Amur Oblast

The Amur Oblast with the center in Blagoveshchensk was formed on December 20, 1858 by the Personal Decree No. 33862. By this Decree, on the proposal of the Governor–General of Eastern Siberia and the Siberian Committee, the Amur Region was made up of lands "located on the left bank of the Amur River, starting from the junction of the Shilka and Argun Rivers or from the borders of the Trans–Baikal and Yakutsk Oblasts, along the entire course of the Amur, to the mouth of the river Ussuri and to the new border of the Primorsky Oblast". General characteristics The vast, little–explored area of Eastern Siberia along the left bank of the middle reaches of the Amur, mainly included the river areas of 2 large tributaries of the Amur – Zeya and Bureya. Formerly it belonged to China and was ceded to Russia in 1858 under the Aigun Treaty. Area – 449,500 square kilometers; Population – 62,640 people; Main City – Blagoveshchensk (at the mouth of the Zeya). The Amur Oblast was extremely sparsely populated. Before the conquest of the region by Russia in the 1850s, the area was inhabited only by wandering foreigners, and the far distance from the populated areas of Russia and the lack of any convenient means of communication made resettlement very difficult. Much closer to native Russia, for example, in Altai, settlers found many convenient lands; it was much more convenient even to get to the Primorskaya Oblast by sea, and the settlers there also had the advantage of convenient marketing of products to Vladivostok. There was no road along the Amur, there was a traffic in the summer on ships, and in the winter on the ice of the river. In spring and autumn, when the ice is falling, it was completely interrupted.