Editing Samara (section)

==History==
{{Main|History of Samara}}{{See also|Timeline of Samara, Russia}}

===Early history===
[[File:So0417 1904-08.jpg|thumb|Sobornaya Street and horse tram in 1905]]

Samara, together with its northern neighbour [[Kazan]], is at the centre of the [[Idel-Ural]] historical region. [[Ahmad ibn Fadlan]] visited the area that is now Samara around 921 while on his journey to the [[Volga Bulgars]] who then controlled the region from their capital [[Bolghar]].<ref name="DK2010">{{cite book |author=Macleod |first1=Alasdair |url=https://archive.org/details/explorerstalesof0000na/page/32/mode/2up?view=theater |title=Explorers: Tales of Endurance and Exploration |last2=Parker |first2=Philip |last3=Rae |first3=Eugene |last4=Fiennes |first4=Ranulph |author-link4=Ranulph Fiennes |publisher=DK Publishing |year=2012 |isbn=978-0-7566-9238-4 |edition=revised |page=33 |via=Internet Archive}}</ref>

Legend has it that [[Alexius, Metropolitan of Kiev]], later [[patron saint]] of Samara, visited the site of the city in 1357 and predicted that a great town would be erected there, and that the town would never be ravaged.{{Citation needed|date=November 2024}} The [[Volga River|Volga]] port of Samara appears on [[Italian language|Italian]] maps of the 14th century. Before 1586, the [[Samara Bend]] was a pirate nest. Lookouts would spot an oncoming boat and quickly cross to the other side of the peninsula so that the pirates could organize an attack. Officially, Samara started with a fortress built in 1586 at the [[confluence]] of the Volga and [[Samara (Volga)|Samara River]]s.<ref name="O'Neal2015"/> This fortress was a frontier post protecting the then easternmost boundaries of Russia from forays of [[nomads]]. A local customs office was established in 1600.

As more and more ships pulled into Samara's port, the town turned into a centre for diplomatic and economic links between Russia and the East. Samara also opened its gates to peasant war rebels headed by [[Stepan Razin]] and [[Yemelyan Pugachyov]], welcoming them with traditional [[bread and salt]]. The town was visited by [[Peter the Great]] and later [[Tsar]]s.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Borsukov |first=Andrey |date=2013-07-09 |title=Юрий Смирнов: "Императоры всероссийские не обходили стороной Самарскую губернию" |trans-title=Yuri Smirnov: "The All-Russian Emperors Did Not Bypass the Samara Province" |url=https://volga.news/article/262990.html |access-date=2024-07-19 |website=Volga News}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-04-22 |title=Романовы в Самаре: история императорских визитов в город |trans-title=The Romanovs in Samara: The History of Imperial Visits to the City |url=https://progorodsamara.ru/news/view/romanovy-v-samare-istoria-imperatorskih-vizitov-v-gorod |access-date=2024-07-19 |website=Pro Gorod Samara |language=ru}}</ref>

In 1780, Samara was turned into an [[Uyezd|uyezd town]] of [[Simbirsk Governorate]] overseen by the local Governor-General, and Uyezd and Zemstvo Courts of Justice and a Board of Treasury were established. On January&nbsp;1, 1851, Samara became the centre of [[Samara Governorate]] with an estimated population of 20,000. This gave a stimulus to the development of the economic, political and cultural life of the community. Samara was outside of the [[Pale of Settlement]] and as such did not have any significant Jewish population until the late 19th century.<ref name="bh.org.il">{{cite web |title=The Jewish Community of Samara, Russia |url=https://www.bh.org.il/jewish-community-samara-russia/ |access-date=27 June 2018 |website=[[Museum of the Jewish People]]}}</ref> In 1877, during the [[Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)|Russian-Turkish War]], a mission from the Samara City [[Duma]] led by [[Petr Alabin]], as a symbol of spiritual solidarity, brought a banner tailored in Samara pierced with bullets and saturated with the blood of both Russians and Bulgarians, to Bulgaria, which has become a symbol of Russian-Bulgarian friendship.<ref>{{Cite web |title=В Самаре воссоздали одну из ключевых битв русско-турецкой войны 1877-1878 годов - ТАСС |trans-title=One of the key battles of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878 was recreated in Samara |url=https://tass.ru/obschestvo/6445407 |access-date=2024-07-19 |website=TASS |language=ru}}</ref>{{Unreliable source?|date=November 2024}}

===Soviet period===
{{More citations needed section|date=May 2020}}
In 1935, Samara was renamed Kuybyshev in honour of the Bolshevik leader [[Valerian Kuybyshev]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Краткая справка по истории административно-территориального деления Самарской губернии |trans-title=Brief Information on the History of the Administrative-Territorial Division of the Samara Province |url=http://regsamarh.ru/State_archival_institutions/Central_Archive/putevoditel/atd/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131026163652/http://regsamarh.ru/State_archival_institutions/Central_Archive/putevoditel/atd/ |archive-date=2013-10-26 |access-date=2024-11-23 |website=Administration of the State Archival Service of the Samara Region |language=ru}}</ref>

During [[World War II]], Kuybyshev was chosen to be the alternative capital of the Soviet Union should [[Moscow]] fall to the invading Germans.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Powell |first=Gordon |date=1942-05-02 |title=Kuibyshev and Why It Became the USSR Capital |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/11974382 |access-date=2024-11-23 |work=The Argus |pages=3 |via=Trove}}</ref> In October 1941, the Communist Party and governmental organisations, diplomatic missions of foreign countries, leading cultural establishments and their staff were evacuated to the city. This decision was reversed in the summer of 1943.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Nagorski |first=Andrew |title=The Greatest Battle: Stalin, Hitler, and the Desperate Struggle for Moscow That Changed the Course of World War II |publisher=Simon & Schuster |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-7432-8110-2 |pages=165–166}}</ref> A dugout for [[Joseph Stalin]] known as "[[Stalin's bunker, Samara|Stalin's Bunker]]" was constructed but never used. To mark its role as wartime national capital a special Revolution Day parade was held at the city's [[Kuybyshev Square]] on November 7, 1941, and since 2011 has been remembered in an annual [[military parade]] organised by the city government.{{citation needed|date=September 2011}}

As a leading industrial centre, Kuybyshev played a major role in arming the country. From the very first months of World War II the city supplied the front with aircraft, firearms, and ammunition. Health centres and most of the city's hospital facilities were turned into base hospitals. Polish and Czechoslovakian military units were formed on the territory of the Volga Military District. Samara's citizens also fought at the front, many of them volunteers.{{citation needed|date=September 2011}}

After the war the defence industry developed rapidly in Kuybyshev; existing facilities changed their profile and new factories were built, leading to Kuybyshev becoming a [[closed city]]. In 1960, Kuybyshev became the missile shield centre for the country. The launch vehicle [[Vostok (rocket family)|Vostok]], which delivered the first crewed spaceship to orbit, was built at the Samara [[Progress Rocket Space Centre|Progress Plant]]. [[Yuri Gagarin]], the first man to travel in space on April&nbsp;12, 1961, took a rest in Kuybyshev after returning to Earth. While there, he spoke to an improvised meeting of Progress workers. Kuybyshev enterprises played a leading role in the development of Soviet domestic aviation and the implementation of the Soviet space program. There is also an unusual monument situated in Samara commemorating an [[Ilyushin Il-2]] ground-attack aircraft assembled by Kuybyshev workers in late 1942. This particular plane was shot down in 1943 over Karelia, but the heavily wounded pilot, K. Kotlyarovsky, managed to crash-land the plane near Lake Oriyarvi. The aircraft was returned to Kuybyshev in 1975, and was placed on display at the intersection of two major roads as a symbol of the deeds of home front servicemen and air-force pilots during the [[Great Patriotic War (term)|Great Patriotic War]].

===Post-Soviet period===
[[File:Ladya Samara winter.JPG|thumb|Ladya apartment complex]]
[[File:Samara naber.JPG|thumb|The [[Volga River]] in Samara]]
In January 1991, the historical name of Samara was given back to the city. Samara is one of the major industrial cities of Russia and has a multiethnic population.<ref name="city.old.webzavod.ru" /> The city retains its leading positions in the region, mainly due to a number of oil and petrochemical enterprises. In September 2016, Samara was awarded the title "City of Labor and Combat Glory".

In 2018, Samara became one of the host cities of the [[2018 FIFA World Cup|FIFA World Cup]], the matches of which were held at the Samara Arena stadium.

On July 2, 2020, the title "[[City of Labour Valour|City of Labor Valor]]" was awarded to Samara. On December 10, 2021, the Memorial Complex was installed on the Alley of Labor Glory on the Young Pioneers Avenue. The central element of the memorial complex was a glass and metal stele about 26 meters high.