Samara

Samara (Russian: Сама́ра, IPA: ), known from 1935 to 1991 as Kuybyshev (Куйбышев; IPA: ), is the ninth largest city in Russia and the administrative center of Samara Oblast. Some statistics indicate that it is the eighth or ninth-largest city by population, rather than sixth. It is in the southeastern part of European Russia at the confluence of the Volga and Samara rivers, on the east bank of the Volga which acts as the city's western boundary; across the river are the Zhiguli Mountains, after which the local beer (Zhigulyovskoye) is named. The northern boundary is formed by the Sokolyi Hills and by the steppes in the south and east. The city covers 46,597 hectares (115,140 acres), with a population of 1,164,685 (2010 Census); the metropolitan area of Samara, Tolyatti and Syzran has a population of over 3 million. It is about 300 kilometres (190 mi) from Kazan, 410 kilometres (250 mi) from Ufa, 340 kilometres (210 mi) from Saratov and 235 kilometres (146 mi) from Oral, Kazakhstan.Golaz-AKA-6226 busScania OmniLink busZiU-682 trolleybusAKSM-321 low-floor trolleybusTatra T3 tramTatra T3 tramsSamara MetroSamara railway stationKurumoch International Airport Samara (Russian: Сама́ра, IPA: ), known from 1935 to 1991 as Kuybyshev (Куйбышев; IPA: ), is the ninth largest city in Russia and the administrative center of Samara Oblast. Some statistics indicate that it is the eighth or ninth-largest city by population, rather than sixth. It is in the southeastern part of European Russia at the confluence of the Volga and Samara rivers, on the east bank of the Volga which acts as the city's western boundary; across the river are the Zhiguli Mountains, after which the local beer (Zhigulyovskoye) is named. The northern boundary is formed by the Sokolyi Hills and by the steppes in the south and east. The city covers 46,597 hectares (115,140 acres), with a population of 1,164,685 (2010 Census); the metropolitan area of Samara, Tolyatti and Syzran has a population of over 3 million. It is about 300 kilometres (190 mi) from Kazan, 410 kilometres (250 mi) from Ufa, 340 kilometres (210 mi) from Saratov and 235 kilometres (146 mi) from Oral, Kazakhstan. Formerly a closed city, Samara is now a large and important social, political, economic, industrial, and cultural centre in European 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 considered one of the favourite recreation places both for local citizens and tourists. After the 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.' Samara is named after the Samara River, which probably means 'summer water' (signifying that it froze in winter) in the Indo-Iranian language which was spoken here 2000 years ago. The Samara city gives its name to the Samara culture, a neolithic culture of the 5th millennium BC, and the Kurgan hypothesis associates the region with the original homeland (urheimat) of the Proto-Indo-European language. 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. Legend has it that Alexius, Metropolitan of Moscow, later Patron Saint of Samara, visited the site of the city in 1357 and predicted that a great town would be erected there, and that the town would never be ravaged. 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 whenever the pirates organized 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 government Duma led by Pyotr V. 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. The quick growth of Samara's economy in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was determined by the scope of the bread trade and flour milling business. The Samara Brewery came into being in the 1880s, as well as the Kenitser Macaroni Factory, an ironworks, a confectionery factory, and a factory producing matches. The town acquired a number of magnificent private residences and administrative buildings. The Trading Houses of the Subbotins, Kurlins, Shikhobalovs, and Smirnovs—founders of the flour milling industry, who contributed a lot to the development of the city—were widely known not only across Russia, but also internationally wherever Samara's wheat was exported. In its rapid growth Samara resembled many young North American cities, and contemporaries coined the names 'Russian New Orleans' and 'Russian Chicago' for the city. By the start of the 20th century, the population exceeded 100,000, and the city was the major trading and industrial centre of the Volga region. During the October Revolution of 1917, Samara was seized by the Bolsheviks. However, on June 8, 1918, with the armed support of the Czechoslovak Legions, the city was taken by the Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly, or Komuch, who organised a 'democratic counter-revolution', which at its height encompassed twelve million people. They fought under the Red flag against the Bolsheviks. On October 7, 1918, Samara fell to the Fourth Army of the Red Army.