Zheleznovodsk

a city in Stavropol’ Krai, RSFSR; a balneological health resort, part of the Caucasian Mineral Waters group. A branch railroad line (6 km) connects it to the station at Beshtau (on the Mineral’nye Vody-Kislovodsk line). Population, 18,000(1970).

Zheleznovodsk began as a health resort in the early 1800’s and became a city in 1917. It lies at an altitude of 550–630 m on the slopes of Mount Zheleznaia, which are covered with deciduous forests that become parks within the city. The summer is warm (average July temperature, 21°C) and dry, and the winter moderately mild (average January temperature, -4°C). Annual precipitation is approximately 605 mm.

The treatments at Zheleznovodsk use carbon dioxide bicarbonate-sulfate sodium-calcium springs of the same chemical composition but different temperatures, ranging from cold ones with temperatures of 1 1 .2°C (Kegamovskii) to hyperthermal ones reaching 55°C (Slavianovskii). The chemical composition of the water used for drinking and bottling is

(from the Slavianovskii spring) and

(from the Smirnovskii no. 1 spring).

Patients with ailments of the digestive organs, urinary system, and metabolism are treated in Zheleznovodsk. A number of important sanatorium complexes have been created, including Udarnik Sanatorium (north block, 1927–29; architect, I. A. Fomin), the Twentieth Congress of the CPSU Sanatorium (1956), the Dubovaia Roshcha Sanatorium (1968; architects, K. F. Butuzova and B. A. Zaritskii), and a mud-treatment clinic (1971; architects, A. I. Nikiforov and others). There are still some eclectic prerevolutionary buildings in town— for example, the pseudo- Moresque villa of the Emir of Bukhara, now the second block of the Udarnik Sanatorium (1907; architect, V. N. Semenov), and the Pushkin Gallery (1901; architect, Schiller).