Temirtau | |
|---|---|
 | |
 Seal | |
  Temirtau Location in Kazakhstan | |
| Coordinates:50°06′N72°57′E / 50.100°N 72.950°E /50.100; 72.950 | |
| Country | Kazakhstan |
| Region | Karaganda Region |
| Samarkand | 1909 |
| City status | 1945 |
| Government | |
| • Akim | Oraz Taurbekov |
| Population (2021) | |
• Total | 185,409[1] |
| Time zone | +5 |
| Postal code | 101400 |
| Website | Akimat of Temirtau city |
Temirtau (Kazakh:Теміртау,romanized: Temırtau;Russian:Темиртау) is a city in theKaraganda Region ofKazakhstan. The population was 170,481 in the 1999 census, rising to 210,590 in 2015.
The city is located on theNura River (the Samarkand Reservoir), northwest ofKaraganda.
The first groups of settlers to settle in the area were 40 families fromSamara (seeStolypin reform), who settled on the left bank of theNura River on 15 June 1905. The settlement they founded was named Zhaur (Жаур), after a hill on the other side of the river. In 1909 the settlement was renamed Samarkandsky (Самаркандский, or Samarkand for short). The first school and the first hospital were built in 1911. In 1921, Samarkandsky became а part of theAkmolinsk Governorate[citation needed] within theKyrgyz Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, an autonomous republic established in 1920 as part of the RSFSR (renamed the Kazak ASSR in 1925).
In 1933 the Samarkandsky-Karagandawater conduit was built to facilitate the development of the Karaganda coal field. In 1939 a 20-by-300-metre (66 ft × 984 ft) dam (50°06′17″N72°55′08″E / 50.10472°N 72.91889°E /50.10472; 72.91889) was constructed across the Nura River, creating the Samarkand water reservoir, which would remain until 1961. Construction of the Karaganda State Regional Electric Power Station began in 1934, and the first turbine came online in 1942. In 1944, despite being still under construction, the Kazakh Steel Mill yielded its first steel, smelted in an open-hearth Siemens-Martin furnace.
The Samarkand settlement was granted city status on 1 October 1945, and renamed Temirtau ("Iron Mountain" in Kazakh). From 1947 to 1949 Japanese prisoners-of-war were kept in a camp near the town. In 1950 the Karaganda Steel Mill was founded. To build it theSoviet Union announced a "Nationwide High-Intensive Construction Project", and many young "shock-worker brigades" were brought from all over the Soviet Union and ally countries, including many fromBulgaria. In 1959 there were a series of riots and insurrections among the workers, who were highly dissatisfied with the poor working and living conditions and the interruptions in the supply of water, food, goods, tools and other resources as a result of mistakes by the administration. 16 workers were killed in the clashes, and 27 wounded, with 70 arrested and convicted. 28 police were also wounded in the fighting.[2][3][4]
In 1960, blast furnace No. 1 yielded its first cast iron.[5] In 1963 the Karaganda Polytechnical Institute (now Karaganda Metallurgical Institute) was founded as a Higher Technical Educational Institution attached to the Karaganda Steel Mill. During the 1970s a new sports complex was built, including a 50m swimming pool, a 15,000 capacity stadium, and an indoor ice-skating and hockey rink. In 1972 the "Metallurgists' Palace of Culture" was opened in the town, followed in 1978 by the "Vostok" recreational park, situated in the eastern part of the city and opened to the public. On 29 July 1978 a Warrior Monument with an Eternal Flame was dedicated to the soldiers from Temirtau who had been killed in World War II.
In 1980, the German Drama Theater opened in the city, the first German-speaking theater in the USSR since the elimination of theVolga German ASSR and all its institutions in 1941 when mostethnic Germans were deported to Kazakhstan and Siberia. By legend, the creation of a new German theater was the product of the general geopoliticaldétente at the time. West German chancellorHelmut Schmidt is supposed to have askedLeonid Brezhnev about visiting a national theater of the German minority, who then ordered the re-establishment himself. There were only few Germans in the city of Temirtau, however, and the troupe often toured through many smaller towns and villages. The theater finally moved to the capital Almaty in the late 1980s.[6]
In 1984 a new residential area was developed, named Zenica in honour of Temirtau'stwin-town of that name inBosnia and Herzegovina.
 | This sectiondoes notcite anysources. Please helpimprove this section byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged andremoved. Find sources: "Temirtau" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(November 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
On December 28, 1992, Alexander Svichinsky, the general director of the Karaganda Metallurgical Plant, was assassinated on the plant’s premises. The murder caused a major public outcry, and the perpetrators were sentenced to capital punishment.
In January 1993, a new Winter Garden was added to Vostok Park.
In 1995, the Karaganda Steel Mill was transferred to Ispat International (laterMittal Steel Company), renamed Ispat-KarMet and eventually became the current Mittal Steel Temirtau, controlled by theArcelorMittal group.
In 1995, the Karaganda Metallurgical Plant was transferred to Ispat International (laterMittal Steel Company), renamed Ispat-KarMet, then Mittal Steel Temirtau, and from 2007,ArcelorMittal Temirtau.
In 2011, Temirtau inaugurated the First President’s Museum. The structure is a three-level building with a 48-meter diameter, 15.59 meters in height, and a total area of 4,526 square meters.
In January 2018, black snow fell in the city of Temirtau which locals blamed on the steel plant. OwnerArcelorMittal claimed that the discoloration of the snow was caused by a lack of wind which would otherwise blow the pollution away.[7][8][9][10][11][12]
.jpg)
Due to presence of large metallurgic plant in the city, Temirtau had been receiving significant sport infrastructure investments during soviet times in 1970-80-s. Sport and cultural facilities built at that time in Temirtau were exceeding level of facilities built in many regional ("oblast") centers ofKazakh Soviet Socialist Republic. Particularly, Metallurg stadium built in 1978[1] with 15,000 seating places was matching infrastructure required to play in the USSRSoviet First League, the Indoor Ice Palace was built in 1974[2] even though many Regional Centers at that time didn't have such a venue. But the most remarkable venue built at that time is the indoor Zhastar swimming pool (initially opened as "Dolphin"), which has 50-m length main pool with 8 tracks. At least until 2012 Kazakhstan winter championships had been taking place in this venue[3]: despite multimillion investments in sport in Kazakhstan largest cities, Zhastar swimming pool even at 40-years old state was still unmatched in terms of infrastructure.
As a consequense of such massive modern infrastructure for relatively small population (about 200,000 inhabitants by 1980-s), Temirtau became one of the most successful sport cities inKazakh Soviet Socialist Republic. Particularly:
Temirtau sent abandy team to the Winter Sports Tournaments inKaraganda.[13]
The town was home toFC Bolat football club, which played inKazakhstan Premier League in 1990-s (7th place is the best result[5]) and later played in theKazakhstan First Division.
The city is associated with the first president of Kazakhstan,Nursultan Nazarbayev. In February 1962, the plant’skomsomol organization elected Nursultan Nazarbayev to be a delegate to the 10th Congress of the Komsomol of Kazakhstan.[citation needed]
In 2010, President Nazarbayev attended the 50th anniversary celebration of Kazakhstan’s Magnitka. In his speech, he highlighted that the production of the first pig iron marked the foundation not only of the Karaganda plant but of Kazakhstan’s entire iron and steel industry. The president awarded a Golden Star, honoring the veteran steelworker Arghyn Zhunyssov as a Hero of Labor of Kazakhstan.[14]
Capital:Karaganda | ||
| Districts |  | |
| Major cities | ||
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
