Georgievsk

City of Stavropol kray (region), kray subordination, rayon (sector) centre, 210 km south-east of Stavropol. Located in Ciscaucasia, in the southern end of the Stavropol Upland, on the Podkumok River (tributary of the Kuma). Railway station in the Mineralnyye Vody - Prokhladnaya line; Georgievsk is the starting point of the branch (94 km) to Budyonnovsk. Population (1992 est.) 64.5 thousand, (1926 est.) 22.6 thousand, (1939 est.) 31.6 thousand, (1959 est.) 35.1 thousand, (1979 est.) 53.6 thousand.

Founded in 1777 as the fortress of Georgievskaya in the Caucasian line connecting Mozdok to Azov. In 1783, it was here that Russian and Georgian conveners made up a contract, the Treaty of Georgievsk, under which Erekle II of Kartalinia-Kakhetia recognised protection of Russia and refused from independent foreign policy. In 1786, when the Caucasian vicegerency (later referred to as province) was formed, the fortress of Georgievskaya was made an uyezd (canton) town; and in 1802, a government town. In 1822, when Caucasian government was transformed into oblast, the administrative centre was transferred to Stavropol, and Georgievsk became an uyezd (canton) town; since 1830, a one-horse town. In 1825, the fortress was abolished. In the early 20th century, three fairs a year were held (silk, haberdashery and grocery goods, cattle).

Modern Georgievsk is an agricultural centre. By the beginning of the 1990s, the town had a reinforcement works, a repair and engineering plant, a nailery, a semiconductor engineering plant, an acoustic and heat-insulating plant, a biochemical factory, a skinnery, a shoe factory, enterprises of food-processing industry (an oil-extraction plant, a cannery, a dairy, a mill house, a winery, a meat- and poultry- processing plants, etc.).