Khabarovsk

Khabarovsk (khəbä`rəfsk, khəbərôfsk`), city (1989 pop. 601,000), capital of Khabarovsk Territory and the administrative center of the Far East district, Russian Far East, on the Amur River near its junction with the Ussuri. An industrial center and a major transportation point on the Trans-Siberian RR, the city has oil refineries, shipyards, wood processing plants, and factories that produce farm machinery, trucks, aircraft, diesel engines, machine tools, and consumer goods. It is connected by regular air service to Alaska, Japan, Korea, and China.

Khabarovsk, formerly a fortified trading post, prospered greatly after the coming of the railroad in 1905. The city was the capital of the Soviet Far East from 1926 to 1938. Since the demise of the Soviet Union, it has experienced an increased Asian presence.

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Khabarovsk

a port in E Russia, on the Amur River: it was the administrative centre of the whole Soviet Far Eastern territory until 1938; a major industrial centre. Pop.: 579 000 (2005 est.)

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Khabarovsk 

a city and administrative center of Khabarovsk Krai, RSFSR; situated on the Amur River. Khabarovsk, which is divided into five urban districts, is an important transportation junction of the Far East. It is a river port and has a railroad station on the Trans-Siberian Railroad and an airport. Population, 524,000 (Jan. 1, 1977; 52,000 in 1926, 207,000 in 1939, 323,000 in 1959, and 436,000 in 1970).

Khabarovsk was founded in 1858 as the military outpost of Khabarovka (named after the Russian explorer E. P. Khabarov). In 1880 the outpost was designated a city and made the administrative center of Primor’e Oblast; beginning in 1884 it was also the administrative center of the Amur Governor-generalship. In 1893 the city was renamed Khabarovsk.

In 1897, Khabarovsk was linked by rail with Vladivostok. In 1902, Arsenal, a military factory (now the Dal’dizel’ factory), was established in Khabarovsk; in 1904 the city became the base of the Amur Flotilla. By the early 20th century, Khabarovsk was a major commercial center of the Far East.

The workers, soldiers, and sailors of Khabarovsk took part in the Revolution of 1905–07. In 1906 a Social Democratic group was formed in the city, and in 1907 the group became an organization of the RSDLP. In 1916, Khabarovsk was linked by way of the Amur Railroad with Eastern Siberia.

After the February Revolution of 1917, a Soviet of workers’ and soldiers’ deputies was organized in the city. Soviet power was established on Dec. 6 (19), 1917. From Dec. 12 (25) to Dec. 14 (27), 1917, the city was the site of the Third Far East Regional Congress of Soviets, which proclaimed Soviet power throughout the Far East. In September 1918 the city was captured by American and Japanese forces and a White Guards detachment of the ataman V. M. Kalmykov. During the Civil War (1918–20), Khabarovsk changed hands several times. It was finally liberated on Feb. 14, 1922, after the battle of Volochaevka, by the popular revolutionary army of the Far East Republic. In November 1922, the city, as part of the Far East Republic, became part of the RSFSR. In 1926 it became the administrative center of Far East Krai, and in 1938, of Khabarovsk Krai. In 1940 Khabarovsk was linked by rail with the city of Komsomol’sk-na-Amure by way of the Volochaevka railroad station. In 1949 the city was the scene of the Khabarovsk Trial, in the course of which a group of Japanese military officers were found guilty of manufacturing and using bacteriological weapons. On Jan. 14, 1971, the city was awarded the Order of the October Revolution.

Khabarovsk is a major industrial center. The chief industries are machine building, metalworking, the fuel industry, woodworking, light industry, the food industry, the construction industry, and the production of building materials. The largest plants are the Dal’dizel’ machine-building plant, a plant for the production of power-engineering equipment, an all-purpose cable plant (the 50th Anniversary of the USSR Plant), a plant for the production of machine tools, and a chemical and pharmaceutical plant. The city’s enterprises produce diesel engines, diesel generators, ships, power-plant equipment, wires, cables, lathes, petroleum products, and drugs, as well as reinforced-concrete, steel, and aluminum structural members, garments, and soybean oil. Khabarovsk has several heat and power plants. There is agricultural production outside the city.

The general plan of the city (1970’s) provides for the construction of residential districts replete with various services and the transfer of a number of industrial enterprises from the residential areas to large industrial parks, to be separated from the residential areas by public health protection zones. During the years of Soviet power, a number of important public buildings have been constructed. They include the House of Soviets (1930; architects I. A. Golosov and B. Ulinich), the building of the Khabarovskkraistroi association of engineers (1972; architect G. I. Korobovtsev), and the building of the Musical Comedy Theater (1977; architects E. G. Rozanov, A. L. Zaretskii, V. N. Shestopalov, and M. A. Sheinfein; engineers V. P. Krichevskii and V. V. Baranov; artist E. V. Bukina).

The city’s monuments include the monument to V. I. Lenin (bronze, cast iron, and granite, 1925; sculptor M. G. Manizer), the monument to the heroes of the Civil War in the Far East (copper, bronze, and granite, 1956; sculptor A. P. Faidysh-Krandievskii; architect O. M. Barshch), and the Glory memorial (concrete, reinforced concrete, and stainless steel, 1975; architects N. T. Rudenko and A. N. Matveev; engineer E. G. Konstantinov; artists N. M. Vdovin, A. A. Karikh, and A. S. Orekhov).

Khabarovsk has many scientific and planning establishments. Higher educational institutions include schools of medicine, pedagogy, polytechnical training, rail transport engineering, culture, national economy, and physical culture; there are also 17 specialized secondary schools. Khabarovsk has a dramatic theater, a musical comedy theater, a young people’s theater, and a philharmonic society. In addition, it has museums of local lore, art, and Komsomol glory, as well as a television center.

In 1913 there were five hospitals in Khabarovsk, with 170 beds (3.4 beds per thousand inhabitants), and 17 physicians (one physician per 3,000 inhabitants). By 1976, there were 35 treatment and prevention centers, with 7,700 beds (10.2 beds per thousand population), compared to 14 centers, with 1,300 beds (eight beds per thousand population) in 1940. In 1976 there were 2,500 physicians (one physician per 205 inhabitants), compared to 340 physicians (one per 735 inhabitants) in 1940. In the environs of Khabarovsk there are three sanatoriums and a house of rest.

REFERENCES

Chernysheva, V. I. Khabarovsk (k 100-letiiu goroda). [Khabarovsk] 1958.
Grigorova, L. S., and E. P. Mel’nichenko. Istoricheskie pamiatniki i pamiatnye mesta Khabarovska. [Khabarovsk] 1958.
Khabarovsk prezhde i teper’. Khabarovsk, 1971.
Khabarovsk. [Text by N. P. Raibov. Khabarovsk, 1971.]
Khabarovsk. [Photographic album with photographs by M. V. Al-’pert. Moscow, 1967.]