Cherkessk (Russian: Черке́сск) is a city in Russia, capital of the Karachay-Cherkess Republic. As of 2002, it has a population of about 116,400. The city was founded in 1804 as Batalpashinskaya, it was renamed Batalpashinsk in 1931, then Sulimov in 1934, then Yezhovo-Cherkessk in 1937, and finally Cherkessk in 1939.