Editing Cherkessk (section)

==History==

[[File:Важная выписка из постановления ВЦИК - panoramio.jpg|thumb|Extract from the decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee]]

What is now Cherkessk was established in 1804 as a [[Russian Empire|Russian]] military fort on the [[Kuban River]], what was then the border with [[Circassia]], on the spot where in 1790 Russian troops under the command of General [[Johann Hermann von Fersen]] (Ivan Ivanovich Herman fon Fersen) defeated the [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] Batal Pasha.<ref name=GR/>  In honor of the victory over Batal Pasha, the fort was named Batalpashinskaya; it was a [[redoubt]] surrounded by an earthen rampart and ditch.<ref name=GR/>  (That the fort was named for an enemy leader may have led villagers to prefer the nickname ''Pashinka''.)

[[File:Памятник "Дружба народов" , Черкесск.jpg|thumb|left|Friendship of the People's Monument]]

The settlement itself was founded as the [[Kuban Cossacks|Cossack]] ''[[stanitsa]]'' of Batalpashinskaya near the Russian Army outpost.  The officially recognized year of founding of Batalpashinskaya and modern Cherkessk is 1825.  However, the Cossack settlers from the Khopyour and Kuban regiments began arriving in the newly organized ''stanitsa'' not earlier than spring of 1826.<ref>В. А. Колесников. Былое Невинного Мыса. К 185-летию переселения Хопёрского казачьего полка на Кубань и основания станицы Невиномысской. Ставрополь. «ЮРКИТ» 2011. {{in lang|ru}}</ref> In 1860, the village was designated as the administrative center of the [[Batalpashinsky Otdel]] of the [[Kuban Oblast]].<ref name=GR/>  A decree of 30 December 1869 by [[Alexander II of Russia|Tsar Alexander II]] transformed the village into a city of Batalpashinsk but the decree was never implemented,<ref>Филиппов Е. В. Город Баталпашинск: проекты и реалии. {{in lang|ru}}</ref> and Batalpashinskaya remained a ''stanitsa'' until the Soviet times.  In 1888, the village became a seat of one of Kuban's seven departments.

[[File:Памятник советским воинам, погибшим в годы Великой Отечественной войны площадь Кирова,, Черкесск.jpg|thumb|Monument to the Soviet Soldiers of Cherkessk]]

In 1922, the village became the seat of the [[Karachay-Cherkess Autonomous Oblast]] of the [[RSFSR]],<ref name=GR/> and in 1926, the [[Cherkess National Okrug]].  In 1931, it was granted town status and renamed Batalpashinsk.  It received its current name of Cherkessk in 1939.<ref name=KNAB/>  The city was occupied by the [[Nazi Germany|Nazi German]] ''[[Wehrmacht]]'' during [[World War II]] (the [[Eastern Front (World War II)|Eastern Front]]) from 11 August 1942 to 17 January 1943<ref name=GR/> as part of the [[Case Blue]] offensive.  In 1957, it became the capital of the reformed Karachay-Cherkess Autonomous Oblast which became the [[Karachay–Cherkess Republic]] in 1991 with the fall of the [[Soviet Union]].