Saransk is the capital of the Republic of Mordovia, which is part of the Russian Federation. The city’s history began as the fort of Atemar, established in 1641 in what was then the southeastern borderland of the Russian Empire. The city was named Saransk from its location on the river Saranka, and it quickly became an important trading post for the local Erzya people, who together with the Maksyo people made up the Mordovians of the area. During the 18th century, Saransk was subject to the Kazan Government and the Penza Government. With the growing Russian Empire, Saransk had by then lost its military importance and the city grew instead as a commercial and industrial city.

In the middle of the 19th century, the population was over 10,000, and it increased continuously. In 1893 the railway reached Saransk, and it provided further fertile ground for growth. During the Soviet Union, in 1928 Saransk became the capital of the newly established Mordovian okrug, which two years later was changed to Mordovia Autonomous Oblast. After the Second World War, Saransk underwent a rapid development, where the Soviet city planners laid out the center with wide boulevards and squares, and in the same period Saransk’s suburbs were greatly expanded, and today over 300,000 live in the city.

Today there are many things to see in the Russian metropolis. You can start a nice stroll on Ploshad Tyshacheletiya, which is one of the central squares in Saransk. The square was reopened in 2012, and there are many modern buildings around it. The most characteristic buildings are the Saransk Arena from 2021 in the middle and the high-rise building to the west from 2010, which is the main building for the city’s state university. From the square, you can walk west along ulitsa Bogdana Khmelnotskogo, where Saransk’s beautiful opera and ballet theater is located. The theater building was inaugurated in 2011 with a staging of one of Tchaikovsky’s works.

South of Ploshad Tyshacheletiya one can walk to the river Saranka, and before reaching it one comes to the impressive Fyodor Ushakov Cathedral, named after the Russian saint, naval commander and admiral, who is famous for never having lost a ship or lost a naval battle. In the 1990s, Saransk’s churches were judged to be too small for the city’s new cathedral, and therefore Fyodor Ushakov Cathedral was built. The large church was built from 2002 and consecrated in 2006 by the Russian Orthodox Patriarch. In the cathedral you can see a beautiful church room with an elegant icon wall, and in front of the church stands a statue of Fyodor Ushakov, who was canonized in 2001.

There is a lovely park and promenades along the riverbanks of the Saranka. Here you can of course enjoy the green surroundings, and there are also several attractions. In the western part of the park is the neoclassical Russian Drama Theatre, which was founded in 1936. South of the river, you can visit the Mordovia Regional Museum, located in a magnificent museum building from 2012.

The museum has fine collections of art, handicrafts, natural history, etc., and they give a good impression of the region. Opposite the museum is Pushkin Park, formerly called Ascension Park after the Church of the Ascension, which is still located here. The history of the beautiful church goes back to 1734, and both it and the park are worth seeing.

If you continue east, you can see a monument to friendship between Russians and Mordvinians, which was inaugurated in 1986. The monument is located south of Saranka, and if you go north, you will come to Soviet Square, which is the old central square of Saransk and a place where but can see fine examples of buildings from the Soviet era.

The dominant building is the House of the Republic from 1986, which housed parts of the regional Soviet administration. Opposite the house is the city’s Lenin Statue from 1960 and the city’s local administration in a beautiful former seminary building from 1916, and next to this you can visit the Museum for Military and Workforce about the period and the struggle during World War II. Next to the museum is a memorial museum for the country’s fallen during the war.