Pavlodar is a city in northeastern Kazakhstan. It is located 350km northeast of the national capital Astana, and 400km southeast of the Russian city of Omsk along the Irtysh River. The city is the capital of Pavlodar Province, and has a population of 300,200 (2006). Most of the people are Kazakhs and Russians. There are smaller minorities of Ukrainians and Germans. The town is served by Pavlodar Airport.
History
The oldest province centre in northern Kazakhstan, Pavlodar was founded in 1720 as Koryakovsky outpost, near salt lakes. It became the town of Pavlodar in 1861, but, although it did a substantial trade in salt and agricultural produce, Pavlodar population was only about 8,000 in 1897. It gained the name Pavlodar, Gift of Paul, in honor of the newly-born Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich of Russia.
In 1955 the Virgin Lands Campaign gave start to modern Pavlodar. Mass youth immigration from other parts of the Soviet Union, industrialization and rapid construction created a fully-serviced clean new city. Since the mid-1960s, Pavlodar has grown considerably to become a major industrial centre, with tractor, aluminum, and chemical plants. An oil refinery was completed in 1978 in Pavlodar. As the location of a major tank factory, the city was closed to foreigners until 1992. |
