Znamensk, Astrakhan Oblast Znamensk, Astrakhan Oblast Znamensk () is a closed town in Astrakhan Oblast, Russia. Population: It was founded in 1948 as Kapustin Yar-1 to serve a missile test range known as Kapustin Yar. Town status was granted in 1962. The closed town was renamed Znamensk in 1992. The military testing range is officially known as 4GCMP (4th State Central Interspecific Test-site). Kapustin Yar is also the name of a nearby village. Within the framework of administrative divisions, it is incorporated as the closed administrative-territorial formation of Znamensk—an administrative unit with the status equal to that of the districts. As a municipal
Astrakhan Muslim pilgrims and traders from Central Asia as well as the destruction of the Russian's fort on the Terek river. In the 17th century, the city was developed as a Russian gate to the Orient. Many merchants from Armenia, Safavid Persia, Mughal India and Khiva khanate settled in the town, giving it a cosmopolitan character. For seventeen months in 1670–1671, Astrakhan was held by Stenka Razin and his Cossacks. Early in the following century, Peter the Great constructed a shipyard here and made Astrakhan the base for his hostilities against Persia, and later in the same century Catherine the Great