kurgan

/koor gahn", -gan"/, n.

a circular burial mound constructed over a pit grave and often containing grave vessels, weapons, and the bodies of horses as well as a single human body; originally in use in the Russian Steppes but later spreading into eastern, central, and northern Europe in the third millennium B.C.

[1885-90; < Russ kurgán burial mound, ORuss, appar. to be identified with kurganu fortress < Turkic; cf. Turkish, Tatar kurgan, Chagatai, Kazakh korgan fortress, castle]

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▪ Russia

      city and administrative centre of Kurgan oblast (region), west-central Russia, on the Tobol River. In 1553 the fortified settlement of Tsaryovo Gorodishche was founded on a large ancient tumulus or artificial mound (Russian kurgan); it became a town in 1782, and by the late 19th century it was the focus of the surrounding farming area, especially after the building of the railways to Omsk, Chelyabinsk, and Yekaterinburg. The Tobol River, which is frozen from November until May, is navigable the rest of the year and links Kurgan to the Ob-Irtysh system. Agricultural and other machinery, medical preparations, and a wide range of foodstuffs are produced by local industries. The city has agricultural, teacher-training, and machine-building institutes. Pop. (2006 est.) 329,981.

▪ oblast, Russia

      oblast (region), west-central Russia, on the southern edge of the West Siberian Plain, in the Tobol Basin. It is a level plain with innumerable small lakes, often saline, in shallow depressions. The steppe-grass vegetation has been largely ploughed up, and many shelter belts of trees have been planted; in the north are extensive birch groves. Agriculture, greatly extended in the Virgin and Idle Lands campaign of the 1950s, dominates the economy. Spring wheat is the main crop, with rye, oats, and corn (maize), as well as vegetables, of some significance. Dairy farming is common in the north and sheep farming in the drier south. The towns, except Kurgan, the oblast headquarters, are small and concerned chiefly with processing agricultural produce. Area 27,400 square miles (71,000 square km). Pop. (2006 est.) 979,908.

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