Kizlyar

According to some researchers, the name of the city comes from an old name for the Terek River. A folk etymology for the name Kizlyar is from an unspecified Turkic language, meaning "girls".^[a] According to Vyacheslav Nikonov, the correct translation of this Turkic toponym is "red cliff".^[b][6]

The first documented reference to Kizlyar dates back to 1609, although some historians associate the place with Samandar, the 8th-century capital of Khazaria.^{[citation needed]} In 1735 the Russian government built a fortress in Kizlyar and laid foundations for the Caucasus fortified borderline. In the 18th and 19th centuries, Kizlyar operated as one of the trading posts between Russia and the Middle East and Central Asia. During this period, the population was largely Armenian and Russian. In 1796 2,800 Armenians and 1,000 Russians lived in Kizlyar.^[7] During the Russian Empire, the settlement was the administrative capital of the Kizlyarsky Otdel of the Terek Oblast. In 1942 the Germans briefly took Kizylar (Kizjlar).

In January 1996 Chechen separatists raided the local airbase in the course of the Kizlyar raid, which claimed the lives of seventy-eight Russian soldiers.

On February 18, 2018, five people were killed and five wounded after a shooting attack took place outside a Christian church in Kizlyar. Police killed the attacker in a shootout.^[8][9]

Within the framework of administrative divisions, Kizlyar serves as the administrative center of Kizlyarsky District, even though it is not a part of it.^[1] As an administrative division, it is, together with one urban-type settlement (Komsomolsky) and one rural locality (the railway crossing loop of No. 17), incorporated separately as the Town of Kizlyar—an administrative unit with the status equal to that of the districts.^[1] As a municipal division, the Town of Kizlyar is incorporated as Kizlyar Urban Okrug.^[3]

As of the 2021 Census, the town's ethnic composition was as follows:^{[10][verification needed]}

• Russians (35.5%)
• Avars (24.5%)
• Dargins (15.5%)
• Kumyks (5.3%)
• Lezgins (4.6%)
• Laks (4.2%)
• Tabasarans (2.0%)
• Azerbaijanis (1.9%)
• Rutuls (1.5%)
• Nogais (1.2%)

In the early 19th century, Kizlyar became a center of viticulture and wine making. The local cognac factory (Kizlyar Brandy Factory) produces a variety of alcoholic beverages but specializes primarily in a regional variant of brandy, marketed throughout Russia as "cognac". Kizlyarka is a type of grape vodka produced in Kizlyar. Kizlyar is also known for traditional knife, dagger, and saber making.

Kizlyar has a cold semi-arid climate (Köppen climate classification: BSk).

Kizlyar has sister city relationships with:^[15]

• Baku, Azerbaijan
• Budyonnovsk, Stavropol Krai, Russia
• Azov, Rostov Oblast, Russia

• Roman Bagration (1778–1834), general in the Imperial Russian Army
• Pyotr Bagration (1765-1812), general in the Imperial Russian Army
• Romanos Melikian (1883–1935), composer
• Rasul Mirzaev (born 1986), mixed martial artist
• Tagir Gadzhiev (born 1994), Russian international Rugby player