02:16, 7 May 2003

Gudermes

City in Chechnya, republican subordination, rayon (sector) centre, 40 km east of Grozny. Located in the northern end of the Gudermes Ridge, in the east of the Chechen (Grozny) foothill plain, on the Gums River, near confluence of the Sunzha and the Terek. Railway junction of lines to Rostov-on-Don, Baku, Astrakhan, Mozdok, on Rostov-on-Don - Baku highway. Population (1992 est.) 39.7 thousand, (1979 est.) 34 thousand.

Founded in the middle of the 18th century on the site of the Chechen habitation of Gumse. Town since 1941. Important traffic centre of the North Caucasus. Industrial centre until 1995: Gudermes had a factory of medical instruments, the Shtamp factory, a biochemical factory, a cannery, a brickworks, enterprises of railway transport and building industry, etc. Petroleum was produced at the industrial scale in the vicinity of the city.

Gudermes was heavily damaged by fights in December 1995; most of the industrial enterprises were destroyed.

Since November 1999, executive authorities of the Chechen Republic are located in the city.