In 1781, Catherine the Great renamed the town Vyatka and made it the seat of Vyatka Governorate.Script error: No such module "Unsubst". The town also served as a place of exile, notably for Alexander Herzen, Alexander Vitberg, and Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin. By the end of the 19th century, it was an important station on the Trans-Siberian railway. In December 1934,Script error: No such module "Unsubst". it was renamed for the Soviet leader Sergey Kirov, who had been assassinated on December 1. However, whilst the name Kirov has remained since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, numerous institutions such as the university bear the former name of Vyatka.
