Tyrnyauz (Karach-balk. Tyrnyauuz) is a city in the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic. Forms the urban settlement Tyrnyauz. The administrative center of the Elbrus region.
The city is located in the southwestern part of the
republic, on both banks of the Baksan River, 90 km southwest of the
city of Nalchik and 40 km northeast of Mount Elbrus. Through
Tyrnyauz, along the Baksan river valley, the Baksan-Elbrus motor
road goes to the foot of Mount Elbrus. The river Tyrnyauz of the
same name flows nearby.
The area of the territory of the
urban settlement is 61.80 km². Of these, the city line accounts for
about a quarter of the area of the territory.
It borders on
the lands of settlements: Bylym in the north and Verkhniy Baksan in
the south.
The city is located in the mountainous part of the
republic, at an altitude of more than 1300 meters above sea level,
and is one of the highest located cities in Russia. The relief is an
area rugged by ridges, with narrow gorges in river valleys. The
entire city is located in the valley of the Baksan gorge. The
highest point of the urban settlement is Mount Toturbashi (2786 m.).
The elevation changes are significant and range from 1500-2000
meters.
The bowels of the territory of the urban settlement
are rich in deposits of tungsten, molybdenum, stucco, various types
of marble (including black), high-strength granite gneisses, facing
granites, talc, feldspar raw materials, roofing slates, aplite
(porcelain stone), argallite clays, lime and other useful fossils.
The volume of profitable reserves of the Tyrnyauz deposit can
provide up to one third of the needs of the Russian economy for
tungsten-molybdenum raw materials.
The hydrographic network
within the city is represented by the Baksan and Girkhozhan-su
rivers, as well as by smaller streams flowing from the ridges. There
are sources and deposits of mineral waters.
The climate is
temperate. Due to the proximity of the mountains and the location in
the gorge, the climate in the city differs sharply from the climate
of the foothill and flat parts of the republic. In early spring,
with sharp temperature changes, strong dry winds (foehn) blow from
the mountains. The average temperature ranges from + 16.5 ° С in
August to -4.5 ° С in winter. The average annual air temperature is
6.5 ° C. The average annual rainfall is about 850 mm.
According to J. N. Kokov, the toponym is translated from the Karachai-Balkarian language as "crane gorge", where turna - "crane", akuz - "gorge". The name "crane gorge" is justified by the fact that in low clouds and fogs, cranes fly low over the river, along the gorge (this was reported by a local resident Yu. M. Murzaev, who often observed this phenomenon). According to PS Rototaev, the name of the toponym contains the Balkarian element tyrna - "to scratch" (tyrnauuch - "harrow", "rake"). Before the construction of the city, this area was a fairly wide valley, abundantly heaped with gravel. It looked like a terrain over which the harrow passed at a considerable depth. Obviously, later the word tyrnauuch was somewhat transformed or the word ahuz was added to the word tyrna - "gorge", "gorge", since there is a gorge higher up the gorge. Thus, the toponym can be translated as “furrowed gorge”. The name is sometimes translated as "gorge of the winds", although there is no reason for this.
The city was founded as
the village of Gerkhozhan in 1934, at the discovery of the Tyrnyauz
tungsten-molybdenum deposit.
In 1937, the construction of the
first plants began in the upper reaches of the Baksan gorge. In the
same year, the village of Gerkhozhan was renamed into the working
settlement of Nizhny Baksan.
By the decree of the Presidium
of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR dated June 10, 1955, the working
settlement of Tyrny-Auz of the Elbrus region of the Kabardian ASSR
was transformed into a city of regional subordination with the
assignment of a name to it - the city of Tyrnyauz. In 1963, the city
received the status of a city of republican (ASSR) subordination.
In 1958, when the village of Upper Baksan was restored, it was
included in the city council of Tyrnyauz. In 1995, with the
formation of the Elbrus district, the village of Verkhniy Baksan was
separated from the Tyrnyauz City Council and transformed into an
independent rural settlement.
In 1994 Tyrnyauz was
transferred to the city of regional subordination and transformed
into the administrative center of the newly formed Elbrus region.
With the collapse of the USSR and the closure of the Tyrnyauz
molybdenum plant, the number of residents began to decline rapidly,
and the city lost a third of its population during the census period
from 1989 to 2002. The rapid decline in the city's population was
also facilitated by a series of mudslides in 2000.
Currently,
the city's population continues to decline slowly. Attempts are
being made to restore the tungsten-molybdenum plant, to return the
city to its previous value (there is a plan for the construction of
a railway line with a length of 95 km from the Soldatskaya station,
which should greatly contribute to the indicated restoration of the
GOK-a).
Elbrus Mining Plant, a subsidiary of Rostec State Corporation, plans to resume mining and processing of tungsten-molybdenum ores at the Tyrnyauz deposit at the end of 2023. The first stage of the project has already been completed: a license for the right to use subsoil has been acquired, a feasibility study has been developed in accordance with international standards with an assessment of the deposit's reserves, and mining operations have been acquired at the Tyrnyauz Tungsten-Molybdenum Combine.
On July 18, 2000, at 11:15 pm, a powerful mudflow poured into Tyrnyauz from the Gerkhozhan tract. According to the EMERCOM of Russia, as a result of the passage of mudflows on July 18 and 19, residential buildings were flooded, a road bridge across the river was destroyed. Baksan. Due to the threat of a repeated mudflow, it was decided to temporarily resettle the residents of three houses. In total, 930 people were resettled from the damaged houses. The EMERCOM of Russia restored a pedestrian bridge in the central part of the city, and also installed a pontoon bridge across the river. Gerkhozhan-Su. The complex of measures taken made it possible to restore the life support system. During the mudflows, 8 people died, 8 were hospitalized. Almost 40 people were reported missing.