Makhachkala, city in southern European Russia, administrative center of the republic of Dagestan, and a major port on the Caspian Sea. Its main industries are oil refining, shipbuilding, and fish and fruit canning. The city was founded in 1844 as Petrovskoye (later Petrovsk) on the site of a military camp of Peter I. In 1921 the city was renamed and made the capital of the Dagestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic within Soviet Russia. The autonomous republic became the republic of Dagestan following the dissolution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) in 1991. Population (1999 estimate) 332,200.
