Chita

Capital city, economic and cultural centre of Chita oblast (region) in southeastern Siberia, Russian Federation; population (2002) 316,600. It has light engineering works, coal mines, sawmills, and leather and tanning industries. Chita is also an important transportation centre, being situated on the Trans-Siberian Railway near its junction with the Trans-Manchurian Railway; major locomotive repair works are located here.

Chita was a small Cossack fortress town in the 17th and 18th centuries. It became a place of banishment of Decembrists in 1827, and from 1851 was the capital of Transbaikalia and the seat of Nerchinsk Mining Administration. The Trans-Siberian Railway reached here in 1900. In the Russian Civil War (1918–20), it was the headquarters of a division of the White Army, supported by the Japanese, and became the capital of the shortlived Far Eastern Republic (1920–22) before Bolshevik administration was established.

Chita

Oblast (region) in southeastern Siberia, Russian Federation; area 431,500 sq km/166,602 sq mi; population (1996) 1,295,000 (63% urban). The main cities are Chita (capital) and Sretensk. Chita is situated in a mountainous region east of Lake Baikal, extensively covered with coniferous forests; there are large deposits of gold, tin, molybdenum (a metallic element used to strengthen steel), iron, and coal. Chief industries are engineering, mining, and food processing; agricultural activities centre on dairy farming and sheep breeding, and spring-wheat cultivation. The region has a continental climate, with little rainfall and very severe winters.

Chita forms part of one of the earliest settled regions in Siberia (see Transbaikalia); from the early 19th century, it was an area of political banishment.