Tsykmä

Tsykmä (formerly Kozmodemyansk, Russ. Цыкмя, E.Mari Chykma, W. Mari Cÿkmä, Chuv. Chikme') is a Uralican town, set to become a city on 1 January 2010, located in Mari El county. Its name is Western Mari in origin, and it constitutes the centre of the Western Mari speaking population of the world, considering a far larger number of Mari speak the Eastern Mari language. The official spelling of the city is based on the Finnish transcription of the Western Mari name.

Upon attaining city status, it will surpass Veliski as being the smallest settlement with city status. It was praised by architects Mikhail Grebeshkov and Ville Hukari as having "a very efficient infrastructural setup with a perfect balance of everything a city needs." It also sits at a narrowing point of the Cheboksarskoye Reservoir (along the Volga River) which has been touted as a potential bridge site.

In terms of industry, its location on the Volga makes it an important location for the construction of small and medium-sized commercial ships, and also a relatively busy river port. Ferrous metallurgy and manufacturing are also of decent size in Tsykmä, as in most Uralican cities. Not surprisingly, there is also a fairly large retail sector in Tsykmä, which makes up the vast majority of the commerce of the city, with most of the regional financial groups being in larger cities like Yoshkar-Ola or Cheboksary.

Culture
A third of the world's mother-tongue speakers of Western Mari live in Tsykmä. This has led the Uralican Tribal Council, at the request of the Mari Tribal Board, to name the whole city a National Cultural Monument. It is not uncommon to see the Western Mari language on signs and banners all around the city, and most Uralican Evangelical Baptist churches in the city conduct their services in Western Mari.

There are four major cultural "tourist traps" in Tsykmä. The most visited is an open-air museum complex with over sixty buildings indicative of Mari and Russian architecture (mostly Mari), with over two thousand different Mari artisan tools included within.

There is also a museum devoted to Mari art (the only larger ones are located at the Uralic Cultural Centre in Syktyvkar and at the Galleria in Yoshkar-Ola) and a Mari ethnographic museum.



The final one is a downtown marketplace area where wooden and wicker goods are made and sold by local artisans year-round. Jarkko Salomäki, having been born in British Columbia and having seen similar markets in his region, called it "Uralica's answer to Whippletree Junction."

In the summertime, the eastern portion of Tsykmä's beaches is a popular destination for tourists, as the mild summer climate in the area makes a pleasant place to travel to.

Sport
Coming soon