To the question of what Samara was called before, many will answer “Kuibyshev” and will be right. However, this name was received by the city at a time when many settlements of the country were renamed in honor of prominent party members and revolutionaries, but its history began much earlier. That's about what name he had before and what role he played in the life of Russia, we will talk in our article.
The first mention of the Samara River and the city of the same name
The name of the city is directly related to the name of the Samara River, which is a tributary of the Volga. The first mention of her is found in notes by the secretary of the Arabian embassy, Ibn Fadlan, who visited there in May 922. He calls it the Samur River, referring to the name given to her by the local nomads. However, the Arab diplomat does not mention any settlements.
Researchers have a certain hypothesis about how Samara was called earlier, that is, before it was officially established on the maps of Russia, according to which its previous name was consonant with the current one. This is evidenced, in particular, by a Venetian map that has come down to us, dating from 1367, on which a settlement called Samar is indicated in the Middle Volga region.
The settlement of the same name is also printed on another map drawn up in 1459 by the Catholic monk Fra Mauro, who traveled along the Volga. However, there are skeptics who question the legitimacy of identifying ancient Samar with the city that arose on the banks of the Volga in 1586.
The fortress erected at the behest of the king
It is in this year that the history of Samara begins, based on the banks of the river of the same name, near its confluence with the Volga. The times were extremely turbulent, and in order to protect the region from the constant raids of nomads, as well as to protect them from the waterway from Kazan to Astrakhan, Emperor Fedor Ivanovich ordered Prince G.O. Zasekin to build a fortress there.
The question of how Samara was formed has been considered by many generations of Russian historians. It was established that, by the will of the tsar, a small prison was first appeared, which grew over time and turned into a fortress, giving rise to a large Volga city. Its foundation and further construction is reflected in detail in documents that have reached us. They also give the name of the city, which excludes all doubts about what Samara was called before.
The first residents of the Samara town
According to historians, the Samara fortress, which has not been preserved to this day, was located in that part of the city where the valve manufacturing plant is located today. Although in those days they didn’t have any idea about shock construction, the sovereign’s command was executed without delay and the fortress was built surprisingly quickly - in just three months.
The new Samara town, still smelling of fresh resin, lived on (they used to call it in the old days); servicemen — archers, gunners and “collars,” that is, those who were supposed to protect the gates from any dashing people. Here the decree of the king referred to serve the fatherland and the children of the boyars.
The history of Samara of the 17th century is a chronicle of the ongoing work to strengthen and expand it. As a result, by 1700 the city consisted of five defensive lines, which included the Kremlin, two guard lines and the same number of groove lines, which were soon destroyed by decay. However, this powerful-looking outpost had a very significant drawback - all its structures were wooden, which affected the most detrimental way during the fires that swept the city in 1700 and 1703.
From a watchtower to an industrial giant
Taught by bitter experience, the Samaritans erected a new, this time earthen fortress on the site of the old ashes. During archaeological excavations conducted in 2013-2014, the remains of this structure were discovered in the area of Khlebnaya Square.
In 1851, the Samara province was formed, and from then on the city, which became its capital, received a powerful impetus for its economic and cultural development. At the end of the 19th century, Samara was even called “Russian Chicago” for its rapidly growing industrial production and trade. The city, which totaled fifteen thousand inhabitants in those years, was replete with various enterprises, warehouses and steam mills.
It is interesting to note that it was here that for the first time in Russia, the horse-drawn tram was replaced by a tram that left the city depot in 1915. As noted by the newspapers of the time, it was completely assembled from domestic parts and materials. Samara, on the other hand, is the birthplace of Zhigulevsky beer, so beloved by all of us , whose production began in 1881 at a factory owned by Austrian businessman Alfred von Wakano. By the way, at first it was called "Vienna", but then it received a more patriotic name.
Renaming Samara
In the first post-revolutionary years, Samara for some time remained independent from the Bolsheviks, and power in it belonged to the so-called Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly. However, the course of history was inexorable, and over time it became one of the other Soviet cities. In 1935, "at the request of the working people" (as the individual directives of the CPSU were called at one time), the city was named after a prominent revolutionary and party leader V.V. Kuybyshev.
The second capital of the country
The city played an important role in the life of the country during the Great Patriotic War. It essentially served as the second capital of the Soviet Union. The Government and a number of foreign diplomatic missions moved here on the banks of the Volga.
In case of emergency, the city was ready to become the headquarters of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief I.V. Stalin. Especially for him, a residence equipped with an underground bunker was built. Today, it is part of the city museum and is open to visitors.
The city during the war years
In addition to government agencies, the city also housed many enterprises evacuated from the western regions of the country, as a result of which the level of industrial production in it during the war years increased fivefold. To provide the front with combat aircraft, a powerful airline complex was formed in the city, which established the production of such world-famous aircraft as Il-2 attack aircraft, as well as Mig-3 fighters.
The Moscow Bolshoi Theater was located and continued to work here. An important event in the cultural life of Kuibyshev during the war was the performance of the seventh Leningrad Symphony in his hall, completed by D. D. Shostakovich who was evacuated here. A unique monument of the war was the city embankment, for facing which granite was taken out, which at one time was taken from defeated Germany.
The flag of Samara, which has become a symbol of modern times
Throughout the entire period of the communist rule, right up to the beginning of perestroika, party ideologists made every effort to destroy the people’s memory of what Samara was called before. The same trend was observed in other renamed cities of the country.
However, already in 1990, at the very beginning of the democratic reforms that swept the country, the city was returned its historical name, and eight years later, by the decision of the City Council, the flag of Samara was approved. It will not be an exaggeration to say that for citizens it has become not only the official symbol of the municipality, but also the visible embodiment of the changes introduced by the restructuring into the life of every citizen of Russia.