Ulan-Ude

Ulan-Ude (Russian: Ула́н-Удэ́; Buryat: Улаан-Үдэ, Ulaan-Üde) is the capital city of the Republic of Buryatia, Russia, located about 100 kilometers (62 mi) southeast of Lake Baikal on the Uda River at its confluence with the Selenga. According to the preliminary results of the 2010 Census, 404,357people lived in Ulan-Ude;^[1] up from 359,391 recorded in the 2002 Census,^[2] making the city the third largest in eastern Siberia by population.

Names

Ulan-Ude was first called Udinskoye (У́динское) for its location on the Uda River. From around 1735, the settlement was called Udinsk (У́динск) and was granted town status under that name in 1775.

The name was changed to Verkhneudinsk, literally "Upper Udinsk" (Верхнеу́динск), in 1783 to differentiate it from Nizhneudinsk ("Lower Udinsk") lying on a different Uda River near Irkutsk which gained town status that year. The "upper" and "lower" refer to positions of the two cities relative to each other, not the location of the cities on their respective Uda rivers. Verkhneudinsk lies at the mouth of its Uda, i.e. the lower end, while Nizhneudinsk is along the middle stretch of its Uda.

The current name was given to the city in 1934 and means "red Uda" or "red gate" in Buryat reflecting the communist ideology of the Soviet Union to which it belonged.

History

The first occupants of the area where Ulan-Ude now stands were the Evenks and, later, the Buryat Mongols. Ulan-Ude (old name Verkhneudinsk) was founded in 1666 by the Russian Cossacks as fortress Udinskoye. Due to its favorable geographical position, the city grew rapidly and became a large trade center which connected Russia with China and Mongolia and, from 1690, was the administrative center of the Transbaikal region. In 1775, the city, now Udinsk, was chartered as a city and in 1783 was renamed Verkhneudinsk. After a large fire in 1878, the city was almost completely rebuilt. The Trans-Siberian Railway reached the city in 1900 causing an explosion in growth. The population which was 3,500 in 1880 reached 126,000 in 1939. On July 27, 1934, the city was renamed Ulan-Ude.

Population

According to the preliminary results of the 2010 Census, 404,357 people lived in Ulan-Ude;^[1] up from 359,391 recorded in the 2002 Census.^[2] In terms of population, it is the third largest city in eastern Siberia.

The ethnic makeup of the city's population in 2002:

• Russians: 73.1%
• Buryats: 21.4%
• Ukrainians: 2.6%
• Tatars: 0.8%
• Others: 2.1%

The city is the center of Tibetan Buddhism in Russia and the important Ivolginsky datsan is located 23 km from the city.

Transport

Ulan-Ude is located on the main line (Trans-Siberian line) of the Trans-Siberian Railway between Irkutsk and Chita at the junction of the Trans-Mongolian line (the Trans-Mongolian Railway) which begins at Ulan Ude and continues south through Mongolia to Beijing in China. The city also lies on the M55 section of the Baikal Highway (part of the Trans-Siberian Highway), the main federal road to Vladivostok. Air traffic is served by the Ulan-Ude Airport (Mukhino), as well as the smaller Ulan-Ude Vostochny Airport. Intracity transport includes tram, bus, and marshrutka (share taxi) lines.

Culture

Until 1991 Ulan-Ude was closed to foreigners. There are old merchants' mansions richly decorated with wood and stone carving in the historical center of Ulan-Ude, along the river banks which are exceptional examples of Russian classicism. The city has a large ethnographic museum which recalls the history of the peoples of the region. There is also a large and highly unusual statue of the head of Lenin in the central square, the largest in the world. Built in 1970 for the centennial of Lenin's birth, it towers over the main plaza at 7.7 meters (25 ft) and weighs 42 tons.^[6] The bronze head has avoided the patina associated with Bronze via a special coating on the metal, and is a common meeting place. Other attractions are Geser, a monument, and the King's Gate arch.

Sights

Ethnographic Museum of the peoples of Trans-Baikal is one of Russia's largest open-air museums. The museum contains historical finds from the era of Huns until the mid 20th century, including a unique collection of samples of wooden architecture of Siberia - more than 40 architectural monuments.

Odigitrievsky Cathedral - Orthodox Church Diocese of the Buryat, was the first stone building in the city and is a siberian baroque architectural monument. The uniqueness of the cathedral is still in the fact that he built in the zone of high seismic activity. Located in the heart of the city on the banks of the River Uda River where it flows into the Selenga.

One of the attractions of Ulan-Ude is a monument in the town square — the square of the Soviets — is a monument in the form of the head of Vladimir Lenin (sculptors G.V. Neroda, J.G. Neroda, architects Dushkin, P.G. Zilberman). The monument, weighing 42 tons and with a height of 7.7 meters (25 ft), was opened in 1971 in honor of the centenary of Lenin's birth.^[6] The winning design selected out of dozens of competing projects, it was deemed to be the best not only in the Soviet Union, but also at the World Exhibition in Montreal.

Geography and climate

Ulan-Ude lies 5,640 kilometers (3,500 mi) east of Moscow and 100 kilometers (62 mi) southeast of Lake Baikal. It is located 600 meters (2,000 ft) above mean sea level at the foot of the Khamar-Daban and Khrebet Ulan-Burgasy mountain ranges, next to the confluence of the Selenga River and its tributary, the Uda which divides the city into two parts.

Ulan Ude has a steppe climate (Köppen climate classification BSk) with long, dry, frigid winters and short but very warm summers. Precipitation is heavily concentrated in the warmer months.

International relations

Twin towns/sister cities

Ulan-Ude is twinned with:

• Anyang, South Korea (1997)
• Berkeley, United States^[8]
• Changchun, China^[9]
• Darkhan, Mongolia
• Erdenet, Mongolia
• Hohhot, China^[10]
• Kazan, Russia^[11]
• Manzhouli, China^[12]
• Mannheim, Germany.^[13]
• Rumoi, Japan^[14]
• Taipei, Taiwan^[15]
• Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia^[13]
• Yalta, Ukraine^[16]
• Yamagata, Japan

References