History of the city

1760 is supposed to be the year of the foundation of Izhevsk.

So when did Izhevsk arise?

An ancient “Record of Kazan’s particularistic factory keepers” gives a definite answer: "This Izhevskii ironworks for the forging from mountain cast iron began its days with the building by His Excellency’s decree on the 10^th of April in 1760 and stands on the state territory on the Arsk road in the Kazan’s province on the river Izh.”

His Excellency is a count Peter Ivanovich Shuvalov, an uncommonly gifted and ingenious man at the time of the empress Elizabeth. The first bloomery iron was obtained at the factory in 1763. Small arms factory of Tula, St. Petersburg’s, Bryansk’s, Warsaw’s armouries and the Admiralty of the Black Sea became its monopolistic consumers. In 1806 3635 anchors were forged at the factory.

On the 10^th of June in 1921 Izhevsk becomes the centre of the Udmurt Republic.

The history of this event is really unique in many respects. One February day in 1760 an ordinary kibitka (sledge) and 2 horsemen came from the Kazan road, which is situated behind the settlement Studenyi Klyutch, to a hardly noticed country load. This was the founder of the city on Izh - a mountain engineer Alexey Stepanovich Moskvin.

 Detailed estimates and plans of the ironworks and weir’s building were sent to Kazan to the mountain authorities already in March. And soon there appeared a decree: "To set places aside that factory, according to its mansion size and free territory…To acknowledge the setting immediately..."

On the 10^th of April in 1760 with the first strokes of kirks and spades against the frozen ground the city of Izhevsk began to count its days. 1760 is supposed to be the year of the foundation of Izhevsk.

This ironworks built in Izhevsk produced up to 200 000 pood of iron per year. But a year after the factory foundation peasant disturbances broke out on the river Izh. The factory stood idle. In 1774 it was seized by the Pugachev’s army rebels, and after that it has lived through the years of stagnation and depression.

The second birth of Izhevsk occured in 1807 - small arms factory was built here under the guidance of the engineer Andrey Fedorovich Deryabin. In comparatively good time the rifle production (glory and pride of the future city) was set going at the factory.

Izhevsk appeared on the Russian map as a settlement attached to the Izhevskii factory more than 2 centuries ago. But its swift development resulted in the situation when the settlement Izhevo outnumbered some near-by provincial cities (such as Perm, Novgorod, Ufa) at the beginning of the last century.

The peculiarity of Izhevsk also was that it has actually been a large industrial centre of the neighbouring territory for many years even not having the official status of a city.  And it had some indications of a capital city as well: there were 2 secondary schools, a theatre, a library, a printing-house, ”the school for chorus singing and orchestral music”, a telegraph, an electric power station and a cinema in the city.

 The revolutionary events of the beginning of the last century changed local political life abruptly.   

On the 21^st of February, 1918, in the former hall of the Officer’s meeting, the factory was transformed to the city by the decision of Izhevsk’s Soviet of Workers, soldier and peasant deputies.  

In November 1920 the native settlement of local place received its autonomy which was later transformed to the Udmurt Republic. And in less than a year the Presidium of Central Committee of USSR decreed that Izhevsk became the centre of the Udmurt Republic on the 10^th of June, 1921. This is the date which is now supposed to be an official birthday of Izhevsk.

The Udmurt Republic’s capital has already celebrated this day as a main townspeople’s holiday for 15 years (since 1988). This holiday gathers thousands of Izhevsk residents at the Central Square.

Like many other cities, after the establishment of the State holiday - the Day of Russia - Izhevsk united 2 holidays. Since that time The Day of the City of Izhevsk is celebrated on the 12^th of June every year.

 In 2006 it celebrated its 246^th anniversary.

The Certificate № 000634 of an entry into the Federal register of the Russian Federation municipalities was given to the municipality of Izhevsk on the 27^th of May, 1999.