page_title: Taraz
section_title: Soviet period
hierarchical_section_title: Taraz / Soviet period
caption_attribution_description: Русский: Здание железнодорожного вокзала в городе Тараз,Казахстан
context_page_description: Taraz is a city and the administrative center of Jambyl Region in Kazakhstan, located on the Talas River in the south of the country near the border with Kyrgyzstan. It had a population of 330,100, up 9% from 1989, making it one of the fastest-growing cities in the country, after Nur-Sultan and Turkistan.
  One of the oldest cities in Kazakhstan and in Transoxania, built and populated by the ancient Sogdians, Taraz celebrated its official 2000th anniversary in 2001, dating from a fortress built in the area by a Xiongnu Chanyu named Zhizhi and was a site of the Battle of Zhizhi in 36 BCE. The city was first recorded under the name "Talas" in 568 CE by Menander Protector. The medieval city of Talas was a major trade centre along the Silk Road. Talas was later described by Xuanzang, who passed Talas in 629 and later wrote: Traveling westward from the Thousand Springs 140 or 150 li, we come to the city of Daluosi. The city is 8 or 9 li in diameter; and was settled by Hu merchants from various nations. The products and the climate are about the same as Suyab. The Talas alphabet, a variant of the Turkic "runiform" Orkhon script, is named for the town.
context_section_description: During the first two decades following the Russian Revolution and the Civil War, Aulie-Ata remained a small town.  It was renamed  Mirzoyan (Russian: "Мирзоян") in 1936, after Levon Mirzoyan (Левон Исаевич Мирзоян), an ethnic Armenian head of the Communists of Kazakhstan. In 1938, after Mirzoyan was executed during Stalin’s Great Purge for opposing the mass deportation of Koreans to northern Kazakhstan from the south, the city was renamed Dzhambul (Russian: "Джамбул", Kazakh: "Жамбыл") after Zhambyl Zhabayev, a Kazakh akyn (folk singer). Starting in the 1930s, Dzhambul, along with other places in Kazakhstan, became the destination for large numbers of the deported peoples who were subject to internal exile.  Millions of Volga Germans, Chechens, Ukrainians, Koreans and other ethnic minorities, along with other marginalized subjects (former kulaks, members of the aristocracy, families of convicted "enemies of the people," etc.) were forced to relocate to Kazakhstan, many of whom settled in Dzhambul. Some were evacuated to Kazakhstan, and to Dzhambul, during WWII from the areas that were, or were feared to come, under German occupation.  The city's population continued to grow throughout the 1960s and 1970s in spite of the end of exiles, due to an industrial spurt the city received during that time.  As a result, Dzhambul had a highly diverse population composed of multiple ethnic groups, the largest being the Russians, followed by the Kazakhs. Fast-paced industrialization brought many amenities of modern urban living to the city, previously largely unknown, such as typical Soviet apartment blocks as well as condo-style houses, now all supplied with electricity and running water; roads and public transport; several higher education institution; large public parks, department stores, etc.
  Although chemical and construction industries made up the core of the city's economy, Dzhambul continued to function as an unofficial trade post with its proximity to the other Central Asian republics and a relatively mobile population.  The city was known in the area for its large bazaars with farmers selling agricultural produce from throughout the region.
caption: Taraz railway station was built by the Soviets
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