Ukhta (; , ''Ukva'') is an important industrial

town A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

in the

Komi Republic The Komi Republic (; ), sometimes simply referred to as Komi, is a republics of Russia, republic of Russia situated in the northeast of European Russia. Its capital city, capital is the types of inhabited localities in Russia, city of Syktyvka ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. Population: It was previously known as ''Chibyu'' (until 1939).

History

Oil springs along the Ukhta River were already known in the 17th century. In the mid-19th century, industrialist M. K. Sidorov started to drill for oil in this area. It was one of the first oil wells in Russia. There was homecraft oil-field in 1920–1921 in Ukhta. Lying on the river of the same name, the settlement was founded as the village of Chibyu in 1929, but in 1939 it was renamed Ukhta. It was granted town status in 1943 when it was linked to the Pechora Railway. To the east of the town is Sosnogorsk, and to the southwest— Yarega. In addition to its rail link, Ukhta also has an

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial Aviation, air transport. They usually consist of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surf ...

. The town expanded in the 1940s and 1950s by use of political prisoners' forced labor (see:

gulag The Gulag was a system of Labor camp, forced labor camps in the Soviet Union. The word ''Gulag'' originally referred only to the division of the Chronology of Soviet secret police agencies, Soviet secret police that was in charge of runnin ...

Administrative and municipal status

Within the framework of administrative divisions, it is, together with four

urban-type settlement Urban-type settlement, abbreviated: ; , abbreviated: ; ; ; ; . is an official designation for lesser urbanized settlements, used in several Central and Eastern Europe, Central and Eastern European countries. The term was primarily used in the So ...

s ( Borovoy, Vodny, Shudayag, and Yarega) and thirteen rural localities, incorporated as the town of republic significance of Ukhta—an administrative unit with the status equal to that of the

districts A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions ...

.Law #16-RZ As a municipal division, the town of republic significance of Ukhta is incorporated as Ukhta Urban Okrug.Law #11-RZ

Economy

Ukhta lies within the Timan-Pechora Basin, an important oil and gas-producing region. The oilfields lie just south of the city. Some of the Ukhta's oil is refined locally; most, however, is piped to

oil refineries An oil refinery or petroleum refinery is an industrial process plant where petroleum (crude oil) is transformed and refined into products such as gasoline (petrol), diesel fuel, asphalt base, fuel oils, heating oil, kerosene, liquefied pet ...

between St. Petersburg and

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

. There have been a few gas pipeline explosions at a distance of Eight kilometres (five miles) from the town since the 1990s.

Climate

Ukhta has a continental

subarctic climate The subarctic climate (also called subpolar climate, or boreal climate) is a continental climate with long, cold (often very cold) winters, and short, warm to cool summers. It is found on large landmasses, often away from the moderating effects of ...

( Dfc) with long, very cold winters and short, warm summers. Compared with areas at a similar latitude in

Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...

, winters are less extreme, but still much longer than summer and bitterly cold by European standards.

Notable people

Roman Abramovich Roman Arkadyevich Abramovich (born 24 October 1966) is a business oligarch and politician. He is the former owner of Chelsea F.C., Chelsea, a Premier League football club in London, England, and is the primary owner of the private investment com ...

, Russian businessman * Dmitri Aliev, Olympic figure skater * Aleksandr Chupriyan, Minister of Emergency Situations * Olga Fonda, actress * Sergei Kapustin, hockey player * Viktor Alexandrovič Lyapkalo, painter * Eduard Rossel, Governor of Sverdlovsk Oblast * Yulia Samoilova, Russian singer * Alexander Sukhorukov, Olympic swimmer * Arsen Pavlov, former commander of Donetsk Separatist militia "Sparta Battalion"

References

Notes

Sources

* *

External links

Official website of Ukhta

Unofficial website of Ukhta

Pictures of Ukhta
*Website of Leonid Tomov

{{Use mdy dates, date=August 2011 Cities and towns in the Komi Republic Cities and towns built in the Soviet Union Populated places established in 1929 1929 establishments in the Soviet Union 1929 establishments in Russia Former urban-type settlements of Komi