VYATKA (now renamed KrRov), a province of the Russian S.F.S.R., surrounded by the Komi, Udmurt, Tatar and Marii Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republics, and by the Northern, Sverdlovsk and Gorki provinces. Area 108,393 sq.km. Pop. (1926) 2,222,792. It is smaller than the pre-1914 province of the same name. It has on its northern boundary the flat water-parting which separates the basins of the Northern Dwina and the Volga, and its surface is an undulating plateau 800-1,0o0 ft. high, deeply grooved by rivers and assuming a hilly aspect on their banks. A tongue of higher land causes the Vyatka to make its great bend to the west. The Kama flows northward along the east of the province and the Vyatka and its tributaries, the Chepsa and Molota drain the remainder of the province. The soils are mainly unproductive clayey and sandy forest soils, with wide expanses of lake and marsh, the remains of the glacial epoch. The boundary between the coniferous forest and the deciduous passes through the centre of the province, and much of the north and east con sists of continuous stretches of pine, fir, larch and Siberian cedar, while there are oak and ash forests in the south.
The chief mineral wealth of the province is the iron ore of the north-east and the phosphorite of the upper Vyatka, the latter of which is only just beginning to be exploited. The timber in dustry is not developed on a large scale, but the peasants make every variety of wooden articles, from spoons to sledges and carts, and sell them at the Nijni-Novgorod fair. Paper manufacture is being introduced, and the match industry is flourishing, espe cially in the town of Vyatka. The climate is extreme, with a
short hot summer and a long, cold winter, during which the snow covering is often deep. The average January temperature at Vyatka is 8.2° F, July 67° F ; the rainfall is variable, ample in some years, but deficient in others. Agriculture is insufficient to support the people, who supplement their income by peasant industries, especially woodwork, small metal wares and weav ing of homespun, while those in the north-east work at the mines and smelting works, and there is some hunting, especially of squirrels, in the forest. The chief crops are winter rye, oats and flax; and potatoes, barley and buckwheat are grown in lesser quan tities. There is some stock-raising, especially of sheep, and pig breeding is increasing. The population is mainly Great Russian, much mixed with the Finnish tribes.
Vyatka (now Kirov) chief town of Vyatka province, is in 58° 36' N., 49° 4o' E., on the Vyatka river. Pop. (1933) 85,600. It is the ancient trading centre, then Khlynov, established by merchants from Novgorod in 1181. It was plundered by the Tatars in 1391 and 1477 and annexed by Moscow in 1489. Its name was changed to Vyatka in 1780. It is now named Kirov. Besides its old trade, the town has a growing industrial im portance. It is the chief railway repair shop for the Perm-Vyatka railway, and has a line going north to Kotlas. Its manufactures include matches, textiles, metal wares, agricultural implements.