Khabarovsk

Large krai (territory) in the Russian Far East; area 824,600 sq km/318,378 sq mi; population (2003) 1,466,500 (about 80% urban). The capital is Khabarovsk, and other towns include Birobidzhan, Okhotsk, Komsomolsk-na-Amure, and Sovetskaya Gavan. The territory extends for over 2,000 km/1,243 mi along the eastern Siberian coast north of the Manchuria and the Amur River, almost entirely enclosing the Sea of Okhotsk. It encompasses the Jewish Autonomous Region (Oblast). It is mountainous and extensively forested, with a cold monsoonal climate. Mineral resources include gold, coal, tin, iron ore, manganese, and molybdenum. Industries include engineering, mining, metallurgy, pulp and paper production; lumbering and fishing.

The region was first reached and settled by Cossacks in the latter half of the 17th century. Civil disorder was rife (1917–20) until the establishment of the Far-Eastern Republic. The territory was founded in 1938 and reorganized in 1953 and 1957.

Khabarovsk

Capital city of Khabarovsk krai (territory) in eastern Siberia, in the Russian Federation; population (2002) 583,100. Khabarovsk is sited at the confluence of the Amur and Ussuri rivers, and is the largest city, chief transportation and political centre, and second cultural centre of the Russian Far East. There are engineering works, oil refineries, and other industries here.

Khabarovsk was founded in 1858 as a military garrison and fur-trading centre. In 1880 it replaced Nikolayevsk as capital of the Primorski (Maritime) Krai (territory). Industrial growth followed the arrival of the Trans-Siberian Railway in the town in 1897; from 1926–38, it was the capital of the entire Russian Far East.

During the Russian Civil War (1918–20), Khabarovsk was occupied by Japanese troops in support of the ‘White’ (counter-revolutionary) army. It was the scene of Sino-Soviet border skirmishes in the late 1960s. In the 1980s and 1990s, cross-border trade has grown considerably, and there has been much Japanese and South Korean investment in the city.