Saratov Oblast

Saratov Oblast Саратовская область (Russian)
—  Oblast  —
Flag Coat of arms
Anthem: none[1]
Coordinates: 51°47′N 46°44′E / 51.783°N 46.733°E / 51.783; 46.733Coordinates: 51°47′N 46°44′E / 51.783°N 46.733°E / 51.783; 46.733
Political status
Country	Russia
Federal district	Volga[2]
Economic region	Volga[3]
Established	December 5, 1936[4]
Administrative center	Saratov
Government (as of July 2014)
• Governor[5]	Valery Radayev[6]
• Legislature	Oblast Duma[5]
Statistics
Area (as of the 2002 Census)[7]
• Total	100,200 km2 (38,700 sq mi)
Area rank	36th
Population (2010 Census)[8]
• Total	2,521,892
• Rank	19th
• Density[9]	25.17/km2 (65.2/sq mi)
• Urban	74.5%
• Rural	25.5%
Population (beginning of 2014 est.)
• Total	2,496,600[10]
Time zone(s)	SAMT (UTC+04:00)[11]
ISO 3166-2	RU-SAR
License plates	64, 164
Official languages	Russian[12]
Official website

Saratov Oblast (Russian: Сара́товская о́бласть, Saratovskaya oblast) is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast), located in the Volga Federal District. Its administrative center is the city of Saratov. As of the 2010 Census, its population was 2,521,892.^[8]

Geography

The oblast is located in the southeast of European Russia, in the northern part of the Lower Volga region. From west to east its territory stretches for 575 kilometers (357 mi), and from north to south for 330 kilometers (210 mi).

The oblast borders on:

• Volgograd Oblast to the south
• Voronezh and Tambov oblasts to the west
• Penza, Samara, Ulyanovsk and Orenburg oblasts to the north;
• the Republic of Kazakhstan to the east

Natural resources

Of particular agricultural importance are valuable agricultural ordinary and southern chernozyom areas; chestnut soils are widespread. The oblast has many water resources: besides the river Volga (which divides the oblast in two) there are many identified sources and mineral-water deposits.

Politics

Facade of the Oblast Duma building

During the Soviet period, the high authority in the oblast was shared between three persons: The first secretary of the Saratov CPSU Committee (who in reality had the most authority), the chairman of the oblast Soviet (legislative power), and the Chairman of the oblast Executive Committee (executive power). In 1991, the CPSU lost all its power, and the head of the Oblast administration, and eventually the governor was appointed or elected alongside elected the regional parliament.

The Charter of Saratov Oblast is the fundamental law of the oblast. The Legislative Assembly of Saratov Oblast is the province's standing legislative (representative) body. The Legislative Assembly exercises its authority by passing laws, resolutions, and other legal acts and by supervising the implementation and observance of the laws and other legal acts it passes. The highest executive body is the Oblast Government, which includes territorial executive bodies such as district administrations, committees, and commissions that facilitate development and run the day-to-day matters of the province. The Oblast administration supports the activities of the Governor who is the highest official and acts as guarantor of the observance of the oblast Charter in accordance with the Constitution of Russia.

Administrative divisions

Demographics

Population: 2,521,892 (2010 Census);^[8] 2,668,310 (2002 Census);^[13] 2,686,483 (1989 Census).^[14]

Ethnic groups: most of the ethnic Germans who used to live in the area have been repatriated. The German Consulate in Saratov closed in June 2004, stating that there were only 18,000 ethnic Germans left in the oblast (including 2,000 in the city of Saratov)

There were twenty recognized ethnic groups of more than two thousand persons each in Saratov Oblast at the time of the 2010 Census. The ethnic composition was reported to be:^[8]

• Russians:(87.6%);
• Kazakhs:(3.1%);
• Tatars:(2.2%);
• Ukrainians:(1.7%);
• Armenians:(1%);
• Azerbaijani:(0.6%);
• Chuvash:(0.5%);
• Mordovians:(0.4%);
• Germans:(0.3%);
• Belarusians:(0.3%);
• Chechens:(0.2%);
• 2.1% others.
• 64,878 people were registered from administrative databases, and could not declare an ethnicity. It is estimated that the proportion of ethnicities in this group is the same as that of the declared group.^[15]
• Births (2008): 27,492 (10.7 per 1000)
• Deaths (2008): 39,291 (15.2 per 1000)^[16]

Vital statistics for 2012

• Births: 28 364 (11.3 per 1000)
• Deaths: 35 664 (14.2 per 1000) ^[17]

Total fertility rate:^[18] 2009 - 1.41 | 2010 - 1.40 | 2011 - 1.40 | 2012 - 1.51 | 2013 - 1.54 | 2014 - 1.57 | 2015 - 1.59(e)

Religion

Religion in Saratov Oblast (2012)^[19][20]

  Russian Orthodox (30%)

  Unaffiliated Christian (4%)

  Muslim (2%)

  Rodnover (1%)

  Other Orthodox (1%)

  Hindu (0.5%)

  Spiritual but not religious (38%)

  Atheist (16%)

  Other or undeclared (7.5%)

According to a 2012 official survey^[19] 30% of the population of Saratov Oblast adheres to the Russian Orthodox Church, 4% are unaffiliated generic Christians, 1% are Orthodox Christians who believe but aren't members of any church or are members of non-Russian Orthodox churches. 2% are Muslims, 1% of the population adheres to Rodnovery (Slavic folk religion), and 0.5% adheres to forms of Hinduism (Vedism, Krishnaism or Tantrism). In addition, 38% of the population declares to be "spiritual but not religious", 16% is atheist, and 7.5% follows other religions or did not give an answer to the question.^[19]

See also

• List of Chairmen of the Saratov Oblast Duma
• Volga German Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Saratov Oblast.

Notes

Sources

• Саратовская областная Дума. Закон №46-ЗСО от 2 июня 2005 г. «Устав (Основной Закон) Саратовской области», в ред. Закона №54-ЗСО от 28 апреля 2015 г. «О внесении изменений в Устав (Основной Закон) Саратовской области». Вступил в силу после официального опубликования. Опубликован: "Неделя области", Спецвыпуск, №38 (156), 4 июня 2005 г. (Saratov Oblast Duma. Law #46-ZSO of June 2, 2005 Charter (Basic Law) of Saratov Oblast, as amended by the Law #54-ZSO of April 28, 2015 On Amending the Charter (Basic Law) of Saratov Oblast. Effective as of after the official publication.).

Subdivisions of Russia
Federal subjects Republics Adygea Altai Bashkortostan Buryatia Chechnya Chuvashia Crimea1 Dagestan Ingushetia Kabardino-Balkaria Kalmykia Karachay-Cherkessia Karelia Khakassia Komi Mari El Mordovia North Ossetia-Alania Sakha Tatarstan Tuva Udmurtia Krais Altai Kamchatka Khabarovsk Krasnodar Krasnoyarsk Perm Primorsky Stavropol Zabaykalsky Oblasts Amur Arkhangelsk Astrakhan Belgorod Bryansk Chelyabinsk Irkutsk Ivanovo Kaliningrad Kaluga Kemerovo Kirov Kostroma Kurgan Kursk Leningrad Lipetsk Magadan Moscow Murmansk Nizhny Novgorod Novgorod Novosibirsk Omsk Orenburg Oryol Penza Pskov Rostov Ryazan Sakhalin Samara Saratov Smolensk Sverdlovsk Tambov Tomsk Tula Tver Tyumen Ulyanovsk Vladimir Volgograd Vologda Voronezh Yaroslavl Federal cities Moscow St. Petersburg Sevastopol1 Autonomous oblast Jewish Autonomous okrugs Chukotka Khanty-Mansi2 Nenets3 Yamalo-Nenets2 1Claimed by Ukraine and considered by most of the international community to be part of Ukraine 2Administratively subordinated to Tyumen Oblast 3Administratively subordinated to Arkhangelsk Oblast
Internal additional non-constitutional divisions by different institutions Economic regions (by Ministry of Economic Development) Military districts (by Ministry of Defence) Federal districts (by President) Judicial districts (by law "On arbitration courts")

		Orenburg,  Penza,  Samara and  Ulyanovsk Oblasts
	Tambov and  Voronezh Oblast		West Kazakhstan Province,  Kazakhstan
		Saratov Oblast
		Volgograd Oblast