Togliatti had every chance of becoming a typical provincial city, known only to its native inhabitants. But the rich history, one of the largest automobile factories in Russia, a favorable demographic situation and talented Togliatti made the city, located directly opposite the Zhiguli Mountains, famous not only throughout Russia, but also beyond its borders.
A brief history of the village
Until the twentieth century, Stavropol, as the city of Tolyatti was previously called, and translated from the Greek language as “the city of the Holy Cross,” was a very modest settlement. The population of Tolyatti in 1920 was only ten thousand inhabitants, which influenced the decision of the authorities to transform Stavropol into a rural settlement.
The city experienced a rebirth in the 1950s. In record time, the Soviet authorities erected a hydroelectric power station, an electrical plant, Volgocemmash, several chemical enterprises and an automobile plant, built in conjunction with the Italian automobile manufacturer Fiat. The population of Togliatti began to increase sharply due to young professionals who came to the “new” Volga city in search of a stable and well-paid job.
Around the same time, in 1964, Stavropol was renamed. The city received its modern name when the population of Togliatti reached 123.4 thousand people. Actively built not only industrial enterprises providing visitors with work, but also housing estates. In just fifteen years, the population of Togliatti has already exceeded half a million.
Actual demographic situation
Today, the city continues to grow. Social protection of the population of Togliatti, together with statistical authorities, reports that the city is the only one in the Samara region, where a positive natural population growth is recorded. For example, in 2013, the number of joyful events associated with the birth of a child exceeded the number of mourning events by almost a thousand.
The population of Togliatti for 2017 is 710.5 thousand people, of which about 450 thousand Togliatti are able-bodied. The slogan “Tolyatti is a city of young people!”, Which began to appear in the media several years ago, seems quite justified, because the average age of a resident of a settlement is 38 years and 4 months. This is lower than in the Samara region or in Russia as a whole.
Administrative division
The city is divided into three administrative-territorial units: Avtozavodsky district, Central and Komsomolsky. In 2006, Togliatti expanded due to the inclusion of adjoining villages into the community, which became micro-districts or parts of existing areas.
Avtozavodsky district, which the Togliatti residents themselves call the New City or Avtograd, includes twenty-six residential neighborhoods. The population of Togliatti living in this territorial unit is mainly employed at an automobile plant. The number of employees of AvtoVAZ OJSC totals more than 65 thousand specialists, about 442 thousand inhabitants live in the Avtozavodsky district.
The central district (or Old Town), although it is the administrative center of the city, is much smaller than its “neighbors” - Avtozavodsky and Komsomolsky. Most of the Old Town is built up with private houses, there are also many attractions, cultural and architectural monuments.
The Komsomol district (or Komsa) has a total of 120 thousand inhabitants. A territorial unit is valuable, first of all, from a historical point of view. The district literally “talks” about the large-scale construction of a hydroelectric power station in the middle of the twentieth century, and many structures date back to the nineteenth century.
City infrastructure
The city, whose population is confidently striving for the millionth mark, has a developed infrastructure. But characteristic of Togliatti are two typical problems of most Russian settlements:
- unsatisfactory work of housing and communal services and non-stop increase in tariffs;
- deplorable condition of roads and inconvenient development - many streets are simply not adapted to pass a large number of personal vehicles.
Economic situation and industry
Relatively recently, Togliatti was one of the most prosperous Russian cities, however, with the global economic crisis, the situation has significantly changed not for the better. Today, Togliatti are dissatisfied with overstated official statistics, which reports that the average salary in the city is at the level of twenty thousand rubles. Well, at least, there’s no reason to complain about the lack of vacancies - the Togliatti employment center reports a shortage of workers at the automobile plant.
In addition to the city-forming enterprise, you can get a decent job at such industrial facilities:
- GM-AvtoVAZ is a joint Russian-American automobile production.
- POLAD Group of Companies, producing a wide range of products for the engineering industry.
- "Detail construction".
- "Johnson Control Togliatti" - an enterprise specializing in the production of automobile covers.
- "VazInterService" - a plant that produces components for cars.
- AvtoVAZ aggregate.
- TPP Volga Automobile Plant.
- Tolyatti TPP.
- TolyattiAzot is the world's largest ammonia plant.
- KuibyshevAzot, producing mineral fertilizers.
- Tolyattikauchuk is a factory specializing in the production of synthetic rubber.
- Food industry: distillery, meat factory, bakery and dairy, winery and many other enterprises.
The population of Togliatti is attracted by the full package of social guarantees, fixed working hours and stability that the aforementioned enterprises offer their employees.