Administratively, Russia is divided not only into autonomy, territory, region and republic, but also into federal districts (FD). There are 7. in total. Many experts single out the Volga Federal District. What are the specifics of such territorial units? What is the difference from other regions of the Volga Federal District? The characteristics of its economy, the number and characteristics of the historical development of cities will be considered in this article.
What are federal districts
The Volga Federal District is an administrative unit of Russia, formed as a result of the reform of the country's territorial structure, carried out in the early 2000s. During the transformations, 7 federal districts (FDs) were formed, a new post appeared - the plenipotentiary representative of the head of state in each of these territorial entities. It is believed that this innovation was designed to provide a higher quality of economic and political integration of Russian regions. The reform was preceded by the formation of a new model of federalism that was different from the Soviet principles of the administrative system.
The state, according to some experts, could not decide: to give the regions more freedom or to centralize management in Moscow. As a result, a compromise was worked out: they decided to create additional managerial structures between the capital and the federal subjects. It turned out that the regions, on the one hand, were quite independent, and on the other, were obliged to observe the interests of neighboring subjects of the federation, with which they were in the same district.
Criticism of the Federal District System
Among Russian experts there are opinions about the imperfection of the management of territorial units, into which Russia is administratively divided. The Volga Federal District is no exception. Especially often, such points of view were expressed in the early 2000s, in the first years after the district systems were introduced by the president. One of the critics' arguments is the inconsistency of this initiative of the head of state with constitutional norms. In particular, the country's main law says that a decision to reform the administrative-territorial system of the Russian Federation can be made only on the basis of federal laws, but not presidential decrees. Despite the fact that the districts were established just by the decree of the head of state. Another point that critics draw attention to is the function of the presidential representative in the federal districts. In the constitution, they believe, there is not a word about how the powers of the head of state can be transformed into the functions of the plenipotentiaries in question.
Reform of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Federal Districts
In May 2014, the President of Russia carried out a partial reform of the system of state authorities within the federal districts. This affected the structures of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia. In the federal districts were the main departments (GU) of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation. The authorities decided to reduce these posts due to another government decision that established the maximum number of employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs whose work is financed from the state budget - 1 million 113 thousand 172 people. As a result, the Ministry’s departments in the federal districts were abolished (excluding the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation for the North Caucasus Federal District). The main departments of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Volga Federal District, as well as for similar structures in the Far East, Siberia, the Urals, the Center, the South and North-West of Russia were abolished. The employees of these departments were removed for the staff and had to undergo re-certification, as a result of which the question of their further work was decided.
Territorial composition
What is remarkable about the Volga Federal District? First of all, by large known settlements. The largest cities of the Volga Federal District: the beautiful Samara, magnificent Kazan, the legendary Nizhny Novgorod, hospitable Perm and Ufa. In addition, a sufficiently large number of federal entities of various types in their composition. We list the main ones. Regions of the Volga Federal District are Kirov, Orenburg, Samara, Penza, Nizhny Novgorod, Saratov and Ulyanovsk. The district has 6 national republics: Bashkortostan (the capital is Ufa), Mordovia (the administrative center is Saransk), Tatarstan (the main city is Kazan), Mari El (the capital city of the republic is Yoshkar-Ola), Udmurtia and Chuvashia (whose capitals are Izhevsk and Cheboksary, respectively). The Volga Federal District also includes the Perm Territory.
Economy
The Volga Federal District, whose composition is formed by several million-plus cities and resource-rich regions, leads among other federal districts in terms of industrial production, even ahead of the Central, where there is Moscow. The main sectors are engineering, fuel and energy complex. Leaders in the industry - Kirov region, Udmurtia, Chuvashia, Mordovia.
A significant share in the economy of the district is agriculture (especially in Tatarstan, the Nizhny Novgorod region, and the Perm Territory). Light industry is well developed (Mari El, Penza Oblast). The economy of the Federal District, according to some financiers, makes the region one of the most attractive for investors.
Rivers and lakes
The Volga Federal District is located in the basin of the largest European river - the Volga. It begins on Valdai with a small stream, and flows into the Caspian Sea. The length of the river is more than 3.5 thousand km. The Volga catchment area is more than 1.6 million square meters. km
There are many lakes in the Volga Federal District; their account goes to tens of thousands. Most of them are in Tatarstan (about 8 thousand), Bashkortostan (about 2 thousand), in Chuvashia (about 750), about a thousand - in the Kirov region, 689 are located in the Republic of Mari El.
Kazan
The regions of the Volga Federal District are very distinctive. Kazan is one of the main tourist centers of Russia, one of the most famous cities of the Russian Federation in the world.
The year Kazan was founded, according to generally accepted archaeological information, is the 1005th. The city appeared as a fortress of the Volga Bulgaria. For the first time in Russian chronicles, Kazan was mentioned in 1177. The city has become one of the largest trade and political centers of the Golden Horde. In 1438, he received the status of the capital of the Kazan Khanate. In 1552, the city was conquered by the army of Ivan the Terrible and annexed to Russia. In 1708, it became the capital of the Kazan province.
Today this city is one of the key for the Russian economy, the most famous ethnocultural center. An international airport connects the city with many settlements in Russia and abroad. There are almost all types of public transport in Kazan, including the metro. More than 100 nationalities live in the city. The official languages here are Russian and Tatar.
Kirov
Kirov is a city with a very large entrepreneurial activity. According to estimates by the Institute for Systematic Research on Entrepreneurship, in 2012 the Kirov region became the leader in many indicators. In particular, the region took first place in the number of small businesses per 100 thousand people - about 220 units. Kirov region took first place in the number of people working in small enterprises. The level of investment in the capital of small businesses per capita is more than two times higher than the average for Russia (more - only in the Penza region).
The city of Kirov is several hundred years old. The year of its foundation is the 1181st. Until 1457, he was known as Vyatka, until 1781, as Khlynov. The city received its modern name in 1934. In Soviet times, Kirov was considered a half-closed settlement due to the large number of defense industry enterprises located in it. Now the city is open to guests from Russia and from abroad.
Nizhny Novgorod
Nizhny Novgorod is the largest city of the Volga Federal District and one of the most famous in Russia. It was founded in 1221 by Prince Yuri Vsevolodovich. Its name in the first version is associated with a lower location relative to Veliky Novgorod, in the second - relative to another city with a similar name, which was higher up the Volga. During the Mongol-Tatar yoke in Russia, Nizhny Novgorod was not too famous. But after the invaders were expelled from Russian soil, it begins to actively develop, often noted in the chronicles. Some historians believe that during the existence of the Principality of Nizhny Novgorod (in 1341-1392), the city could claim to receive the status of the capital of Russia, as it was able to compete on equal terms with Moscow and Tver. In 1612, an army led by Minin and Pozharsky began to move from the walls of the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin , which liberated our country from Polish-Lithuanian invaders. In 1722, Emperor Peter the Great celebrated his fiftieth anniversary in Nizhny Novgorod. Here lived the Russian geniuses Kulibin, Lobachevsky, Damaskin, teacher Kuzhelev, historian Ilyinsky, traveler Baranshchikov. The city was visited by A.S. Pushkin. He described his impressions of walks in the iconic places of Nizhny Novgorod in the chapters of Eugene Onegin. From the 30s until the collapse of the USSR, the city was named after the writer A.M. Gorky. Now Nizhny Novgorod is one of the industrial centers of Russia. The legendary historical and cultural heritage makes it popular with tourists and is a matter of pride for the Nizhny Novgorod residents themselves.
Volga football cluster
The Volga Federal District, whose composition is formed by one of the most developed economic regions of Russia, will host the World Cup, which will be held in 2018 in Russia. At once, several FD cities will be part of the so-called Volga cluster, a conglomerate of settlements where stadiums will be built to host championship matches.
Among these cities are Nizhny Novgorod, Samara, Kazan and Saransk. In many of them, football infrastructure is being built from scratch. The Volga Federal District and its cities will thus be known not only in Russia, but throughout the world. It remains to wait for the construction of magnificent stadiums and the start of the competition.