governor of Chita Oblast, was elected governor of the new krai. The vote came from a majority of the deputies in both the Chita Oblast Duma and the Agin-Buryat Autonomous Okrug Duma. He assumed the post on the day the krai came into existence.

  A popular vote chose his later successor. On the 18th of September 2016, the United Russia candidate Natalia Zhdanova was elected governor with 54 percent of the vote.

  In 2018, the krai became part of the Far Eastern Federal District.

  51112

• 6. Mines and Power

  ›

  The Priargunskoe Mining and Chemical Association heads the source's list of large companies in the region. Alongside it appear Territorial Generating Company №14 and the Novo-Shirokinsky mine.

  The list leans toward mining and electricity. The Kharanorskaya State District Power Plant and the Kharanorskiy coal mine complete it.

  Two of these names, a power plant and a coal mine, share the Kharanor name.

  10

• 7. People Today

  ›

  In the 2021 census, Russians made up 89.2 percent of the krai's population, or 790,207 people. Buryats were the second-largest group at 7.4 percent, or 65,590 people.

  Smaller groups followed. Armenians and Tatars each made up 0.3 percent, while Ukrainians, Kyrgyz and Uzbeks each made up 0.2 percent.

  In 2021, 118,477 people were registered from administrative databases and could not declare an ethnicity. Their proportions are estimated to match those of the group that did declare one.

  The census of 2002 had found 1,037,502 Russians, or 90.0 percent, and 70,457 Buryats, or 6.1 percent. By 2010, the Russian count had fallen to 977,499 while the Buryat count had risen to 73,941.

  The Tatar population shrank from 8,159 in 2002 to 2,489 in 2021.

  13141

• 8. Faith and Vital Statistics

  ›

  A survey in 2012 asked residents about their beliefs. A quarter of the population, 25 percent, adhered to the Russian Orthodox Church, and 6.25 percent followed Buddhism.

  Another 6 percent called themselves unaffiliated Christians, excluding Protestant churches. A further 2 percent were Orthodox believers who belonged to no church. The largest single answer, at 28 percent, was "spiritual but not religious." Atheists made up 17 percent, and 16.15 percent followed other religions or gave no answer.

  In 2024, the krai recorded 9,972 births, a rate of 10.2 per 1,000 people. Deaths numbered 14,073, a rate of 14.3 per 1,000, so deaths outnumbered births. The total fertility rate was 1.58 children per woman.

  Life expectancy in 2021 was 66.82 years overall. Women could expect 71.54 years, and men 62.28.

  1819151617