Ulyanovsk

Ulyanovsk is a city on the Volga River in Russia, 893 km east from Moscow. A frontier fort of "Simbirsk" or "Sinbirsk" was originally built in 1648 on top of the hill on the Western bank of the Volga River, designed to protect the eastern edge of the growing Russian Empire from the nomadic Nogais and to establish a foothold in the area. During the Soviet period, Ulyanovsk lost much of its historical heritage. All traces of the original wooden fort are gone, as are all churches of old Simbirsk; only a few 19th century buildings remain in the city, most notably the houses where Lenin lived between 1870–1887. Today, Ulyanovsk is a significant industrial city.