Kislovodsk

a city in Stavropol’ Krai, RSFSR; one of the leading balneological and climatic health resorts in the USSR of the Caucasus Mineral Waters group. Terminus on a railroad branch (64 km) from Mineral’nye Vody. Population, 91,000 (1972; 22,000 in 1926; 51,000 in 1939).

Kislovodsk is situated in the northern foothills of the Greater Caucasus at an elevation of 720–1,060 m, in the valleys of the mountain rivers Ol’khovka and Berezovka (of the Podkumok River basin). The city is surrounded by mountains. Its summers are warm (average July temperatures of 19°C), and its winters are mild (average January temperatures of — 3.9°C), with dry, clear, windless, and sunny weather. Annual precipitation totals about 600 mm.

Therapeutic remedies include the carbonaceous, hydrocarbon-sulfate calcium-sodium water of the Narzan spring, which has the following chemical composition:

It is used for baths and bottling. Water drinking therapy is provided by a number of springs: Dolomitic Narzan, which has a chemical composition of

Sulfate Narzan, whose composition is

and well no. 23 with the composition

A 43-km pipeline from the Kuma source in the settlement of Krasnyi Vostok in Karachaevo-Cherkess Autonomous Oblast provides carbonaceous water closely resembling the Narzan water in Essentuki.

People suffering from diseases of the circulatory organs, non-tubercular diseases of the respiratory system, diseases of the urinary tract, and metabolic disorders and accompanying diseases of the digestive system are treated here. Terrainkuhr (walking therapy) is very popular (from Narzan Gallery to Krasnye Kamni, Serye Kamni, Sinie Kamni, Sosnovaia Gorka, Krasnoe Solnyshko, Khram Vozdukha, and other places). Tours to nearby vicinities are also popular (Lermontov’s Rock, Kol’tsogora, Zamok Rock, Dolina Ocharovanii, the mountains Bol’shoe and Maloe Sedlo, Dzhinal, Bermamyt).

Kislovodsk, originally a military outpost and stanitsa (cossack settlement) of the Terek Cossack Host founded in 1803, became a city in 1830. Intensive construction of the city was begun in the 19th century; this included wooden bathhouses (1812), a restaurant with a dance hall and guest rooms (1823), baths (1827–32; 1901–04, architect A. N. Klepinin), the pseudo-Gothic Narzan Gallery (1848–58, architect S. P. Upton), and the recreation hall, an eclectic imitation of the Late Renaissance style (1895). Much construction has been conducted during Soviet times. Urban planning (1934, architect V. N. Semenov and others; new plans, 1968) has provided for the reconstruction of streets, the regular planting of greenery (gardens, parks, and various plantings total 2,000 ha), and the construction of new city districts and numerous health facilities. The health facilities include the G. K. Ordzhonikidze Sanatorium (1935–37, architects M. Ia. Ginzburg, S. E. Vakhtangov, I. I. Leonidov, E. M. Popov, I. I. Shpalek, and others), the Gornye Vershiny Sanatorium (1951, architect N. S. Poliudov; since 1963, part of the Ordzhonikidze Sanatorium), and a sanatorium for military personnel (1956, architects B. G. Barkhin and N. I. Gaigarov). Also constructed were the Rossiia movie theater (standard design; 1970, architect-adapters I. M. Fridental’ and P. T. Fedoniuk, engineer I. P. Lapchenko and others) and a city communications center (1970, architect M. P. Konstantinov). Also of interest is a monument to V. I. Lenin (bronze bas-relief, sculptor V. A. Andreev, 1925).

Kislovodsk has a medical school, the N. A. Iaroshenko Art Museum, a tourist center, and guest houses.