Krasnoyarsk

Krai (territory) in the Russian Federation, in central Siberia; area 2,401,600 sq km/927,258 sq mi (including Arctic Ocean Islands); population (1996) 3,106,000 (74% urban). The capital is Krasnoyarsk and Kansk and Norilsk are other cities. The territory stretches some 3,000 km/1,870 mi north-south along the River Yenisey valley from the Arctic Ocean to the Sayan Mountains. There is lowland to the west of the Yenisey, and plateau to the east. The climate is severe, with permafrost in the north, within the Arctic Circle. The area is largely covered with coniferous forests, but with tundra in the north and fertile steppe in the south. There are huge coal, graphite, iron-ore, gold, non-ferrous metals, and uranium deposits.

Industries include coal and mineral mining, engineering, lumbering, textile manufacture, and food processing; hydroelectric power generation; agricultural activities are grain growing (spring wheat), cattle raising, and reindeer breeding; and some fur trapping.

History Krasnoyarsk krai was formerly an area of banishment and forced labour camps for criminal and political dissidents (see Norilsk), but is now one of the most rapidly developing regions of Siberia.