Primorye

Russia: administrative divisions

Primorye, in full Primorsky Kray, Primorsky also spelled Primorskiy, English in full Maritime Territory, kray (territory), Russia, located between the Sea of Japan (East Sea) to the east and northeastern China (formerly Manchuria) to the west. It is the most southerly of the Russian Far Eastern territories. It was formed in 1938 from part of the former Far Eastern Territory, which had supplanted (1926) the Soviet Far Eastern Republic.

The rugged Sikhote-Alin mountains, running northeast-southwest, parallel the coast, with elevations up to 6,086 feet (1,855 metres); they were designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2001. The chief river is the northward-flowing Ussuri (a branch of the Amur), which there forms the Russia-China boundary. The coastal plain is narrow, with few harbours and short, swiftly-flowing streams. In the south is Peter the Great Bay (Zaliv Petra Velikogo), one of the world’s great sheltered gulfs. On a peninsula along Zolotoy Rog (Golden Horn) Bay, an inlet of the gulf, is the territory’s capital, Vladivostok, one of Russian Asia’s principal ports and the Pacific terminus of the Trans-Siberian Railroad.

Primorye’s climate is influenced by the Pacific monsoon, with cold winters and almost constant northerly winds. Summer, with its onshore southeast winds, is wet and warm. In the fertile lowlands of the Ussuri River and Lake Khanka (shared with China) in the south, soybeans, kaoliang (a form of millet), and rice flourish and truck and dairy farming are also important. Coal mining supports diversified manufactures in the cities. Surface coal deposits are at Rettikhovka and Novoshakhtinsky. Tin, lead, zinc, and fluorspar are also worked. A tungsten mine at Vostok, in the north, was opened in the 1970s. Fishing bases are on the coast, while the Sikhote-Alin mountains are a source of timber and small fur-bearing animals.

The population is chiefly Russian, with Ukrainians and smaller numbers of Udegeys, Orochis, and Namays. Main cities, aside from Vladivostok, are Ussuriysk, the port of Nakhodka, Artyom, and Partizansk. The population is more than 75 percent urbanized. Area 64,100 square miles (165,900 square km). Pop. (2008 est.) 1,995,828.