Ulyanovsk Located on the World Map of Russia

Ulyanovsk is located at a quite strategic bend on the west bank of the Volga River, at about 700 kilometres east of Moscow. The city is the administrative centre of Ulyanovsk Oblast and has an area of 316.9 square kilometres, combining historical promenades of the city along the river with a modern residential and industrial district. It is set at an average of 150 meters above sea level and thus delivers sweeping vistas of not only the Volga but also of its tributary, the Sviyaga. Ulyanovsk is a city with a population of more than 620,000 people in Russia, as one of the fifty largest cities in the country.

History

According to archaeological studies, the lands around the modern Ulyanovsk were habitable by human beings more than 100,000 years ago. The stone tools of Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers were deposited on the old terraces of rivers, and Neolithic and Bronze Age settlers were built in the hinterland surrounded by fortified villages. In the course of centuries, Finno-Ugric tribes, Bulgar and Khazar traders, and, finally, Tatar groups, sent their boatmen to go through the currents of the Volga, setting up seasonal camps and burial mounds tracing the significance of the river as a trading route.

In 1648, boyar Bogdan Khitrovo convinced Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich to build a wooden fortress called Simbirsk on a bluff above the Volga. The Kremlin was a fortification receipts to defend the northeastern region of Muscovy, the palisades and earth embankment defence intercepted nomadic attacks and stamped Russian sovereignty in the Middle Volga. By the late 1660s, Simbirsk had repelled a month-long siege by the Cossack chief, Stepan Razin, further establishing its image as the bastion of the tsarist realm.

The late 18th century was marked by a transition of frontier outpost to a regional capital. In 1796, Simbirsk was promoted to the city rank by Empress Catherine II, and a burst of neoclassical building followed: merchant houses were built in stone along narrowed streets, the cathedral of the Holy Trinity was erected between 1827 and 1841, and assembly halls characterised a developing civic life. Steamboats navigated alongside new quays, entering the river ports with engines, and in 1874, Simbirsk's integration into imperial transport lines occurred when the Trans-Volga railway appeared.

In July 1864, a disastrous fire destroyed more than three-fourths of the wooden buildings of the city in the duration of nine days. Its aftermath reconstruction was more severe in terms of the extent of fire; large boulevards acted as firebreaks; timber was banished by the use of brick and stone facades, and a public square became a second muster ground of volunteer brigades. By 1897, its population recovered to more than 43,000, stimulated by textile mills, tanneries and glassworks that mushroomed around the outskirts of the city.

The beginning of the 20th century marked not only revolution but also modernisation. Here was born Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, later to be known as Lenin, in 1870, and his childhood home was converted into a shrine of the revolutionary after 1917. Ulyanovsk formally replaced Simbirsk as the name of the city in 1924 as an honour paid to the most renowned native son. During the Five-Year Plans introduced by Stalin, the Soviets built an aeroplane factory, a bus factory, and workshops of heavy machinery, which grew wider in the course of World War II, when evacuated western industries were situated in the safer plains of the city.

The Soviet era re-shaping of Ulyanovsk under Khrushchev and Brezhnev included apartment blocks, the palaces of culture and the broad avenues that definitively shaped the Soviet urban appearance. Economic transformation in the form of privatisation, closing or selling of state-owned factories and opening up of small and medium enterprises in car parts manufacturing, food processing and digital services began in 1991 when the USSR collapsed. At the same time, historic districts were revitalised and new theatres, galleries, and college campuses pointed to the transition of the city to a diversified economy and rich civic life.

Culture

The fewest citizens of Ulyanovsk know that the city was voted by UNESCO City of Literature, which outlines a history going back to the Golden Age of Russian letters. It is the native-town of the novelist Ivan Goncharov (1812-1891) and of the historian Nikolay Karamzin (1766-1826), whose Oblomov satirised aristocratic sloth, and whose History of the Russian State was written in several volumes. The Goncharov House Museum and Karamzin Public Library conserve manuscripts and letters and even period writing desks, allowing the visitor to make a journey through the history of the Russian craft of narrative writing.

There are literary and arts festivals throughout the year. The Oblomov Festival, revolving around the motto, Get Off the Sofa, recruits people to perform scenes from Goncharov's novel, organises folktale slams and readings in cafes and the parks. Poetry fragments are read (day and night) by mobile Literary Phone Booths placed in promenades. Read-and-Forest puts book exchanges on nature trails, and individuals experience nature bathing and a book discovery.

Exhibitions in the streets and visual arts on the streets make the place lively. Social-realist canvases alternate with multimedia installations that are movable and interactive design labs in the Museum of Contemporary Art. Facades of downtown buildings are decorated with murals that are driven by the local writing, intertwining quotations of literary phrases with bold fields of colour. Artists in pop-up galleries in renovated factory halls draw attention to new painters and sculptors, establishing intercourse between the past and a brand new trend.

The experience is completed with traditional crafts and local food. Markets are filled with Chuvash woven fabrics, carved woodwork of the Mordvin artisans and earthenware with more Slavic features combined with some of the Tatar ornamentation. Beef stroganoff, solyanka and mushroom julienne are served as well as Tatar chak-chak desserts and Mordvin honey cake in cafes. The heritage- and yet novelty-related craft breweries combine locally brewed ales with the Volga perch and lamb tasting menus.

Outdoor activities and sports invoke the social life of Ulyanovsk. Fans fill modern stadiums to observe a local football and basketball game, whereas an amateur regatta on the Volga preserves centuries-old traditions of rowing. The marathons and cycles run through authentic river banks and lanes in the park, and open-air yoga festivals take place on lawns to greet the sunrise. These practices generate a vibe of health, friendship and participation in the green areas of the city.

Language

The major language spoken in Ulyanovsk is Russian, which the inhabitants use in carrying out business at the governmental level, education, and other general store activities. The speech of the inhabitants of the area has the features of the Central Russian dialect, especially a weakening of the unstressed vowel and modifications of voiced consonants. It may happen that the radio programs and even local newspapers comment on these language peculiarities with civic pride in having a unique way of expressing the standard Russian in the city.

Multiethnic composition The Oblast of Ulyanovsk has a sizable Tatar, Chuvash, Mordvin, Ukrainian and Armenian population. Every group retains their native language using cultural organisations, bilingual churches and weekend language schools. Folk groups sing and dance the songs and epic poems in their native languages, and, at community centre oral history evenings, preserve poems composed in their dialects, legends, and family histories. Within the last several decades, bilingualism and language acquisition were promoted by municipal and educational programs. In public schools, Tatar and Chuvash languages and literature classes are the electives.

Geography

Ulyanovsk is situated at a picturesque junction where the Sviyaga River branches out into the Volga, creating natural ports and serpentine backwaters. The west quarter rests on lofty terraces as the eastern neighbourhoods drift into flood plains below and oxbow lakes. Such wetlands form part of the Volga-Kama ecological transboundary corridor, where they serve as habitat to migratory waterfowl and as a spawning habitat to sturgeon, pike and other freshwater fish.

There is a humid continental climate that characterises four seasons. Winter takes place between November and March, and the average lowest temperatures of January reach about -12 °C, and the average snow cover counts 50 centimetres. Spring thaw causes an overflow of the Volga as it floods areas of low banks and refills wetlands with water. The summer period is mildly hot and humid, and July temperatures reach the highest point of +25 °C. Golden poplar woods and the clean view of rivers can be seen during clear autumn.

There is a transport connection that links Ulyanovsk to the national and international system. There are two river ports where cargoes of barges and passenger steamers are stationed. The Trans-Siberian Railway crosses a large freight yard in the northern outskirts of the city. Ulyanovsk Vostochny Airport provides domestic flights and charter flights during the season. The city is connected with Kazan, Samara, Nizhny Novgorod and further by a network of highways.

There is environmental management, which deals with flood control, quality of air and habitat protection. In the 1990s, the withdrawal of natural levees and wetlands was reintroduced in municipalities to provide buffer areas to receive high water in the spring floods. The standards of French factories and transport are informed by the air-quality monitoring network. It is through collaborations with the local universities that sponsored research on sustainable urban growth can be conducted, so that the riverscapes and forest land behind Ulyanovsk can be both a source of resources and a liability to future generations.

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