Orenburg Oblast

Orenburg Oblast () is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast). Its administrative center is the city of Orenburg. In 2010, 2,033,072 people lived in the oblast.
Geography

The oblast is located in Eastern Europe, right at the edge of the Ural Mountains. Most of the oblast lies in fescue steppe and feather grass. In the northern parts of the oblast, there are birch and pine forests, especially in the Buzuluk Pine Forest Nature Reserve. To the west lies the limestone plateaus of the Obshchy Syrt; in the eastern parts lies the flat Turgay Plateau.

Much of the steppe has been plowed, largely due to the Virgin and Idle Lands Campaign in the 1950s. Agriculture is important, principally spring wheat, maize,millet and sunflowers. However, the economy is dominated by a mining and industrial industry at the southern end of the oblast, centred on Orenburg City.

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