Irbit is a city in the Sverdlovsk region of Russia, the
administrative center of the Irbit region (not part of it) as an
administrative-territorial unit. The city is located 204 km
north-east of Yekaterinburg, 180 km north-west of Tyumen, on the
right bank of the Nitsa River at the confluence of the Irbit River,
in the middle part of the Turin Plain. The city is crossed by the
Yekaterinburg - Tavda - Ustye-Akha railway line of the Sverdlovsk
railway, as well as regional highways going south-west to Kamyshlov
and Artyomovsky, to the south-east to Baikalovo and Gorbunovskoye,
to the north-east to Turinsk and Tavda, to the northwest to
Alapaevsk.
Irbit, like the entire Sverdlovsk region, is
located in the time zone MSK + 2. The time offset from UTC is +5:
00. The total area of the Irbit municipality is 6423 hectares. It
borders on all sides with the Irbit municipality. In the northern
part of the city there is a city-wide park, in the south-western
part there is a forest-park zone, the Bugry massif with a
picturesque relief, mixed (natural) and coniferous, mainly
artificial forests, there are also rare oak plantations for the
Trans-Urals. The natural monument "Belaya Gorka" is located 20 km
from the city, where a complex of children's health institutions has
been formed. In the northeast, between the Nitsa and Irbit rivers,
there is the Elm Grove nature reserve, which is the easternmost
point of distribution of wild elms on the territory of the Russian
Federation. The main waterways are the flat rivers Nitsa and Irbit,
belonging to the West Siberian type with a characteristic spring
flood. In some years, the part of the city located in the river
valley is significantly flooded. Deposits of diatomites are located
in the city area. The quarries cover an area of 31 hectares.
The city got its name from the Irbit River, which the
Tatars called Irbei. In the documents of the 17th century, the Irbei
River and the Irbeyskaya Sloboda first appear, but very soon we meet
the spelling Irbitskaya, Irbitskaya Sloboda. Even later, the river
and the settlement were called Irbit, and even now this
pronunciation can be heard among people of the older generation.
Among the rural population, the name of the city is often pronounced
as "Erbit", "We are from Erbit".
Local historian I. Ya.
Antropov linked the name of the city with the emergence of a fair
here. The Irbeya River, according to the local historian, got its
name from the Tatar “Iryb”, which means “congress” (meaning trade).
According to N. A. Yamin's version, the Russian name of the Irbit
river comes from the Bashkir Irbiy (Ir-Biy).
Professor A. K.
Matveev gives the following explanation: “In appearance, this is a
typical Türkic word. In the Tatar language - and the source must be
looked for first of all in it - there is also a quite suitable word
Ir - "man", "hero", "hero", and as a dialect - "land", "country".
Biy in Bashkir means "the tribal leader", while the Tatar language
is very close to the Bashkir language both geographically, in
structure and in the composition of the dictionary. "
An attempt
is known to explain the name of the city and the Irbit River from a
combination of "Ir" (the name of a non-existent prince) and "bit" (a
certain Ir was allegedly beaten here).
The author of one of the
articles in the book "Picturesque Russia" claims that the word Irbit
means "lousy swamp." Probably, he had in mind the previously highly
swampy territory, on which the southern part of Irbit was spread.
The oldest settlements
The oldest settlements on
the site of the city emerged in the Bronze Age (II millennium BC),
the most significant of which is the Irbit settlement, located on an
outlier hill in the northwestern outskirts of the city, opposite the
village of Melnikova on the left bank of the Irbit River.
In
the lowest layer of the settlement, fragments of a pot-shaped
burnished pottery with a flat bottom and carved ornamentation dating
back to the Bronze Age were found. Its second layer contains
evidence of early Iron Age. During the third settlement in the
X-XIII centuries, the top of the hill was separated from its lower
part by protective structures: a deep moat, a rampart, two rows of
hedges or palisades. Perhaps a representative of the local nobility
lived in the settlement. The fourth, the most recent settlement of
the kurgan dates back to the XIII-XVI centuries.
Ethnically,
the ancestors of the Mansi lived here until the 13th century. At a
later time, they were ousted by the Siberian Tatars, on the northern
outskirts of the present city there was their settlement Irbeevsky
yurt. At the beginning of the 17th century, they were ousted by
Russian settlers from central and northern Russia.
Sloboda
In 1631, at the confluence of the Irbit River with Nitsa, the
Verkhotursky Slobozhan Ivan Shipitsyn (Spitsyn) laid the foundation
for the Irbeevskaya Sloboda (later the name Irbitskaya is fixed in
use). A prison was founded.
The population of the settlement
was made up of state peasants and White Cossacks, as well as clerks,
clergymen, coachmen, miller, blacksmith, gunner, bobies. According
to the first census in 1666, there were two courtyards of the
boyar's son, a clerk's courtyard, 21 courtyards of White Cossacks
and 112 courtyards of quitrent peasants in the settlement. According
to the census of 1680, besides the fort there was a church, with two
priests. There are 22 villages subordinate to the settlement -
Zaikova (33 yards), Shmakova (14), Rechkalov (also 14 yards). A
total of 220 yards of quitrent peasants.
Soon after the
foundation, a torzhok appeared in the settlement. In 1643, by decree
of Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich, the torzhok was legalized, and the Irbit
fair arose. It was held each on a feast day, Epiphany. Later, the
dates of the fair were changed. European, Asian and Siberian goods
were sold here. The fair became the second in Russia after Nizhny
Novgorod.
County town
During the uprising of Yemelyan
Pugachev, the inhabitants of Irbit resisted the peasant troops.
In 1775, Catherine the Great granted the settlement the status
of a city for the "unshakable loyalty of the inhabitants of Irbit"
to her empress in the fight against the "villainous gangs" of
Yemelyan Pugachev. In 1776 the city received the coat of arms:
An
upright shield, cut in two in two, in the upper part in a silver
field, a blue St. Andrew's cross, showing the unshakable loyalty of
the inhabitants of the city of Irbit to Her Imperial Majesty, in the
lower part in a red field placed on the cross a saber and a golden
rod of Mercury, meaning the first defeat with this weapon villains,
and the second exercise in the trade of the inhabitants of this
place.
In 1781, after the formation of the Irbit district,
Irbit received the status of a district town.
Since 1821,
Irbit was built up according to the general plan as a single
architectural ensemble of the city-fair. In the central part, the
planning structure of the general plan has survived: 5 beams of the
main streets converging to the main shopping area, the main street
crossing them and a rectangular network of quarters. During the
fair, a fair theater and a circus operated in the city, and since
1863 the Irbitsky Fair Leaflet newspaper was published. In 1891, the
writer Dmitry Mamin-Sibiryak collaborated with the newspaper.
In 1846, a professional drama theater began operating in the
city.
In 1885, a section of the Ural railway of the
Trans-Siberian railway was laid. The road passed from Yekaterinburg
to Tyumen, bypassing Irbit. The city and the fair, staying away from
the highway, began to lose their commercial significance. However,
the fair lasted until 1929.
On April 27, 1879, a fire broke
out in the city of Irbit, which destroyed almost the entire central
part of the city. As a result, 12 blocks were burnt out.
In
February 1883, a monument to Catherine the Great by the famous
sculptor Mikeshin was solemnly unveiled on the main Trade Square,
the square was renamed from Trade Square to Catherine Square. So
Irbit residents immortalized the memory of the Empress, who gave
Irbit the status of a city. The Perm governor and the Yekaterinburg
bishop came to the opening. The bronze empress held a letter in her
left hand, where the significant number for the city “February 3,
1775” was engraved. The monument was erected at the initiative of
the City Duma with money collected by the people of the district,
and was cast in St. Petersburg.
During the revolution of
1905–1907, a strike of workers of a printing house, a meeting of
workers and peasant uprisings took place in Irbit.
In 1914,
the Luch cinema was opened in the city.
In 1916, a railway
appeared in Irbit: the Yekaterinburg-Tavda line of the North-Eastern
Ural Railway (part of the Trans-Siberian Railway) passed through the
city. There was also water transport, there was a pier on the river
Nice.
Irbit fair
Soon after the foundation, a torzhok
appeared in the settlement. In 1643, by decree of Tsar Mikhail
Fedorovich, the torzhok was legalized, and the Irbit fair arose. It
was held each on a feast day, Epiphany. Later, the dates of the fair
were changed. European, Asian and Siberian goods were sold here.
In 1686 a gostiny dvor was built for the fair.
In the
18th century, attempts were made to transfer the fair to the larger
cities of Yekaterinburg, Tyumen, but they were unsuccessful.
In 1734, Academician of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences
Johann Georg Gmelin visited the Irbit fair on the way to the Great
Northern Expedition led by Vitus Bering and left a description of
the fair:
The streets are so full of people, horses, sleighs
and all sorts of goods that you can hardly drive ... There were
Greeks, Jews, Bukharians ... Everyone brought with him the goods of
his land and carried through Arkhangelsk: wine, French vodka and so
on, Bukharians - products made of gold, silver, and the Russians -
silver mined from ancient graves ... There was also a state-owned
shop with copper dishes brought from Yekaterinburg ... Small cakes
were sold in the streets: shouts, noise, squabbles were heard
everywhere, in places around the fires there were crowds of beggars
... For money, one could have everything at the fair.
After
the establishment of the Orenburg fortified border line in 1735-1742
and the abolition of internal duties in 1735, the number of foreign
merchants temporarily decreased, but the fair remained one of the
largest and gathered traders from all over Russia and from border
regions. This is reported by academician Ivan Lepekhin, who visited
the Irbit fair during the 1768-1772 expedition and left a detailed
description of it in his diary.
In the 19th century, in terms
of money turnover, the Irbit Fair was the second in Russia after the
Nizhny Novgorod. The fair was of exceptional importance for the
international fur market and the Russian tea market, and hosted
merchants from China, India, Central Asia, Western Europe and
Russia. During its implementation, the population of Irbit increased
many times over. Only during its holding a fair theater and a circus
operated in the city, a newspaper was published.
In 1864 the
Irbitsky passage was opened, the main symbol of the fair, as it was
called then: "Nevsky Prospect Irbit". In the square in front of the
passage, the grand opening of the fair took place. According to
legend, the course of the fair was associated with the procedure for
raising the Russian flag over the main pavilion: the flag got
confused - the fair was protracted, turned around right away - trade
would go well, turned towards Siberia - the fair would be favorable
for Siberians, towards Europe - for merchants from central Russia.
In 1885, a section of the Ural railway of the Trans-Siberian
railway was laid. The road passed from Yekaterinburg to Tyumen,
bypassing Irbit. The city and the fair, staying away from the
highway, began to lose their commercial significance. However, the
fair lasted until 1929.
Civil war and the first five-year
plans
In the revolutionary year 1917, the main monument of the
city, the monument to Catherine II, was demolished (the sculpture
was melted down around 1927).
In January 1918, Soviet power
was established in Irbit, in July 1918 the city was taken by units
of the White Siberian Army, a year later, during the Yekaterinburg
operation, it was occupied by the troops of the Red Army.
In
1919-1923 Irbit was the district center of the Yekaterinburg
province, the district (1923-30) and district (1924-34) center of
the Ural region, since 1934 the regional center of the Sverdlovsk
region.
From 1926 to 1933 a horse-drawn railway functioned in the city.
During the pre-war five-year plans, the city turned into an
industrial center.
In 1930, a school-factory was established.
In 1933, the first peat mining machine in the Soviet Union was made
here. Since 1937 the plant has specialized in the production of
bearings. Since 1939, he has been producing tractor trailers. Now it
is the Irbit special equipment plant.
Irbit in World War II
During the Great Patriotic War, evacuated enterprises were located
in Irbit. From July 1941 to 1943 inclusive, an artillery school
evacuated from Smolensk was located in the city. In 1930, a
diatomite plant was founded, on the basis of which, after the
arrival of equipment from the evacuated glass and porcelain
factories in 1941, the Irbit glass factory was established. In 1941,
on the basis of a motorcycle plant evacuated from Moscow, the Irbit
motorcycle plant arose. Glass and motorcycle factories worked for
the needs of the front, created motorcycles and shatterproof glass
for tanks, aircraft and searchlights. On May 2, 1942, Irbit received
the status of a city of regional subordination.
Second half
of the 20th century
On February 1, 1963, the council of workers
'deputies of the city of Irbit was transferred to the subordination
of the Sverdlovsk regional council of workers' deputies.
In
1971, a branch of the Sverdlovsk Picture Gallery was opened.
In 1975 the Irbit bakery was founded.
On September 1, 1981,
the city was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor “for the
active participation of the city workers in the formation of Soviet
power, a great contribution to ensuring the defeat of the Nazi
invaders in the Great Patriotic War, the successes achieved in
economic and cultural development, and in connection with 350
anniversary ".
Modernity
In 1996, the first elections were
held for the head of the municipal formation of the city of Irbit.
On September 24, 1996, by the decision of the Irbit City Duma,
the first Charter of the municipal formation of the city of Irbit
was approved, registered by the Department of Justice of the
Sverdlovsk Region on September 30, 1996 under No. 76.
In
2003, the tradition of holding the Irbit Fair was restored.
In 2004 the city was endowed with the status of an urban district.
Official name since January 1, 2006 - Irbit Municipality.
In 2013, a monument to Catherine the Great was restored on the
main square.