Fergana

Fergana (also spelt Ferghana or Фергана) is a city in the Ferghana Valley, capital of the Farg'ona Viloyati of Uzbekistan. It was founded in 1876 as a Russian garrison town following the annexation of the Kokand Khanate to the Russian Empire, and was then known as New Margelan (Новый Маргелан). In the early 1900s the city was renamed Skobelev (Скобелев) after the General who led the campaign in 1875-1876 to put down the insurrection which brought an end to the rule of the Khan, and then became the first Governor of the Ferghana Oblast. After the Bolshevik reconquest of the region in 1918-1920, the city was re-named once again, as Fergana, after the province of which it was the centre. Unlike Tashkent it was unaffected by the 1966 earthquake, and thus a good deal of attractive 19th century Russian architecture remains in the city, which is characterised by orderly, tree-lined boulevards. It has a substantial Russian, Tatar and Korean population.