A poorly known extensive natural area, Kamchatka is
a peninsula located on the far eastern region of the Russian Federation.
It has a length of 1250 kilometers and a width that varies between 100 and 400 kilometers. Its surface area is 470,000 km2.
It has a length of 1250 kilometers and a width that varies between 100 and 400 kilometers. Its surface area is 470,000 km2.
The peninsula is surrounded by the seas of Ojotsk and
Bering and linked to the Russian mainland through a narrow mountainous spine about 50 km wide.
It has numerous mineral resources, including coal,
gold, tungsten, platinum and natural gas
The valley of the main river, called Kamchatka is
surrounded by large mountain ranges that include about 160 volcanoes, of which
29 are active. The highest volcanic peak is the Kilchovskoi of 4835 meters.
Another characteristic summit is the Kliuchevskoi basaltic stratovolcano. There
is also a huge geyser field that is the largest in Eurasia.
It is a
tectonically very unstable territory with frequent earthquakes, which have even
reached more than once to levels 8 and 9 on the Richter scale.
The climate varies from temperate-cold to the south
and sub-arctic to the north with abundant rainfall both in the form of rain and
snow.
The entire peninsula has a population of about 400,000
inhabitants, half of which live in the city Petropavlosk-Kamchatsky which is
the capital and largest city of the region (200,000 inhabitants).
Native people of
Kamchatka
The main native villages of Kamchatka are itelmen
(kamchadal), koryaks and tunguses (related to the Manchus of northern China).
The itelmen were a society of fishermen and collectors
who lived in the peninsula of Kmchatka. They were relatively numerous groups
(estimated at about 50,000) who suffered very strongly the invading Cossacks in
the eighteenth century. Then they mixed with the Russian settlers and with aynu
immigrants of the Kuriles islands giving rise to a population with a
Russian-speaking syncretic culture denominated kamchadal. The population
kamchadal amounts to about 4,000 people.
The koriaks, whose current population is approximately 8,000
people, are usually divided into two groups. The coastal village of the Nemelan
(or Nymylan) meaning "villagers", due to their sedentary fishing
habits and the inland koryaks, reindeer herders called Chauchen.
Russian conquest and colonization: a little-known genocide
Kamchatka was explored, colonized and annexed to the
Russian tsarist empire in a process that began at the end of the seventeenth
century and continued throughout the eighteenth century.
In 1713, there were about 500 Cossacks living in the
region. Their cruelty and their abuses, well known, caused many protests, then
motivated open rebellions of the indigenous inhabitants.
The uprisings became
habitual and reached their maximum when in 1731 the colony of Nijni Kamtchatski
was razed by the natives and their inhabitants assassinated. The remaining
Cossacks clustered together and quelled the rebellion. However genocide
continued and the indigenous population estimated at 20 000 at the beginning of
the 18th century, had fallen to only 8,000 in the year 1750.
The incorporation to the tsarist empire first and to
the Russian Federation later was carried out gradually. After three centuries
the population density of the territory remains very low, barely exceeding 1
inhabitant per km2.
Economy and prospects
The current economy is based on fishing and logging. Minings activities has acquired important development.
Due to the country's uninterrupted paisajístic characteristics, lately the territory has been opened to the tourist industry.
From that point of view the peninsula is extremely
attractive. The volcanic geological processes are very intense and spectacular,
peninsular fauna is diverse and abundant and the forest ecosystems have
remained little altered.
Surely in the near future it will be a privileged
place for the tourist activities of the extreme east of the Russian Federation.
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