Ufa

Ufa ) is the capital city of the Republic of Bashkortostan, Russia, and the industrial, economic, scientific and cultural center of the republic. Population: 1,105,667 (2015).

History

Gerardus Mercator's map of Europe with Pascherti (Bashkort) settlement presumably in the position of modern Ufa. Map was compiled in 1554, twenty years before the official date of the foundation of Ufa.

Ancient History — 16th century

Early history of the surrounding area of Ufa out in Paleolithic times.

Presumably in the 5th to the 16th centuries on the site of Ufa there was a medieval city. On the map of Pizzigano brothers (1367) and on the Catalan Atlas (1375) approximately on the Belaya River was designated a town Pascherti (Bashkort), On the Gerardus Mercator's map (1554) also marked the settlement with the Pascherti name. French orientalist Henri Cordier associates the position of Pascherti with the current location of Ufa.

Ibn Khaldun among the largest cities of the Golden Horde called the town Bashkort.

Russian historian of the XVIII century Peter Rychkov wrote that on the territory of Ufa before the arrival of the Russians there was a great city.

The official of the Orenburg Governorate government Vasily Rebelensky wrote that Ufa was founded by the Bashkirs.

16th — 18th centuries

Early color photograph of Ufa taken in 1910 by Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky

By order of Ivan the Terrible on the site of modern Ufa was built fortress in 1574, and originally bore the name of the hill it stood on, Tura-Tau. After the outbreak of the Pugachev's Rebellion, it went through the most brutal events in its early history, as the fortress and the city were in the middle of the military actions. For several months during the winter of 1773–1774, Ufa was under siege by Cossack and Bashkir insurgents until they were fought off by the arrived government forces.

Before becoming the seat of a separate Ufa Governorate in 1781, the city, along with the rest of the Bashkir lands, was under the jurisdiction of the Orenburg governors. And even though the 1796 reform reunited Orenburg and Ufa again, in 1802 the city of Ufa became a new center of the entire Orenburg Governorate that included large territories of modern-day Republic of Bashkortostan, Orenburg Oblast, and Chelyabinsk Oblast. During the 1800-1810s, Scottish Russian architect William Heste developed a general city plan for Ufa as a regional capital shaping the modern outline of its historical center.

19th century — modern days

A stamp with the view of Sovetskaya street in Ufa, 1961

The Belaya River Waterway (1870) and the Samara-Zlatoust Railroad (1890) connected the city to the European part of the Russian Empire and stimulated development of the city's light industry. As a result, in 1913 the population of Ufa grew to 100,000.

During World War II, following eastward Soviet retreat in 1941, a number of industrial enterprises of the western parts of the Soviet Union were evacuated to Ufa. The city also became the wartime seat of the Soviet Ukrainian government.

During 9—10 July 2015 Ufa hosted summits of the BRICS group and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.

Geography and climate

Autumn Ufa. 2008 year.

Ufa is situated in eastern Europe near its land boundary with Asia, at the confluence of the Belaya (Agidel) and Ufa Rivers, on low hills forming the Ufa Plateau to the west of the southern Urals. The area of the city is 707,9 km². The length from North to South is 53.5 km, from West to East is 29.8 km (the widest part).

Education and science

Educational institutions include:

• Bashkir State University
• Ufa State Aviation Technical University
• Ufa State Petroleum Technological University
• Bashkir State Medical University

Graduate universities and Law Schools:

• Ural State Law Academy Ufa's campus

Scientific institutions include:

• Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Bashkortostan
• Ufa Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Science (USC RAS)

Religion

Lyalya Tyolpan Mosque and Cathedral of the Nativity of the Theotokos.

The main religious confessions in the city are Islam (Sunni) and Orthodox Christianity.