Samara

Capital city and river port of Samara oblast (region), west-central Russian Federation; population (2002) 1,157,900. Samara is located on the River Volga and the main Trans-Siberian Railway, 820 km/510 mi southeast of Moscow. It is a major industrial centre, with large heavy-engineering industries (producing road vehicles and railway rolling stock), as well as chemical, oil-processing, wood-processing, and light industries.

Samara was founded in 1586 as a fortress; it became a town in 1688, the provincial capital in 1851, and the seat of the anti-Bolshevik Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly in 1918. The city was provisional capital of the USSR 1941-43; many Soviet government departments and foreign diplomatic missions moved here during World War II. The city contains several higher-education institutions and a theatre (founded in 1851). In 1935, Samara's name was changed in honour of the Soviet politician V V Kuibyshev; it reverted to its original name after the fall of communism.

Samara's industrial development dates from the late 19th century, when it became an important centre of the flour-milling and grain trade. The metalworking industry in the city dates from World War I. Rapid industrial expansion took place in the 1930s and particularly during World War II, when many factories were relocated here from the west. The building of the Volga hydroelectric power station in the 1950s, which created the Kuibyshev Sea, an artificial lake some 480 km/300 mi long, further increased the city's industrial capacity.