Ufa is the capital of the
Autonomous Republic of Bashkortostan, formerly part of the old
USSR. Situated to the west of the
Ural mountains at the confluence of the Ufa and
Belaya rivers, it boasts around one million inhabitants, having grown from around a quarter of a million in
1956. Oil is the predominant industry and source of income.
The city is also home to the Muslim Mufti and the main Islamic theology school in Russia. The Russian author Sergei Timofeievich Aksakov was born here in 1791.