Ufa


Ufa is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Bashkortostan in Russia, and is considered to be the industrial, economic, scientific and cultural center of the republic. As of the 2010 Census, the population of Ufa was 1,062,319, making it the eleventh most populous city in Russia, and the fourth most populated in the Volga Federal District. Ufa lies on the confluence of the Belaya and Ufa Rivers in the centre-north of Bashkortostan, on hills forming the Ufa Plateau to the west of the southern Urals.
The city is considered to have been founded in 1574, when a fortress was built on the site of the city by order of Ivan the Terrible. Ufa was made capital of Ufa Governorate in 1865, when the governorate split from Orenburg Governorate. Ufa's population expanded during the early 20th century. Today, Ufa's economy consists primarily of the oil refining, chemistry, and mechanical engineering industries; the petroleum company Bashneft and several of its subsidiaries are headquartered in Ufa.
Ufa hosted separate summits of the BRICS group as well as the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in the same year, 2015. Ufa is linked by railways and two federal highways to the rest of Russia: the M5 and M7 highways. The city is served by Ufa International Airport. As the capital of Bashkortostan, it is home to a substantial number of ethnic Tatars and Bashkirs.
A number of educational institutions are located in Ufa, including Bashkir State University, Ufa State Aviation Technical University, Ufa State Petroleum Technological University, and Ural State Law University. Ufa is home to The Russian-Bashkir Friendship Monument, the Monument to Salavat Yulaev, Lala Tulpan mosque, and the Ufa Cathedral.

Etymology

The name Ufa comes from the Ufa River on which the city lies. The origin of the river's name is, however, disputed. The Russian linguist Aleksandr Matveyev proposes that the name is of Iranian origin, from "ap", meaning water.

History

Early history of the surrounding area of Ufa dates back to Paleolithic times. Presumably, from the 5th to the 16th century there was a medieval city on the site of Ufa. On the Pizzigano brothers' map and on the Catalan Atlas a town approximately on the Belaya River was designated Pascherti, and Gerardus Mercator's map 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 called the town, among the largest cities of the Golden Horde, Bashkort.
Russian historian of the 18th century Peter Rychkov wrote that there was a great city on the territory of Ufa before the arrival of the Russians.
The official of the Orenburg Governorate government Vasily Rebelensky wrote that Ufa was founded by the Bashkirs.
By order of Ivan the Terrible a fortress was built on the site of modern Ufa in 1574, and originally bore the name of the hill it stood on, Tura-Tau. 1574 is now considered to be the official date of Ufa's foundation. Town status was granted to it in 1586.
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.
The Belaya River Waterway and the Samara-Zlatoust Railroad connected the city to the European part of the Russian Empire and stimulated development of the city's light industry. As a result, by 1913 the population of Ufa grew to 100,000. During World War II, following eastward Soviet retreat in 1941, the Abwehr operated in Ufa, 1941–1943, some German infiltration, occurred 1914–1943 in espionage, 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.

Administrative and municipal status

Ufa is the capital of the republic and, within the framework of the administrative divisions, it also serves as the administrative center of Ufimsky District, even though it is not a part of it. As an administrative division, it is, together with twenty-four rural localities, incorporated separately as the city of republic significance of Ufa, an administrative unit with status equal to that of the districts. As a municipal division, the city of republic significance of Ufa is incorporated as Ufa Urban Okrug.

Economy

According to Forbes, in 2013, Ufa was the best city in Russia for business among cities with population over one million.
Many urban enterprises engaged in oil refining, chemistry, and mechanical engineering reside in Ufa. Additionally, the economy of Ufa is composed of many fuel, energy, and engineering complexes.
Ufa is home to about 200 large and medium industrial enterprises.
Some important enterprises in Ufa include:
Ufa is linked by railways to the rest of Russia, having a railway station on a historic branch of the Trans-Siberian Railway. Ufa is the only city connected to Moscow by more than one federal highway. The M7 motorway links the city to Kazan and Moscow and the M5 motorway links Ufa to Moscow and to the Asian part of Russia.
The Ufa International Airport has international flights to Turkey, Tajikistan, Egypt, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan,
and Cyprus as well as domestic flights to many Russian cities and towns, including Moscow.
The Ufa Metro is a planned and oft-delayed subway system, discussed since the late 1980s. On May 30, 1996, there was a ceremony marking the beginning of preparatory construction work, attended by then-President Boris Yeltsin.
Public transportation in Ufa includes trams and trolleybuses, as well as bus and marshrutka lines.

Demographics

The population of Ufa exceeded one million in 1980. It currently ranks 11th among Russian cities by population, and the 29th among cities in Europe by city proper. As of January 1, 2009, the city accounted for 25.4% of all residents of the republic or 42.2% of the urban population.
As of the 2010 Census, the ethnic composition of Ufa was:
EthnicityNumberPercentage
Russians494,72348.9%
Tatars286,40928.3%
Bashkirs172,79417.1%
Ukrainian12,4851.2%
others-4.5%

Geography

Ufa is situated in Eastern Europe near its land boundary with Northern Asia, at the confluence of the Belaya and Ufa Rivers, on low hills forming the Ufa Plateau to the west of the southern Urals. The area of the city is. It stretches from north to south for and from west to east for.

Climate

Ufa has a warm summer continental climate. It is characterised by harsh winters but in some cases summers can be quite hot.

Governance

;Local government
The bodies of local self-government of Ufa are:
ClubSportFoundedCurrent LeagueLeague
Rank		Stadium
Salavat Yulaev UfaIce Hockey1961Kontinental Hockey League1stUfa Arena
Tolpar UfaIce Hockey2009Minor Hockey LeagueJr. 1stIce Palace Salavat Yulaev
HC Agidel UfaIce Hockey2010Russian Women's Hockey League1stIce Palace Salavat Yulaev
FC UfaFootball2009Russian Premier League1stNeftyanik Stadium
Ural UfaVolleyball1992Volleyball Super League1stDynamo Sports Palace
Samrau-UGNTUVolleyball1970Women's Volleyball Super League2ndDynamo Sports Palace
Ugntu-VNZMHandball1960Russian Handball Super League1stSports Complex UGNTU
Ufa-AlisaHandball1989Russian Women's Handball Super League1stFOK Sports School 32
UfimetsBasketball20123rdBGAU

Education and science

Educational institutions include:
Graduate universities and law schools:
Scientific institutions include:
In Ufa there is the Ufa branch of the Financial University and the Ufa branch of the Russian State Economic University. Plekhanov, where there are practically no check digits for admissions to the budget. They are housed in good-quality buildings, but they don't benefit from them to society, more and more often rumors are circulating about them that they are designed for siphoning money - since there are practically no budget places for economic specialties in Ufa. In the economic specialties of the magistracy, the plan for admission to Ufa universities is no more than 30 budget places.

Ecological problems

Periodically, a suffocating, unpleasant chemical smell is felt on the territory of the Ufa. The media reports about the smell come out with an enviable regularity. All these reports are not groundless, and the culprits are getting out of responsibility due to the fact that there is no Continuous Emission Control System in the city.
Absence of cleaning streets, there are no street vacuum cleaners, road vacuum sweepers, industrial vacuum cleaners on the streets. Unfortunately, there is a complete lack of cleaning in the city.
According to the letter of the Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring No. 20-18 / 218 of 11.07.18: "In the framework of solving problems at the federal level in the implementation of the state monitoring of atmospheric air, the territorial office of Roshydromet - FGBU Bashkir UGMS monitors pollution of atmospheric air in Ufa at 9 stationary posts of the state observation network located in different parts of the city to estimate the level of air pollution generated by the total release and stationary and mobile sources of pollutants. Suspended substances are measured at all 9 posts of the state observation network. The results of observations of the pollutants content are presented on the official website of the Bashkir State Hydrometeorological Service in the section "Monitoring of environmental pollution" daily and monthly. In 2017, the maximum single concentration of suspended solids reached 4.6 MPC m. in March 2017, at the address: Oktyabrya Ave., 141, located near the motorway with heavy traffic, and in April 2017 at the post: Dostoyevsky St., 102/1, located in the area of the industrial enterprise. During 2017 almost all posts of the state observation network recorded exceedances of a single concentration of suspended substances. At the same time, in order to implement regional state environmental oversight aimed at preventing, detecting and suppressing violations by public authorities, local authorities, and legal entities, individual entrepreneurs and citizens of requirements in the field of atmospheric air protection, under the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment of the Republic Bashkortostan operates the State Bank of the Republic of Belarus "Office of State Analytical Control", to whose tasks, including GSI "organization of periodic environmental monitoring mobile laboratories in the areas where the population lives in the republic and in the zones of protective measures in the system of the general program of integrated environmental and sanitary-hygienic monitoring. " Going to the site http://www.meteorb.ru/monitoring/air-pollution-ufa found that all 9 posts of the state observational network of Roshydromet are located at a considerable distance from the area of Inors and Sipaylovo, from residential areas. Control of MPC and air quality in residential areas is not carried out.

Religion

The major religions in the city are Sunni Islam and Russian Orthodoxy. The Bezpopovtsy strain of Russian Old Believers is also registered in Ufa.
Ufa is a place of location of. In 1989, the Russian Islamic University was opened. One of the largest mosques in Europe,, is under construction in Ufa.

Notable people

International relations

Ufa is twinned with: