Ruzaevka is a Russian city, the administrative center of the Ruzayevka District of Mordovia.

It is the second-large city of the Mordovian Republic after Saransk.

The city stands on the Insar River (the basin of Sura), 25 km to the southwest of Saransk. It is an important railway and highway junction.

It has the population of 46 437 people (as of 2014) and takes the area of 27 sq km.

History of Ruzaevka

The settlement was built on the land granted to the Tatar Prince Urazay in 1631. It was first named Urazayevka and then Ruzaevka. Starting from 1783 it was recorded as Settlement of Ruzaevka.

In the second half of the 19th century the village of Ruzaevka belonged to the poet Nikolay Struisky, the friend of the portrait painter Fyodor Rokotov, who worked in his estate.

The railroad Sasovo - Kanash was laid through Ruzaevka in 1893, the line to Penza was added in 1895, and the line to Syzran and Simbirsk was built in 1898.

In December, 1905 Ruzaevka was one of the centers of revolutionary movement: there was even the so-called Ruzayevka Republic, the power of the strike committee of railroad workers of Ruzaevka.

Ruzaevka became an industrial township in 1925 and a city in 1937.