page_title: Kurgan, Kurgan Oblast
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Kurgan, Kurgan Oblast / History
caption_attribution_description: Троицкая улица в г. Кургане
context_page_description: The city of Kurgan functions as the administrative center of Kurgan Oblast in the south of the Urals Federal District of Russia. Population: 333,606; 345,515; 355,517.
  Until 1782 Kurgan bore the name Tsaryovo Gorodishche.
context_section_description: An urban settlement was established here between 1659 and 1662 as Tsaryovo Gorodishche (Царёво Городи́ще) by Timofey Nevezhin, a farmer from Tyumen. In the ensuing years it was developed as a fortress town. It served as a frontier post and its fortified position enabled it to defend other Russian settlements from nomad attacks. Nevertheless, it was itself not always able to withstand such attacks, and was sometimes plundered and burnt down.
  The city was granted city privileges by the Empress Catherine the Great in 1782, which is when it acquired its present name and became the seat of an uyezd. The present name is taken from a large kurgan (burial mound) close to the original settlement.
  Its coat of arms was granted on 17 March 1785, and it became the administrative center of Kurgan Oblast in 1943. Kurgan was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labour in 1982.
caption: Kurgan in the 1850s
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS Windows", "Image DateTime": "2008:05:17 23:39:49", "Image ExifOffset": "164", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "302", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5301", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "661", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "401"}