Izhevsk

From 1984 to 1987, the city was called Ustinov (Russian: Усти́нов), named after Soviet defence minister Dmitry Ustinov. The city is a major hub of industry, commerce, politics, culture and education in the Volga Region. It is known for its defense, engineering and metallurgy industries. Izhevsk holds the titles of Armory Capital of Russia and the City of Labor Glory.

History

Pioneer settlements

The pioneer settlements on the territory where modern Izhevsk now stands were founded by Udmurts in the 5th century. There were two fortified settlements situated on the banks of the Karlutka River. Later this territory joined the Khanate of Kazan. In 1552, Russia conquered the Khanate and, in 1582, Ivan the Terrible conferred the lands by the Karlutka and Izh Rivers on Bagish Yaushev, a Tatar morza. The quit-rent had been imposed on the Udmurt population ever since. The Yaushevs owned the land until the reign of Peter the Great (1682–1721).

Ironworks construction

On September 15, 1757, Count Pyotr Shuvalov, owner of seven factories in the Urals, bought land in the Kama Region and got permission from Empress Elizabeth to build three ironworks there. In those days, ironworks were powered with steam, and wood was the only fuel. For that reason it was decided to build one of the plants on the forest-rich land near the Izh River and make iron bands and cast iron anchors. Another ironworks was built on the Votka River.

In April 10, 1760, serfs from neighboring villages and artisans from other Shuvalov's plants began dam construction under the direction of Alexey Moskvin, a mining engineer and a trustee of Shuvalov. This date is considered to be the date of Izhevsk's foundation. Construction proceeded at a slow pace. The serfs were unhappy with being taken from their villages, with arduous duties and regular physical punishment, leading to tumultuous rebellions.

In 1762 Shuvalov died. His son Andrey inherited the factories. In accordance with the ukase of Catherine the Great dated November 15, 1763, all Shuvalov's ironworks, including the one at Izhevsky Zavod, lapsed to the Crown for debts. Since that time, it has been under the authority of the Collegium of Mining, an institution in charge of the Russian mining industry. The ironworks on the Izh and Votka Rivers were called Kama Plants.

In 1763 construction of the dam and ironworks was completed and the first bloomery iron was smelted. As a result of the dam construction, the Izhevsk Reservoir, one of the biggest in Europe was formed. Near the ironworks, the settlement was built. This settlement was named Izhevsky Zavod, meaning "the factory on the Izh" in Russian.

Initially the ironworks made palm-wide iron bands from 3–6 metres (9.8–19.7 ft) long. These bands were supplied to Moscow for the rebuilding of the Kremlin. The iron from Izhevsky Zavod was also used for construction in Saint Petersburg.

Pugachev's Rebellion

In October 1773, the news of the popular revolt against Catherine II on the Yaik and the manifestos of Yemelyan Pugachev reached Izhevsky Zavod. The Cossack passing himself off as Peter III proclaimed liberty for serfs and called for killing nobles and factory owners. This had the backing of the serfs and artisans. So Colonel Feodor Wenzel, the manager of the Goroblagodat and Kama plants, and Aleksey Alymov, the manager of Izhevsky Zavod ironworks, were forced to escape to Kazan.

On January 1, 1774, a detachment of Yemelyan Pugachev's rebel army reached the town. The rebels destroyed the ironworks, burned its office buildings, and wrecked the houses of the managers. They demolished the food depot and distributed the food to the people. The ironworks money was sent to the staff of the rebel army, near Ufa. The serfs were freed. Some of them joined the detachment. Iron production stopped for a while. Around this time, Catherine realized the seriousness of the rebellion and sent an army led by General Aleksandr Bibikov to crush the insurrection. In April 1774, Pugachev's army fought losing battles everywhere and was forced to leave Izhevsky Zavod. The managers returned and cowed serfs and artisans into submission, forcing them to pledge allegiance to Catherine the Great. A list of workers who had joined the rebel army was compiled for future reprisal.

In spite of opposition from the forces of Wenzel and Alymov Brothers, Pugachev's army occupied the town again on June 27, 1774. The crowds hailed Yemelyan Pugachev. He dealt with the complaints of serfs and workers for two days. Forty-two persons, including Wenzel and the Alymovs, were executed. On June 29, Pugachev left Izhevsky Zavod and set out for Kazan. Many workmen of Izhevsky Zavod joined his detachments and fought selflessly in the last battles of the Rebellion, which was mostly crushed by early September 1775. In spite of the defeat of the rebel army and the execution of its leader, bands of rebels continued to fight. New managers of the ironworks suppressed serfs and brought back artisans by force, cracking down on the bands of rebels.

The ironworks was restored and began to function by the end of 1775. The former order was reinstated. The forced laborers weren't interested in boosting productivity and the practice fell into decay by the 19th century.

Arms factory foundation

In 1800, Emperor Paul I ordered an arms factory built in the Urals in view of a mounting threat from Napoleonic France. Andrew Deryabin, a mining engineer, chief of Goroblagodat, Perm, Kama and Bogoslov plants, chose the site for the new plant. He saw several places in the Perm and Vyatka governorates and concluded that the most suitable place for plant foundation was Izh Zavod. It occurred to him to turn the ironworks into the armory.

Alexander I approved of Deryabin's project and construction began on the arms factory building on June 10, 1807, considered the year of Izhevsk's second birth.

The new factory had a shortage of manpower. Staff vacancies were filled by serfs, workmen from Urals mining plants and recruits. Armorers were transferred from other arms factories and hired from Europe, mainly from Denmark and Sweden.

The population of the settlement grew quickly so that by the end of 1808 there were more than 6,000 inhabitants. Because of housing requirements, people had to build their houses after work, at night. Houses were made from wood found in forests near the factory. At the same time, workers built new barracks for the soldiers and housing for factory employees, officers and officials, the hospital, schools and other social facilities.

Dudin's plan

The settlement was built according to the master plan. Architect Feodor Dudin was an author of this plan and a director of all construction works. The principle of an urban grid was the basis of the new master plan. Wide and straight streets crossed side streets running perpendicular to them. Their accurate network formed small rectangular blocks.

On May 18, 1810, a major fire burned in Izhevsky Zavod. 174 houses, the warehouse, and two wooden churches were destroyed.

After the fire, implementation of Dudin's plan began. The houses were made of pinewood logs. As a rule, a house consisted of two izbas, joined with an inner porch. Houses of the poor consisted of one izba. Armorers and officials erected two-storied and five-wall log houses. There were 15 streets in Izh by the 1820s. In 1812, Izhevsky Zavod was divided into three administrative parts because of growth in population and territory. In 1816, there were 1,710 houses, 8 factory stone buildings, a prison, a cemetery, a stone church and a school in the settlement. The population was 8,324.

In the 1820s, 1830s, and 1840s, a number of large stone building was erected. St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral was built between 1818 and 1823, and visited by Tsar Alexander (who considered Alexander Nevsky his patron saint) shortly after its completion. Other noteworthy large stone buildings which still remain from that era include the Arsenal (1823–25), Public Offices (1843–45) and house of contractor Egor Novikov. All improved Izhevsk's appearance.

By 1850, the settlement had more than doubled, to population of 19,163. Its territory was about 6200 square miles. 3499 buildings were wooden, and 27 others, including three churches, were made of stone. The settlement had 1066 wells.

Izhevsky Zavod after the Emancipation Reform of 1861

On February 19, 1861, Emperor of Russia Alexander II carried out the Emancipation Reform. On October 9, 1865, Berg-kollegia, apprehending a prospective cost increase, leased the arms factory to a partnership of industrialists.

In 1866, serfs of the factory obtained their liberty with the 1861 Emancipation Manifesto and gained self-government. Izhevsky Zavod was divided into two volosts: Nagornaya Volost and Zarechnaya Volost, or Zareka. Each volost had its board of administration and consisted of rural groups. Rural circles were headed by a starosta, selected in the gathering. There were seven rural societies in Nagornaya Volost; Zarechnaya Volost consisted of four.

Administrations of volosts reported to the Board of Sarapul Zemstvo. They were led by volost starshinas, elected for three years. Volost administrations were in charge of doing duty and paying taxes. They issued passports, managed improvement of territory and other local affairs.

Administrative and police oversight was carried out by the factory administration. Besides the administration delivered documents of title to land and house. The ponds, pastures and hayfields were turned over to the armorers and artisans.

The abolition of serfdom aggravated wealth inequalities between the inhabitants of Izhevsky Zavod. Well-to-do sections of population included the factory management, skilled armorers and artisans, administrative professionals, officials, clergy and merchants. Such stratification had an influence on view of the settlement. Working people were driven out of Nagornaya Part and settled in boggy Zareka. At that time, Koltoma, another working-class locality, grew. In the early 1870s, there were about twenty private stone buildings in Izhevsky Zavod. In Zarechnaya Part all houses were made of wood.

Civic life depended on government contract work. In the years of war or army re-equipment, the orders grew, and so did the workforce and labour earnings. After the government orders were filled and wages were cut, most workmen left the arms factory and the settlement fell into decay until the next government contract.

Enterprises in Izhevsky Zavod

In 1872, the steel works was founded in Izhevsky Zavod. In 1884, the arms factory and the steel works passed to the state.

Private armories appeared in Izhevsky Zavod.

• In 1860, an armorer named Ivan Fyodorovich Petrov began making hunting rifles at a small armory in Zaręka. Later, he set up shop in Yekaterinburg, Omsk, Nizhny Novgorod and the Caucasus. He and his sons also sold gunpowder in Izhevsky Zavod. One of his sons, Vasily, later opened his own armory.
• Andrian Nikandrovich Evdokimov was a competitor of the Petrovs. He had the armory on Bazarnaya Street.
• Nikolay Ilyich Berezin built his enterprise on Bazarnaya Street, too. He produced guns. He also owned a small iron foundry in the northeast suburbs.
• Merchants Porsev and Kilin were the owners of two brick factories.

There were twelve private industrial enterprises in Izhevsky Zavod by 1914.

Izhevsky Zavod merchants

In the 1870s, trade blossomed in Izhevsky Zavod. The Bodalev Brothers, Mokletsov, Ogloblin, Sveshnikov and Sozykin were the most successful merchants. It was profitable to deal in spirits. There were three vodka distilleries, four wine warehouses, three wine cellars, and about fifty taverns in 1872. This year Ivan Bodalev opened his brewery on the bank of the reservoir.

Religious buildings

At the turn of the 19th century, there were four temples in Izhevsky Zavod. St. Michael's Cathedral was built between 1897 and 1915.

Izhevsky Zavod was one of the residence centers of the Udmurt Jews, who spoke Udmurtish Yiddish. In the workmen's settlement since 1849 under the Jewish religious needs the house of worship was allocated. A second prayer house was opened in 1917. Both synagogues were closed in 1930 by the Soviet authorities.

The Russian Revolution and the Russian Civil War

On March 5, 1917, workers at the plant formed a worker's soviet, which included representatives of the workers, the army and of other citizens. Two days later the factory administration resigned. By mid-September of the same year, Bolsheviks took control of both the council and its influential newspaper. On October 27, 1917, Soviet government was officially announced, with the council officially dissolved soon thereafter.

The former leaders of the council were arrested in June 1918, contributing to an uprising against Bolshevik rule. The struggle for control of the city continued until the arrival of the Red Army, which took Izhevsk on November 7. On April 13, 1919, the city was occupied by units of Admiral Kolchak's White Army, only to fall again, this time decisively, to another assault by the Red Army in June 8 of the same year.

The Soviet period

The Soviet period saw significant growth in the size and importance of Izhevsk. In 1921, the city became the administrative center of Votsk Autonomous Oblast, a precursor to the Udmurt Republic. On December 28, 1934, Izhevsk received status of capital of the Udmurt Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. The first tramline was opened in 1935. It was 5 km long.

On March 14, 1937, the Republic's constitution was adopted. It consolidated the capital status of Izhevsk. In the autumn of 1941 several defense-related plants evacuated to Izhevsk. In June, 1943, Izhevsk Mechanical Plant was founded. During World War II, Izhevsk plants produced 12 and a half million small arms.

World War II had a profound effect on the city; much of the industrial infrastructure evacuated from the western regions of the Soviet Union was relocated to the city. Elements of the evacuated enterprises were used to create the Izhevsk Mechanical Plant, which remains an important manufacturer of military components.

Military industry remained the core of the local economy after the war, so Izhvesk was designated a closed city, inaccessible to foreigners. The city's Izhmash factory began manufacturing the AK-47 automatic rifle in 1948, and continues to produce modern variants of the design to this day. The rifle's designer, Mikhail Kalashnikov lived in Izhevsk until his death in 2013. In 1966, Izhmash began manufacturing the Izh brand of automobiles.

In 1984, the city was renamed Ustinov; in honor of former minister of defense Dmitry Ustinov. Three years later, after vocal protests by a significant number of citizens, Izhevsk regained its historical name.

In the 1990s two memorials were erected, on the powder depot and in the Northern cemetery, in memory of a few who were shot during the Great Terror.

Izhevsk weathered the post-Soviet years reasonably well, carried through by the continued demand for its military products. The city remains an important industrial and military center of the country, referred to as the "Armory of Russia", a title it shares with the city of Tula.

2022 school shooting

On 26 September 2022, Artyom Kazantsev committed a mass shooting at School No. 88 in the city. Eighteen people, including eleven children, were killed, and 24 others were injured. The school has about 1,000 pupils. Kazantsev later killed himself at the scene.