Zhirnovsk (russian: Жи́рновск) is a

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

and the

administrative center An administrative center is a seat of regional administration or local government, or a county town, or the place where the central administration of a commune A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or ...

Zhirnovsky District Zhirnovsky District (russian: Жи́рновский райо́н) is an administrativeLaw #139-OD district (raion), one of the thirty-three in Volgograd Oblast, Russia. As a municipal division, it is incorporated as Zhirnovsky Municipal District ...

Volgograd Oblast Volgograd Oblast (russian: Волгогра́дская о́бласть, ''Volgogradskaya oblast'') is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject (an oblast) of Russia, located in the Volga region, Volga region of Southern Russia. Its adminis ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

, located on the left bank of the Medveditsa River, which itself flows into the

Don Don, don or DON and variants may refer to: Places *County Donegal, Ireland, Chapman code DON *Don (river), a river in European Russia *Don River (disambiguation), several other rivers with the name *Don, Benin, a town in Benin *Don, Dang, a vill ...

. Zhirnovsk lies north of

Volgograd Volgograd ( rus, Волгогра́д, a=ru-Volgograd.ogg, p=vəɫɡɐˈɡrat), geographical renaming, formerly Tsaritsyn (russian: Цари́цын, Tsarítsyn, label=none; ) (1589–1925), and Stalingrad (russian: Сталингра́д, Stal ...

, the administrative center of the

oblast An oblast (; ; Cyrillic (in most languages, including Russian and Ukrainian): , Bulgarian: ) is a type of administrative division of Belarus, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Ukraine, as well as the Soviet Union and the Kingdom of ...

. Population:

History

It was founded in 1958 by merging the villages of Zhirnoye Selo () and Kurakino Selo (), each of which had been founded in their own right in the 17th and 18th centuries. The merger was prompted by the discovery of significant oil deposits near these villages in the 1940s and the consequent establishment of a worker's housing estate in 1954.

Administrative and municipal status

Within the framework of administrative divisions, Zhirnovsk serves as the

. As an administrative division, it is incorporated within Zhirnovsky District as the

town of district significance Town of district significance is an administrative division of a district in a federal subject of Russia. It is equal in status to a selsoviet or an urban-type settlement of district significance, but is organized around a town (as opposed to a ...

of Zhirnovsk. As a municipal division, the town of district significance of Zhirnovsk is incorporated within Zhirnovsky Municipal District as Zhirnovskoye Urban Settlement.Law #1009-OD

Economy

As of 2010, oil and gas processing remains the towns chief industry.

References

Notes

Sources

External links

Official website of Zhirnovsk

Zhirnovsk Business Directory
{{Use mdy dates, date=September 2012 Cities and towns in Volgograd Oblast