What was the capital of Elista from 1957 to May 1991?
Elista Elista ( or ; , Elst ) is the capital city of the Republic of Kalmykia , Russia . Population : It was known as Stepnoy from 1944 to 1957 . History . Elista was founded in 1865 as a small settlement , the name is from Kalmyk els ( e ) n sand ( y ) . In November 1920 , Elista became the administrative center of Kalmyk Autonomous Oblast . By the early 1930s , Elista was transformed into a small city as the collectivization policies of Joseph Stalin forced many Kalmyks to abandon their traditional pastoral nomadic lifestyle in exchange for a modern , sedentary , and urban lifestyle . In October 1935 , Elista was recognized as the capital of the Kalmyk ASSR . In late 1942 , the city was briefly occupied by the German army . Because of alleged collaboration between the ethnic Kalmyks and the Germans , on December 27 , 1943 , the Kalmyk ASSR was dissolved and its ethnic Kalmyk residents were forcibly exiled to Siberia . Russian people were brought in to repopulate Elista whose name was changed to Stepnoy ( ) . It was called Stepnoy until 1957 , when the survivors of the deportations were allowed to return from exile . Some western tourists started to visit Elista from the mid-1990s , and more after it received publicity as the host city of the 1998 Chess Olympiad . The city is safe and has little traffic . On the outskirts of Elista , there are vast grasslands . Administrative and municipal status . Elista is the capital of the republic . Within the framework of administrative divisions , it is , together with four rural localities , incorporated as the City of Elista—an administrative unit with the status equal to that of the districts . As a municipal division , the City of Elista is incorporated as Elista Urban Okrug . Features . Since 1991 , the town has been characterized by the slow decay of Soviet-built institutions , and the large construction projects instigated by the republics millionaire president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov . The town center has a number of renovated public parks focused on the main square , boasting statues to both Lenin and the Buddha . To the east of the town lies the Olympic village of the 1998 XXXIII Chess Olympiad , known locally as City-Chess . The site has a public swimming pool and a museum of Kalmyk Buddhist art , which is also infrequently used as a conference center . During his visit in 1998 , the 14th Dalai Lama chose a location west of the town center to build the Burkhan Bakshin Altan Sume , a Buddhist temple for city residents . It was opened in December 2005 . It is the largest Buddhist temple in Europe . Transportation . Elista has a small regional airport which is open daily during the week , providing flights to Moscow and various cities in the southern part of the Russian Federation . The airport was closed by the federal aviation authorities sometime in the fall of 2006 , but was reopened sometime in 2007 . Rail connections are available to Stavropol . Due to the high cost of air travel , people usually prefer to take the bus between Elista and Moscow . The trip is approximately 18 hours and makes several rest stops along the route . Nowadays , there is an airline Azimuth that provides air flights to Moscow , Sankt Petersburg , Sochi , Crimea and Rostov on Don at affordable cost with direct flights from Elista airport . The price starts at 2500 rubles one way and it saves traveler a lot of time instead of traveling by bus as it was in the past . Within Elista itself , a network of about a dozen marshrutka ( minibus ) routes is run by private companies . Minibuses are available around every five minutes . This is the preferred option of most Kalmykians because of the minimal cost ( 10 rubles ) . Climate . Elista has a hot-summer humid continental climate ( Köppen climate classification Dfa ) , although it has sometimes been described as a temperate semi-arid climate ( Köppen classification BSk ) . Winters are cold with a January average of while summers are hot with a July average of . The average annual precipitation is with winters being drier than summers . Extremes range from in January to in August . Demographics . Ethnic composition ( 2010 ) : - Kalmyks – 69.3% - Russians – 26.3% - Kazakhs – 0.6% - Others – 3.8% Twin towns – sister cities . Elista is twinned with : - Aktau , Kazakhstan - Khoni , Georgia - Kyzyl , Russia - Lhasa , China - Ulaanbaatar , Mongolia - Ulan-Ude , Russia