Tula is home to the Klokovo air base, Tula State University, the Tula Kremlin, Tula State Museum of Weapons, and Kazanskaya Embankment. Tula has a historical association with the samovar, a metal container used to heat and boil water; the city was a major center of Russian samovar production. Yasnaya Polyana, the former home of the writer Leo Tolstoy, is located Template:Convert southwest of Tula. Additionally, Tula is known for its imprinted gingerbread (pryanik),<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> which has been made in Tula since the 17th century.
The name of the city is likely pre-Russian, probably of Baltic origin.<ref>Е. М. Поспелов. "Географические названия мира". Москва: Русские словари, 1998, pg. 423: "The earliest etymologies derived the place name from Russian dialectal tulá 'hidden, unreachable place'... The pre-Russian origin of the name of the river and town is no longer doubted [Maiorova 1985].... Since the name of the river Upa is certainly Baltic..., its tributary *Tula [the presumed earlier form of Tulitsa] may also be of Baltic origin, which is supported by a series of parallels in Lithuanian toponymy: the river Tule, the Tulis swamp, the Tulyte field, the meadow Tulejos, the valley Tulija, etc. [Vanagas, 1981]; the meaning of these toponyms is not entirely clear...."</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In the Middle Ages, Tula was a minor fortress at the border of the Principality of Ryazan. As soon as it passed to the Grand Duchy of Moscow, a brick citadel, or kremlin, was constructed in 1514–1521.<ref>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref> It was a key fortress of the Great Abatis Belt and successfully resisted a siege by the Tatars in 1552. In 1607, Ivan Bolotnikov and his supporters seized the citadel and withstood a four-months siege by the Tsar's army. In the 18th century, some parts of the kremlin walls were demolished. Despite its archaic appearance, the five-domed Assumption Cathedral in the kremlin was built as late as 1764.Template:Citation needed
In 1712, Tula was visited by Peter the Great, who commissioned the Demidov blacksmiths to build the first armament factory in Russia. Several decades later, Tula was turned by the Demidovs into the greatest ironworking center of Eastern Europe. The oldest museum in the city, showcasing the history of weapons, was inaugurated by the Demidovs in 1724, and Nicholas-Zaretsky Church in the city houses their family vault. The first factory to produce samovars industrially was also established there in the course of the 18th century. After the Demidovs moved the center of their manufacture to the Urals, Tula continued as a center of heavy industry, particularly in the manufacture of matériel.Template:Citation needed
During World War II, the city was important in the production of armaments. Tula became the target of a German offensive to break Soviet resistance in the Moscow area between 24 October and 5 December 1941. According to Erik Durschmied in The Weather Factor: How Nature has Changed History, one German general reached the southwestern outskirts of Tula on 29–30 October 1941.
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Tula serves as the administrative center of the oblast.<ref name="Ref144">Law #954-ZTO</ref> Within the framework of administrative divisions, it is incorporated as Tula City Under Oblast Jurisdiction—an administrative unit with the status equal to that of the districts.<ref name="Ref144"/> As a municipal division, the territories of Tula City Under Oblast Jurisdiction and of Leninsky District are incorporated as Tula Urban Okrug.<ref name="Ref900">Law #553-ZTO</ref><ref name="Note">All rural localities included as a part of Tula Urban Okrug in Law #553-ZTO are listed as a part of Leninsky District in OKATO.</ref>
For more than four centuries Tula has been known as a center of crafts and metalworking. Tula is a developed industrial center. Importance in the industrial structure of Tula are metallurgy, machinery and metal with a high share of the military-industrial complex and food manufacturing.Template:Citation needed
Yasnaya Polyana: a confectionery factory established in 1973 under the holding of United Confectioners (Russian: Холдинг «Объединенные кондитеры») that produces 340 different candies including "Yasnaya Polyana"<ref name=Candies>Template:Cite web</ref>
A musical instrument, the Tula accordion, is named after the city, which is a center of manufacture for such instruments sold throughout Russia and the world. Tula is also renowned for traditional Russian pryanik, cookies made with honey and spices (see Tula pryanik). In the West, Tula is perhaps best known as the center of arms manufacturing, mainly by TT pistol, as well as samovar production: the Russian equivalent of "coals to Newcastle" is "You don't take a samovar to Tula". (The saying is falsely ascribed to the writer and playwright Anton Chekhov, whose made a satirical portrait of one of his characters saying "Taking your wife to Paris is the same as taking your own samovar to Tula".)
All Orthodox organizations in Tula and the Tula Oblast are under the Diocese of Tula and Yefremov. The oldest churches in Tula include the Saints' Cathedral (built from 1776-1800), the Annunciation Church (1692), and the Assumption Cathedral of the Tula Kremlin (1762-1764). The Shcheglovsky Monastery of Holy Mother of God is also located within the city, built in the mid-19th century and consecrated in 1860.<ref>
Template:Cite web</ref> Old Believers' community services are performed in the church of St. John Chrysostom.
The only Roman Catholic church in Tula is the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul. Since the 1990s, several Protestant denominations have grown, the largest of which is a Baptist church with a prayer house in Tula. Representatives of other Protestant churches in Tula are Seventh-day Adventists, Presbyterians (Church of the Holy Trinity, The Glorious Jesus the Lord, the Good News), Pentecostals (Tula Christian Center, Church of the New Testament) and other evangelical churches (Word of Life, the Vine Gypsy Church).Template:Cn
The city also has a synagogue and the Jewish Community House.
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