Ask the Chatbot Games & Quizzes History & Society Science & Tech Biographies Animals & Nature Geography & Travel Arts & Culture ProCon Money Videos
Penza
Introduction References & Edit History Related Topics
Images
Penza: Meyerhold Memorial Museum Penza
Quizzes
Tower Bridge over the Thames River in London, England. Opened in 1894. Remains an Important Traffic Route with 40,000 Crossings Every Day.
Guess the City by Its River Quiz
Britannica AI Icon
Adding us as a Preferred Source tells Google you trust our content, so our articles show up more often in your Google Search, Discover feed, and AI Overviews.
verifiedCite
While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions.
Select Citation Style
Feedback
Corrections? Updates? Omissions? Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login).
Thank you for your feedback

Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article.

External Websites
Penza: Meyerhold Memorial Museum
Penza: Meyerhold Memorial Museum Meyerhold Memorial Museum, Penza, Russia.

Penza

Russia
Written and fact-checked by
Britannica Editors
Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....
Britannica Editors
History

Penza, city and administrative centre of Penza oblast (region), western Russia, at the confluence of the Penza and Sura rivers. The city was founded in 1663 as a major fortress. After 1684 it formed the western end of the Syzran defensive line. It was frequently attacked by the Crimean Tatars, suffering especially in their last assault of 1717.

With the settlement of the surrounding lands, Penza became an important agricultural centre. Grain was sent to Moscow, first by the Sura River and after the 1870s by rail. The processing of farm products is still a significant economic factor but has been surpassed in importance by industries producing machinery, diesel engines, compressors, calculating machines, and bicycles. There are also watchmaking, papermaking, and timber-working industries. The city’s tree-lined streets have spread from the hill, on which the fortress originally stood, onto the level Sura floodplain. Penza has teacher-training, polytechnic, engineering, and agricultural institutes, an observatory, and several industrial research institutions. Pop. (2018 est.) 523,553.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica This article was most recently revised and updated by Michael Ray.
Discover the fascinating events that shaped the world, straight from our editors.
By clicking “Sign Up”, you consent to the Britannica Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.