Kamchatka oblast

Kamchatka oblast [Камчатская область; Kamchatskaia oblast]. An administrative region of the Russian Federation consisting of Kamchatka Peninsula and part of the main land along the Pacific coast. The mountainous, volcanic country has a cold humid climate. Its area is 472,300 sq km and its 2002 population was 333,644, 79.2 percent of which was urban. The oblast capital is Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskii (2018 pop 181,216). According to the 1979 census, Ukrainians accounted for 7 percent of the population. However, little was known about the labor camps, in which Ukrainians constituted, at that time, a high proportion of the inmates. The camps, at least six in number, belonged to the Dalstroi system. Their inmates were employed in logging, mining, construction of military facilities, and submarine repairs. The main industries in Kamchatka oblast are fishing, lumbering, canning, woodworking, and boat building. For decades Ukrainians in Kamchatka oblast (and the Russian Federation in general) have been deprived of access to Ukrainian-language education or publications, and many of them become Russified. According to 2002 census, Ukrainians constituted 5.9 percent of the oblast’s population.

[This article was updated in 2019.]