Ulyanovsk
From Free net encyclopedia
- For the Soviet aircraft carrier, see Soviet aircraft carrier Ulyanovsk.
Ulyanovsk (Template:Lang-ru), formerly Simbirsk (Template:Lang), is a city on the Volga River in Russia, 893 km east from Moscow. Both Vladimir Lenin and Alexander Kerensky were born there. It is the administrative center of Ulyanovsk Oblast. Population: 635,947 (2002 Census).
| Ulyanovsk | |
|---|---|
| Image:Simbirsk.gif | |
| Federal subject | Ulyanovsk Oblast |
| Mayor | Sergey Yermakov, since 2004 |
| Coordinates | Template:Coor dm |
| Area | 316.9 km² |
| Population | 635,947; 19th largest city in Russia |
| Founded | 1648 |
| City since | 1796 |
| Time zone | UTC +3 |
| Calling Code | 7 8422 |
| Ethnic structure | Russians (70%), Tatars, Chuvash, Mordva |
| Climate | Moderately continental; snow on the ground from late October to mid-April |
| Average temperature of June | +19°C |
| Average temperature of January | −12°C |
| Annual precipitation | 400 mm |
| City Day | June 12 |
| Sister city | Krefeld, Germany |
A frontier fort of "Simbirsk" or "Sinbirsk" was originally built in 1648 on top of the hill on the Western bank of the Volga River, designed to protect the eastern edge of the growing Russian Empire from the nomadic Tatars and to establish a foothold in the area. Just 20 years after founding, this fort managed to withstand a month-long siege by Stenka Razin's forces (some 20,000 in number). As the eastern border of Russia was rapidly pushed into Siberia, Simbirsk soon lost its strategic status and started to grow as a provincial town. It was promoted to city status in 1796. The population of Simbirsk reached 26,000 by 1856; 43,000 by 1897. In 1924 the city was renamed "Ulyanovsk" in honor of Vladimir Ulyanov, better known as Lenin.
A railway bridge across the Volga was built in 1912–1916 and two automobile lanes were added to it in 1953–1958, allowing for the city to expand on the Eastern bank of the river and turning it into a transportation hub. The Kuybyshev hydroelectric plant was built 200 km south of Ulyanovsk in 1955–1957, flooding significant territories north and south of Ulyanovsk and increasing the width of Volga by up to 25–35 km in some places, 3–6 km near Ulyanovsk. At the present time, the aging and congested Ulyanovsk bridge is the only bridge across the Volga river along the 400 km stretch from Kazan to Tolyatti. A second bridge has been under construction since the late 1980s, but it is still far from being complete. When finished, it will be one of the largest bridges in Europe, at 5.5 km.
During the Soviet period, Ulyanovsk lost much of its historical heritage. All traces of the original wooden fort are gone, as are all churches of old Simbirsk; only a few 19th century buildings remain in the city, most notably, the houses where Lenin lived between 1870–1887. Some famous residents of Ulyanovsk are also remembered, such as historian Nikolai Karamzin and writer Ivan Goncharov. A semi-serious massive campaign for renaming Ulyanovsk into "Oblomovsk", after Oblomov, a character of Goncharov's novel, took place in 2003.
Ulyanovsk is a significant industrial city. It is home to UAZ, a large automobile manufacturing plant, and Aviastar, an airplane plant that is best known as the manufacturer of the heavy aircraft An-124 "Ruslan", as well as a number of smaller factories.
External links
cs:Uljanovsk de:Uljanowsk et:Uljanovsk el:Ουλιάνοφσκ eo:Uljanovsk fr:Oulianovsk ko:울리야놉스크 hr:Uljanovsk it:Ulyanovsk he:אוליינובסק mo:Ульяновск nl:Oeljanovsk ja:ウリヤノフスク pl:Symbirsk pt:Ulyanovsk ro:Ulianovsk ru:Ульяновск sv:Uljanovsk