Fort-Shevchenko ( kk, Форт-Шевченко) is a military-base town and administrative centre of

Tupkaragan District Tupkaragan District ( kk, Түпқараған ауданы, Tüpqarağan audany) is a district of Mangystau Region in south-western Kazakhstan. The administrative center of the district is the town of Fort-Shevchenko Fort-Shevchenko ( kk, Ф ...

Mangystau Region Mangystau ( kk, Маңғыстау облысы, Mañğystau oblysy; russian: Мангистауская область, Mangistauskaya oblast) is a region of Kazakhstan. Its capital is Aktau (a seaport), which has a population of 183,350 (2017 ...

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

on the eastern shore of

Caspian Sea The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, often described as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. An endorheic basin, it lies between Europe and Asia; east of the Caucasus, west of the broad steppe of Central A ...

. Primary industries include fishing and the extraction of stone. Population: 5,559 (2016 estimate).

History

The city was founded as a military stronghold by the Imperial Russian Navy in 1846 after nearby New Alexander Fort, built in 1834 overlooking Dead Kultuk, was deemed too remote.Travel Guide to Fort Shevchenko and Bautino – Planet Esoterica
/ref> Until 1857, Fort Shevchenko was known as ''Novopetrovskoye'' (Новопетровское) and from 1857 to 1939 as ''Fort-Aleksandrovskii'' (Форт-Александровский). It was named for

Ukrainian Ukrainian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Ukraine * Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe * Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine * So ...

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or w ...

Taras Shevchenko Taras Hryhorovych Shevchenko ( uk, Тарас Григорович Шевченко , pronounced without the middle name; – ), also known as Kobzar Taras, or simply Kobzar (a kobzar is a bard in Ukrainian culture), was a Ukrainian poet, wr ...

, who was assigned to military service here during his exile. Today the town is used by the Kazakhstan Navy as a base. The coat of arms of Fort Alexandrovsky was approved October 22, 1908, along with other arms of the Transcaspian field: It is black and silver depicting the fortress and two fish.

Russian Civil War

Fort Alexandrovsky was the site of naval action on 21 May 1919, when a Squadron of the

British Caspian Flotilla The British Caspian Flotilla was a naval force of the Royal Navy established in the Caspian Sea in 1918. It was part of the allied intervention in the Russian Civil War. The flotilla initially reported to the Rear-Admiral Commanding, Black Sea, ...

attacked the port.

Climate

Landmarks

There are several landmarks of significance; Shevchenko Memorial Museum, National History, and ethnographic museums. The Shevchenko Memorial Museum opened in 1932 near where he had been hiding. There are also some remnants of the fortress, a monument to Shevchenko and a state grave of Civil War heroes. 31 km from the city is the

necropolis A necropolis (plural necropolises, necropoles, necropoleis, necropoli) is a large, designed cemetery with elaborate tomb monuments. The name stems from the Ancient Greek ''nekropolis'', literally meaning "city of the dead". The term usually im ...

Beysenbay and up the coast the site Bautino (Баутино).

References

External links

Populated places in Mangystau Region Transcaspian Oblast {{Kazakhstan-geo-stub