Nizhnevartovsk

 city, district center

Nizhnevartovsk (Russian: Нижневартовск, IPA: [nʲɪʐnʲɪˈvartəfsk]) is a city in Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug–Yugra, Russia. Since the 1960s, the Western Siberian oil boom has led to Nizhnevartovsk's rapid growth from a small settlement to a city due to its location beside the Samotlor oil field along the right bank of the Ob River, 30 kilometers (19 mi) from the border with Tomsk Oblast, and the presence of the petroleum industry has made it one of the wealthiest cities in Russia. Nizhnevartovsk is one of the few cities in Russia that exceeds the population of the administrative center of its federal subject. Population: 283,256 (2021 Census). The name comes from Nizhnevartovsk suitable for building a Marina area along the Ob river, which bore the name Bartowski Yar (ravine called in the old days, concave, steep Bank of the river), in turn derived from Wartofsky Yurt hunt, known since the second half of the XVIII century. The prefix " nizhne-" is due to the fact that 180 versts (192,02 km) upstream of the Ob river was another Yar with the same name. To distinguish it from it, the new pier was named "Nizhne-Vartovskaya", which later passed to the settlement founded under it.
Nizhnevartovsk was founded in 1909 (or 1905), built as a service point for merchant steamships operating on the Ob River to acquire stocks of firewood to power their boats. The new village had five homes with a population of eleven people, and was named Nizhnevartovskoye (Нижневартовское), in reference to the Vartovskaya River, a tributary of the Ob located 180 versts (190 km; 120 mi) downstream. In early 1924, Nizhnevartovsky Selsoviet was formed. Nizhnevartovsk remained a relatively small settlement until the 1960s when the Soviet authorities began widespread prospecting for the petroleum industry in the Western Siberia region, discovering the Samotlor oil field, one of the largest oil fields in the world, beneath the nearby Lake Samoltor to the north of Nizhnevartovsk. The discovery saw its rapid development and growth from a large village to a boomtown, Komsomol volunteers were brought in from across the country to construct the city, and Nizhnevartovsk's population skyrocketed from 2300 people in 1959 to 15,663 in 1970. Town status was granted to Nizhnevartovsk on March 9, 1972.