Against the background of other Russian economic and geographical regions, the EGP of the Volga region is distinguished by its particularly advantageous characteristics, which include a central position between the European and Asian parts of the country. Very often, in the context of a favorable transit position, the Volga region is considered simultaneously with the Urals, through whose territory the border between Europe and Asia passes. In terms of 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 in terms of transport links between parts of the country remote from each other.
Such a different Volga region: EGP, natural conditions and resources
The Volga region stretched from north to south for almost one and a half thousand 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 climate favorable for agriculture, fertile or black earth soils are common. However, in its southern part, the climate becomes noticeably drier, the soils are poorer, and agriculture becomes risky. This is due to the fact that steppe winds blowing from Central Asia reign in the southern reaches of the Volga, anddry summer winds that can destroy the entire crop.
EGP of the Volga region: minerals
The position of the Volga region is also advantageous because there are numerous deposits of such minerals as oil, gas, sulfur, s altpeter on its territory. Moreover, we can talk about their fairly uniform distribution along the entire course of the Volga. Oil fields are located on the territory of both Tatarstan and the Astrakhan region.
However, the oil-bearing layers of the region have been severely depleted during production and occupy the second place in the country after the West Siberian oil-bearing province. Under such conditions, newly discovered deposits of gas condensate are of great 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. It is mainly extracted from dolomites, marls and limestone clays, as well as limestones, which are one of the most common rocks in the Volga region.
Initially, sulfur was mined mainly in the territory of Tatarstan. This was due to the shallow depths of useful material, which often finds itself directly on the surface or immediately under a small layer of alluvial rocks.
Population of the region
Despite the fact that the majority of the population in the vast region is Russian, it is historically multinational, multilingual and culturally diverse.
In a broad senseThe Volga region includes such regions as the Republic of Mordovia, Tatarstan, Bashkiria, Perm Territory, Samara, Volgograd and Astrakhan regions, which means that its population speaks dozens of languages, since numerous nationalities historically lived in the region. However, Russian is still the language of the majority.
Transport infrastructure
In itself, the EGP of the Volga region is conducive to using it for transit, directed both from south to north and from west to east. On the territory of the Volga economic region there are such large transport hubs as Astrakhan with its port and Kazan with a large railway station.
Also, numerous oil and gas pipelines pass through the region, delivering raw materials from Western Siberia to the processing enterprises of Tatarstan and Bashkiria, where they also produce their own.
Another important and long-used transport route is the Volga, a river that for many centuries provided a connection between the north of the East European Plain and the Caspian region. With the commissioning of numerous hydraulic structures and canals, transit from countries with access to the Caspian Sea became possible. Today it is possible to get from ports in the Caspian Sea to the B altic and North Seas using the transport systems of the Volga-B altic and White Sea-B altic river routes, as well as the canal network around Moscow.
Environmental problems and their wayssolutions
However, the active use of the profitable EGP of the Volga region has led to the fact that the region began to increasingly manifest environmental problems caused by intensive river navigation and a large number of industrial enterprises on the banks of the river.
Today, the issue of excessive regulation of the Volga runoff, which led to the active construction of dams for hydroelectric power plants in the middle of the 20th century, is becoming more and more acute.
Thus, characterizing the EGP of the Volga region according to the plan, it is worth pointing out the following features:
- diversity of natural resources;
- transit position at the crossroads of significant transport routes;
- favorable climate;
- quality transport infrastructure.
