Ufa (Advanced Level)
Ufa, city in southeastern European Russia, is located on the western slopes of the Southern Ural Mountains. It is the capital of the Republic of Bashqortostan, an autonomous region of the Russian Federation. From 1922 to 1991, Ufa was the capital of the Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (ASSR) of Soviet Russia. In 1991 the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) broke apart, and Bashkortostan became a constituent republic of Russia.
Ufa was founded in 1574 as a fortress by Mikhail Nagoi on the orders of Ivan IV the Terrible. Since 1586 it is the first Russian town in the area called Bashkiria. It was built as a fortress upon a mountain at the confluence of the rivers Belaya and Ufa.
In Bashkir these rivers are called Aghidel (White river) and Qaraidel (Black River). The Ufa is a right tributary of the Belaya. The Dyoma river is a left tributary flowing into the Belaya in the southern part of the city of Ufa. The Belaya is the longest river in Bashqortostan. Its length is 1430 km (889 miles). The river Belaya is one of most popular of the Ural's rivers for rafting. Ufa stretches from the south to the north for more than forty kilometres. It occupies the area of about 500 square km. Its population is more than one million of inhabitants (as of 2002 census: 1,042,437).
Ufa is an industrial city in which mining and electrical equipment, refined petroleum, forest products, chemicals, synthetic rubber, and processed foods are manufactured. There is an important petrochemical complex comprising three oil refineries, a plant producing synthetic spirit and a chemical plant. There is also a large engineering plant and a lot of factories.
Ufa is a cultural centre. There are many research institutions and the Bashkir branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Thousands of students study at such higher educational institutions as the Bashkir State University, the M.Akmulla Bashkir State Pedagogical University, the Ufa Aviation State Technical University, the Bashkir State Medical University, The Ufa State Academy of Arts, the Bashkir State Agricultural University, the Ufa State Petroleum Technical University, and others.
There are such theatres as the Bashkir State Opera and Ballet Theatre, the Bashkir (Academic Drama) Theatre, the Republican (Academic) Russian Theatre, the Ufa State Tatar “Nur” Theatre, the National Youth Theatre of RB, the Bashkir State Puppet Theatre and some others. Many fine paintings are exhibited at the Nesterov Museum and Gallery. There is also the National Museum of Bashqortostan and a lot of libraries. There are also many stadiums and various sports facilities.
There are many monuments in Ufa. The most famous ones are the Monument of Friendship, the Monument to Salawat Yulayev and the Monument to Lenin.
The Monument of Friendship commemorates Bashqortostan`s voluntary joining the Russian state in 1557 after the fall of the Khanate of Kazan. It was erected in 1965 on the hill overlooking the Belaya where previously stood the Ufa fortress and later the Trinity church. The monument was designed by M.Baburin and G.Levitskaya.
The mounted statue of Salawat Yulayev on the steep mountain overlooks the Belaya embankment. The monument was created by sculptor Soslanbek Tavasiev. Salawat Yulayev is the national hero of Bashqortostan. He led the Bashkir rebels in the Pugachev Rebellion of 1773-1775. After the rebellion had been suppressed, the twenty-year old Salawat Yulayev was taken prisoner and brought to Ufa for interrogation and punishment. He was convicted to hard labour for life in a Baltic fortress where he died in 1800.
The monument to Vladimir Lenin in the Lenin Public Garden was made in 1924. It went through several reconstructions. It is the first monument of the “sitting” Soviet leader in our country,
