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Makhachkala is a city in southern Russia, in the Caucasus, located on the shores of the Caspian Sea. It is the capital of the Republic of Dagestan and the third largest city in the North Caucasus region and the largest city in the North Caucasus Federal District. It forms urban district the city of Makhachkala. It is the core of the almost million-strong Makhachkala-Caspian agglomeration.
Orientation
The city stretched along the western coast of the
Caspian Sea, currently Makhachkala is one of the fastest growing
cities in Russia. The city is divided into three districts, with
traditional Soviet names:
Sovetsky district - the central and
western part of the city
Leninsky district is located on the
southeast
Kirovsky district - the largest in terms of area, in
the northern part of the city
Many streets of Makhachkala were
renamed in the post-Soviet era, but, like, for example, in Central
Asia, some of the old names turned out to be very tenacious, and
have been preserved in people's memory, on bus routes and even on
some maps: be careful.
Center
1 House with Atlanteans.
2 Rhodope boulevard.
3
Pushkin Street.
4 Dagestan Hotel.
5 Water tower.
West of
the center
6 Petrovsky lighthouse.
7 The building of the
Agricultural Institute.
8 Assumption Cathedral.
South of the
center
9 Central Mosque.
10 Observation deck.
1 National Museum of the Republic of Dagestan named after I. A.
Takho-Godi, st. Daniyalov, 33. ☎ +7 (8722) 67-19-74. 🕑 Tue–Sun
10:00–18:00. 100 rub. For one of the most unusual and diverse regions of
Russia, the museum is not large, although in general there is something
to see (more than 20 rooms), especially a lot of attention is paid to
the Caucasian War. Ethnography with crafts is also well represented, but
the nature and ancient history of Dagestan got only one room each. The
museum has recently occupied the "House with the Atlanteans", which can
be seen from some of the not fully designed expositions, and the rest
often lack detailed descriptions.
2 Dagestan Museum of Fine Arts.
P.S. Gamzatova, st. Gorky, 8 (across the street from the national). ☎ +7
(8722) 67-25-99. 🕑 Tue–Sun 10:00–18:00. 100 rub. The collection of folk
crafts is a good addition to what can be seen in the national museum.
Academic and contemporary Dagestan art is presented only in the form of
exhibitions. There are also small collections of Russian and Western
European art, including paintings on Caucasian themes.
Museum of the
History of Makhachkala.
3 Russian Drama Theatre. M. Gorky, Rasul Gamzatov Avenue, 38.
4
Kumyk Music and Drama Theater named after A.P. Salavatov. Oct 2019
5
Avar Music and Drama Theater named after Gamzat Tsadasa. Oct 2019
Lak
Music and Drama Theater named after E. Kapiev.
6 Dagestan State
Puppet Theatre.
Dagestan State Opera and Ballet Theatre.
By plane
1 Uytash Airport (named after Amet-Khan
Sultan, IATA: MCX), south of the city of Kaspiysk, 23 km from the center
of Makhachkala. The largest airport in terms of passenger traffic in the
North Caucasus, although in terms of flight structure it does not differ
from others in this region: daily you can fly only to Moscow. In
addition to Moscow (several flights a day), as of 2018, St. Petersburg,
Surgut and several cities of the South of Russia are included in the
schedule, and from international flights - Istanbul, Dubai and Aktau.
The airport itself is very small and is clearly waiting for expansion.
Before security control, there is a cafe with traditional pastries, a
coffee shop, a fast food restaurant with burgers, a cafe "Oblaka" with
normal food on the second floor and several souvenir shops, but after
control there is only a buffet, and even there may not be enough seats
for everyone . The arrivals area does consist of one room for baggage
claim.
There is no stable public transport to the airport, an
official taxi costs 300 rubles. to the center of Kaspiysk and 700-800 r.
to the center of Makhachkala or the southern bus station. Mobile
applications (Yandex.Taxi, maxim) offer prices 1.5-2 times lower, but
usually in this case the car will have to wait a little longer.
By train
Although there is a daily train from Makhachkala to Moscow,
and even to some more distant cities, due to the long distance and
travel time, they can hardly be convenient. Relatively quickly, you can
only get to Mineralnye Vody (15 hours on the St. Petersburg train, once
every two days) and Astrakhan (10-11 hours on the Moscow and some
others, at least once a day). There is no normal railway communication
with other republics of the North Caucasus, except for the same St.
Petersburg train, which passes almost all of them, but through places
that are not very interesting for travelers. Trains towards Azerbaijan
are rare and in no hurry, to Baku 10-12 hours.
Electric trains to
Derbent run twice a day, the journey takes 2.5 hours: in some cases they
can be more convenient than minibuses, although nominally much slower
than them. In the direction of Khasavyurt, the train runs once a day and
has no advantages over minibuses and “collective” taxis. There are no
suburban trains to other destinations.
2 Railway station
(Makhachkala II - Port), st. Emirova, 10 (by the sea, the western part
of the city center).
By bus
Both Makhachkala bus stations are
located at the entrances to the city, but are accessible by public
transport. The main bus station is the northern one, from there there
are buses and minibuses in the northern and eastern directions and
transit buses to the south. The southern bus station logically remains
routes to the south - in particular, to Derbent and to the Azerbaijani
border. Both bus stations are surrounded by all kinds of trade.
3
Northern bus station, ave. Ali-Gadzhi Akushinsky (at the northern exit
to the highway). This bus station is a very flexible concept: in
addition to two landing sites at the bus station itself, one more is
located a little further away, and some minibuses depart from somewhere
nearby. Arriving minibuses generally try not to participate in this, but
stop on the avenue across the road. By the way, there is a small corner
of civilization: KFC (real and round-the-clock) and the Severny shopping
center with the Golden Apple supermarket (8:00–00:00).
4 South bus
station, ave. Amet-Khan Sultan (at the southern exit to the highway).
Compared to the bus station, much less confusing and busy. Located in
the depths of the market, but, fortunately, visible from the avenue.
Numerous minibuses, the fare is 27 rubles. (2021),
payment is usually at the exit. The trolleybus network is also alive in
Makhachkala, although trolleybuses sometimes have a hard time in city
traffic. The fare is 15 rubles. (2021), payment at the exit. A feature
of the network is two intercity routes to neighboring Kaspiysk (3/327
and 12/326). The bus route to the same Kaspiysk (No. 100) is served by
almost the only large city buses in the city.
Driving a car
around the city would not be the best idea. From the point of view of a
pedestrian, there are no particular problems in the central regions:
there are sidewalks, and pedestrian crossings, and traffic lights, but
on the outskirts (if you somehow find yourself there) you may not have
all this.
Both Yandex-taxi and calling a taxi through an operator
work:
Yandex Taxi +7(8722)77-70-00
Taxi Time +7(8722)66-05-05
Taxi Anji +7(8722)55-00-55
Supermarket "Green Apple", ave. Rasula Gamzatova, 57. The main
supermarket of the only network in Makhachkala. In addition to the usual
range of supermarkets, they sell both Dagestan and generalized oriental
goods: not everything that can be found in the markets is more
expensive, but in an incomparably more pleasant atmosphere. Cards are
accepted, which is a huge rarity for Dagestan.
Second market, st.
Batyray / Korkmasov / Dzerzhinsky / Belinsky. The closest to the center
of the Makhachkala markets. They sell on it spices, and dried fruits,
and dairy products, and fish, and everything else that Dagestan is rich
in. But this is a real oriental bazaar with all its fussiness and
philosophical attitude to sanitary standards, except that the sellers
behave more cold-blooded than stereotypical ones.
Coffee houses
✦ Z&M coffee chain.
1 Z&M on Buynakskogo, st.
Buynaksky, d.6. 🕑 around the clock.
Cheap
You can eat cheaply
in any cafe or canteen. For 200 rubles you can order the first and
second.
Average cost
2 Family cafe "In the mountains".
Expensive
The main expensive restaurants are located in the
central part of the city, as well as along the coastline overlooking the
sea.
3 Restaurant "Barracuda".
4 Restaurant "Jasmine".
5 Veranda restaurant.
6 Restaurant Viking.
Average cost
1 Hotel "Tarkho", Heydar Hajiyev St., 11k. single
standard 2000 rub. The hotel is located away from the central part of
the city and is more focused on business travelers. Twenty-seven rooms,
some of which do not have outside windows. Wi-Fi, breakfasts in a nearby
cafe of the same name, a 24-hour supermarket.
2 Moon Coast Hotel.
Expensive
3 Leningrad Hotel, R. Gamzatov Avenue.
12 Sport
Hotel, Shamil Avenue.
12 President Hotel (near the diagnostic
center).
Try not to violate local customs and orders, see Dagestan.
The city was founded in 1844 as the Petrovsky fortification. The name
was due to the fact that, according to legend, during the Persian
campaign in 1722, this place was the camp of the army of Peter I. In
1857, the city was renamed Petrovsk.
From March to April 1918,
and also from November 1918 to March 1920 during the Civil War, the city
was held by anti-Bolshevik forces and was called Shamil-kala in honor of
Imam Shamil.
In 1922 it was renamed Makhachkala (until the 1950s
it was often written - Makhach-Kala); the name was given in honor of one
of the organizers of Soviet power in Dagestan - Magomed Ali (Makhach)
Dakhadaev (1882-1918). The name comes from "Makhach" - an abbreviated
form of the name "Magomed", and from kala in the meaning of "city,
fortress".
Early history
The Huns, Persians, and Arabs fought for the
possession of the "Dagestan corridor" at one time. An important role
in the history of the struggle for the possession of this corridor
was played by the city of Tarki, located not far from modern
Makhachkala. It was first mentioned under the name "Targu" in the
8th century by the Armenian historian Ghevond.
Tarki has been
known since the 15th century as a trading center through which the
caravan route to the city of Derbent passed - one of the oldest
cities in the world. Under the name Inji (common Inzhi, later Anji)
the settlement has been known since the Middle Ages.
As part
of the Russian Empire
In 1844, on the hilly hills of Anji-Ark,
which in Kumyk means “Back (hump) of Anji”, the Petrovsky
fortification was laid, named so in memory of Peter I’s stay in
these places in 1722 during the Persian campaign. In 1857 it
received the status of a city and the name of Petrovsk.
An
artificial harbor and port was built in 1870.
In 1894-1896
the city was connected by railways with Vladikavkaz and Baku.
The first industrial enterprise of the city was a brewery built
in 1876. In 1878, the first printing house began to operate. Later,
two tobacco factories were built.
At the end of the 19th and
beginning of the 20th centuries, the intensive development of the
city began. The Rostov-on-Don-Baku railway was built, along which
train traffic was opened to Petrovsk-Port.
By 1897, the
population of the city had more than quadrupled and exceeded 8.7
thousand people.
In 1900, they completed the construction of
the largest enterprise in the city of the paper-spinning factory of
the joint-stock company "Caspian Manufactory" (in the Soviet period,
the factory named after the III International).
In 1914 a
small oil refinery was built. The population increased and exceeded
24 thousand people, the city took first place among the cities of
Dagestan both in terms of population and economic importance. The
city of Temir-Khan-Shura remained the administrative and political
center of the Dagestan region.
At the end of 1915, the railway
line Petrovsk - Temir-Khan-Shura was put into operation, connecting
the city with mountainous Dagestan.
At the end of the 19th -
beginning of the 20th centuries, an oil refinery and a cooperage
plant, a paper-spinning and tobacco mill, and railway workshops were
built in Petrovsk.
There were only four streets in Petrovsk -
Baryatinsky (now Buynaksky); Privolnaya (now Daniyalova ← Markova ←
Sadovaya ← Privolnaya); Cathedral (now Mantashev Street ← Oskar ←
Oktyabrskaya ← Cathedral) and Inzhenernaya (now R. Gamzatov ← V. I.
Lenin ← Komsomolskaya ← Inzhenernaya)[20]. The streets in the
central part were paved with cobblestones and lit with kerosene
lanterns. There were stone and brick houses in which officials,
officers and clergymen, wealthy citizens lived. On the main street -
Baryatinsky - there was a hotel "Gunib" for 25 people, several
shops, a pharmacy, a cinema "Progress", and on the site where the
State Bank (Central Bank of the Russian Federation) is now located,
there was an inn. The rest of the streets were covered with
impassable mud, and in summer - dust, clouds of flies and
mosquitoes. From the bath, demolished only in 2004, and located on
the street. Malygin 1, a ditch was dug through which dirty water
flowed into the sea. Even the area near the cathedral, where the
Government House is now located, was a cluttered and undeveloped
area. The city had only one library with three thousand books, but
there were over two dozen drinking establishments. There was no
water supply in the city, people carried water in barrels.
After the October Revolution of 1917, during the years of the civil
war, the city repeatedly passed from hand to hand of the warring
parties. On November 18, 1918, the “white” mayor, Colonel Abdusalam
Magometov, issued an order to rename the city to Shamil-Kala. In
March 1920, Soviet power was finally established in Petrovsk, and
with it the historical name returned to the city.
On the maps of the 1920s, along with the name of Petrovsk, the
“folk” name of Anzhi was indicated.
On May 14, 1921, by order
No. 59 of the Dagestan Revolutionary Committee, the city of
Petrovsk-Port was renamed Makhachkala, in honor of the Dagestan
revolutionary Makhach Dakhadaev (1882-1918). On December 15, 1923,
the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the DASSR
declared Makhachkala the capital of the DASSR.
In the
mid-1930s, the urban-type settlement of Petrovsk-Kavkazsky (now the
Makhachkala-1 microdistrict) was attached to the city.
The
eviction of the Kumyk population and the expansion of Makhachkala
On April 12, 1944, a decision was made to resettle the inhabitants
of Tarka, Kyakhulai and Alburikent to the lands of the deported
Chechens. Most of the released land was distributed to the
Makhachkala city council (6243 out of 8166 hectares), in addition to
the collective farms of the mountainous regions and industrial
enterprises of Makhachkala. After the return of the Kumyk population
in 1957, the lands of the collective farms were not restored,
personal property was also lost, many houses were occupied by those
resettled from mountainous areas. The historical monuments of the
ancient city were destroyed, part of the infrastructure of
Makhachkala was laid out of the materials.
30s-80s
In
Soviet times, the capital of Dagestan developed rapidly, from the
1930s to the 1980s the population increased by more than 10 times,
the basic social infrastructure, a modern education system and basic
industries were created. The problem of water supply was solved,
dozens of medical institutions, cultural institutions were built,
higher and secondary educational institutions were opened. All the
peoples of Dagestan participated in the formation of the composition
of the population of the city of Makhachkala.
Until 1952, the
Temple of the Grand Duke Alexander Nevsky stood near the Central
Square of the city. The temple was consecrated on August 30, 1891.
In 1952, it suffered the same fate as many religious buildings in
Soviet Russia - the temple was demolished. At present, the building
of the head and government of the Republic of Dagestan is located in
its place.
During the Great Patriotic War, 5 Makhachkala
residents were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
Great changes in all spheres of city life took place in the
post-war 1950-1970s. Already in 1969, there were 4 universities in
Makhachkala: (Dagestan State University, agricultural (now Dagestan
State Agricultural Academy), medical (now Dagestan State Medical
Academy), and pedagogical (now Dagestan State Pedagogical
University) institutes, 51 secondary schools, dozens of libraries
with a total fund of more than 1.4 million books, more than 20
cinemas (most were later reorganized).Civil construction developed
rapidly.Large industrial facilities were located, among them the
factories named after M. Gadzhiev, Mashinostroitelny (now
"Aviaagregat") , a separator plant, Dagelektromash,
Instrument-Making, Steklovolokno, a radio goods plant, Eltav,
factories named after the III International, named after Krupskaya,
a fish cannery named after Fighters of the Revolution and others.
In the late 1960s, it was planned to install a funicular in
Makhachkala on the slope of Mount Tarki-Tau, but later the project
was curtailed.
Makhachkala was badly damaged during the
earthquake on May 14, 1970.
In connection with the collapse of the USSR, the beginning of
economic reforms and the transition to a market economy, the
industry of Makhachkala, mainly focused on orders from the
military-industrial complex, found itself in a difficult situation.
The conversion programs could not be implemented.
In the
1990s, a protracted stage of declining production began. For
example: the Fiberglass plant provided jobs for 3,800 people until
1990, now it is less than 500. 3rd International and Krupskaya, the
Fish and Canning Plant were completely disabled and liquidated, and
the territory was sold for construction. It's the same with other
businesses. In the late 1990s, the situation began to improve. The
beginning of the 21st century is marked by significant positive
changes in the structure of production and the growth of the
industrial potential of the city.
In 1998, Said Amirov was
appointed head of the city administration.
At the end of the
20th century, Makhachkala became the target of Wahhabis and radical
Islamic organizations.
In June 2013, the head of the administration of Makhachkala, Said
Amirov, was arrested by law enforcement agencies. DSU Rector Murtazali
Rabadanov was appointed in his place. In April 2014, Rabadanov resigned
from his post and. O. Mayor of Makhachkala at his own request, and in
his place the head of Dagestan Ramazan Abdulatipov appointed Magomed
Suleimanov. In July 2015, instead of Suleimanov and. O. Musa Musaev
became mayor. The deputies of the city assembly of Makhachkala decided
to prematurely dismiss the mayor of the capital of Dagestan, Musa
Musaev, who was sentenced to four years in prison for fraud. On December
27, 2018, the press service of the mayor's office informed about this.
From January to November, Abusupyan Gasanov was the acting mayor of
Makhachkala. On November 7, 2018, Abusupyan Gasanov was arrested on
suspicion of embezzlement of 40 million rubles in his position as acting
head of state. O. mayor of the city. After the dismissal of Mayor
Abusupyan Gasanov on November 8, 2018, until January 31, 2019, Murad
Aliyev was the acting mayor of Makhachkala.
On January 31, 2019,
the deputies of the city assembly of Makhachkala elected a new mayor of
the capital of Dagestan, the former head of the administration of the
Basmanny district of Moscow, Salman Dadaev, became him.
In 2001,
2002, 2003 and 2011, Makhachkala was among the top three in the contest
"The most comfortable city in Russia" held by Rosstroy. Announcing the
results of the competition for 2011, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry
Medvedev called the prize-winning place of Makhachkala "especially
important."