Beryozovo (Russian: Берёзово) is an urban locality (an urban-type settlement) and the administrative center of Beryozovsky District of Khanty–Mansi Autonomous Okrug, Russia, located on the Ob River. Population: 25,757 (2010 Census preliminary results);[1] 27,170 (2002 Census);[2] 28,256 (1989 Census).[3]
It is situated on three hills on the left bank of the Northern Sosva River, at its junction with the Ob River. It has more than once suffered from conflagrations for example, in 1719 and 1808. The yearly mean temperature is +4°C, the low being −44°C.
There was some ill-documented Russian trade in the area before the Russian conquest of Siberia. Beryozovo was founded in 1593 on the Northern Sosva route across the Ural Mountains to the fur-rich Mangazeya region. It was besieged by the Ostyaks in 1592, 1697, and 1608. It grew into a town of Beryozov (Берёзов) in Tobolsk Governorate. By the late 17th century most trade had shifted south to Verkhoturye.
In the mid-18th century, gold was discovered at Beryozovo—Siberia's first important gold mine. It was worked by serfs and convicts under primitive conditions and produced about 400 ounces a year (by the mid-19th century the gold sands further east were producing 600,000 ounces per year). In the 1960s, gas fields were discovered near its lower course causing a major population growth in the area. Transport is by river boat or ice road.
Prince Menshikov, the favorite of Peter the Great and Catherine I, died here in exile in 1729. In 1730, his enemy and rival, Prince Dolgoruky, was interned here with his family; and in 1742 General Ostermann was sent to Beryozov with his wife and died there in 1747. It has a cathedral, near which lie buried Mary Menshikova (a daughter of Aleksandr Menshikov, who attempted to make her betrothed to tsar Peter II) and some of the Dolgorukovs. In the 19th century, Beryozov was a place of exile for many of the Decembrists. In the 20th century, the Tsarist regime banished a few revolutionaries here as well.
In 1907, Trotsky while on his way to exile in Obdorsk escaped from Berezov on February 12/13. It had taken 33 days by train and horse to get from St Petersburg. He mentions Prince Menshikov had been in exile here.
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