Kizlyar is a city in the Republic of Dagestan of the Russian Federation. The administrative center of the Kizlyar region (which is not part of). According to some researchers, the city was named after the old name of the river channel. Terek, present r. Talovki. Another translation of the name Kizlyar from the Turkic - girls, is explained by a widespread legend, which in its own way explains the origin of the name of the city. According to VA Nikonov, it is more correct to see in the toponym the Turkic “red cliff”, where Kyzyl is “red”; yar - "cliff", which is in good agreement with the appearance of the name of the fortress later than the name of the river.
Since ancient times, the lower reaches of the Terek
River have been an important section on the Caspian trade route
connecting the East with the countries of Eastern Europe, which
could well have contributed to the emergence of a settlement here,
as evidenced by the remains of the Nekrasov settlement, the
foundation of which is dated 2-3 centuries AD.
The settlement
in these places is also evidenced by the historical monograph
"Derbend-name", the author of which, describing the wars of the
Arabs with the Khazars in the 7th century, mentions that the Surkhab
fortress, which at the time when the author lived (approximately
17-18 centuries) and he believed it was known as Kyzyl-yar.
The exact date of the city's founding is not known. As G. Orzayev
believes, the beginning of Kizlyar was founded here in the 16th
century by a settlement formed by immigrants from Central Asia,
merchants by occupation, Tajiks by origin. They called their
settlement Absyakhkent (which in Farsi means ab - water, siyah -
black, Kent - settlement, city), while the Kumyks who lived in the
neighborhood called it Karasuv-kent (from the Turkic Kara - black,
su - water, kent - settlement) or Kyzlar-kala. In A. Ibragimov's
book "Tarihi Kizlyar-Kala", Absyakhkent is called the capital of the
"vilayat of Tatarhan". The name of the city from the Persian
language means "settlement on the black river". The settlement
"Abskiah" was noted in 1375 on the "Catalan Atlas" by Abraham Kresk.
The main composition of the population was made up of "teziks", who
by the end of the 19th century identified themselves with the
Kumyks. Absyakhkent was the core of the future city of Kizlyar,
which, according to Yu. Shidlovsky, arose on the site of the "Kumyk
village".
For the first time the name "Kizlyar" was mentioned
in 1616 in a note by the Terek voivode Khokhlov. The settlement of
those times was small and insignificant. However, in 1715 several
families of Armenians, Georgians and Persians settled here. Since
then, the city began to grow and gain more importance.
Although the official date of foundation of the modern city of
Kizlyar is considered 1735, when the construction of the Kizlyar
Russian fortress began, a permanent settlement existed here 150-200
years before that.
Among the many names, the name "Kizlyar"
was finally assigned to the settlement by the decree of Peter I
after his visit in 1722 during the Persian campaign.
In
addition to the settlement of immigrants from Central Asia, in this
place in the second half of the 16th century, according to the
tsar's decree, the "Kizlyar guard" or "Kizlyar ferry" was founded,
which was a kind of outpost, a customs post that guarded the
crossing of the Terek and controlled the trade route that passed
here. connecting the countries of the east with Russia. The guard
was represented by a detachment of archers from the nearby Tersk
town.
Under such circumstances, the place, which served
mainly as a staging post for trade caravans and foreign embassies,
gradually began to be populated by people of different
nationalities.
According to “Tarihi Kizlyarkala” near the
settlement of immigrants from Central Asia: “Armenians from Karabagh
settled down first. Later the Russians came too. " The settlements
closest to Kizlyar were mainly Russian Cossack settlements.
In 1725 the settlement of Kizlyar was destroyed by a flood. The new
settlement was founded a short distance from the old one.
Kizlyar fortress
In 1735 General-in-Chief V. Ya. Levashov founded
the Kizlyar fortress (Kizlyar fortress), which, together with the
nearby settlement, received the status of a city. From the fortress
of the Holy Cross on Sulak, demolished at the request of Nadir Shah,
Cossacks, North Caucasians, who had long been in the service of
Russia (Chechens-Akkins, Kabardians, etc.), as well as Armenians and
Georgians were transferred here. All of them began to be called the
Terek-Kizlyar Cossack army. The Cossacks constituted a special
military unit - the Kizlyar stanitsa. There were 6 settlements in
total: Armentir-Armenian settlement, Kurce-aul-Gruzinskaya
settlement, Kristi-aul -aul for Terek Cossacks and New Baptists, who
"were included as a special service category in the Tersk-lower
army", Tezik-aul-Persian settlement, Okochir is a settlement
inhabited by Kumyks and Nogais, and Kazante-aul is a settlement of
the Kazan Tatars. The settlements were separated from each other by
earthen ramparts, but connected by the central street of the city.
The Circassian settlement or Circassian aul, inhabited by
Kabardians, also stood out; a quarter inhabited by Indian merchants.
The favorable geographical position of Kizlyar immediately attracted
a multinational merchant, specializing in Eastern trade. Later,
three large markets were formed here: Armenian, Tatar and Russian;
caravanserais were arranged for visiting merchants. Kizlyar early
established strong economic ties with the Kumyk and Chechen
villages, with North Ossetia and Kabarda. The most intense were the
ties between Kizlyar and the large Kumyk villages of Andirey, Aksai,
Kostek, Tarki, Braguny.
County town
In 1785, by a decree
of Empress Catherine II, the Caucasian province was formed as part
of the Caucasian governorship. Kizlyar became the center of the
formed Kizlyar district.
During the 18th century, Kizlyar was intensively populated by
multi-tribal people. The government is actively engaging the
population in an effort to consolidate Russia's position in the
region. Christians settle here: Armenians, Georgians, baptized
Kabardians and Ossetians, as well as Muslims: Kumyks, Nogais,
Chechens, Kabardians.
By 1800, 1,622 Armenians and 673
Georgians lived in Kizlyar, accounting for 73% of the entire city.
In the 18th - first half of the 19th century, Kizlyar became the
largest trade center in the North Caucasus between Russia and the
peoples of the North Caucasus, as well as the most important transit
point in Russia's trade with the countries of the East. In terms of
trade, it ranked first in the Caucasus and in Russia's foreign trade
with the countries of the East.
By the beginning of the 19th
century, the city played an important role in the south of Russia,
being in fact the political and economic center of the North
Caucasus. By that time, Kizlyar was becoming a fairly large city.
In the first quarter of the 19th century, it was home to about
15 thousand people (without troops and newcomers). After Kiev and
Astrakhan, it was considered the largest city in the south of
Russia. So in 1811 it was five times larger than Simferopol, three
times larger than Novocherkassk and Taganrog, slightly larger than
Odessa, Poltava and Kharkov. In the Caucasus, Tiflis was larger than
Kizlyar, with a population of 30 thousand in 1825, and Derbent was
close to it in terms of population, in which 11 060 people then
lived.
Fishing was the traditional branch of the economy. The
government actively encouraged the development of such industries as
viticulture and winemaking, as well as sericulture in the region.
In 1802, the Caucasian province was separated from the Astrakhan
province, consisting of 5 counties, including the Kizlyar district.
In 1807 in Kizlyar "to encourage the development of viticulture"
a school of winemaking was opened - the state-owned Caucasian school
of winemaking. The choice of land suitable for vineyards was handled
by the chief inspector of sericulture in southern Russia, Baron
Marshal von Bieberstein. For the first vineyards near the city, 10
acres from the Commandant's mowing were allocated. The vines were
brought from the banks of the Rhine from Wiesbaden thanks to the
help of the brother of Baron Ernst Franz Ludwigrude. The school
existed for 30 years.
In 1831, during the Caucasian War, the
city was raided by the troops of Kazi-Mulla.
By the beginning
of the 1840s, the Kizlyar fortress had lost its significance, in
1842 the position of "fortress commandant" was abolished. With the
end of the Caucasian War, the Caucasian line lost its significance.
Abolished in 1860.
In 1827 the Kizlyar district was
transformed into a district. In May 1847 - the county again.
According to the "Geographical-Statistical Dictionary of the Russian
Empire" as of 1861, there were 8309 people in the city, of which:
5613 were followers of the Armenian Church; 1,731 Orthodox; 932
Muslims, and the rest are Catholics and Protestants. Of the
religious buildings in the city at that time there were 4 churches
and one monastery of the Armenian Apostolic Church, 4 Orthodox
churches, 1 Catholic church and 6 mosques. The city itself consisted
of four quarters: Armenian (largest), Georgian, Tatar and soldier's
settlement (Russian quarter). At the same time, the settlement had
two markets - Armenian and Tatar.
On December 9, 1867, the
city of Kizlyar with a part of the district was expelled from the
Stavropol province to the Terek region.
In the 1880s,
Georgian businessman David Sarajishvili (Saradzhiev) buys out
distilleries from the bourgeois Izmirov, Areshchev and Borov and
creates a brandy factory in Kizlyar. Sarajishvili was the first at
his factories in the Russian Empire to start producing cognac by
aging grape alcohol in barrels from Caucasian mountain oak. The
plant was founded in 1885, when 236 buckets of cognac were brought
from Kizlyar to Moscow. A year later, 906 buckets were sent in the
same direction. Local historian DS Vasiliev notes: “since the first
batch of cognac was exported to Moscow in 1885, and of course it was
not sent there immediately, presumably it can be assumed that the
cognac itself was made earlier, namely not later than 1880 ... Since
there is no more exact date yet, this year can well be considered
the beginning of cognac production in Kizlyar and, therefore, in
Russia. "
In the second half of the 19th century, due to the
emergence of new cities and the displacement of important trade
routes, Kizlyar lost its significance as an important city in the
North Caucasus. There is a decline in trade and economy. At the same
time, until the 1920s, the demographic situation deteriorated: a
high mortality rate, a lack of population inflow from other regions
and a constant outflow of its own population, due to which the
population of Kizlyar by the beginning of the 20th century, compared
to the middle of the 19th century, decreased by half.
Soviet period
In January 1921, the Terek region was divided
into the Terek province and the Gorsk ASSR. The Kizlyar district
remained a part of the province. However, on November 16, 1922, the
Kizlyar district (and with it the Achikulak district) were
transferred from the Terek province to the Dagestan ASSR. By the
time of the transfer to the Dagestan ASSR, the economy of the
Kizlyar Okrug was at an extremely low level.
And on February
13, 1924, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee issued a
decree "On the regionalization of the South-Eastern region" during
1924. And on July 7, 1924, the Mountain ASSR was abolished. On its
territory, the North Ossetian, Chechen and Ingush autonomous
regions, the Sunzhensky Cossack district (with the rights of the
provincial executive committee), the city of Vladikavkaz were
created as an independent unit directly subordinate to the
All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the RSFSR.
On
February 22, 1938, five northern regions of the Dagestan Autonomous
Soviet Socialist Republic (Achikulaksky, Karanogaysky, Kayasulinsky,
Kizlyarsky, Shelkovsky) were transferred to the Ordzhonikidze
Territory. Of these, the Kizlyar Autonomous Okrug was formed with
the center in the city of Kizlyar.
Since 1944, Kizlyar and
the Kizlyar district were part of the Grozny region. The region was
formed after the deportation of the Chechens and Ingush in February
1944 (Operation "Lentil") and the abolition of the Chechen-Ingush
ASSR.
In 1957, in connection with the restoration of the
Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, the Grozny
Region was abolished, and the Kizlyar and Kizlyar District were
again transferred to the Dagestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist
Republic. Since the 1950s, the territory to the right of the Terek
River, which was previously almost uninhabited, now constituting
half of the city in terms of territory, began to be intensively
developed and populated: a private sector and the modern
Cheryomushki microdistrict were built.
Recent history
During the First Chechen War, the city gained fame both in Russia
and around the world during the terrorist attack in January 1996.
On October 3, 2015, the city celebrated its 280th anniversary.
On February 18, 2018, in Kizlyar, during the Maslenitsa
celebration, a local resident attacked the parishioners of the
church using a hunting rifle. 5 people died, 4 more were injured,
including three employees of the Russian Guard. The shooting was
arranged by Khalil Khalilov, a member of the Islamic State's
sleeping cell.