| Tolyatti (English) Тольятти (Russian) |
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Komsomolsky District |
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Location of Samara Oblast in Russia |
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Tolyatti
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| Administrative status | |
| Country | Russia |
| Federal subject | Samara Oblast |
| Municipal status | |
| Urban okrug | Tolyatti Urban Okrug |
| Mayor | Anatoly Pushkov |
| Representative body | City Duma |
| Statistics | |
| Area | 314.8 km2 (121.5 sq mi) |
| Population (2010 Census, preliminary) |
719,514 inhabitants[1] |
| - Rank in 2010 | 18th |
| Population (2002 Census) | 705,462 inhabitants[2] |
| - Rank in 2002 | 17th |
| Density | 2,286 /km2 (5,920 /sq mi)[3] |
| Time zone | MSD (UTC+04:00)[4] |
| Founded | 1737 |
| Previous names | Stavropol-on-Volga (until 1964)[5] |
| Postal code(s) | 445xxx |
| Dialing code(s) | +7 8482[6] |
| Official website | |
Tolyatti (Russian: Толья́тти; IPA: [tɐˈlʲjætʲɪ]), also known as Togliatti, is a city in Samara Oblast, Russia. It serves as the administrative center of Stavropolsky District, although it is administratively separate from it. Population: 719,514 (2010 Census preliminary results);[1] 702,879 (2002 Census);[2] It is the largest city in Russia which does not serve as an administrative center of a federal subject.[1]
It was founded in 1737 as a fortress called Stavropol (Ста́врополь) by the Russian statesman Vasily Tatishchev. Informally it was often referred as Stavropol-on-Volga (Ста́врополь-на-Во́лге, Stavropol-na-Volge) to distinguish from Stavropol, a large city in southwest Russia.
The construction of the Kuybyshev Dam and Hydroelectric Station on the Volga River in the 1950s created the Kuybyshev Reservoir, which covered the existing location of the city, and it was completely rebuilt on a new site. In 1964, the city was renamed Tolyatti (after Palmiro Togliatti, the longest-serving secretary of the Italian Communist Party).
There are three districts in the city:
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The city's main claim to fame has been automobile manufacturing by AvtoVAZ's Lada (Zhiguli) car plants, employing some 110,000 people — in cooperation with Italy's Fiat since 1970 and, since 2001, with General Motors.[7]
Other industries have moved into Tolyatti because it is close to abundant supplies of electricity and water. Petrochemicals are well represented in the city. Among the significant enterprises based there are "TogliattiAzot" (Russian: "ТольяттиАзот") (Russia's biggest ammonia manufacturer) and "KuybyshevAzot" (Russian: "КуйбышевАзот") (a nitrogen fertilizer producer). Other industries include building materials production, ship repair and electrical equipment and electronics.
Transport system is well-developed in the city. Public transport includes municipal buses and trolley-buses, and so-called "alternative" (commercial) transport or marshrutkas.
External transport routes are provided by two bus stations, two railway stations, and a city harbor. Tolyatti has its airport as well, but it is used by personal aircraft only (nearest international airport, "Kurumoch", is located 40 km away, towards Samara). The city is linked to federal road network by M5 "Ural" highway.
As one of Russia's "motor cities", Tolyatti's car population had been booming and traffic jams are common during morning and evening rush hours — Samara Oblast was one of the first regions to receive an additional license plate code because its existing code did not have enough numbers for all its residents' cars.
The creation of the Kuybyshev Reservoir 1950s destroyed much of the city's history, so almost all the city's cultural points of interest — such as the Obelisk of Glory (1958) and Victory Park in the Avtozavodsky District (site of the Victory Monument (1985)) — date from the Soviet period, but the city administration has continued to build new monuments and cathedrals. A recent notable event was the 1998 opening of the great Tatishchev Monument near the Volga. The Transfiguration Cathedral was completed in 2002.
Education is represented by over one hundred public and ten private schools, as well as several higher education institutions. Most notable ones include:
In eyes of the Communist leaders, Tolyatti was a perfect Soviet city (since most population migrated here during the construction of AvtoVAZ factories) – many sports facilities appeared so that the "perfect Soviet person" could be healthy. The city has high-quality sports facilities: gymnasiums, swimming pools, ice arenas, football and racing stadiums — as a result, many athletes, including Olympic Champion Alexei Nemov, Stanley Cup winners Alexei Kovalev and Ilya Bryzgalov had moved to Tolyatti. Former Washington Capitals winger Viktor Kozlov and defenseman Alexei Tezikov were born there.
Tolyatti is represented in almost every kind of team sports. Tolyatti's Lada-sponsored Ice Hockey Club broke the Moscow teams' domination of the game. The Lada women's football team has won the Russian championship several times — and the Lada women's handball team, who are the Russian and European Champions, is the core for Russian national women's handball. Men's football (FC Lada Togliatti and FC Togliatti), basketball, speedway and handball teams also take part in national championships.
There are a number of local newspapers published in Tolyatti: Ploshad Svobody (Площадь Свободы), Togliatti Review also known as Togliatti Observer (Тольяттинское обозрение), Volny Gorod (Вольный город), Gorodskiye Vedomosti (Городские ведомости) and few others. In the end of 1990's, Togliatti Review published a series of articles on a local crime group. The stories drew attention to the group's connections with the local police.[8][9] Subsequently, Togliatti Review saw two of its editors (Valery Ivanov and Alexei Sidorov) killed in 2002-2003.[10][11][12][13]
The only local-born FM-band radio station is Radio August (Радио Август) at 70.64 and 102.3 MHz.
During the morning rush hour on 31 October 2007, a bomb exploded on a passenger bus in the city, killing at least eight people and injuring about 50 in what Irina Doroshenko, a spokeswoman for the investigative wing of the local prosecutor’s office, said could be a terrorist attack.[14] At the beginning of the investigation, it was believed to be the work of terrorists from the North Caucasus.[15] Early reports indicated possible involvement of Chechen terrorist Doku Umarov.[16] However, the officials later named a 21-year-old Evgeny Vakhrushev, who also died in the blast, as the only person to be responsible for the tragedy.[17]
The city also has a reputation for gang violence between groups vying for control of the car business.[18][19]
The city has witnessed a mafia killing spree - there have been 550 commissioned killings in Togliatti over 1998-2004, five of those murdered were journalists.[20]
Three chief architects of Togliatti were victims of violent crimes: Valery Lopatin was shot to death on 7 July 2004, Mikhail Syardin and Aleksander Kiryakov were also injured in violent attacks.[21]
A former city mayor (1994–2000), Sergey Zhilkin (Сергей Жилкин), was murdered on 15 November 2008.[22]
On 13 December 2008, Anatoly Stepanov, a vice-speaker of Duma of Samara Oblast, a former head of administration at the Tsentralny district of Togliatti in 1991-1997 and Togliatti mayor candidate in 2004, was attacked on a street in Togliatti (his hometown) and left with serious head injuries. He died in a hospital on 24 February 2009.[23]
The city's mayor in 2000-2007, Nikolay Utkin (Николай Уткин), was sentenced to seven years in prison on corruption charges.[24][25]
Mayor Anatoly Pushkov was elected in 2008.
Tolyatti is twinned with:
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