Samara << suh MAHR uh >> (pop. 1,173,299) is a major Russian manufacturing center and Volga River port. A large oil field and rich grain fields lie nearby. Samara’s large hydroelectric power plant includes a dam across the Volga. Manufactured products include aircraft, food products, and locomotives. Samara was renamed Kuybyshev in 1935, when Russia was a republic of the Soviet Union. It was renamed Samara in 1991, shortly before the Soviet republics became independent.
