Tolyatti


Tolyatti, also known in Italian as Togliattigrad and English as Togliatti in honor of Palmiro Togliatti, is a city in Samara Oblast, Russia. Population: It is the largest city in Russia which does not serve as the administrative center of a federal subject.
Internationally, the city is best known as the home of Russia's largest car manufacturer AvtoVAZ, which was founded in 1966. It was previously known as Stavropol-on-Volga .

History

It was founded in 1737 as a fortress called Stavropol by the Russian statesman Vasily Tatishchev. Informally it was often referred as Stavropol-on-Volga to distinguish from Stavropol, a large city in southwest Russia, although Stavropol-on-Volga was never its official name.
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 chosen as the location of the new VAZ automobile plant - a joint venture between Fiat and the Soviet government. It was thus renamed Tolyatti. Much of the modern city was constructed in the 1960s to house the workers of the factory, and today, AvtoVAZ dominates the economy of the city.

Administrative and municipal status

Within the framework of administrative divisions, Tolyatti serves as the administrative center of Stavropolsky District, even though it is not a part of it. 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. As a municipal division, the city of oblast significance of Tolyatti is incorporated as Tolyatti Urban Okrug.

City divisions

For the administrative purposes, the city is divided into three districts:
The city's main claim to fame has been automobiles Lada manufactured by AvtoVAZ car plant employing some 110,000 people: in cooperation with Italy's Fiat since 1970, with General Motors since 2001 and with the Renault-Nissan Alliance since 2012.
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" and "KuibyshevAzot". Other industries include building materials production, ship repair and electrical equipment and electronics.
In 2011 the Tolyatti Special Economic Zone was launched in order to develop the region further and diversify the economy of the city. Several auto-component producers have since been registered, as well as large industrial manufacturers. By November 2012 the value of project investment totalled 10 billion Rubles and around 3000 jobs were being created.

Transportation

The transport system is well developed in the city. Public transport includes municipal buses and trolley-buses, and so-called "alternative" 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 city is linked to the federal road network by the M5 "Ural" highway.
As one of Russia's "motor cities", 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.

Culture, education, and sports

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.

Education

Education is represented by over one hundred public and ten private schools, as well as several higher education institutions. Most notable ones include:

Museums

In the eyes of the Soviet leaders, Tolyatti was a perfect Soviet city – many sports facilities appeared so that the "perfect Soviet person" could be healthy. The city has high-quality sports facilities: gymnasiums, swimming pools, ice arenas, association football and racing stadiums — as a result, many athletes, including Olympic Champion Alexei Nemov, Stanley Cup winners Alexei Kovalev and Ilya Bryzgalov had moved to Tolyatti. Former Montreal Canadiens defenseman Alexei Emelin, and former Washington Capitals winger Viktor Kozlov and defenseman Alexei Tezikov were born there. in addition, Daria Kasatkina,a professional tennis player, was born there.
Tolyatti is represented in almost every kind of team sports. Tolyatti's Lada-sponsored Ice Hockey Club broke the Moscow teams' domination of the game. The Lada women's football team has won the Russian championship several times — and the Lada women's handball team, who are the Russian and European Champions, is the core for Russian national women's handball. Men's football, basketball, speedway and handball teams also take part in national championships. As for the traditional national sport of Russia, bandy, there is a team founded in 2013, TOAZ, which however only takes part in a recreational league.

Parks and monuments

Tolyatti has many parks, and many of these contain monuments of cultural, historical, and aesthetic interest. Examples include Victory Park with its Victory Monument and other monuments, Liberty Square with its Obelisk of Glory and other monuments, Central Park with its Mourning Angel, large statue of Lenin, and other monuments, and other parks.
And there are other monuments outside the parks. The City Duma has been energetic in creating or designating historical and cultural monuments, ranging from the colossal equestrian Tatishchev Monument to the tumbledown Repin House and a monument to a faithful dog, and many other types.

Media

There are a number of local newspapers published in Tolyatti: Ploshchad Svobody, Tolyattinskoye Obozreniye, business newspaper "Monday", Volny Gorod, Gorodskiye Vedomosti, and a few others. In the end of the 1990s, Tolyattinskoye Obozreniye published a series of articles on a local crime group. The stories drew attention to the group's connections with the local police. Subsequently, Togliatti Review saw two of its editors killed in 2002–2003.
The only local-born FM-band radio station is Radio August at 70.64 and 102.3 MHz.

Religion

Tolyatti is a multi-ethnic and multi-religious city. Most of all in the city of Orthodox Christians. Muslims are the second largest group of believers.

Crime

October 2007 bomb attack

During the morning rush hour of 31 October 2007, a bomb exploded on a passenger bus in the city, killing at least eight people and injuring about 50 in what Irina Doroshenko, a spokeswoman for the investigative wing of the local prosecutor's office, said could be a terrorist attack. At the beginning of the investigation, it was believed to be the work of terrorists from the North Caucasus. Early reports indicated possible involvement of Chechen terrorist Doku Umarov. However, the officials later named a 21-year-old Evgeny Vakhrushev, who also died in the blast, as the only person to be responsible for the tragedy.

Organized crime

The city also has a reputation for gang violence.

Violent crimes

The city has witnessed a mafia killing spree: there have been 550 commissioned killings in Tolyatti over 1998–2004, five of those murdered were journalists.
Three chief architects of Tolyatti were victims of violent crimes: Valery Lopatin was shot to death on July 7, 2004, Mikhail Syardin and Aleksander Kiryakov were also injured in violent attacks.
A former city mayor, Sergey Zhilkin, was murdered on November 15, 2008.
On December 13, 2008, Anatoly Stepanov, a vice-speaker of Duma of Samara Oblast, a former head of administration of Tsentralny City District of Tolyatti in 1991-1997 and Tolyatti mayor candidate in 2004, was attacked on a street and left with serious head injuries. He died in hospital on February 24, 2009.

Corruption

The city's mayor in 2000–2007, Nikolay Utkin, was sentenced to seven years in prison on corruption charges.

Local government

Mayor Antashev Sergey Alexandrovich was born on December 16, 1959 in the city of Saransk, Mordovia. In 1994 he moved to Tolyatti, was accepted to the post of director of the heating network enterprise of TEVIS. In 2000 he graduated from the International Market Institute with a degree in Management. From 2000 to April 9, 2012 - Marketing Director - Energy Sales Director of TEVIS. Deputy of the Duma of the city district of Togliatti IV and V convocations. From April 2012 to February 2015, he served as deputy mayor of the city of Tolyatti on urban economy. On April 12, 2017, the Tolyatti City Council appointed Sergey Antashev as the mayor of the city.

Twin towns – sister cities

Tolyatti is twinned with: