Aktobe
Aktobe is a major city in western Kazakhstan, located on the Ilek. It serves as the administrative center of the Aktobe Region and is an important cultural, economic, and industrial hub in the region. As of 2023, the city had a population of 560,820, making it the fourth-largest city in Kazakhstan, and the largest in the western part of the country. It covers an expansive area of approximately 428.469 km2 and is strategically located to serve as a regional center for trade and commerce.
Aktobe is known for its natural resources, with two significant water reservoirs, Aktobe and Sazdy, that provide essential water for the city and surrounding areas. The city's economy is strongly driven by industries such as coal mining, metallurgy, and the extraction and processing of oil and gas. These industries have contributed to Aktobe's growth, transforming it into a vital center for energy production and heavy industry in Kazakhstan.
Aktobe's infrastructure has developed alongside its industrial growth. It is well-connected by road and rail to other major cities in Kazakhstan and neighboring countries. The city is undergoing rapid urbanization, with plans for further expansion and development. The agglomeration of Aktobe, which includes surrounding settlements, is expected to grow significantly in the coming years, with a projected population of around 1.3 million people.
In addition to its industrial significance, Aktobe is a growing cultural center. It hosts a variety of cultural events, and its educational institutions, including universities and technical schools, contribute to the city's development as a center for higher learning and innovation. With its expanding population, diverse economy, and increasing infrastructure, Aktobe is poised to continue its growth and development in the years ahead.
Etymology
The name Aktobe comes from Kazakh ақ 'white' and төбе 'hill'; the name refers to the heights on which the original 19th-century settlement was located. Until 1999, the city was officially known as Aktyubinsk.History
Founding and growth
The territory of the modern-day Aktobe Region has seen the rise and fall of many Central Asian cultures and empires. The region figured prominently in the history of the Kazakh "Little Horde". The Kazakh warlord Eset Batyr based his campaigns against the Dzungars from this area. His mausoleum is located to the south of Aktobe city. Abulkhair Khan was also based in this region.In March 1869, a Russian military fort with a garrison of 300 was built at the confluence of the Kargala and Ilek rivers, along the Orenburg - Kazalinsk caravan route. From that period onward, Slavic settlers began to migrate to the region in order to farm, and very soon, neighbourhoods were built around the fort. In 1874 the fort was expanded in size, and streets were laid out to and from the fort's gate. In 1891 the settlement was labelled a district city, and officially named Aktyubinsk.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries the settlement rapidly expanded in size. While the 1889 population was listed as 2,600, by 1909 the population had increased more than four times to 10,716 official residents. The physical characteristics of the city had developed as well, and by the turn of the century the city had two churches, a seminary, a Tatar mosque, a Russian-Kyrgyz boys' school and girls' school, a clinic, a bank, a post office, a city park, a cinema and two mills. The Trans-Aral Railway was extended through the city in 1901. In the years leading up to World War I, industry began to develop in the town, including the construction of an electric factory, a brick factory, and the establishment of an annual trade fair.
The city was affected by the Russian Revolution of 1905, and strikes and riots took place between 1905 and 1907. Bolshevik revolutionaries were very active in the city, according to official Soviet histories. On January 8, 1918, the Bolsheviks moved to seize control of the local Soviet, and by January 21, 1918, the Bolsheviks had secured the city under their control.
Russian Civil War
With its location on the Trans-Aral Railway, Aktyubinsk was a strategic point, much contested between the Red Army and their White opponents during the Russian Civil War. Kazakh and Russian inhabitants of Aktyubinsk and its environs actively supported both sides in the conflict.In mid-1918, elements of the Bolshevik First Orenburg and Twenty-eighth Regiments, commanded by Georgy Zinoviev, were effectively besieged in Aktyubinsk by forces commanded by Ataman Dutov. Dutov, commanding approximately 10,000 rifles, 5,000 sabres, and 500 jigits of the Alash Orda movement's newly formed Second Kazakh Mounted Regiment, attacked the city in October, 1918. The attack only reached as far as the village of Ak Bulak.
In the autumn of 1918, Mikhail Frunze's Fifth Army and Mikhail Tukhachevsky's First Army were ordered to break through and clear the railway, in order to allow Red Army forces to link up with Bolsheviks along the Syr Darya. White pressure on Aktyubinsk was relieved by Frunze's capture of Uralsk, Orenburg and Orsk in early 1919, but by April Dutov and Admiral Kolchak were able to launch a combined counteroffensive. Aktyubinsk finally fell to the Whites on April 18, 1919, once again severing Bolshevik rail links to Central Asia. In this offensive, the Whites also managed to capture and execute Amankeldı İmanov, a Kazakh military leader who had been operating in the Aktyubinsk region with the support of Bolsheviks in Moscow.
By June 1919, Frunze had received reinforcements and had moved back on to the offensive. On September 10, Aktyubinsk was secured by the Fifth Army after an eight-day battle. 20,000 of Kolchak's troops were captured, along with the easternmost part of the city. From this point, Bolshevik forces were able to control the railway to Tashkent.
An All-Kazakhstan Conference of Soviet Workers was held in the city on March 13, 1920. This was the first of a series of regional organizing conferences held by the Bolsheviks that ultimately led to the creation of the Kirgiz Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic - the entity that would ultimately develop into the Soviet Republic of Kazakhstan.
Modern history
In 1932, Aktyubinsk was named capital city of Aktyubinsk Region. The city developed extensively during World War II as a result of the evacuation and reconstruction of factories from Ukraine and from Moscow, including a worker's cooperative, a ferroalloy factory, and an X-ray factory. Chromium also began to be mined and processed in the region. In the 1960s, an extensive expansion of the city was undertaken by Soviet authorities, resulting in the construction of a city center and a sports stadium.The city's society and economy have dramatically changed since Kazakhstan's independence in 1991. Older heavy industries have declined and been replaced in importance with the energy sector. The city has continued to expand with new construction and with many Kazakh immigrants moving to the city from the surrounding countryside.
In 1999, the official name was changed from Aktyubinsk to Aktobe by presidential decree, as part of a nationwide effort to support the Kazakh language.
On May 17, 2011, Aktobe was the site of one of Kazakhstan's first terrorist attacks, when a suicide bomber blew himself up in the headquarters of the local national security services, injuring two people. Some analysts have interpreted this as a sign of increasing instability in the oil-rich, but socially unequal, region.
Further attacks by suspected Islamist militants occurred on June 5–6, 2016.
Geography
Aktobe Region is located in western Kazakhstan, and is the second largest region by area in Kazakhstan. The city of Aktobe is located where the Kargala and Ilek rivers meet. It is in the north-central part of Aktobe Region. The Russian city of Orenburg is located some to the northwest, while the Russian city of Orsk is about to the northeast. The area around the city of Aktobe is mostly flat steppe, with low hills rising to the northeast. Other rivers, such as the Emba and the Ural River, flow through the region. The region is bordered on the south by the Aral Sea. The natural vegetation cover around Aktobe city is steppe, while the southern parts of the region are semi-desert.Hydrography
The city is located at the place where Kargaly flows into the Ilek River and its valley expands to 15 km. Directly in the center of the city flows the left tributary of Ilek - the Sazdy River, in the northwest - the left tributary of Ilek - the Zhinishke River. Since the channel of the Sazdy River lies in the central part of Aktobe and along it are large shopping and entertainment centers. In the southern part of the city are the lower reaches of the left tributary of Ilek - the Tamda River, but in the low-water period this channel dries up, forming several stretches. On the northern outskirts of the Zarechny district, the Peschanka river flows, the left tributary of the Kargaly, beyond which is the village of Kargaly. To the west of the Kirpichny district, separating it from the village of Akzhar, the Butak River flows through the lower part of the right tributary of the Kargaly.At 10 km southeast of the city is the Aktobe reservoir with a volume of 245 million m3, called the inhabitants of the Aktobe Sea, it was commissioned in 1988. The Sazdinskoye reservoir, 8 km south-west of the city, which is a traditional resting place for citizens, was built in 1967, and the Kargaly reservoir, which is the largest artificial reservoir near Aktobe, the volume of which is 280 million m3, was commissioned in 1975 and is located 60 km northeast of the city.