Volgograd Oblast

Volgograd Oblast is a federal subject of Russia, located in the lower Volga region of Southern Russia. Its administrative center is Volgograd. The population of the oblast was 2,610,161 in the 2010 Census.Formerly known as Stalingrad Oblast, it was given its present name in 1961, when the city of Stalingrad was renamed Volgograd as part of de-Stalinization. Volgograd Oblast borders Rostov Oblast in the southwest, Voronezh Oblast in the northwest, Saratov Oblast in the north, Astrakhan Oblast and the Republic of Kalmykia in the southeast, and has an international border with Kazakhstan in the east. The two main rivers in European Russia, the Don and the Volga, run through the oblast and are connected by the Volga–Don Canal. Volgograd Oblast's strategic waterways have made it a popular route for shipping and for the generation of hydroelectricity.