Russian Far East

Geographical, not administrative, division of Asiatic Russia, bordering on the Pacific coast. It covers a vast area (6,215,900 sq km/2,400,000 sq mi), and is comprised of the Sakha autonomous republic; the Amur, Lower Amur, Magadan, Kamchatka, and Sakhalin regions (oblasts); and the Khabarovsk and Primorski territories (krais). It is an area rich in mineral deposits and was formerly a place of banishment and labour camps.

The Far East was gradually annexed by Russia between 1649 and 1875. In the early 20th century, the colonists developed a strong regional identity, which found partial expression in the creation of the Far Eastern Republic (1920-22), used as a buffer state between Soviet Russia and Japan at the time of the Russian Civil War, and the Far Eastern krai (1926-38). A part of Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands was lost temporarily to Japan during World War II, but was subsequently regained by the USSR in 1945. The population of the area is mostly Russian, Ukrainian, and Yakut. Before 1938-45, there was also a large number of Japanese, Koreans, and Chinese, who departed or were expelled.