NORTH DWINA PROVINCE, a unit of the North East ern region of European Russia, bordered on the west and north by Archangel, on the east and north by the autonomous Komi (Zirian) area, on the south-east by Vyatka, on the south by Nizhniy-Novgorod, on the south-west by Kostroma and on the west by Vologda. It has an area of 106,115 sq.km. and a popula tion (1926) of 678,255, of whom 8o% are Great Russians and 18% Zirians. Over 8o% of the province is clad with coniferous forest, the cleared areas being mainly along the river banks.
The Dwina and its tributaries, the Sukhona, Yug, Vychegda and Luza, drain the province ; the Sukhona is most used for naviga tion, since it connects via the Wiirttemberg canal both with Lenin grad and with the Volga river. There are no bridges except the railway bridge over the Luza river.
Cultivation is most dense in the south, and along the river banks, but, apart from the 80% forest, there is 12.8% of marsh land, so that less than so% is available for the production of the winter rye, oats, barley, flax and potatoes grown here. There is some meadow and pasture land, and horses, cattle, dairy cattle and pigs are bred, the latter in large numbers. The income from
hunting and fishing is small, though the salmon and sterlet of the Dwina river are noted for their quality. Linen is the most im portant industry and exceeds pre-1914 level, as does production of hemp and jute rope.
In addition to river communications, the railway from Vyatka reaches Kotlas (q.v.), which has wharves and grain elevators, and from which the railway is to be continued to Soroka on the Gulf of Onega, thus providing a further outlet for Siberian grain. From Ustyug-Velikiy (q.v.), the administrative centre, at the junction of the Sukhona and Yug, post roads, impassable in spring and autumn, go to Vologda and Nizhniy-Novgorod, and the town has telegraphic links with the south and also as far north as Krasnoborsk. Electrification proceeds rather slowly, though the few town centres have production plants. The peat reserves in the region should prove an asset in the future. The province needs much more intensive colonisation for its full development.
See M. I. Ivanovskiy, The North Eastern Area (1926) (in Russian).