Aktiubinsk

city; center of Aktiubinsk Oblast, Kazakh SSR, in the northwestern part of the republic on the left bank of the Ilek, a tributary of the Ural, on the Orenburg-Tashkent railway. Aktiubinsk is an important highway and airline junction. Population, 144,000 in 1969 (49,000 in 1939). It was founded in 1869 as the military post of Ak-tiube (aktiube means “white hill” in Kazakh). In 1891 it became the chief town of the Turgai Oblast. In the period 1905–1907 there were demonstrations and strikes in Aktiubinsk. The Soviet regime was established on Jan. 8 (Jan. 21), 1918. During the Civil War, Aktiubinsk was the center of the revolutionary forces of the Turgai area in their fight with the counterrevolutionaries.

Aktiubinsk is a major economic and cultural center of Kazakhstan. There are ferroalloy and chromium plants and engineering enterprises—X-ray apparatus plants and agricultural machinery plants which manufacture shearing equipment and spare parts for tractors and motor vehicles. Food industry and light industry enterprises (meat, flour-milling, and dairy combines, a grain elevator, and knitting, furniture, and garment factories) have been built or reconstructed. The building materials industry is well developed.

The city consists of two major parts: the old part on the slope of Ak-Tiube Hill, with broad straight streets and built-up dwelling units and public buildings in the center, and the new (northwestern) part, with well-planned greenery and uniform well-built apartment houses. There are pedagogical and medical institutes; construction, railway-transport, and cooperative and evening chemical-mechanical technicums; and medical, teachers’, and cultural-educational colleges.