Votkinsk (Udm. Votka Kar) is a city (since August 20, 1935) in the Udmurt Republic of Russia, the administrative center of the Votkinsk region. The city of republican significance forms the urban district, the city of Votkinsk. On September 26, 2019 it received its official name - the Municipal Urban District "Votkinsk City". Earlier in the literature was called the factory village Votkinskoe.
It arose in 1759 as a town (settlement) at the Votkinsk ironworks. The name is from the hydronym of the Votka River (the right tributary of the Kama) from here (Russian "votyaki") - "Udmurt" (compare Votskaya Autonomous Region - the name of Udmurtia in 1920-1934).
The first settlement on the
territory of the city, the so-called "Votkinsk settlement", dates
back to the 3rd-5th centuries and belongs to the Mazuni
archaeological culture.
Votkinsk was founded by Count
Shuvalov Peter Ivanovich on April 3 (14), 1757 as a settlement
during the construction of the Votkinsk iron-making plant. The
Senate decree on the construction of a plant on Votka was signed on
October 20, 1757. Administratively, the settlement was part of the
Khlynovsky district of the Kazan province.
The site for the
construction of the dam was chosen by prospectors under the
leadership of A.S. Moskvin downstream of the confluence of the
Sharkan and Berezovka rivers into Votka. The 382-fathom dam, built
in 1757, turned out to be the largest in the Urals. Below the dam,
the main units of the ironworks were built in 1757-59. Dwelling
houses were being built in parallel. 106 artisans from the
Goroblagodatsky factories and several thousand registered peasants
from nearby settlements worked on the construction. On September 21,
1759, 2 hammers were launched and the first iron was obtained. The
official launch date of the plant is November 1, 1759. At the plant,
there was a critical factory, as well as factories for the
production of sheet and section iron. In 1760, 260 people worked at
the plant, 14 hammers functioned, 75.6 thousand poods of iron were
forged.
The situation of the registered peasants at the Kama
factories was difficult, which led to unrest in 1750-60. In 1763,
the Kama factories were transferred to the treasury of the Berg
Collegium mining department.
In 1769, a tinning factory was
built, producing tinned iron for the roof of the Tsarskoye Selo
palaces. The volume of metal production was (thousand poods): 1766 -
129.4; 1767 - 143; 1770 - 115.2.
On June 24, 1774, the
settlement and the plant were captured by the army of E.I. Pugachev,
who was moving from the city of Osa. As a result of the raid, the
factory and the village were partially destroyed, the Dmitrovskaya
church, the house of the steward and the office were burned. Some of
the workers joined the army of the rebels, many fled. Several people
who refused to swear allegiance to Pugachev were hanged. As a
result, the number of factory artisans has more than halved. Then
Pugachev with the army moved to the Izhevsk plant. The plant was
restored in 1775. The restored plant produced iron (thousand poods):
in 1776 - 170.6; in 1777 - 104; in 1779 - 136.
By decree of
Catherine II in 1779, the plant mastered and carried out for 140
years the production of anchors for the ships of the navy. To ensure
production with the help of craftsmen sent from the Admiralty, an
anchor factory with 8 forges and 3 hammers was built. In 1782, the
first anchors of the Admiralty type were released, in 1783 anchors
with a total weight of 1429 pounds were delivered to the Admiralty,
in 1784 - 3929; in 1785/1786 - 5677; in 1786/1788 - 8344. Later the
plant produced annually up to 11-15 thousand poods of anchors.
From 1759 to 1796 the village at the Votkinsk plant belonged to
the Vyatka province of the Kazan province, from 1797 to 1917 it was
part of the Sarapul district of the Vyatka province.
In 1801,
after the transfer of the Izhevsk plant (now the Kalashnikov and
Izhstal Concern), AF Deryabin moved from the mining department to
the military department in Votkinsk. In 1807 he organized the
production of tool steel at the Votkinsk plant.
On May 1,
1898, the Votkinsk plant was separated into an independent mining
district. At the same time, a major overhaul of the plant began
according to the designs of the architect V.N.Petenkin.
In
1837-48, Lieutenant Colonel of the Corps of Mining Engineers IP
Tchaikovsky was the mining chief of the Kamsko-Votkinsk plants.
Under his leadership, the first puddling furnace in Russia was built
at the plant in 1837, shipbuilding began in 1847, and in 1848 the
first steamship "Astrabad" was floated along the Votka and Siva
rivers to the Kama. Over 80 years have been built over 400 ships. On
April 25, 1840, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was born in the village and
spent the first 8 years of his life.
In 1857, at the Votkinsk
plant, the spire of the Peter and Paul Fortress was made with a
height of 48.5 m, weighing over 3500 poods. In 1895, in the village
of Galevo, the first railway in Udmurtia was laid, connecting the
pier on the Kama with the plant.
On October 18, 1902, Evgeny
Andreevich Permyak, a Russian Soviet writer and playwright,
journalist, and director, was born in the village of the Votkinsk
plant.
On August 17, 1918, the inhabitants of the village, supporting
the Izhevsk anti-Bolshevik uprising, expelled the Soviet government.
Later, the Izhevsk-Votkinsk uprising expanded to the entire Sarapul
district of the Vyatka province. Until November 11, 1918, the rebels
not only held the defensive against the advancing from all sides of
the 2nd Army (RKKA) and the 3rd Army (RKKA), but were able to expand
the borders of the uprising to the Perm, Ufa and Kazan provinces.
Only during the retreat, about 30 thousand people from among the
workers, peasants and their families left Votkinsk to join the White
Army.
In March 1919 the city was occupied by the Siberian
army of A. V. Kolchak, in June - by the Red Army.
During the
years of the Civil War, the population of the village decreased by 2
times, the plant was almost completely destroyed. In November 1922,
the plant was mothballed and resumed work only in September 1925.
From 1917 to 1921, the settlement of Votkinsk plant belonged to
the Sarapul district of the Vyatka province. In 1921, the settlement
at the plant received the status of a working settlement. From 1921
to 1923 in the Sarapul district of the Perm region, from April 18,
1923 to 1934 in the Ural and Sverdlovsk regions, from 1934 to 1935 -
in the Kirov region. On August 20, 1935, the settlement was
transformed into a city, which until 1936 was part of the Kirov
region, from 1936 to 1937 - into the Kirov region. On October 22,
1937, the city of Votkinsk from the Kirov region was transferred to
the Udmurt ASSR.
On September 26, 2019 it received its
official name - the municipal urban district of the Udmurt Republic
"the city of Votkinsk".