Penza region is a subject of the Russian Federation. The region is
located in the center of the European part of Russia, part of the Volga
Federal District. The administrative center of the region is the city of
Penza.
The region borders the Saratov region in the south, the
Tambov region in the west, the Ulyanovsk region in the east, the
Republic of Mordovia in the north, and the Ryazan region in the
northwest.
The region was formed by the Decree of the Presidium
of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on February 4, 1939.
State Museum-Reserve "Tarkhany"
Trinity-Skanov convent
Sculpture Park "Legend" - an open-air museum of world contemporary
sculpture
Kuvaka village - museum of living water
Penza was founded in 1663 as a Russian fortress on the border of the
Wild Field.
In 1719, the Penza province was formed as part of the
Kazan province.
On September 15, 1780, the Penza province was
formed, which existed until March 5, 1797, when the province was
liquidated, and Penza became the district center of the Saratov
province.
On September 9, 1801, the Penza province was restored
and existed until 1928, the time of major administrative and territorial
transformations in the USSR. In 1928 the province was liquidated. Penza
became the center of the Penza district of the Middle Volga region, then
the Kuibyshev region, and 9 years later, on September 27, 1937, the
regional center of the Tambov region.
On August 15, 1938, the
first secretary of the Penza city committee of the CPSU (b), deputy of
the Supreme Soviet of the USSR Alexander Batalin sent to the commission
of legislative proposals of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR a proposal
“to create an independent regional center in the city of Penza,” since
“the city of Penza, a former provincial city, has 160 thousand
population, has a sufficient industrial base, a significant railway
junction" and "is one of the last few former provincial and district
centers that still remain districts." Batalin also later recalled that
this initiative was caused by insufficient attention to Penza on the
part of the Tambov Regional Committee of the All-Union Communist Party
of Bolsheviks, of which he was an ex-officio member: “Tambov regional
organizations did not pay enough attention to the development of Penza;
when distributing capital investments among facilities, most of them
settled in the Tambov region." After some time, he was given the task of
developing and drawing up a map of the future Penza region, determining
its composition and boundaries, which was done.
On February 4,
1939, by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the
Tambov region was divided and the Penza region was formed, which exists
to this day. In March 1939, the Penza Regional Committee of the
All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks was created, and Alexander
Kabanov became the first secretary of the regional committee.
On
May 31, 1939, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR approved the creation of
the region[9]. When the Penza region was formed, it included: from the
Tambov region - the city of Penza, Bashmakovsky, Bednodemyanovsky,
Bessonovsky, Bolshe-Vyassky. Golitsynsky, Golovinshchinsky,
Gorodishchensky, Zemetchinsky, Issinsky, Kamensky, Kerensky, Kondolsky,
Luninsky, Mokshansky, Narovchatsky, Nizhne-Lomovsky, Pachelmsky,
Poimsky, Svishchevsky, Sosedsky, Teleginsky, Ternovsky, Chembarsky and
Shemysheysky districts; from the Kuibyshev region - Baranovsky,
Kameshkirsky, Kuznetsky, Litvinovsky, Neverkinsky, Nikolaevsky,
Nikolo-Pestrovsky districts; from the Saratov region - Bekovsky,
Danilovsky, Kolyshleysky, Lopatinsky, Malo-Serdobinsky, Serdobsky,
Tamalinsky districts. On January 19, 1943, Baranovsky and Nikolaevsky
districts were transferred to the newly formed Ulyanovsk region.
In 1986, the Penza region suffered from radioactive fallout after the
accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. 4,130 km² (9.6%) of the
territory of the Penza region, 200 settlements with a population of 131
thousand people were exposed to radioactive contamination.
The Penza region is located between 42° and 47° east longitude and
between 54° and 52° north latitude.
The length from west to east
is 335 km.
The length from north to south is 210 km.
Area - 43.5
thousand km².
The highest point in the territory is 342,800 m above
sea level.
The lowest point in the territory is 97.7 m above sea
level.
The geographic center of the Penza region has coordinates
53°10’north latitude and 44°34’east longitude. The Penza region lies in
a temperate geographical zone, at the junction of forest, forest-steppe
and steppe natural zones.
The surface relief is flat, slightly
hilly. The extreme west of the region belongs to the eastern edge of the
Oka-Don Plain.
The main part of the region's territory is located in the Volga basin, the southern and southwestern regions belong to the Don basin. There are over 3,000 rivers and streams in the region with a total length of 15,458 km. The largest of the rivers - Sura, Moksha - belong to the endorheic basin of the Caspian Sea (Volga River); Khoper, Vorona (drainage basin of the Don River). The Penza River, a tributary of the Sura, gave its name to the regional center.
The climate is moderate continental.
The most unstable element
of climate is precipitation. The annual precipitation in the region
varies between 450-500 mm, in dry years it drops to 350 mm, and in wet
years it rises to 775 mm. Spring droughts are typical, as well as summer
and autumn droughts are not uncommon; in the southern regions of the
region, especially in the winter-spring period, the climate-dividing
Voeikov axis passes through, influencing the climate of these
territories.
State Nature Reserve "Volga Forest-Steppe". The total area of the reserve is 8373 hectares. It contains thick chernozems, unique for the forest-steppe zone; steppe plant complexes have not been preserved anywhere else in Europe. It is distinguished by its unusual floristic richness and the presence of rare species of plants and animals listed in the Red Book. More than 860 species of vascular plants, more than 100 species of lichens, more than 70 species of bryophytes and about 120 species of fungi grow on its territory.
Natural vegetation has been preserved on about a third of the
territory of the Penza region; forests occupy almost 20% of its area.
The importance of forests is not so much industrial as they are water
protection, soil protection and recreational. The steppes are mostly
plowed.
There are about 1,500 species of higher plants on the
territory of the Penza region.
The list of rare and endangered
species in the Red Data Book of the Penza Region includes 156 species of
vascular plants and 40 species of fungi.
On the territory of the
Privolzhskaya Forest-Steppe Nature Reserve grows more than 860 species
of vascular plants (over 55% of the species composition of the flora of
the Penza region and 40% of the flora of the Middle Volga region), 108
species of lichens, 72 species of bryophytes and 119 species of fungi.
The fauna of the Penza region includes 442 species of vertebrates, including: 73 species of mammals from 6 orders and 19 families; 299 species of birds from 20 orders; 8 species of reptiles from 2 orders; 11 species of amphibians from 2 orders; 51 species of bony fishes and 1 species of cyclostomes from 10 orders and 15 families. The Red Book of the Penza Region includes 13 species of mammals, 64 species of birds, 2 species of reptiles, 2 species of amphibians, 10 species of fish and 1 species of lamprey.
The region's mineral resource base consists mostly of raw materials for the construction industry. The region contains deposits of clays (including refractory and refractory), gypsum, glass sands, marl and chalk, opoka, coarse-grained molding sands, mineral pigments, limestone, diatomites, glauconites, as well as small accumulations of phosphorites suitable for grinding for phosphate rock. flour. Three oil fields have been explored in the region: Verkhozimskoye, Komarovskoye and Alekseevskoye, and there are peat deposits. Ore occurrences of titanium-zirconium placers have been identified.
The Penza region ranks 49th out of 85 in the ranking of regions of
the Russian Federation in terms of total cash turnover of companies and
61st place in profit. The region's total revenue is 664.2 billion
rubles. The share of total revenue in Russia is 0.26%. The leading types
of economic activity that provide the main volume of GRP production in
the Penza region are: trade - 42.46% or 282 billion rubles. At the end
of 2019, the total profit in this industry amounted to 5.3 billion
rubles.
In second place in terms of revenue is the leading sector
of the economy of the Penza region - industry. The share of the region’s
total revenue was 24.46% or 162.4 billion. Manufacturing industries
brought in 8 billion rubles of profit in 2019. Industrial enterprises
provide more than 50% of the budget revenues of the Penza region.
The third largest sector in terms of total revenue is agriculture,
forestry and fisheries. In 2019, total revenue was 9.4% or 62.4 billion
rubles, and profit was 6 billion rubles.
Construction ranks
fourth both in terms of total revenue and total profit - 40.6 billion
and 2.7 billion rubles, respectively. The share of the region's total
revenue is 6.12%.
The energy industry ranks fifth in terms of
total revenue. The share of total revenue in 2019 was 5.3% or 35.1
billion rubles. At the same time, the profit of energy companies in the
Penza region amounted to 866.4 million rubles.
In terms of profit
volume, the consulting and scientific and technical activities industry
closes the top five with an indicator of 2.4 billion rubles. The share
of total revenue at the end of last year was 2.53% or 16.8 billion
rubles.
In 2020, the foreign trade turnover of the Penza region amounted to
704,968.6 thousand US dollars and, compared to 2019, increased by
144,523.9 thousand US dollars (+25.8%). At the same time, exports
increased by 95,488.1 thousand US dollars (+31.0%) and amounted to
403,483.3 thousand US dollars, imports increased by 49,035.8 thousand US
dollars (+19.4%) and amounted to 301,485.3 thousand US dollars.
The trade balance of the Penza region was positive and amounted to
101,998.0 thousand US dollars, which is 46,452.2 thousand US dollars
(+83.6%) more than in the same period in 2019.
In 2020, 498 Penza
organizations registered export deliveries, 28 units more than in 2019.
The main trading partners of the Penza region in the reporting
period were 95 countries (79 countries for exports, 70 for imports). The
main trading partners were foreign countries. Their share in trade
turnover was 70.0%, including 58.7% in exports and 85.0% in imports.
The commodity structure of exports was dominated by machinery,
equipment and vehicles - 41.1% of the total volume of exports of the
region; food products and raw materials - 32.3%; other goods - 9.7%;
metals and products made from them - 7.9%, wood and pulp and paper
products - 5.0%.
Our region imported mainly machinery, equipment
and vehicles - 53.6% of the region’s total imports; food products and
raw materials for their production - 12.9%; chemical industry products,
rubber - 12.5%; metals and products made from them - 10.5%; wood and
pulp and paper products - 6.3%.
The leaders in the value of
exported goods were the Dankovsky branch of the Cherkizovsky Meat
Processing Plant joint-stock company, Nevsky Confectioner LLC, AMS LLC,
Zemetchinsky Sugar Plant JSC, and the Vlast Truda Plywood Plant.
In the Penza region, the Export Support Center operates, which is part
of the Entrepreneurship Support Fund of the Penza Region, thanks to
which in 2020, export contracts were concluded by 40 SMEs worth more
than $19 million, 12 of which had not previously supplied abroad.
The implementation of the Penza-Harbin project is planned for 2021,
which includes the construction of logistics centers in the Penza region
and the People's Republic of China, as well as the launch of a direct
train between them with the possibility of delivering products in two
weeks.
As of January 1, 2021, the rural population was 398,782 people, 31%
of the population of the Penza region.
Agricultural products in
2020 amounted to 120.2 billion rubles, of which livestock products 59.3
billion rubles, crop production 60.9 billion rubles. The index of
production is 115.5%, livestock production is 108.8%, crop production is
123.9%.
The Penza region ranks first among the constituent entities of the
Volga Federal District in terms of milk production growth rate - 110.8
percent and in terms of cow population growth rate - 103.9%. The region
is in second place in the Volga Federal District in the production of
livestock and poultry for slaughter in live weight with an indicator of
241.6 thousand tons, as well as in the growth rate of egg production -
114.6%. Also, the Penza region has the second place among the subjects
of the Volga Federal District in terms of growth rates of pigs - 112.2
percent and cattle - 101.7 percent.
As of January 1, 2021, on
farms of all categories there were 62.1 thousand (+10.1%) heads of
cattle, of which 27.0 thousand (+16.0%) were cows, 6.1 thousand heifers
( +23.2%), 214.0 thousand (-12.7%) pigs, 5.5 thousand (+18.7%) sheep and
goats, 12414 thousand (+6.8%) poultry.
Ministry of Agriculture of the Penza Region: in 2022 it is planned to
produce at least 2.5 million tons of grain, 2.2 million tons of sugar
beets, 600 thousand tons of oilseeds, 295 thousand tons of potatoes, 110
thousand tons of vegetables. In 2021, the harvest was more modest: 2.2
million tons of grain, 2.1 million tons of sugar beets, 570.2 thousand
tons of sunflowers, 296.6 thousand tons of potatoes, and 112 thousand
tons of vegetables were harvested.
In 2020, the harvest of grain
and leguminous crops amounted to 3 million 333 thousand tons (1.99
million tons in 2019), with an average yield of 40.1 c/ha (26.6 c/ha in
2019). The sown area of agricultural crops amounted to 1 million 449
thousand hectares, of which 848.5 thousand hectares were grains and
leguminous crops or 59% of the total sown area. In 2020, 227 thousand
tons of corn were produced for grain with a yield of 75.7 c/ha.
The Taganrog variety of high-quality spring durum wheat, developed
jointly with Italian breeders, is recommended for cultivation in the
Penza region. Forms crops at different levels of soil fertility. The
average yield in the Penza region is 29.7 c/ha.
As of the beginning of 2020, 9 power plants with a total capacity of 389.2 MW were operating in the Penza region, including 8 thermal power plants and one small hydroelectric power station. In 2019, they produced 1040.8 million kWh of electricity.
Seven transport corridors pass through the territory of the Penza
region, connecting in the shortest direction the regional centers of the
Saratov, Ulyanovsk, Tambov, Ryazan regions and the Republic of Mordovia.
Transit traffic accounts for 80% of the total traffic intensity.
In particular, the Penza region is located at the intersection of
federal highways and railways: Center - East and South - North. The
basis of the road network of the Penza region is made up of federal
highways: M-5 "Ural" Moscow - Ryazan - Penza - Samara - Ufa -
Chelyabinsk, R-208 Tambov - Penza, R-158 Nizhny Novgorod - Arzamas -
Saransk - Issa - Penza - Saratov .
The railways of the Penza
region provide transport links between the Center and South of Russia
with the Volga regions, the Southern Urals, Siberia, Central Asia, and
the Far East.