STALINGRAD, a province of Russia, lying on both banks of the lower Volga. Area 85,167 sq. kilometres. Pop. (1926) 1,406,927. It is a low-lying area, and the banks of the Volga for some distance on either side of the river are below sea-level. The soils on the left bank of the Volga river are salt steppe; on the right, as far as the Don river, they are light brown and grey steppe, with salt efflorescences, while west of the Don is a fertile black-earth region. The climate is continental and the rainfall scanty and variable from year to year. The province lies in an area subject to terrible recurrent famines due to failure of rainfall, and rapid desiccation has been in progress for some time. In years of sufficient rainfall, the harvest is fairly good. The chief crops are summer wheat and winter rye; millet, sunflower seed, barley, oats and potatoes are grown in less quantity and vineyards are profitable in the south. Maize cultivation is steadily increasing. Irrigation is the only hope for the district. Experimental stations are working at Stalingrad and at Tingutin.
The most favourable region is the alluvial strip near the Volga and Akhtuba rivers, which is particularly wide near the town of Stalingrad. Here the temperature remains above freezing point for nine months in the year and the combination of alluvial soil, warmth and moisture makes grain, fruit and vegetable growing very profitable. Poplar trees attain a remarkable growth in ten years, and fruit trees bear for five years in succession. The nearness of the oil wells facilitates the use of internal combustion motors for irrigation purposes, and cheap and convenient routes for export are available. The drawback is the frequent change in direction of the main watercourses and their connecting chan nels, which may convert a fertile garden into a waste of river mud, or even wash it entirely away. Dikes are being built to lessen this danger. Sheep, cattle, pigs and horses are bred, and in 1926 had made rapid progress towards restoration to pre-War level. The 1921 famine, particularly disastrous in this region,
following on the civil war centring round the town of Stalingrad, had reduced their numbers catastrophically. There is also some camel breeding in the district. Stalingrad is becoming a centre for timber but apart from Stalingrad (q.v.) there are no industrial areas in the province. The chief peasant occupations supplement ing agriculture are fishing, flour-milling, oil-pressing, tanning, leather, fur-dressing, textiles and felt making and the making of pottery and household and farm implements. Lake Elton, one of the most productive sources of salt in Russia, is situated in the trans-Volga part of the province, but has no rail connection. The Don approaches the Volga very closely near Stalingrad, and the Soviet Government in 1928 embarked on a scheme to construct a canal linking the two rivers. The canal should be open for navigation by 1935.
The region was occupied in the 5th century by the Finno-Turkic Bulgars, who were in the ioth century driven northward by the Khazars, a closely related tribe. Later the region formed a part of the empire of the Tatar Golden Horde, one section of which was incorporated in the khanate of Astrakhan. The Russians in 1557 conquered Astrakhan and in 1589 erected the fort of Tsaritsyn on the site of the present town of Stalingrad, but the real absorption of the region into Russia involved a century of struggle with the nomads of the Volga during which there were perpetual Nogai, Kalmuck and Kirghiz raids on the Russian settlements. In the reign of Catherine II., the Russian peasants, the Cossacks and the dissatisfied native tribes rebelled under the leadership of Pugachev (1773-75) and fighting was fierce in the region between Kazan. and Stalingrad.. After the 1917 revolution, there was much dis order in the region, and considerable opposition to the Bolshevists, which was, however, finally- overcome.