Chita, Zabaykalsky Krai

History

Pyotr Beketov's Cossacks founded Chita in 1653. The name of the settlement came from the local River Chita.

Following the Decembrist revolt of 1825, from 1827 several of the Decembrists suffered exile to Chita. According to George Kennan, who visited the area in the 1880s, "Among the exiles in Chita were some of the brightest, most cultivated, most sympathetic men and women that we had met in Eastern Siberia."

When Richard Maack visited the city in 1855, he saw a wooden town, with one church, also wooden. He estimated Chita's population at under 1,000, but predicted that the city would soon experience fast growth, due to the upcoming annexation of the Amur valley by Russia.{{citation

By 1885, Chita's population had reached 5,728, and by 1897 it increased to 11,500. In 1897 the Trans-Siberian Railway reached Chita; rail traffic from 1899 rapidly made Chita the transport hub and industrial centre of the Transbaikal.

During the Russian Revolution of 1905, revolutionary socialists declared the Chita Republic. Tsarist government forces took control again in January 1906.

The Bolsheviks took power in Chita in February 1918. The Imperial Japanese Army occupied Chita from September 1918 to 1920 in the course of the Siberian intervention. On behalf of the White movement, Ataman Grigory Semyonov's Eastern Okraina ruled from Chita for some few months in early 1920 with Japanese support. From October 1920 to November 1922 the city served as the capital of the Far Eastern Republic, which became part of the RSFSR in November 1922.

In 1945, the Soviet authorities held Puyi, who had reigned (1908–1912, 1917) as the last Emperor of China, and some of his associates as prisoners in the city, in a former sanatorium for officers.

File:Chita Mosque.jpg|Chita Mosque in 1902 File:Chita-1910.jpg|Chita railway station in 1910 File:Russia Chita railroad station.jpg|Chita railway station today

Geography

Chita lies at the confluence of the Chita and Ingoda Rivers, between the Yablonoi Mountains to the west and the Chersky Range to the east. Lake Kenon is located to the west, within the city limits, and the Ivan-Arakhley Lake System is a group of lakes lying about 50 km west of Chita.

Climate

Chita experiences a dry-winter borderline humid continental climate/subarctic climate (Köppen climate classification: Dwb/Dwc, Trewartha climate classification Dcbc/Ecbc) with very cold, very dry winters and warm, relatively wet summers. Despite the southerly latitude, it closely resembles the climate of Fairbanks, Alaska. |Jan record high C = 0.4 |Feb record high C = 7.4 |Mar record high C = 21.1 |Apr record high C = 29.3 |May record high C = 34.6 |Jun record high C = 38.8 |Jul record high C = 38.0 |Aug record high C = 40.6 |Sep record high C = 30.9 |Oct record high C = 22.7 |Nov record high C = 12.7 |Dec record high C = 5.0 |year record high C = |Jan record low C = -49.6 |Feb record low C = -48.0 |Mar record low C = -45.3 |Apr record low C = -29.6 |May record low C = -13.3 |Jun record low C = -5.4 |Jul record low C = 0.1 |Aug record low C = -3.0 |Sep record low C = -10.8 |Oct record low C = -33.1 |Nov record low C = -41.1 |Dec record low C = -47.8 |year record low C = -49.6 |Jan snow depth cm = 7 |Feb snow depth cm = 7 |Mar snow depth cm = 2 |Apr snow depth cm = 1 |May snow depth cm = 0 |Jun snow depth cm = 0 |Jul snow depth cm = 0 |Aug snow depth cm = 0 |Sep snow depth cm = 0 |Oct snow depth cm = 0 |Nov snow depth cm = 3 |Dec snow depth cm = 6 |year snow depth cm = 7 | access-date = 8 November 2021 | url-status = live | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160425171651/http://www.pogodaiklimat.ru/climate/30758.htm | archive-date = April 25, 2016 | access-date = 7 November 2021 | url-status = live | archive-url = http://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/20160412193243/ftp://ftp.atdd.noaa.gov/pub/GCOS/WMO-Normals/TABLES/REG_II/RA/30758.TXT | archive-date = April 12, 2016

Administrative and municipal status

Chita is the administrative center of Zabaykalsky Krai, and, within the framework of administrative divisions, it also serves as the administrative center of Chitinsky District, to which it is also subordinated. As a municipal division, the city of Chita together with one rural locality in Chitinsky District is incorporated as Chita Urban Okrug.

Demographics

As of the 2021 Census, the ethnic composition of Chita was:

City districts

The city is subdivided into four administrative districts: Chernovsky (named after the Chernovskiye coal mines and colloquially known as "Chernovskiye"), Ingodinsky (named after the Ingoda River), Tsentralny, and Zheleznodorozhny.

Chernovsky Administrative District used to be a mining settlement, which was incorporated into Chita in 1941. Chernovskiye mines themselves are a geological nature monument of international status.

Transportation

Chita is served by Kadala Airport, situated 15 km to the west.

Education

Main article: Education in Siberia

Chita is home to several facilities of higher education:

• Transbaikal State University (formerly Chita State University)
• Chita State Academy of Medicine

Military

Chita Northwest air base is located nearby, as well as the 101st (Hub) Communications Brigade and the 53rd Material Support Regiment.

A submarine is named after the city.

Sports

FC Chita is Chita's association football club.

An indoor arena for speed skating is planned.

Twin towns – sister cities

Chita is twinned with:

• CHN Hailar District, China (1992)
• MNG Choibalsan, Mongolia (1994)
• CHN Manzhouli, China (1999)
• CHN Hulunbuir, China (2001)
• RUS Ulan-Ude, Russia (2011)

Notable people

• Yevgeni Alkhimov (born 1977), Russian professional footballer
• Matvei Berman (1898–1939), head of the Gulag, deputy head of the NKVD
• Stanislav Drobyshevsky (born 1978), Russian anthropologist and science popularizer
• Nataliya Kuznetsova (born 1991), Russian professional female bodybuilder who holds the world armlifting, bench press, and deadlift titles
• Oleg Lundstrem (1916–2005), Soviet and Russian jazz composer
• Igor Mirnov (born 1984), Russian professional ice hockey player
• Ivan Nagibin (born 1986), Russian professional football player
• Lev Okhotin (1911–1948), member of the Supreme Council of the Russian Fascist Party
• Aleksandr Perfilyev (1895–1973), Russian journalist, poet and writer
• Anastasia Pivovarova (born 1990), Russian professional tennis player
• Boris Polevoy (1918–2002), Russian historian
• Aleksandra Samusenko (1922–1945), Soviet Tank Captain, Sole female tank commander in 1st Guards Tank Army
• Volodymyr Shkidchenko (born 1948), Ukrainian military, General of Army of Ukraine
• Sergei Smirnov (born 1950), Russian security services official
• Anatoly Sobchak (1937–2000), Russian politician
• Vitaly Solomin (1941–2002), Soviet and Russian actor, director and screenwriter
• Yury Solomin (1935–2024), Soviet and Russian actor and director
• Alina Stadnik (born 1991), Ukrainian female wrestler
• Alexander Stranichkin (born 1955), Abkhazian politician
• Lyudmila Titova (born 1946), Russian speed skater
• Dmytro Tymchuk (born 1972), Ukrainian military expert and blogger
• Yemelyan Yaroslavsky (1878–1943), Russian revolutionary, Soviet politician, communist party organizer
• Oksana Zhnikrup (1931–1993), Ukrainian ceramicist, whose works inspired Jeff Koons

References

Notes

Sources

References

1. Law #316-ZZK
2. {{ru-pop-ref. 2010Census
3. {{cite EB1911
4. Howard Amos. (March 3, 2013). "Chita: China's Back Door to Russia". [[The Moscow Times]].
5. S. I. Kuznetsov and S. V. Karasov, "The Last Emperor of China: Internment in the Soviet Union", ''The Journal of Slavic Military Studies'' '''18'''(2), 207–226 (2005). {{doi. 10.1080/13518040590944430.
6. [[Google Earth]]
7. Registry of the Administrative-Territorial Units and the Inhabited Localities of Zabaykalsky Krai
8. The Registry of the Administrative-Territorial Units and the Inhabited Localities lists one city, three urban-type settlements, and fifty-four rural localities in Chitinsky District. The city of Chita and one rural locality are listed as a part of Chita Urban Okrug in Law #316-ZZK.
9. "Национальный состав населения". [[Federal State Statistics Service (Russia).
10. [http://chita.rusplt.ru/index/kak_razvivalsya_i_prikhodil_v_upadok_chernovskiy_rayon_zabaykalya-11542.html Как развивался и приходил в упадок Черновский район Читы] {{webarchive. link. (October 1, 2016)
11. ""Государственный архив Забайкальского края. Фонд: Черновский райисполком"".
12. "Энциклопедия Забайкалья".
13. "Chita: Flights". [[Lonely Planet]].
14. (November 20, 2012). "Google Translate".
15. "Города - побратимы". Visit Chita.