Prokopevsk

a city under oblast jurisdiction and administrative center of Prokop’evsk Raion, Kemerovo Oblast, RSFSR. Situated on the Aba River, a tributary of the Tom’. Railroad station 269 km southeast of Kemerovo. Population, 269,000 (1974; 107,000 in 1939).

Prokop’evsk is a major center for the mining of coking coal in the Kuzbas, with 16 coal mines and an opencut. A large machine-building center, it has plants for the production of electrical machinery (the Elektromashina Plant), automatic mining equipment, bearings, and food-processing machinery, a machine shop, and a plant for streetcar and trolleybus repair. Light industry is represented by a china factory, a garment factory, and a plant for the production of industrial rubber articles. The numerous food-processing enterprises include a meat-packing plant, a milk plant, a brewery, a yeast plant, and a confectionery, as well as a tobacco factory. The building-materials industry is developing.

Prokop’evsk has several coal-industry research institutes, an evening department of the Siberian Metallurgical Institute, medical and music schools, and technicums of mining, electric machine building, and physical culture. It also has a drama theater and a museum of local lore.