Oral, Kazakhstan

Oral (woah-RAL; Kazakh: Орал, pronounced[woˈrɑɫ]^ⓘ), also known as Uralsk (Russian: Уральск, IPA:[ʊˈralʲsk]), is a city in northwestern Kazakhstan, at the confluence of the Ural and Chagan rivers close to the Russianborder. As it is located on the western bank of the Ural river, Uralsk is considered geographically in Europe. It is the capital of the West Kazakhstan Region.

The ethnic composition is majority Kazakh (71%), followed by the second-largest ethnic group Russians (25%). Population: 271,900 (2009 census results);^[3]194,905 (1999 census results).^[3]

FC Akzhayik are a Kazakhstani football club based in Petr Atoyan Stadium.

Bandy is the principal sport in the city. Akzhayik Sports Club, based in the Yunost Stadium, is the only professional team in the country and plays in the second highest division of Russia.^[4] In September 2017, the Kazakhstan Bandy Federation bought the club.^[5]

The city sent a team to the Spartakiade 2009 and the finished second.^[6] All the players of the Under-23 national team in the 2013–14 season came from Oral.^[7] After the Kazakhstan national bandy team took the gold medal at the 2011 Asian Winter Games, the team came back to Oral in triumph.^[8]

Oral is an agricultural and industrial centre and has been an important trade stop since its founding. Barge traffic has passed up and down the Ural river between the Caspian Sea and the Ural Mountains for centuries. Today it is one of the major entry points for rail traffic from Europe to Siberia, servicing the many new oil fields in the Caspian basin and the industrial cities of the southern Urals. It is served by Oral Ak Zhol Airport.

Oral was founded in 1613 by Cossacks, and was originally named Yaitsk, after the Yaik river, the name of the Ural river at the time. In 1773 there occurred the first Cossack rebellion against the local Russian commander General Traubenberg, led by Yemelyan Pugachev. Traubenberg was murdered along with several other officers.

The city was captured by Pugachev, and its fortress besieged from 30 December 1773 to 17 April 1774. Tsarist troops under Commander Mantsurov re took the city after Golytsin had taken the city of Orenburg from the rebel forces.

As a punishment for the Yaik Cossacks siding with the insurrectionists, Empress Catherine II declared on 15 January 1775 that the Yaik river would henceforth be renamed the Ural River and Yaitsk would be known as Ural'sk.

Alexander Pushkin visited the city with his friend Vladimir Dahl in September 1833 while doing research for his book The History of Pugachev (1834) and his novel The Captain's Daughter.

The city was under siege imposed by Cossacks during the Russian Civil War from 1917 to 1922. Mikhail Frunze, Vasily Chapaev and Georgy Zhukov participated in its defence.

After the independence of Kazakhstan in 1991, Ural'sk was renamed as Oral.

• "Uralsk, Kazakhstan". NASA Earth Observatory. Archived from the original on 2006-10-01. Retrieved 2006-05-01.