Yoshkar-Ola ( Mari and russian: Йошкар-Ола) is the

capital city A capital city or capital is the municipality holding primary status in a country, state, province, Department (country subdivision), department, or other subnational entity, usually as its seat of the government. A capital is typically a city ...

of the

Mari El Republic The Mari El Republic (russian: Респу́блика Мари́й Эл, ''Respublika Mariy El''; Meadow Mari: ; Hill Mari: ) is a republic of Russia. It is in the European Russia region of the country, along the northern bank of the Volga Rive ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

. Yoshkar-Ola means “red city” in Mari and was formerly known as Tsaryovokokshaysk () before 1919, as Krasnokokshaysk () between 1919 and 1927 both after the

Malaya Kokshaga River The Malaya Kokshaga ( chm, Изи Какшан, ''Izi Kakšan''; russian: Малая Кокша́га, literally Little Kokshaga) is a river in Mari El, a left tributary of the Volga. It is long, and has a drainage basin of .Volga The Volga (; russian: Во́лга, a=Ru-Волга.ogg, p=ˈvoɫɡə) is the List of rivers of Europe#Rivers of Europe by length, longest river in Europe. Situated in Russia, it flows through Central Russia to Southern Russia and into the Cas ...

and its tributaries. It is one of the centers of the

Mari people The Mari ( chm, мари; russian: марийцы, mariytsy) are a Finnic people, who have traditionally lived along the Volga and Kama rivers in Russia. Almost half of Maris today live in the Mari El republic, with significant populations in the ...

(especially of the Meadow Mari subgroup) and the administrative center of the Yoshkar-Ola city district.

Demographics

Population:

History

Yoshkar-Ola was established as a military fortress in 1584, following the Russian conquest of the Mari region. Yoshkar-Ola means “red city” in Mari and before 1919 was known as Tsaryovokokshaysk (), between 1919 and 1927 also as Krasnokokshaysk () both after the

Malaya Kokshaga River The Malaya Kokshaga ( chm, Изи Какшан, ''Izi Kakšan''; russian: Малая Кокша́га, literally Little Kokshaga) is a river in Mari El, a left tributary of the Volga. It is long, and has a drainage basin of .Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

era, especially after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, the city was a regional industrial and transport center and grew to its current size. The

collapse of the Soviet Union The dissolution of the Soviet Union, also negatively connoted as rus, Разва́л Сове́тского Сою́за, r=Razvál Sovétskogo Soyúza, ''Ruining of the Soviet Union''. was the process of internal disintegration within the Sov ...

removed support for

state enterprise A state-owned enterprise (SOE) is a government entity which is established or nationalised by the ''national government'' or ''provincial government'' by an executive order or an act of legislation in order to earn profit for the governmen ...

s, and led to the shutdown of most manufacturing activity in the area. Much of the city's economic activity was supported by shuttle traders who would transport (often

counterfeit To counterfeit means to imitate something authentic, with the intent to steal, destroy, or replace the original, for use in illegal transactions, or otherwise to deceive individuals into believing that the fake is of equal or greater value tha ...

) goods from the bustling markets of

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

to Yoshkar-Ola's

bazaar A bazaar () or souk (; also transliterated as souq) is a marketplace consisting of multiple small Market stall, stalls or shops, especially in the Middle East, the Balkans, North Africa and India. However, temporary open markets elsewhere, suc ...

s. The sharp decline in living standards led to the emigration of specialized professionals to larger cities in Russia.

Geography

The

Malaya Kokshaga River The Malaya Kokshaga ( chm, Изи Какшан, ''Izi Kakšan''; russian: Малая Кокша́га, literally Little Kokshaga) is a river in Mari El, a left tributary of the Volga. It is long, and has a drainage basin of .capital Capital may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** List of national capital cities * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences * Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used f ...

of the

.Constitution of the Mari El Republic, Article 16 Within the framework of administrative divisions, it is, together with ten rural localities, incorporated as the city of republic significance of Yoshkar-Ola —an administrative unit with the status equal to that of the

districts A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions o ...

.Law #22-Z As a municipal division, the city of republic significance of Yoshkar-Ola is incorporated as Yoshkar-Ola Urban Okrug.Law #15-Z

Transport

Yoshkar-Ola is linked to other cities and regions in Russia by a series of train and bus routes. The local train station is currently served by a daily train to and from the capital

with other short-service trains running to and from

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 a ...

. Moscow and various other nearby towns and regions can also be reached by buses departing from the local bus station. The

Yoshkar-Ola Airport Yoshkar-Ola Airport () is an airport in Mari El Republic, Russia, located north of Yoshkar-Ola and from Moscow Domodedovo Airport (DME). As a category 2 airport (based on an MAK classification), it handles Tu-134, Yak-42 The Yakovlev Ya ...

is also located 9 km north of the city and handles small aircraft

-bound flights (

Vnukovo International Airport Vnukovo, formally Vnukovo Andrei Tupolev International Airport (named after Andrei Tupolev) ( rus, links=no, Внуково, p=ˈvnukəvə) , is a dual-runway international airport located in Vnukovo District, southwest of the centre of Moscow, ...

) since April 2012. Destinations within the city limits can be reached through a network of buses, trolleys, and route taxis, or ''

marshrutka ''Marshrutka''27th Guards Missile Army of the

Strategic Rocket Forces The Strategic Rocket Forces of the Russian Federation or the Strategic Missile Forces of the Russian Federation (RVSN RF; russian: Ракетные войска стратегического назначения Российской Фед� ...

is located nearby. Yoshkar-Ola has a prison colony, which came to international attention in September 2022 as the location of a

Wagner group The Wagner Group (russian: Группа Вагнера, Gruppa Vagnera), also known as PMC Wagner ( «Вагнер», ChVK «Vagner»; ), is a Russian paramilitary organization. It is variously described as a private military company (PMC), a ...

video in which

Yevgeny Prigozhin Yevgeny Viktorovich Prigozhin (russian: link=no, Евгений Викторович Пригожин; born 1 June 1961) is a Russian oligarch and close confidant of Russian president Vladimir Putin. Prigozhin was called "Putin's chef" because h ...

promised convicts they would be released from prison if they served a six-month combat tour in the war against Ukraine.

Climate

The climate of Yoshkar-Ola is very similar to that of

Nizhny Novgorod Nizhny Novgorod ( ; rus, links=no, Нижний Новгород, a=Ru-Nizhny Novgorod.ogg, p=ˈnʲiʐnʲɪj ˈnovɡərət ), colloquially shortened to Nizhny, from the 13th to the 17th century Novgorod of the Lower Land, formerly known as Gork ...

or Kirov. The city is situated in a warm-summer

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 ...

(

Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (born 1951), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author and ...

''Dfb''). The winters are long and cold with much snow and average January temperatures between , and a record low of . On the other hand, the city enjoys very warm summers, marred by only occasional, brief intervals of sultry or rainy conditions with July as the hottest month, when average high is , and temperatures may stay around for weeks.

Education

The main building of Mari state technical university.jpg, The main building of Mari State University.jpg, Yoshkar-Ola is home to 88 educational institutions, among them several institutions of higher education, including:
Mari State University
* Volga State University of Technology (before 2012, Mari State Technical University)
Interregional Open Social Institute
There are also 30 schools for primary students aged between 7 and 18 and 52 kindergartens. Additionally, Yoshkar-Ola has many private educational centers offering different qualifications and trainings in such disciplines as foreign languages, computer science and many others.

Twin towns – sister cities

Yoshkar-Ola is twinned with: *

Bourges Bourges () is a commune in central France on the river Yèvre. It is the capital of the department of Cher, and also was the capital city of the former province of Berry. History The name of the commune derives either from the Bituriges, t ...

, France *

Princeton, West Virginia Princeton, is a city in and the county seat of Mercer County, West Virginia, United States. The city is coined the "Heart of Mercer County" or the "Jewel of the South" in past decades. The population was 6,432 at the 2010 census with approximat ...

, United States *

Szombathely Szombathely (; german: Steinamanger, ; see also other alternative names) is the 10th largest city in Hungary. It is the administrative centre of Vas county in the west of the country, located near the border with Austria. Szombathely lies by t ...

, Hungary

External links

Official website of Yoshkar-Ola

References

Notes

Sources

* * * * *Большая Российская энциклопедия (''

Great Russian Encyclopedia The ''Great Russian Encyclopedia'' (GRE; russian: Большая российская энциклопедия, БРЭ, transliterated as ''Bolshaya rossiyskaya entsiklopediya'' or academically as ''Bolšaja rossijskaja enciklopedija'') is a u ...

''): В 30 т. / Председатель науч.-ред. совета Ю. С. Осипов. Отв. ред С. Л. Кравец. Т. 12. Исландия — Канцеляризмы. — М.: Большая Российская энциклопедия, 2008. — 767 с. {{Authority control Tsaryovokokshaysky Uyezd Populated places established in 1584