Abakan

Abakan (əbəkän`), city (1990 est. pop. 153,000), capital of the Khakass Republic, in S central Siberian Russia, on the Yenisei River. A commercial center on the South Siberian RR, it produces footwear, foodstuffs, and metal products. Founded (1707) as a fortress, Abakan was known as Ust-Abakanskoye until 1931. Bronze Age tumuli and Turkic inscriptions have been found in the city.

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Abakan

a city in S central Russia, capital of the Khakass Republic, at the confluence of the Yenisei and Abakan Rivers. Pop.: 167 000 (2005 est.)

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Abakan 

(until 1931, the village of Ust’-Abakanskoe), city, capital of Khakass Autonomous Oblast, Krasnoiarsk Krai, RSFSR, located on the Abakan River at its confluence with the Enisei River. Railroad lines connect it to Achinsk, Novokuznetsk, and Taishet. The large Abakan port was built at the junction of the Novokuznetsk-Abakan-Taishet railroad line and the Enisei River. The Usin motor road runs from Abakan to Tuva ASSR. In 1939 the population of the city was 37,000, and by 1968 it had increased to 80,000. Abakan’s industry includes enterprises of light industry and processing of lumber and agricultural raw material: meatpacking and flour-milling combines, wine-making and dairy plants, and furniture, knitted-goods, and clothing factories. The city also has a shoe factory, built in 1969, and a factory for repairing equipment for the lumber industry. Abakan’s educational institutions include the Khakass Scientific Research Institute of History, Language, and Literature; a pedagogical institute; a polytechnical school; an agricultural technical school; and medical, pedagogical, and music schools. The city has a drama theater, a museum of local lore, and a television studio. The regional newspapers are Lenin Choly (Lenin’s Path), written in Khakass, and Sovetskaia Khakassiia. The old part of the city is the former village of Ust’-Abakanskoe, which sprang up in the 1770’s. In 1929 the new part of the city was built, which later merged with Ust’-Abakanskoe.

REFERENCES

Nikol’skaia, L. A. “Gorod Abakan.” In Krasnoiarskii krai. Krasnoiarsk, 1965.

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Abakan 

river in Krasnoiarsk Krai, RSFSR, left tributary of the Enisei River. The Abakan is formed by the confluence of the Bol’shoi and Malyi Abakan, which originate on the northern slopes of the Western Saian and the Altai mountains. Measured from the source of the Bol’shoi Abakan, the river is 514 km long and drains an area of 32,000 sq km. Upstream, the Abakan has a narrow valley that broadens sharply as it leaves the mountains, near the village of Bol’shoi Monok. In the Minusinsk Hollow, its riverbed divides into many branches. Fed by snow and rain, the Abakan freezes in the latter part of November; the ice breaks up in the latter part of April. The mean annual flow rate is 400 cubic meters per second at its mouth. It is used for floating lumber and, in the Minusinsk Hollow, for irrigation. The city of Abakan is situated on the river.