Nizhny Novgorod

Nizhny Novgorod, city and administrative center of Nizhegorod oblast (region), western Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Volga and Oka rivers, 260 miles (420 km) east of Moscow.

Although some authorities give an earlier date, the city was founded, according to a major chronicle, in 1221 by Yury Vsevolodovich, prince of Vladimir, as Russian colonization was advancing to the Volga into lands formerly occupied by the Mordvinians. Nizhny Novgorod’s strategic site on the great Volga route from the Baltic to Central Asia—with links via the navigable Oka River to the Vladimir-Moscow region and via the Kama River to the Ural Mountains and Siberia—ensured its importance. In 1392 the town was incorporated into the principality of Moscow and soon became a Russian stronghold against the Volga Tatars. From there, Ivan III the Great in 1469 and Ivan IV the Terrible in 1552 launched their expeditions against the Tatar capital of Kazan. The Russian conquest of the Volga in the mid-16th century brought about increased trade for Nizhny Novgorod. The annual fair that was established in that city in 1817 became the largest and most important in Russia, attracting traders and goods from across Europe and Asia. The fair continued until the Russian Revolution of 1917. The well-known writer Maxim Gorky was born in Nizhny Novgorod in 1868, and in 1932 the town was renamed in his honor by the Soviet regime, although its original name was restored in 1990.

The great volume of trade passing through the city led to the early utilization of serf labor in manufacturing, causing an earlier onset of factory industrialization than in much of Russia, especially in heavy industry and engineering. The town’s industrial importance grew steadily, stimulated in World Wars I and II by the destruction of plants to the west. Modern Nizhny Novgorod is one of the largest cities of Russia and the center of a large metropolitan area strung out along the Volga and lower Oka rivers. The city is home to the Gorky Automobile Plant (Gorkovsky Avtomobilny Zavod; GAZ), one of the largest in Russia, and also produces many types of ships and river craft, diesel engines, machinery and machine tools, and a wide range of chemical and consumer goods. Of its satellite towns, Bor, across the Volga, makes glass, notably safety glass for cars; Dzerzhinsk makes chemicals and fertilizers; Balakhna and Pravdinsk make paper; Bogorodsk produces leather goods and footwear; and Kstovo has a major oil refinery. Power for the metropolis comes from two thermal-electric plants in Nizhny Novgorod—the Balakhna peat-burning station and the hydroelectric station at Zavolzhye. During the general deindustrialization trend in Russia in the post-Soviet period, the city preserved its industrial profile, and, at the beginning of the 21st century, of the country’s cities with more than one million residents, it had the highest proportion of the working population employed in industry. Nizhny Novgorod is the focus of excellent communications by river, road, rail, and air. Railways connect it with Moscow, Kirov (on the Trans-Siberian line), and Arzamas, and electrified suburban lines serve the metropolitan area.

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Nizhny Novgorod has numerous institutions of higher learning, including the N.I. Lobachevsky State University (founded 1918). There is also a state art museum and one of the oldest drama theaters in Russia (established 1798). The city’s historic buildings include the 16th-century kremlin and the 17th-century Archangel Cathedral. Pop. (2010) 1,250,619.