 Syktyvkar, the capital of the Republic of Komi, is situated on the high left bank of the river Sysola (a quay) 1515 km to the northeast of Moscow. The climate is moderately continental, with long, rather severe winter and short, comparatively warm summer. The average temperature of January is -15 degrees, of July +17 degrees centigrade. Precipitations make up 650 mm a year. Syktyvkar is the terminal station of the branch line Konosha - Vorkuta. The city has its own airport. The population totals 225,8 thousand people. (1992).
Once upon a time instead of Syktyvkar there stood an ancient village Ust-Sysolsk. Its inhabitants were peasants and merchants. Development of trade and agriculture allowed the small village to be noticed by Catherine II in the course of her administrative reform. So Syktyvkar became the regional centre of Komi.
In 1780 it became a city and centre of Ust-Sysolsky district of the Vologda province. In the 2nd half of the 19th century it was a place for exile. Since 1921 Ust-Sysolsk became the centre of the Komi (Zyryan) Autonomous Okrug again. Since 1930 the city is called Syktyvkar.
In present Syktyvkar there is the large timber industry complex (the pulp-and-paper and cardboard manufacture, hydrolytic and barmy plant; sawing and wood-working mill, 2 furniture factories). Syktyvkar has the forestry machine-building and experimental mechanical plants, the factory of nonwoven materials, enterprises of building materials and the food-processing industry.
Educational establishments are as follows: the Komi Scientific Centre of the Russi an Academy of Sciences, the Syktyvkar University, the Pedagogical Institute, branch of the Forestry Engineering Academy of Saint Petersburg. Here you can see the Musical Theatre, the Drama Theatre named after V.A.Savin, the Philharmonic society. The city museums are the Arts Museum (founded in 1943; here are works of the Russian and West-European art and of masters of the Republic of Komi), the Museum of local lore (founded in 1911; works of the ancient and folk art), the Memorial Museum of the poet-democrat I.A.Kurchatov; the Geological Museum named after A.A.Chernov.
The city runs along the river banks Sysola and Vychegda. In the centre one can find the hotel "Sever" (1937), buildings of the Ministry of Agriculture (1948), the Republican library (1958) and other administrative and public buildings. Here are the monuments to M.S. Babushkin (1941), Domna Kalikova (1940), "Victims of Revolution" (1962), V.I.Lenin (1967). Near the cities lie the park zones Krasnaya Gora and Serty-Poloy.
|
State 