Armavir overview
Armavir is a city located in Krasnodar krai of Russia. The city is standing on the left bank of the Kuban River, about 200 km to the southeast of Krasnodar city. It is an important railway junction of the region.
The climate of Armavir is of moderate continental type, the average temperature within a year is 10 degrees C above zero, in the coldest month January - 3,5 degrees C below zero, in the hottest month July - 30-35 degrees C above zero.
Armavir population is about 188,200 (2012), land area - 280 sq.km.
Armavir phone code: +7 86137; postal codes - 352900-352947.
Armavir history
At the end of the 18th century, Islam began spreading among the Adygeis and the Cherkesogais (mountainous Armenians) faced the threat of losing their national religion. At the end of 1836, they addressed the boss of Kuban line major-general baron G.F.Zass with the request to “take them under Russian patronage and to finance their settling close to the Russians”.
In 1837, a small village of mountainous Armenians was formed on the left bank of the river Kuban opposite stanitsa Prochnookopskaya.
In 1839, the settlement of Cherkesogais was moved closer to the mouth of the river Urup. This date is an official date of Armavir foundation, the original name of which was Armenian village. Its three sides were surrounded by a deep ditch 2,5 m broad and by a rampart. Its fourth side was the river Kuban which became a natural boundary of Armavir. The boundaries of the settlement changed several times as new families moved there from the mountains.
First, there were 120 families and by 1840 the number of families was 400. Beside mountainous Armenians there were several hundreds of serves (there were 753 of them in 1859). Cherkesogais’ life had the same laws of clan life which they had when in the mountains. The settlement was divided into quarters where families who came from the same village in the mountains lived.
In 1848, the settlement received its official name Armavirsky in honor of ancient Armenian capital Armavir. In 1875, Vladikavkazskaya railway was built through Armavir. In 1908, the construction of “Armavir-Tuapsinskaya railway” was begun.
In 1914, the settlement was reformed into the town. During the Civil War of 1918-1922, there were severe fights between Armenians and Bolsheviks in the town, the power changed in Armavir three times.
Today there are 37 large industrial plants and over 1,000 small ones in Armavir. As before, the city is among regional and Russian centers of railway machine-building, production of equipment for oil and gas industries, electro cables as well as sunflower oil and confectionery.
Armavir views
Armavir general view
Author: Evgeny Pashigorov
Armavir street view
Author: Evgeny Pashigorov
Armavir street
Author: T.Choudov
Armavir places of interest
There are about 200 monuments of history and architecture in Armavir, among them as follows: Armenian-Apostle church “Surb-Astvatsatsyn” (St.Virgin) (1861); Tatar mosque; 18 monuments, 40 monuments of military history.
There are 2 music and an art school, 14 libraries, Recreation Park, City House of Culture, 8 clubs in the city. Armavirsky museum of local study (founded in 1904) possesses 75,000 exhibits and has the largest in the Caucasus collection of stone sculptures.
The nearest surroundings of Armavir are rich in unique palaeontological and geological monuments, their formation is linked with various periods of the Sarmatskoye Sea development (12-20 million years ago). Numerous archaeological monuments: sites of the early Stone Age, hills of the early and middle Bronze Age.
There is a monument to Bulgakov’s cat Begemot from “Master and Margaret” and Lenin monument in Central Square, the exact copy of the monument located in front of Smolny Institute in Saint Petersburg.
