|
|
Semey, formerly Semipalatinsk, city, capital of
Shygys Qazaqstan Province, eastern Kazakhstan, a major port on the Irtysh River. Located
in a rich agricultural region, the city is a trade center for wool and livestock.
Manufactures include processed meat, silk and leather goods, and construction materials.
Originally established nearby as a fortress in 1718, the city was moved to its present
site in 1778 and named Semipalatinsk. After Kazakhstan achieved independence in 1991, the
city was renamed Semey. The defunct Semipalatinsk Test Site, which contained the bulk of
Soviet nuclear testing from 1949 to 1991, is located near the city. Population (1993
estimate) 342,000.
Semipalatinsk, with a population of 298.1 thousand inhabitants,
was founded in 1718 by the minister of the Russian Tsar Peter I , the son of a landowner
Vasilij Cheredovoi as one of the frontier fortresses on the Irtysh. The fortress was
founded on the Djungar nun-fortress ruins consisted of seven big clay buildings -
"Sem Palat".
In 1670, during the feudal wars, the nun was destroyed but its ruins remained for a longer
time and gave the name "Sem Palat" to the fortress, founded by Vasilij
Cheredovoi. Later it became a city.
The fortress Semipalatnaya was of great importance for the defense system against the
Jungarian aggression and also the establishment of srong Kazakh-Russian relationships.
In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Semipalatinsk became a very important center
of trade between Russia, Kazakh tribes and China. By the beginning of the nineteenth
century Semipalatinsk was considered to be one of the most modern and wealthiest cities of
Siberia.
The world famous writer, F.M.Dostoyevsky, was exiled to Semipalatinsk. Abai Kunanbaiev,
the great Kazakh poet and thinker, learned Classical Literature and studied the changes in
the political life of the society in Semipalatinsk.
Today Semipalatinsk is mostly a city of food and light industries. Among sights of
interest in Semipalatinsk are the Nevzorovs Museum of Art, the Historical and Cultural
Museum of Literature of Abai, the Dostoyevsky museum, Kazakh Music and Russian Drama
theatres, the State University of "Semei" |
|
Bridge
Semipalatinsk
Theatre
|
