Talk:Transbaikal

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Discussion for: Transbaikal • View • Links • Related changes

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Page scope

Transbaikal is a Growing Region: a named region that sits above Growing Areas and below the regional complex and gene pool. It covers Zabaykalsky Krai and Buryatia east of Lake Baikal, without their northern districts, and the forest-steppe belt of Irkutsk Oblast west of the lake. The Chinese side of the Argun belongs to Northeast China; Mongolia is outside the region; the middle and lower Amur are in the Amur basin.

Data verification

Check the main page for the sources behind each statement. Discuss the boundary, the units the region takes in, and the accessions and news items that belong to it here.

Discussion

Why the region is on the map

No source read names "Transbaikal" as a place where cannabis grows. The region groups the places that the sources name.
Since 2000: Shilenkov and Tolstonogova (2006) call ruderal hemp widespread in the forest-steppe districts of the Baikal region; Aistova (2016) lists it at six places in south-eastern Zabaykalsky Krai. Police and plant-health reports name wild hemp in Buryatia (2014, 2025, 2026), in Irkutsk Oblast (2021, 2025, 2026; Alarsky, Irkutsky and Ziminsky districts) and in Zabaykalsky Krai (2026; Aleksandrovo-Zavodsky, Kalgansky, Priargunsky and Nerchinsky districts). The Federal Drug Control Service counted Buryatia and Chita Oblast among the worst affected in 2007.
Earlier: Nazarov's sheet of 1931 from the Aga steppe ("in my view, wholly wild"); sheets from Nerchinsk (1857) and the Barguzin basin (1911); a 10th-century hemp seed from Ust'-Chernaya on the Shilka; a trial sowing of hemp at Nerchinsk in 1681; and the hemp of every household at Verkhny Sharanai on the Onon, described in 1964.
Licensed hemp grown in Buryatia since 2020 is described on the page. It is not what puts the region on the map.

The name

Transbaikal (Забайкалье) is the land beyond, that is east of, Lake Baikal. The region also takes in the forest-steppe of Irkutsk Oblast west of the lake, the Cisbaikal side, because Shilenkov and Tolstonogova (2006) describe ruderal hemp across the forest-steppe of the Baikal region (Прибайкалье) and their own fieldwork lay on the Irkutsk side. Dauria was not used: it names only the steppe of the Argun and the Onon. The historical name in the infobox, Transbaikal Oblast (Забайкальская область), is the one on the labels of the sheets of 1857 and 1911.

Growing status

The status is Active. Floras of 2006 and 2016 and police and plant-health reports from 2014 to 2026 describe hemp growing in the region, and licensed hemp is grown in Buryatia. No source says that hemp has stopped growing there. Eradication reports are not read as an end to growing.

How the border is drawn

The border is a proxy built from whole administrative units, with OpenStreetMap relation numbers. Zabaykalsky Krai (145730) without Kalarsky (1846003), Tungiro-Olyokminsky (1846011), Tungokochensky (1846010) and Mogochinsky (1846006). Buryatia (145729) without Severo-Baykalsky (194493), the town of Severobaykalsk (1899006), Muysky (194766), Bauntovsky (194598) and Okinsky (194267). In Irkutsk Oblast: Zalarinsky (190136), Nukutsky (1460641), Alarsky (1458140), Bokhansky (1456787), Osinsky (1456786), Ekhirit-Bulagatsky (1456788), Bayandayevsky (1456789), Ziminsky (1460711) with Zima (1465834) and Sayansk (1469710), Balagansky (1460653), Cheremkhovsky (1458139) with Cheremkhovo (1469709) and Svirsk (1469714), Usolsky (1463469) with Usolye-Sibirskoye (1465802), Angarsk (1465764), and Irkutsky (1459545) with Irkutsk (1430613).
The northern districts of Zabaykalsky Krai and Buryatia are taiga and mountain where no source read names a place. The Barguzin valley stays in because of the sheet of 1911. The Irkutsk units are the forest-steppe districts that the sources name (Zalarinsky and Nukutsky in 2006; Alarsky, Irkutsky, Ziminsky, Balagansky and Usolsky in 2021; Ziminsky and Angarsk in 2026) with the units that join them, Cheremkhovsky and the towns. Tulunsky, Kuytunsky and Chunsky districts, further west, are named only for herbicide supplies or a campaign without figures and are left out.
Usolsky District reaches south over the Eastern Sayan to Buryatia, so the shape is in one piece. The open water of Lake Baikal is taken out (Natural Earth 10 m lakes).
The Northeast China shape is subtracted, so the two regions meet on the Argun without overlapping. The frontier with Mongolia is the national border.
The union is about 491,000 km², the figure in the infobox. The infobox point (51.80, 110.76) is the centre of the shape.
The border is not drawn from accession or news points.

Accessions

Nazarov 14088 (Lake Nozhiy, 1931), classed as feral, is attached to the region.
Zenzinov s.n. (Nerchinsk, 1857) and Zhukova 528 (Barguzin basin, 1911) lie inside the border. Their labels give no cultivation and they are not classed as feral, so they are not attached; both are described on the page.
Alexandrov s.n. (Kokuy, 1911), a sheet from hemp patches in the old Verkholensk uezd, lies in the upper Lena country, outside the border.

Where the sources disagree

For Zabaykalsky Krai in 2025, a report of July 2026 gives 31 patches on 52 hectares, and a report of September 2026 gives 61 offences on 115.06 hectares. They count different things, and the page uses neither.
Aistova (2016) marks hemp as introduced in south-eastern Zabaykalsky Krai; Nazarov (1931) judged it wild at Lake Nozhiy; the police call it wild-growing. The page keeps each source's word.

Sources

Floras: Shilenkov and Tolstonogova (2006) and Aistova (2016), read on CyberLeninka.
Police and press reports: each read in Russian. Amitel (30 May 2007); Inform Polis (24 July 2014); Arig Us (7 August 2025); Baikal-Daily (28 August 2026); Oblastnaya gazeta (24 November 2021); IRK.ru (18 May 2026); NTS Irkutsk (7 August 2026); Argumenty i Fakty (29 July 2026); DV-ROSS (26 September 2026).
History: Encyclopedia of Zabaykalye, entry on plant growing (E. V. Klimova), which cites V. I. Shunkov for 1681; Lebedeva (1964), p. 8; Sergusheva (2026).
Licensed hemp: GTRK Buryatia (4 October 2023); Inform Polis (2014).
Herbarium sheets: the Moscow Digital Herbarium records of MW0062806, MW0062820 and MW0062821.

Not used

No source read describes hemp grown by the Semeiskie (Old Believers) of Transbaikalia or by Buryat herders.
A settlement head's account (2026) of wartime hemp fields at Kokuy in Sretensky District, now self-sown, is a single oral statement and is not used.
Brockhaus and Efron on the Transbaikal Oblast (1890s) mentions flax and hemp in kitchen gardens; it was not checked against the printed text.
Sheets in the Irkutsk State University herbarium from Nukutsky (2002) and Ononsky (2008) districts have thin labels and no wiki pages.