The harsh northern region is beautiful and distant. These definitions fully apply to the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. Indigenous peoples live on this land surrounded by pristine nature according to the customs of their ancestors, and rich mineral resources are developed using modern technologies. Yamal has always attracted travelers with its unique appearance. Here, in the most amazing way, the parsimony of the sun and the originality of nature, the severity of the climate and the hospitality of the locals, the fantastic palette of autumn and the silent whiteness of winter are combined. Scientists love Yamal for its cultural wealth and unique nature. Therefore, be sure to come to the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug (the capital Salekhard) in order to enjoy the cleanest air and get a closer look at the beauty of the remote corners of our large country.
Geography
Russia is beautiful and rich: the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug is a black pearl of the northern part of our country. And it occupies no less than 770 thousand square kilometers of the West Siberian Plain. The district includes: Gydan Peninsula, Taz Peninsula and, of course, the Yamal Peninsula. Most of the district is located beyond the Arctic Circle. From the north, the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug is washed by the Kara Sea, from the south it adjoins the Khanty-Mansiysk Okrug, its eastern neighbors are the Taimyr and Evenki Autonomous Okrug, and from the west it borders on the Arkhangelsk Region and the Republic of Komi. The relief of the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Area can be divided into plain and mountainous. All three peninsulas are dotted with small rivers, hollows, ravines and swamps. The mountain range stretches for two hundred kilometers with a narrow strip along the Polar Urals. The climate of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug is sharply continental, severe, divided into three zones: the northern strip of the West Siberian lowland, subarctic and arctic. A population of approximately 500 thousand people with a density of less than one person per square kilometer.
Flora
The vegetation cover in the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug has pronounced latitudinal zonality. Five landscape zones can be distinguished: northern taiga, forest-tundra, shrubby, moss-lichen and Arctic tundra. In the northernmost, Arctic strip, vegetation is very sparse. Here you can find only mosses, lichens and sedge. Small bushes and forbs already grow in the moss-lichen tundra. In the next zone (shrub tundra) dwarf birches and willows grow, along the rivers - berries and mushrooms. There are many swamps and small rivers in the forest-tundra. Dwarf birch trees, larch trees and small spruce trees grow here. In the southernmost zone of the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug - taiga, many lakes, swamps, rivers. The whole territory is covered with dense light and dark coniferous forests.
Fauna
If the flora of the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug is scarce enough, then the animal world is rich and diverse. In five climatic zones of the district, thirty-eight species of mammals live. Most of all there are predators and rodents - fourteen species each. Five names of pinnipeds, three - insectivores, two - ungulates. Twenty species of fur animals have an important commercial value.
Natural resources
The Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug (the capital Salekhard) is famous for its hydrocarbon reserves. About 78% of the total reserves of Russian oil and gas are concentrated here. Yamal-Nenets Autonomous District is the largest hydrocarbon resource base in the world. Development of valuable raw materials is being carried out at the Nakhodkinskoye and Urengoyskoye gas, Yety-Purovskoye, Yuzhno-Russkoye, and Yamburgskoye oil fields. About 8% of the total production of “black” and about 80% of “blue gold” are mined annually in YaNAO. In the Polar Urals , chromium, molybdenum, tin, iron, lead, phosphate rock, barite and other minerals are mined.
Indigenous peoples of the Yamal-Nenets Okrug
Today, twenty peoples live in the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous District. But the true indigenous people are the Khanty, Nenets, Selkups and Komi-Izhemtsy who have lived in this territory since time immemorial. The rest settled only in the second half of the twentieth century. This is due to the development in the era of the Soviet Union of the territories of the Far North.
Khanty: from ancient times this people lived in the territories of the Khanty-Mansiysk and Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrugs. The culture, language and customs of this people are very heterogeneous. This is due to the fact that the Khanty settled on a rather vast territory and therefore became somewhat scattered.
The Nenets inhabit a vast territory of Russia - from the Taimyr Peninsula to the coast of the Arctic Ocean. These people migrated from South Siberia in the first millennium AD. It belongs to the Samoyed group.
It is known that the Komi people have been living in this territory since the 1st millennium BC. This people is divided into northern and southern Komi. The first from time immemorial were engaged in reindeer husbandry, fishing and hunting. The second were hunters and fishermen.
Selkups are the most numerous people of the North. Selkups were traditionally engaged in fishing and hunting. Those representatives of the people who lived at higher latitudes still bred deer.
Administrative center
The capital of the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous District is Salekhard. It is located on the banks of the Ob (on the right side). The city is located on the Arctic Circle (the only one in the world). The population is about 40 thousand people. The city was founded in 1595. At first it was a small prison named Obdorsky. Half a century after the founding, permanent residents appear here. Since 1923, the village of Obdorsk becomes the center of the Obdorsk district of the Ural region. And already in 1930, the village was given the status of the administrative center of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. Three years later, Obdorsk was renamed Salekhard. Nowadays, the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, the capital of the AO in particular, is developing quite rapidly. There are many enterprises in the city: Yamalzoloto, a river port, a fish canning factory, Yamalflot and others. The Yamal-Nenets District Museum and Exhibition Complex, which has an exhibition center, a local history museum and a scientific library, is open in the city. Also in Salekhard is the District House of Crafts - the state budgetary institution of culture of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. In the capital of the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous District there are many branches of various universities. It should be noted that the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug (the capital Salekhard) is experiencing big problems with access to the Internet. The fact is that in the region there is still no fiber optic network.
Cities and areas of the Yamal-Nenets okrug
The Yamal-Nenets Autonomous District has seven districts, eight cities, five urban-type settlements, and forty-one rural administrations. The areas of the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Area: Yamal, Shuryshkarsky, Tazovsky, Purovsky, Priuralsky, Nadymsky and Krasnoselkupsky. As mentioned above, population density is very low. Despite the vast territory, very few cities have the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District. Cities: Noyabrsk (97 thousand), Novy Urengoy (89.8 thousand), Nadym (45.2 thousand), Muravlenko (36.4 thousand), Salekhard (32.9 thousand), Labytnangi (26, 7 thousand), Gubkinsky (21.1 thousand inhabitants). Below will be described in more detail some of the cities of Yamal.
Gubkinsky
The city of Gubkinsky (Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug) in 1996 became a city of district significance and named after the Soviet geologist Gubkin Ivan Mikhailovich. It is located on the left bank of the Pyakupur River two hundred kilometers from the Arctic Circle. This city was formed as a base center for the development of oil deposits. Because Gubkinsky (Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug), mainly specializes in oil and gas production and processing industry. Work with young people is well-established in the city: there are sports and cultural centers, a dance school, and a recording studio. Young people have the opportunity to get an education in their hometown.
Muravlenko. Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug
The city was founded in 1984. He received the status of a district in 1990. It is named in honor of oil engineer Viktor Muravlenko. Basically, the city budget is replenished by enterprises of the oil industry. Muravlenko (Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug) has its own radio and television companies. Newspapers are published: "Our city", "Kopeyka", "Word of the oilman".
Noyabrsk. Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug
After Novy Urengoy, Noyabrsk is the second largest population in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. The date of foundation of the city can be considered 1973, when the first oil well was drilled on the site of the present Noyabrsk. Two years later, the first immigrants arrived here, which mainly consisted of workers. Back in 1976, the village of Noyabrsk could only be found on the maps of oil workers, and in 1982 the village was given the status of a district city. The oil and gas and fuel industries are very well developed. More than thirty companies work in this field.