Borzya (Борзя;, Boorjo; , Boorj) is a town and the administrative center of Borzinsky District in Zabaykalsky Krai, Russia, located 349 km southeast of Chita, the administrative center of the krai. Population:

Geography

The town is located on the river Borzya—a right-hand tributary of the Onon—about 40 km from the border with Mongolia in the south and 70 km from the border with China in the southeast.

Climate

Borzya has a humid continental climate (Köppen climate classification Dwb) with severely cold, dry winters and warm, wet summers. Precipitation is quite low but is significantly higher from June to September than at other times of the year. Borzya is the sunniest city in Russia, the average annual number of hours of sunshine is 2797 hours, or about 63% of the time the sun is above the horizon,

History

Although there had been human settlement on the present site of the town since the 18th century, the modern town began with the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway in 1899. The settlement around the Borzya railway station was officially opened in 1900, named Suvorovsky in honor of Alexander Suvorov. This name, however, was not widely used by the residents, who continued to use the same name as the railway station and the river. The name Borzya was eventually made official when the settlement was granted town status in 1950.

Administrative and municipal status

Within the framework of administrative divisions, Borzya serves as the administrative center of Borzinsky District, to which it is directly subordinated. As a municipal division, the town of Borzya, together with one rural locality (the crossing loop of Zun-Torey), is incorporated within Borzinsky Municipal District as Borzinskoye Urban Settlement.

Economy

Besides the railway workshops, employers in the town include food production enterprised, particularly meat production from the livestock industry in the surrounding area. The Kharanor brown coal open-pit mine is located northwest of the town, providing fuel for power generation.

Transportation

The town is on the original stretch of the Trans-Siberian Railway which crossed Manchuria on its way to Vladivostok and was known as the Chinese Eastern Railway. This route was later bypassed by the current Trans-Siberian, which is entirely on the Russian territory, but the original line passing through Borzya is still used for passenger and freight traffic to and from China. A branch line from Borzya reaches Choibalsan in Mongolia. The border stations are Solov'yovsk (Соловьёвск) in Russia and Chuluunkhoroot (Ereentsav) in Mongolia. There are no passenger service across the border, but passenger trains operate between Choibalsan and Chuluunkhoroot.

Military

The town was the headquarters of the 36th Army of the Russian Ground Forces until 2009. The airbases of the Borzya-2 (air base) and Arabatuk (air base) are nearby.

Sources