Syzran

Syzran (sĭ`zränyə), city (1989 pop. 174,000), S central European Russia, on the Volga River near its junction with the Syzran. The city is a major river port and rail center. Manufactures include leather, glass, chemicals, and wood products. Oil, asphalt, limestone, and slate are extracted in the area. Syzran was founded as a Russian military settlement in 1683 and was an important grain market from the mid-19th cent. until the 1920s.

---

Syzran

a port in W central Russia, on the Volga River: oil refining. Pop.: 191 000 (2005 est.)

---

Syzran’ 

a city under oblast jurisdiction and administrative center of Syzran’ Raion, Kuibyshev Oblast, RSFSR. A landing on the right bank of the Volga near the southwestern tip of the Samara Oxbow. Railroad junction of lines to Ul’ianovsk, Kuibyshev, Saratov, Penza, and Inza. Population, 183,000 (1975; 32,000 in 1897, 83,000 in 1939, 148,000 in 1959, and 173,000 in 1970).

Syzran’ was founded in 1683. In 1796 it became a district capital of Simbirsk Province. The city was an important junction for transshipping freight from railroads to river vessels and vice versa; it also had a fairly large flour-milling industry. In 1928, Syzran’ became part of Middle Volga Oblast (from 1929, Volga Krai), and in 1936 it became part of Kuibyshev Oblast.

Syzran’ is a center for machine building, with plants for heavy machinery and agricultural machinery, as well as for petroleum refining, the shale industry, and the production of carbon black. Construction materials, including asphalt materials, are produced, and there are light and food-processing industries. Syzran’ has a branch of the Kuibyshev Polytechnic Institute; there are medical, pedagogical, and music schools, a polytechnic technicum, and technicums related to the petroleum, machine-building, and clothing industries. The city also has a museum of local lore and a drama theater.

REFERENCE

Vareshin, A. M., B. P. Dedkov, and A. S. Ponomarev. Gorod Syzran’, 2nd ed. Kuibyshev, 1968.

---

Syzran’ 

a river in Ul’ianovsk and Kuibyshev oblasts, RSFSR; a right tributary of the Volga. The Syzran’ is 168 km long and drains an area of 5,650 sq km. It originates in the Volga Upland, flowing through this area in a wide valley, and it empties into the Saratov Reservoir. The river is fed mainly by snow. The high-water period is in March and April. The mean flow rate 46 km from the mouth is 13.8 cu m per sec. The river freezes between the end of October and beginning of December, and the ice breaks up between the end of March and the first half of April. The city of Syzran’ is situated at the river’s mouth.