Novokuznetsk

Novokuznetsk (Russian: Новокузне́цк) is a city in Kemerovo Oblast, Russia. It serves as the administrative center of Novokuznetsky District, but it is not administratively a part of it. Population: 547,885 (2010 Census preliminary results); 549,870 (2002 Census); 599,947 (1989 Census). The Novokuznetsk urban agglomeration, which includes the towns of Kiselyovsk, Mezhdurechensk, and Prokopyevsk, has a population of 1.13 million people. Founded in 1618 by men from Tomsk as a Cossack ostrog (fort) on the Tom River, it was initially called Kuznetsk (Кузне́цк). It was granted town status in 1622. It was here that Fyodor Dostoevsky married his first wife, Maria Isayeva (1857). Joseph Stalin's rapid industrialization of the Soviet Union...