Capital: Smolensk (approx. 320,000 inhabitants)
Population: approx. 930,000 (2024), sharply declining since 1990 due to emigration and low birth rates.
History: Ancient history: part of Kievan Rus', later the Principality of Smolensk.
Frequent battlefields: Polish period (1611–1654), Napoleon's invasion of 1812 (Battle of Smolensk), World War II (Battle of Smolensk 1941 and liberation 1943 – the city was almost completely destroyed).
Economic characteristics: Industry (mechanical engineering, textiles, food), diamond cutting (the Crystal Factory in Smolensk is one of the largest in Russia).
Agriculture (flax, potatoes, livestock).
Major transit route between Moscow and Belarus/Europe (M1 highway and Moscow–Minsk railway).
Characteristics today: One of the poorest and most depopulated oblasts in European Russia.
Many forests (approx. 40% of the area) and lakes.
Key sights: Cathedral Hill in Smolensk, Talashkino (the artists' colony of Princess Tenisheva), Smolenskoye Poozerye National Park.
Note: In 2010, the plane crash that killed Polish President Lech Kaczyński and 95 others occurred here (Tu-154 crash near Smolensk).
In short: a historically very important, but currently relatively poor and shrinking region on the border between Russia and Europe.
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