the capital of the Mordovian ASSR. Saransk is situated on the left bank of the Insar River of the Volga River Basin. Railroad station on the Ruzaevka-Kazan line and highway junction. Population, 232,000 (1975; 15,000, 1897; 41,000, 1939; 91,000, 1959; and 191,000, 1970).
Saransk was founded in 1641 as a fortress on the southeastern border of the Russian state (seeABATIS LINES). In 1651 it became a district city. In 1670, Saransk was a stronghold of S. T. Razin’s detachments. In 1708 it became part of Azov Province, and later, of Kazan Province. In 1774 the inhabitants of Saransk supported E. I. Pugachev when he entered the city. In 1801, Saransk became a district center of Penza Province. A railroad was built through the city in 1893. Soviet power was established on Dec. 5 (18), 1917. Saransk became the administrative center of the Mordovian National Okrug in 1928 and of the Mordovian Autonomous Oblast in 1930. It was made the capital of the Mordovian ASSR in 1934.
In the years of Soviet power, Saransk has become a major center of the electrical-engineering industry, represented by the Svetotekhnika Production Association, a cable plant, and the Elektrovypriamitel’ Plant. It has machine-building and metal-working enterprises, including plants producing excavators, dump trucks, medical equipment, instruments, and tools. There is iron casting (the Tsentrolit Plant), chemical production (a rubber combine), and chemical-pharmaceutical production (a medical preparations plant). Other industries include light industry (the Sura Spinning Goods Combine and factories producing decorative fabrics and clothing) and the food industry (canning and meat-packing combines and a butter factory). There are also building-materials enterprises and two steam power plants.
Architectural monuments include the Church of John the Apostle (1693) and the Pugachev Tent (a house built in the late 17th century). Saransk was reconstructed in the Soviet period. V. I. Lenin Avenue—the city’s main thoroughfare—and Prole-tarskaia, Sovietskaia, Vasenko, Polezhaev, and Botevgradskaia streets have been built up with multistory houses, most of which are of standard design. Recent structures include the House of the Soviets (1940, architect I. A. Meerzon), the Republic House of Political Education (1953, standard design), the House of the Unions (1957, architect S. O. Levkov), the Mordovian Drama Theater (1961, architect S. M. Gel’fer), and the Palace of Pioneers (1972, standard design). There has been large-scale housing construction since the 1960’s, mainly in the new northwestern, southwestern, and northeastern areas. A new city plan for Saransk was established in 1967 (architect V. B. Minkevich, engineer L. L. Chelganskii).
Saransk has several notable monuments, including one to V. I. Lenin (1960, bronze and granite; sculptor N. V. Tomskii, architect A. N. Dushkin) and one to the Soviet soldiers who died in the Great Patriotic War of 1941–45 (1970, bronze and granite; sculptor N. V. Tomskii, architect A. N. Dushkin). The monument To the Heroic Balloonists (pig iron, bronze, and granite, 1963; sculptor A. A. Pis’mennyi, architect A. N. Dushkin) is in honor of A. B. Vasenko, I. D. Usyskin, and P. F. Fedo-seenko, the crew of the stratospheric balloon Osoaviakhim 1, who died in 1934 several kilometers from Saransk. There is also a monument to the poet A. I. Polezhaev (hammered copper, sculptor M. I. Kozhina).
In Saransk are located the Mordovian University and a pedagogical institute. The city has electronic-instrument, electrical-mechanical, machine-building, and cooperative trade tech-nicums. There are medical and music schools and research institutes for language, literature, history, and economics attached to the Council of Ministers of the Mordovian ASSR. Other institutes include the A. N. Lodygin All-Union Scientific Research Institute of Light Sources and the Scientific Research Institute of Semiconductor Power Engineering. Cultural institutions include the F. V. Sychkov Picture Gallery, the Republic Museum of Local Lore, and a permanent exhibition of the works of the sculptor S. D. Er’zia. There are musical-comedy, drama, and puppet theaters. Saransk also has a television center.