Orenburg

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Orenburg is a city on the Ural River and the administrative center of Orenburg Oblast in the Volga Federal District of Russia. It lies 1,478 km southeast of Moscow, very close to the border with Kazakhstan.

History

The Russian Empire began plans for the construction of an eastern frontier fortress town in the southern Ural region to be named Orenburg in 1734. The colonists originally founded a settlement in 1735 at the confluence of the Ural River with the Or River. The town's name meant "fortress near the Or," as Burg is German for fortress. This settlement changed its name in 1739 to Orsk. An attempt was made to found another Orenburg at a location called Krasnogor, or "Red Hill," in 1741, but this settlement failed. A third Orenburg was successfully established by Ivan Neplyuyev at its present location approximately 250 km down the Ural from Orsk in 1743.

This third Orenburg functioned as an important military outpost on the frontier with the nomadic Kazakhs. It became the center for the Orenburg Cossacks.

Orenburg played a major role in the rebellion of Pugachev (1773–1774). At the time, it was the capital of a vast district and the seat of the governor. 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.

The famous Russian writer 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 Dahl 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 on route to the new Central Asian possessions and to Siberia.

Orenburg functioned as the capital of the Kyrgyz Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (in present-day Kazakhstan) within Russia from 1920–1925. When that republic was renamed Kazakh Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in 1925, Orenburg joined Russia and Qyzylorda became the new capital. Alma-Ata became the capital in 1929 after the construction of the Turksib railway. Kazakh 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 (after the test pilot Valery Chkalov). The city's distance from the German invasion during World War II led many Soviet enterprises to flee there, helping in the city's economic growth.

Tourism

Mountain and river tourism is developed in the region. There are a number of fast mountain rivers and rocks in pleated spurs of the southern edge of the Urals range, popular with tourists.

The city is famous for its down Orenburg shawls. The thinnest lacy design, knitted by hand shawls and cobweb-like kerchiefs (pautinkas), is not only warm, but also is used for decorative purposes.

Culture and sights

Orenburg is proud with its theatres: the Drama Theatre, the Musical Comedy Theatre, the Tatar Drama Theatre, and the Puppet Show Theatre. Orenburg is also home to the Orenburg State Academic Russian Folk Choir.

Yuriy Gagarin, the first world cosmonaut studied at the Orenburg flying school and got married in Orenburg. The apartment where the young couple stayed for a while after Gagarin’s graduation remains a unique place to visit and touch the epoch’s history.

The historical downtown is the Sovetskaya street. It is a pedestrian zone with lots of shops, cafes and restaurants. It ends up with one of the most popular places in Orenburg – with the boulevard on the embankment of the Ural River. The place is called Belovka after a 19th century local merchant Belov, who gave money to renovate the quay and the Sovetskaya Street.

In the Sovetskaya street one can see the Orenburg Regional Studies Museum. Next year museum will celebrate 180 anniversary. Its expositions take us back to the history of Orenburg region and its flora and fauna. The museum also disposes a unique collection of sarmats and skiffs items. Being nomads this ancient tribes lived in the Orenburg steppes.