Yoshkar-Ola on the river Malaya Kokshaga is the capital of the Russian republic Mari El. The city was founded in 1584 as a fort after the Russian conquest of this region around the Volga and its tributaries. Originally, the fort and the resulting settlement were called the Tsar’s City by Kokshaga. The settlement remained a village for a long time, and at the beginning of the 18th century it was subordinated to the governorate of Kazan. Over time, among other things, churches were built, of which by the end of the 19th century there were five in the town, which at the time had less than 2,000 inhabitants.

With the Bolshevik victory in the Russian Civil War of 1917, the Soviet Union was established, and the Tsar’s City was to be renamed. In 1919 it was renamed Krasnokokshaisk, which means the Red City by Kokshaga. In 1928, the name changed to Joshkar-Ola, which has the same meaning in the local Marij language. In 1936, the Marij Autonomous Soviet Republic was established with Yoshkar-Ola as the capital, and the city began to grow in earnest due to the new administrative role and the evacuation of industries to cities during World War II. In the 1950s and 1960s, large buildings were built in the center of Yoshkar-Ola, and the city spread with suburbs. The population rose from 27,000 in 1939 to 250,000 at the end of the 20th century.

Today, Yoshkar-Ola is a city where most of the buildings were built from the last half of the 20th century to the present day, but much has also been done to preserve the city’s older buildings. Yoshkar-Ola is therefore an interesting city with several sights, and you can start a stroll through its streets at Lenin Square, which is located along the main street, Leninsky Prospect. In the square you can see the city’s statue of the head of state Lenin, standing on a pedestal next to the neoclassical Mari National Drama Theater, built 1953-1961 and inaugurated in 1962. Close to this is the beautiful opera and ballet theater that was opened in 2014.

If you go west from Lenin Square, you come to another of Yoshkar-Ola’s beautiful urban spaces. It is the large square where Mari El’s National Art Museum is located in a grand construction in Italian Renaissance style, which opened in 2007. In the museum you can see works by artists from Mari El and changing Russian and international exhibitions. In front of the museum stands an equestrian statue of the city’s first voivode, and on the opposite side of the street is one of the administrative buildings of the Republic of Mari El. From here you can walk north along Pervomayskaya ulitsa to the Yoshkar-Ola market area and on to the Central Park, where you can see, among other things, a memorial to the region’s fallen in wars and an eternal flame.

Yoshkar-Ola’s central park is located in an axis where Chavayna street connects it with the river Malaya Kokshaga and the city’s main attractions. At the central course of the river, on the west bank, you can see the Annunciation Tower, which was built in 2007 as a 55-meter-high version of the famous Spasskaya Tower in the Moscow Kremlin. By the tower is the Russian Drama Theater to the west, and facing the river is the impressive Annunciation Cathedral, built from 2010 and consecrated in 2016. The cathedral is 74 meters high with gilded domes. The architectural inspiration for the construction came from the Church of Spilled Blood in Saint Petersburg, and next to the cathedral you can see other contemporary buildings in the old style.

At the cathedral, you can cross Malaya Kokshaga on the Teatralny Most bridge, and from here there is a fantastic view of the entire new center of Yoshkar-Ola, and everywhere on the horizon you can see the completed creation of the old architectural style of the district. On the east bank of the river, you will find Yoshkar-Ola’s Spasskaya Tower, which stands in the same style as the Annunciation Tower. From here you can walk north along the river promenade or the parallel street Voskresensky Prospect, both of which are flanked by new buildings in the same old style. From here you come to several castle-like buildings, which are used as a theater and shops.

On the way back along the western promenade you can see two other churches that belong to the city’s old buildings. The Church of the Resurrection of Jesus was built in 1759 but demolished in 1961 during the Soviet era. The current reconstruction was inaugurated in 2010. South of here is the Trinity Church, which was built from 1736, and it stands in a distinctly different architecture from its surroundings. The exterior of the church is typical of the 18th century with inspiration from earlier centuries. Next to the church is a museum of Orthodox history in Mari El, and close by you can also visit the city’s local history museum.