Tuapse

City in Krasnodar kray (region), kray subordination, rayon (sector) centre, 439 km west of Krasnodar. Located on the coast of Tuapse Bay of the Black Sea, bordered by foothills of the Greater Caucasus. Seaport. Railway station in the Armavir - Sochi - Tbilisi, Georgia line. Motor road junction; including, in particular, the highway of Novorossiysk - Sochi - Tbilisi. Population (1992 est.) 64.4 thousand, (1926 est.) 12 thousand, (1939 est.) 30 thousand, (1959 est.) 37 thousand, (1970 est.) 51 thousand, (1979 est.) 60 thousand.

Appeared as settlement around the Russian fortification of Velyaminovskoye, founded in 1838. Since 1866, a posad (industrial centre) of Velyaminovsky, since 1896, a posad of Tuapse, called after the river of Tuapse; the okrug (district) centre of the Black Sea government (province). City since 1916. At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, Tuapse developed due to construction of the Novorossiysk - Sokhumi and Maykop - Tuapse highways (in 1895), the seaport (first harbour facilities appeared in 1896-1898) and the Armavir - Tuapse railway (in 1914). In 1914-1915, numerous small-sized enterprises were commissioned. During the Civil War, a part of harbour facilities and enterprises of the city was destroyed to be restored in 1920. Construction of oil pipelines from Grozny and Maykop, a petroleum refinery and an oil jetty in the seaport at the end of the 1920s was very important for development of Tuapse. After the Black Sea Railway was built (in 1925), Tuapse became "a gateway" to the resorts of Sochi and Matsesta. Since 1937, Tuapse has been a constituent of Krasnodar kray (region). During the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, it was at the approaches to Tuapse in November - December, 1942 that Nazi troops were stopped and smashed as a result of fierce fights. The city was heavily destroyed by enemy air-raids. After the war, it was restored, new administrative, public and residential buildings being built.

The seaport of Tuapse (freight turnover of 9 mln. tons in 1991) specialises in export of petroleum and petrochemicals, transhipment of bulk and general cargoes. Present Tuapse has an oil-refinery, an engineering plant, a seaborne machinery works; a shoe factory; flavouring industry (a meat-processing plant, a dairy factory, a winery, etc.); production of building materials.

The city has M.G. Poletayev Museum of History and Local Lore. In the vicinity of Tuapse, one can see dolmens (table-stones) dating back to the 3-2nd thousand years BC).

Environs of the city abound in gardens, vineyards; plantations of tobacco, corn; tea (in the area of the Goyta Pass); forests. Tuapse is the centre of the Tuapse resort area stretching for about 100 km along the Black Sea coast; includes the following resort districts (from north-west to south-east): Dzhubga, Novomikhaylovsky, Nebug, Agria, Olginka, Gizel-Dere and Shepsy.