Kirov-Chepetsk is a city in the Kirov region of Russia. The
administrative center of the Kirovo-Chepetsk region, (which is not
part of). It forms the urban district of the city of
Kirovo-Chepetsk.
Population 69,835 people. (2020).
The
city was founded in 1935. City status since 1955. Located in the
east of the European part of Russia, in the center of the Kirov
region, at the confluence of the Cheptsa River with Vyatka, 22 km
southeast of the city of Kirov. It is included in the Kirov
agglomeration.
The direct name of Kirovo-Chepetsk is
derived from the name of the village of Kirovo-Chepetsk, which was
transformed into a city, founded during the construction of the
Kirov thermal power plant, which was named Kirov-Chepetsk in August
1935. Part of Kirov has both geographic significance (belonging to
the Kirov region / region) and memorial (in memory of S. M. Kirov).
Part - Chepetsk can be produced both from the name of the former
village of Ust-Chepetsky (Ust-Chepets), and directly from the
hydronym Chepets, the etymology of which is unclear and has several
variants.
Prior to obtaining the status of a city, in 1954,
the executive committee of the Prosnitsk District Council applied
for the assignment of the name Herzen to the village (in honor of
A.I. Herzen, who was in exile in Vyatka), but this proposal was not
supported.
In the vicinity of the city there are
sites of people from the Mesolithic era - VII millennium BC. The
area began to be settled by the Old Russian population as early as
the 12th century. The first news of the settlement of Russian people
at the mouth of the Cheptsa dates back to 1405. The historical
documents of the 18th century record the village of Ust-Chepetskoye,
in everyday life Ust-Chepets.
In 1873, the peasant Andrei
Brovtsyn opened a match factory in Ust-Chepts, which soon became the
second largest in the Vyatka province.
The establishment of
Soviet power in Ust-Chepets took place in December 1917.
In
1935, the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR decided to
build the Kirov thermal power plant. To provide it with fuel, the
development of peat began in the interfluve of Cheptsa and Vyatka,
in the village of Karintorf. To deliver peat to the thermal power
plant in the village, the Karinsky narrow-gauge railway was built.
In 1938, construction began on a chemical plant as part of an
emerging industrial hub at the mouth of the Cheptsa River. The
history of the village and the city is inextricably linked with the
largest in Europe Kirovo-Chepetsk chemical plant, which became a
city-forming enterprise, which employed the bulk of the city's
working residents, and which influenced the city infrastructure in a
decisive way. In 1941, the operation of the Bumkombinat -
Chepetskaya railway line began.
On March 13, 1942, by the
Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR, the
settlement was assigned to the category of workers' settlements with
the assignment of the name Kirovo-Chepetskiy.
In 1946, it was
decided to include the enterprise, which later received the name:
Kirovo-Chepetsky Chemical Plant, in the program for the creation of
a “Soviet atomic bomb, namely in solving the problem of industrial
production of uranium hexafluoride, which is necessary for uranium
enrichment. In 1951, the enterprise was the first to begin
production of the light lithium isotope 6Li, which is necessary for
the creation of thermonuclear weapons.
On March 28, 1955, the
working settlement of Kirovo-Chepetskiy was transformed into the
city of Kirovo-Chepetsk, with the assignment of the village of
Ust-Cheptsa and several surrounding villages to it: Devetyarovo,
Golodny Pochinok.
Since 1960, the city has been the center of
the Kirovo-Chepetsk region. Since 1961, the city of regional
subordination.
In 1972, a large electrical machine-building
enterprise was founded for the production of switching equipment for
civil aviation (now PJSC "Electric machine-building plant" Velkont
").
An important stage in the history of the city was the
construction of a mineral fertilizer plant (ZMU), a chemical giant
for the production of nitrogen and complex mineral fertilizers,
which began in 1973.
In 1990, the city was expanded by the
annexation of the village of Karintorf. In 1993, the city included
suburban settlements: the villages of Ganinskaya, Popovshchina,
Starodumovo, Zlobino, Gar, Boyevo, Utrobino, Severyukhi, the Boyevo
railway siding, part of the Prigorodny settlement. In 1994, the
city's population reached its maximum value of 100 thousand people.
Relief
The city is located on the Russian Plain
in the place where the Verkhnekamsk Upland is cut by the valley of
the Vyatka and Cheptsa rivers, on the left steep banks of which the
main part of the city is located (the other part is in their
interfluve), in the Srednevyatskaya (Kirovskaya) lowland, on several
large hills.
Climate
The climate is moderately
continental. The proximity to the Arctic Ocean makes it possible for
cold air to invade. Hence, severe frosts in winter, frosts and sharp
cold snaps in the summer months.
Average long-term January
temperature: −13.5 ... −15 ° C, July: + 17 ... + 19 ° C. The
absolute maximum temperature reaches + 38 ... + 40 ° C, the absolute
minimum: −45 ... −50 ° C. Average annual air temperature: +2.4 ° C.
On average, the relative humidity of the air is 75-79% per year.
From October to February, the average monthly humidity is 81-89%. In
the transitional months of the year (March, September), it ranges
from 74% to 85%. The driest air with a humidity of 61-68% occurs in
May - June.
The territory belongs to the zone of sufficient
moisture. There is precipitation every second day. On average,
500-680 mm falls per year, of which 60-70% falls on the warm season.
South-westerly and southerly winds prevail. The
average annual wind speed reaches 3-5 m / s. In summer, the winds
are weaker, excluding squalls), they increase in autumn and reach
their maximum in cold weather. The wind is usually gusty. Gusts
occasionally reach 30-40 m / s, sometimes more.
Soils,
vegetation and fauna
The territory of the city is included in the
Kama-Pechersk-West Ural sub-province of the Ural-West Siberian
province of the European taiga coniferous forest region, in the
southern taiga sub-zone. Significant fir-spruce and pine forests
have survived, located in separate areas throughout the city.
Ecology
The presence of large chemical production facilities
in the city carries a great environmental burden on its natural
environment and human habitat. The "List of Potentially Hazardous
and Critically Important Objects of the Kirov Region" approved in
2007, which includes 65 objects, includes 2 chemically hazardous
objects in Kirov-Chepetsk of the 3rd hazard class: a mineral
fertilizer plant and a polymer plant.
Situation at existing
production facilities
ZMU KChKhK achieved the maximum purity
of wastewater and reduced water consumption by organizing a closed
water circulation. A new water treatment system and a neutralization
unit for acidic and alkaline wastewater were put into operation at
the enterprise. Suspended substances that enter the water intake
from the river are transported in the form of solid waste to a
special landfill, and the water is again supplied to production for
the preparation of regeneration solutions. The reconstruction of gas
cleaning equipment is underway, as a result of which the level of
air purification should exceed 99% (the maximum indicator in the
world).
The Polymer Plant is implementing a project to
transfer chloroform production from ethyl alcohol to natural gas
(methane). Methane technology was included in the program of social
and economic development of the region. On December 8, 2010, the
first public hearings and discussions were held on the possible
consequences of the introduction of new technology on the
environment. During the implementation of the project, emissions of
ethyl chloride, ethyl alcohol, chloral, nitrogen dioxide into the
atmosphere are eliminated, wastewater contaminated with nitrites and
nitrates is discharged into water sources, the injection of water
contaminated with chloroacetic acid salts into deep horizons is
stopped. The implementation of the project will allow the closure of
the underground disposal site.
Burial of hazardous substances
Closed facilities for the production of tetrafluoride and uranium
hexafluoride, storage facilities for radioactive waste, and sludge
storage remained from the Soviet Union's nuclear project in the
city. About 70 hectares of territories in the production and
sanitary protection zones were exposed to radiation contamination
with uranium-238, plutonium-239, cesium-137, strontium-90. The
processes of the removal of radionuclides during flood periods from
the contaminated areas of the lower reaches of the Elkhovka River
and Lake Prosnoye have practically not been studied until now.
In 2010, Rosatom State Corporation developed a concept for
decommissioning radiation hazardous facilities of the
Kirovo-Chepetsk Branch of the Privolzhsky Territorial District. It
is planned to dismantle the equipment of shop 93 of the KCCW,
dismantle buildings, degass them, reclaim soil in contaminated areas
and dispose of collected waste; to mothball storage facilities for
radioactive waste and sludge storage facilities without waste
extraction with the creation of additional engineering safety
barriers.
Transport
The structure of the city's
transport network is determined by its geographical location.
From the north and west, the city is bounded by Vyatka and
Cheptsa in the absence of bridge crossings across them (the
exception is the bridge of the Karinskaya narrow-gauge road and the
seasonal ferry crossing through Cheptsa, which do not affect the
general nature of transport conditions).
A motor road (built
in 1955-1959) approaches the city from the south, connecting it with
Kirov, with access to the A119 Vyatka, R159 Kirov - Nizhny Novgorod,
R166 Kirov - Slobodskoy - Belaya Kholunitsa, R169 Kirov - Malmyzh -
Vyatskie motorways Glades. After Kirovo-Chepetsk, the road goes to
the east (to the cities of Zuevka, Glazov).
The construction
of the Kirov - Kotlas - Arkhangelsk highway is underway.
Variants of construction of a bridge across Cheptsa are being
considered to create a direct corridor connecting the southeastern
districts of the region with the federal highway St. Petersburg -
Yekaterinburg bypassing the regional center.
Intercity
transport
The city's motor transport company was established in
1959. In 1971, the city bus station began operating.
Suburban
routes connect the city with Kirov and all significant settlements
of the Kirovo-Chepetsk region.
Intra-city transport
The
main volume of passenger road transport in the city is carried out
by buses. The routes are served by several carriers, NP
Kirovo-Chepetskiy Avtocarriers was created to coordinate and
dispatch their work. Registry of routes of regular transportation.
The completion of its construction is associated
with the planned visit to KChKhZ by N. S. Khrushchev.
Currently, the city has a convenient private taxi system.
The
Karinskaya narrow-gauge railway operates within the city limits,
connecting the main part of the city with the Karintorf
microdistrict located beyond Cheptsa. The termination of passenger
railway traffic on this road was planned by July 1, 2012, however,
traffic was preserved until the construction of a road bridge across
Cheptsa, which in the existing pontoon version cannot be used during
the flood period (approximately 2 months a year). In 2019, URZ
became the property of the ANO Railway Museum, with the development
of a thematic tourism program.
Freight road transport
There are a large number of companies and individual entrepreneurs
in the city that provide cargo transportation services.
LLC
"Department of Motor Transport KChKhK" (LLC "UAT KChKhK") - the
largest transport company in the city and one of the largest in the
region, carries out the transportation of ordinary, dangerous and
technological cargo, forwarding services, non-route passenger
transportation, the provision of specialized technological transport
services.
UMiAT JSC "KChUS" (Department of Mechanization and
Automobile Transport) - a structural subdivision of the
Kirovo-Chepetsk Construction Department.
Railway transport
The railway communication is carried out through the cargo station
Chepetskaya of the Kirov region of the Gorkovskaya railway, which is
approached by a single-track electrified line 10.9 km long from the
Northern Bypass of the Trans-Siberian Railway (on the Lyangasovo -
Yar section, between the stations Mutnitsa, 982.2 km and
Bumkombinat, 992.9 km).
The nearest station with the
possibility of boarding long-distance trains is in the regional
center (42 km).
The nearest stations with the possibility of
boarding suburban trains and electric trains:
Kirov-Kotlassky
(42 km) - following to Pinyug, Kotlas, Oparino and Luza;
Bumkombinat (8 km) and Prosnitsa (20 km) - following to Kirov (to
the west) and to Balezino, Verkhnekamskaya and Kazan (to the east).