Kursk

(ko͝orsk), city (1989 pop. 424,000), capital of Kursk region, W European Russia, at the confluence of the Tuskor and Seim rivers. An important rail junction, it has machine, chemical, and synthetic fiber plants. A large iron deposit, the Kursk Magnetic Anomaly, is south of the city. First noted in 1095, Kursk was destroyed by the Mongols in 1240 and was rebuilt as a Muscovite fortress in 1586. During World War II the Soviets won a major battle near Kursk in 1943; involving some 1.5 million Soviet and German troops, it was the largest battle ever fought.

Kursk

a city, the center of Kursk Oblast, RSFSR. Situated on the banks of the Seim River and its tributary Tuskar’, on the Moscow-Simferopol’ highway. A railroad junction at the intersection of the Moscow-Kharkov and Voronezh-Kiev main lines. Population in 1972, 301,000 (75,500 in 1897, 120,000 in 1939, and 205,000 in 1959). It is divided administratively into three districts. The oldest part of the city, located in the center, is built on hills separated by the valley of the Kur River. The total area of the city is more than 137 sq km.

Kursk was founded in the tenth century and was first mentioned in the descriptions pertaining to the year 1032 in the Pecherskii Paterikon and then to the year 1095 in the Lavrentii Chronicle. Kursk was a fortress of Kievan Rus’. It was destroyed at the time of the Tatar-Mongol invasion in 1238 and was captured by Lithuania in the 14th century. It became part of the Russian state in 1508. In the late 16th century the Kursk fortress became a strongpoint in the defense against the Crimean Tatars. A large antifeudal uprising took place in Kursk in 1648. In the 18th century the city lost its military importance and became a commercial city. In 1780 it became the seat of the vicegerency and in 1797, the center of Kursk Province. The food industry has been developing in the city since the second half of the 19th century. Social Democratic circles (of I F. Dubrovinskii and others) arose in Kursk in 1894–95 and united into a Bolshevik organization in 1903. Soviet power was proclaimed in Kursk on Nov. 26 (Dec. 9), 1917. The city was occupied by Denikin’s troops on Sept. 20, 1919, and liberated by the Red Army on Nov. 19, 1919. On June 13, 1934, the city became the oblast center. The socialist transformations carried out during the prewar five-year plans made Kursk a major industrial, scientific, and cultural center. The city’s gross industrial output increased 18 times between 1913 and 1940. Occupied by the fascist German troops from Nov. 3, 1941, to Feb. 8, 1943, Kursk suffered heavy destruction at the hands of the enemy. But as early as February 1944, 39 industrial enterprises working for defense had been restored. The economy, science, and culture of Kursk have further developed since the war.

V. I. SAMSONOV

The architectural monuments are represented by the 17th-century Verkhniaia and Nizhniaia Troitskaia churches, the palaces of the Romodanov boyars, the baroque St. Sergius Cathedral (18th century), such buildings in the style of classicism as the Denis’ev house (1790, architect G. Quarenghi) and the bishop’s house (early 19th century), and the “modern” style State Bank (late 19th century, architect F. I. Lidval’). In 1782 the city began to expand according to a regular plan. In the Soviet period new groups of buildings on the Privokzal’naia and Krasnaia squares, embankments, and residential quarters have been built, and the city has been landscaped—all according to the general plan drawn up in 1946 by the architect M. O. Khauke and others. A monument to V. I. Lenin has been erected in Kursk (bronze and granite, 1956; sculptor M. G. Manizer and architects I. E. Rozhin and A. P. Velikanov).

A. A. SUDARIKOVA

Kursk accounted for 66 percent of the oblast’s total industrial output in 1972. The leading industries are machine building and chemicals, with electrical engineering and instrument-making holding the first place in machine building. The biggest enterprises are accumulator and electrical-apparatus plants, the Schetmash Plant, and plants producing tractor spare parts and conveyance units. A bearing plant was put into operation in 1971. Kursk is an important center of the chemical industry, with a large chemical-fiber combine and plants producing rubber goods and chemicals and pharmaceuticals. Other industries include light industry (leather-footwear and clothing industries and, since 1968, a knitted-fabrics combine), the food industry, and the building-materials industry (including the production of reinforced-concrete structural elements and wall blocks and gypsum). A heat and electric power plant is located in Kursk.

Educational and scientific institutions in Kursk include pedagogical, medical, agricultural, and polytechnic institutes; a branch of the All-Union Correspondence Finance and Economics Institute; 12 specialized secondary educational institutions; and several scientific research institutions, including the All-Union Scientific Research Institute on the Protection of the Soil From Erosion, which was formed in 1970. Other cultural institutions of the city include a museum of local lore, the A. A. Deineka Picture Gallery, the military history museum of the battle of Kursk, the A. S. Pushkin Drama Theater, a puppet theater, a philharmonic society, and a circus.

R. A. GORBATSEVICH

REFERENCES

Samsonov, V. I., and M. I. Iazhgur. Kursk: Putevoditel’ po istoricheskim i pamiatnym mestam, 2nd ed. Voronezh, 1965.
Kursk: Ocherki istorii goroda, 2nd ed. [Voronezh, 1968.]

kurrajong

, currajong any of various Australian trees or shrubs, esp Brachychiton populneum, a sterculiaceous tree that yields a tough durable fibre

Kursk

a city in W Russia: industrial centre of an agricultural region: scene of a major Soviet military victory (1943). Pop.: 410 000 (2005 est.)

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REFERENCES

kurrajong

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Words related to Kursk

noun a city of southwestern Russia

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