Petropavlosk

Industrial city and capital of North Kazakhstan wiloyat (region), situated on the Ishim River, 260 km/162 mi west of Omsk in the Russian Federation. The city is an important transportation centre, lying at the junction of the Trans-Siberian railway (which reached here in 1896) and the TransKazakhh line (opened in 1953). Industries here include flour milling, manufacture of agricultural machinery, meat packing, and leather tanning.

A former caravan station, Petropavlosk was founded as a Russian fortress in 1752; much trade in silk and carpets was conducted here between Russia and Asian kingdoms. It was made a town in 1807. During the Russian Civil War (1918–20), Petropavlosk was under White Russian control for over a year. The city became a major centre of Khrushchev's ‘Virgin Lands’ campaign to turn much of northern Kazakhstan over to large-scale grain production in the 1950s and 1960s. The city's population remains overwhelmingly Russian.