Uvek, a city of the
Golden Horde, stood near the site of the modern city of Saratov from the mid-13th century until its destruction by
Tamerlane in 1395. While the exact date of the foundation of modern Saratov is unknown, plausible theories date it to ca. 1590, during the reign (1584–1598) of
Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich, who constructed several settlements along the
Volga River in order to secure the southeastern boundary of his state. Town status was granted to it in 1708. In 1896, the line crossed the Volga and continued its eastward expansion. A unique train-ferry, owned by the Ryazan-Ural railroad, provided the connection across the river between the two ends of the railroad for 39 years, before the construction of a railway bridge in 1935. During January 1915, with
World War I dominating the Russian national agenda, Saratov became the destination for deportation convoys of ethnic Germans, Jews, Hungarians, Austrians and Slavs whose presence closer to the western front was perceived as a potential security risk to the state. During
World War II, Saratov was a station on the north–south
Volzhskaya Rokada, a specially designated military railroad supplying troops, ammunition and supplies to
Stalingrad. In 1942-1943 the city was bombed by German aircraft. The main target was the Kirov oil refinery, which was heavily bombarded, seriously damaging the installation and destroying 80% of its plant and temporarily interrupting its work. The Luftwaffe was able to destroy all the fuel stock at bases in Saratov and eliminate the oil plant in the city. Until the
end of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Soviet authorities designated Saratov a "
closed city"; off-limits to all foreigners due to its military importance as the site of a vital facility manufacturing military aircraft.
German community Saratov played a prominent role in the history of the
Volga Germans. In July 1763
Catherine II published an edict in which she promised that German settlers would remain German and enjoy a great deal of autonomy, even if they moved to the Volga region. Many Germans did so. There, they continued with their German language, their own education, their churches (for the Catholics the
Diocese of Tiraspol was later founded and seated in Saratov), their publications, etc. However, after more than a century living in that region, the living conditions of the Germans began to change. Catherine II had died in 1796, and the government began to apply an aggressive
Russification policy, which meant that from 1878 (when
Alexander II was
Emperor of Russia) some groups of Volga Germans began to emigrate to the United States, Canada, Brazil and Argentina. Those who could not leave or who remained in the hope conditions would improve suffered greatly. Hostilities did not stop even after the confiscation of their assets. On 22 June 1941,
Nazi Germany began a
war against the Soviet Union. On 28 August 1941, dictator
Stalin had the
Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR pass a decree ‘On the resettlement of Germans residing in the Volga region’. The approximately 400,000 remaining
Volga Germans were accused of collective collaboration, deported to
Siberia and Central Asia, and forced into
labour camps of the ‘Labour Army’ (Трудармия); thousands of them died. Most Russian Germans (men and women) were ‘conscripted’ between October 1942 and December 1943. In 1964, they were officially cleared of the accusation of collaboration, albeit with restrictions. (1964 marked the end of the
Khrushchev era, which had begun in 1953 after Stalin's death. The
Thaw period lasted from about 1956 to
October 1964). The freedom of travel granted on 3 November 1972 allowed a return to the Volga, but explicitly not to the settlement inhabited before the deportation. This only became possible after the
Dissolution of the Soviet Union. Today only a few reminders remain of the once prominent place for Volga Germans. The Roman Catholic St. Klemens Cathedral, which had been built by the Volga Germans on the main street of Saratov, the then called "German Street" (, ), has its steeples removed and was converted into the Pioneer Cinema by order of the Soviet government (religion was prohibited). The old German Street, the pedestrian street of Saratov, was renamed
Kirov Prospect in reference to the Bolshevik leader
Sergei Kirov. On April 18, 2022, Kirov Prospect was officially renamed by decree of the city mayor to
Stolypin Prospect. ==Administrative and municipal status==