History

Kurgan was founded in 1662 as a village called Tsarevo Gorodishe on the Tobol River.

On the Kurgan land there are many monuments of archaeology, which belong to various cultures and epochs. One of most known - the Tsarev Kurgan, which gave its name to the Kurgan city.  There is the legend about Tsarev Kurgan: on the high shore of Tobola River, at the picturesque place, where the settlement Tsarevo Gorodische was established, in the old ages there was the yourtas of the famous Tatar Khan. Its daughter was a stunning beauty. But her life was broken when she was young. Father buried the dear daughter next to his dwelling, and above the grave he ordered to pour a high barrow. Once, through many years, hunters decided to ransack barrow. The Khans daughter didn't tolerate the disturbance of her rest. The pair of the white horses, charged into the silver chariot, was pulled out in summer midnight from the depth of the barrow and the Khan's daughter in the richest Tatar dress guided them. The dissolved hair volitated in air. Terrible and excellent girl dashed to the West and disappeared together with her chariot in the depth of the Chukhlomskoe lake.

The first Russian populated area in the southern Beyond-Ural area became the Dalmat's monastery, eastablished in 1644 by the monk Dalmat Ioannovich Mokrinsky. The ancient manuscripts report that find under the patronage of Our Lady, Dalmat avoided decease from the sword of the land's owner. This uninhabited land belonged to notable Tyumen's tatar murz Iligey. In the autumn of 1645 Iligey, after arriving with his people, stopped at the right bank of the Iseti River in order to punish the russian monk after crossing the river in the morning. But at night, when Iligey slept, the holiest Our Lady appeared in his dream, and ordered murz to give to Dalmat the entire land and to cause him no offence. In the morning shaked Iligey arrived to Dalmat with peace and presented to Dalmat its combat helmet and hauberkas as a sign of friendship, love and respect. Considered wonder-working, they were stored in the Dalmatovsky Uspenski monastery for more than 280 years. The peace principles of orthodox and islamic people were stamped in the people consciousness for the centuries .

Kurgan got the status of a city in 1782 under Empress Ekaterina. The population of the town at that time was about 2 thousand people. Up to the end of XIX century it developed slowly, serving mostly as the place of exile. In 1913 the population of the town was 30 thousand people, in 1957 it reached 147 thousand and in 1998 it was about 374 thousand people.