Samara, Russia

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This article is about about the city in Russia. For city in Iraq, see Samarra.
Samara (English)
Самара (Russian)
Samara, Russia (Russia)
Samara, Russia
Location of Samara on the map of Russia
Coordinates
53°14′N 50°10′E / 53.233, 50.167Coordinates: 53°14′N 50°10′E / 53.233, 50.167
Coat of Arms Flag
Administrative status
Federal subject
In jurisdiction of
Administrative center of		 Samara Oblast
Samara Oblast
Samara Oblast
Local self-government
Charter Charter of Samara
Municipal status City District
Mayor Viktor Tarkhov
Legislative body Samara City Council
Area
Area 465.97 km² (179.9 sq mi)
Population (as of the 2002 Census)
Population
- Rank
- Density
 1,157,880 inhabitants
6th
2,484.9/km² (6,435.9/sq mi)
Events
Founded 1586
Other information
Postal code 443XXX
Dialing code +7 846
Official website
http://city.samara.ru/

Samara (Russian: Сама́ра) (Kuybyshev (Ку́йбышев) from 1935 to 1991) is one of the largest cities in Russia. It is situated in the southeastern part of European Russia, the Volga Federal District. Samara is the capital of Samara Oblast. Population: 1,157,880 (2002 Census);[1] 1,254,460 (1989 Census).[2]. The metropolitan area of Samara-Togliatti-Syzran within Samara Region constitutes the population of more than 3.0 million people. Formerly a closed city, Samara is now a large and important social, political, economic, industrial and cultural center of European Russia which in May 2007 held the European Union - Russia Summit.[3].

Samara is located on the left bank of the Volga river, the longest river in Europe. The city is bordered for 50 km on the west by the Volga, its northern boundary is formed by Sokolyi Hills and by the steppes in the south and east. The land within the city boundaries covers 46,597 ha. Samara has a continental climate characterized by hot summer and cold winter.

Samara citizens' life has been associated with the Volga river, serving as the main commercial route of Russia through several centuries. Besides Volga has a great visual appeal. Samara river-front is one of the favorite recreation places of local dwellers and the guests. After Soviet novelist Vasily Aksyonov visited Samara he remarked: "I am not sure where in the West one can find such a long and beautiful embankment. Possibly around Lake of Geneva only".

Samara is known to be the leading industrial center of the Volga Area. The city is among the top ten Russian cities as regards produced national income and industry volume. Samara stands for world-famous aerospace launch vehicles, satellites and various space services, engines and cable, aircraft and rolled aluminum, block-module power stations; refinery, chemical and cryogenic products; gas-pumping units; bearings of different sizes, drilling bits; automated electric equipment; airfield equipment; truck-mounted cranes; construction materials; chocolate made by Russia Chocolate Factory; vodka Rodnik; Zhiguli beer; food processing and light industry products. [4]

Contents

[edit] History

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Please improve this article if you can (May 2008).

Legend has it that Metropolitan Alexy, later Samara's heavenly patron, visited the site of the city in 1357 and predicted that a great town would be erected there lighting up with piety, and that the town would never be ravaged. The Volga quay of Samara appears on Italian 14 century maps but officially the the town started with a fortress built in 1586 at the confluence of the rivers — Volga and Samara. This fortress was a frontier post protecting the eastern boundaries of the country from forays of nomads. A local customs office was established in 1600.

As more and more ships pulled up to Samara quay, the town turned into the center of diplomatic and economic links between Russia and the East. Samara also opened its gates to peasant war rebels headed by Stepan Razin and Yemelyan Pugachyov welcoming them with traditional Bread-and-Salt. The town was visited by Peter the Great, all the Tsars Alexander, and Nicholas II.

In 1780 Samara was turned into chief town (uyezd) of Simbirsk Region ruled by the local Governor-General. Uyezd and Zemstvo Courts of Justice and Board of Treasury were established. On January 1, 1851 when Samara became the center of the Province of Samara with an estimated population of 20,000. This gave a stimulus to development of economic, political and cultural life of the community. In 1877, during the Russian-Turkish war, a mission of Samara Town Duma led by Pyotr V. Alabin brought to Bulgarians a symbol of spiritual solidarity — a banner tailored in Samara. Pierced with bullets and saturated with blood of Russians and Bulgarians it has become relic of Russian-Bulgarian friendship.

Quick growth of Samara economy late 19th – early 20th centuries was determined by the scope of bread trade and milling business. Samara Brewery came into being in the eighties, as well Kenitser Macaroni Factory, Ironworks, Confectionery Factory and Match Factory. The town was decorated with magnificent private residences and administrative buildings. Trade Houses of the Subbotins, Kurlins, Shikhobalovs, Smirnovs - founders of the milling industry who contributed a lot to development of the town — were widely known not only nationwide but also abroad where Samara wheat was exported. By its rapid growth Samara resembled young North-American cities, and contemporaries by right coiled the town "new Russian Orleans" and "Russian Chicago".

By the start of the 20th century the population of the town has reached more than 100,000, and it was a major trade and industrial center of the Volga Area. The Russian Revolution resulted in Soviet control of Samara in 1917, but in June 1918 under the armed support of the Czechoslovak corps the the town was taken by the Constituent Assembly Committee members.

1921 was the year of severe hunger in Samara, In order to provide support to the people F. Nansen (the famous Polar explorer), M.Andersen-Nexe (Danish writer), Swedish Red Cross Mission and officers of APA from the United States came to Samara.

During the Second World War, Samara now renamed Kuibyshev in the honour of the Bolshevik leader Valerian Kuybyshev was chosen as the alternative capital of the USSR should Moscow fall to the invading Germans. The Communist Party and governmental organizations, diplomatic missions of foreign countries, leading cultural establishments and their staff were evacuated to the city of Samara. A dug-out for Stalin known as Stalin's Bunker was constructed but never used.

As a leading industrial centre Samara played a major role in arming the USSR. From the very first war months the town supplied the front with aircraft, firearms and ammunition. The famous military parade of November 7, 1941 was held on the central square of the town. On March 5, 1942 Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony was first performed in the town's Opera and Ballet House by the Bolshoi Theater Orchestra conducted by S.A.Samosud. The symphony was broadcast all over the world. Health centers and most of the hospital facilities were turned into base hospitals. Polish and Czechoslovak military units were formed on the territory of Volga Military District. Samara citizens fought at the front, many of them volunteered.

After the war the defense industry developed rapidly in Samara; existing facilities changed their profile and new factories were built leading to Samara becoming a closed city. In the year 1960 Samara (bearing still the name of Kuibyshev) became missile shield of the country. April, 12 1961 was the day when the whole world heard the voice and saw the face of the man who first stepped into space, it was Yury Gagarin. The launch vehicle Vostok which delivered the first manned spaceship to the orbit was built at Samara Progress Plant. And it was exactly Kuibyshev on the Volga where Yury Gagarin came to take a rest after landing; he first spoke of an improvised meeting of Progress workers. Samara enterprises played a leading hand in development of domestic aviation and implementation of space programs. An unusual monument is situated in Samara, it is Ilyushin-2 aircraft assembled by the Kuibyshev workers late 1942. This attack plane was brought down in 1943 in the sky over Karelia, but the heavily wounded pilot K. Kotlyarovsky managed to bring the aircraft on to land near the lake of Oriyarvi. The aircraft returned to its native land in 1975. It was placed at crossing of two major roads as a symbol of deeds of home front servicemen and air-force pilots during the Great Patriotic War.

January 1991 — historically fixed name Samara was given back to the city. At the end of the XX century Samara is one of major industrial cities of Russia with a powerful cultural potential, multinational population and great history. [5]

[edit] Education

Samara has 188 schools of general education, lyceums, high schools and the college of continuous education (from elementary up to higher education) known as Nayanova University existing under the aegis of International Parliament for Security and Peace attached to UNO. Samara is a major educational and scientific center of Volga Area. 12 public and 13 commercial institutions of higher education as well as 26 colleges train future physicists and mathematicians, pedagogues and medical doctors, musicians and actors, directors and artists, aircraft- and missile-producers, journalists and lawyers, economists and architects, oil industry workers and mechanical engineers, archaeologists and electronic engineers, metallurgists and railroaders, telecommunication workers and interpreters and a lot of others. Samara is the hometown to Samara State University, a prestigious higher education institution in European Russia with its competitive programmes in Law, Sociology, and English Philology. Scientific research is also carried out in Samara. Samara Research Center of Russian Academy of Sciences incorporates Samara branch of the Physical Institute, Theoretical Engineering Institute and Image Processing Systems Institute. Major research institutions operate in the city.[6]

Samara has of a vibrant nightlife. There are several night clubs that play commercial house music, including Zvezda (Club Star), Birzha (Stock Exchange), Aura, Postel (The Bed), and MTL (Sports Arena).

[edit] Sport

Samara is the home to the FC Krylya Sovetov Samara, a football club in the Russian Premier League. Samara was also the home to the best world women basketball club VBM-SGAU. Before the 2007 season, the VBM-SGAU was sold to CSKA who moved the team to Moscow where it became the CSKA[7].

[edit] Honours

The asteroid 26922 Samara was named in honour of the city and river on 1 June 2007.†

[edit] See also


Weather averages for Samara
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Record high °C (°F) 4.2 (40) 6.8 (44) 15.8 (60) 31.1 (88) 34.4 (94) 39.6 (103) 39.0 (102) 37.7 (100) 34.2 (94) 26.0 (79) 14.0 (57) 7.3 (45) 39.6 (103)
Average high °C (°F) -9.3 (15) -8.1 (17) -1.7 (29) 11.0 (52) 20.3 (69) 24.6 (76) 26.0 (79) 24.5 (76) 18.2 (65) 8.4 (47) -0.7 (31) -6.3 (21) 9.0 (48)
Average low °C (°F) -15.9 (3) -15.4 (4) -8.8 (16) 1.9 (35) 9.2 (49) 13.8 (57) 15.7 (60) 14.0 (57) 8.6 (47) 1.4 (35) -5.7 (22) -12.1 (10) 0.6 (33)
Record low °C (°F) -43.0 (-45) -36.9 (-34) -31.4 (-25) -20.9 (-6) -4.9 (23) -0.4 (31) 2.0 (36) 2.3 (36) -3.4 (26) -27.3 (-17) -28.1 (-19) -41.3 (-42) -43.0 (-45)
Precipitation mm (inches) 46 (1.8) 35 (1.4) 33 (1.3) 39 (1.5) 32 (1.3) 58 (2.3) 64 (2.5) 52 (2) 45 (1.8) 52 (2) 54 (2.1) 51 (2) 561 (22.1)
Source: Pogoda.ru.net[8] 8.09.2007

[edit] Sister Cities

[edit] References

  1. ^ Федеральная служба государственной статистики (Federal State Statistics Service) (2004-05-21). Численность населения России, субъектов Российской Федерации в составе федеральных округов, районов, городских поселений, сельских населённых пунктов – районных центров и сельских населённых пунктов с населением 3 тысячи и более человек (Population of Russia, its federal districts, federal subjects, districts, urban localities, rural localities—administrative centers, and rural localities with population of over 3,000) (Russian). Всероссийская перепись населения 2002 года (All-Russia Population Census of 2002). Federal State Statistics Service. Retrieved on 2007-12-13.
  2. ^ Всесоюзная перепись населения 1989 г. Численность наличного населения союзных и автономных республик, автономных областей и округов, краёв, областей, районов, городских поселений и сёл-райцентров. (All Union Population Census of 1989. Present population of union and autonomous republics, autonomous oblasts and okrugs, krais, oblasts, districts, urban settlements, and villages serving as district administrative centers.) (Russian). Всесоюзная перепись населения 1989 года (All-Union Population Census of 1989). Demoscope Weekly (website of the Institute of Demographics of the State University—Higher School of Economics (1989). Retrieved on 2007-12-13.
  3. ^ EU-Russia Summit, Samara - 18 May 2007
  4. ^ Home page | Home page | Samara City Administration
  5. ^ Home page | Home page | Samara City Administration
  6. ^ Home page | Home page | Samara City Administration
  7. ^ ЦСКА (Москва) / О клубе
  8. ^ Pogoda.ru.net (Russian). Retrieved on September 8, 2007.

[edit] External links

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Cities and towns in Samara Oblast
Administrative center: Samara
Coat of arms of Samara Oblast Flag of Samara Oblast