Pavlodar Oblast

a part of the Kazakh SSR. Formed on Jan. 15, 1938. Area, 127,500 sq km. Population, 750,000 (1974). Pavlodar Oblast is divided into 12 administrative raions and has four cities and 11 urban-type settlements. The administrative center is the city of Pavlodar. The oblast has been awarded the Order of Lenin (Oct. 11, 1958).

Natural features. Pavlodar Oblast is located in the northeastern part of the republic, in the forest-steppe, steppe, and semides-ert zones, along the middle course of the Irtysh River. Most of the oblast lies in the southern section of the Western Siberian Plain (the Irtysh Plain), with elevations of 110–200 m. On the plain there are small ridges, as well as numerous depressions and hollows, many of which are occupied by freshwater and saltwater lakes. The southwestern part of the oblast is occupied by the Kazakh Melkosopochnik, with the Kyzyltau and Baianaul mountains (Mount Aulie, 1,055 m; Mount Akbet, 1,026 m). Minerals include anthracite, lignite, and copper and polymetallic ores. There are deposits of common salt and Glauber’s salt in the lakes.

The climate is sharply continental and arid, with hot, dry summers. Average July temperatures range from 20°C in the north to 22°C in the south. Dust storms are common during the summers, which are also characterized by dry winds, as well as by sharp fluctuations in temperature during the day. The winters are long and cold, with little snow but with strong winds and blizzards. Average January temperatures range from – 19.5°C in the north to – 17.5°C in the south. The average annual precipitation is 220–240 mm in the south, 305 mm in the north, and 320 mm in the mountains. The growing season is 167 days in the north and 178 days in the south.

The only major river, the Irtysh, flows from southeast to northwest for approximately 500 km. It has many branches, oxbow lakes, and islands. Originating in the level upland area (melkosopochnik), the Tundyk, Ashchisu, Shiderty, Olenty, and other rivers flow not into the Irtysh but into drainless lakes. The Irtysh-Karaganda Canal has been constructed from the Irtysh River, and several dams and reservoirs have been built on the canal. The oblast has many lakes, primarily saltwater ones: Lakes Seletyteniz, Kyzylkak, Zhalauly, Shureksor, Karasor, Zhamantuz, and Kalkaman in the left-bank region of the Irtysh, and Lakes Maraldy, Moildy, and Bol’shoi Azhbulat in the right-bank region.

Most of Pavlodar Oblast lies in the subzone of feather-grass and fescue-grass steppes on dark chestnut soils. The steppes have been almost completely plowed up. Nonirrigated agriculture and the cultivation of virgin lands are important in this region. Located in the extreme north is the southern forest-steppe, with chernozem soils and birch groves scattered on steppes with various types of grasses. The valley of the Irtysh has various types of cereal grasses and floodplain meadows, irrigated hayfields, and belts of pine trees. Around the lakes and in the valleys of dried-up rivers there are sedge-grass meadows and reed thickets. In the southern part of the left-bank region of the Irtysh there are fescue-wormwood and wormwood-halophytic semidesert areas on light chestnut soils, with patches of solonetz and solon-chaks. These areas are suitable for use as pastures. There are also belts of pine forests on the sandy soils of the right-bank region. The Baianul Mountains have small pine and birch forests on extremely rocky chestnut soils.

The steppes of Pavlodar Oblast are inhabited by rodents—the steppe lemming, blue (or mountain) hare, marmot (Marmota bobac), susliks, and Old World jerboas (Dipodidae). The most common predatory animals are the wolf, fox, steppe polecat, and weasel. Larks, quails, ducks, and sandpipers (Limicolae) are the most common birds. Lake fish include crucian carp, bream, tench, and perch. Fish species inhabiting the Irtysh include pike, perch, pike perch, ide, burbot, and Stenodus leucichthys nelma (a subspecies of the salmon family). A variety of pine squirrel, the Sciurus vulgaris exalbidus, has been acclimatized in the pine forests, and muskrats have been acclimatized in reed-thicket areas.

Population. The population of Pavlodar Oblast includes Kazakhs, Russians, Ukrainians, Tatars, Byelorussians, Moldavians, Mordovians, Chuvashes, Udmurts, and Bashkirs. In the cities and on the new grain sovkhozes the population is particularly multinational. The average population density is 5.9 inhabitants per sq km, but the density ranges from ten to 15 persons per sq km in the north, in the right-bank region and the valley of the Irtysh, to 0.6–0.8 person per sq km in the southwest and in the left-bank region. The urban population accounts for 54 percent of the total. All the cities (except Pavlodar) and urban-type settlements were built in the years of Soviet power. Most of the urban-type settlements are associated with the extraction of minerals—the city of Ekibastuz and the settlements of Tavolzhan, Kalkaman, Bozshakol’, Maikain, and Shoptykol’. Others are the organizational centers of agricultural regions—the city of Ir-tyshsk and the settlements of Shcherbakty, Kachiry, and Kras-nokutsk.

Economy. The economy of Pavlodar Oblast is dominated by large-scale industry—especially the power and fuel industries, metallurgy, machine building, and the chemical industry—as well as by light industry and food processing. The power industry is based on local Ekibastuz coal, as well as on coal from Kuznetsk and coal and mazut from Karaganda. The largest steam power plants, which are in the cities of Ekibastuz, Pavlodar, and Ermak, belong to the Integrated Electric Power Grid of Western Siberia and northern Kazakhstan. The principal branches of the mining industry in the Kazakh Melkosopochnik are coal mining (the Ekibastuz and Maikuben deposits; 36 million tons in 1973) and the extraction of nonferrous metals and gold (Maikain, Bozshakol’). In the valley of the Irtysh the main branches are the extraction of salt (in the lakes near the Irtysh —for example, Lakes Kalkaman and Tavolzhan) and the extraction of refractory clays and limestones. Almost all of the oblast’s manufacturing industry is concentrated in the city of Pavlodar: machine building and metalworking (for example, a tractor plant and a shipyard), the chemical industry, and especially food processing (for example, meat-packing and flour-milling combines, canned milk plants, a butter factory, a brewery and a fish-processing plant. Some light industry is found in the city of Pavlo-dar, as well as a large-scale building-materials industry. The most important new industrial facilities are an aluminum plant (operating on Turgai and Kozyrev bauxites) in Pavlodar, a ferroalloys plant, and the State Regional Electric Power Plant in Ermak. A number of raion administrative centers have creameries, flour mills, furniture factories, garment factories, limestone plants, and other enterprises. In 1974 the Omsk-Pavlodar-Chim-kent oil pipeline and an oil refinery were under construction. The Pavlodar-Ekibastuz Industrial Complex includes energy-consuming branches of industry.

Of the land suitable for agriculture in Pavlodar Oblast, a considerable portion (6,237,000 ha [hectares]) is used for pastures. Summer pastures are located in the north in the right-bank region of the Irtysh and on the slopes of the upland area, and autumn, spring, and summer pastures, in the semidesert area of the left-bank region and around the lakes. There are 297,000 ha of hayfields—irrigated fields in the Irtysh floodplains and nonir-rigated ones on the unplowed sections of the virgin lands. There are 3,454,000 ha of arable land, almost all of which is nonirri-gated. Between 1954 and 1958 several million hectares of virgin and long-fallow lands were assimilated, primarily areas in the left-bank region of the Irtysh. New grain sovkhozes were established. On the steppes in the north and the east, agriculture includes large-scale grain farming and livestock raising for meat and milk, using a combination of the stall-feeding and grazing methods. Poultry farming and pig farming are important, and fine-fleeced sheep are raised. In the more arid parts of the left-bank region, cereal crops are cultivated, herds of horses are kept, and distant-pasture livestock raising is important. (Sheep are raised for meat, tallow, and coarse wool, and cattle for meat.) Truck farming (dairy cattle, potatoes, and green vegetables) is important in the Irtysh valley around the industrial centers.

As of 1973, the sown area was 3,289,900 ha, of which more than 50 percent (1,827,300 ha) was planted with cereal crops, primarily spring wheat (976,400 ha). Other cereal crops include barley (344,300 ha), millet (190,800 ha), buckwheat (204,000 ha), and fodder crops (1,413,300 ha), especially perennial grasses (1,121,800 ha). Corn (216,500 ha) is planted for silage and green fodder. The main industrial crop is sunflowers (22,200 of the 23,800 ha planted with industrial crops). Small areas (a total of 25,500 ha) are planted with potatoes, vegetables, melons, cucumbers, and squash. The valley of the Irtysh is famous for watermelons. Sheep are the predominant type of livestock (1,613,800 sheep, as of Jan. 1, 1974). Cattle are also raised (612,500 head, including 196,500 cows), as well as horses (100,700), pigs (120,-300), goats (21,100), and domestic fowl (2,335,800). Fishing is important along the Irtysh and on the freshwater lakes. There is hunting in the semidesert area and in the upland area and lumbering in the pine forests of the right-bank region of the Irtysh.

As of 1973, there were 574 km of railroads. The main line is the Tselinograd-Pavlodar-Kulunda line. In 1973 there were 8,006 km of roads, of which 2,238 km were paved. The most important roads are the Omsk-Pavlodar-Semipalatinsk route, which runs along the old Irtysh route; the Pavlodar-Maikain-Baianaul road; and the Pavlodar-Ekibastuz-Karaganda road. There is regular shipping along the Irtysh. The main landings are at Ermak, Pavlodar, Kachiry, and Irtyshsk. Pavlodar is linked by air routes with all the raion administrative centers of Pavlodar Oblast and with the oblast administrative centers of Kazakhstan, as well as with Alma-Ata, Moscow, Omsk, Novosibirsk, and Barnaul.

Education, cultural affairs, and public health. During the 1914–15 academic year what is now Pavlodar Oblast had 119 schools, chiefly primary schools, with more than 6,000 pupils. There were no specialized secondary schools or institutions of higher learning. During the 1973–74 academic year there were 612 general education schools of all types with 191,700 pupils, 28 vocational and technical schools with 13,300 pupils, and 12 specialized secondary educational institutions with 11,700 pupils. The oblast’s two institutions of higher learning—the industrial and pedagogical institutes in Pavlodar—had 8,500 students. At the end of 1973, there were 403 preschool institutions with 43,800 children.

As of Jan. 1, 1974, Pavlodar Oblast had 478 public libraries (3.9 million copies of books and journals), an oblast museum of local lore and an art museum in Pavlodar, the K. I. Satpaev Memorial Museum in the village of Baianaul, and the A. P. Chekhov Drama Theater in Pavlodar. There were 474 clubs and 564 motion-picture projection units. Extracurricular institutions include 14 houses of Pioneers, three young technicians’ stations, three young naturalists’ stations, and 19 children’s sports schools.

The oblast newspapers are Kïzïl tu (Red Banner, published in Kazakh, since 1929) and Zvezda Priirtysh’ia (since 1918). Local television broadcasting is carried for three hours a day in Kazakh and in Russian. The programs of Central Television are relayed (nine hours a day). Oblast radio broadcasts in Kazakh and Russian are carried for 1½ hours a day; All-Union Radio broadcasts, for eight hours and 55 minutes; and Republic Radio broadcasts, for six hours and 55 minutes.

As of Jan. 1, 1974, there were 116 hospitals with 8,900 beds (11.9 beds per 1,000 inhabitants) and 1,300 physicians (one per 583 inhabitants). The Muialdy balneological and mud-treatment health resort is located in Pavlodar Oblast, as are three houses of rest, five sanatoriums, and five preventive-medicine sanatoriums.