History of Kirov

Ancient settlements in the territory of modern Kirov appeared more than two thousand years ago. By the early 12th century the banks of rivers Moloma, Vyatka and Cheptsa were inhabited by tribes of Maris, Komi, and Udmurts.

The Slavs arrived there by the end of the 12th century and founded the town of Khlynov in 1181. The first record of the town in the annals is dated to 1374, when its citizens participated in the campaign of Novgorod dwellers to Volga Bulgaria.

In the late 14th century it joined the Suzdal - Nizhny Novgorod Princedom. The princes driven from their ancestral lands after the Moscow princedom had gained Suzdal and Nizhniy Novgorod settled there. In the early 15th centuries the city was taken over by Prince Yury Galitsky. In the mid 15th century a wooden kremlin was constructed there.

The Moscow princedom attacked Khlynov twice and, eventually, annexed it to its lands. After that townspeople participated in the war of Moscow princes with Novgorod and Kazan.

The 16th century was marked by victories over Kazan Tatars and the Astrakhan Khanate, which resulted in returning of lands seized by Tatar-Mongols in the Golden Horde epoch.

Trifonov Monastery was founded in Khlynov in 1580 under the permit of Ivan the Terrible. In the 17th century trade was actively developing in the town. In the late 1650s Khlynov becomes the centre of the Vyatka and Velikopermsky Eparchy, the event making a new breakthrough in the town’s cultural development. This is when the first stone building – the Uspensky Cathedral of Trifonov Monastery was constructed.

A new stage in trade development began: merchant Lyanguzov took the first caravan to China.

The 18th century brought big changes. Transition of Vyatka lands from Siberian to the Kazan Province in the late 1720s was marked by opening of the first elementary school, which became the basis for Vyatka Theological Seminary opened thirty years later.

At the end of the 18th century Vyatka Province with its centre in Khlynov was renamed into Vyatka. The town’s official symbol and the first municipal duma were established in Vyatka.

Industrial production was started: in 1797 the Provincial Printing House was opened. This enterprise is now known as the Regional Printing House and is the oldest one in the city.

The 19th century started with serious achievements in the field of medicine and social sphere. There appeared a small hospital in a nursing home, provincial and city hospitals, and an orphan asylum.

Constructions of a bridge over Vyatka River made it possible to arrange closer connections with the large village of Dymkovo. In the 20th century all areas of city life went on developing.

After the October Revolution the local Soviet (People’s Council) refused to accept the new power and founded the independent Vyatka Republic, which has existed till of 1919, when Joseph Stalin arrived there with inspections and found out that the city power consists totally of former imperial officials.

The Great Patriotic War gave an impetus for development of the city’s industry. Actually, this is when it was generated, due to evacuation of large enterprises from Moscow and the besieged Leningrad (St. Petersburg) to Vyatka.

Today the city is a large industrial, cultural and educational centre.