Smolensk Region
The Smolensk Region was formed on September 27, 1937.
The region has an area is 49,800 square kilometers, and is 280 kilometres from east to west and 250 kilometres from north to south. It has a population of 983,227 (2008).
Some of the shortest routes between Central Russia and Europe pass through the region. The Moscow-Brest highway plays a significant role in the region's economic development.
Production in the region is dominated by jewellery, energy, heavy manufacturing, food and chemicalindustriess. Vyazma, Roslavl, Safonovo, Gagarin, Yartsevo, Desnogorsk, Dorogobuzh, Pochinok are its main industrial and cultural centres.
Four sections of the Torzhok-Minsk-Ivatsevichi section of the Northern Lights pipeline, which transports Siberian natural gas to Western Europe and Belarus, run through the region. Work is also underway to expand the new Yamal-Europe pipeline, which transported some 29.5 billion cubic metres of gas in 2006.
The 365-kilometre Bryansk-Smolensk-Verkhdneprovsky pipeline is served by a compressed air plant in Smolensk and supplies gas to Smolensk, Roslavl, Safonovo, Dorogobuzh and Verkhnedneprovsky.
The Smolensk Nuclear Power Station, the Dorogobuzh District Power Station and the Smolensk State District Power Station supply the region with electricity.
The Smolensk Region has a extensive network of high-voltage transmission lines. The main transmission lines run from the Smolensk Nuclear Power Station to Tula (the location of the Mikhailvosk Substation), Bryansk (Novobryansk Substation) and Kaluga Region (Kaluga Substation), as well as to Belarus.
The region's industry is dominated by brown coal (especially around Safonovo) and peat production; heavy manufacturing and metalworking (production of measurement and meteorological instruments, computing machines, electrical appliances, light bulbs, refrigerators, diesel engines, power-generating and commercial equipment, items for aviation industry, etc); chemical production (plastics and various fertilizers in Safonovo, Roslavl and Dorogobuzh); woodworking (lumber, furniture and pianos in Yartsevo, Yelna and Velizh); light industry (textiles and cotton and linen fabrics in Smolensk and Yartsevo); as well as food production, including preserved milk cannery in Rudnya.
Agriculture is dominated by flax, potatoes, beef and dairy cattle, pigs, poultry and horses. Cereals (oats, rye, barley, wheat, buckwheat), industrial crops (fibre flax) and feed crops are also grown in the region.
The Smolensk Region ranks first in the Central Region in the production of canned milk and powdered milk, and there are many large producers of cheeses, flour, butter and canned vegetables in the region.
The global economic downturn has had a negative impact on the Smolensk Region's Index of Industrial Production (IIP), particularly "mining operations", "manufacturing" and "production and distribution of power, gas and water". The Index stood at 84.2% compared to 2008.
The decline affected manufacturing the most. The manufacturing index fell to 82.9%, which had a significant influence on overall industry. Manufacturing accounted for over 60% of all goods produced and shipped.
The largest decline occurred in the woodworking industry (where the Production Index fell to 58.9%), fabricated metal products (66.6%), other non-metal and mineral products (66.4%) and jewellery (67.9%).
