The Kirov reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Jul-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

Kirov

Kirov (Ки́ров) is a city in eastern European Russia, on the Vyatka River, capital of Kirov Oblast. Kirov is a station on the Trans-Siberian railway west of the Ural Mountains and suffered heavy destruction during the Russian civil war 1917-1922. A major transportation hub (rail and highways; Trans-Siberian main) and river port; airport. Large center of machine building; metallurgy, light, printing trade. Kirov has several museums, a university and theaters, as well as an opera and a ballet stage.

Population (1999): 465,000.

Former names of the city:

• before 1934 : Vyatka (Вя́тка)
• before 1781 : Khlynov (Хлы́нов)

The city was renamed in December 1934 in honor of the assassinated Soviet politician Sergei Kirov.

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Kirov was also the name of two Soviet cruiser and battlecruiser classes.

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