Today, Togliatti occupies an area of 29 thousand hectares. The population of this city is more than 700,000 people. This is one fifth of the whole population of Samarskaya region. Togliatti is a multinational city: nearly 100 nationalities live here. The average age of the city’s inhabitants is 33 years old. Togliatti is a large administrative and industrial center of the Middle Volga region. A large complex of chemical and machine-building plants is situated here. Forty-eight industrial enterprises of Togliatti produce 46% of the whole production of Samarskaya region and nearly 2% of the whole production of Russia.

Togliatti has a 250 year history. The city Stavropol-on-the-Volga was found in 1737 as a fortress to repulse the raids of Crimean tatars and nagay tribes. In 1964, the city was given the name Togliatti – in honor of Palmiro Togliatti, who was the leader of Italian Communists. The city Stavropol-on-the-Volga was founded by Vasily Tatistchev. He was the fellow campaigner of Peter I, a historian and statesman. The word “Stavropol” is a Greek word and it means “the city of the saint cross”.

In the beginning of the 20th century, the population of Stavropol-on-the-Volga was about 6,000 people. But in 1950’s the situation changed rapidly: it was decided to build a hydroelectric station on the Volga river. The old Stavropol was flooded and disappeared at the bottom of Kuibyshev reservoir forever. As a result, the decision was made to build a new city on the left bank of the Volga, at a distance of 18 km from the hydroelectric station. With the beginning of building VAZ in 1966, Togliatti got its second wind.

Togliatti is a city of high business activity. It has become the place where international conferences of business people of “Inter-Volga” are held. In Togliatti, dozens of banks, joints ventures, foreign companies, such as General Motors, Price Waterhouse, Danone, Burda Moden, Estee Lauder, Hiundai function. In our city, the business center of Peace Corps (U.S.A.) works successfully, the office of Soros Foundation was opened recently and the programmes of UNESCO are being realized. We also have a Russian-American cultural center in Togliatti. Our city successfully develops business and cultural relationships with our city-partners: Wolfsburg in Germany, Flint in the U.S.A. and Kasanlyk in Bulgaria.

Togliatti is known for its professionalism and wide range of achievements in sport activities. We have the best acrobatics school in Russia and a strong team of racing motor-cyclists. We also have professional men’s and women’s soccer teams. Togliatti’s hockey team “Lada” became the champion of International Hockey League in 1994 and won the League Cup. In 1995, they won the Silver Cup of European Champions. Togliatti mountain climbing team, in 1992, conquered Everest – the highest point of the planet.