Engels is the second-largest city of Saratov Oblast, with a population of 226,000 in 2018.

Understand

Memorial of the Great Patriotic War (World War II)

Engels was the capital of the Volga German Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic from 1918 to 1941. Following the German invasion of the Soviet Union, its German inhabitants suffered persecution as Soviet authorities feared they could be spies for Nazi Germany. All Germans were expelled from Engels, with most being sent far away to Siberia and the Kazakh SSR. In 2011, a monument in honor of the Russian-German victims of repression within the Soviet Union was unveiled in the city.

It was known as Pokrovskaya sloboda until 1914, and as Pokrovsk until 1931.

Get around

Map of Engels trolleybus lines (since 2021-07)

See

• 1 Yuri Gagarin's landing site (Место приземления Гагарина) (Taxi). 24 hours. Monuments at the landing site of Vostok 1, the first human spaceflight. Located about 24 km southwest of the city. (updated Apr 2021)

Connect

Consulates

• Germany (Honourary Consulate), Engels Prospekt, 139, ☏ +7 8453 72-96-17, fax: +7 8453 72-99-07, ✉ Norbert.Pfannstiel@ru.bosch.com. 08:30-17:00.