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 Khanate the Mongol conquest the western steppe broke off and became the Golden Horde (c1240-1502). In the fifteenth century parts of the Horde broke off as follows: 1438: Khanate of Kazan, 1449: Khanate of Crimea, 1466: Astrakhan, 1480: Russia. The steppe remnant ended in 1502 and steppe peoples around Astrakhan became the Nogai Horde. Most of the population of the Astrakhan khanate were Astrakhan Tatars and Nogays. Merchants carried on a transit trade between Muscovy, Kazan, Crimea, Central Asia, and the Transcaucasus region. The nobility consisted of feudal ranks, which were, from highest to lowest: the khan, sultans, begs and morzalar.