Engels
Russia · Europe
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About Engels
Engels is a city in Saratov Oblast, Russia. An important port located on the Volga River across from Saratov, the administrative center of the oblast, it is connected to it with a bridge. It is the second-largest city in Saratov Oblast, with a population of 202,419 (2010 census).
Historically a major center for Volga Germans, the city was known jointly as Pokrovsk (Pokrovskaya sloboda (until 1914), Pokrovsk (until 1931)) in Russian and as Kosakenstadt in German, until it was renamed after German Marxist theoretician Friedrich Engels in 1931. Engels served as the capital of the Volga German ASSR from 1918 until its abolition in 1941.
What would become the city was founded as a sloboda named Pokrovskaya Sloboda by Ukrainian Chumak settlers in 1747. During the reign of Catherine the Great, ethnic Germans were encouraged to settle in the Volga region and many moved into the town, making it a major center of the Volga German culture. It was granted official town status and renamed Pokrovsk (Покровск) in 1914. At that time, the town was commonly known as Kosakenstadt ("Cossacks' Town") in German, alongside its official Russian name. During...
Engels travel guide
Understand
Engels was the capital of the Volga German Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic from 1918 to 1941. Following the German invasion of the Soviet Union, its German inhabitants suffered persecution as Soviet authorities feared they could be spies for Nazi Germany. All Germans were expelled from Engels, with most being sent far away to Siberia and the Kazakh SSR. In 2011, a monument in honor of the Russian-German victims of repression within the Soviet Union was unveiled in the city. It was known as Pokrovskaya sloboda until 1914, and as Pokrovsk until 1931.
See
1 Yuri Gagarin's landing site (Место приземления Гагарина) (Taxi). 24 hours. Monuments at the landing site of Vostok 1, the first human spaceflight. Located about 24 km southwest of the city. (updated Apr 2021)
Overview adapted from Wikipedia, travel guide fromWikivoyage (CC BY-SA)。Photography via Wikimedia Commons.