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Fergana (Фарғона, ), () or Ferghana, also Farghana is a district-level city and the capital of Fergana Region in eastern Uzbekistan. Fergana is about 320 km east of Tashkent, about 75 km southwest of Andijan, and less than 20 km from the Kyrgyzstan border. The modern city was founded in 1876.
Fergana Region is one of the centers of ancient culture in Uzbekistan. Photographs of Stone Age settlements and rocks found in the area show that stone tools have been used by people in the valley since Ancient history. Excavations of the Great Fergana Canal have played an important role in the study of Archaeology monuments in the region. During the excavation of the canal, monuments from the Bronze Age, slavery and Land tenure were discovered and studied. Finds from the 5th century BC and early medieval period in the town of Quva are well studied. Historical sources from the 10th to 11th century state that this city was the largest and most prosperous in the valley after Akhsikath. Archaeological materials confirm that the city of Margilan was a large village in the 10th century and took on the appearance of a hamlet in the 11th and 12th centuries.
The monuments found in the settlements of the Chust culture, engaged in sedentary agriculture and animal husbandry, are important for the study of the Fergana Valley. Archaeological excavations show that the Fergana Region has long been inhabited by people engaged in hunting, Agriculture, animal husbandry, and at later stages of the existence of Society, culture began to develop.
It was initially named New Margelan (), then renamed Skobelov (Скобелев) in 1907 after the first Russian military governor of the Fergana Valley, Mikhail Skobelev. In 1924, after the Soviet Union's reconquest of the region from the Basmachi movement, the name was changed to Fergana, after the province of which it was the centre.Dates of renaming taken from Adrian Room, Placenames of the World: Origins and Meanings of the Names for Over 5000 Natural Features, Countries, Capitals, Territories, Cities and Historical Sites, McFarland, 1997, (pbk) p.124
During World War I, the city was the location of a Russian prisoner-of-war camp for German and Austro-Hungarian POWs, including ethnic Polish people conscripts, many of whom died to typhus.
The industrial base of Fergana was developed in the 20th century. Industry in the city included textile manufacturing and a nitric fertiliser plant. Some of the industrial development was a result of Evacuation in the Soviet Union during World War II.
Fergana has been a center for oil production in the Fergana Valley since the region's first oil refinery was built near the city in 1908. Since then, more refineries have been added, and Fergana is one of the most important centers of oil refining in Uzbekistan. Natural gas from western Uzbekistan is transported by pipeline to the valley, where it is used to manufacture fertilizer. The Great Fergana Canal, built almost entirely by hand during the 1930s, passes through the northern part of the city and was completed in 1939. During its construction, the canal and the city were widely photographed by the noted photographer Max Penson. With a western loan Fergana is able to modernize its refinery and also reduce air pollution emissions.
The town was Russian language for the first time after its foundation. In 1911 its population consisted of 11,892 people. Of them Russians were 7,534 (63%), were 2,590 (22%). According to the 1926 census, of the 14,275 inhabitants in the city, there were 7,942 Russians (55%), 667 were Ukrainians (4.6%), and 514 were Jews (3.6%), while there were only 3,011 Uzbeks (21.0%).
As of 2013, Fergana is virtually Monoethnicity - of the city's 350,600 residents, 316,268 are Uzbek (90.0%). Of the remaining group, 12,084 Russians (3.4%), 3,114 Tajiks (1.1%), 2,028 Koreans (0.7%), and 626 Tatars (0.2%) also live in Fergana. There are also Azerbaijanis, Armenians, Jews, Germans and representatives of other .
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