Leninogorsky District (; ) is a territorial administrative unit and municipality of the Republic of Tatarstan within the Russian Federation. The district is located in the southeast of the republic and encompasses an area of 1843.2 square kilometers (about 711.6 sq mi). According to the 2010 census, the municipality had a population of 22,700 people. The main city Leninogorsk is not included within the administrative structure of the district.
The settlement of Pismyanka on the site of modern Leninogorsk arose in 1795. In the 19th century, the Novopismyanskaya volost was part of the Bugulminsky county (uyezd) of the Orenburg province, and then subsequently became a part the Samara province. In August 1955, the settlement of Pismyanka which was then part of the Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, was redesignated as a city and named Leninogorsk in honor of the revolutionary Vladimir Lenin. The Novopismyansky district was renamed to Leninogorsky in concert with these developments.
Etymology The Leninogorsk district received its name from the city of Leninogorsk. Until 1955, Leninogorsk was called Novaya Pismyanka, which separated from the village of Pismyanskaya Staraya (also Pismyanka Yasachnaya) in the 19th century. As the geographer Yevgeny Pospelov states, the common toponym Pismyanka comes from the Russian adaptation of the Tatar Pismen or Pichmen, which is often found in the names of rivers and villages in Tatarstan.
Flag and coat of arms In July 2005, the Council of the Leninogorsky municipal district approved its new heraldic insignia. The visual design of the coat of arms includes a black joist bordered with silver piercing into the green field, and there are two golden flowers tilting in opposite directions at the bottom of the shield. At the top of the coat of arms is a green tulip with a gold contour depicted on a red background.
According to official guidelines, the green field with flowers symbolize the geographical features of the southeast of Tatarstan, and indicate a variety of the local flora and fauna. Experts interpret the black joist in different ways: on the one hand, it might be considered as an oil gusher showing the economic prosperity of the area. On the other hand, the shape of the joist can be interpreted as a network of roads and in Leninogorsk as an important industrial and transport hub in the south-east of the republic. The opened tulip crowning the coat of arms demonstrates respect and preservation of national traditions. The flag is based on heraldic elements of the district coat of arms and reproduces the colors of the national flag of Tatarstan. The flag has a width-to-length ratio of 2:3.
Geography and climate
Location The Leninogorsky district is located in the southeast of the Republic of Tatarstan and shares borders with the Almetyevsky district in the north, Bugulminsky in the east, the Cheremshansky district in the west and with the Samara region (Shentalinsky and Klyavlinsky districts) in the south. The district spans 63 km at its widest point and stretchest 33 km between the furthest points on its north–south axis. The district is located in the forest-steppe zone and has a temperate continental climate.
Geological characteristics The Leninogorsky district has one of the highest reliefs among the regions of Tatarstan. The topography of the district is diverse and the elevation of terrain features varies widely from 150 to 340 meters, with minimum elevations being recorded in river valleys while the highest points are located on the upper plateau of the Bugulma-Belebey and Shugurov Uplands. The local landscape is characterized by a number of river valleys, ravines and dens. The rivers Sheshma, Stepnoy Zai and their inflows cross through the territory of the district.
The Leninogorsky district has the largest number of springs in the republic at 263, and large deposits of oil, bitumen, limestone, dolomite, sand and gravel, clay and other mineral resources.
Flora and fauna There are four nature reserves and wildlife sanctuaries in the region: the Shugurovsky hunting reserve, the Stepnoy nature reserve, the Sheshma rivers and the Stepnoy Zai. 25% of the district's territory is covered with broad-leaved woodlands with oak, maple, linden and birch growing there. Local forests have a rich grass cover and various types of plants are widespread here, for example, Russian bedstraw, green strawberry, Marshall thyme, feather grass, fescue, fescue, feather grass and other vegetation. In total, there are 110 plant species in the region, some of which are protected species included in the Republic Red List and the Red Data Book of the Russian Federation linear onion, long-leaved gerbil, pale yellow scabiosa and others.
The southeast of Tatarstan is distinguished by a variety of bird and animal fauna. Ornithologists note that 68 species of birds live here. The most widespread is the lark, the rarest are yellow wagtails and the field pipit. Among bird species included in the local Red Book are the burial eagle, quails, partridges, field harriers, meadow harriers, long-eared owls, rough-legged owls, golden bee-eaters and green woodpeckers. The forests of the district are inhabited by the European hare, foxes, European bobak marmots while raccoon dogs and steppe polecats are less commonly encountered. The local fauna also includes rodents such as the common vole, wood mice and bank voles, and protected species from the Red Book of Tatarstan including the steppe mouse and Eversmann's hamster.
History
16th–19th centuries Until the 17th century, the south-east of the Kama region remained sparsely populated. According to available archaeological data, the pasture lands on the lands of the modern Leninogorsk region belonged to Muftiari nomads. In 1552, the Kazan Khanate was conquered by Ivan the Terrible and four years later the Bashkirs were also incorporated into the growing Russian state. In 1708 these territories became part of the newly formed Kazan province, which included all the middle and lower Volga and Ural regions.
In the 1730s, the villages of Malaya Bugulma (now the village of Medvedka) and Bolshaya Bugulma (the city of Bugulma) were established as the settlements for soldiers. The boundaries of the region repeatedly changed, and in 1744 these territories were included into the Orenburg province. The borders of the Kazan and Orenburg provinces passed along the Cheremshan River, then descended southeast to Kichuya before ascending northeast to Menzelinsk. In the 1740s, settlers began to move to the lands of the modern Leninogorsk region as a result of the Russification policy pursued by the tsarist government. According to the results of the population census in tsarist Russia carried out in the period from 1744 to 1747, there were only 13 villages in the region (Karataevo, Naderevo, Seitovo, Urmushla, Sary Bikchurovo, Analokovo, Ishtiryak, Karkali, Shugurovo, Toktarovo, Kuakbashevo, Shachili and Izmailovo). However, these villages were not the only settlements in the region, since Christian villages like the Pismyanskaya and Kuvatskaya settlements were not included in the census book of the yasak Tatars. According to the results of the third census of 1761–1762, Kuvatskaya Sloboda had 210 households with a population of 1,083 people, Pismyanskaya Sloboda amounted 109 households with 711 people and Medvedka contained 67 households and 486 people. By that time, new Tatar villages had also appeared, such as Sarabikulovo, Karataevo, Sugushla and Kirligach. In the 1770s, a number of Mordovian and Chuvash villages of Mordovskaya Ivanovka, Karamalka, Kuzaykino and others appeared in these lands.
In 1773–1775 a peasant uprising broke out in the Middle Volga region under the leadership of Yemelyan Pugachev. In October 1773, a riot engulfed Bugulminskoe Vojvodstvo and a total of ten insurgent detachments of about 15 thousand people, armed with 15 cannons occupied the region. After the suppression of the rebellion, a new wave of refugees poured into the territory of the present Leninogorsky district. The villages of Bakirovo, Novy Ishtiryak, Timyashevo, Upper Shirshila, Yultimirovo were subsequently founded as a consequence of this new wave of settlement. In 1775, Catherine the Great initiated an administrative reform and a number of provinces and counties changed their borders. On the basis of these reforms in 1781, the Bugulminsky uyezd was formed which included the territories of modern Leninogorsky, Almetyevsky, Cheremshansky and other districts. In 1781, the Ufa governorship became an independent province, consisting of two regions: Ufa and Orenburg. Eight districts were assigned to Ufa, one of which was the Bugulminsky uyezd.
By 1785, about 6,000 people lived on the territory of the future Leninogorsky district. Ten years later, the village of Novaya Pismyanka (future city of Leninogorsk) was established within the Bugulminsky uyezd. By 1797, Tatar villages had grown significantly in population. By that time, the population of Bugulma numbered 359 households with 1858 residents, Medvedka contained 99 households and 870 residents, Sarabikulov held 28 households and 178 residents while Seitovo-Kerligach had 40 households and 227 residents.
The Samara province which incorporated the Bugulminsky uyezd was formed in 1851 as a result of administrative reforms. By 1860 there were 37 settlements with a population of about 22,230 people in the province and already by 1872 the population had increased to 28,929 people. The formation of most of the large settlements of the Bugulma district had been completed by the end of the 19th century. Following the Stolypin reforms, a number of new villages had emerged on the territory of the district by 1905, for example, Novo-Elhovo, Akkul, Novaya Chershila, Maryanovka, Malakhovka, Volzhanka and Stepnoy Zai. Five years later in 1910, 55,015 people were living in this area.
20th century
In 1917, the Soviets seized power in Tatarstan. Leninogorsk was one of the battlefields of the Russian Civil War, and the town changed hands several times between the belligerents. In October 1918, the Red Army occupied Bugulma, but the next spring the Bolsheviks were pushed back by White military leader Alexander Kolchak. By mid-May 1919, the city was again under the control of the Bolsheviks.
In 1920, the Bugulminsky uyezd, to which the Novopismyanskaya Sloboda belonged, was transformed into a canton bearing the same name within the Tatar ASSR. A year later, a severe famine broke out in the Volga region visiting great hardship upon residents and killing several million people. In the Bugulminsky canton alone, more than 35 thousand residents died of hunger, including a third of the population of the future Leninogorsky district. To fight hunger and help children, the “Promgol” canteen was organized here.
In 1930 the Tatar ASSR was divided into districts. Instead of the Bugulminsky canton, the Shugurovsky, Bugulminsky, Cheremshansky, Bavlinsky, Almetyevsky and later Aznakaevsky districts were established. At that time, the lands of the modern Leninogorsky districts had been divided between the Bugulminsky and Almetyevsky regions. In the early 1930s, therapeutic mud was discovered in the village of Bakirovo and a resort of the same name was built, and hospitals and first-aid posts began to open on the territory including the Nizhne-Cherchelinskaya outpatient clinic.