`mĕn), city (1993 pop. 96,099), NE Bulgaria. It is a railway junction and a market for grains and other agricultural products. Brewing, tobacco processing, canning, flour milling, furniture building, and the manufacture of parts for tractors are the chief industries. Founded in 927, the city was fortified under Turkish rule (15th–19th cent.) and was strategically important in the Russo-Turkish Wars of the 18th and 19th cent. It is also the site of the largest mosque (built 1649) in Bulgaria. Originally called Shumen or Shumla, the city was renamed (1950) Kolarovgrad in honor of Bulgarian Communist leader Kolarov, who was born there. The name was changed back to Shumen in 1965.Shumen
(from 1950 to 1965, Kolarovgrad), a city in northeastern Bulgaria. Capital of Shumen District. Population, 85,000 (1976).
Shumen is a transportation center. Highly developed industries include transportation machine building (the production of trucks and of equipment for ships), nonferrous metallurgy (the manufacture of rolled aluminum products), and food processing (meat packing, canning, the brewing of beer, and the manufacture of tobacco products). The city also has enterprises for the production of furniture and clothing. Shumen was the birthplace of V. Kolarov.
In the 18th and 19th centuries, Shumen was an Ottoman fortress and an important strongpoint on the road linking Silistra (Silistria) and Istanbul. Together with the fortresses of Varna, Silistra, and Ruse (Ruschuk), it formed the strategically important quadrangle of fortresses on which the Ottoman defense of the Danube region in Bulgaria depended during the Russo-Turkish wars of the 18th and 19th centuries. Russian troops unsuccessfully besieged the city in 1810 and 1828. In 1878, Shumen was incorporated into Bulgaria.
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