Ulyanovsk region

Располагается Ульяновская область в Среднем Поволжье, занимает площадь 37,2 тыс. км². Ее размеры 250х290 км. В состав области входят 6 городов: Ульяновск, Димитровград, Новоульяновск, Инза, Барыш, Сенгилей, – а также городские и сельские поселения. В Поволжье тесно переплелись многие национальности, вот и в Ульяновской области одной семьей проживают русские и татары, чуваши, мордва и другие. По вероисповеданию в области преобладают христиане и мусульмане, но есть также и лютеране с буддистами.

History

Самым древним населенным пунктом Ульяновской области считается поселок Старая Майна. На ее территории было обнаружено городище, доказывающее проживание здесь с III века Именьковских племен, а затем волжских булгар. В XIII веке Поволжье было захвачено Золотой ордой, с XV века земли отошли Казанскому ханству. В 1647-1654 годах для защиты русских границ от нападений началось строительство засечной черты между крепостями Карсун и Симбирск. Руководил работами стольник царя Алексея Михайловича Богдан Хитрово. Именно его считают основателем города Симбирска (ранее – Синбирска), переименованного в 1924 году в Ульяновск в честь Владимира Ильича Ленина.

Nature

Several rivers flow through the territory of the Ulyanovsk region, including the large ones - the Volga and Sviyaga. The Volga divides the region and the regional center of Ulyanovsk into two parts - the western right bank and the eastern left bank. The right bank of the Volga belongs to the Volga Upland: the Undory, the Kremen and Sengileevsky mountains descend to the river. The left bank of the Volga lies on the plain, and one of the neighborhoods adjacent to the river, the Lower Terrace, is several meters below the water level. This is the only case in Russia when the level of the river exceeds the level of the adjacent inhabited locality. To avoid flooding along the neighborhood built a fortified concrete dam.

Famous people

The Ulyanovsk region was glorified by talented people who were born or lived here: the writer and historian N.M. Karamzin, the writers IA. Goncharov and S.T. Aksakov, the poets NM. Languages ​​and D.N. Sadovnikov, TV presenter V.M. Leontief, artist Nikas Safronov.

Recalling the Ulyanovsk region, they often recall the following opposites. On this earth around the same time, two people were born who played an important role in the history of Russia in the twentieth century: V.I. Lenin is the leader of the October Revolution and A.F. Kerensky is the head of the Provisional Government. Their confrontation is compared with the unique natural feature of the region: the Volga and Sviyaga rivers, flowing parallel at a distance of about 4 km from each other, have different directions.

Bridges

To connect the banks of the Volga, that is, two parts of Ulyanovsk, two bridges were built across the river at different times:

— Императорский, открытый в 1916 г. как железнодорожный мост. В 1950-х опоры нарастили и по мосту открыли автомобильное движение. Протяженность моста 2089 м.

- Presidential, opened at the end of 2009 as an automobile bridge to unload the old bridge and eliminate the permanent "traffic jams" at the entrances to it. The length of the bridge is 5825 m.

- Bridges provide communication between two parts of the city and the region. At the time of construction, both bridges were the longest in the country. They are connected with tragic stories. In 1983, the ship "Alexander Suvorov", through the fault of the navigator, crashed into the low, non-navigable span of the old bridge. In the accident, 176 people were killed. In November 2009, an ammunition depot "31 Arsenal" exploded in the Zavolzhsky district of Ulyanovsk and the old bridge closest to the site of the explosion was temporarily closed. And since it was at that time the only link in the two parts of the city, the authorities decided and opened a new bridge for the day that was not commissioned. In the explosion in the warehouse and the subsequent disposal of unexploded ordnance, according to official data, 9 military personnel were killed.

Tourism

All Soviet time in Ulyanovsk and the region from all communist countries hundreds of thousands of tourists came every year to get acquainted with the city that gave life to the Leader of the proletariat. Nowadays, interest in Lenin has died down, but health tourism is gaining momentum. There are unique places in the region where they go to be treated: to Undory - to mineral springs, to Nikolaevsky District - to the White Lake of glacial origin.