Saratov

Saratov

  Almost midway between Samara and Volgograd on the River Volga is Saratov. Although a city of the Golden Horde once stood here, the modern city is considered to have been founded by the Russians in the late 16th century to protect the country’s southern borders.  Before the Second World War, like neighbouring Engels, Samara was a centre of the Volga Germans, ethnic Germans who had lived in Russia for generations since being invited by Catherine the Great. In a field outside the city on 12 April 1961, the world’s first man in space, Yuri Gagarin, fell to earth and there is now a monument to mark the historic event.


Basic facts
Name in Russian
Саратов
Status
City-municipality and administrative centre of the Saratov Region
Location
On the River Volga (Volgogradskoe Reservoir)
Distance
630km south of Nizhny Novgorod, 850km south-east of Moscow
Time Zone
Moscow Time
Population
840,785 people (2014)
Founded
1590
City Day
Second Sunday in September
Official Website
http://www.saratovmer.ru/