Engels is a city in Saratov Oblast, Russia. An important port located on the Volga River across from Saratov, the administrative center of the oblast, it is connected to it with a bridge. It is the second-largest city in Saratov Oblast, with a population of 202,419 . Historically a major center for Volga Germans, the city was known jointly as Pokrovsk in Russian and as Kosakenstadt in German, until it was renamed after German Marxist theoretician Friedrich Engels in 1931.