Chita ( rus, Чита, p=tɕɪˈta, , ) is a

city A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

and the

administrative center An administrative center is a seat of regional administration or local government, or a county town, or the place where the central administration of a commune is located. In countries with French as administrative language (such as Belgium, Lu ...

Zabaykalsky Krai Zabaykalsky Krai ( rus, Забайкальский край, r=Zabaikal'skii krai, p=zəbɐjˈkalʲskʲɪj kraj, lit. " Transbaikal krai"; bua, Yбэр Байгалай хизаар, Uber Baigalai Xizaar) is a federal subject of Russia (a krai ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

, located on the

Trans-Siberian Railway The Trans-Siberian Railway (TSR; , , ) connects European Russia to the Russian Far East. Spanning a length of over , it is the longest railway line in the world. It runs from the city of Moscow in the west to the city of Vladivostok in the ea ...

route, roughly east of Irkutsk.

Geography

Chita lies at the confluence of the Chita and

Ingoda River The Ingoda (; mn, Ингэдэй, ''Ingedei''; bua, Ангида, ''Angida'') is a river in Zabaykalsky Krai of Russia. The river is long and the area of its basin is . Geography In its upper course it flows at the feet of the Khentei Range. T ...

s, between the

Yablonoi Mountains The Yablonoi Mountains or Yablonovy Mountains ( rus, Яблоновый хребет, bua, Яабланай шэлэ нуруу, ; mn, Яблоны нуруу, ''Yablony nuruu'') are a mountain range, in Transbaikal (mainly in Zabaykalsky K ...

to the west and the

Chersky Range The Chersky Range (, ) is a chain of mountains in northeastern Siberia between the Yana River and the Indigirka River. Administratively the area of the range belongs to the Sakha Republic, although a small section in the east is within Magadan ...

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 west of Chita. Google Earth

History

Pyotr Beketov Pyotr Beketov (russian: link=no, Пётр Иванович Бекетов, c. 1600 – c. 1661) was a Cossack explorer of Siberia and founder of various fortified settlements in the region, which later developed into modern cities such as Yakutsk, ...

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

Decembrist revolt The Decembrist Revolt ( ru , Восстание декабристов, translit = Vosstaniye dekabristov , translation = Uprising of the Decembrists) took place in Russia on , during the interregnum following the sudden death of Emperor Al ...

of 1825, from 1827 several of the Decembrists suffered exile to Chita. According to

George Kennan George Frost Kennan (February 16, 1904 – March 17, 2005) was an American diplomat and historian. He was best known as an advocate of a policy of containment of Soviet expansion during the Cold War. He lectured widely and wrote scholarly histo ...

, 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 Richard Otto Maack (also Richard Karlovic Maak, Russian: Ричард Карлович Маак; 4 September 1825 – 25 November 1886) was a 19th-century Russian naturalist, geographer, and anthropologist. He is most known for his explorat ...

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 The Amur (russian: река́ Аму́р, ), or Heilong Jiang (, "Black Dragon River", ), is the world's tenth longest river, forming the border between the Russian Far East and Northeastern China ( Inner Manchuria). The Amur proper is long, ...

valley by Russia. By 1885, Chita's population had reached 5,728, and by 1897 it increased to 11,500. In 1897 the

reached Chita; rail traffic from 1899 rapidly made Chita the transport hub and industrial centre of the

Transbaikal Transbaikal, Trans-Baikal, Transbaikalia ( rus, Забайка́лье, r=Zabaykalye, p=zəbɐjˈkalʲjɪ), or Dauria (, ''Dauriya'') is a mountainous region to the east of or "beyond" (trans-) Lake Baikal in Far Eastern Russia. The steppe and ...

. During the

Russian revolution of 1905 The Russian Revolution of 1905,. also known as the First Russian Revolution,. occurred on 22 January 1905, and was a wave of mass political and social unrest that spread through vast areas of the Russian Empire. The mass unrest was directed again ...

, revolutionary socialists declared the

Chita Republic The Chita Republic (russian: Читинская республика) was a workers' republic based from Chita from 1905-1906. Chita, a city in eastern Siberia, Russia, and a place of exile for early revolutionaries and combatants of the Russo- ...

. Tsarist government forces took control again in January 1906. The Bolsheviks took power in Chita in February 1918. The

Imperial Japanese Army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor o ...

occupied Chita from September 1918 to 1920 in the course of the

Siberian intervention The Siberian intervention or Siberian expedition of 1918–1922 was the dispatch of troops of the Entente powers to the Russian Maritime Provinces as part of a larger effort by the western powers, Japan, and China to support White Russian f ...

. 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 Aisin-Gioro Puyi (; 7 February 1906 – 17 October 1967), courtesy name Yaozhi (曜之), was the last emperor of China as the eleventh and final Qing dynasty monarch. He became emperor at the age of two in 1908, but was forced to abdicate on 1 ...

, who had reigned (1908–1912, 1917) as the last

Emperor of China ''Huangdi'' (), translated into English as Emperor, was the superlative title held by monarchs of China who ruled various imperial regimes in Chinese history. In traditional Chinese political theory, the emperor was considered the Son of Heav ...

, and some of his associates as prisoners in the city, in a former

sanatorium A sanatorium (from Latin '' sānāre'' 'to heal, make healthy'), also sanitarium or sanitorium, are antiquated names for specialised hospitals, for the treatment of specific diseases, related ailments and convalescence. Sanatoriums are often ...

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

Administrative and municipal status

Chita is the

, and, within the framework of administrative divisions, it also serves as the administrative center of

Chitinsky District Chitinsky District (russian: Чити́нский райо́н) is an administrative district (raion), one of the thirty-one in Zabaykalsky Krai, Russia.Registry of the Administrative-Territorial Units and the Inhabited Localities It is located in ...

, to which it is also subordinated.Registry of the Administrative-Territorial Units and the Inhabited Localities of Zabaykalsky Krai As a municipal division, the city of Chita together with one

rural locality In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry typically are describ ...

in Chitinsky District is incorporated as Chita Urban Okrug.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.

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

), 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 A natural monument is a natural or natural/cultural feature of outstanding or unique value because of its inherent rarity, representative of aesthetic qualities or cultural significance. Under World Commission on Protected Areas guidelines, nat ...

of international status.

Transportation

Chita is served by

Kadala Airport Chita-Kadala International Airport is a single runway airport, located in Chita ( rus, Чита, p=tɕɪˈta), the administrative center of Zabaykalsky Krai Zabaykalsky Krai ( rus, Забайкальский край, r=Zabaikal'skii krai ...

, situated 15 km to the west.

Education

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.

Sports

FC Chita FC Chita is a Russian association football club based in Chita. The club was founded in 1984 as a result of reorganization of FC Lokomotiv Chita which was excluded from the First Division. FC Chita was immediately admitted to the Second Divis ...

is Chita's

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

club. An indoor arena for

speed skating Speed skating is a competitive form of ice skating in which the competitors race each other in travelling a certain distance on skates. Types of speed skating are long track speed skating, short track speed skating, and marathon speed skatin ...

is planned.

Climate

Chita experiences a dry-winter borderline

humid continental climate A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers and freezing ...

/ subarctic climate (

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...

: Dwb/Dwc) with very cold, very dry winters and warm, relatively wet summers. The coldest temperature to have ever been recorded in Chita was .

Twin towns – sister cities

Chita is twinned with: *

Hailar District Hailar District, formerly a county-level city, is an urban district that serves as the seat of the prefecture-level city Hulunbuir in northeastern Inner Mongolia, China. Hulunbuir, due to its massive size, is a city in administrative terms only ...

, China (1992) * Choibalsan, Mongolia (1994) *

Manzhouli Manzhouli (; mn, Манжуур хот; ) is a sub-prefectural city located in Hulunbuir prefecture-level city, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China. Located on the border with Russia, it is a major land port of entry. It has an area of and ...

, China (1999) * Hulunbuir, China (2001) *

Ulan-Ude Ulan-Ude (; bua, Улаан-Үдэ, , ; russian: Улан-Удэ, p=ʊˈlan ʊˈdɛ; mn, Улаан-Үд, , ) is the capital city of the Republic of Buryatia, Russia, located about southeast of Lake Baikal on the Uda River at its confluence wi ...

, Russia (2011)

Notable people

* Yevgeni Alkhimov (born 1977), Russian professional footballer * Nataliya Kuznetsova (born 1991), Russian professional female bodybuilder who holds the world armlifting, bench press, and

deadlift The deadlift is a weight training exercise in which a loaded barbell or bar is lifted off the ground to the level of the hips, torso perpendicular to the floor, before being placed back on the ground. It is one of the three powerlifting exercises ...

titles * Oleg Lundstrem (1916–2005), Soviet and Russian jazz composer *

Igor Mirnov Igor Sergeyevich Mirnov (b: September 19, 1984) is a Russian professional ice hockey player who is currently playing with Buran Voronezh of the Supreme Hockey League (VHL). Playing career Born in Moscow, Mirnov developed in the HC Dynamo Moscow ...

(born 1984), Russian professional ice hockey player * Ivan Nagibin (born 1986), Russian professional football player *

Lev Okhotin Lev Pavlovich Okhotin (russian: Лев Па́влович Охоти́н; 9 January 1911 – 1948) was a member of the Supreme Council of the Russian Fascist Party, founded by exiles in Manchuria. Life and political career Okhotin was bor ...

(1911–1948), member of the Supreme Council of the

Russian Fascist Party Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries * Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and pe ...

* Aleksandr Perfilyev (1895–1973), Russian journalist, poet and writer * Anastasia Pivovarova (born 1990), Russian professional tennis player *

Boris Polevoy Boris Nikolaevich Polevoy (or Polevoi) (russian: Бори́с Никола́евич Полево́й; – 12 July 1981) was a Soviet writer. He is the author of the book '' Story of a Real Man'' about Soviet World War II fighter pilot Aleksey M ...

(1918–2002), Russian historian *

Aleksandra Samusenko Aleksandra Grigoryevna Samusenko (russian: Александра Григорьевна Самусенко, uk, Олександра Григорівна Самусенко, Oleksandra Hryhorivna Samusenko; 1922 – 3 March 1945) was a Soviet T-34 ...

(1922–1945), Soviet Tank Captain, Sole female tankman in 1st Guards Tank Army *

Volodymyr Shkidchenko Volodymyr Petrovych Shkidchenko ( uk, Володимир Петрович Шкідченко; born January 1, 1948, Chita, Zabaykalsky Krai, Russia) is a Ukrainian Ukrainian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Ukraine * Something re ...

(born 1948), Ukrainian military, General of Army of Ukraine * Sergei Smirnov (born 1950), Russian security services official *

Anatoly Sobchak Anatoly Aleksandrovich Sobchak ( rus, Анатолий Александрович Собчак, p=ɐnɐˈtolʲɪj ɐlʲɪˈksandrəvʲɪtɕ sɐpˈtɕak; 10 August 1937 – 19 February 2000) was a Soviet and Russian politician, a co-author of the ...

(1937–2000), Russian politician *

Vitaly Solomin Vitaly Mefodievich Solomin (russian: link=no, Виталий Мефодьевич Соломин; 12 December 194127 May 2002) was a Soviet and Russian actor, director and screenwriter, best remembered for playing Dr. Watson in a series of Sherloc ...

(1941–2002), Soviet and Russian actor, director and screenwriter * Yury Solomin (born 1935), Soviet and Russian actor and director * Alina Stadnik (born 1991), Ukrainian female wrestler *

Alexander Stranichkin Alexander Viktorovich Stranichkin (born 5 April 1955 in Chita, Zabaykalsky Krai) is an Abkhazian politician. A former vice-speaker of the People's Assembly of Abkhazia, Stranichkin currently serving as one of the four vice-premiers of the Republic o ...

(born 1955), Abkhazian politician * Lyudmila Titova (born 1946), Russian speed skater * Dmytro Tymchuk (born 1972), Ukrainian military expert and blogger *

Yemelyan Yaroslavsky Yemelyan Mikhailovich Yaroslavsky (russian: Емелья́н Миха́йлович Яросла́вский, born Minei Izrailevich Gubelman, Мине́й Изра́илевич Губельма́н; – 4 December 1943) was a Bolshevik revoluti ...

(1878–1943), Russian revolutionary, Soviet politician, communist party organizer * Oksana Zhnikrup (1931-1993), Ukrainian ceramicist, whose works inspired

Jeff Koons Jeffrey Lynn Koons (; born January 21, 1955) is an American artist recognized for his work dealing with popular culture and his sculptures depicting everyday objects, including balloon animals produced in stainless steel with mirror-Surface fi ...

Stanislav Drobyshevsky Stanislav Vladimirovich Drobyshevsky (born 2 July 1978, in Chita) is a Russian anthropologist and science popularizer. He is a Candidate of Sciences and works at the Anthropology department of the Faculty of Biology of Moscow State Universit ...

(born 1978), Russian anthropologist and science popularizer

References

Notes

Sources

* * *

External links

Official website of Chita

Chita Business Directory

Account of Englishman's life in Chita, 2005-2006
!--please first see WT:External links/Archive 19#Links to personal memoirs on Chita, Siberia if you believe this link does not belong here-->
Old Chita
website of local history {{Authority control Transbaikal Oblast 1653 establishments in Russia Russian Far East