Kuragino

The municipal unit covers area of 4176 h. Its population is 14,839 people, together with the village of Oykha and the village of Studiony. The capital of the municipal unit is the village of Kuragino, which is situated in the South of the Krasnoyarsk territory. It is 100 km from the town of Abakan and 380 km from the city of Krasnoyarsk along the Minusinsk - Vyezhy Log - Krasnoyarsk highway. In the area of the municipal unit there is the station of Kuragino, which is one of the most important stations in the Trans-Siberian Railways (Abakan-Taishet main-line).


The village of Kuragino has been referred to in the settlement of the working population by the decision of the Executive Committee of the Territory Deputies Board (14.06.1961, №389). Kuragino was founded in 1626 and it was named after the prince Kuraga.

In the 19th century the village of Kuragino became the exile place for the Decembrists, the Polish rebels, the raznochinets, and social-democrats. The history of Kuragino is described in such books as "Kuraginsky Rayon" (the author is K.Shimolin, a History teacher) and "375 Years of Kuragino Foundation" (the author is G. K. Artemyev, a retired History teacher).

Flora and fauna

The area of Kuragino is the largest one in the South of the Krasnoyarsk territory. It covers 25,073 square km. The area borders with the Sayansky, Partisansky, Mansky, and Balakhtinsky areas in the North, the Idrinsky area in the West, the Minusinsky and Karatuzsky areas and the Republic of Tyva in the South, and the Irkutsk region in the East. The area of Kuragino stretches for 400 km from West to East. Taiga covers two thirds of the area. The capital of the area - Kuragino - is situated 341 km from Krasnoyarsk. The area has a very unique geographical position. The forest-steppe of the North-Eastern part in the Minusinsk pit is changed by the sub-taiga zone of the pre-Sayan mountainous area and then by the mountainous taiga of the Eastern Sayan Mountains. Close to the border of the Republic of Tyva there is the zone of the Western Sayan Mountains.

While traveling in the area one can find himself either in the dry vast steppe zone of the village of Kochergino or the village of Shalobolino, or in the birch and aspen stand of the village of Kuragino and the village of Beryozovskoye with the deep ravines rich of the herbage. To the North, in the village of Bolshaya Irba, there develops the mixed woods. And then, behind the Burlukskaya Hill, in the place of Kordov and Ust-Kaspa, one can see the dark-green coniferous forests. The mountainous ridges are more vividly seen to the East from the village of Koshurnikovo. In the mountain zone the sub-Alpine and Alpine meadows are transformed into mountainous tundra, rocky scatterings, unmelted snow "tongues", and glaciers.