Buy (russian: Буй) is a
town
A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world.
Origin and use
The word "town" shares an ori ...
in
Kostroma Oblast
Kostroma Oblast (russian: Костромска́я о́бласть, ''Kostromskaya oblast'') is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast). Its administrative center is the city of Kostroma and its population as of the 2021 Census is 580,97 ...
,
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...
, which stands on the
Kostroma River
The Kostroma (russian: Кострома́) is a river in the European part of Russia. It flows through the Kostroma and Yaroslavl Oblasts, and becomes a left tributary of the Volga, which it enters at the Gorky Reservoir, at the city of Kostroma ...
. Population:
History
Buy was originally a trading post and protected by a hill fortress of Finno-Ugrian Meri people c. 400–500 CE. Its original Meri name is not known, but in Finnish language it was called either Vuoksensuu or Vieksansuu (lit. ''Mouth of Vuoksi/Vieksa''). It was inhabited by the Finno-Ugrian peoples at least up to the Mongol invasion of Russia in 1237–1238. During the Mongol threat, some inhabitants of Kostroma sought refuge in Buy, and it seems that they renamed the place Buy (Vui, Bui) instead of using the Finno-Ugrian name which was difficult for them to pronounce, but the origin of the Russian name comes from the old Meri name.
Modern Buy was founded in 1536 as a fortified point at the
confluence of the
Kostroma
Kostroma ( rus, Кострома́, p=kəstrɐˈma) is a historic types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and the administrative center of Kostroma Oblast, Russia. A part of the Golden Ring of Russia, Golden Ring of Russian cities, it is lo ...
and the
Vyoksa River
The Vyoksa (russian: Вёкса) is a river running in the western part of the Kostroma Oblast in Central Russia. The river originates at the outflow of Lake Galichskoye. It drains into the Kostroma in the town of Buy
Buy may refer to a trade, i.e ...
s. The fortified point was built according to the order of
Yelena Glinskaya, the regentess of Russia at that time and the mother of
Ivan the Terrible, to defend the eastern frontiers of the
Grand Duchy of Moscow from the raids by
Kazan Tatars
The Volga Tatars or simply Tatars ( tt-Cyrl, татарлар, tatarlar) are a Turkic ethnic group native to the Volga-Ural region of Russia. They are subdivided into various subgroups. Volga Tatars are Russia's second-largest ethnicity after ...
and others. However, twenty years after its construction, the fortress lost its military significance, as
Kazan
Kazan ( ; rus, Казань, p=kɐˈzanʲ; tt-Cyrl, Казан, ''Qazan'', IPA: ɑzan is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Tatarstan in Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Volga and the Kazanka rivers, covering an ...
was taken and the raids ceased.
During Buy's first three and a half centuries, the population scarcely exceeded 2,000. Except for officials and priests, most inhabitants were peasants and small craftsmen. Cottage industries included pottery, iron, leather, felt, wool, carpentry, painting, blacksmithing, and oil pressing. These products were primitive and distribution was local; even export to a neighboring area was considered a commercial success.
One exception was the distillery, the predecessor of the current chemical plant. Almost the only factory in town, the distillery employed forty workers producing 600,000 liters of
vodka
Vodka ( pl, wódka , russian: водка , sv, vodka ) is a clear distilled alcoholic beverage. Different varieties originated in Poland, Russia, and Sweden. Vodka is composed mainly of water and ethanol but sometimes with traces of impuriti ...
annually. The
soft bog water allowed the plant to produce a high-quality product which was sold even in provincial capitals.
Buy was granted town status in 1778, during the reign of
Catherine the Great.
In 1905, a branch of the Saint Petersburg-Vyatka Railway (completed in 1908) reached Buy. At the same time, the railroad running north from Yaroslavl through Danilov arrived, so that Buy became a railroad junction town. The new Buy railway station was located from Saint Petersburg and from Moscow.
In 1914-1915 the Russians built a large POW camp for captured Austrian, Hungarian, and German prisoners of war. It was located south of Buy in Korega at the west bank of Kostroma River. After the Peace Treaty of Brest-Litowsk was signed on March 3, 1918 under the terms of Peace Treaty all prisoners of war were released. The camp was left empty.
After the end of the
Finnish Civil War
The Finnish Civil War; . Other designations: Brethren War, Citizen War, Class War, Freedom War, Red Rebellion and Revolution, . According to 1,005 interviews done by the newspaper ''Aamulehti'', the most popular names were as follows: Civil W ...
in 1918, many Finnish Reds who escaped into Soviet Russia were relocated to the Buy camp as their first place to create a Communist society. In May 1918 there were 3,268 Finns in Buy. Most of them relocated soon after, so that in July only about 500 remained. Few stayed in Buy, and some that did were deported during the
Great Purge
The Great Purge or the Great Terror (russian: Большой террор), also known as the Year of '37 (russian: 37-й год, translit=Tridtsat sedmoi god, label=none) and the Yezhovshchina ('period of Yezhov'), was Soviet General Secret ...
two decades later.
Administrative and municipal status
Within the
framework of administrative divisions, Buy serves as the
administrative center
An administrative center is a seat of regional administration or local government, or a county town, or the place where the central administration of a commune is located.
In countries with French as administrative language (such as Belgium, Lu ...
of
Buysky District,
even though it is not a part of it.
[Resolution #133-a] As an administrative division, it is incorporated separately as the
town of oblast significance of Buy—an administrative unit with a status equal to that of the
districts.
[Law #112-4-ZKO] As a
municipal division, the town of oblast significance of Buy is incorporated as Buy Urban Okrug.
[Law #237-ZKO]
Climate
Buy has a cold
humid continental climate
A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers and freezing ...
that is just above
subarctic, courtesy of May being just above .
Notable residents
*
Valery Androsov
References
Notes
Sources
*
*
External links
Official website of BuyBuy Business Directory
{{Authority control
Cities and towns in Kostroma Oblast
Buysky Uyezd