History
Oral was founded in 1613 by Cossacks, and was originally named Yaitsk, after the Yaik river, the name of the Ural river at the time. In 1773 there occurred the first Cossack rebellion against the local Russian commander General Traubenberg, led by Yemelyan Pugachev. Traubenberg was murdered along with several other officers.
The city was captured by Pugachev, and its fortress besieged from 30 December 1773 to 17 April 1774. Tsarist troops under Commander Mantsurov re took the city after Golytsin had taken the city of Orenburg from the rebel forces.
As a punishment for the Yaik Cossacks siding with the insurrectionists, Empress Catherine II declared on 15 January 1775 that the Yaik river would henceforth be renamed the Ural River and Yaitsk would be known as Ural'sk.
Alexander Pushkin visited the city with his friend Vladimir Dahl in September 1833 while doing research for his book The History of Pugachev (1834) and his novel The Captain's Daughter.
The city was under siege imposed by Cossacks during the Russian Civil War from 1917 to 1922. Mikhail Frunze, Vasily Chapaev and Georgy Zhukov participated in its defence.
After the independence of Kazakhstan in 1991, Ural'sk was renamed as Oral.
