Additionally, the city of Yaroslavl, the administrative center of the oblast, is served by major highways, railroads, and waterways.

[8] The climate of Yaroslavl Oblast is temperate continental; there are four clearly established seasons and most of the precipitation falls as showers during the warm half of the year.

In cities, the most common birds are pigeons, jackdaws, hooded crows, rooks, house sparrows, and great tits.

The Volga River flows through Yaroslavl Oblast; major dams and hydroelectric stations were built at Uglich and Rybinsk.

People first settled in the area of the modern-day Yaroslavl Oblast during the Paleolithic Era at the end of the last glacial period.

They were known to come into close contact with Balto-Slavic tribes of Krivichs and Slovens from the 9th to the 10th centuries AD; they eventually blended into a single cultural community with other people of the Kievan Rus'.

In that period the 1071 smerd rebellion was led by still powerful magi of Yarsolavl, during which bishop Leontius of Rostov was murdered.

During his reign, Dolgoruky founded many major cities of the Northeast Rus, including Pereslavl, Uglich, and Romanov of the modern-day Yaroslavl Oblast.

He proclaimed himself a Grand Prince and moved his capital to the city of Vladimir, near Suzdal, marking the beginning of the Vladimir-Suzdal Principality.

After the death of Andrey's brother Vsevolod the Big Nest in 1212, the Russian North-East suffered a period of feudal fragmentation.

Starting with 1332, Muscovites began to acquire parts of the Rostov Principality little by little, completely subduing it by the middle of the 15th century.

In 1380 soldiers of the Rostov and Yaroslavl principalities joined the allied army of Moscow prince Dmitry Donskoy in the Battle of Kulikovo.

During the Time of Troubles of the early 17th century, Rostov and Yaroslavl provinces were raided by the rebel forces of False Dmitry II and his Polish–Lithuanian allies.

In late 1614, the northern part of the region (Poshekhonye) was terrorized by a rogue cossack unit led by ataman Baloven.

In 1618 Zaporozhian Cossacks of hetman Sahaidachny captured Yaroslavl, Pereslavl and Romanov, as allies with a Polish invasion of Russia.

As a part of the reform, many settlements of the region were granted town status, namely Rybinsk, Poshekhonye, Myshkin and Mologa.

After the Russian Revolution and Civil War, Soviet power in the Yaroslavl Governorate was installed in a relatively peaceful way.

The Yaroslavl and Rybinsk revolts of July 1918 had been organized by Boris Savinkov's Union for the Defense of the Motherland and Freedom.

In Rybinsk, Cheka aided by the Red Army dealt with the rebels in one day, but in Yaroslavl the clashes continued for two weeks.

In 1929, the region was split between Yaroslavl and Rybinsk okrugs, which became a part of the newly established Ivanovo Industrial Oblast.

Although this was a rear region in the course of World War II, the Yaroslavl Oblast was in danger of invasion by Nazi Germany.

Soon after the end of the war, the oblast and national government completed such projects as construction of the Rybinsk Hydroelectric Power Station and establishing new industries.

On 30 October 1997, Yaroslavl, alongside Astrakhan, Kirov, Murmansk, and Ulyanovsk signed a power-sharing agreement with the government of Russia; it and the other oblasts gained autonomy.

Agriculture in the Oblast is mainly concerned with growing potatoes, vegetables, and flax, raising beef and dairy cattle, pigs, and sheep and fishing (on the Rybinskoe Reservoir).

This part of Russia has enormous water reserves; Yaroslavl Oblast has 4327 rivers with a total length of nearly 20,000 km.

Pleshcheevo, Somino, Vashutinskoe, Chashnikovskoe, Ryumnikovskoe, and Lovetskoe lakes are located in the State Natural History Park.