Sterlibashevo

Sterlibashevo takes its Bashkir name from the headwaters of the Sterlya River. The village grew through the settlement of Tatar merchants in the eighteenth century. People from Seitovsky Posad under the merchant Yusup leased land from Bashkirs, and in 1751 migrants from Kazan Governorate arrived under Tukay Kurmanayev. Other merchant villages were established on lands acquired in the vicinity. Farming, livestock raising, trade and crafts supported the inhabitants.

Sterlibashevo also became a center of Muslim learning. A local madrasa trained religious scholars, and the 1816 census recorded its teachers Biktimer Tukayev and his son Nigmatulla. By an agreement of 1809, Mishars lived in the village as admitted settlers; Bashkirs and Tatars were also among its inhabitants. The village thus brought together communities with distinct histories of settlement and rights to land.