Sarapul (Udmurt and ) is a city and a river port in the Udmurt Republic, Russia, located on the right bank of the Kama River, 66 km southeast of Izhevsk, the capital of the republic. Population:

History

Sarapul is one of the oldest cities of the Kama region. It was first mentioned in a 1596 population audit book as the village (selo) of Voznesenskoye (, 'Ascension' [of Christ]), later known as Sarapul: "in Kazansky Uyezd in the upper Kama River ... in Sarapul and Siva people fish". Apparently, here Sarapul is the name of a section of the river, as well as the entire area along its shores. It is believed that the name of this area comes from the word сарапуль (sarapul) which in Chuvash means 'yellow fish', or sturgeon, which was in abundance here. Later, however, other versions of the origin of the name were considered. In particular, one of them says that the word sarapul formed by the merger of two words: sarah, which in one of the Siberian dialects means 'money', and pul, a small copper coin, thus meaning 'place of money'. It was chartered in 1780 and by the end of the 18th century had grown into a merchant town with developed footwear manufacturing industry. The city of Sarapul was one of the residence centers of the Udmurt Jews, who spoke Udmurtish Yiddish. In the lexicon of this dialect there was a noticeable number of Udmurt and Tatar loan words.

Geography

Climate

Administrative and municipal status

Within the framework of administrative divisions, it is incorporated as the city of republic significance of Sarapul—an administrative unit with the status equal to that of the districts. As a municipal division, the city of republic significance of Sarapul is incorporated as Sarapul Urban Okrug.

Economy

Currently, Sarapul is the second most important industrial town in the republic after Izhevsk.

Honors

The asteroid 26851 Sarapul was named by astronomer Eric Elst in the city's honor on June 1, 2007.

Notable people

Sources