Ulyanovsk (Russian: Улья́новск), formerly known as Simbirsk (Симби́рск), is the administrative center and largest city in Ulyanovsk Oblast, Russia. Renowned as the birthplace of Vladimir Lenin, Ulyanovsk is a city covering 316.9 sq km (122.4 sq mi) with a population of 614,000 people (2012 estimate).
Ulyanovsk was founded in 1648 and was originally called Simbirsk. It began as a fort on a hill, on the western bank of the Volga, and stood as one of the forts erected to protect the eastern frontier of the Russian Empire against nomadic tribes. When Russian's border extended eastward, Simbirsk lost its importance. Nevertheless it continued to grow and develop, and was granted city status in 1796.
Goncharov House in Ulyanovsk, Russia Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dom_Goncharov1.jpg Author: Oblam
A major fire in 1864 destroyed much of the original buildings in Simbirsk. As a result, most of the oldest buildings in the city today dates from the 19th century. In 1924, Simbirsk was renamed Ulyanovsk, in honor of Lenin, whose birth name was Vladimir Ulyanov. The city is also the birth place of two other Russian leaders, Alexander Protopopov and Alexander Kerensky.
Due to the position it holds in Soviet history, Ulyanovsk was a popular domestic tourist destination. However the collapse of the Soviet Union brought a sharp decrease in domestic tourist arrivals, and the 1990s was characterized by mass unemployment. Over time, the city learned to adopt the market economy, and since then enterprises have grown along with incomes.
Visiting Ulyanovsk
There are daily flights to Ulyanovsk from Moscow on Volga Dnepr Airlines, AviaNova and Polet Air. Trains from Moscow takes 16 hours while trains from Volgograd take 20 hours.
Dear visitor, thank you so much for reading this page. My name is Timothy Tye and my hobby is to find out about places, write about them and share the information with you on this website. I have been writing this site since 5 January 2003. Originally (from 2003 until 2009, the site was called AsiaExplorers. I changed the name to Penang Travel Tips in 2009, even though I describe more than just Penang but everywhere I go (I often need to tell people that "Penang Travel Tips" is not just information about Penang, but information written in Penang), especially places in Malaysia and Singapore, and in all the years since 2003, I have described over 20,000 places.
While I try my best to provide you information as accurate as I can get it to be, I do apologize for any errors and for outdated information which I am unaware. Nevertheless, I hope that what I have described here will be useful to you.
Go Back
Goncharov House in Ulyanovsk, Russia
