Year 1574 opens the chronicles of the Ufa city, but humans inhabited the territory many thousand years before modern houses appeared on wide streets. Ancient settlements, found at Ufa territory, date back to Mesolithic and Neolithic periods.

At those times, the Ufa Region was governed from Kazan, which was not very convenient due to enormous distances. That was the reason why the Baskirs made obeisance to Ivan the Fourth and asked him to build a fortress on their lands. In May 1574 Russian riflemen arrived to the right bank of the river Belaya Voloshka. They built a church, which later was named Troitskaya, several huts and household buildings. The Baskirs took an active part in the construction of Ufa. The fortress first had the same name as the mountain, on which it was built, but later was renamed into Ufa.

The settlement grew fast and became a town in 1586. Ufa was the only Russian town in Siberia before the Pacific Ocean, and its main task was protecting Russia’s southern and eastern borders. First governor of Ufa was voivode Mikhail Nagoy. In the middle of XVII century, the town acquired the coat-of-arms. Its population at that time was 1500 inhabitants.

Ufa was a small border town up to the beginning of ХVIII century, when Russian borders expanded. Then Ufa slowly transformed in an ordinary town with wooden houses, often destroyed by fires. In 1759 a great fire totally destroyed the Kremlin of Ufa.

In the end of ХVIII century the town of Ufa had 9 streets and 1058 houses with population of 2500. Local crafts included tanning and blacksmithing, tailoring, shoemaking, carpentry, etc. Ufa was also famous for its horse fair. Ufa citizens took active participation in the Peasant war of 1773-1775. The Baskirs took part in all military operations of the Russian empire.

In the beginning of ХIХ century Ufa was a small town with only 4000 citizens. The town had no development plan. Common buildings in the town were made of wood. In 1803 first development plan of Ufa was approved. The fire cleared the town for new construction in 1821. At that time Ufa’s industry covered requirements of all citizens – soap factories, fat-rendering works, brick works and other enterprises employed Ufa inhabitants. Industry development initiated active trade, which expanded with navigation opening in 1859. In 1885 construction of Samara-Zlatoust railway begun. Railway strengthened economic situation n the city. In 1898 first local power plant provided energy to Ufa citizens.

Ufa of ХIХ century was a large educational centre of Southern Urals. Local culture was greatly affected by various exiles, who brought their traditions and way of thinking to the region.

In 1917, when October revolution changed Russia’s future, Ufa was the city with population of 100 000 people. Revolution, followed by the civil war, almost destroyed local economy, and it was a hard work to restore it. People worked despite awful living conditions and other problems. Their work was a success – in 1925 largest industrial enterprises of Ufa resumed their work.

The city suffered from the lack of residential buildings – 283 new houses were built within seven years. Majority of Ufa streets changed their names after the revolution. City administration did its best to make Ufa a pleasant place to live. In 1932 discovery of oil deposits changed Ufa’s destiny. When the Great Patriotic war began, Ufa citizens ranged against the menace and worked hard to help the country.

In the forties of XX century General development plan was approved – the city expected new schools, hospitals, cinemas and many more. In 1956 Ufa absorbed the town of Chernikovsk.

Today Ufa is a modern city with supermarkets and new churches and mosques.

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