Saratov - History, Modern Saratov, Famous people

51º30N 45º55E, pop (2000e) 905 000. River-port capital of Saratovskaya oblast, E European Russia, on R Volga; founded as a fortress, 1590; airport; railway; university (1909); oil refining, chemicals, clothing, leatherwork, precision instruments; Troitskii Cathedral (1689–95).

Coat of Arms

Saratov (Russian: Сара́тов) is a major city in Russia located between Ukraine and Kazakhstan. It is the administrative center of Saratov Oblast and a major port on the Volga River, located at 51°33′N 46°00′E.

History

The Legend of Saratov: Gelonus, a legendary Scythian city and the northernmost Greek colony, may be conjectured to have been situated in the locality of present-day Saratov.

A more certain ancestor city of Saratov was Ukek.

The name Saratov may be conjectured to derive from the Turkic words Sarı Taw which means ‘yellow mountain’. In Turkic the adjective ’yellow’ is a synonym for ’beautiful’, so the city name could also mean ’beautiful mountain’

Saratov became an important shipping port in the 1800s, and developed industrially after a railroad linking it to Moscow was finished in 1870.

From Soviet times until 1992, Saratov was a "closed city", strictly off limits to all foreigners.

German community

Saratov was also the home of the Volga Germans. Until 1941, Pokrovsk, known today as Engels, Russia, and located just across the Volga from Saratov, was the capital of a separate German republic.

The Volga Germans included industrialists, scientists, musicians and architects, including those who built Saratov's university and Conservatory.

Modern Saratov

The Saratov region is rich not only in natural and industrial resources. In Saratov there are six institutes affiliated with the Russian Academy of Sciences, 21 research institutes, 19 project institutes, Saratov State University and many scientific and technological laboratories attached to the largest industrial enterprises.

Sightseeing, arts and culture

One of the city's most prominent landmarks is the 19th century neo-Gothic Conservatory. At the time (1912), Saratov, with a population of 240,000, was the third-largest city in present-day Russia.

Saratov is also famous for its Radishchev Art Gallery, named after Alexander Radishchev.

Famous people

The Saratov region was birthplace or hometown, at one time or other, to politician Pyotr Stolypin, biologist Nikolai Vavilov, the notable professor and engineer Naum Rabovetsky, painter Mikhail Vrubel, aircraft designer Oleg Antonov, writer Mikhail Bulgakov, philosopher Nikolai Chernyshevsky, architect Fyodor Shekhtel, chemist Nikolai Zinin, poet Gavrila Derzhavin, composer Alfred Schnittke, academician Guriy Marchuk, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, space radio telephone communications designer Yuri Bykov, and billionaire businessman Roman Abramovich. Herwarth Walden, German expressionist artist, publicist and gallerist, fled 1933 from Nazi-Germany to the Sovjet Union and died in 1941 as a political prisoner in Saratov.