City plan of Udinsk (now Ulan-Ude, Siberia, 1750).Ulan-Ude was founded as the small fort of Udinskoy

City plan of Udinsk (now Ulan-Ude, Siberia, 1750).Ulan-Ude was founded as the small fort of Udinskoye in 1648, next towhere the Selenga and Uda Rivers meet.  This was two years after thefirst Russian arrived to collect yasak (tribute) from thenative peoples.  At this time, there was already a road and rivercrossing, created by nomads.In the summer of 1675, the Russian diplomat Nikolai Sparafy passedthrough Udinskoye on his way to China.  He noted that the settlementwas suitable for a prison, so a fortress was built for that purpose. The Buryats and Mongols targeted the prison during raids, and from1676 to 1689 there were many unsuccessful attempts to capture it.Udinskoye stood on the most important caravan route from Russia toChina, so it was important for trading, storing goods and theformation of convoys.  The settlement developed slowly; in 1735 itsname was changed to Udinsk, and two years later it was granted townstatus under that name.  By this time, it was famous for holding thelargest fair in the Transbaikal region, where furs, fabrics, meat,bread and tea were sold.  The tradition of holding a large fair herecontinued until the early 1930s.In 1783, Udinsk’s name was changed to Verkhneudinsk (meaning “UpperUdinsk”) to differentiate it from Nizhneudinsk (“Lower Udinsk”). Nizhneudinsk lay on the Chuna River, but that river is also calledthe Uda River south of Chunsky.Verkhneudinsk was renamed Ulan-Ude on July 27th, 1934. -- source link

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