East Kazakhstan Province (Kazakh: Шығыс Қазақстан облысы, Şığıs Qazaqstan oblısı) is a province of Kazakhstan. It occupies the easternmost part of Kazakhstan, along both sides of the Irtysh River and Lake Zaysan. Its administrative center is Oskemen (also known as Ust-Kamenogorsk). The province borders Russia in the north and northeast and the People's Republic of China (Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region) in the south and southeast. The easternmost point of the Oblast is also very near, within 50 kilometers or so of the westernmost tip of Mongolia; however, Kazakhstan and Mongolia do not share a common border, the two countries being separated by a small part of Russia and China.It also borders the Kazakh Provinces of Pavlodar Province (to the north west), Karagandy Province (to the west) and Almaty Province (to the south).
The population of the province is 1,418,300 (according to the Agency of Statistics), of which 318,800 (as of 4/1/2011) live in the capital. The area has many Russians and Ukrainians; the capital itself has more of those two groups than Kazakhs themselves. The area is 283,300 in square kilometers.
The province was created by the merger of two Soviet-era Kazakhstan oblasts: the old Vostochno-Kazakhstanskaya (East Kazakhstan) Oblast and Semipalatinsk Oblast.
Read more about East Kazakhstan Province: Nature, Demographics, Administrative Divisions
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