Verkhneuslonsky District (; ) is a territorial administrative unit and municipality of the Republic of Tatarstan within the Russian Federation. The district is located in the west of the republic on the right bank of the Volga River and encompasses a total area of . According to the 2010 census, the municipality had a population of 16,641 people. Its administrative center, the selo (village) of Verkhny Uslon, accounts for 27% of the district's total population.
The modern Verkhneuslonsky district was first established in 1931. Since the 16th century, the main occupation of the local population has been the mining of rock and as of 2020 the area was still famous for its brick-making industry. In 2012, the Innopolis special economic zone (SEZ) was established in the district. The special economic zone bears the same name as the city of Innopolis it is located in and became the fifth economic zone of a technology-innovation type in Russia. The district hosted the Colombian men's national football team during the 2018 Russia World Cup.
Geography The Verkhneuslonsky district is located in the northeastern part of the Volga Uplands, on the right bank of the Volga at the confluence of the Volga with the Sviyaga and Sulitsa rivers. Other large rivers in the region are the Klyancheyka, Changara (tributaries of the Sulitsa) and Biy (tributary of the Sviyaga) and form a total length of at least 15 km. The region shares borders with Zelenodolsky district in the north and north-west; with Kamsko-Ustinsky, Apastovsky and Kaybitsky districts in the south and south-west; with the Laishevsky district of Tatarstan and the Kirovsky district of Kazan in the east across the watershed of the Volga river. Agricultural land covers 84.8 thousand hectares with more than 54 thousand hectares considered arable land while forested areas occupy 23 thousand hectares. The Upper Uslon region is characterized by a temperate climate and the transition of soil and vegetation zones from forest to steppe. The soils are of the clay type and contain limestones, clays, dolomites, sands and sandstones. The terrain is undulating-flat with cliffs, river valleys and numerous ravines.
Flag and Coat of Arms In March 2006, the Council of the Verkhneuslonsky Municipal District approved its new heraldic insignia. The dominant color of the coat of arms is red symbolizing courage, strength, labor and beauty. Against this background, at the center of the canvas, there is a high and steep bank or “uslon” that is reflected in the region’s name. A falcon sits on the rock recalling the popularity of falconry in the region in ancient times. The bird, ready to fly, symbolizes the linkage of time, the residents aspirations for the future and also symbolizes courage, intelligence, and swiftness. Since most of the district's borders are located along the Volga and Sviyaga, there is a blue wavy strip at the bottom of the emblem representing the geographical features of the area. The flag is based on heraldic elements of the coat of arms. Like the coat of arms, it has a dominant red background and a blue wavy stripe, which occupies 1/5 of the width of the cloth, at the bottom.
History In the first half of the 16th century, the territory of the modern Verkhneuslonsky district belonged to the Kazan Khanate, and the nearby Sokolnechya Gora was occupied by outlaws and freebooters. In addition to the Don, the Volga was a common place for runaway serfs who faced ever escalating punishments if caught. The territories that lay downstream of Kazan would be called the “grassroots free zone” as a result. From the Sokolka mountain, freebooters looked out for merchant ships passing along the Volga and as a result called themselves “falcons”. Due to the constant robberies and raids organized by the so-called “falcons”, the Muscovite state decided to get rid of the dangerous outlaws. As a result, the Cossack Ataman Ermak Timofeyevich with his army quickly drove the robbers out of the Volga. Shortly after driving out the bandits, the settlement of Pechischi was formed two kilometers from the modern village of Verkhniy Uslon. The inhabitants of the village earned their living by mining near Uslonskaya Gora, rolled stones to the shore and loading them onto barges. Thanks to the stone mined in the village, the walls of the Kazan Kremlin and the Sviyazhsky monastery were rebuilt. A limestone kiln plant was opened in the village and operated until 1980.
Until the 1720s, the territory of the Verkhneuslonsky district belonged to the Sviyazhsky county (uyezd). In 1565, some of the largest settlements of that time were founded in the region including Busurmanskaya Sloboda (130 peasant households), Morkvashi (51 peasant households) and Burnashevo (50 peasant households). Under the reign of Peter the Great, the peasants of the Sviyazhsky district were not assigned to build the new city of St. Petersburg but until the age of 45 they could be recruited for the army. In 1708, the Kazan province was formed and the territory of the modern Verkhneuslonsky district was transferred to the Sviyazhsk province. In the 1775-1780s, as a result of the administrative reforms of the Catherine the Great, the Kazan province was divided into 12 districts. The Verkhneuslonsky district remained a part of Sviyazhsk until 1927, when the eponymous canton of the Tatar ASSR was established.
In 1927, the territory of the Verkhneuslonsky district was divided with one part being transferred to the newly established Tenkovsky district, while another part was left to Sviyazhsky district. In October 1931, the Verkhneuslonsky district was reestablished by merging Tenkovsky and Sviyazhsky districts. During World War II, the Pechishchinsky District Flour Mill Plant supplied Verkhniy Uslon with food. From 1941 to 1942, the Belarusian poet Yanka Kupala (Ivan Dominikovich Lutsevich) lived in a small two-story building next to the plant. In 1958, the lands of the Verkhneuslonsky district expanded to incorporate territories of the disbanded Tenkovsky district. In 1963, the Verkhneuslonsky district was also abolished, and its land transferred to Zelenodolsk. Yet subsequently on January 12, 1965, the Verkhneuslonsky district was reestablished within its current borders.
Administrative and Municipal Status Within the framework of administrative divisions, the Verkhneuslonsky District is one of the forty-three districts in the republic. In 2019, the population in the Verkhneuslonsky district amounted to 16.2 thousand people. As of the beginning of 2020, 15,935 people lived in the district. In terms of ethnic composition, 67% of the district population are Russians and 33% are Tatars. 2.5% of the district population live in urban conditions in the city of Innopolis.
In 2006, the Verkhneuslonsky district was headed by Vladimir Osyanin who had priorly served as the head of the District Administration since 1997. Osyanin left the post in 2010 in connection with a transfer to the post of head of the department for the protection and use of wildlife objects of the Republic of Tatarstan. Alexander Timofeev who before was the long time head of the Laishevsky district was appointed acting head. He was approved as the head of the Verkhneuslonsky district in 2011, but after a few months Timofeev was dismissed in relation to a bribe of 5 million rubles and a court sentenced him four years in prison. Since 2012, Marat Ziatdinov has occupied the position of the head of the Verkhneuslonsky district.
Economics Industry The largest enterprises in the region include Keramika-Sintez and the Shelangovsky fruit and berry farm “Shelangovsky” in the Shelanga village, Tatkrakhmalpatoka in the Kuralovo village, the Verkhneuslonsky branch of Tatavtodor, as well as the Velvette boat and yacht plant.
In 2008, the “Klyuchischinskaya ceramics” plant with a capacity of 48 million units per year began operations in the village of Klyuchischi. The construction of the plant cost 1.5 billion rubles. In 2012, every tenth brick in Tatarstan was produced at the “Klyuchishchinskaya ceramics” plant. In 2018, the company was declared bankrupt and put up for auction for 581 million rubles and in two years the plant was bought by entrepreneur Vadim Samarkin for 350 million rubles. At this time Samarkin already had his own company “Zavolzhskaya ceramics”, established in 2019. Additionally, there is another district brick factory “Keramika-Sintez” that is owned by TAIF, the largest industrial holding in Tatarstan. As of 2017, the company produced 20 million bricks annually. Materials produced there were used to construct the facilities of the 2013 World University Games in Kazan. In 2019, the company produced 21.3 million units of ceramic stone.
The construction industry in Verkhneuslonsky is also represented by the Matyushinsky quarry enterprise (a subsidiary of Tatagrokhimservice), which extracts limestone for the needs of the road construction and agriculture in Tatarstan. The volume of products manufactured in the Verkhneuslonsky district in 2018 amounted to 59.7 million rubles, and the average number of employees working at enterprises there was more than 40 people. According to the federal statistics agency of Tatarstan, at the beginning of 2019, there were 665 small and medium-sized businesses in the district, of which 425 were individual entrepreneurs. The share of small and medium-sized businesses in the gross territorial product of the Verkhneuslonsky municipal district increased from 26.8 to 30.5% during the period from 2015 to 2018. In January-September of 2020, the value of goods produced and shipped by enterprises operating in the district amounted to 2.5 billion rubles.
Agriculture The leading agricultural sectors are the dairy and beef cattle industries and the cultivation of grain and fodder crops. The agricultural sector is primarily represented by seven agricultural enterprises including the four largest: Krasny Vostok-Agro, the Uslon agricultural company, the Zarya enterprise, and Shelanga (a branch of the Narmonka agricultural company) as well as 87 individual farms. Among other enterprises are Zolotoi kolos (a branch of the “Kolos-Sintez” company), Luch, the “Uslon” agrofirm, the Pechishchensky factory of grain products, and the “Nizhny Uslon” cannery. As of July 2019, agricultural producers of all forms of ownership used 54.1 thousand hectares of arable land, rearing 10,202 head of cattle, 3,629 cows, 5 020 pigs and 96 horses. In total, the agricultural sector employed 470 people. In the first half of 2020, the gross agricultural output of the district amounted to 26 million rubles.
Since 2015, a high-tech livestock complex has been operating in the village of Kildeyevo. The total investment in the construction of the complex amounted to more than 260 million rubles in 2017. In the same year, the complex built a sanitary checkpoint for the disinfection of technical transport.
The regional company “Tatkrakhmalpatoka” cultivates and produces dry fermented rye and barley malt which is then supplied to the countries of the former CIS, Poland, Lithuania and China. In 2017, the company held a leading position in Russia in the production of kvass wort concentrate, maltose syrup and malt extracts. According to the CEO, in 2019, the company's revenue amounted to 380 million rubles.
In 2016, The Verkhniy Uslon milk processing plant shipped 22,993 tons of products. In 2018, the enterprise planned to replace the equipment in its butter facility and developed a project to increase the daily volume of processed milk by 25%. The plant took over the repair costs of the central road to the village of Makulovo that leads to the workshops. The volume of products manufactured by the plant in 2018 amounted to 617.6 million rubles. As of 2020, the plant produces 60-70 tons of processed milk per day. According to E-Kazan media, their butter is among the top five in Tatarstan.
Investment Potential