Description : Ulan-Ude (Buryat: Улаан-Үдэ, Ulaan-Üde; Russian: Улан-Удэ; Mongolian: Улаан-Үд, Ulaan-Üd) is the capital city of the Republic of Buryatia, Russia; it is located about 100 kilometers (62 mi) southeast of Lake Baikal on the Uda River at its confluence with the Selenga. According to the 2010 Census, 404,426 people lived in Ulan-Ude; up from 359,391 recorded in the 2002 Census, making the city the third-largest in the Russian Far East by population. It was previously known as Udinsk (until 1783) and then Verkhneudinsk (until July 27, 1934). The first occupants of the area where Ulan-Ude now stands were the Evenks and, later, the Buryat Mongols. Ulan-Ude was settled in 1666 by the Russian Cossacks as the fortress of Udinskoye. Due to its favorable geographical position, it grew rapidly and became a large trade center which connected Russia with China and Mongolia and, from 1690, was the administrative center of the Transbaikal region. By 1775, it was known as Udinsk, and in 1783 it was granted city status and renamed Verkhneudinsk. After a large fire in 1878, the city was almost completely rebuilt. The Trans-Siberian Railway reached the city in 1900 causing an explosion in growth. The population, which was 3,500 in 1880, reached 126,000 in 1939. From 6 April to October 1920 Verkhneudinsk was the capital of the Far Eastern Republic (Дальневосточная Республика), also known as the Chita Republic. It was a nominally independent state that existed from April 1920 to November 1922 in the easternmost part of the Russian Far East. On 27 July 1934, the city was renamed Ulan-Ude.
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