Ufa



Ufa

Name: Ramil Sitdikov

Age: 29

Profession: Photojournalist

City: Ufa

How long have you been doing photography? Six years.

What style or genre most interests you? Documentary photography and sports.

Can you give us a short description of your city? Where is it located? What is it famous for? Ufa is the capital of the Republic of Bashkortostan. It is situated on the banks of the Belaya (White) River and is one of Russia's largest cities in terms of area of land covered. During the time of the Mongol occupation, their largest city was located here, Bashgirdt. A fortress was built in 1574, and in 1586 Ufa was officially given the status of city.

What are some things that only locals would know about the city? Ufa is the union of sky and water. The main reason to come here is not for cultural sites, but more for the authentic atmosphere. The monument to Salavat Yulaev [a Bashkir national hero] is placed on a high spot over the Bely River and it offers a truly regal view, with forest stretching to the horizon. 

Old Ufa is small and compact. Rare wooden homes live alongside massive palaces that once belonged to rich forest merchants.

Which places or sites are a must for someone to see if they visit your city? You must visit the House Museum of the writer Sergei Aksakov, and you should walk down Lenin Street to the Children's Palace named for VM. Komarov, where Rudolph Nuryeyev took his first dance classes.

There is a unique atmosphere to be sampled in the now marginal region known as Chernikovka (it's name has been officially changed, but locals still call it this). It maintains the triumphal spirit of the post-war era – in the faces of the homes, for example, in the Pobeda movie theater. There is also some very expressive architecture in the Museum of Military Glory, built by Dmitry Vinkelman in 1998, and comprised of a harmonious collection of prisms, cubes and smooth cylinders.

Anything else? You should definitely take a tour to Shulgan Tash Nature Preserve, home to some of the oldest caves of human habitation, to see the wall drawings made 15-16 thousand years ago, including over 50 images of mammoths, horses, rhinos, bisons, and geometric symbols. Most of the images were made with red ochre. It is one of the greatest mysteries of the art world. For such drawings have often been found in France and Spain, but it was entirely unexpected to find them in Russia.

Website: http://ramilsitdikov.com/

Instagram: @ramilsitdikov



Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

Tolstoy Bilingual

Tolstoy Bilingual

This compact, yet surprisingly broad look at the life and work of Tolstoy spans from one of his earliest stories to one of his last, looking at works that made him famous and others that made him notorious. 
Marooned in Moscow

Marooned in Moscow

This gripping autobiography plays out against the backdrop of Russia's bloody Civil War, and was one of the first Western eyewitness accounts of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Marooned in Moscow provides a fascinating account of one woman's entry into war-torn Russia in early 1920, first-person impressions of many in the top Soviet leadership, and accounts of the author's increasingly dangerous work as a journalist and spy, to say nothing of her work on behalf of prisoners, her two arrests, and her eventual ten-month-long imprisonment, including in the infamous Lubyanka prison. It is a veritable encyclopedia of life in Russia in the early 1920s.
Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

In this comprehensive, quixotic and addictive book, Edwin Trommelen explores all facets of the Russian obsession with vodka. Peering chiefly through the lenses of history and literature, Trommelen offers up an appropriately complex, rich and bittersweet portrait, based on great respect for Russian culture.
Moscow and Muscovites

Moscow and Muscovites

Vladimir Gilyarovsky's classic portrait of the Russian capital is one of Russians’ most beloved books. Yet it has never before been translated into English. Until now! It is a spectactular verbal pastiche: conversation, from gutter gibberish to the drawing room; oratory, from illiterates to aristocrats; prose, from boilerplate to Tolstoy; poetry, from earthy humor to Pushkin. 
Maria's War: A Soldier's Autobiography

Maria's War: A Soldier's Autobiography

This astonishingly gripping autobiography by the founder of the Russian Women’s Death Battallion in World War I is an eye-opening documentary of life before, during and after the Bolshevik Revolution.
Murder at the Dacha

Murder at the Dacha

Senior Lieutenant Pavel Matyushkin has a problem. Several, actually. Not the least of them is the fact that a powerful Soviet boss has been murdered, and Matyushkin's surly commander has given him an unreasonably short time frame to close the case.
Survival Russian

Survival Russian

Survival Russian is an intensely practical guide to conversational, colloquial and culture-rich Russian. It uses humor, current events and thematically-driven essays to deepen readers’ understanding of Russian language and culture. This enlarged Second Edition of Survival Russian includes over 90 essays and illuminates over 2000 invaluable Russian phrases and words.
Dostoyevsky Bilingual

Dostoyevsky Bilingual

Bilingual series of short, lesser known, but highly significant works that show the traditional view of Dostoyevsky as a dour, intense, philosophical writer to be unnecessarily one-sided. 
Bears in the Caviar

Bears in the Caviar

Bears in the Caviar is a hilarious and insightful memoir by a diplomat who was “present at the creation” of US-Soviet relations. Charles Thayer headed off to Russia in 1933, calculating that if he could just learn Russian and be on the spot when the US and USSR established relations, he could make himself indispensable and start a career in the foreign service. Remarkably, he pulled it of.
Fish: A History of One Migration

Fish: A History of One Migration

This mesmerizing novel from one of Russia’s most important modern authors traces the life journey of a selfless Russian everywoman. In the wake of the Soviet breakup, inexorable forces drag Vera across the breadth of the Russian empire. Facing a relentless onslaught of human and social trials, she swims against the current of life, countering adversity and pain with compassion and hope, in many ways personifying Mother Russia’s torment and resilience amid the Soviet disintegration.

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955