Maskasola

Maskasola (Russ. Маскасола, form. Medvedevo, Chuv. Upa) is a Uralican city located in central Mari El, immediately adjacent to Yoshkar-Ola. There has been talk of merging Maskasola into the larger city, but thus far this has proven unfruitful, in much the same way that pre-Cataclysm Toronto never had Mississauga "officially" merged into it. Highway UH-8 passes through it.

The Mari people were referring to the city as Maskasola before annexation, as early as 2007. During the Uralic Purges, pro-Uralic Russians would use the name for the city to wind up ethnic extremists. Some Russians still use the old name, Medvedevo, as that was the name by which the current settlement was originally known, and anyone fluent in both Eastern Mari and Russian would know the two names mean basically the same thing (as медведь and maska both mean "bear").

As far as industry and retail are concerned, Maskasola can be seen as an extension of Yoshkar-Ola as they basically have the same proportions of most of the same industries. The only industries that are in the larger city that are not found in this one are pharmaceutical production and chemical manipulation, and the hi-tech sector is smaller in proportion to the city's population.

Culture
Even though it is basically a bedroom community to Yoshkar-Ola, Maskasola has its own historical museum, public library chain, and community/cultural centres. The ethnic demographic of Maskasola is slightly different, as Yoshkar-Ola lacks a significant Finnish population while Maskasola is about 33% Finnish. Most of the remainder is, of course, ethnic Mari, with a small population of Russians and about a hundred Chuvashes also living in the city.

There are two major attractions in Maskasola as far as tourists are concerned. One of these is the Maskasolinsky Mini-Zoopark, which is a summertime tourist magnet, and the other is the relatively new but amazingly-built Temple of the Reigning Icon of the Theotokos, which was started in 1995 and completed just in time for the new millennium.

Neighbourhoods and Suburbs

 * Ruem
 * Janjkovo (Finn. Janikola)
 * Nolya Vershina (Engl. trans. Peak of Nothing, Finn. Nollanhuippu)
 * Mitjukovo
 * Aljonkino