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The discovery of oil in Bashkiriya made Ufa one of the centers of the USSR oil extracting and oil refining industries. The city stretches 45 kilometers from the southwest to the northeast and occupies over 750 square kilometers. Ufa's population exceeds 1 million people representing over a hundred nationalities and ethnic groups. The bulk of the population is composed of Russians, Bashkirs, Tatars, Chuvash and Maris. Ufa believers profess mostly Christianity and Islam. The city numbers over 1,000 streets totaling about 1,000 kilometers, 22 bridges and overpasses, 6 river ferries. Ufa is the largest river port in the Urals. Vessels sailing down the Belaya, the Kama and the Volga deliver cargoes to the remotest places of the country. Branch-lines of the Kuibyshevskaya Railway connect Ufa with all major Russian cities. Ufa Airport has an International Terminal. The airport has a capacity of 400 passengers an hour.
More than a half of Bashkortostan's total manufacturing potential is concentrated in Ufa. The principal industries are fuel production, chemical and petrochemical branches, engineering and metal machining. 196 manufacturing companies are located in the city. The largest of these are three oil refineries, "Ufaorgsintez", "Ufachimprom", Engine-building and Instrument-building Associations, "Immunopreparat" and others. Joint-venture companies with foreign firms have been established and representation offices of foreign firms have been opened.
The capital of the Republic of Bashkortostan is closely associated with brilliant figures of culture - writer S.T. Aksakov, singer Fyodor Chaliapin, numerous scientists, publicists, actors, playwrights and writers. Ethnic culture festivals and recitals of Turkic, Slavonic and other nations are staged in the city. Ten scientific institutes have been created under the Ufa Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, as well as Botanic Gardens, Museum of Archeology and Ethnography which comprises a unique collection of verbal poetic and musical folk lore, exhibits in archeology, ethnography and anthropology.
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