Yashkul

Yashkul Єшкуль / Яшкюл
City and provincial capital
View of Kalimullin Square in the city's centre, with the Shutsk mountains in the background
Flag Seal
Yashkul
Country	Soravia
Province	Zalykia
Voivodeship	Yashkul
Settled	14th century
City status	1870
Government
• Mayor	Khunbish Nokhaev (MZ)
Area
• Total	341.2 km2 (131.7 sq mi)
Elevation	16–171 m (52–561 ft)
Population  (2020)
• Total	676,715 (+1.3%)
• Census	668,016
Time zone	UTC-3 (Western Euclean Time)
General Postal Code(s)	712001–712009, 712011, 712015, 712020–712035, 712037, 712040, 712047–712054, 712057–, 712061, 712068, 712081, 712096

Yashkul (/jaʃ:kʊl/, Soravian: Єшкуль; Yeshkul, Zalyk: Яшкюл; Yaşkül) also known historically as Eshkul (1870–96; 1988–2006) and Novokvasisk (1896–1988) is the provincial capital and largest city of Zalykia. With a total metropolitan population of 676,715 as of 2020, it is also the 16th largest city in Soravia. Yashkul is situated on the Kvasy river, just to the west of the Shutsk mountains.

Early records indicate that Yashkul was settled in the 14th century by Zalyk settlers working under the Crown of Pavatria as part of the Great Western March. For most of history, it was a rural farming town that relied on local wheat crops and fish from the river for sustenance. During the First Soravian Civil War, much of Yashkul participated either directly or indirectly in the war. As Soravia industrialised in the late-19th century, thousands of people migrated into Yashkul for industrial work at its large mills situated on the river. The city was granted city status in 1870, and by 1890 the population had grown to over 100,000. The city's growing size, coupled with growing concern of illiteracy in Zalykia and the promotion of Soravian in the region, prompted the government of Eduard Olsov to officially rename the city to Novokvasisk in 1896.

After provincial borders were redrawn by the ZVNP in 1924, Novokvasisk was selected as the new administrative capital for Zalykia, after the province's historical centre, Nurmgö, fell under the jurisdiction of neighbouring Terekhivka. During the Great War, the city was a large produce of industrial weaponry for the Soravian Army, and after the war continued to grow its status as an industrial centre in western Soravia. Many rural migrants from elsewhere in Zalykia migrated into Novokvasisk for work after Tozulyak's agricultural reforms in the 1950s and 1960s. During the Sostava War the city fell under the control of Tagai Chulgetei's Fathers of Zalykia, and his assassination in the city is what many historians attribute to the end of the war. In 1988, the city was renamed to Eshkul, and was renamed again by Zalykia's Grand Khural to Yashkul in 2006.

Yashkul is one of Zalykia's oldest continually inhabited cities. It is connected to the rest of Soravia on land by the S15 motorway and Soravian gauge rails. The city's central station serves as a hub for rail travel to Zalykia and north-western Soravia. Soravian airline Aeronovo operates year-round flights to the city's Novorespubliky Airport, a two-runway airport with plans for jumbo jet capacity by 2025. Despite its status as one of Zalykia's premier cities, its population growth is declining as a result of substantial youth immigration to eastern Soravia and elsewhere in Euclea.

History

After the Battle of Usaanbalsan effectively ended the independence of Zalykia, many estranged soldiers of its armies were left with no line of work to continue. With no land afforded to them by the Duchy of Pavatria, many simply joined ranks within the Pavatrian army or retreated to a rural agricultural lifestyle like their ancestors. With extensive knowledge of the terrain, however, some soldiers turned to the Pavatrian crown for work. Known as baruns (not to be confused with barons), some ex-soldiers participated in the Great Western March by charting the Zalyk steppe and settling cities along the Kvasy and Sarpa rivers. First mentioned in the 14th century, Yashkul was one of these cities settled by the baruns.

Despite sitting on the Kvasy, Yashkul remained a rural town for the plurality of its history. Pavatrian and later Soravian monarchs prioritised the development of cities such as Nurmgö and Yanuvka, as they were closer and easier to exercise central power over. Seeing no significant developments in the town, Yashkul continued on as a small fishing and farming village, often tending to travellers and explorers heading further west.

In 1671, the locals built the first khotkhongazar in Yashkul, and in 1683 it was granted town status. Yashkul's rich fish hauls from the river popularised it among Soravian fishermen, especially due to Yashkul's smaller size, which had kept the river fairly free of construction which would otherwise affect marine migratory and breeding patterns. Omul, a common catch from the Kvasy river in Yashkul, sports the scientific name coregonus eshkolus, named after the city.

Barracks were built in 1715 to support forces in the Ten Years' War, and after the war's conclusion and Soravia's emergence as a primary global power, the town developed more extensive from affluent migration as well as retiring military personnel, attracted both by rural lifestyle and natural landscapes of the river and mountains.

Panoramic view of Yashkul, with the Kvasy river in the background, 1911.

The city's population and prosperity was massively effected by the First Soravian Civil War in the late 1850s. Many able-bodied young Zalyks served under the armies of Altynbay Kalimullin (who gives his name to the city's central square) and the Seven Province Union. Others who remained in the town sometimes farmed and fished for the soldiers who would return to the town, and some even sent produce to the frontlines. As the country exited the war under the new presidency of Eduard Olsov, it began rapidly industrialising. Yashkul's location made it perfect for water-powered mills, many of which were built in the city between 1860 and 1870. The population exploded as migration from across the country flooded into the town, and the government granted it city status as Eshkul in 1870, a name that was eventually replaced by the more widely known Novokvasisk in 1896. In 1888, the city was connected to the rest of Soravia by rail.

Loggers in Yashkul, c. 1930s

The city was affected greatly by the Great Collapse, as Soravian exports collapsed with a lack of buyers. During the 1910s, some industrial mills were abandoned as worker's began to strike and some returned to rural, farming lifestyles. The decision by Tadeusz Czyzewski to allow police to seize produce and stock to prevent hoarding was proposed heavily by rural populations in Soravia, including those living in Novokvasisk. Separate strikes occurred in Novokvasisk as part of the Great Strike of 1914. By 1915, the strikes had mostly subsided and the mills gradually began to repopulate with personnel to work them. Some mill workers and farmers started work at Yashkul's industrial military factory when it opened in 1921, producing a large amount of military equipment for the country's army. Its new production capacity gave the city the affectionate nickname of Temurkhot ("iron city") among the Zalyk populace. In 1924, the ZVNP designated Novokvasisk as the capital of the new province of Zalykia, and the town's khotkhongazar was converted and renovated into what eventually became the Grand Khural in 1944.

Novokvasisk saw little conflict during the Great War, minor Ravnian bombing raids occasionally reached the city, which damaged some buildings, but its distance from the frontlines made it relatively safe. Wartime devastation was seen predominantly in its demographic – many young mill workers were conscripted into the army throughout the war, some of whom never returned to the city. Between 1925 and 1935, the city's population declined by 18%. Now the largest city in Zalykia, as well as the provincial capital, however, Novokvasisk saw heavy migration from rural Zalykia, both for industrial work and better quality of life. On the outskirts of the city, Novokvasisk still supported a substantial agricultural demographic, and many Soravian soldiers from the war chose to move to the city in the 1930s. Tozulyak's agricultural reforms, which denied rural farmers the guarantor of state-led routes to sell and export their stock, also increased migration into the city.

The city was damaged extensively during the Sostava War, and was a hotspot for the rebel Fathers of Zalykia movement. Frequent urban and guerrilla conflicts erupted in the city between Zalyk rebels, led by Tagai Chulgetei, and government forces. In 1983, the PDP successfully assassinated Chulgetei in the city, bringing an end to the conflict both within the city and throughout the country. In 1988, the city was renamed to Eshkul as part of a wider trend of de-Sorification in Zalykia, and the name was changed once more to its current name, Yashkul, in 2006.