About Kirovograd

Kirovohrad, city in central Ukraine, capital of Kirovohrad Oblast, on the Inhul River, about 100 km (about 60 mi) northwest of Kryvyy Rih. Located on the fertile Dnieper River upland where grains, sugar beets, and sunflowers are grown, Kirovohrad is an agricultural trade and machine-building center and a highway hub. It has a rail depot and an airport. Known for its large farm machinery plant, the city also produces other machine components, food products, consumer goods, and building materials. Institutions in Kirovohrad include an institute of agricultural machine building, a teacher training institute, a pilot school, a music and drama theater, a puppet theater, a philharmonic orchestra, and a regional museum. Kirovohrad also has churches from the 19th century and part of the site's original fortress (built in 1754), then called Saint Elizabeth. Founded on Zaporozhian Cossack territory by the Russian imperial government, the fortress protected settlers on Russia's southern frontier from the raids of Ottomans and Crimean Tatars. It served as a base of operations against the Ottoman Empire from 1768 to 1774 during the Russo-Turkish Wars. The town that grew up around the fortress was named Yelizavetgrad in 1775. Major growth occurred after the arrival of a railroad in the late 1860s and the establishment of the British-owned Ellworthy farm-machinery plant in 1874. The city was renamed Zinov'yevs'k in 1924, Kirove in 1934, and Kirovohrad in 1939. Population (1998 estimate) 270,000.