Kyzl-Orda

(formerly Ak-Mechet’ and Pervosk), a city, center of Kzyl-Orda Oblast, Kazakh SSR. Located on the right bank of the Syr Darya River. It has a railroad station on the Orenburg-Tashkent Line. Population in 1972, 129,000 (47,000 in 1939).

Kzyl-Orda was founded around 1820 as a fortress of the Kokand Khanate and was named Ak-Mechet’. In July 1853 it was captured by Russian troops under the command of V. A. Perovskii and was renamed Fort Perovskii; later it became the city of Perovsk. Prior to 1917 it was a small administrative and trading center. In 1925 the city was renamed Kzyl-Orda, and from 1925 to 1929 it served as the capital of Kazakhstan.

The most important industrial enterprises are cellulose-and-cardboard, building-materials, footwear, clothing, and knitted-goods factories, as well as house-building combines and the food-processing industry. The city has a pedagogical institute, a secondary specialized polytechnic school, a medical school, and a women’s pedagogical school. Also located here is the Kazakh Drama Theater and the Museum of History and Local Lore. To the south of Kzyl-Orda, on the Syr Darya River, a dam has been constructed in order to irrigate the rice fields and other fields. Situated in the city’s environs are large rice-growing farms.