Kirovakan

(prior to 1935 Karaklis; renamed in honor of S. M. Kirov), a city in the Armenian SSR. It is situated in an intermontane depression between the Bazumskii and Pambak ranges, at the confluence of the Pambak, Tandzut, and Vanadzoriget rivers (Kura basin) at an altitude of 1,350 m. It has a railroad station on the Tbilisi-Yerevan line and is a highway junction. Population, 114,000 (1972; 18,000 in 1939).

Kirovakan arose on the site of a Bronze Age settlement and burial ground. In 1826 the population centers of Greater and Lesser Karaklis were united to form the city of Karaklis. The building of the Tiflis-Karaklis-Aleksandropol’ (now Leninakan) railroad in the late 19th century contributed to the city’s development. Under the prewar five-year plans all the small industrial enterprises were modernized and new enterprises were built, including a bakery (1930), a dairy (1935), and a sheepskin coat factory (1940). Between 1929 and 1940 the largest chemical plant in the Soviet Union was built here.

Modern Kirovakan is one of the republic’s major industrial centers. Chemicals, the leading industry, is represented by a chemical combine producing mineral fertilizers and corundum and by a synthetic fiber plant. Machine building (autogenous machinery, precision tools, and high-temperature heaters) and food processing (meat-packing combine, creamery) are well developed, and there are textile-knitwear, garment, and spinning factories, building materials enterprises, and a steam power plant.

Within and around the city are cyclopean structures from the 2nd millennium B.C. Today Kirovakan is a modern, planned city of both multistory and low buildings. Kirov Square in the center of the city, with a monument to S. M. Kirov (1942; sculptor, A. Sarksian), is surrounded by public buildings, including that of the city committee of the Armenian Communist Party (1952–53; architect, Z. Bakhshinian) and apartment buildings (1955; architect, O. Markarian). On Shaumian Square are a residential development built in the 1960’s and a monument to soldiers fallen in the Great Patriotic War (1967; sculptor, A. Sarksian; architects, G. Ovsepian, A. Kanaian, and A. Mirzoian). Noteworthy buildings of the early 1970’s include a department store (1972; architects, S. Asoian and R. Abraamian) and a picture gallery (1972; architect, L. Khachatrian).

Kirovakan has a pedagogical institute, an affiliate of the Yerevan Polytechnic Institute, technicums for instrument-making, chemical engineering, construction, and commerce, a sovkhoz technicum, and music and medical schools. Cultural institutions include a museum of local lore and a drama theater, and there are a sanatorium, a workers’ resort, and a tourist center.