The Russian Empire established a guberniya in the area in 1851, the Samara Governorate, which was administered from the city of Samara. During the Revolution of 1905, a rebellion took place in November that year at the village of Novaya Tsarevshchina and spread to the village of Stary Buyan, leading to the formation of the short-lived separatist state, the Stary Buyan Republic, within the governorate. There was little local opposition to the new state, and after the failure of local police to end the rebellion, it was successfully suppressed by a punitive expedition of Cossacks and gendarmes led by the vice-governor of the governorate in Samara. Under Soviet rule most of the governorate's territory was transformed into the Middle Volga Oblast, which was established on May 14, 1928, and a year later on October 20, 1929, it was again transformed into Middle Volga Krai. On January 27, 1935, Samara and the Middle Volga Krai were renamed Kuybyshev and Kuybyshev Krai, respectively, in honor of the Bolshevik leader Valerian Kuybyshev. On December 5, 1936, Kuybyshev Krai was transformed into Kuybyshev Oblast upon the adoption of the 1936 Soviet Constitution. On January 25, 1991 the city was returned to its original name and the oblast was renamed Samara Oblast. On 1 August 1997 Samara Oblast signed a power-sharing agreement with the federal government, granting it autonomy. This agreement would be abolished on 22 February 2002. Tolyatti is the largest city in Russia which does not serve as the administrative center of a federal subject.
Administrative divisions
Demographics
Population: Ethnic groups: According to the 2010 Census, the ethnic makeup of the oblast was:
123,691 people were registered from administrative databases, and could not declare an ethnicity. It is estimated that the proportion of ethnicities in this group is the same as that of the declared group.
In 1997, Samara Oblast became one of the fewfederal subjects to receive the approval of the President of Russia to implement external bonded loans. Samara Oblast has several special investment sites which are built to implement new plants, industries, factories, create new jobs and increase investments in the Samara Region.
Industrial Park «Stavropolskiy»
In order to help Russian and foreign investors to select a site for project implementation, to provide consulting services free of charge Ministry for Economic Development, Investments and Trade of the Samara Region organized a Non-Profit Unitary Organization – Fund . The Agency cooperates with investors on the "one-stop-shop" principle, as well as:
Searches for foreign partners according to the companies' priorities;
Provides investment consulting services and monitors the implementation of investment projects;
Promotes the investment opportunities of the Samara Region in Russia and foreign countries by participation in conferences, exhibitions, forums and other events.
Politics
During the Soviet period, the high authority in the oblast was shared between three persons: The first secretary of the Samara CPSU Committee, the chairman of the oblast Soviet, and the Chairman of the oblast Executive Committee. Since 1991, CPSU lost all the power, and the head of the Oblast administration, and eventually the governor was appointed/elected alongside elected regional parliament. The Charter of Samara Oblast is the fundamental law of the oblast. The Legislative Assembly of Samara Oblast is the province's standing legislative body. The Legislative Assembly exercises its authority by passing laws, resolutions, and other legal acts and by supervising the implementation and observance of the laws and other legal acts passed by it. The highest executive body is the Oblast Government, which includes territorial executive bodies such as district administrations, committees, and commissions that facilitate development and run the day to day matters of the province. The Oblast administration supports the activities of the Governor who is the highest official and acts as guarantor of the observance of the oblast Charter in accordance with the Constitution of Russia. Governors:
Konstantin Titov
Vladimir Artyakov
Nikolay Merkushkin
Dmitry Azarov
Religion
According to a 2012 survey 35% of the population of Samara Oblast adheres to the Russian Orthodox Church, 7% are unaffiliated generic Christians, 1% are Orthodox Christian believers who do not belong to any church or are members of non-Russian Orthodox churches, 3% are Muslims, and 1% of the population are adherents of Rodnovery. In addition, 30% of the population declares to be "spiritual but not religious", 13% is atheist, and a further 10% follows other religions or did not give an answer to the question.
