Saratov

Saratov (audio-ru|Сара́тов|Ru-Saratov.ogg) is a major city in southern Russia. It is the administrative center of Saratov Oblast and a major port on the Volga River. Population: ru-census|p2002=873055|p1989=904643 In addition to ethnic Russians, the city also has many Tatar, Ukrainian, Jewish and German residents.

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. Gelonus is mentioned in Book 6 of the Histories of Herodotus, according to whom in 512 B.C. the city was burnt down by the Emperor Darius I of Persia.

A more certain ancestor city of Saratov was Ukek.

During the reign of Tsar Feodor Ivanovich several settlements were built in order to fortify the state borders. During the summer of 1586 the fortress of Samara was founded. In 1589, the fortress of Tsaritsyn (later called Stalingrad and now called Volgograd) was built in the region where the Volga and the Don come closest to each other. Saratov was built in 1590 midway between Samara and Tsaritsyn at the instigation of count Grigory Zasekin. The buildings were constructed of wood in the upper reaches of the Volga one year prior to the foundation "in situ" of the city. In spring the constructions were disassembled, every log marked, and all the town was delivered to the pre-defined place. Such a method allowed the town to be built in its entirety within several weeks.

The name Saratov may be conjectured to derive from the Turkic words "Saryk Atov" which means ‘hawks' island’.Another version of the name origin is "Sary Tau" (Сары Тау) meaning Yellow Mountain in Tatar language as the city is surrounded by a few sandy hills.

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 1991, Saratov was a "closed city", strictly off limits to all foreigners. Situated on the Volga River, this was a major military aircraft manufacturing site, the home of the first man in space, Yuri Gagarin, and a vital part of the Soviet space programme.

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 numbered 800,000 in the early 20th century.

The Volga Germans included industrialists, scientists, musicians and architects, including those who built Saratov's university and Conservatory. At the outbreak of World War II, half of the Volga Germans were exiled to Siberia and Kazakhstan, and few ever returned to the region. Beginning in the 1980s, many emigrated to Germany, but the Roman Catholic St. Klementy Cathedral on Nemetskaya Street (seat of the Diocese of Tiraspol, founded in 1848) is a reminder of Saratov's German past, though it was converted in the 1960s into a movie theatre.

Modern Saratov

The Saratov region is rich not only in natural and industrial resources. The region is also famous for being one of the largest cultural and scientific centres in Russia. 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.

Saratov is served by Saratov Tsentralny Airport, and also hosts the general aviation airfield Saratov West and the aerospace manufacturing site Saratov South airport.

ightseeing, arts, and culture

One of the city's most prominent landmarks is the 19th century neo-Gothic Conservatory. When it was built in 1912, the Conservatory was Russia's third such institution (after Moscow and St. Petersburg). At the time (1912), Saratov, with a population of 240,000, was the third-largest city in present-day Russia.

The dramatic theatre in Saratov was founded in 1802 and is one of Russia's oldest. It is one of Russia's national theatres. In Soviet times, it used to be named after Karl Marx, but now it carries the name of Ivan Slonov (1882-1945), an actor, theatre director and teacher, who was born in the city. The full name in Russian is "Саратовский государственный академический театр драмы имени И. А. Слонова" (I.A.Slonov Saratov State Academic Theatre).

Saratov is also famous for its Radischev Art Museum, named after Alexander Radishchev. It contains more than 20,000 exhibits, including works by some of the finest Russian painters, from Russian icons to Aleksandra Ekster, Pavel Kuznetsov, Aristarkh Lentulov, Robert Falk, Pyotr Konchalovsky, Martiros Saryan, Fyodor Rokotov .

Famous people

The Saratov region was birthplace or hometown, at one time or other, to:
*Politician Pyotr Stolypin
*Biologist Nikolai Vavilov
*painter Mikhail Vrubel
*Aircraft designer Oleg Antonov
*Writer Mikhail Bulgakov
*Sisters of Vladimir Lenin
*Philosopher Nikolai Chernyshevsky
*Architect Fyodor Shekhtel
*Chemist Nikolai Zinin
*Geometrician Jean-Victor Poncelet
*Writer Konstantin Fedin
*Painter Viktor Borisov-Musatov
*poet Gavrila Derzhavin
*composers Alfred Schnittke and Leonid Sobinov
*writer Aleksandr Radishchev
*writer Lev Kassil
*painter Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin
*painter Pavel Kuznetsov
*chemist Nikolay Semyonov
*painter and creator of Radishchevskiy Museum in Saratov Aleksey Bogolyubov
*actor Oleg Tabakov
*actor Oleg Yankovskiy
*actor Boris Andreyev
*actor Alexander Mikhailov
*actor, director Boris Babochkin
*Russian folk singer Lidiya Ruslanova
*Pop singer Valeriya
*cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin
*hockeystar Andrei Lulin
*poet Dorion Edev
*poet Rachel Bluwstein
*billionaire businessman Roman Abramovich
*writer Konstantin Paustovsky
*politician and writer Eduard Limonov
*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.
*Gottlieb Nathaniel Bonwetsch, German Protestant theologain, born on Norka near Saratov ( [http://www.bautz.de/bbkl/b/bonwetsch_n.shtml] )

References

External links

* [http://www.saratau.ru Saratov]
* [http://www.saratov.ru Saratov.Ru]
* [http://saratov.ms/old/ Old photos of a city of Saratov ]
* [http://www.radmuseumart.ru/ Radischev Art Gallery]
* [http://www.sgu.ru/ogis/katalog/ Catalogue of the Radischev Gallery]
* [http://saratoff.ru/?ch
]
* [http://saratov-kultura.ru/ Culture of city of Saratov]
* [http://www.saratov-digital.com/presentation/present/eng_index.html- Virtual City. Internet - presentation of Saratov]
* [http://www.turizmsaratov.ru Tourism Saratov Турфирмы Саратова (rus)]