Kjachta

city Kjachta Кяхта flag coat of arms Federal district far East republic Buryatia Rajon Kjachta mayor Valery Zyrempilov Founded 1727 City since 1861 surface 28  km² population 20,024 inhabitants (as of Oct. 14, 2010) Population density 715 inhabitants / km² Height of the center 760  m Time zone UTC + 8 Telephone code (+7) 30142 Post Code 671840-671843 License Plate 03 OKATO 81 233 501 Geographical location Coordinates 50 ° 21 '  N , 106 ° 27'  E Coordinates: 50 ° 21 '0 "  N , 106 ° 27' 0"  E

Situation in Russia

Location in Buryatia

List of cities in Russia

Kjachta ( Russian Кяхта ; Buryat Хяагта / Chjaagta) is a city in the Republic of Buryatia ( Russia ) with 20,024 inhabitants (as of October 14, 2010).

geography

The city is located in the Transbaikal Selenga Mountains , about 235 km south of the republic capital Ulan-Ude , directly on the Mongolian border. Beyond the border, which is crossed here by the Ulan-Ude - Süchbaatar - Ulan Bator road, the town of Altanbulag joins the Selenge Aimag .

The city of Kjakhta is the administrative center of the Rajon of the same name .

history

Kjachta was founded in 1727, when the first Kjachta Treaty between the Russian Empire and the Chinese Empire was signed, which regulated the border south of Lake Baikal and the border trade between the two countries. The place after the eponymous river and the carrying of it sink, derived from the Buryat-Mongolian word for was called quicksilver rich place .

The treaty specified Kjachta as the location through which all trade between Russia and China should be carried out. The construction of the road was ordered as the Siberian tract as early as 1689 under the Treaty of Nerchinsk , but it was never started. In 1728, a little further north of Kjachta, closer to the foothills of the Selenga Mountains , the Troitskosawsk fortress was built to protect the trade route , named after the Trinity (Russian troiza ) and the first name of the Russian diplomat of Serbian descent Sawwa Lukitsch Ragusinski-Vladislavich (around 1670–1738) who negotiated the Kjachta treaty.

The trading settlement (Sloboda) to the south in the steppe on both sides of the border was established from 1743, remained formally independent and was given the old name Kjachta. At least until the middle of the 19th century, Kjachta-Troitskosawsk retained its importance as the most important trading center on the border with China. The place consisted of two spots, one for the Chinese and one for the Russians, both of which were surrounded by palisades. The Chinese referred to such trading centers as "trading town / Maimatschin" ( 買賣 城 , Măimàichéng  - "buy sell town").

The trade took place in exchange, since the Russians were forbidden to export silver. The main export item from Russia was fur, especially

• Sea otter and river otter skins ,
• Beaver skins ,
• Fox skins ,
• Wolf skins ,
• Bearskins ,
• Lambskins from Bukhara and Astrakhan (" Persians "),
• Marten skins ,
• Sable skins ,
• Ermine skins and
• But also mistakes
• Marmots .

In return, raw cotton, linen, leather and manufactured goods, silk, brocade, works of art and, above all, tea and medicinal rhubarb came from China to Russia and further to Europe, which is why this trade route was also called the “ tea road”. In 1792 the customs office was moved from Irkutsk to Kyakhta. The total export to China for 1777 is given as 1.31 million rubles, from China to Russia 2.87 million. There is also said to have been heavy smuggling, valued at 8 million rubles.

Troitskosavsk Coat of Arms (1846)

In 1851 Troizkosawsk became the administrative center of a district ( okrug , from 1901 ujesd ), and in 1861 the city was officially granted town charter.

With the emergence and improvement of other trade routes, Kjakhta gradually lost its central role in trade with China. The connection of the Amur region to Russia in 1858 ( Treaty of Aigun ), the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 and finally the Chinese Eastern Railway in 1903 played a role in this. However, the place remained the regional center of trade with Outer Mongolia and an important cultural center of the Transbaikal region. A local history museum was set up as early as 1890 (according to other sources, 1891). Many of the expeditions of Russian explorers to Central Asia, such as those of Nikolai Przhevalsky or Vladimir Obruchev , began or ended in Kjachta .

The place is also important in the history of the Mongolian People's Republic . In 1915 the Second Kjachta Treaty was signed here. From 1920-21 the city was the center of activity for Damdin Süchbaatar and Chorloogiin Tschoibalsan ; On March 1, 1921, the founding congress of the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party took place here.

In 1934 the two suburbs were finally merged under the name Kjachta .

Population development

View of Kjachta

year	Residents	annotation
1897	9,800	8,788 of them in Troitskosavsk
1926		9,585 in Troitskosavsk
1939	11,153
1959	10,327
1970	15,316
1979	14,990
1989	18.307
2002	18,391
2010	20,024

Note: census data (rounded for Kjachta in 1897)

Culture and sights

In Kjachta a number of mostly classicist buildings from the 19th century have been preserved. These include the Trinity Cathedral ( Троицкий собор / Troitsky Sobor, 1812-17), the Church of the Resurrection ( Воскресенская церковь / Woskressenskaja Zerkow, 1838), the Dormition Church ( Успенская церковь / Uspenskaja Zerkow, 1857), the "inn" (1842 ) and the "trade series".

Kjachta has a local history museum named after Vladimir Obruchev today. A former conspiratorial apartment of Damdin Süchbaatar was converted into a museum.

economy

Even today, Kjachta is mainly the center of border trade with Mongolia and for Chinese goods. There are also companies in the textile and food industries.

sons and daughters of the town

• Antonina Sabaschnikowa (1861–1945), pianist and publicist
• Dmitri Prjanischnikow (1865–1948), agricultural scientist

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Itogi Vserossijskoj perepisi naselenija 2010 goda. Tom 1. Čislennostʹ i razmeščenie naselenija (Results of the All-Russian Census 2010. Volume 1. Number and distribution of the population). Tables 5 , pp. 12-209; 11 , pp. 312–979 (download from the website of the Federal Service for State Statistics of the Russian Federation)
2. ↑ ^{a b} Dr. Friedrich Lübstorff, Leipzig: On the history of the tobacco trade in China . In Das Pelzgewerbe , Hermelin-Verlag Paul Schöps, Berlin and Leipzig, 1953, no. 3/4, pp. 8–9

Web links

Commons : Kjachta  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Kjakhta Raion on the website of the Government of the Republic of Buryatia (Russian)
• Kjachta on mojgorod.ru (Russian)