Kurgan region overview
Kurgan oblast (region) (other spelling Kurganskaya) is a federal subject of the Russian Federation located in Ural Federal District.
Administrative center of the region is Kurgan. The region is located on the border between Urals Mountains and Siberia. The province borders on Kazakhstan on the south.
Kurgan region population is about 886,000 (2012); land area - 71,488 sq. km.
Kurgan region economics
Fertile land is the main natural treasure of Kurgan region. Agricultural fields occupy about 40% the territory. Forests occupy about 1/5 of the territory - 1,7 million hectares.
Local industry began forming on the basis of 16 evacuated plants which were removed here from western areas of the country during the World War II. Later some other plants were founded: wood-working tools, road constructing machines and others.
After the war, large plants were built in the region - Kurgansky machine-building plant, association “AK Korvet”, chemical plant “Khimmash”, bus producing plant “KAVZ” and medical preparations plant “Sintez”.
In the region a lot of deposits of building materials are found as well as iron-ore deposits (about 2 billion tons) and uranium (16% of total Russian uranium deposits). There are 2878 lakes, 95 rivers and 28 storage pools on the territory of the region.
Trans-Siberian railway, gas and oil mains cross the territory of Kurgan region. It borders on highly developed regions in the Urals - Sverdlovsk, Chelyabinsk as well as Tyumen regions and Kazakhstan.
The largest cities and towns of the region are Kurgan (328,000), Shadrinsk (77,000), Shumikha (19,000), Kurtamysh (18,000), Kataisk (15,000), Petukhovo (15,000), Dalmatovo (14,000).
Kurgan region nature
Kurgan region nature view
Kurgan region places of interest
Most of the remained monuments of history and architecture of the area behind the Urals are cult monuments. The following monuments in the region are of federal importance: Dalmatovsky monastery, Savior-Transfiguration church, Nikolskaya, Shirokovskaya and Pershinskaya churches, the church of Three Sanctifiers, Phlor and Lavr church.
Dalmatovsky Saint-Assumption monastery is one of the main sites of cultural heritage not only in the area behind the Urals but in Russia. It was founded in 1644 by Dmitry Ivanovich Mokrinsky.
In Soviet time, Dalmatovsky monastery was abolished and an industrial plant was located on its territory for a long time. For this purpose buildings were constructed on the monastery territory which were discordant and the monastery buildings were disassembled and re-constructed.
It was only in the early 90s of the 20th century when the monastery was returned to Russian Orthodox church. It was the start of its revival.
Savior-Transfiguration church is the first stone building in Shadrinsk. It was founded in 1771. Art critics consider the architectural style of the church to be the “Ukrainian” baroque influenced by classicism and Russian architecture.
Most of the churches which are the sights of cultural heritage of Kurgan region were founded at the end of the 18th - the early 19th centuries. A lot of them, especially monuments of federal importance are the outstanding examples of such architectural styles as baroque and classicism.
The buildings connected with 13 exiled Decembrists in 1830-1857 refer to historical monuments specific for the area behind the Urals.
First of all these are the houses of Kyukhelbecker, Naryshkin and Rozen in Kurgan city as well as well preserved merchants’ houses of the end of the 19th - the early 20th centuries. One of them, Dunayev house in Kurgan, is a monument of federal importance.