Draft:Tugaykul

Tugaykul or Mechanical-repair plant (Russian: Тугайкуль, Ремонтно-Механический Завод - РМЗ) is a settlement in the Chelyabinsk region of Russia, which is currently not part of the town of Kopeysk, but is included in the Kopeysky urban area.

History
The village of Tugaikul was founded in 1736 as a fortification of the Chelyabinsk Fortress, as a settlement of the Orenburg Cossack Department on the lake of the same name.

In 1810, it was mentioned in the "Metrical Book of the Miass Fortress", where an entry states that "the town of Chelyabinsk and the suburban village Tugaikul were crowned by a young Cossack, Nikolai Kurochkina, and a Cossack girl, Pelageya Kozyreva, respectively...".

In 1877, during the survey of the lands of the Orenburg Cossack Army, according to the 1869 law, a cottage (estate) of 3,100 desiatines (2,628 arable, 90 meadow, 115 forest, 45 pasture, and 104 water) was assigned to the village.

It is known that unprofessional coal mining has been taking place in this area since 1900.

With the beginning of coal mining in 1904, a new population started to appear in Tugaykul. Professional workers from the nearby Kachkar gold mines arrived to take part in the coal mining operation. Chelyabinsk entrepreneurs, such as the Pokrovsky brothers and merchant Zlokazov, were involved in the development of new mining sites. From the village's outskirts, plots were set aside for mines, and hired workers dug out pits. In these pits, coal was mined and extracted, which was then brought to the surface using buckets.

In the summer of 1906, Governor-General Nikolai Alexandrovich Sukhomlinov of the Orneberg Cossack Army arrived in Tugaykul after a long preparation period. They greeted him with bread and salt in the Fateev village. Sukhomlinov gave all the Cossacks books as a token of his visit. He was escorted to the Kozyreva village, from where he proceeded to the Miass village.

The first mines in the area were opened in 1907–1908, including the Yekaterininskaya and Alexandra mines. In 1913, two additional mines, the Ivan and Nikolai, were also opened, belonging to the "Catherine's Coal Mines of the I.N. Ashinin Partnership."

During the civil war in 1919, battles took place in the Tugaykul region.

By 1926, the village had become part of the Chelyabinsk region.

During the Second World War, most of the surrounding forests were cleared for industrial use. Based on the energy management of the Kopeyskugol trust and the evacuated Novocherkassk Voykiy plant, the Kopeysky Ore Repair Plant was established on September 10th, 1942. It was later renamed the Kopeysky Mechanical Repair Factory (KRMZ), giving the village its current name, RMZ.

A hero of the Soviet Union, Ivan Nikolaevich Vasilyev, was born in RMZ and received this highest honor for his participation in the battle at the Dnieper river crossing.

In the 1950s, water from Lake Tugaykul was pumped through pipelines to Kurlady and a coal mine was established on the site of the former lake. The abandoned part of KARZ is located inside the mine.

In 1972, a minor incident involving the leakage of chemical waste took place at the industrial area of the Kopeyka Automobile Repair Plant, also known as the Andreevsky Incident or the Karzovskaya Accident. According to official reports, approximately 25 people were injured as a result of the KARZ leak, all of them employees of the chemical plant. However, it was later discovered that a military hospital operating covertly within the industrial complex was also operating at the time of the incident. It has since been revealed that at least 75 patients at the hospital suffered as a result of the incident, with varying degrees of chemical burns and poisoning. There are no exact numbers available regarding the number of victims. Following the incident, the plant was out of operation for several years, not only due to perceived risks associated with chemicals, but also as a result of a change in public perception and sentiment towards the area following the events.The surrounding villages started spreading rumors that the KARZa industrial zone has become a kind of anomaly where strange phenomena occur at night. Reports of glowing objects and creatures that don't look like people have raised concern among the local population. Over the years, the police have been repeatedly contacted with reports of glowing creatures wandering the abandoned factory. Later, rumors concretized these stories and reported about a boy named Andrei (who is rumored to have snuck into his father's office on the day of the accident and died while trying to escape from a leak) luring locals to the former chemical factory and military hospital.

In the 1990s, attempts were made to revive the Cossacks. The Cossack community "Stanitsa Tugayulskaya" was established in Kopeysk and includes farms (or villages): Potanino, Vakhruchevo, Kozyrev, Bazhov, and the RMZ, as well as Smolinskiy (Chelyabinsk). Approximately 400 hereditary Cossacks are members of this society.

The largest company in the village during the 2000s and still remains to this day is KRMZ.

Population
Currently, the village has a population of just over 10,000 people. Most of these people are Russian and German, and the residents of the RMZ have a Christian religious background.