Tolyatti

 city, second-level administrative division, district center

Tolyatti (Russian: Толья́тти, IPA: [tɐlʲˈjætʲ(ː)ɪ]), also known as Togliatti, formerly known as Stavropol (1737–1964), is a city in Samara Oblast, Russia. It is the largest city in Russia which is neither the administrative center of a federal subject, nor the largest city of a subject. Population: 684,709 (2021 Census). The city is best known as the home of Russia's largest car manufacturer AvtoVAZ (Lada), where it was renamed after Italian communist politician Palmiro Togliatti in 1964.[12] For this reason, Tolyatti is often dubbed "Russia's motor city" or "Russia's Motown" (in reference to Detroit in the United States—the spiritual home of the American automotive industry).
Tolyatti was founded in 1737 as a fortress called Stavropol (Ста́врополь) by the Russian statesman Vasily Tatishchev. Informally it was often referred as Stavropol-on-Volga (Ста́врополь-на-Во́лге, Stavropol-na-Volge) to distinguish from Stavropol, a larger city in southwest Russia, although Stavropol-on-Volga was never its official name. The construction of the Kuybyshev Dam and Hydroelectric Station on the Volga River in the 1950s created the Kuybyshev Reservoir, which flooded the existing location of the city, and it was completely rebuilt on a new site. In 1964, the city was chosen as the location of the new VAZ automobile plant: a joint venture between Fiat and the Soviet government. It was then renamed Tolyatti (after Palmiro Togliatti, the longest-serving secretary of the Italian Communist Party, who had been instrumental in setting up the venture with Fiat). Much of the modern city was constructed in the 1960s to house the workers of the factory, and today, AvtoVAZ dominates the economy of the city.