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Orenburg (from 1938 to 1957 - Chkalov) is a city in Russia. Orenburg is the administrative center of the Orenburg region, located near the border with Kazakhstan, on the Ural River. The latter is the natural border separating Europe from Asia, which, incidentally, is not true from a scientific point of view. It forms the municipality of the city of Orenburg with the status of the urban district. According to the data of 2012, about 579.3 thousand people live in Orenburg (28th place by population in Russia).
In 1734, the Russian Empire began expanding its control and
influence in Asia starting from the construction of the fortress
city called "Orenburg" on its eastern border (in Southern Ural). For
this purpose, a settlement was founded here in 1735 - at the place
where the Or and the Ural rivers cross.
The initial site was
chosen for settlement during the expedition of I.K. Kirilov, who
initiated developmental activities in the region. He argued that the
city was necessary "...for opening up transit routes to Bukhara,
Badakhshan, Bulk, and to India", making it possible to receive
"wealth from there — gold, lapis lazuli, and garnet." After his
death, a new administrator of the Orenburg expedition, Vasily
Tatishchev, was appointed. He did not consider this place to be
convenient for construction of the city, because it was constantly
flooded by the spring high waters. This encouraged to launch in 1739
preparations for building a new town with the old name downstream
the river Ural (Yaik) on the mountain Krasnaya (Red). The old
settlement was named the Orsk fortress (now the city of Orsk).
On 6 August 1741, the new town was founded. However, its
construction did not start. The location on the mountain Krasnaya —
treeless, rocky and remote from the river — was also inappropriate
for building the town. A new administrator of the Orenburg
expedition, Ivan Neplyuyev, was appointed.
On 19 (30) April
1743, Orenburg was founded for a third time, on the compound that
was once the Berd fortress (town of Berd), 70 versts (75 km; 46 mi)
from the Krasnogorsk mountain area. In the summer of 1742, Neplyuev
personally chose a new place surrounded by forests and crop fields,
where the Yaik and the Sakmara rivers cross. Now it is the
historical center of the city. The city built upon the mountain
Krasnaya was named Krasnogorsk.
Orenburg, therefore, was
successfully established by Ivan Neplyuyev in its present location
approximately 250 kilometers (160 mi) west down the Ural from Orsk
in 1743. This third Orenburg has functioned as an important military
outpost on the border with the nomadic Kazakhs. It became the center
of the Orenburg Cossacks.
Orenburg played a major role in
Pugachev's Rebellion (1773–1774). At the time, it was the capital of
a vast district and the seat of the governor. Yemelyan Pugachev
besieged the city and its fortress from nearby Berda from October
1773 - March 26, 1774. The defense was organized by
lieutenant-general Reinsdorp. General Golytsin defeated Pugachev at
Berda, and later again at Kargala (north of Orenburg). Most of the
city was left in ruins, and thousands of inhabitants had died in the
siege.
Alexander Pushkin visited Orenburg in 1833 during a
research trip for his books The History of Pugachev and his famous
novel The Captain's Daughter. He met his friend Vladimir Dal here,
who would later write the first serious dictionary of the Russian
language.
Orenburg was the base for General Perovsky's
expeditions against the Khanate of Khiva in the 1830s through 1850s.
After the incorporation of Central Asia into the Russian Empire,
Orenburg became a trading station and, since the completion of the
Trans-Aral Railway, a prominent railway junction en route to the new
Central Asian possessions and to Siberia.
Orenburg functioned
as the capital of the Kirghiz Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic
(in present-day Kazakhstan) within Russia from 1920–1925. When that
republic was renamed Kazak Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in
1925, Orenburg joined Russia and Kyzylorda became the new capital.
Almaty became the capital in 1929 after the construction of the
Turkestan–Siberia Railway. Kazak Autonomous Soviet Socialist
Republic was promoted to the union republic status as the Kazakh
Soviet Socialist Republic Kazakh SSR in 1936. Orenburg remained in
Russia.
From 1938 to 1957, the city bore the name Chkalov
(Чка́лов) (after the prominent test pilot Valery Chkalov). The
city's distance from the German invasion during World War II led
many Soviet enterprises to flee there, helping to spur the city's
economic growth.