Komi

Komi, republic in northwestern Russia. Syktyvkar is the capital. The republic extends from the crest line of the Northern Urals on the east to the Timan Ridge and the upper basins of the Mezen and Vychegda rivers on the west. The republic lies mainly in the flat, featureless basin of the Pechora River.

Tundra vegetation—mosses, lichens, and dwarf shrubs—occurs in the extreme northeast; southward, stunted trees give way to a dense taiga, or coniferous forest. There are also extensive marshes and peat bogs. Soils are generally of low fertility. The climate is severe, with prolonged, cold winters and cool summers; at Syktyvkar the average January temperature is 5° F (−15° C), and the average July temperature is 62° F (17° C). Annual precipitation ranges from 20 inches (500 mm) in the lower Pechora River basin to 24–30 inches (610–760 mm) on the slopes of the Urals. The Arctic Circle crosses the north of the republic, and, correspondingly, winter days are short and summer days are long.

After Komi became a part of the Moscow principality in the 14th century, the area was penetrated by Russian fur hunters who used the rivers, with their low, easy portages, or overland passages, from one basin to the next as a route across the Urals into Siberia. When overhunting diminished Komi’s wealth of furs and easier, shorter routes to Siberia were found, the area decreased in importance until the 18th century, when the town of Syktyvkar was founded as a centre of Russian colonization, and the exploitation of Komi’s forest and mineral resources began. In 1921 the republic was established as an autonomous oblast (province) for the Komi, a Finno-Ugric people, although today Russians constitute more than half of the population. It became an autonomous republic within the Russian republic in 1936. Chief cities are Syktyvkar, Vorkuta, Ukhta, and Sosnogorsk.

Industrial development in the republic centres upon its abundant forests and its deposits of coal from the Vorkuta and Inta areas of the Pechora River basin, oil from the Usinsk, Vozey, and Ukhta areas, and natural gas from Vuktyl. Wood products include veneers, prefabricated houses, and barges and rivercraft. After the construction of the Pechora railway from Kotlas to Vorkuta in the early 1940s, mining became the major branch of the economy. Other industries include chemical production, power engineering, machine building, metalworking, light manufacturing, and food processing.

Because of Komi’s northerly location and poor soils, agriculture is little developed. Only a small area along the rivers in the south is cultivated in rye, potatoes, oats, barley, and vegetables. Stock raising (mostly cattle and reindeer) is more important. Fur trapping (squirrel and Arctic fox) is common in the forests. Apart from the many navigable rivers, which are closed by ice 180 to 220 days a year, the major line of communication is the Pechora railway, with a branch to Syktyvkar and a number of narrow-gauge feeders for timber exploitation. Syktyvkar has air connections with Moscow, St. Petersburg, and other Russian cities. Area 160,600 square miles (415,900 square km). Pop. (2006 est.) 985,029.