Text 4. History of Syktyvkar

Syktyvkar is the largest city and the capital of the Republic of Komi in the far North of European Russia. Its population is about 250.000 people. It is located 140 km (approximately 881 miles) from Moscow, in a picturesque setting at the junction of the Sysola and the Vychegda rivers amidst the taiga forest of the southern part of the Republic. The city's original name was Ust-Sysolsk.

The earliest history of Ust-Sysolsk is found in documents from 1586, but the first hunters and fishermen were known to settle in and around that area in the late Stone Age. Christianization of the Komi people greatly promoted the economic development of Ust-Sysolsk. By the middle of the 18^th century it had become an important centre of trade in the North of' Russia. Merchants from various parts of Russia and Siberia arrived at Ust-Sysolsk to sell agricultural products, fish, furs, products and crafts.

In 1780 on the decree of Catherine II the settlement was given the status of a town. Ust-Sysolsk became an administrative uezd (an administrative territorial region), a part of Vologda namestnichestvo (a larger administrative subdivision). Local people, however, went on calling the town Syktyvdyn which is the Komi for “the mouth of the Sysola river”. The city's emblem was a bear sleeping in its den.

The Komi people had close contacts with the people of Russia and participated in all the wars that Russia fought. After the war with Napoleon in 1812 about 100 French prisoners were brought to Ust-Sysolsk where theysettled and stayed. To this day the place where they lived still bears the name “the borough of Paris". Ust-Sysolsk became a busy river port because of its convenient location at the confluence of two rivers - the Sysola and the Vychegda. Such industries as timber, lumber, fishing, metal-working and tanning were developed in the area of Ust-Sysolsk.

The town was a centre of culture as well. A public park appeared on the bank of the Sysola. St.Stephen’s Church was built to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the Christianization of the Komi. The founder of Komi literature, a poet and a writer, Ivan Kuratov, lived in the town and the so-called Ust-Sysolsk period was the most fruitful in his literary career. Georgy Lytkin, a pioneer of Komi linguistics and the author of Komi Grammar, was born in Ust-Sysolsk into a merchant’s family. In 1918 the People's Theatre was organized. Victor Savin, an actor and a play-wright, a composer and a stage director, was very instrumental in arranging its work.

In 1912, Ust-Sysolsk became the centre of the newly formed Komi Autonomous Republic. That event marked the beginning of the Komi state system. In 1925 there were 34 small enterprises in the town, 19 being private, others owned by the state or partnerships (cooperatives). In 1930, the year of its 150^th anniversary, Ust-Sysolsk was renamed Syktyvkar which is the Komi for “a town on the Sysola”. In the late 1930s, Syktyvkar grew into a town with a developed wood-processing industry. Central workshops started repairing timber logging machinery. The first airlines connected Syktyvkar with other regions of the country.

A new Drama Theatre was opened in the town. A Folklore Singing and Dancing Group was organized, and a Musical School for children was built. The first students entered the Pedagogical Institute (The Teachers' Training Institute).

Many colleges and vocational schools appeared in Syktyvkar.

In the period following the Great Patriotic War, the industrial development of Syktyvkar advanced further. One of the biggest enterprises of that kind in Europe, the paper mill started its production in 1969. Food processing enterprises, a clothing factory, a mechanical plant and other businesses were established in Syktyvkar. The Syktyvkar-Mikun railway connected the town with Moscow and the towns of the Komi Republic.

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