Ust-Dzheguta is one of the small towns in the upper reaches of the Kuban, on the territory of the Republic of Karachay-Cherkessia. Its most famous native is the singer Dima Bilan. And what is this city? When was it founded, who lives there and what do the inhabitants of Ust-Dzheguta do? This article provides answers to all these questions.
City location
Ust-Dzheguta on the map of the North Caucasus should be looked for a little south of Cherkessk. The distance between them is from 8 to 18 kilometers, depending on how you count.
If a resident of the capital of the KChR in Ust-Dzheguta can easily get there on foot any day, how can a representative of another region be there?
The fact is that the A-155 highway passes through this city, which connects the famous Dombay resort with Cherkessk, Nevinnomyssk and the busy E-50 highway. The latter is one of the most important roads in southern Russia. It connects the Krasnodar Territory with the region of the Caucasian Mineralnye Vody and further through the territory of Kabardino-Balkaria and three other republics of the North Caucasus leads to Makhachkala.
Ust-Dzheguta is located at an altitude of 627 meters above sea level. For the citycharacterized by a moderately warm and humid climate.
Interestingly, its name has four spellings in the main languages of the republic:
- Karachay;
- Circassian;
- Abaza;
- Russian and Nogai.
History and population
The population in 2018 was 30.3 thousand people. This is more than the last Soviet census in 1989 (29 thousand), but less than the level of the early 2000s, when the number of inhabitants was almost 33 thousand people.
In the ranking of 1113 Russian cities in terms of population, Ust-Dzheguta ranks 498th.
Its national composition is diverse. About half of the inhabitants are Karachays, Russians are in second place (1/3 of the inhabitants), and representatives of the small Abazin people are in third place. There are 6.8% of them, that is, 2.2 thousand people.
In addition, 1% of the inhabitants are Circassians and Gypsies, and the rest are Tatars, Ukrainians, Armenians, Nogais.
The settlement was founded in 1861 and was originally the village of Ust-Dzhegutinskaya. In 1935 it became a district center, and in 1975 it received city status.
Religiously, the composition of the population is heterogeneous - Muslims, Orthodox, Baptists, Pentecostals. A beautiful mosque, an Orthodox church and four Protestant churches have been built in the city.
How to get there?
Until 2009, Ust-Dzheguta was the terminal station on the railway line, which in the cityNevinnomyssk connected with the North Caucasian railway. It could be reached in a trailer car from Moscow, it went as part of a train from Nalchik, as well as in a rail bus from Nevinnomyssk.
Now only buses go to the city. From Cherkessk they depart daily from 09:50 to 19:50. The journey takes between 10 and 25 minutes.
As a rule, all flights go from Stavropol to the southern or central part of Karachay-Cherkessia, that is, to Teberda, Karachaevsk, Pregradnaya or Zelenchukskaya. However, there are exceptions:
- 11:46, 19:46. Buses from Stavropol, they go exactly to Ust-Dzheguta.
- 12:45, 14:45 and 18:55. Flights from Pyatigorsk.
- 13:55, 17:55. Buses from Nevinnomyssk.
From Ust-Dzheguta the schedule is as follows:
- Flights to Pyatigorsk at 07:38, 09:50, 11:32. Drive 2.5 hours or more.
- Buses start running to Cherkessk from 07:40, there are many passing flights, the final destination of which is Stavropol.
Urban economy
In terms of the economy in Ust-Dzheguta, as in many small towns in Russia, there is no particular prosperity. There are three factories - cement, lime and silicate bricks. In the past, there was also a plant for reinforced concrete products, but it went bankrupt in the early 2000s.
Of the important objects built in the 2000s, the bridge across the Kuban should be noted. It is the largest overpass bridge in the North Caucasus Federal District.
On the left bank of the Kuban there is a greenhouse complex. Its specialization is the cultivation of cucumbers, tomatoes and roses, it is part of the Abaza district of Karachay-Cherkessia.
The high-rise microdistrict, which was built together with the plant in the 1980s, is part of the city of Ust-Dzheguta.
Sights of the city and surroundings
There are few places of interest in Ust-Dzhegut. Passing through the city in transit, it is worth visiting the memorial complex with the Eternal Flame, which was erected in memory of the soldiers and civilians who died during the Second World War.
There is no local history museum in the village, but there is a small museum at gymnasium No. 6. Its task is to form a sense of pride in the small homeland.
On the north side of Ust-Dzheguta there is a burial mound of the Bronze Age, that is, the turn of III and II millennium BC. e. A little south of the city, on the left bank of the Kuban, is the Shaitan-Tamak cave. It was opened in 1957. The length of the cave is 1800 meters, the corridors are low and wide. Inside it there are two grottoes and three halls: Dating, Archaeological, Crystal.
If you drive a little further towards Karachaevsk, then you should stop between the villages of Kumysh and Khumara to visit the Khumarin settlement and the museum-monument to the defenders of the Caucasus passes. The history of the settlement covers a period of 2000 years, from the 7th century BC. e. until the 14th century A. D. e. It preserved mounds, foundations of dwellings and a fragment of an ancient water supply system.
