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[edit] 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 Krasnogar, or "Red Hill," in 1741, but this settlement failed. A third Orenburg was successfully established 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. After the incorporation of Central Asia into the Russian Empire, Orenburg became a trading station and a prominent railway junction on route to the new Central Asian possessions and to Siberia.
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 it's fortress from nearby Berda from October 1773 - march 26th, 1774. The defence was organized by luitenant-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 Puchachev" 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 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 rejoined Russia proper and Alma-Ata (Almaty) became the new capital. Although the republic became the Kazakh SSR in 1936, Orenburg remained in Russia.
From 1938 to 1957, the city bore the name Chkalov (Чка́лов) (after the test pilot Valery Chkalov). The city's distance from the Nazi invasion during World War II led many Soviet enterprises to flee there, helping in the city's economic growth.
In 1954 nuclear bombing tests were performed in Totskoye testing range near the Orenburg during which some 45,000 people, Soviet soldiers and prisoners, were deliberately exposed to radiation from a bomb twice as powerful as the one dropped on Hiroshima just nine years before. At 9:33 a.m. on 14 September 1954, a Soviet Tu-4 bomber dropped a 40,000-ton atomic weapon from 25,000 feet. The bomb exploded 1,200 feet above Totskoye testing range near. Thousands are believed to have died in the immediate aftermath and in the years following. The pilot flying the Tu-4 bomber developed leukemia and his co-pilot developed bone cancer. Deputy Defense Minister Georgi Zhukov safely witnessed the blast from an underground nuclear bunker. Moments after the blast, Zhukov ordered 600 tanks, 600 armored personnel carriers and 320 planes to move forward to the epicenter in order to stage a mock battle. The experiment was designed to test the performance of military hardware and soldiers in the event of a nuclear war. There are no official figures showing how many of the 45,000 people sent to Totskoye testing range died as a result of the test. People exposed to radiation during tests were denied medical care, their military records were falsified to show different serving places, test was kept in secret. (source: The Sunday Times (UK), 24 June 2001).
[edit] Location
Orenburg (Russian: Оренбу́рг) 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 south of Moscow, at . Population of the city is 542,7 thousands people, by 2005 year. Orenburg occupies an area of 91,702 thousands hectars. Highest point above sea level 154.4m Lowest point 120m. Rivers: Ural and Sakmara. 717 streets 167 alleys 45 passages 8 prospects 6 boulevards
[edit] International dialing code
+7(3532)
[edit] Postal code
460000.
[edit] Time difference
Taking in mind the time of destination concerning the time in Orenburg.
+5 hours GMT (+2 Moscow) +10 hours difference with New York -3 hours difference with Tokyo
[edit] Educational facilities.
Orenburg State University. Orenburg Institute of Economics & Culture. Moscow State Law Academy. Orenburg Branch. On the whole the education level of Orenburg is on a high level.
[edit] Mayor
The mayor of the city is Yuri Misheryakov information about the mayor can be found on this website: http://www.admin.orenburg.ru/orenburg/
[edit] Culture
The cultural life of this city is very rich. It has museums such as The museum of Orenburg history and more museums on particular topics. It also has five cinemas and concert halls and five theatres which have a wide range of performances to offer to any type of audience. Art and music industry plays a big part in the cultural life of the city.
[edit] Architecture
A famous boulevard on the embankment of river Ural. One of the most remarkable places in Orenburg. Many different memorials of famous people that lived in Orenburg.
[edit] Industry
For the past 2-3 years heavy machinery production was raised to very high standards which lead to the rise in the economy of the city. The sphere of electro-energetic production is on very high level which attracts foreign investors. Orenburgenergy company is one of the biggest energy generating companies in Russia. As it is not a very big city, Orenburgenergy has a lot of people employed in this company. However the situation with oil and food production still remains unstable.
[edit] Famous people
There are a lot of famous people but amongst all of them special titles are given to the first cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin and a great musiscian Rostropovich. Other people are mostly the ones who stood up for the country in world war 2.
[edit] External links
- (English) City History of Orenburg
http://reg.expo2005.ru/en/region.php?id=272
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