Early history Samara, together with its northern neighbour
Kazan, is at the centre of the
Idel-Ural historical region.
Ahmad ibn Fadlan visited the area that is now Samara around 921 while on his journey to the
Volga Bulgars who then controlled the region from their capital
Bolghar. Legend has it that
Alexius, Metropolitan of Kiev, later
patron saint of Samara, visited the site of the city in 1357 and predicted that a great town would be erected there, and that the town would never be ravaged. The
Volga port of Samara appears on
Italian maps of the 14th century. Before 1586, the
Samara Bend was a pirate nest. Lookouts would spot an oncoming boat and quickly cross to the other side of the peninsula so that the pirates could organize an attack. Officially, Samara started with a fortress built in 1586 at the
confluence of the Volga and
Samara Rivers. In 1780, Samara was turned into an
uyezd town of
Simbirsk Governorate overseen by the local Governor-General, and Uyezd and Zemstvo Courts of Justice and a Board of Treasury were established. On January 1, 1851, Samara became the centre of
Samara Governorate with an estimated population of 20,000. This gave a stimulus to the development of the economic, political and cultural life of the community. Samara was outside of the
Pale of Settlement and as such did not have any significant Jewish population until the late 19th century. In 1877, during the
Russian-Turkish War, a mission from the Samara City
Duma led by
Petr Alabin, as a symbol of spiritual solidarity, brought a banner tailored in Samara pierced with bullets and saturated with the blood of both Russians and Bulgarians, to Bulgaria, which has become a symbol of Russian-Bulgarian friendship.
Soviet period In 1935, Samara was renamed Kuybyshev in honour of the Bolshevik leader
Valerian Kuybyshev. During
World War II, Kuybyshev was chosen to be the alternative capital of the Soviet Union should
Moscow fall to the invading Germans. In October 1941, the Communist Party and governmental organisations, diplomatic missions of foreign countries, leading cultural establishments and their staff were evacuated to the city. This decision was reversed in the summer of 1943. A dugout for
Joseph Stalin known as "
Stalin's Bunker" was constructed but never used. To mark its role as wartime national capital a special Revolution Day parade was held at the city's
Kuybyshev Square on November 7, 1941, and since 2011 has been remembered in an annual
military parade organised by the city government. As a leading industrial centre, Kuybyshev played a major role in arming the country. From the very first months of World War II the city supplied the front with aircraft, firearms, and ammunition. Health centres and most of the city's hospital facilities were turned into base hospitals. Polish and Czechoslovak military units were formed on the territory of the Volga Military District. Samara's citizens also fought at the front, many of them volunteers. After the war the defence industry developed rapidly in Kuybyshev; existing facilities changed their profile and new factories were built, leading to Kuybyshev becoming a
closed city. In 1960, Kuybyshev became the missile shield centre for the country. The launch vehicle
Vostok, which delivered the first crewed spaceship to orbit, was built at the Samara
Progress Plant.
Yuri Gagarin, the first man to travel in space on April 12, 1961, took a rest in Kuybyshev after returning to Earth. While there, he spoke to an improvised meeting of Progress workers. Kuybyshev enterprises played a leading role in the development of Soviet domestic aviation and the implementation of the Soviet space program. There is also an unusual monument situated in Samara commemorating an
Ilyushin Il-2 ground-attack aircraft assembled by Kuybyshev workers in late 1942. This particular plane was shot down in 1943 over Karelia, but the heavily wounded pilot, K. Kotlyarovsky, managed to crash-land the plane near Lake Oriyarvi. The aircraft was returned to Kuybyshev in 1975, and was placed on display at the intersection of two major roads as a symbol of the deeds of home front servicemen and air force pilots during the
Great Patriotic War.
Post-Soviet period in Samara In January 1991, the historical name of Samara was given back to the city. Samara is one of the major industrial cities of Russia and has a multiethnic population. The city retains its leading positions in the region, mainly due to a number of oil and petrochemical enterprises. In September 2016, Samara was awarded the title "City of Labor and Combat Glory". In 2018, Samara became one of the host cities of the
FIFA World Cup, the matches of which were held at the Samara Arena stadium. On July 2, 2020, the title "
City of Labor Valor" was awarded to Samara. On December 10, 2021, the Memorial Complex was installed on the Alley of Labor Glory on the Young Pioneers Avenue. The central element of the memorial complex was a glass and metal stele about 26 meters high. ==Geography==