KIROVOHRAD

Russian Kirovograd oblast (province), south-central Ukraine. It extends from the Dnieper River in the northeast across the rolling hills of the Dnieper Upland to the basin of the Southern (Pivdennyy) Buh River in the southwest. The oblast's natural vegetation of grass steppe on fertile soils has been almost wholly plowed up, and unsound practices have resulted in serious and widespread erosion. The oblast's economy is dominated by agriculture, chiefly the cultivation of wheat, corn (maize), sunflowers, sugar beets, and flax; many beef and dairy cattle are kept. Over half the population is urban; communities, apart from Kirovohrad, the capital, are small and serve chiefly to collect and process farm produce. Some lignite is strip-mined at Dmytrivka and graphite at Zavallya. Area 9,500 square miles (24,600 square km). Pop. (1994 est.) 1,246,300. Russian Kirovograd, formerly Yelizavetgrad, or Elizavetgrad, city and administrative centre of Kirovohrad oblast (province), Ukraine. It lies along the upper Inhul River where the latter is crossed by the Kremenchuk-Odessa railway. Founded as a fortress in 1754, it was made a city, Yelizavetgrad, in 1765 and developed as the centre of a rich agricultural area. Yelizavetgrad was renamed Zinovyevsk in 1924, Kirovo in 1936, and Kirovograd in 1939. It retains its function as an agricultural centre: in addition to food-processing industries, it has one of the most important agricultural-machinery works in Ukraine. There are also machine-building and light industries. Kirovohrad has a teacher-training institute. Pop. (1994 est.) 280,000.