Ufa

Ufa, a town and river-port of Russia, capital of the government of the same name, situated 326 m. by rail N.E. of Samara, on the main line from Moscow to Siberia, at the confluence of the Ufa with the Byelaya. Pop., 49,275. The better part of the town contains two cathedrals and a few churches; the remainder is a scattered aggregation of small wooden houses. There are a museum, a public library and a theological seminary; and the industries include iron and copper works, machinery works and saw-mills.

Ufa was founded in 1574. The wooden kreml, or fort, protected by wooden towers and an outer earthen wall, had to sustain the attacks of the revolted Bashkirs and Russian serfs in 1662 and at later dates; and in 1773 Chika, one of the chiefs of the Pugachev revolt, besieged it for four months.