Map of Krasnoyarsk

History

According to archaeologists, the first people reached Siberia circa 40,000 BC. The Andronovo culture, a group of Bronze Age peoples, lived in the area around 2000–900 BC, the remains of which were discovered in 1914 near the village of Andronovo, Uzhursky District. The grave-mounds and monuments of the Scythian culture in Krasnoyarsk Krai belong to the 7th century BC and are some of the oldest in Eurasia. A prince's grave, the Kurgan Arshan, discovered in 2001, is also located in the krai.

Russian settlement of the area (mostly by Cossacks) began in the 17th century. After the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway the Russian colonization of the area strongly increased.

Geography

The krai lies in the middle of Siberia, and occupies nearly half of the Siberian Federal District, almost splitting it in half, stretching 3,000 kilometres (1,900 mi) from the Sayan Mountains in the south along the Yenisei River to the Taymyr Peninsula in the north. It borders (counting clockwise from the sea) the Sakha Republic, Irkutsk, the Tuva Republic, the Republic of Khakassia, Kemerovo, Tomsk, Tyumen Oblasts, the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug and the Kara Sea and Laptev Sea of the Arctic Ocean in the north.

The krai is located in the basin of the Arctic Ocean; a great number of rivers that flow through the krai drain into it eventually.

Economy

Over 95% of the cities, a majority of the industrial enterprises, and all of the agriculture are concentrated in the south of the krai.

The krai is among the richest of Russia's regions in natural resources: 80% of the country's nickel, 75% of its cobalt, 70% of its copper, 16% of its coal, and 10% of its gold are extracted here. Krasnoyarsk also produces 20% of the country's timber. More than 95% of Russian resources of platinum and platinoids are concentrated in the krai.

It makes Krasnoyarsk Krai one of Russia's most important producers of electric energy and a desirable location for energy-intensive industries, such as aluminum plants.

Demographics

Population: (including former Taymyr and Evenk Autonomous Okrugs): 2,856,971 (2021 census); 2,828,187 (2010 census); 3,023,525 (2002 census); 3,596,260 (1989 Soviet census).Ethnic groups: The population of the krai mostly consists of Russians, and some other peoples of the former Soviet Union. The indigenous Siberian peoples make up no more than 1% of the population.

As per the survey conducted in 2012, 29.6% of the population of Krasnoyarsk Krai adhered to the Russian Orthodox Church, 5% declared to be a nondenominational Christian (excluding Protestant churches), 2% belonged to a different Orthodox churches, 1.5% was Muslim, 1% followed the Slavic native faith (Rodnovery), and 10.9% did not give an answer to the survey.