Foundation of the city. Ufa - a selection of interesting facts about the city How many towers were there in ancient Ufa

The territory of modern Ufa has a unique and convenient settlement for people geographical position. The early history of the region of modern Ufa goes back into the distant past, during the Paleolithic .

In the XI-XIII centuries , especially during the period of the Mongol invasion, the Belaya River basin became an arena of constant movements of many Turkic-speaking tribes.

The bulk of the Bashkirs were conquered by the Mongols in 1219-1220. The Mongols, having established themselves in the southwestern part of the Bashkir country, turned it into main base for further conquests. The rest of the region was conquered by 1223. By 1236 The Mongols subjugated the lands of the Bulgars, Kipchaks, Burtases and Mordovians.

The lands inhabited by the Bashkirs were divided between two uluses. The Trans-Ural Bashkirs became part of the personal ulus of Batu Khan, the Trans-Ural Bashkirs - the ulus of Khan Shiban (Batu's younger brother). The border between the uluses ran along the Yaik River.

Like other conquered peoples, the Bashkirs were subject to tribute, carried out road, postal, bridge and other services, and had to contribute weapons to the Khan’s army. people with a year's supply of food. The main burden of taxation and other duties fell on ordinary Bashkirs. Local feudal lords acted as intermediaries between them and the center. Khan's power.

The Bashkirs, dissatisfied with their position, rebelled more than once.

In the 14th century One of the largest Bashkir tribes, the Min tribe, settles in the Dema River basin and in the lower reaches of the Ufa River. Vivid evidence of the strong settlement of the territory are the remarkable monuments of medieval architecture - the mausoleums (keshene - Iranian "House of the Dead") of Tura Khan (XIV-XV centuries, located near Ufa in the Dema River basin) and Hussein Bek, (XIV century, located near the Chishmy railway station, 60 km from Ufa. The above-ground part with a dome was built in 1911).

During the period of feudal fragmentation of the Golden Horde (from the 2nd half of the 14th century) The territory of Bashkiria has repeatedly become an arena for clashes between warring factions. One of the major battles took place on June 18, 1391 on the Kundurcha River. In the middle of the 15th century, the Golden Horde split into several khanates. The territory of Bashkiria was divided between the Siberian, Kazan khanates and the Nogai Horde. The territory of modern Ufa came under the rule of the Nogai Horde.

After the defeat of the Kazan Khanate and the capture of Kazan (1552) by the troops of Tsar Ivan the Terrible, Western Bashkir tribes, who were previously under the rule of the Kazan khans, accepted Russian citizenship. In 1555-1556 The Russian state included lands subordinate to the Nogai Horde, including the territory and environs of modern Ufa. In 1556-1557, Bashkir ambassadors traveled to Moscow, where they received royal letters of commendation outlining the conditions for their entry into the Russian state. Tsar Ivan the Terrible “compensated” his new subjects with special letters, which recognized the patrimonial right of the Bashkirs to their lands and provided guarantees of protection from military raids. For this, the Bashkirs were obliged to pay yasak (initially in furs and honey, later in money).

In 1957, in Ufa, in honor of the 400th anniversary of the annexation of Bashkiria to the Russian state, a Friendship Monument was erected.

Somewhat later, the Trans-Ural Bashkirs became part of Russia. They accepted Russian citizenship in 80-90s of the 16th century. - beginning 20s of the 17th century. in the process of struggle and defeat of the Siberian Khanate. The Russian government guaranteed the Bashkirs protection from the claims of the Nogai and Siberian khans, from the invasion of external enemies; retained for the Bashkir people the lands they occupied under the terms of patrimonial rights; promised not to encroach on the religion of the Bashkirs and not to convert them to another faith; pledged not to interfere in the internal life of Bashkir society, leaving local power in the hands of Bashkir biys and princes. The Bashkirs, having recognized themselves as subjects of the Russian Tsar, pledged to bear at their own expense military service and contribute the land tax (yasak) to the treasury with honey and furs.

The administration of Bashkortostan was carried out by the Moscow order of the Kazan Palace. The territory of the region was Ufa Uyezd, which was divided into four roads (regions): Kazan, Siberian, Nogai and Osinsk. This division arose from the former political fragmentation of the region and approximately corresponded to the former possessions of the Kazan and Siberian Khanates and the Nogai Horde. The Osinskaya road covered a narrow strip between the Siberian and Kazan roads. The term "road" comes from the Mongolian darug, which meant the position of the head of a region or city in the Golden Horde. Already in the 15th century, the term “daruga” had the meaning not so much of an administrative position as of a territorial one, i.e. Certain regions of Bashkiria were called darugs. The roads were divided into volosts, which were divided into clans (aimags). The boundaries of all four roads converged where the Belaya and Ufa rivers merge. This place is the natural-geographical and administrative-economic center of Bashkiria.

Initially, direct power and collection of tribute were exercised by the Kazan governor. To consolidate its power in the newly annexed region, organize its administration and transform it into a springboard for penetration into the Kazakh steppes and Siberia, the tsarist government needed a stronghold. In turn, the Bashkirs, who suffered from frequent raids by warlike steppe inhabitants, needed constant armed assistance from the Russian state. Only the garrison of the fortress city could provide them with such assistance. The Bashkirs also needed the city as a place to pay yasak, which they had previously been forced to transport to distant Kazan.

In 1574 A detachment of Russian archers under the leadership of governor Ivan Grigorievich Nagoy built a small fortified point on the high right bank of the Belaya River near the mouth of the Ufa River, which was located extremely advantageously from a defensive point of view. In the south, the Belaya River presented the steppe inhabitants with an almost insurmountable barrier. The Sutoloka River flowing from north to south protected the fortification from the east. From the northeast it was defended by a special earthen rampart, the remains of which remained until the end of the 19th century.

The foundation of the future city was originally the "Kremlin", founded in 1574-1586. It occupied the southern tip of a high cape on the right bank of the Sutoloka River, at its confluence with the Belaya River. The appearance of the Kremlin was a broken quadrangle, the total area of ​​which did not exceed 1.5 hectares, the length of its walls was approximately 440-450 meters. The walls were built from huge oak logs placed vertically, so the Bashkirs first called Ufa Imen Kala (Oak Fortress or Oak City). In addition, the fortifications included three towers made of oak, two of which were roadways, and one was pedestrian. Both passage towers were two-tiered (octahedron on octahedron) and ended with high tent roofs. The northern tower was called Mikhailovskaya, the southern - Nikolskaya (Sutolotskaya).

There are several hypotheses regarding the origin of the name of the city of Ufa, but the most likely seems to be the naming of the new city after the Ufa River (remember, for example, the city of Tobolsk, founded in 1587 on the Irtysh near the mouth of the Tobol River).

The city of Ufa, according to P.I. Rychkov, was surrounded by great mountains and was located “between eight great and deep gullies, of which in one, which runs across the city, a river called Sutoloka flows.” On the left bank of the Sutoloka there were settlements where service people lived.

In 1579, a stone church in the name of the Smolensk Mother of God was consecrated in Ufa. The existence of a stone church indicates the presence of a significant population for that time, which made up the church parish. In 1586 Ufa received city status. Ufa becomes the administrative center of Bashkiria.

The administration of the region was carried out by the Ufa governor, subordinate to the Kazan governor.

The appearance of a fortress city in the center of Bashkiria by the steppe neighbors of the Bashkirs (the Nogai Murzas, the Siberian Khan and other nomads) was met with extreme hostility. There were repeated attacks on Ufa, but all of them were successfully repelled by the garrison.

Ufa is the capital of the Republic of Bashkortostan. It is located in the middle of the republic, where the Belaya, Karaidel, and Dema rivers connect. Although it is more than four centuries old, it is still growing and becoming more beautiful. Its population exceeded one million people.

Upon entering, the southern side of Ufa stuns with its majesty! The wide, deep river Agidel (White) seems motionless. There is a huge, wide iron bridge across it. On the left side of the river, on the highest rock, a batyr on a steel horse, with his hand raised high, greets all guests of the city of Salavat. National hero, the poet Salavat Yulaev fought for the freedom of his people and after how many centuries, having returned, stands guard over the country.

On the right side of the bridge is the Monument of Friendship of the Russian and Bashkir Peoples. It was erected in honor of the 400th anniversary of the voluntary accession of the Bashkir people to the Russian state. The settlement, located where the Friendship Monument is now, at first was called “Tura-tau”, and then

“Imen Kala” - “Oak City”, and only years later it received its current name - Ufa. My entire great country, Russia and Bashkortostan, will soon celebrate the 450th anniversary of this historical event.

In terms of the time of its founding, Ufa was significantly ahead of other large Ural cities. Ufa was built as the first small Russian fortress on Bashkir soil in the second half of the 16th century, shortly after the fall of Kazan and the voluntary annexation of Bashkiria to the Russian state.

In 1573, the Bashkirs turned to the Russian Tsar with a request to build a city on their land for protection from the Siberian and Nogai khans, who wanted to return their former power. In addition, in a city on Bashkir land, yasak (tribute to the tsarist government) could be collected from its entire territory, since at that time yasak, consisting mainly of furs and honey, was delivered with considerable difficulty directly to Kazan due to the lack of cities in the Bashkir region itself.

As an important administrative center, Ufa immediately acquired broad connections with the entire Bashkir region: the administration of Bashkiria was concentrated here; I came here to give food; Replenishment of military garrisons from Moscow was going through the city.

Initially, Ufa consisted only of a fortress (fortress), which was located in the southern part of the modern Pervomaiskaya Square of the city of Ufa, facing Belaya, and was limited from the east by a ravine and the Sutoloka River, from the west by a deep ravine, and from the south by a cliff to the Belaya River. It was surrounded by a moat and surrounded by an earthen rampart, on which stood oak walls with towers and gates.

Today's Ufa is a wonderful city, with comfortable neighborhoods of residential buildings and green parks, wide squares and giant factories.

There are about a thousand streets in this city - large and small. The main thoroughfare of Ufa - October Avenue - is unique. It stretches like an asphalt ribbon for almost ten kilometers. The avenue is laid along the road where the ringing of shackles was once heard - political prisoners were walking to distant Siberia.

The biography of other streets began earlier - this is the history of the city. Most of them are named after fighters for the freedom of the people, heroes of the Great Patriotic War, honored builders and others famous people . It is believed that in the 17th century, the first street, Posadskaya, appeared outside the fortress fence. It has survived to this day, adjacent to the hill where the Friendship Monument stands. As in any “posad” of the 17th century, traders and artisans lived. Another street was called Bolshaya Moskovskaya (Old Ufa), because Moscow archers settled on it. At that time, streets were created very simply: houses were located along the roads. At the beginning of the city's existence, it had two main roads: Kazan and Siberian Way. In ancient Ufa they formed Bolshaya Kazanskaya Street (now the October Revolution) and Bolshaya Sibirskaya (now Mingazheva Street). These streets are approximately three hundred years old. In 1803, the city received a project - a layout. It was built slowly. “The city was then...” wrote S.Ya. Elpatievsky - quiet, thoughtful, affectionate. There were streets overgrown with grass, and you could see the field where they went out. And on the street there were one-story houses, less often two-story ones, with gardens and orchards where lilacs, jasmines, and dahlias grew luxuriantly; low houses with windows that were locked at night with shutters with iron bolts.” The names of the streets of that time were well-established and, it seemed, eternal for the inhabitants: Zhandarmskaya and Tyuremnaya, Karetnaya and Lazaretnaya, Nikolskaya and Khanykovskaya, Kazarmennaya and Vozdvizhenskaya, Burlatskaya and Kuznetskaya, Konyushennaya and Kishechnaya, Starokladbischenskaya and Sobornaya... Churches and cathedrals were especially lucky - their names were in the names of many streets in the city. The twentieth century has arrived... A radical revolution in the history of Ufa, as well as the entire country, occurred as a result of the revolution. These changes were also reflected in the names of the streets. Socialist, Pervomaiskaya, Revolyutsionnaya streets appeared, later Kommunisticheskaya, International, Industrial Highway, and even later, as a symbol of the fraternal friendship of the workers of Bashkiria and the GDR, Gallskaya Street, Lenin Street. At the beginning of the century, V.I. Lenin visited Ufa twice. Here he created an Iskra stronghold and trained revolutionaries. One of the oldest streets in the capital, the former Central Street, bears his name. The victorious proletariat immortalized the names of the fighters who gave their lives for their ideas. We walk through the city and see the streets named after Ivan Yakutov - the chairman of the first Council of Workers' Deputies, the Bolsheviks P. Vavilov, Y. Akhmetov, P. Zentsov, the Kadomtsev brothers, P. Moryakov, B. Yaurimanov, B. Shafiev, Sh. Khudayberdin.. .On the street signs are the names of people whose biographies are connected with Bashkiria. These are: M.I. Kalinin, Ya.M. Sverdlov, A.D. Tsyurupa, A.I. Svidersky, N.I. Podvoisky, commanders M.V. Frunze, V.K. Blucher, V. I. Chapaev, revolutionaries A.V. Ukhtomsky, I.P. Pavlunovsky. Writers S.T. Aksakov, M. Gafuri, G. Ibragimov, N.A. Krasheninnikov, A.A. Fadeev lived and worked in Bashkiria...

I visited the Research Institute of Eye Diseases. And I was surprised that the professor of the academy, the director of this institute, a world-famous person, Marat Talgatovich Aznabaev, is my fellow countryman from the village of Yakshimbetovo. My dear friends, I am proud of him, because he is a great surgeon who performs unique operations on blind newborn children, making them sighted!

Our journey through Ufa led us to the building of BSU - Bashkir State University. The majestic columns of this higher educational institution inspire respect; there are so many young people here - boys and girls higher education to become worthy specialists and professionals in our country. There are also other institutes and universities here - pedagogical, medical, aviation, oil, agricultural, technological, financial and economic, etc.

Ufa is a center of developed industry, a city of mechanical engineers and oil workers, chemists and energy workers, builders and transport workers. It accounts for almost half of the industrial output, about a quarter of state capital investments in Bashkortostan. What a gigantic construction project is going on all over Ufa. Theaters, educational institutions, parks, shops are countless. Tram, trolleybus and bus routes are constantly opening. Preparatory work is underway for the construction of the metro. But the capital still has a lot of problems. Due to the deterioration of the equipment of some plants, factories and other enterprises, the environment is polluted - pollution enters the atmosphere and rivers. The happy and healthy future of the residents of our capital is in our hands. Therefore, we must receive a decent education and it is our sacred duty to use our knowledge to continue the traditions of our fathers and improve the well-being of our compatriots.

The early history of the surroundings of Ufa goes back to the distant past, during the Old Stone Age (Paleolithic), when people lived in matrilineal families. The main occupation was collective hunting for large animals. Tools were made of stone, bone and wood. Presented more fully here Middle Stone Age (Mesolithic, XV - V millennium BC) . The sites of ancient people are known on the right bank of the Ufa River, opposite the village of Dudkino and near Zaton near the village of Milovka. The most important invention of this era is the bow and arrow, which made it possible to successfully hunt small animals. Fishing also plays a significant role.

The territory of modern Ufa has a unique and convenient geographical location for human settlement. The early history of the region of modern Ufa goes back into the distant past, during the Paleolithic .

Throughout the 17th and first decades of the 18th century, Ufa remained a border fortress, extended far to the southeast from the general line of Russian fortifications, and served as a stronghold in organizing defense state borders from raids by neighboring nomadic peoples.

The permanent population of the city in the first half of the 17th century was small. Some idea of ​​the size of the city is given by the Ufa census book of 1647, which lists only 66 households. Taking into account the households of the Streltsy detachment (about 100), the total number of households in the city hardly exceeded 200. The main composition of the population was Russian, but among the first Ufa residents there were also representatives of the Tatars, Bashkirs, Mordovians and a number of foreigners. Almost all of them soon accepted the Christian faith (“newly baptized”).

However, the history of the formation of the city of Ufa cannot be imagined without the settlements, villages and hamlets that appeared on the Ufa Peninsula and are closely connected with the city. At the very beginning of the 17th century, 18 km from the city, a small village called Novaya Sloboda appeared, which was founded by Ivan Kadomets (baptized Bashkirs). Since 1613 the settlement began to be called Kadomtseva village. After the construction of the church in 1622, the village began to be called differently - the village of Bogorodskoye. Later, Bogorodskoye became a very significant village, there was a volost center here, there was an annual fair (now the INORS microdistrict).

From 1591-1592, in the northern part of modern Ufa, the allotment book mentions a “suburban Tatar settlement” on the Uryuzya River. After the name of the founder Shugur-Ali Konkuzov, the settlement began to be called Shugurova Village or simply Shugurovka. The Uryuzya River also began to be called Shugurovka (Shugurka). The village is now absorbed by the city, and the river flows, although it has become shallow.

At the end of the 16th or the very beginning of the 17th century, Ivan Chernikov arrived from Moscow among the service people. The first time he was given a dacha was in 1607. In 1615, Chernikov submitted a petition to the Tsar with a request to confirm his old allotment and re-document it, recording it in a new book. Taking advantage of his official position (Chernikov served as a sentinel, i.e. a land diverter and land clearer), with the new registration he increased the size of the property. The village of Chernikovka was destined to become the city of Chernikovsky in the 20th century, which subsequently united with Ufa and formed its northern part.

As the city grew, the old Kremlin fortifications and primitive defensive barriers erected around the settlements became insufficient. In addition, by the middle of the 17th century, the oak fortifications of the Kremlin had become dilapidated and lost their former combat effectiveness. The decision to build a new defensive line Moscow government adopted in 1664. The construction of the new fortress was delayed due to its relatively large size, since the walls had to cover the entire settlement, including suburban settlements. The new fortress was called the “New” or “Big” fort, while the Kremlin began to be called the “old” or “upper city”. The walls of the new fortress were cut from oak and reached a height of 2 fathoms (more than 4 meters).

At the beginning of the 18th century, Ufa occupied a prominent place in Russia’s relations with the Kazakh zhuzes. In 1730, Khan of the Younger Zhuz (from the 16th century a group of Western Kazakhstani tribal associations) Abulkhair sent an embassy to Ufa with a request to accept him as Russian citizenship. The negotiations ended with the fact that on October 10, 1731, Khan Abulkhair and the elders of the Junior Zhuz took the oath to the Russian government.

At the beginning of the 18th century, the city began to grow in a western direction - blocks of residential buildings were built behind the Ilyinsky and Frolovsky gates, Shugurovskaya Mountain was densely populated. To connect it with the center, a bridge is being built across the Nogai ravine, also called Nogai. By this time, there were already over 650 households in Ufa.

In the 30s of the 18th century, Ufa became the base for the construction of Orenburg. In connection with the organization of the Orenburg Cossack army in new town 185 Ufa Cossacks are transferred. The creation of the Orenburg line of fortresses led to a significant outflow from Ufa and other groups of the service population. Due to the advance of state borders far to the southeast, Ufa lost its former strategic importance by the middle of the 18th century, although it continued to play the role of the military center of Bashkiria. In 1736, a new plan for the Ufa fortress was drawn up, according to which it was planned to build 12 earthen bastions around the city; It was planned to block the ravines between the mountains with a double line of palisades, in which folding gates would be installed to drain spring waters. But this project remained unrealized, just like an earlier project in 1728, which involved moving the fortifications to the mountain to the west of the existing ones. Only repair work and some modernization of the fortifications were carried out. The double ring of defensive structures remained until the middle of the 18th century.

The fire of 1759, which played a big role in changing the layout of Ufa, was disastrous for the Kremlin, as well as for the entire city. The fire started on May 23 from lightning that struck the Mikhailovskaya Tower of the Kremlin. from it the fire spread to other closely standing wooden buildings. The disaster was not limited to the Kremlin. It covered the streets of Malaya Repnaya Sloboda closest to it and even part of the walls of the big city. In total, 210 households burned down. The office work of the Ufa Provincial Chancellery has preserved detailed description this natural disaster:

"... from which (from the fire) the Mikhailovskaya Tower, which was located in the Kremlin, and from it the guardhouse, guard hut with a canopy and the voivode's house, as well as the office with some decrees, protocols, journals and other matters and several stamp and simple papers, yes in the cathedral church there are several church decorations and a fighting clock on the bell tower, a prison with a prison, a nunnery with two churches, and so on... burned down.”

After the fire, the Kremlin fortifications were no longer restored, since there was no need for them. The territory of the former Kremlin is being transformed into the administrative center of the city; a zone free from development is left between it and residential areas in order to avoid “dangerous incidents”.

The fortifications of the large city damaged by fire are gradually being restored; they exist until the Peasant War of 1773-1775. The city's residential areas are also being revived. Its streets and alleys are being finalized. It was in the third quarter of the 18th century that they received their names, although still unstable. Some streets have double names. The old names of Repny streets (by settlements) are gradually being replaced by the names used in parallel with them by roads: Malaya Repnaya - Bolshaya Kazanskaya (now Oktyabrskaya Revolution Street), Bolshaya Repnaya - Sibirskaya (now Mingazheva Street). In addition to them, in the 50-60s there were streets: Ilyinskaya (Frunze St.), Frolovskaya (Tukaev St.), Pokrovskaya (later Posadskaya) along the right bank of the Sutoloka River; in the east behind Sutoloka - Uspenskaya (Sochinskaya St.), Budanovskaya (E. Sazonova St.), Kaftanova (near the Belaya River). The emergence of a new settlement dates back to the 2nd half of the 18th century, founded by settlers from the estates of the Sheremetyev counts, who were in Nizhny Novgorod province. 50 serfs, with the permission of the owner, moved to Ufa and initially settled on the left bank of the Sutoloka River in the area of ​​Usolskaya (now Sakmarskaya Street) and Budanovskaya streets, where they were engaged in leather and shoemaking crafts. Later they moved their workshops to vacant lands near Belaya, somewhat west of the Kremlin hill. The settlement that arose here was named Nizhny Novgorod after the place of initial residence of the settlers.

In the 17th century, Ufa remained the center of government for Bashkortostan and its multinational population. Local power was exercised by the Ufa Prikaz Izba, created back in the 16th century, headed by governors sent from Moscow and periodically (every 3 years) replaced. Initially, the Ufa governor was subordinate to Kazan, but gradually the Ufa administration gained more and more independence. Often, bypassing Kazan as an intermediate authority, the Ufa Prikaz's hut entered into direct relations with the Prikaz of the Kazan Palace located in Moscow.

At the beginning of the 18th century, during the creation of the Kazan province, the Ufa voivodeship office (which replaced the official hut) came under the jurisdiction of the Kazan governor. The isolation of the Ufa district and special conditions led to the formation of the Ufa province in 1715. At its head, instead of a governor, a chief commandant was placed, who was only nominally subordinate to the Kazan authorities. The regional reform of 1719 gave the “Ober-Commandant Province” even greater independence and the Ufa Commandant was directly subordinate to the Senate and collegiums.

The special jurisdiction of the Ufa province remained until 1734, when it was extended general position and she returned to the Kazan province. In the same year, the Orenburg expedition was organized with the aim of advancing the borders of Russia to the southeast. Stationed in Ufa (1734-1736), the head of the expedition, Chief Secretary of the Senate I.K. Kirillov, had unlimited powers

The well-known independence of the Ufa district was expressed in the creation in 1740 of a special position of vice-governor. The first vice-governor was P. Voeikov, who was soon replaced by P. D. Aksakov.

In 1744, when the Orenburg province was created, the Ufa province became part of it with the subordination of the governor (the post of vice-governor was eliminated) to the Orenburg governor. The importance of Ufa as the administrative center of Bashkiria is decreasing, because a number of important general functions are transferred to the provincial center.

From the beginning of the 18th century, a town hall was created in Ufa - a body of city self-government, which in 1722 was transformed into a magistrate. These institutions were initially responsible for a wide range of judicial, police, economic and financial issues. Since 1743, the competence of the magistrate was limited mainly to the court and the distribution of state duties and fees. The composition of the members of the magistrate was strictly determined by class and property boundaries. The management of the affairs of the magistrate was carried out by two persons - the mayor and the ratman. The first members of the magistrate, elected by the townspeople in 1722, were mayor S. Perfilyev and ratman P. Danilov.

The provincial reform of 1775 was expressed in the liquidation of the Orenburg province in 1781, when in its place the Ufa governorate was established consisting of two regions - Ufa and Orenburg. The Ufa region included 8 districts, the Orenburg region - 4. Cities were allocated into special administrative units. At the head of the administration of the viceroyalty was the governor-general (viceroy), endowed with extensive power. In 1796, in connection with the renaming of the Ufa governorate into the Orenburg province with the center in Orenburg, Ufa again became county town. Only in 1802 did it again receive the status of a provincial town - the residence of the civil governor and provincial institutions. Orenburg remained the residence of the Governor General (military governor).

The border position of the city determined in the 17th century the predominance of the military functions of the Ufa governors over all others. The voivode was primarily the head of the Ufa garrison and city army. The entire city life of this time took place under the constant threat of raids by Tatar detachments of the Siberian Khanate, often in conjunction with the Kalmyk taishas who supported them. In 1635, a combined detachment of Russian and Bashkir warriors defeated the forces of the Siberian princes Ablai and Tyavka, who approached Ufa, and both princes were captured. Alarming rumors about possible raids by steppe dwellers worried the townspeople until the end of the 50s of the 17th century, when the Kalmyks accepted citizenship of the Russian state.

The duties of the Ufa governors included the regular dispatch of “traveling guards” and “watchmen” - border patrols. Ufa servicemen also took part in long campaigns.

Ufa service people took an active part in the construction of new cities in the region. In 1664, in an order to the Ufa governor, steward F.I. Somov, he was ordered to surround the village of Arkhangelskoye on the Biri River with a wooden wall and strengthen the Salt Ware Town. This order laid the foundation for two cities of Bashkiria - Birsk and Tabynsk, which grew on the basis of old settlements.

A significant place in the history of the city of the 18th century is occupied by the long defense of Ufa in the Peasant War of 1773-1775.

In 1802, Ufa received the status of a provincial city, which contributed to the development of urban planning and urban management.

Until the 19th century, construction in the city proceeded spontaneously, without a single plan. In this regard, according to the plan approved in 1803, it was planned to move the city to a relatively flat and dry area. However, due to lack of funds, this intention remained unfulfilled.

Governor General G.S. Volkonsky presented a new draft plan, which was approved by the tsarist government on March 3, 1819. This plan provided for the expansion of the city from Telegraphnaya Street (now Tsyurupy Street) to Nikolskaya Street (now M. Gafuri Street) and from the Belaya River to Bogorodskaya Street (now Revolutionary Street).

The development of the city was carried out mainly at the expense of the population, since the government allocated only 200 thousand rubles for these purposes. Half of this amount was intended to provide loans to townspeople for the construction of houses. The other half is for excavation work and the construction of bridges across ditches and ravines.

The city began to grow especially rapidly in the 1920s. By 1860, the new city had 139 blocks, and the old - 41. If the old city was characterized by crooked, narrow streets and alleys, then the new city had straight and relatively wide streets, large areas. The city consisted of groups of houses separated from each other by fairly spacious estates. Almost all of them were wooden. In 1824 in Ufa there were only 5 private stone houses, and in 1857 there were 59 of them. The number of houses owned by the nobility, clergy and merchants increased noticeably. This is apparently explained by the fact that loans for the construction of houses were mainly used by the townspeople of these classes. At the same time, the proportion of Cossacks and soldiers among homeowners sharply decreased, some of whom were resettled to the new border line between the Orsk and Trinity fortresses.

In the 20s of the 19th century, construction of Trading Rows began on Verkhne-Torgovaya Square according to a project developed by St. Petersburg architecture professor A.I. Melnikov. The construction of the Trading Rows lasted about 40 years, the Trading Rows were constantly changing shape and developing. After reconstruction in 1864, the shopping arcade building was enlarged and took the shape of a rectangle slightly elongated from south to north. The rows consisted of dozens of merchant shops lined up along the perimeter inside the block formed by Aleksandrovskaya (now Karl Marx), Central (now Lenin), Bolshaya Uspenskaya (now Kommunisticheskaya) and Pushkin streets. There were few large buildings in Ufa. The most notable among them were the governor's house (now the outpatient department of the city clinical hospital No. 1, Tukaev St., 23), theological seminary building, etc.

The governor's house was built in the early 50s of the 19th century. according to the project of Academician of the Academy of Arts A.D. Zakharov. Provincial architect A.A. Gopius managed to tie the project to the rather complex terrain. The Governor's House was the last building that completed the formation of Cathedral Square, which was an example of a developed urban ensemble of late classicism. According to the plan of V.I. Teste, the entire administrative center of the city was located on the square, consisting of the building of Government Offices (Provincial Institutions) (1839, now the donor point of the Research Institute of Vaccination and Serums named after I.I. Mechnikov, Frunze St., 45), Male gymnasium (1830s, now Frunze St., 47), Theological Seminary (1827, now K. Marx St., 3). The dominant feature of the ensemble was the Resurrection Cathedral.

An architectural monument of the first half of the 19th century is the building of the provincial Assembly of Nobility, built in 1852 (now the Ufa Institute of Arts, Lenin St., 14).

For a provincial city, surrounded on three sides by deep rivers, great importance had the ability to regularly communicate with the periphery. In 1795, an unsuccessful attempt was made to build a bridge across the Belaya River. Therefore, in spring and summer, the only means of communication between townspeople and the outside world were ordinary watercraft - ferries and boats. Ufa residents traveled to the southern regions through the Orenburg crossing, to the west - through the Vavilovskaya crossing, to the southwest - through the Streshnevskaya crossing, to the north - through the Safronovsky crossing (all across the Belaya River). To the east the path lay across the Ufa River through Dudkina and Kamennaya crossings.

In the summer of 1808, the first pontoon (on boats) bridge in Ufa was built at the Orenburg crossing.

Until the 40s, Ufa streets were not improved. In spring and autumn, it was impossible to drive through the city due to the impassable mud resulting from garbage and manure thrown by residents directly onto the street. To improve the roadway, a special monetary levy was established in the amount of 1 percent from the assessed ruble of ordinary houses. Since then, the construction of pavements began. Cathedral (now Ya. Hasheka St.), Bolshaya Kazanskaya, Aleksandrovskaya (now the beginning of K. Marx St.) streets, Cathedral Square (now the territory of the Bashkir State Academic Drama Theater named after M. Gafuri), Verkhne-Torgovaya Square (now territory of the Ufa State Aviation Technical University).

In 1833, at the intersection of Frolovskaya, Sadovaya (now A. Matrosova St.), Ilyinskaya and Telegrafnaya streets, the first public garden for the recreation of citizens was founded. Left unattended, the garden soon fell into disrepair and became the prey of voracious goats. Only in 1860-1861 a public garden was again laid out on this site.

A real disaster for Ufa residents was the large fires that occurred almost every year. In 1803, 77 houses burned down in the city, in 1804 - 83, 1815. - 400, 1821 - 331 houses. Frequent fires were a consequence of overcrowding of houses, their disorderly placement, especially in old Ufa, the construction of industrial enterprises, forges and baths near residential buildings, as well as the lack of fire-fighting equipment in a city of wooden buildings. As you know, the population of the city felt a lack of water, which was delivered to their homes by water carriers from the Orenburg transport to the Belaya River. Only in the 30-40s the first wells and fire reservoirs began to appear in Ufa. In 1827, at the expense of the townspeople, the first one was created in Ufa fire brigade of 12 people with the appropriate tools. In the middle of the 19th century, it already consisted of a fire chief, two non-commissioned fire chiefs and 46 ordinary firefighters; There were 38 fire horses. In order to fight fires, the police introduced drastic measures, for example: for smoking tobacco on the street, boiling a samovar in the yard, a fine of up to 1 silver ruble was established.

Ufa entered the 19th century as a city of officials and soldiers, with a weak economic life, isolated from the main industrial and commercial centers of the country. Nevertheless, the number of industrial enterprises in the first half of the 19th century increased 5.4 times (from 7 in 1800 to 38 in 1861).

Until the end of the 30s, leather production occupied a prominent place, which then, due to the decline of livestock farming and a decrease in the sale of livestock by the Bashkirs, sharply declined. The expansion of urban construction led to a rapid increase in the production of bricks and tiles. Food production was represented by oil mills and vodka factories, fat production - by soap factories, lard factories and candle factories.

These were small capitalist enterprises based on the use of manual labor. The working day reached 15-16 hours a day. According to data for 1860, the average monthly salary of a Ufa hired worker was 3 rubles (from the owner's grub) or 6 rubles (from his own).

Ufa was the most noble city in the Urals. The share of hereditary and personal nobles accounted for 8.8% in 1837, and 16% (!) of the total population in 1856. As a rule, nobles went to their estates for the summer. A small part of them served in the garrison, in provincial and district civil institutions. In general, the nobility played a vital role in the socio-political life of the city.

The share of the peasant population increased significantly, the influx of which constituted an important source of population growth in Ufa in the 1st half of the 19th century. As commodity-money relations grew, more and more peasants moved to the city, becoming mainly civilian workers in industrial enterprises. There are no data on the national composition of the population for this period. This deficiency is to a certain extent compensated for by information about the religion of the townspeople. In 1859, 97.7% of Christians and only 2.3% of Muslims lived in Ufa. If we take into account that Christianity was professed mainly by Russians, and Islam by Bashkirs and Tatars, we can conclude that in the middle of the 19th century the city remained Russian.

The highest authority in the city was the governor. He governed with the help of the police, headed by a chief of police since 1816. The elected body subordinate to the governor was the city duma, which dealt with city management and improvement, city finances, etc. Elections of councilors to the Duma were carried out by estate once every 3 years.

The city budget was drawn up by the city council and approved by the governor. The bulk of the income (58%) of the Ufa budget came from emergency fees (from citizens when registering in the philistine register, from the sale of city property, escheat estates, private donations), 18.3% was land tax. Only 5.6% were dues from industrial and commercial enterprises. Most of the income (72.9%) went to the maintenance of city institutions and the police.

The main public school in Ufa was opened in September 1789, but after 8 years it was transferred to Orenburg, and the small school, in turn, moved to Ufa. On December 6, 1818, the small school was transformed into the Ufa District School, which later became one of the largest district schools in the province.

In 1828, after much trouble, a provincial gymnasium was established. A two-story building for it was built in 1847 (now the administrative building Medical Institute, Frunze st., 47). The children of nobles and officials studied at the gymnasium. The number of gymnasium students gradually increased and in 1847 reached 198.

The publishing business in Ufa originated in 1801, when a provincial printing house was founded, which printed official materials of the local administration. On January 1, 1838, the first issue of the first newspaper in the province, “Orenburg Provincial Gazette,” was printed in the printing house. The newspaper, published once a week, consisted of an official and an unofficial part. Vedomosti did not have permanent employees or funds to pay its volunteer correspondents. Therefore, they were thanked for their active participation in the life of the newspaper. The number of subscribers was quite large; by 1855 it reached 477. In addition, copies of the newspaper were sent free of charge to all public places, churches and police stations.

The publication of the newspaper played an important role in the development of local history. A number of works by the famous researcher of the region, Ufa judge V.S. Yumatov, devoted to the history of Bashkiria, were published on its pages. In the articles “Thoughts on the history of the Orenburg province” and “a brief historical look at the primitive inhabitants of the Orenburg region,” he provides valuable information on the history of Bashkiria and Ufa. Yumatov, having studied the materials available to him, was one of the first Ufa residents to come to the conclusion that the city was founded in 1574.

Many pages of description hometown dedicated in his works to a native of Ufa, the famous Russian writer S.T. Aksakov.

The governor and local historian Ya.V. Khanykov compiled a “Geographical Survey of the Orenburg Region,” which provides data on the size and social composition of the population of Ufa and the province. In 1859, the Ufa printing house printed the major work of the theological seminary teacher V.M. Cheremshansky, “Description of the Orenburg province in economic-statistical, ethnographic and industrial relations.”

The systematic study of the history, economy and culture of the region was facilitated by the provincial statistical committee established in 1834 in Ufa. The committee began publishing materials on population, industry, agriculture and trade of the province, and since 1851 began regularly publishing the “Address-calendar of the Orenburg province”, containing valuable information on the history and economy of Ufa.

In the first years after the abolition of serfdom (1861), Ufa remained the residence of the civil governor of the Orenburg province, and since 1865 it became the main city of the Ufa province that separated from it, consisting of 6 counties (Ufa, Belebeevsky, Birsky, Sterlitamaksky, Menzelinsky and Zlatoust).

The development of capitalist industry in Ufa, its transformation into a large transport hub, contributed to the expansion of Ufa's territory and population growth. The city was built in two directions: from east to west and from south to north.

In 1879, the city’s borders ran in the south along the right bank of the Belaya River, on the slopes of which the settlements Zolotukha, Trunilovka and Archereyka stood out. In the west, the development boundary is along Nikolskaya Street, separated from the Nizhny Novgorod settlement by undeveloped space; in the north - along Bogorodskaya Street; in the east - along Bolshaya Sibirskaya Street (now Mingazheva Street); To the east of the Sutoloka River, the border ran north of Kopeikin Street (now Sun Yatsen Street) to the cemetery and from there south to the Zolotukha settlement.

Further growth of the city is associated with railway construction. In a short time, the free space between Nikolskaya Street and the railway line from the Muslim cemetery to the freight station was built up. To the north of Bogorodskaya street, Lazaretnaya and Safronovskaya settlements, Malaya Beketovskaya street (now Belyakova street) appeared, on the eastern outskirts Malaya Sibirskaya street (now Vetoshnikova street) appeared. Over 40 years, from 1864 to 1904, the populated area of ​​the city increased 1.7 times.

Households in Ufa retained the features of estate life. The city was built up with small wooden one-story houses, but in the center there were two-story and three-story buildings. According to the mid-80s, wooden residential buildings accounted for 93%, stone and mixed - 7%. Architecturally, Ufa of that time was characterized by a wooden mansion, in most cases with three windows facing the street, with an elongated courtyard façade in the middle part and always with a mezzanine. The mezzanine projections had covered terraces with a pediment. The front doors were arranged in the form of a loggia with a solid wooden ceiling.

State and public buildings stood out against the general background for their size and architectural design: the building of the Mohammedan Spiritual Administration (1863), (now the premises of the Department of Physics and Mathematics of the Academy of Sciences, Tukaev St., 50), the building of the city Police Department and the city fire department (now Fire Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Belarus, Oktyabrskaya Revolution St., 14), Railway Station (old building), Post Office (now telegraph office, Chernyshevsky St., 61).

Bolshaya Kazanskaya Street was considered central, connecting the old part of the city with the center of its new part. In the 90s, the streets that connected the city with the railway station and the Safronovskaya pier began to acquire great importance: Lazaretnaya, renamed Central (now Lenin Street), Aleksandrovskaya, Karetnaya (now Aksakova Street). A lot of traffic took place along Bolshaya Vavilovskaya Street (now Pushkin Street).

In the center of the new part of the city was Verkhne-Torgovaya Square, which occupied more than 15 acres. “Almost all the streets flowed into the square,” wrote populist S.Ya. Elpatievsky, who was serving exile in Ufa and the Blagoveshchensk plant in the first half of the 80s, “almost all the streets flowed into the square, and the entire Ufa civilization was located around the square - long rows stretched, there were houses, even on three floors, there was a post office, a pharmacy, chambers, a meeting of the nobility, and a "Grand Hotel" with rooms. There was a sign "Ladies' Tailor", and a hoop entwined with hay, even without a sign, told intelligent people that this was an inn ".

In the second half of the 19th century, as before, the most acute problem for Ufa was the supply of drinking water to the population. In 1875, the City Duma turned to entrepreneurs with a proposal to build a water pipeline at their own expense to raise water from Belaya, receiving profits from its operation for 50 years. But there were no takers. Then the Duma established a special fund for the construction of a city water supply system. By 1879, they managed to collect 11 thousand rubles, which was not enough.

In 1898, the Ufa Duma turned to the government with a request to allow it to issue a bond issue for 300 thousand rubles for a period of 37 years at the rate of 5% per annum. In June of the same year, permission was received. The proceeds from the sale of the loan were entirely intended for the construction of a water pipeline. Finally, in 1901, the first stage of the water supply system, serving the central part of the city, was put into operation.

On February 1, 1898, the first power supply began to flow. power station, built at his own expense by mining engineer N.V. Konshin. The main consumers of electricity were wealthy families, government and public institutions, industrial and commercial establishments. The central streets were illuminated by 50 arc lamps.

The establishment of the capitalist mode of production in Russia as a whole accelerated the development of industry in Ufa in the second half of the 19th century. In the 60-70s, small-scale production based on manual labor continued to dominate the city's industry. At the same time, the first manufacturing-type enterprises appeared in the woodworking and silicate industries, in which, due to the labor intensity and seasonality of the production process, a significant concentration of labor was required.

In the 80s, the mechanization of industrial production began, and the first steam engines appeared at the sawmills of merchants F.S. Stukolkin and P.S. Chikov.

The development of individual industries in Ufa is uneven. By 1890, textile and chemical enterprises ceased to exist, silicate, wood-finishing and fat-wax industries were in decline. On the other hand, the food industry grew rapidly, its production volume having increased 10-fold since 1861.

The industrial boom of the 90s caused the rapid development of factory production in Ufa. From 1890 to 1900, the number of workers in the factory industry increased 3 times, and annual production increased 3.7 times. The share of industrial enterprises with at least 16 workers was 82%.

In 1857-1858, at the request of local industrialists, a survey of the Belaya River was carried out. The commission found it convenient for navigation from the mouth to the city of Sterlitamak and began negotiations with the shipping companies of Nizhny Novgorod about opening a shipping company on the Belaya.

On August 11, 1858, the steamships "Grozny" and "Bystry" approached Ufa, and on September 7 - the light steamer "Rusalka", which ascended the Belaya 12 miles above the mouth of the Nugush River. In January 1860, the board of the Nizhny Novgorod society "Druzhina" established an office in Ufa to organize steamship communication, but the lack of knowledge of the river fairway and the lack of comfortable piers made communication very difficult, so the company soon closed the office. Since 1863, only the tugboat "Nadezhda" of the Ufa merchant Safronov plied along the Belaya, and since 1867 - the steamer "Manatura" of the landowner Bazilevsky. Only with the establishment of the Belsk Shipping Company in 1870, regular steamship service was established on Belaya. Already in 1871, 5 passenger ships made voyages, of which 3 between Ufa and Kazan, 2 between Ufa and Nizhny Novgorod. Tugboats appeared. By the end of the 19th century, 57 goods and passenger ships were plying along the Belaya. Ufa became the center of the Belsky River Route and a major pier.

Construction of Samara-Zlatustovskaya railway played a huge role in the rise of the economic and cultural life of Ufa. The city public and the city administration have been pushing for the construction of the Siberian Railway through Ufa for more than 10 years. On January 9, 1885, the government approved the project of the Samara-Ufa-Zlatoust-Chelyabinsk-Ekaterinburg railway.

On October 23, 1885, construction work began on the Samara-Ufa section of the road. The ceremonial laying of the station and other railway structures in Ufa took place on April 26, 1886. Construction was carried out at a high pace. Traffic on the Samara-Ufa section opened on September 8, 1888. On this day, the builders handed over the bridge across the Belaya River to the railway workers. And exactly two years later, on September 8, 1890, the Ufa-Zlatoust section of the road and the bridge across the Ufa River were put into operation. During the construction of the Ufa-Zlatoust section of the road, the writer N.G. Garin-Mikhailovsky worked as a survey engineer. In his works (the final part of the famous tetralogy “Engineers”, the story “Option”, etc.) he used episodes and experience of this activity, and repeatedly visited Ufa on official business.

In August 1888, the main workshops of the Samara-Zlatoust Railway (now the Diesel Locomotive Repair Plant) and depot came into operation in Ufa. The workshops consisted of three separate buildings, which housed 5 workshops and 4 departments. In 1889, they employed 167 workers, and subsequently their number increased sharply. In 1890, the workshops were equipped with advanced technology for that time and carried out work on major repairs and assembly of steam locomotives, carriages and boilers.

The city's population grew at a rapid rate. As can be seen from the table, over 33 years its number has increased 2.5 times. The population was mainly replenished by immigrants from other places. By the end of the 19th century, Ufa became a multinational city, although the Russian population remained by far the predominant one. In 1897, Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians made up 85.36% of the population of Ufa, the rest were Bashkirs, Tatars and other nationalities.

Based on the new city regulations, approved by Alexander II in 1870, a reform of city self-government was carried out. Elections for the new position in Ufa took place from November 25 to December 16, 1870. The voters were divided into 3 separate curiae (assemblies). The first curia consisted of the largest property owners paying a third of the total amount of city taxes (31 people). The second curia included owners of medium-sized fortunes, who also jointly contributed a third of the taxes received from voters (118 people). The third curia included the rest of the population who had the right to vote (1126 people. They elected 69 members of the city duma, 23 from each curia. The duma of the first convocation included 40 merchants and honorary citizens, 17 nobles and officials, 1 representative of the clergy and 11 burghers and peasants. The Duma allocated a city government consisting of a mayor, three members and a secretary.

The Duma and its administration were in charge of the city economy, city improvement, trade, industry, hospitals, schools, etc. The main sources of funds for the Duma (city budget) were special fees from the real estate of citizens, trade and crafts, income from city lands, enterprises and buildings, deductions from the annual profit of the city bank, etc.

The activities of the city duma took place under the constant control of the governor and a special administrative institution - the provincial presence for city affairs.

In 1864, the statistical committee founded the provincial museum of local lore in Ufa. In 1886, in one of the buildings on Verkhne-Torgovaya Square, it was opened to visitors.

In 1865, in connection with the division of the Orenburg province into Ufa and Orenburg, the weekly newspaper "Orenburg Provincial Gazette" published in Ufa was renamed "Ufa Provincial Gazette". In July 1894 the newspaper became a daily newspaper. In 1879-1883, the monthly magazine “Bulletin of the Ufa Zemstvo” was published, and in 1879 the magazine “Ufa Diocesan Gazette” began to be published (twice a month). All publications were in Russian.

In 1876, on the site of the burnt building of the women's gymnasium theater, a new two-story theater building with 800 seats was built according to the design of the provincial architect R.O. Karvovsky. Since there was no permanent professional theater group in Ufa, the building was rented out to touring troupes.

From September 1890 to May 1891, the opera troupe of entrepreneur Semenov-Samarsky performed in the theater, and the then unknown 17-year-old chorister Fyodor Chaliapin (1873-1938) was accepted into the theater in Ufa. Here, replacing a sick artist, he performed his first roles - Stolnik in the opera "Galka" by S. Moniuszko and Fernando in the opera "Il Trovatore" by D. Verdi. In 1862, in Ufa, the famous artist M.V. Nesterov was born into an intelligent merchant family.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Ufa was a typical provincial city, differing, however, from many surrounding provincial centers (Simbirsk, Vyatka, Orenburg, etc.) in its relatively rapid pace of development. Ufa became an important administrative, economic and cultural center of the Southern Urals.

The first years of the 20th century are characterized by a further rise in factory production. The cost of industrial products increased 2.1 times from 1900 to 1913. The abundance of raw materials and huge railway construction contributed to the rapid development of the timber processing industry (sawmills, carpentry and woodworking workshops), which came out on top both in terms of gross output and the number of workers. In connection with large housing construction, construction materials enterprises developed significantly (in 1913 there were 20 brick factories in Ufa). Food production and processing of agricultural products have faded into the background.

A significant place in the economic life of Ufa belonged to trade, the turnover of which has increased significantly compared to the end of the 19th century. Large wholesale transactions were concluded on the stock exchange. About 1,500 establishments were engaged in retail trade. The largest and most comfortable of them were still located in the city center. Numerous shops were located on the premises of Gostiny Dvor, the most famous shopping place in Ufa at the beginning of the 20th century.

The beginning of the 20th century is characterized by further rapid growth of the city's territory, compaction of buildings in old areas, and an increase in the number of storeys of buildings, especially in the center. New neighborhoods are appearing mainly in the northern part of the city (from Bogorodskaya Street towards the railway station and the parachute pier).

Wood remained the main building material, but brick was increasingly used. By 1915, the city had 1,562 stone structures (more than 20%) of the building. By 1916, the city had more than 400 two-story and 40 three-story houses.

Among the newly erected buildings, the buildings of the Big Siberian Hotel, the Commercial School and the Trade School (now the Ufa Aviation College) and the Chizheva House (now the premises of the Republican local history museum RB).

The house of A. Nogarev, a Ufa millionaire, owner of iron foundries in the Southern Urals, was a complex that included a hotel and a restaurant. Hotel "Metropol" on the street. Central (now Lenin St., 10) opened in 1899, and the restaurant and school for training cooks on the street. Pushkinskaya (now Pushkin St., 104) - in 1909. The arched gate from the side of Gubernatorskaya Street (now Sovetskaya Street) and the fence seemed to close the entire architectural composition. The building reflected the aesthetic views of the architects. XIX - early XX century, when the architecture of Ufa developed in the spirit of stylization, reflecting the populist aspirations of the so-called “Russian style”.

House of P.I. Kosterin and S.A. Chernikov (Ufa, Pushkinskaya St., now Pushkin St., 86, building of the Institute of Animal Husbandry and Forage Production). Built in 1907 according to the design of the Samara architect A. Shcherbachev, it is an example of early “fine modernism”. The house was rented out to visiting merchants. Restoration was carried out in 1985.

The Peasant Land Bank (Sovetskaya St., 14, now the National Museum of the Republic of Belarus) is a striking example of stylized Art Nouveau, combining elements of Old Russian and Romanesque styles. Metal, concrete, glass, ceramic cladding were used. The building was built in two stages. Part of the Peasant Land Bank was built in 1906. The second half of the building, made in an identical stylistic key, was built during the Great Patriotic War.

The construction of the building of the People's House of S.T. Aksakov (now the Bashkir State Opera and Ballet Theater) began according to the decision of the town council to erect a center of culture and art to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Aksakov’s death in order to perpetuate his memory. In 1909, the collection of donations began, and the St. Petersburg Society of Architects announced All-Russian competition for the best building design. But none of the 24 submitted projects was accepted by the jury. In the end, it was decided to build the People's House according to the design of the Ufa architect P.P. Rudavsky. By 1914, the builders completed the masonry and began finishing work. The building was finally completed in the early 20s.

With the growth and development of Ufa, the tasks of servicing the municipal economy also became more complicated. From 1900 to 1913, the city budget increased almost 4 times. However, the City Duma experienced a constant lack of funds and did not emerge from a severe financial crisis. For many years, the Duma made attempts to buy out the city power plant, but each time it was refused by the owner, who received huge profits from it. Finally, in 1916, he gave it up to the city for 300 thousand rubles.

For many years, there was talk in the Duma about the construction of a city sewer system, but it was never possible to find funds for this. The issue of water supply to the population remained acute.

The Duma was unable to resolve the issue of the tram either. The main means of transportation were private horse-drawn carriages and cabs, of which, for example, 395 were registered in 1913. In 1914, the richest nobles and bourgeois had 15 cars and 8 motorcycles for personal use. The telephone network was poorly developed. The city telephone exchange had only 230 numbers. On October 10, 1914, 5 telephone lines were opened for public use, connecting the center with the villages: Nadezhdino, Novo-Troitskoye, Okhlebinino, Semenovka, Topornino.

Over the course of 15 years, the number of Ufa residents doubled due to the newcomer population, mainly the impoverished peasantry. A new phenomenon was the rapid growth in the number of Bashkirs who left their native villages in search of work. They were engaged in the most unskilled work: cutting firewood, caring for livestock, removing garbage and sewage.

Back in the 70-80s of the 19th century, revolutionary work was carried out by the populists in Ufa. In 1875, a populist circle was formed, which included paramedic O. Kurchatov, his wife, S.V. Salikhov and others. Members of the circle gathered for meetings, distributed proclamations, but due to police persecution its activities soon ceased.

In 1885, for participation in the revolutionary movement, P.I. Clark was exiled from St. Petersburg to Ufa, who organized a People's Will circle. The members of the circle created an underground printing house, held meetings, and maintained contact with the St. Petersburg organization "People's Will". In the notebook of A.I. Ulyanov, who was arrested in connection with the case on March 1, 1887 (attempted attempt on life Alexandra III), the addresses and location plan of the apartments of P.I. Clark and his assistant I. Merzlyakov are indicated. It is believed that after the assassination attempt on the Tsar, its participants intended to hide in Ufa. In 1887, the gendarmes defeated the circle.

The first Marxist group in Ufa was formed in 1895. It included several former populists and students. M.M. Shour became the head of the circle. In March 1896, the group was destroyed by the police. In 1898, a new social democratic group arose in the city, which began promoting Marxism among workers. It included the professional revolutionary A.D. Tsyurupa, who had arrived shortly before, and was a former prominent populist. A prominent role in the group was played by I.S. Yakutov, a railway workshop worker and former member of the student Social Democratic circle in Kazan. At the end of the 90s, the group of Ufa Social Democrats experienced a period of split and debate. The unity of Marxists was facilitated by the arrival of V.I. Lenin in Ufa. He first came to Ufa for several days together with N.K. Krupskaya on February 6, 1900 on the road from Siberia (from exile in the village of Shushenskoye). In Ufa, Nadezhda Konstantinovna had to serve the remaining term of exile. He met with local Social Democrats at V.N. Krokhmal’s apartment on Ufimskaya Street (now Chernyshevsky Street, 83).

The second time V.I. Lenin came to Ufa on June 15, 1900 (by boat) to visit N.K. Krupskaya before leaving abroad. This time he spent about three weeks in Ufa and did enormous organizational work to create a stronghold for an all-Russian newspaper (the future Iskra). With his active participation, the creation of the Ufa Social Democratic organization was completed, which at that time became the strongest and most influential in the Urals. It was headed by A.D. Tsyurupa. In February 1901, they received the first issue of the Iskra newspaper, and then subsequent issues. The Ufa Social Democrats were involved in distributing the newspaper in Bashkiria and paid a lot of attention to sending correspondence. In the first 50 issues of Iskra, 33 articles and notes were published directly related to the Ufa province.

In 1905, the year of the first Russian revolution, meetings, strikes and walkouts also took place in Ufa. On July 5, more than 2 thousand workers in railway workshops and depots stopped working, demanding the establishment of an 8-hour working day, the abolition of overtime, improved medical care, the release of arrested comrades, freedom of assembly, and the immunity of strikers. Over the next two days, they were joined by workers from other enterprises. The strike became citywide. The strikers' demands were partially satisfied.

In October 1905, workers of Ufa enterprises joined an all-Russian political strike, as a result of which Tsar Nicholas II was forced to publish a manifesto in which he promised the people “the unshakable foundations of civil freedom on the basis of actual inviolability of the individual, freedom of conscience, speech, and the convening of a legislative Duma.”

In November-December the situation becomes even more tense. In response to the Black Hundred pogroms and manifestations of monarchist organizations, the Ufa Committee of the RSDLP organized a workers' militia, which was later transformed into a fighting squad. The squad numbered about 400 people and had a headquarters headed by an instructor - the chief of staff. The commander was the Bolshevik Ivan Kadomtsev, the instructor was his brother Erasmus, an officer and participant in the Russo-Japanese War. The main difficulty was providing the vigilantes with firearms. Melee weapons were manufactured at enterprises, and a bomb-making workshop was organized in a safe house. It was located in the house of E.F. Saltykova on the corner of Priyutskaya Street (now Kirova Street) and Soldatsky Lane (now Kakhovskaya Street).

The highest point of the revolutionary uprisings in Ufa was the armed resistance of the vigilantes to the police and Cossacks at a rally of railway workshop workers on December 9, 1905. But the forces were unequal, the workers’ action was defeated, mass arrests and dismissals began. The revolutionary movement was suppressed, but not destroyed.

From October 1906, the illegal Bolshevik newspaper “Ufa Worker” was published in Ufa for more than two years, with a circulation of up to 5 thousand copies.

Although Ufa was located deep behind the lines, the war had a huge impact on her entire life. In the first year, construction work was stopped and most brick factories were closed. The curtailment of production continued later. A significant expansion of production was observed only at those enterprises that carried out military orders. Although the total number of workers in Ufa increased by 14.4% from 1913 to 1915, female and child labor began to be used much more widely, replacing mobilized cadre workers. The city economy fell into decay due to lack of funds. Food prices began to rise from the first month of the war. By July 1, 1916, they had increased more than 3 times compared to January 1914. In November 1916, a rationing system was introduced for flour, sugar, salt and others.

February Revolution of 1917

On February 27 (old style), 1917, the bourgeois-democratic revolution won in Russia. The population of Ufa enthusiastically greeted the news of the overthrow of the autocracy. Meetings and rallies spontaneously arose everywhere. A wave of activity has swept political parties.

On March 2, at an emergency meeting of the Ufa City Duma, a provincial committee of public organizations is created.

On March 1-2, an organization of socialist revolutionaries (SRs) appeared in the city, whose newspapers “Land and Freedom” and “Irek” (“Will”) began publishing on March 30.

On March 2, in the building of the Metropol Hotel (now Lenin Street, 10) the first legal meeting of the Ufa Social Democrats Bolsheviks and Mensheviks who emerged from the underground took place. The meeting elected a committee of the Ufa United Organization of the RSDLP. The chairman of the committee was the Menshevik I.A. Akhtyamov, the treasurer was the Bolshevik A.D. Tsuryupa.

On March 5, the Bund Committee declares its existence. On March 5, the first meeting of the Ufa Council of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies took place. The majority of seats in the Council were won by the Socialist Revolutionaries and Mensheviks.

On March 6, the first organizational meeting of constitutional democrats (cadets) took place in Ufa. Soon the provincial committee of the Ufa department of the Cadet Party was formed, headed by the large landowner Count P.P. Tolstoy. The newspapers “Ufimskaya Zhizn” and “Ufa Vestnik” became the mouthpiece of the local organization of cadets.

On March 8, the provincial commissioner of the Provisional Government, vested with the powers of the former governor, began to perform his official duties. The policy of the Provisional Government, aimed at preparing an offensive at the front, caused growing discontent among the masses; in June, unrest began in the reserve regiments and among the mobilized.

The turbulent events of the July days (the shooting of the July 4 demonstration in Petrograd, the closure of opposition newspapers, the introduction of the death penalty at the front, etc.) put an end to dual power and the intensification of the counter-revolution. The moderate majority of the Ufa Soviet condemned the performance of the Petrograd workers and soldiers and spoke out for supporting the Provisional Government “in its present composition in all its actions.”

Ufa is a city of republican significance in Russian Federation, which is the capital of the Republic of Bashkortostan and the administrative center of the Ufa region, and is not part of it. It is the largest economic, cultural and scientific center of Russia, ranking 31st among all European cities in terms of population. Its area is 707.9 km 2 (one of the top five largest cities in the Russian Federation by area), located at the confluence of the Ufa and Dema rivers with the Belaya River, within the Pribelsky ridge-undulating plain, 100 km west of the southern slope of the Ural mountains One of the features of this city is its spaciousness; there is almost 700 m2 of urban area per resident.

Origin of the name, history

The medieval city, known since the beginning of the 16th century, according to one version, was named after the Ufa River, which flows into the Belaya River, its name comes either from the Bashkir “kara-idel” - “dark water”, or from the Iranian “ap” - water . According to other versions, the name of the city may come from the Tatar word “upe” - a hill, the Bashkir word “uba”, translated meaning “hill”, “mound”, or the ancient Turkic word “ope” - a place where a ritual sacrifice is carried out.

Until the moment when the Russians came to this land, according to the legends of the Bashkir people, on the site of the city of Ufa there used to be a large city, stretching more than 10 miles along the banks of the Belaya and Ufa rivers; here was the residence of the Bashkir governor of the ruler of the Nogai Horde. After the annexation of the European part of Bashkortostan to the Muscovite kingdom in 1557, the Bashkirs asked the tsar to build a city on their territory in order to transport tribute closer, as well as for the protection and convenience of their residence. In 1574, the archers, led by voivode Ivan Nagim, built the Ufa fortress or fort, which by 1586 became the city and administrative center of the Ufa district, headed by the voivode. By the middle of the 17th century, the population of the city, including the soldiers of the garrison (200-300 people), numbered about one and a half thousand people. The history of Ufa of that era is closely connected with the events of the Peasant War (1773-1750) and in particular the Pugachev uprising of 1773, when in the fall the city was besieged by rebels and practically cut off from the outside world and was liberated only in next year in the spring by regular troops under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Mikhelson.

In the 18th century, the fortified city of Ufa became a major administrative and economic center of all of Bashkiria; in 1708 it became part of the Kazan province; in 1728, Ufa became the center of the Ufa province, headed by a governor who reported directly to the Senate in St. Petersburg. From 1744 to 1796, Ufa belonged to the Orenburg province; since the beginning of the 19th century, it has been the center of the Ufa province.

During civil war 1918-1920, Ufa was occupied by anti-Bolshevik forces, the Provisional All-Russian Government, the so-called Ufa Directory, was created here, which later moved to Omsk. After the Bolsheviks came to power in 1922, the Autonomous Bashkir Soviet Socialist Republic was created with its capital in Ufa. During the Second World War 1941-1945. was evacuated here a large number of industrial enterprises, government institutions and research institutes, the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, many writers, artists and Comintern members. In 1974, Ufa was awarded the Order of the October Revolution, now it is beautiful, modern city, which is among the top ten Russian cities according to the urban environment quality rating.

Population of Ufa

As of 2017, the population of Ufa was 1,115,560 people, this is 11th place among 1,112 cities of the Russian Federation in terms of population, the number of residents of the Ufa agglomeration is 1,454,053 people (2017). The dynamics of population growth and natural growth have been observed since 2009; the population has increased by 90.7 thousand people or 8% over 8 years.

The number of working-age population of the city is 65.2%, children under 15 years old - 15.4%, people of disabled age - 19.4%. 54.5% of women and 45.5% of men live here; for every thousand females there are 835 males. The majority of the population consists of representatives of Russian nationality - 48.9%, Tatar - 28.3%, Bashkir - 17.1%, Ukrainian - 1.2%, other nationalities - 4.5%.

Industry of Ufa

The leading industrial sectors of the city are oil refining, mechanical engineering and chemical industry. The city's economy is based on the fuel, energy and machine-building complex. More than 200 enterprises of medium and large industrial scale are located here; in 2013, Ufa was in 7th place among 250 industrial centers throughout Russia; it occupies a leading position in the volume of industrial production and the provision of paid services, volumes of trade turnover, and the level of average monthly wages.

Oil production and refining (Ishimbay oil field, where the depth of oil production is higher than throughout Russia and amounts to 84.9%) is carried out at PJSC ANK Bashneft, Bashneft-UNPZ, Bashneft-Novoil, Bashneft- Ufaneftekhim", "Bashneft - Oil Refinery Service". The chemical and petrochemical industries are represented by such enterprises as Ufaorgsintez (production of polyethylene, phenol, acetone, ethyl alcohol and other chemical products), OJSC Ufa Paint and Varnish Plant (varnishes, oil paints, synthetic mastics), OJSC Ufa Plant of Elastomeric Materials, products and structures" (production of rubber products for technical purposes).

The largest enterprises in the instrument-making and mechanical engineering industry: OJSC Ufa Instrument-Making Production Association (UPPO), Ufa Motor-Building Production Association (UMPO), OJSC Ufimkabel, Ufa Microelectronics Plant Magnetron, OJSC Ufa Plant Promsvyaz, NPP Polygon, "Ufa Non-Ferrous Metals Plant", BPO "Progress", Bashkir Trolleybus Plant, JSC "Gidravlika" and others.

Culture of the city of Ufa

Ufa is famous for its outstanding fellow countrymen, who began the rise of their dizzying stellar career on Bashkir soil. Here, at the Bashkir State Opera and Ballet Theater at the end of the 19th century, the future famous opera singer Fyodor Chaliapin was listed as a chorister, and the outstanding choreographer and dancer Rudolf Nureyev performed. Ufa is the birthplace of Yuri Shevchuk (leader of the DDT group), Zemfira, talented violinist and conductor Vladimir Spivakov, writer Sergei Dovlatov and other famous personalities.

There are 15 museums in the city (Museum of Archeology and Ethnography, Bashkir state museum visual arts them. M.V. Nesterov, National Museum of the Republic of Bashkortostan, etc.), 7 art galleries, 6 state theaters (Bashkir State Opera and Ballet Theater, Bashkir Academic Drama Theater named after Mazhit Gafuri, Russian Academic Drama Theater of Bashkortostan.

Let's continue: National Youth Theater named after Mustai Karim, Ufa State Tatar Theater "Nur", Bashkir State Puppet Theater), more than 25 general and 20 children's libraries, the largest: Scientific Library of the Ufa Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Central city ​​Library, National Library named after. Akhmet-Zaki Validi.

Ufa is a modern, dynamically developing city, which harmoniously combines a thirst for the latest trends in art and culture with a reverent attitude towards long-standing traditions and customs.

What does the word “Ufa” mean and where did the city get its name? The newspaper “Red Bashkiria” spoke about “dark water” and totem animals in January 1927. The Bashinform agency continues to introduce readers to materials from the Archive of the Republic Press.

From the surviving chronicle “Ancient Khanates” that has come down to us, we know about ancient city, on the site of which the original Ufa arose. Previously it was called Tura-tau, Turova Mountain, probably after the name of the Nogai Tura-khan, whose residence was located on this site. “The khan’s subjects, the Bashkirs, roamed in what is now old Ufa, and their nomadic territory extended for ten miles,” the newspaper says.

The publication is trying to find out when the city began to be called “Ufa”. Researcher Pyotr Rychkov believes that the city received its name under the Nogais. In his “Topography of the Orenburg Province” it is said: “About the title of the city of Ufa, one can guess that it was not given to it again, but rather the previous one was renewed, and the existing one by which the Nogai khans called their city.”

Judging by Russian chronicles, at the beginning of the 16th century, even before the annexation of Bashkiria, “Ufa” already existed as the name of the city. “In 1508, the “Prince of Ufa” is mentioned, whom Khan of Kazan Makhmet-Amin sent to Moscow to negotiate with Ivan III,” the newspaper notes.

According to the author of the article, the city got its name from the Ufa River. “It is obvious that at that distant time when this name first arose, the main city was located along the Ufa River, where the present “Old Ufa” is. As the city grew and the main center moved further from Ufa to the Belaya River, the old name “Ufa” was transferred to the new city.”

Local historian Mikhail Lossievsky believed that “Ufa” is a Hungarian word and means “buildings made of newly felled trees.” Researcher Vasily Shevich explained that “Ufa” is a Bashkir word that means “dark water.” Local historian Sergeev derived the word “Ufa” from the Bashkir “Uba” - mountain, hill and explained: “The city is built on high scattered hills, rising almost 100 fathoms above the Belaya River.”

The author of the publication is sure that “the term “Ufa” is not Russian, not Bashkir, but prehistoric, primitive, tribal.” Among some prehistoric people, the word “Ufa” was the tribal name of a totem animal. Perhaps it is related to the color designation, the publication suggests. The old tribal name “Ufa” passed into use by the new tribe of Bashkirs and “like something misunderstood” became the entire name of the river. Then the defining word “idel” was added to it - river, water. Together, “Ufa-idel” can mean a dark river, dark water, especially if we take into account the color of the water of Ufa and Belaya and if we assume that the tribal totemic term “Ufa” in a later era, by the color designation it perceived or by accidental consonance with a term of this order turned into an adjective with the meaning of color, the newspaper summarizes.

Reference. Since ancient times, fortified settlements have been known on the so-called Ufa Peninsula. In 1574 the Ufa fortress was founded. In 1586, Ufa received city status and became the administrative center of the Ufa district. In the 18th century, Ufa was part of the Kazan province, part of the Orenburg province, and since 1865 - the center of the Ufa province. In 1922, the province became part of the ABSSR, and Ufa became the official capital of the republic. Every year on June 12, Ufa City Day is celebrated.

Materials provided by the Book Chamber of the Republic of Belarus.