Хабаровск: История основания и развития города на Амуре.

City in Khabarovsk Krai, Russia

In the mid 17th century, the Amur Valley became the scene of hostilities between the Russian Cossacks, who tried to expand into the region and collect tribute from the natives, and the rising Manchu Qing dynasty, who were intent on securing the region for themselves.

The Russian explorers and raiders of the 1650s set up a number of more or less fortified camps (ostrogs) on the Amur. Most of them were in use for only a few months and later destroyed. It is usually thought that the first such camp in the general area of today's Khabarovsk was the fortified winter camp named Achansk (Ачанск) or Achansky gorodok (Ачанский городок), built by the Cossacks of Yerofey Khabarov in September 1651 after they had sailed to the area from the upper Amur. The fort was named after the local tribe whom Khabarov's people called "Achans". On October 8 the fort was unsuccessfully attacked by joint forces of Achans and Duchers (who had good reasons to hate the Cossacks, due to their rather heavy handed tribute extraction tactics), while many Russians were away fishing. A number of locations, both upstream and downstream of today's Khabarovsk, have been proposed since Richard Maack, one of the first Russian scholars to visit the region, identified Achansk in 1859 with the ruins on Cape Kyrma, which is located on the southern (Chinese) shore of the Amur, upstream of Khabarovsk. French Jesuits who sailed along the Ussuri and the Amur Rivers in 1709 prepared the first more or less precise map of the region. According to them, the indigenous Nanai people were living on the Ussuri and on the Amur down to the mouth of the Dondon River (i. e., in the region including the site of the future Khabarovsk). These people were known to the Chinese as Yupi Dazi ("Fish skin Tartars").

In 1858, the area was ceded to Russia under the Treaty of Aigun. The Russians founded the military outpost of Khabarovka (Хаба́ровка), named after Yerofey Khabarov. The post later became an important industrial center for the region. Town status was granted in 1880. In 1893, it was given its present name: Khabarovsk. In 1894, a department of the Russian Geographical Society was formed in Khabarovsk and to found libraries, theatres and museums in the city. Since then, Khabarovsk's cultural life has flourished. Much of the local indigenous history has been well preserved in the Regional Lore Museum and Natural History Museum and in places like near the Nanai settlement of Sikachi Alyan, where cliff drawings from more than 13,000 years ago can be found. The Khabarovsk Art Museum exhibits a rare collection of old Russian icons.

After the defeat of Japan in World War II, Khabarovsk was the site of the Khabarovsk War Crime Trials, in which twelve former members of the Japanese Kwantung Army and Unit 731 were put on trial for the manufacture and use of biological weapons during World War II. When Japan fell in September 1945 the United States reached an agreement with Stalin to build two U. S. Naval Advance Bases (Fleet Weather Centrals) in the USSR. The U. S. built one 10 mile (16 km) outside Petropavlovsk Kamchatsky on the Kamchatka Peninsula with the code name TAMA. The other was 20 mile (32 km) outside Khabarovsk in buildings provided by the Soviets, code named MOKO. The American use of these two bases was short lived. On 5 November 1956, the first phase of the city tram was commissioned. The Khabarovsk television studio began broadcasting in 1960. On 1 September 1967, the Khabarovsk Institute of Physical Education, now the Far Eastern State Academy of Physical Culture, opened. On 14 January 1971 Khabarovsk was awarded the Order of October Revolution. In 1975 the first stage of the urban trolley opened. In 1976 the city hosted an international ice hockey tournament with the ball for the prize of the newspaper Sovietskaya Rossia. In 1981 the Bandy World Championship was played in the city.

The flag of Khabarovsk displays a bear on the right (Red side) and a Siberian tiger on the left (blue side), holding a yellow shield with a blue reversed pall and a red fish. The flag is a representation of the coat of arms of Khabarovsk. The flag was adopted on 30 October 2007 and is 2:3 in ratio.

Khabarovsk is the administrative center of the krai even though it is not a part of it. As an administrative division, it is incorporated separately as the city of krai significance of Khabarovsk—an administrative unit with the status equal to that of the districts.

Primary industries include iron processing, steel milling, Khabarovsk shipyard, Daldizel, machinery, petroleum refining, flour milling, pharmaceutical industry, meatpacking and manufacturing of various types of heavy and light machinery. In April 2024, the city declared a state of emergency because of the radiation leak. The source of the radiation was "removed and placed in a protective container" and taken to a radioactive waste storage facility.

A key street in Khabarovsk is the broad Amursky Boulevard with its many shops and a local market. The city's five districts stretch for along the Amur River. The similar boulevard – Ussuryisky is located between the two main streets Muravyov Amursky and Lenin street and runs to the city's artificial lakes (Gorodskie Prudi) with the sport complex Platinum Arena. The lakes are famous for their fountains with the light show. The Military History Museum of the Far Eastern Military District is located in the city, the only such museum in the Russian Far East. Recently, there have been renovations in the city's central part, rebuilding with historical perspective. There is a walking tour from the Lenin Square to Utyos on Amur via Muravyov Amursky Street, where visitors find traditional Russian cuisine restaurants and shops with souvenirs. There are a number of night clubs and pubs in this area. In Wintertime ice sculptures are on display on the cities squares and parks. Artists come from as far as Harbin in China. Unlike Vladivostok, the city has never been closed to foreigners, despite it being the headquarters of the Far East Military District, and retains its historically international flavor. Once the capital of the Soviet Far East (from 1926 to 1938), since the demise of the Soviet Union, it has experienced an increased Asian presence. It is estimated that over one million Chinese travel to and through Khabarovsk yearly, and foreign investment by Japanese and Korean corporations have grown in recent years. The city has a multi story shopping mall and about a dozen hotels. Aleksandr Fedosov, the Khabarovsk Krai Minister of Culture, estimates that the city became more attractive to tourists following the 2015 Bandy World Championship. Khabarovsk is the closest major city to Birobidzhan, which is the administrative center of the Jewish Autonomous Oblast, Russia, located on the Trans Siberian Railway, close to the border with China. The Jewish Autonomous Oblast is a federal subject of Russia in the Russian Far East, bordering Khabarovsk Krai and Amur Oblast in Russia and Heilongjiang province in China. Its administrative center is the town of Birobidzhan, and it is the only region in the world in which Yiddish is the official language. Khabarovsk provides the closest major airport to Birobidzhan, which is Khabarovsk Novy Airport (KHV / UHHH), 198 km from the center of Birobidzhan.

Amur Khabarovsk, a professional ice hockey club of the international Kontinental Hockey League and plays its home games at the Platinum Arena. It used to be the furthest team from the European based teams in the league until Admiral Vladivostok joined the KHL in 2013 as an expansion team. FC SKA Khabarovsk, a professional association football team playing in the Russian First League, the second tier of Russian association football. SKA Neftyanik, a professional bandy club which plays in the top tier Russian Bandy Super League at its own indoor venue Arena Yerofey. It is both the easternmost and southernmost team in the top division. In the 2016–17 season the club became Russian champion for the first time. As of 2019 the team has won the title three years in a row.

The city was a host to the 1981 Bandy World Championship. It also hosted the 2015 Bandy World Championship, which was visited by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. 21 teams were expected, which would have been 4 more than the then record making 17 (now it's 18) from the 2014 tournament. In the end, China was the only newcomer, while Canada and Ukraine withdrew, the latter for political reasons. Khabarovsk organised the 2018 tournament as well, but not Division B that time around, which was held in Chinese Harbin. The event was named by the Federal Agency for Tourism as one of the best 200 events of the year.

Khabarovsk placed first in different categories of "Most Developed and Comfortable City of Russia" in 2006, 2008 and 2009. In 2010, Khabarovsk won the second place in the Forbes list of most suitable cities for private business in Russia. First place went to Krasnodar.