Tolyatti (English) Тольятти (Russian)
-  City[1]  -
Views of Tolyatti
Location of Samara Oblast in Russia
Tolyatti Location of Tolyatti in Samara Oblast
Coordinates: 53°30′32″N 49°25′20″E / 53.50889°N 49.42222°E / 53.50889; 49.42222Coordinates: 53°30′32″N 49°25′20″E / 53.50889°N 49.42222°E / 53.50889; 49.42222
Coat of arms	Flag
Administrative status (as of December 2011)
Country	Russia
Federal subject	Samara Oblast[2]
Administratively subordinated to	city of oblast significance of Tolyatti[2]
Administrative center of	Stavropolsky District,[1] city of oblast significance of Tolyatti[2]
Municipal status (as of December 2004)
Urban okrug	Tolyatti Urban Okrug[3]
Administrative center of	Tolyatti Urban Okrug,[3] Stavropolsky Municipal District[3]
Mayor[citation needed]	Sergey Andreyev[citation needed]
Statistics
Population (2010 Census)	719,632 inhabitants[4]
- Rank in 2010	18th
Time zone	SAMT (UTC+04:00)[5]
Founded	1737[citation needed]
Previous names	Stavropol-on-Volga (until 1964)[6]
Postal code(s)[7]	445xxx
Dialing code(s)	+7 8482[8]
Official website
Tolyatti on Wikimedia Commons

Tolyatti (Russian: Толья́тти; IPA: [tɐˈlʲjætʲɪ]), also known in English as Togliatti, is a city in Samara Oblast, Russia. Population: 719,632 (2010 Census);^[4]702,879 (2002 Census);^[9] It is the largest city in Russia which does not serve as the administrative center of a federal subject.^[4]

Preobrazhensky Sobor - Transfiguration Cathedral, Tolyatti

Internationally, the city is best known as the home of Russia's largest car manufacturer AvtoVAZ (Lada), which was founded in the late 1960s.

History[edit]

It was founded in 1737 as a fortress called Stavropol (Ста́врополь) by the Russian statesman Vasily Tatishchev.^{[citation needed]} Informally it was often referred as Stavropol-on-Volga (Ста́врополь-на-Во́лге, Stavropol-na-Volge) to distinguish from Stavropol, a large city in southwest Russia.

The construction of the Kuybyshev Dam and Hydroelectric Station on the Volga River in the 1950s created the Kuybyshev Reservoir, which covered the existing location of the city, and it was completely rebuilt on a new site. In 1964, the city was renamed Tolyatti (after Palmiro Togliatti, the longest-serving secretary of the Italian Communist Party).

Administrative and municipal status[edit]

Within the framework of administrative divisions, Tolyatti serves as the administrative center of Stavropolsky District,^[1] even though it is not a part of it.^[10] As an administrative division, it is incorporated separately as the city of oblast significance of Tolyatti—an administrative unit with the status equal to that of the districts.^[2] As a municipal division, the city of oblast significance of Tolyatti is incorporated as Tolyatti Urban Okrug.^[3]

City divisions[edit]

For the administrative purposes, the city is divided into three districts:

• Avtozavodsky (Автозаво́дский), also called Novy Gorod (lit. New City), is the most modern; it was designed to host the workers of the city's AvtoVAZ factory, home of the Lada car;
• Tsentralny (Центра́льный), also called Stary Gorod (lit. Old City), home of the city government and industrial center;
• Komsomolsky (Комсомо́льский), the oldest district, built to house Hydroelectrical Plant builders.

Economy[edit]

AvtoVAZ administration building

The city's main claim to fame has been automobile manufacturing by AvtoVAZ's Lada (Zhiguli) car plants, employing some 110,000 people: in cooperation with Italy's Fiat since 1970 and with General Motors since 2001.^[11]

Other industries have moved into Tolyatti because it is close to abundant supplies of electricity and water. Petrochemicals are well represented in the city. Among the significant enterprises based there are "TogliattiAzot" (Russia's biggest ammonia manufacturer headed^[when?] by Sergei Makhlai) and "KuibyshevAzot" (a nitrogen fertilizer manufacturer and Russia's biggest caprolactam and polyamide producer). Other industries include building materials production, ship repair and electrical equipment and electronics.^{[citation needed]}

In 2011 the Togliatti Special Economic Zone was launched in order to develop the region further and diversify the economy of the city. Several auto-component producers (German Mubea and Japanese Sanoh among them) have since been registered, as well as large industrial manufacturers (Praxair and Edscha). By November 2012 the value of project investment totalled 10 billion Rubles and around 3000 jobs were being created.^[12]

Transportation[edit]

River port on the Volga

The transport system is well developed in the city. Public transport includes municipal buses and trolley-buses, and so-called "alternative" (commercial) transport or marshrutkas.

External transport routes are provided by two bus stations, two railway stations and a city harbour. Tolyatti has its airport as well, but it is used by personal aircraft only (the nearest international airport, Kurumoch, is located 40 km away, towards Samara). The city is linked to the federal road network by the M5 "Ural" highway.

As one of Russia's "motor cities",^{[clarification needed]} Tolyatti's car population has been greatly expanded, and traffic jams are common during morning and evening rush hours — Samara Oblast was one of the first regions to receive an additional licence plate code because its existing code did not have enough numbers for all its residents' cars.^{[citation needed]}

• 

  Trolleybus

• 

  MAZ-103 bus

Culture, education, and sports[edit]

Olimp Sport Palace

The creation of the Kuybyshev Reservoir in the 1950s destroyed much of the city's history, so almost all the city's cultural points of interest date from the Soviet period, but the city administration has continued to build new monuments and cathedrals. A recent notable event was the 1998 opening of the large Tatishchev Monument near the Volga. The Transfiguration Cathedral was completed in 2002