Kohtla-Järve

Kohtla-Järve
City and municipality
Kohtla-Järve in August 2009
Flag Coat of arms
Kohtla-Järve Location in Estonia
Coordinates: 59°24′N 27°17′E / 59.400°N 27.283°E / 59.400; 27.283Coordinates: 59°24′N 27°17′E / 59.400°N 27.283°E / 59.400; 27.283
Country	Estonia
County	Ida-Viru County
Founded	1241
City status	1946
Government
• Mayor	Jevgeni Solovjov (Centre Party)
Area
• Total	68.77 km2 (26.55 sq mi)
Population (01 Jan 2016)
• Total	35,928
Time zone	EET (UTC+2)
• Summer (DST)	EEST (UTC+3)
Postal code	30323 to 30326
Area code(s)	(+372) 33
Website	www.kohtla-jarve.ee

Kohtla-Järve (Russian: Кохтла-Ярве) is a city and municipality in north-eastern Estonia, founded in 1924 and incorporated as a town in 1946. The city is highly industrial, and is both a processor of oil shales and is a large producer of various petroleum products. The city is also very diverse ethnically: it contains people of over 40 ethnic groups Only 21% of the population are ethnic Estonians; most of the rest are Russians. Kohtla-Järve is the fifth-largest city in Estonia.

Kohtla-Järve is unusual among municipalities of Estonia due to having a discontiguous territory. The two main parts of the city, Järve (Kohtla-Järve proper) and Ahtme, both with populations around 20,000, are located about 10 km apart. Several other settlements in north-eastern Ida-Viru county, connected to oil shale mining, are administered as districts of Kohtla-Järve; the furthest, Sirgala, is 40 km east of Järve. In the Soviet time, the town of Jõhvi was also incorporated into Kohtla-Järve.

The history of Kohtla-Järve is closely tied to the history of extraction of oil shale – the main mineral of Estonia.

There is evidence that a number of settlements existed on the territory of modern Kohtla-Järve since the High Middle Ages. In the Danish Land Book, Järve and Kukruse villages were first mentioned in 1241 by the names Jeruius and Kukarus respectively, and Sompa village in 1420 by the name Soenpe.

Local residents were aware of oil shale's flammable capability in ancient times, but its industrial extraction in Estonia began only in the 20th century. In 1916, researches showed that oil shale could be used both as fuel and as a raw material for chemical industry, and mining started near Järve village. In 1919 the State Oil Shale Industrial Corporation was formed and extraction by shaft and open-pit mining was extended. Settlements for workers began to appear adjacent to the mines. In 1924 the oil shale processing factory was built near Kohtla railway station, and the nearby settlement, named Kohtla-Järve, started to grow.