Tolyatti or Togliatti, known before 1964 as Stavropol, is a city in Samara Oblast, Russia. It is the largest city in Russia which is neither the administrative center of a federal subject, nor the largest city of a subject. Population: The city is best known as the home of Russia's largest car manufacturer AvtoVAZ (Lada). For this reason, Tolyatti is often dubbed "Russia's motor city" or "Russia's Motown" (in reference to Detroit in the United States—the spiritual home of the American automotive industry). It was renamed after Italian communist politician Palmiro Togliatti in 1964, upon his death in the Soviet Union.[2]
History
Stavropol was founded as a fortress in 1737 by the Russian statesman Vasily Tatishchev.[3] It was often informally referred to as Stavropol-on-Volga to distinguish it from Stavropol, a larger city in southwest Russia, although Stavropol-on-Volga was never its official name.[4]