Volgograd area

Geographical location
Volgograd area is situated in the south-east of the East-European plain. It borders on Republic of Kalmykia in the south, on Rostov region in the south-west, on Voronezh region in the north-west, on Saratov region in the north, on Kazakhstan in the east, on Astrakhan region in the south-east.
Main rivers are the Volga, the Don. The climate is continental.

Administrative division
The region is divided into 33 districts, 6 towns of regional submission, 13 towns of district submission, 27 town settlements, 445 villages.
Centre of the region is Volgograd, founded in 1589 (1589-1925 - the city of Tsaritsyn, 1925-1961 - the city of Stalingrad, 1961 - the city of Volgograd). Its population is 1028,2 thousand people. Distance to Moscow is 1073 km.

Economics
Main branches: machine-building and metal-working, fuel industry, oil-refinery, chemical and oil-chemical, ferrous and nonferrous metallurgy. Production of building materials, textile, wood-working and food industries are well developed.
Industrial centers are Volgograd, Volzhsky, Kamyshin.
Branch structure of industry: power engineering (18.9%), fuel industry (14.7%), ferrous metallurgy (6.5%), nonferrous metallurgy (3.9%), chemical and oil-chemical (19.9%), machine-building and metal-working (13.9%), forest, wood-working and pulp and paper industry (1.2%), food industry (11.8%).
Wheat, vegetables are grown in the region. Meat and milk stock-breeding, poultry-farming are developed.

 Culture
Cultural and intellectual potential of the region is concentrated in Volgograd.  
In the city there are 7 theatres, puppet theatre, 14 cinemas, 19 palaces of culture, art gallery, 2 concert halls, state circus, sport palaces, 4 parks of culture, 69 libraries, 5 museums, well-known museum-panorama "Stalingrad fighting", 190 monuments of history, monument- ensemble to the Heroes of Stalingrad fighting on Mamaev hill. More than 300 thousand people visit museum-panorama; 4 million people visit monument-ensemble every year.
Scientific potential of the city is represented by 11 higher educational establishments: Juridical Institute, Academy of State Service, State University, Orthodox University; 13 research establishments.