Alatyr, Administrative center in Chuvash Republic, Russia
Alatyr sits where the Sura and Alatyr Rivers meet in the Chuvash Republic, forming a settlement with gently sloping riverbanks and bridge crossings over both waterways. The town occupies the southern edge of Chuvashia, bordering both the Republic of Mordovia and Nizhny Novgorod Oblast directly.
A wooden fortress appeared here in 1552 to protect Russia's southeastern borders on the site of an earlier Mordvin settlement. The settlement gained formal town rights in 1780 and became a railway junction in 1894 when the Moscow-Ryazan-Kazan line opened.
The local population of 35,298 residents consists of Russians representing 87.3 percent, Mordvins 7.2 percent, and Chuvash 4.1 percent of inhabitants.
The town follows Moscow Standard Time, three hours ahead of coordinated universal time, and connects through its railway station to the main eastbound line. Visitors find mostly flat terrain with occasional low hills and paths along both rivers.
The town shares its name with the river that flows into the larger waterway here, and both names likely come from an old Mordvin or Turkic root. Despite sitting within Chuvashia, the settlement forms its own urban district while also serving as the administrative seat for a surrounding rural area without belonging to it.
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