Saratov Region
// GENERAL INFORMATION
Saratov Region is one of the largest regions of European Russia. A hundred years ago, it was an ordinary backwoods Russian province; but at the same time, it had its own cultural distinctiveness.
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The entire history of this region's development is linked with the Volga River. The people of Saratov Province had been farmers since the early days owing to the region's location in the forest steppe zone of the lower reaches of the Volga. It has a favorable temperate continental climate characterized by snowy winters and hot, dry summers.
Saratov Region borders on Penza, Ulyanovsk, Samara, Orenburg, Volgograd, Voronezh, and Tambov regions, as well as Kazakhstan. The administrative center is the city of Saratov, located in a scenic basin of the Volga Uplands. The city covers an area of 377.93 km2 and has a population of about 900 000.
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The region's geographical location favors the development of a high-capacity regional transportation system. Modern airliners will convey you and your cargo to any point within Russia and beyond. The Volga Railway connects the region with the center of Russia, the Urals, Siberia, the Caucasus, and Central Asia. Water routes link Saratov with Moscow, the Western Urals, the Baltic States, and the Black and White seas.
Saratov is a large industrial center with well-developed power, fuel, petrochemical, engineering, metalworking, woodworking, and light industries.
The region has oil and gas reserves that are being explored and developed by AO Saratovneftegaz, one of the industry's oldest specialized companies. The AO Kreking oil refinery is able to satisfy regional demand for refined oil, as well as the fuel oil and bitumen requirements of construction and road-building companies.
Institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences and a large number of design and research institutes are located in Saratov Region.
The rich cultural traditions of Saratov Province have allowed the cities of Saratov, Balashov, Khvalynsk, Marks, Pugachev, and Petrovsk to be included among Russia's historic sites.
The Radishchev State Art Museum in Saratov has a superb collection of Old Russian, European, Russian Avant-Garde, and Soviet art. Connoisseurs call it the Volga Hermitage.
Saratov Region attracts both business people and tourists. Fresh air and inviting nature have favored the development of holiday homes, health resorts, sports and recreation clubs, and tourist centers. The most popular holiday center is Tantal.
HISTORY
The name "Saratov" is encountered in the name of a people on the Lower Volga (Ptolemy, 2nd century) and in the titles of Russian epic poems (byliny) of the Saratov Mountains, the Saratovka River, and the Saratov Steppe. It also survives in the names of the city of Saratov and Saratov Region. Legends and scientific evidence both say that two great turning points in human history-the revelation of monotheism and domestication of the horse-are associated with the Saratov Volga region. This territory was poetically called the "Land of Apple Trees" and the "Land of Liquorice." The Volga, the steppe, and oak forests were the main elements of nature in the region.
The Saratov Volga was evidently the location of one of the centers of the Old Russian state system (Volga Rus). From the 13th to the 15th centuries, these lands belonged to the Golden Horde and then to the Great Horde. The history of the Golden Horde city of Ukek (Uvek) is closely tied to the history of the new Russian city of Saratov, whose name is said to come from the Tatar words sary tau (Yellow Mountain). Thus, in a way, Saratov can be considered one of Russia's oldest cities.
Saratov's history began in the second half of the 16th century, when, after completing the formation of a centralized Russian state, Tsar Ivan the Terrible finally defeated the remnants of the Golden Horde on the Middle and Lower Volga. Following his plan, a series of fortified towns, including Saratov (1590), were built on the southeastern edge of the extended state boundaries.
Saratov first arose on the right bank of the Volga just above the city's present-day location, where the Guselka River flows into the Volga, forming a cape with a gently sloping plateau. The first town of Saratov was located in the center of this plateau; it was a fortress designed to protect Russian settlers and the Volga trade route from nomads. Two army commanders (voevody), Prince Grigory Osipovich Zasekin and strelets leader Fedor Mikhailovich Turov [the streltsy were members of special military corps set up by Ivan the Terrible], began construction of Saratov Fortress in July 1590.
Since ancient times, the main Old World trade routes from the Black Sea coast, the Caucasus, Persia, Khorezm, the Urals, and Rus had passed through the Saratov Volga. All of this had an impact on the overall cultural level of the resource-rich territory, on the extent of its development, and on its importance in the Russian state system.
A vast Saratov governorship was formed in 1780, but was soon reorganized into Saratov Province, which was considerably larger than the present-day Saratov Region. The coat of arms of the governorship-three silver sterlets [a kind of sturgeon] on a light blue field, symbolizing the abundance of fish and water?was approved in 1781. The fish are arranged in the form of the letter "Y" symbolizing the choice of the proper path.
Saratov Province was a territory with well-developed agriculture and processing industries, fairly high literacy levels among the population, and highly developed cultural forms (theater, fine arts, literature, and publishing).
Saratov's transformation into the provincial capital was accompanied by the appearance of a large number of private enterprises and rapid growth of trade. Saratov gained a reputation as a merchant city. Rapid industrial growth began, new steam-powered mills and oil-pressing factories were built, and the city became a major grain-trading and flour-milling center. In the 19th century, Saratov was not only a granary, but also Russia's "salt gate" and a center of the oil-pressing and fishing industries. Business brought English, French, Belgian, and German settlers to Saratov, which became the center of the Volga Germans. The city led other Russian provinces in attracting foreign capital to industry and in the number of foreign bank offices. In the 1890s, Western investments built the giants of heavy industry, e.g., iron foundries, metal works, an internal-combustion engine factory, a nail and bolt factory, steel mills, and shipyards. A Belgian tram company helped launch Russia's first tram service in Saratov.
This unique fusion of European cultures influenced the city's architecture. The downtown area preserves a large number of private residences and administrative buildings constructed in the provincial modern, pseudogothic, and Moscow baroque styles of the 19th and early 20th centuries. The buildings of the university campus (built in the finest European tradition), the Covered Market (similar to the Paris market), and the conservatory are particularly striking.
Up to 1917, Saratov was also considered the Volga region's largest religious center. An independent diocese (eparchy) and a bishopric functioned here; and Saratov was second only to St. Petersburg in the number of churches of different denominations. The city had more than 70 churches, chapels, and monasteries, 5 of which operate today. One of these is Trinity (Troitsky) Cathedral, the oldest architectural monument of the late 17th century.
Prerevoutionary Saratov was famous for Moskovskaya Street, the longest straight street in Europe. Among the Saratov's modern landmarks is a 2.8-km bridge, one of the longest in Europe.
Saratov's history is connected with the names of some of Russia's outstanding figures, such as Peter the Great, Catherine the Great, traveler and writer Aleksandr Radishchev, Cossack rebel leaders Stenka Razin and Emelyan Pugachev, writer and democrat Nikolai Chernyshevsky, Saratov governor and later Russian prime minister Petr Stolypin, geneticist Nikolai Vavilov, first cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, and philosopher Nikolai Fedorov.
Saratov turned into a major commercial and industrial center of the Volga region. According to the census of 1897, Saratov was the eighth-largest city in the Russian Empire and the third-largest Russian city after Moscow and St. Petersburg.
In the 1890s, Saratov had 18 charitable institutions, shelters, night shelters, inexpensive dining rooms, 2 free hotels, and 24 private societies and communities that represented some of the most interesting associations of people, as for example, a women's trusteeship for the poor, another women's prison committee trusteeship, and assistance for people of insufficient means who wanted a higher education. Today, many of us would be interested in a business support association or an association for aid to shipwreck victims.
In those same years, the intelligentsia gathered strength in Saratov as it did throughout Russia. The government frequently exiled freethinkers to Saratov, which resulted in a more freedom-loving social climate and the formation of numerous intellectual circles in the city.
The first car, imported from Paris, appeared on the streets of Saratov in 1900; and the first movie theater, the Elektrobioskop (now Tsentralny), opened in 1907.
In 1909, Saratov became a university town; and although the university consisted of only a single faculty of medicine, the department heads were future world-famous scientists S. Spasokukotsky, V. Razumovsky, and A. Bogomolets. Also worth noting is the conservatory, which opened in 1912 and became the country's third higher music school.
By 1916, the city had five higher educational institutions. The oldest scientific societies in Russia (medical, hospital, agricultural, archival, and naturalist) laid the foundations for the city's scientific life.
The end of the 19th century gave a strong impetus to Saratov's cultural life. At that time, Russia's first public museum (now the Radishchev State Art Museum), a public theater, and "The Brothers Akim and Petr Nikitin's First Russian Circus" all opened their doors.
Then came 1917. On the night of October 26-27, at 4:00 in the morning, the Soviet executive committee ousted the provincial commissar of the Provisional Government from office and appointed P.A. Lebedev as Soviet provincial commissar.
During the Soviet period, Saratov Region was reorganized into a territory where economic and cultural development greatly exceeded the old levels. New lines of activity that considerably surpassed pre-Revolutionary figures in their extent were repeatedly added to the traditional ones.
The population also increased. As of December 17, 1926, the population of Saratov was 219 547; but according to the All-Union census of 1939, as of January 17, 1939, the population had increased to 375 860.
On the first day of the war (June 22, 1941), 3100 people applied in Saratov to be sent to the front. Then, on October 28, exploratory well N1 in Elshanka near Saratov yielded the first methane gas. During the war, the Kirov Cracking Plant, which supplied fuel to the Stalingrad and Southeastern fronts, was the primary bombing target.
On May 9, 1945, the city held a mass gathering in Revolution Square to celebrate the victory over Fascist Germany.
After the war ended, a new round of economic development began in Saratov.
The Saratov Planetarium began operating in May 1948 in the building of the Alleviate My Sorrows (Utoli moi pechali) Church. Construction of a synthetic alcohol plant began in April 1949; and in June of the same year, the ship Polina Osipenko set out on its first voyage as a floating Pioneer camp of the Saratov city committee of the All-Union Leninist Communist Youth League (VLKSM), the City Board of Education, and the Young Pioneer Palace.
Production of the first Saratov refrigerators began in 1951.
Yuri Gagarin studied at the industrial college from 1951 to 1955. An obelisk was set up on the site near the village of Smelovka, Saratov Region, where Gagarin landed after his historic flight.
In November 1952, the city's first trolleybus line began operating on Lenin St. from the railway station to Revolution Square.
In June 1965, the "Saratov" train set out on its first trip to Moscow. Construction of a highway bridge across the Volga was completed in July of the same year.
In 1975, Victory Park was laid out on Sokolovaya Mountain on a Communist subbotnik [in the USSR, a day of voluntary unpaid work, usually on Saturday (subbota in Russian)] and the paved Saratov-Volgograd highway opened for traffic. In 1978, a new railway station building opened, and Saratov television began broadcasting in color.
In 1979, the first radio telescope in Saratov Region began operating at the university. Enthusiasts at the university had built it over a period of four years.
Today, Saratov is synonymous with airliners, refrigerators, automated machine tools, glass, bearings, synthetic fibers, electronics, and space communications.
MINERAL RESOURCES
Saratov Region has a variety of subsurface resources, including gas, oil, salts, and building materials, which have been deposited according to the region's particular geological structure. The first natural gas source was discovered in Elshanka near Saratov in 1941; and a gas pipeline was later built between Saratov, Nizhny Novgorod, and Cherepovets. Today, the region delivers gas not only to large Russian cities, but also abroad. The gas consists of 94% methane. The largest reserves are located in the Elshansko-Kurdyumovskoe, Sokolovogorskoe, Pesachno-Umetskoe, Goryuchinskoe, Uritskoe, and Stepnovskoe fields. Oil was found soon after the gas discoveries.
Among other resources are the well known Savelevskoe, Ozinskoe, Obshchesyrtovskoe, and Orlovskoe oil shale deposits of the Trans-Volga [the left bank of the Volga, or Zavolzhye]; total identified reserves amount to several billion tons. More than 100 peat deposits located in the valleys of the Khoper and Medveditsa rivers and their tributaries, as well as along tributaries of the Volga. There are deposits of various kinds of building materials, such as chalk, sand, and limestone; and deposits of medium-quality phosphorite containing 20-22% phosphoric anhydride have been discovered on the right bank of the Volga. In addition, the world's second largest aragonite deposit [a semiprecious stone] has been discovered at the Berezovsky quarry in Balakovsky District and the Chapaevsky quarry in Pugachevsky District.
Potassium and magnesium salts alternate with beds of rock salt and anhydride. Potassium salts are used profitably as a valuable fertilizer, which is in especially high demand due to extensive irrigation in the Trans-Volga area.
White writing chalk is used as a raw material for making cement and lime and is also used to fertilize fields in mixtures of peat, manure, and mineral salts. In addition to calcium, chalk often contains phosphorus, which increases its value as a fertilizer. The region has large deposits of limestone, dolomite, and glassmaking sand and more than 50 known deposits of building and ballast sand. Sand accumulations along the Volga River contain reserves of up to 12 million m3. There are also famous large deposits of sand that are the required standard for testing the products of cement plants throughout Russia.
Mineral water has been known in Saratov Region since the mid-19th century; however, larger mineral water reservoirs were discovered later near Saratov during oil drilling operations. A thick artesian aquifer of hydrosulfuric mineral water similar to Matsesta [from Sochi] was discovered at a depth of 228 m at Sokolovaya Mountain on the bank of the Volga. The water has a total salt concentration of 1%; it contains boron, bromine, iodine, and hydrogen sulfide and is noted for its radioactivity.
ECONOMY
Saratov Region is part of the Volga economic district and is in third place within it in the scale of industrial development. Engineering and the chemical, oil refining, and food industries account for the largest share of production.
The largest companies in Saratov Region are the Balakovo Nuclear Power Plant (Balakovskaya AES), the Saratov Aircraft Plant (Saratovsky aviazavod; produces Yak airplanes), and the Khimvolokno Production Association (PO Khimvolokno).
The Volsk-16 chemical warfare test range, a major air base (Engels), and part of the Kapustin Yar test range are located in the region.
In the area of agriculture, the main crops are wheat, rye, corn, millet, barley, sugar beets, sunflowers, mustard, flax, and vegetables and cattle, pigs, sheep, and poultry are raised.
The region's leading engineering companies are located in the cities of Engels and Saratov. Their main products include machine tools, trolleybuses, farm machinery, bearings, diesel engines, and refrigerators.
The chemical and petrochemical industries are concentrated in Balakovo, Saratov, and Engels. They produce chemical and other fibers, general rubber goods, and mineral and phosphate fertilizers.
The building material industry produces bricks, stone, and building blocks.
AO Saratovneftegaz explores for and produces oil and gas from the region's fields. Companies like AO Kreking, which produces refined oil, fuel oil, and bitumen for regional needs, is representative of the fuel industry.
Along with the Balakovo Nuclear Power Plant, the regional power base also includes the Saratov Hydroelectric Power Plant (Saratovskaya GES) on the Volga River. The parent company is OAO Saratovenergo.
The electronics and instrument-making industries are characterized by a high concentration of original technologies and specialists skilled in high-end production. These enterprises have associated research institutes and experimental design offices that work on high-level scientific developments.
The food industry of Saratov Region is the third largest in the Volga region. The meat and dairy industries have more than a 50% share in total output, and flour and cereal production accounts for the rest.
Companies such as Alternativa (batik-style silk goods) and the Dinamo sportswear factory (a wide range of cotton and synthetic goods) represent light industry. Saratov Region is Russia's largest producer of silk fabrics.
There are nearly 100 joint ventures with foreign companies registered in the region. Foreign participants include companies from the United States, Austria, Bulgaria, Hungary, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Spain, India, Switzerland, Serbia and Montenegro, China, France, Poland, Greece, Canada, Israel, and Guinea-Bissau.
Saratov Region's primary exports are raw materials and chemical and petrochemical products, mainly to the Netherlands, Switzerland, Turkey, and the United States. The region imports mainly high-tech instruments, medical equipment, plastics and plastic goods, pipe, inorganic chemical products, corn, grain, and clothing.
AUTHORITIES
Saratov Region is divided into 38 administrative and territorial districts. There are 12 cities under regional jurisdiction, 5 cities under district jurisdiction, 34 towns, and 597 rural administrations.
The Administration of Saratov Region is the region's highest executive body, and the Saratov Regional Duma is the highest legislative body.
CULTURE AND ART
Saratov is one of Russia's most important cultural centers. Its theaters have already played and continue to play an enormous role in educating the people of Saratov and introducing them to the world of art and literature. Saratov residents especially enjoy the Academic Opera and Ballet Theater, the Academic Drama Theater, the Young People's Theater (the first in Russia), the puppet theater, the oldest circus in Russia, and the Academic Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra.
At the turn of the 20th century, the theater companies of M.M. Borodai and N.I. Sobolshchikov-Samarin gave numerous performances in Saratov, and famous actors performed on Saratov's stages. Sobolshchikov-Samarin himself was a talented actor who did a lot to develop the national theater. D.M. Karamazov, one of the most interesting representatives of the provincial actor's art in the decade before the Revolution, acted in Saratov for many years. Another actor, V.I. Kachalov, began his stage career in Saratov, appearing on the stage of the City Theater for three years.
Saratov was the native city of composer Alfred Shnitke and artists Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin, Viktor Borisov-Musatov, and Pavel Kuznetsov. The Saratov Conservatory has created a dynamic piano school in the years since it was founded. Distinguished professors like I. Slivinsky, A. Sklyarevsky, I. Rosenberg, P. Egert, K. Radugin, A. Satanovsky, A. Shchapov, S. Benditsky, and B. Goldfeder have worked here at various times.
The organizers of the Governor's International Piano Competition in Saratov invite musicians from various countries to take part in it.
Saratov is regarded as a city with solid theatrical traditions, and many actors seek to come here.
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