Sterlitamak (Bashkortostan Stәrletamaҡ) is a city in Russia, the
second (after Ufa) city in terms of population in Bashkortostan, the
administrative center of Sterlitamak district, which is not part of.
The city of republican significance, forms the municipality Urban
Okrug the city of Sterlitamak as the only settlement in its
composition.
A large center of the chemical industry and
mechanical engineering, one of the centers of the Sterlitamak
agglomeration.
It was founded in 1735 as the post station of
Ashkadar Yam, the status of the city was assigned in 1781. In the
past, the capital of the Autonomous Soviet Bashkir Republic
(1919-1922), as well as the administrative center of the Sterlitamak
canton (1921-1930) and the Sterlitamak region of the BASSR
(1952-1953).
The name of the city appeared by merging two words: the name of the Sterli River flowing through the city, and the Bashkir word "tamak" (mouth, throat), that is, in translation, the name Sterlitamak means "Mouth of the Sterli River".
The history of the city of Sterlitamak dates
back to the 18th century. In the 30s of the 18th century, the
government of the Russian Empire established postal stations (pits)
on the way from Ufa to Orenburg. One of these stations is the
Ashkadar postal pit.
The foundation of the saltwater pier
In 1765-66, according to the project of SN Tetyushev (born 1726 -
date of death is unknown), a salt pier was built for transporting
salt from the Iletsk Protection (operated until 1810). Tetyushev was
a fairly well-known businessman who had experience in supplying
goods to the Russian army and the imperial palace. He successfully
combined commerce with bureaucratic activities. In 1763 he was
awarded the rank of court councilor, and in 1765 - collegiate
councilor in connection with his appointment to Bashkiria. High
connections allowed Savva to turn with a business initiative to the
Empress Catherine the Great herself.
Tetyushev proposed a
project for the construction of a pier for receiving Iletsk salt, in
addition to those already existing in Bugulchany and Tabynsk “at the
Ashkadar river, which flows into the White River, along which salt
will be sent by ships. The distance from the pier to the confluence
of Ashkadar and Belaya is 3 versts 150 sazhen. " The mass of
supplied salt was to reach a million poods. The project with the
accompanying notes of the Orenburg governor was approved by the
highest decree of January 19, 1766.
The first caravan with
Iletsk salt, which left the pier in the spring of 1767, was not the
promised million poods, but three times less. Soon, the shortcomings
of the site chosen for the pier were discovered, and at the
suggestion of the chairman of the Salt Commission of Russia,
Lieutenant-General P. D. Yeropkin, dated November 30, 1769, the salt
pier from the shallow river Ashkadar was moved to its former place
near the Bugulchan tract on the Belaya River. However, barges with
other cargoes continued to be sent from the Sterlitamak pier, the
mass of which was many times greater than the mass of the previously
exported salt.
With the emergence of the pier, its
established name was not yet available. In 1766, carriers of Iletsk
salt from Bugulchan called it Ashkadar. Nikolay Rychkov, describing
the pier, also calls it Ashkadar. In 1770, I.I. Lepekhin mentions
the Sterlitamak pier, and also calls it Tetyushev in all his
reports. Both names were in use at the same time, the second name
was strengthened as an official one precisely because it appeared in
Tetyushev's papers.
During the Pugachev rebellion
In the
seventh year of its existence, the small fortress of Sterlitamak
pier, by the will of fate, was involved in a major historical event
- waves of the Pugachev riot swept through it for two years, which
entered Soviet historiography as the Peasant War of 1773-1775.
On October 9, the Orenburg governor Ivan Andreevich Reinsdorp
sent an order to the Ufa governor, Colonel AN Borisov, demanding to
urgently collect and send 5,000 Bashkir soldiers to help the
Orenburg fortress. The voivode announced mobilization, appointing
the Sterlitamak pier as a collection point. However, it was not
possible to use the many-thousand-strong horse detachment of the
Bashkirs and Mishars in the defense of Orenburg. While the
authorities formed four separate detachments out of two and a half
thousand armed militias for almost a month, agitators of Sergeant
Major Kinzi Arslanov, who joined Pugachev, were driving around the
pier, who disclosed that their "sovereign, the true emperor Peter
III" was located near Orenburg. The campaign was quite successful.
The detachments sent in late October - early November from the
Sterlitamak assembly point to fight the rebels almost completely
sided with the rebels. At the head of one of them, a detachment of
95 Bashkirs of the Shaitan-Kudey volost, was the young Salavat
Yulaev. On the night of November 19, four thousand Bashkirs
(according to other sources - eight thousand) appeared at the walls
of the pier under the command of the Pugachev colonels Kaskin
Samarov, Kanbulat Yuldashev and Karanay Muratov.
The salt
pier was defended by a garrison of 70 soldiers, headed by Majors N.
I. Golov and I. K. Marshilov. However, both majors, Warrant Officer
Vetoshnikov and "loyal" Bashkir foremen Kuly Boltachev and Sharip
Kiikov, accompanied by the Nagaybak Cossacks, fled to Ufa. Appearing
there on November 19, they announced the fall of the pier, but she
held out until November 22.
Captain Ivan Bogdanov, sent from
Kazan with soldiers, and the garrison of the pier with Captain Anton
Gurov, who had been sent from Kazan the day before, remained to
defend the pier.
The Sterlitamak pier remained in the hands of the rebels until
March 30, 1774 and was liberated by government troops under the
command of Major Seconds S. M. Tyutchev. But even later, she was
subjected to frequent attacks from the Bashkir rebel groups. It was
defended by two companies of the St. Petersburg Carabinier Regiment
under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Ivan Karpovich Ryleev. Parts
of this regiment guarded the Novo-Moscow road - the main
communication between Kazan and Orenburg, while participating in
battles with the Pugachev detachments in the central part of the
Orenburg province.
In mid-May 1774, Lieutenant Colonel Ryleev
opposed Karanay Muratov, who was gathering troops in the peaks of
Urshak and Dema. On May 18, a battle took place between the villages
of Urshakbash-Karamaly and Karkali. Having lost 60 people, Ryleev
with the hussars and carabinieri was forced to retreat to the
village of Murzalar 12 miles from the pier, where they fought off
the Pugachevites for three days. The noise of the battle reached
Sterlitamak. On May 20, Ryleev managed to break through to the place
of deployment. The Pugachevites surrounded the pier, plundered and
burned food warehouses.
On July 1 and 2, Karanay Muratov and
Kusyapkul Azatbayev again tried twice to take the pier. On July 5,
between the pier and the Allaguvat pit, Karanay tried to block the
path of the corps of General P. M. Golitsyn, who was making a
campaign from Orenburg to Ufa, but was defeated. This was the last
significant event of the Peasant War that took place in the vicinity
of Sterlitamak.
County town
The highest decree of December
23, 1781 in connection with the creation of the Sterlitamak district
within the framework of the Ufa governorship, ordered from April
1782 the Sterlitamak salt-water pier to be raised to the level of a
district town. The convenience of the location of the pier
contributed to this elevation.
Like all county towns,
Sterlitamak received its coat of arms: “At the top of the shield is
the Ufa coat of arms (a running marten in a silver field, as a sign
of such beasts of abundance). At the bottom there are three floating
silver geese in a blue field, as a sign of the great abundance of
these birds. " The coat of arms was imperially approved on June 8,
1782.
The Ufa governorship existed for 15 years, being
transformed in 1796 into the Orenburg province. Sterlitamak remains
a county town.
In 1839, a parish school was opened with a
two-year term of study. In 1837-1864 the Cathedral of the Kazan
Mother of God was built.
After the February Revolution in Sterlitamak, a district committee
of public organizations was formed, and a city police detachment was
organized. Simultaneously, from March 15, 1917, the Soviet of
Workers 'and Soldiers' Deputies operated in the city, most of which
were occupied by Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks.
On
October 30, 1917, at a joint meeting of the Committee of Public
Organizations and the Council of Workers 'and Soldiers' Deputies,
the Bolshevik Cheverev who arrived from Ufa announced the transfer
of power in the province into the hands of the Soviets. On October
31, at a city meeting, the revolutionary committee and the district
council of people's commissars were organized under the chairmanship
of the soldier Vladimir Krasilnikov. In 1917, the newspaper "Worker
and Soldier" began to be published.
Civil War
In the
spring of 1918, revolutionary detachments of the Reds were formed,
in June, under conditions of a state of emergency, power was
transferred to the Revolutionary Committee under the chairmanship of
Vasily Prozorovsky.
On July 12, the Czechoslovakians suddenly
entered Sterlitamak with a fight. The Reds were taken by surprise
and retreated to the right bank of the Ashkadar River and further to
the village of Petrovsky. From there Sterlitamak detachments moved
to join forces with Blucher and Kashirin. In Sterlitamak, left by
the Reds, the power of Komuch (the Committee for the Defense of the
Constituent Assembly) was established. Troops of the Red Army again
entered Sterlitamak on December 29, 1918 in the form of cavalry of
the 20th Penza Rifle Division, which was part of the 1st Army.
On April 5, 1919, the city was again occupied by the White
movement, this time by the Kolchakites. The revolutionary commanders
evacuated in advance, there was no resistance to the white units.
The peaceful respite was short-lived. At the end of May 1919, the
city was again occupied by the Red Army.
On August 20, 1919,
the Bashkir Military Revolutionary Committee - the government of the
ASBR arrived in Sterlitamak. In 1919-1922 Sterlitamak was the
capital of the Autonomous Soviet Bashkir Republic (1919-1922). In
1921-1930 it was the administrative center of the Sterlitamak
canton.
Soviet period
In 1930, the zoning of the
administrative structure was carried out. Sterlitamak becomes the
center of Sterlitamak district. On May 16, 1932, southeast of
Sterlitamak, on the territory of the future city of Ishimbay, oil
production began. Subsequently, Ishimbay received the title of the
capital of the Second Baku. In connection with the development of
Ishimbay oil in 1933-1934, the Ufa - Ishimbayevo railway was built,
passing through Sterlitamak (before that the city had no railway
connection). On September 12, 1934, the first freight train arrived
in Sterlitamak. Sterlitamak begins the third five-year plan as a
large industrial center.
During the Great Patriotic War, many industrial enterprises were
evacuated to Sterlitamak: Odessa Machine-Tool Plant named after
Lenin, equipment of plant No. 59 of the People's Commissariat of
Ammunition named after I. GI Petrovsky from Voroshilovgrad region,
Slavyansk and Donetsk soda plants, Novo-Podolsk, Bryansk, Volkhovsk
cement plants, Baku plant "Red Proletarian", Congress sugar plant,
two shops, a shoe factory and a training section of the Moscow
leather and shoe factory. With the beginning of the war, the
Bashnefterazvedka trust was transferred to the city. In 1941, a
special construction and assembly unit (OSMCH-50) was formed
specifically for the construction of military plant No. 850, which
was transformed in 1944 into trust No. 50, and in 1947 - into the
Sterlitamakstroy trust. In 1943, the plant No. 850 of the People's
Commissariat for Ammunition, the current FKP "Avangard", was put
into operation. In 1944, the plant No. 880 for the production of
aerial bombs, today's "Stroymash", was put into operation.
In
1952-1953, it was the administrative center of the Sterlitamak
region of the Bashkir ASSR.
In 1960, a synthetic rubber
plant, now OJSC "Sintez-Kauchuk", was put into operation, the first
city automatic telephone exchange was built. In 1961, the first
trolleybus line was launched in the Bashkir Autonomous Soviet
Socialist Republic. In 1964, a chemical plant was put into operation
(now the Bashkir Soda Company JSC).
In connection with a
sharp increase in population in the 1960s, it was decided to build
Sterlitamak to the east, to the Belaya River, and to build a bypass
road for freight transport from the west for two cities at once:
Sterlitamak and Salavat.