Where is it? Yaroslavl Oblast is located in western Russian about equidistant from Moscow and St. Petersburg. It borders the Tver, Moscow, Ivanovo, Vladimir, Kostroma and Vologda Oblasts. It is in the same time zone as Moscow.

What's the biggest city? Yaroslavl, whose population was recently estimated at 613,088 out of a total of 1.4 million for the entire region as of the 2002 census. The city is located at the confluence of the Volga and Kotorosl rivers and its historic center has been designated a World Heritage site. The region also includes Rostov Veliky, an ancient monastery town that is one of the key stops on the so-called Golden Ring of historic cities north of Moscow.

Who lives here? Mostly ethnic Russian.

What do they do here? Yaroslavl is a key transportation hub for western Russia, and boats pass through here on their way to the Caspian, Black and White seas. The industries here include engineering and metalworking, petrochemicals and oil refining.

Does it have any English-language news sources? The regional administration has a lot of business and investment news here.

How do I see what it looks like?. Flickr has nearly 2,000 photos of Yaroslavl's historic churches and river views.

How do I get here? Yaroslavl has an airport, but most prospective adoptive parents will get here by car or train. The regional administration's Web site says both ways should take the same 3 1/2 hours, but the reality of Moscow traffic can make the road trip longer. If you want something more leisurely, there is also boat service from Moscow in the summer.

Which adoption agencies work here? None that I have found. But given the size of the Yahoo! group and the number of recent bloggers, somebody is out there. I did find that the philanthropic arm of European Adoption Consultants (which just got its new accreditation) has worked to improve the conditions at Yaroslavl Orphanage #1.

Which Russian adoption bloggers have been here? The humorous couple behind "The Skinny On Benny" are just back. So is Monica at "Bring Him Home", from one of the region's smaller cities, Pereslavl, in April 2007. Scott and Sharon at "Bucklin Family Adoption Website" were here in 2006. Amanda at "Russia 2007"was just in Yaroslavl on a volunteer vacation, which included work at an orphanage. Yahoo! has a well-attended group, Yaroslavl_Adoption.

Truly trivia: Valentina Tereshkova, who in 1963 became the first woman in space, was born in Yaroslavl Oblast. Sally Ride would not become the first American woman in space until two decades after Tereshkova's flight for the Soviet Union.

Need more information? "Way To Russia" has a few extra details in its Golden Ring series and Kommersant has a solid Yaroslavl guide. The regional administration's Web site, though geared for international investment, has tons of useful information. Infoyar has a searchable map of Yaroslavl, but you'll need Cyrillic characters to use it. Here's the current weather in Perm.

Image Credit: ukhov