Karpinsk

Karpinsk (Russian: Карпи́нск) is a town in Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia, located on the Turya River (Ob's basin), 436 kilometers (271 mi) north of Yekaterinburg, the administrative center of the oblast. Population: 29,113 (2010 census); 31,216 (2002 census); 36,968 (1989 Soviet census). The town is named for mineralogist and geologist Alexander Karpinsky. The settlement of Bogoslovsk (Богосло́вск) was founded in either 1759 or in 1769. It remained one of the largest copper production centers in the Urals until 1917. Coal deposits started to be mined in 1911. In 1941, the settlement of Bogoslovsky (Богосло́вский) merged with the nearby settlement of Ugolny (У́гольный) to form the town of Karpinsk. From 1945 to 1949, there existed close to Karpinsk a labor camp for Russo-Germans and German civilians, who for the most part were forcibly displaced from East Prussia and Pomerania to be used as forced labor. They were women and men between fifteen and sixty-five years of age. Those capable of work were forced to engage in strip-mining of lignite, used in housing construction and road construction, labored in a stone quarry, and at times served as skilled laborers in various workshops.