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city in Samara Oblast, Russia
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Samara, known as Kuybyshev from 1935 to 1991, is the largest city and the administrative centre of Samara Oblast in Russia. It is sited at the confluence of the Volga and the Samara rivers. The city has a population of over 1.14 million residents, with up to 1.22 million residents in the urban agglomeration (not including Novokuybyshevsk, which is not conurbated). The city covers an area of 541.4 square kilometers (209.0 sq mi), and is the ninth-largest city and tenth-largest agglomeration in Russia, and the third-most populous city on the Volga and in the Volga Federal District.
Formerly a closed city, Samara is now a large and important social, political, economic, industrial, and cultural centre in Russia and hosted the European Union—Russia Summit in May 2007. It has a continental climate characterised by hot summers and cold winters. The life of Samara's citizens has always been intrinsically linked to the Volga River, which has not only served as the main commercial thoroughfare of Russia throughout several centuries, but also has great visual appeal. Samara's riverfront is one of the main recreation sites for both local citizens and tourists.
Samara is named after the Samara River, which likely meant "summer water" (signifying that it froze in winter) in the Indo-Iranian language which was spoken there around the third millennium BC. The Samara city gives its name to the Samara culture, a Neolithic culture of the fifth millennium BC, and the Kurgan hypothesis associates the region with the original homeland (urheimat) of the Proto-Indo-European language.
During Soviet times, the city of Samara was renamed to Kuybyshev in 1935 in honor of the Russian Bolshevik, Valerian Kuybyshev. The city reverted to its historical name of Samara on 25 January 1991.
Samara, together with its northern neighbour Kazan, is at the centre of the Idel-Ural historical region. Ahmad ibn Fadlan visited the area that is now Samara around 921 while on his journey to the Volga Bulgars who then controlled the region from their capital Bolghar.
The Volga port of Samara appears on Italian maps of the 14th century. Before 1586, the Samara Bend was a pirate nest. Lookouts would spot an oncoming boat and quickly cross to the other side of the peninsula so that the pirates could organize an attack. Officially, Samara started with a fortress built in 1586 at the confluence of the Volga and Samara Rivers. This fortress was a frontier post protecting the then easternmost boundaries of Russia from forays of nomads. A local customs office was established in 1600.
As more and more ships pulled into Samara's port, the town turned into a centre for 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 and later Tsars.
In 1780, Samara was turned into an uyezd town of Simbirsk Governorate overseen by the local Governor-General, and Uyezd and Zemstvo Courts of Justice and a Board of Treasury were established. On January 1, 1851, Samara became the centre of Samara Governorate with an estimated population of 20,000. This gave a stimulus to the development of the economic, political and cultural life of the community. Samara was outside of the Pale of Settlement and as such did not have any significant Jewish population until the late 19th century. In 1877, during the Russian-Turkish War, a mission from the Samara City Duma led by Petr Alabin, as a symbol of spiritual solidarity, brought a banner tailored in Samara pierced with bullets and saturated with the blood of both Russians and Bulgarians, to Bulgaria, which has become a symbol of Russian-Bulgarian friendship.
In 1935, Samara was renamed Kuybyshev in honour of the Bolshevik leader Valerian Kuybyshev.
During World War II, Kuybyshev was chosen to be the alternative capital of the Soviet Union should Moscow fall to the invading Germans. In October 1941, the Communist Party and governmental organisations, diplomatic missions of foreign countries, leading cultural establishments and their staff were evacuated to the city. This decision was reversed in the summer of 1943. A dugout for Joseph Stalin known as "Stalin's Bunker" was constructed but never used. To mark its role as wartime national capital a special Revolution Day parade was held at the city's Kuybyshev Square on November 7, 1941, and since 2011 has been remembered in an annual military parade organised by the city government.
As a leading industrial centre, Kuybyshev played a major role in arming the country. From the very first months of World War II the city supplied the front with aircraft, firearms, and ammunition. Health centres and most of the city's hospital facilities were turned into base hospitals. Polish and Czechoslovak military units were formed on the territory of the Volga Military District. Samara's citizens also fought at the front, many of them volunteers.
After the war the defence industry developed rapidly in Kuybyshev; existing facilities changed their profile and new factories were built, leading to Kuybyshev becoming a closed city. In 1960, Kuybyshev became the missile shield centre for the country. The launch vehicle Vostok, which delivered the first crewed spaceship to orbit, was built at the Samara Progress Plant. Yuri Gagarin, the first man to travel in space on April 12, 1961, took a rest in Kuybyshev after returning to Earth. While there, he spoke to an improvised meeting of Progress workers. Kuybyshev enterprises played a leading role in the development of Soviet domestic aviation and the implementation of the Soviet space program. There is also an unusual monument situated in Samara commemorating an Ilyushin Il-2 ground-attack aircraft assembled by Kuybyshev workers in late 1942. This particular plane was shot down in 1943 over Karelia, but the heavily wounded pilot, K. Kotlyarovsky, managed to crash-land the plane near Lake Oriyarvi. The aircraft was returned to Kuybyshev in 1975, and was placed on display at the intersection of two major roads as a symbol of the deeds of home front servicemen and air force pilots during the Great Patriotic War.
In January 1991, the historical name of Samara was given back to the city. Samara is one of the major industrial cities of Russia and has a multiethnic population. The city retains its leading positions in the region, mainly due to a number of oil and petrochemical enterprises. In September 2016, Samara was awarded the title "City of Labor and Combat Glory".
In 2018, Samara became one of the host cities of the FIFA World Cup, the matches of which were held at the Samara Arena stadium.
On July 2, 2020, the title "City of Labor Valor" was awarded to Samara. On December 10, 2021, the Memorial Complex was installed on the Alley of Labor Glory on the Young Pioneers Avenue. The central element of the memorial complex was a glass and metal stele about 26 meters high.
The development of the territory of modern Samara began in the 16th century with the foundation of the Samara fortress. Prior to the founding of the fortress, this area was home to piers for Volga ships. The official date of foundation of the settlement was the decree of Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich of 1586. The location of the town was predetermined by several factors: strategic placement in order to ensure security from the raids of nomadic tribes; expansion of the Russian state in the Middle and Lower Volga regions; convenient location in the steppe landscape, at the intersection of the Volga and Samarka rivers.
The fortress was wooden with 11 towers, surrounded by a rampart and a moat, and occupied 5.2 hectares. Gradually, the population of the fortress increased, and the surrounding territories were developed. Simultaneously with the fortress in 1586, Boldyrskaya Sloboda arose on the Volga slope, and around 1645, upstream the Volga, Voznesenskaya Sloboda. During the 17th century, the settlements merged into a single whole.
In 1688, the settlement received the status of a city, which required the development of the first boundary plan. It is known that by the beginning of the 18th century the city stretched in a narrow strip along the Volga slope. From 1703 to 1706, a new earthen, diamond-shaped form was built to the east of the old fortress. The layout was unsystematic, with small blocks of bizarre shapes. Almost the entire territory was occupied by residential buildings and administrative, commercial and military buildings were concentrated only in the fortress. The territories along the banks of the Volga and Samarka were occupied by marinas and barns. By 1717, there were 210 philistine houses and 17 houses of yasak peasants in Samara. The settlement grew slowly due to its border position and by the end of the 18th century it occupied 61.2 hectares of territory, compactly stretching along the banks of the Volga.
In 1763, Empress Catherine II signed an order "On the making of all cities, their buildings and streets of special plans for each province especially." In the 70s, extensive activities were launched by the “Commission on the Stone Buildings of St. Petersburg and Moscow” to rebuild provincial cities. At the same time, the development of the first master plan for Samara began. In 1764, the settlement changed its administrative status, becoming a settlement. In 1780 it again received the status of a county town. In 1765 and 1772 it was badly damaged by fires. Despite these obstacles, in 1782 Samara received the first master plan with a rectangular grid of streets. According to the plan, the territory of the city was subject to a complete redevelopment: all buildings were liquidated, with the exception of several churches, houses and a fortress. In 1796, a second reconstruction plan was drawn up, identical to the first. As a result of its implementation, by 1804 the territory of Samara had increased to 70.4 hectares. The basis for the planning of the northern part of the city was a rectangular quarter measuring 130 × 260 m. The southern part of the settlement retained its irregular character. The main type of building of this period is a low-rise estate. The directions of the streets were determined by the direction of the channel, the so-called Samara break. The city was divided into functional zones: residential areas with trade facilities, administrative and religious buildings. Community centers were located around churches and at the ship's pier. Forges were located on the outskirts of the city. The fortress occupied 3.6 hectares, divided into a residential zone, an administrative zone (offices, a prison, a storehouse), a public one (a court, a thought), a commercial, an industrial one (warehouses, piers, forges, barns). In 1804, a new plan for the reconstruction and expansion of Samara was drawn up, following the model of the previous ones. The old buildings in the south of the city were demolished, and a regular layout appeared in its place. In 1839, the plan was almost completely implemented. The territory of Samara has increased by 3.5 times (246.4 ha). The city occupied the entire territory along the watershed of the Volga and Samara rivers, the banks of which were built up with marinas, grain barns, warehouses, and small-scale industries. The Samara fortress was still preserved, but had already lost its significance.
In 1840, a new development plan was approved, according to which the territory of the city expanded further along the watershed, while maintaining the planning structure. The new plan reflected the nature of the prevailing wooden buildings (stone houses accounted for only 10% of the total). The size of the quarters remained the same, the city grew at the expense of adjacent agricultural land. As a major trading center, with a railroad, Samara in 1851 received the status of a provincial city. The general plan of 1853 regulated only building within the city limits, however, the settlement began to grow chaotically, numerous industrial facilities appeared: tanneries, oil mills, brick factories and mills. The development of navigation along the Volga led to the fact that piers, warehouses, sawmills and other factories occupied the entire Volga coast of the city. From 1875 to 1877, a private railway to Orenburg was built through Samara, laid along the banks of the Samara River. The residential part of the city was cut off from the banks of the industrial rivers, with the exception of a small section of the Strukovsky Garden, overlooking the Volga. By the end of the 19th century, Samara was a single planning space with a regular plan (with the exception of the Zasamarskaya settlement, which arose no later than the end of the 18th century).
Text from the Wikipedia article “Samara”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.