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Nizhny Novgorod ( ; t=Lower Newtown) is both a city and the administrative centre of Nizhny Novgorod Oblast and the Volga Federal District in Russia. The city is located at the confluence of the Oka and the Volga rivers in Central Russia, with a population of over 1.2 million residents, and roughly 1.7 million residents in the wider urban area. Citypopulation.de Population of the major agglomerations of the world Nizhny Novgorod is the sixth-largest city in Russia, and the second-most populous city on the Volga and Volga Federal District. The city is located 420 kilometers (260 mi) east of Moscow. It is an important economic, architectural, educational and cultural centre in Russia and the Volga-Vyatka Economic Region, and provides the majority of Russia's river tourism.
The city was founded on 4 February 1221 by Prince George II of Vladimir.Vladimir Kuchin (2026). 9785449062703, Издательские решения ('Publishing Solutions'). ISBN 9785449062703 In 1612, Kuzma Minin and Prince Dmitry Pozharsky organized an army for the liberation of Moscow from the Poles and Lithuanians. In 1817, Nizhny Novgorod became a great trade centre of the Russian Empire. In 1896, at the trade centre, an All-Russia Exhibition was organized. During the Soviet Union, the city turned into an important industrial centre, and was known as Gorky. In particular, the GAZ was constructed in this period. Around this time, the city was given the nickname "Russian Detroit". Shortly before the dissolution of the Soviet Union the city was renamed Nizhny Novgorod once again. In 1985, the Nizhny Novgorod Metro was opened. In 2016, Vladimir Putin opened the new 70th Anniversary of Victory Plant, which is part of the Almaz-Antey Air and Space Defence Corporation.
The Kremlin – the historic centre of the city – contains the main government agencies of the city and the Volga Federal District. The demonym for a Nizhny Novgorod resident is нижегородец (nizhegorodets) for men or нижегородка (nizhegorodka) for women, rendered in English as Nizhegorodian. Novgorodian is improper, as it refers to a resident of Veliky Novgorod. Nizhny Novgorod was one of the host cities of the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
From 1932 to 1990, the city was known as Gorky (Горький, ).
The independent existence of the medieval fort was threatened by the continuous Mordvins attacks against it; the major attempt made by forces under Purgaz in April 1229 was repulsed. After the death of Yuri II on 4 March 1238 at the Battle of the Sit River, the Mongols occupied the fortress. Later a major stronghold for border protection, the fortress of Nizhny Novgorod took advantage of a natural moat formed by the two rivers.
Along with Moscow and Tver, Nizhny Novgorod was among several newly founded towns that escaped devastation during the Mongol invasion of Kievan Rus' on account of their insignificance, but grew into great centres in Russian political life during the hegemony of the Golden Horde. With the agreement of the Khan, Nizhny Novgorod was incorporated into the Vladimir-Suzdal in 1264. After 86 years its importance further increased when the seat of the powerful Suzdal Principality was moved there from Gorodets in 1350. Grand Duke Dmitry Konstantinovich (1323–1383) sought to make his capital a rival worthy of Moscow; he built a stone citadel and several churches and was a patron of historians. The earliest extant manuscript of the Primary Chronicle – the Laurentian Codex – was written for him by the local monk Laurentius in 1377.
In 1612, the so-called "national militia", gathered by a local merchant, Kuzma Minin, and commanded by Knyaz Dmitry Pozharsky expelled the Polish troops from Moscow, thus putting an end to the Time of Troubles and establishing the rule of the Romanov dynasty. The main square in front of the Kremlin is named after Minin and Dmitry Pozharsky, although it is locally known simply as Minin Square. Minin's remains are buried in the citadel. In commemoration of these events, on 21 October 2005, an exact copy of the Red Square statue of Minin and Pozharsky was placed in front of St John the Baptist Church, which is believed to be the place from where the call to the people had been proclaimed.
In the course of the following century, the city prospered commercially and was chosen by the , the wealthiest merchant family of Russia, as a base for their operations. A particular style of architecture and icon painting, known as the Stroganov school, developed there at the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries.
The historical coat of arms of Nizhny Novgorod in 1781 was a red deer with black horns and hooves on a white field. The modern coat of arms from 2006 is the same, with a ribbon of order of Lenin and gold crown from above.
The largest industrial enterprise was the Sormovo Iron Works which was connected by the company's own railway to Moskovsky railway station in the Lower City of Nizhny Novgorod. The Kazansky railway station was in the Upper city. Other industries gradually developed, and by the start of the 20th century, the city was also a first-rank industrial hub. Henry Ford helped build a large truck and tractor plant (GAZ) in the late 1920s, sending engineers and mechanics, including future labour leader Walter Reuther.
There were no permanent bridges over the Volga or Oka before the October Revolution in 1917. Temporary bridges were built during the trade fair. The first bridge over the Volga was started by the Moscow–Kazan Railway Company in 1914, but only finished in the Soviet Era when the railway to Kotelnich was opened for service in 1927.
The Marxism activist and Tsarist dissident Maxim Gorky was born in Nizhny Novgorod in 1868 as Alexey Maximovich Peshkov. In his novels he described the dismal life of the city proletariat. When he returned to the Soviet Union in 1932 on the invitation of Joseph Stalin, the city was renamed Gorky. The city bore Gorky's name until 1990. His childhood home is preserved as a museum, known as the Kashirin House, after Alexey's grandfather who owned the place.
During World War II, from 1941 to 1943, Gorky was subjected to air raids and bombardments by Nazi Germany. The Germans tried to destroy the city industry because it was a major supplier of military equipment to the front. Of the attacks made in the rear of the Soviet Union, these became the most powerful in the entire duration of the war.
During much of the Soviet era, the city was closed city to foreigners to safeguard the security of Soviet military research and production facilities, even though it was a popular stopping point for Soviet tourists travelling up and down the Volga in tourist boats. Unusually for a Soviet city of that size, even street maps were not available for sale until the mid-1970s. In 1970, by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the city was awarded the Order of Lenin. Mátyás Rákosi, the former Stalinist General Secretary of Hungary's communist party, died in exile there in 1971. On , in the city the first section of the metro was launched. The physicist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Andrei Sakharov was exiled there during 1980–1986 to limit his contacts with foreigners. An end to the "closed" status of the city accompanied the reinstatement of the city's original name in 1990.Decree of 22 October 1990, Article 1
The Lower City (, Zarechnaya chast, Over river part) occupies the low (western) side of the Oka, and includes five city districts:
Nizhny Novgorod has a population of 1,228,199 within city limits and two million in the urban agglomeration, making it the sixth-largest city in Russia, ranking after Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg and Kazan. Russians make up 94.8% of the city's population. Among the remainder are Tatars, Armenians, Azerbaijanis, Ukrainians, Uzbeks, Jews and others.
The climate in the region is continental, specifically humid continental ( Dfb), and it is similar to the climate in Moscow, although colder in winter, which lasts from late November until late March with a permanent snow cover. Average temperatures range from in July to in January. Average annual temperature is , wind speed 2.8 m/s, air humidity 76%. Being far enough away from the Baltic Sea for maritime effects to lower, Nizhny Novgorod has similar winters to Bothnian Bay climates near the Arctic Circle, but instead has very warm summers for its latitude.
Nizhny receives on average 1,775 hours of sunshine a year. The maximum duration of daylight is in June (17 hours 44 minutes), and the minimum in December (6 hours 52 minutes). Overcast is often reported in winter: 75% to 80% of the time the sky is covered in clouds, while it's only 49 to 56% in April through to August. In autumn and winter, the overcast is usually in the mornings, then the sky clears in the afternoon. In spring and summer, on the contrary, it is clear in the mornings, while towards midday clouds cluster ('cumulus cloud'), and disappear towards the evening.
In spring, temperatures set above zero around 5 April and stay until the end of October. On average precipitation comes at 653 mm per year, mostly in July and least of all in March. Generally, 180 days out of 365 enjoy some form of precipitation. Snow first comes in October but the blanket of snow insulates the ground at November-end and melts mid-April. As a rule, the air temperature in winter ranges from to . A storm rarely takes place in winter here (a few dates to mention are 27 November 1940, 30 November 1951, 14 February 1960, and 3 December 1962). In spring there's less precipitation than in other seasons. Spring flies by as snow melts in the second half of March and is normally gone by the end of April. Summer comes at the beginning of June, when the temperature sets around +15. Maximum heat can be observed towards the third decade of July. Average temperatures range from to . A maximum temperature of was recorded during the 2010 Northern Hemisphere summer heat waves. Summer rain is short but intense, with strong wind. In September, temperature starts to drop and gets below in the mid-20s of the month. It rains often and heavily in autumn, and the sky is overcast.
The mayor is at the head of the city. The city administration and the city duma are subordinate to him. There are no direct elections of the mayor for city residents. The mayor is appointed by the decision of the City Duma. Since 28 October 2020, Yuri Shalabaev has been the mayor of Nizhny Novgorod.
District heads are not elected.
In recent years, the role of the regional government headed by the governor in city affairs has significantly increased.
On 25 October 2010, the position of mayor was abolished and instead two formal positions appeared—the head of the city and the head of the administration. Oleg Sorokin was elected mayor of the city. At an extraordinary meeting of the City Duma on 3 December 2010, Oleg Kondrashov was approved as the head of the administration of Nizhny Novgorod.
On 22 July 2015, by the decision of the City Duma of Nizhny Novgorod, Kondrashov was removed from his post. Since then, he has been wanted by the police. On 19 December 2017, the mayor of the city, Oleg Sorokin, was arrested. On 7 March 2019, the Nizhny Novgorod District Court sentenced him to 10 years in a strict regime colony with a fine of 460.8 million rubles.
On 7 October 2015, Ivan Karnilin became the head of the city. In December 2016, opposition blogger Alexei Navalny published a video of his investigation, featuring Karnilin as the hero. As it turned out, it is possible that his ex-wife bought two apartments in Miami in 2013 and 2014 for a total of almost $2 million. On 23 May 2017, Karnilin wrote a letter of resignation, which was adopted by the City Duma. All this time, an anti-corruption check was going on, which began long before the "investigation" of Alexei Navalny.
After Ivan Karnilin, the last position of the head of the city was held by Elizaveta Solonchenko, who held it from 21 June to 20 December 2017. After that, the post of mayor of the city returned, which was taken by Vladimir Panov. He held this position from 17 January 2018 to 6 May 2020. Panov resigned ahead of schedule in connection with the transfer to a new position of Deputy Chairman of the State Commission for the Development of the Arctic.
Since 6 May 2020, Yury Shalabaev has taken the post of mayor. He introduced the practice of weekly online meetings with city residents in his Telegram channel. This significantly affected the speed of execution of various instructions and control. Shalabaev works closely with Governor Gleb Nikitin. Under his mayorship, a large-scale modernization of public transport continues: the purchase of new transport, the introduction of contactless payment, the construction of new metro stations. The quality of roads has also improved. The system of Nizhny Novgorod central diameters was launched.
The coat of arms and flag of the city depicts a red deer, which is a symbol of nobility, purity and greatness, life, wisdom and justice. The current city coat of arms and flag were adopted on 20 December 2006.
The coat of arms of the city of Nizhny Novgorod is an image of a deer on a French heraldic shield, framed on the sides and bottom with a ribbon of the Order of Lenin. Above the upper part of the coat of arms there is a five-toothed crown, showing that Nizhny Novgorod is an urban district—the capital of the Nizhny Novgorod Oblast.
The unofficial historical symbols of the city are also the Dmitrievskaya Tower of the Kremlin, the Spit and the Chkalov Stairs.
The Soviet city of Gorky became one of the largest industrial centres in Russia, the leading role in which belonged to the enterprises of mechanical engineering, metalworking and information technology. At the same time, the first auto giant, the GAZ, was built.
The very foundation of the city at the confluence of two navigable rivers predetermined both its military-strategic and commercial significance. Local merchants traded not only with Moscow, Kazan, Yaroslavl, Astrakhan, but also with the cities of Europe and Central Asia. In May 1767, during the royal visit of Empress Catherine II, she ordered the creation of a new enterprise, the Nizhny Novgorod Trading Company.
The main factor in the formation of Nizhny Novgorod as the main trading centre of Russian Empire at the beginning of the 19th century was the transfer here in 1817 of the Makariev Fair.
At the expense of the treasury, under the general project and under the leadership of Augustine de Betancourt, the largest guest complex in Europe was created. At the stage before 1822, the Cathedral of the Savior was built according to the project of Auguste de Montferrand, 3 administrative, 4 "Chinese" wooden and 56 brick buildings with thousands of shops, hotels, taverns and a summer theatre. For the first time in Europe, sewerage was provided here. At the second stage, the complex of the Cathedral of the Savior was completed, a mosque and an Armenian-Gregorian church were built. The third stage marked a strict rectangular redevelopment of the fair with the paving of all streets, the creation of a number of new places of worship, including the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, a three-story commercial building, called the Persian Caravanserai, was erected near the mosque. The fourth stage was the last in a series of reconstructions and included: the construction of the stone circus of the Nikitin brothers, the Brazilian passage on theatre Square, the new Main Fair House in the Russian style, which became one of the largest passages of the Russian Empire.
The current Nizhny Novgorod fair is an interactive museum. The inauguration of the governor and various official events are held in the armorial hall. Currently, trade in Nizhny Novgorod is represented mainly by its retail sector. In the 1990s, Belinsky Street was actively built up with shopping centres. In the mid-2000s, three shopping centres were built on the territory of Old Kanavino near the Railway Station, on Revolution Square. In 2008, in the very centre of Nizhny Novgorod, near the historical quarter known as the Black Pond, the Lobachevsky Plaza business centre was built, which was recognized as one of the best architectural projects of 2009.
In January 2019, Nizhny Novgorod was recognized as the best city in Russia in terms of quality of life. It took first place among Russian cities and 109th in the world in terms of quality of life. The rating was compiled by the website numbeo.com, which specializes in statistics on the cost of living and consumer prices in different countries of the world. When compiling the rating, the purchasing power of the population, safety, health care, the cost of living, the ratio of real estate prices and incomes of the population, traffic congestion, the level of environmental pollution, and climate were taken into account.
In 2022, the average nominal salary in Nizhny Novgorod, according to Federal State Statistics Service, was 45,795 rubles.
In Nizhny Novgorod, there are also a number of offshore outsourcing software developers, including Bell Integrator, Itseez, Tecom, Luximax Systems Ltd, MERA, RealEast Networks, Auriga, SoftDrom and Teleca, as well as many other smaller companies specialising in the delivery of services to telecommunication vendors.
There are 25 scientific R&D institutions focusing on telecommunications, radio technology, theoretical and applied physics, and 33 higher educational institutions, among them are Nizhny Novgorod State University, Nizhny Novgorod State Technical University, Privolzhsky Research Medical University, as well as Nizhny Novgorod Institute of Information Technologies, that focuses on information technologies, software development, system administration, telecommunications, cellular networks, Internet technologies, and IT management.
Nizhny Novgorod has also been chosen as one of four sites for building an IT-oriented technology park – a special zone that has an established infrastructure and enjoys a favourable tax and customs policy.
Some of the largest plants include:
The first high-speed rail Sapsan to Moscow (Kursky Rail Terminal) and Saint Petersburg (Moskovsky Rail Terminal) was launched on 30 July 2010. The route has been run using Strizh trains since 2015.
Suburban ( elektrichka) connect Nizhny Novgorod with Vladimir, Dzerzhinsk, Murom, Kirov, Arzamas, Zavolzhye, Balakhna, and others.
Not far from Nizhegorodskaya station there are the Nizhny Novgorod Cathedral Mosque and Pechersky Ascension Monastery.
Around from the Borskaya station is the park of historical reconstruction of Pax Romana, which represents a collective image of a site of the Roman borderland at the turn of the 1st–2nd centuries AD, with a military camp and a small town that developed from the Marktant village at the camp. On 31 July 2014, there was an incident when lightning struck a metal support near the booth during a heavy thunderstorm, and the cable car was stopped with people in the cabins.
It is unknown when the first aerodrome in Nizhny Novgorod was built, but its location was north of where the "Moscow" cinema stands today. This aerodrome was named Nizhny Novgorod Airport. In 2011 HC Airports of Regions won their bid on the investment project into Nizhny Novgorod International Airport. In 2012, renovations were made in order to more efficiently exploit the existing facility while the new one is being built.
A new terminal was opened on 29 December 2015, able to handle around 300 passengers per hour.
There are more than 600 unique historic, architectural and cultural monuments in the city. There are about 200 municipal and regional art and cultural institutions within Nizhny Novgorod. Among these institutions, there are eight theatres, five concert halls, 97 libraries (with branches), 17 cinemas (including five for children), 25 institutions of children's optional education, eight museums (16 including branches), and seven parks.
[[File:Вид на улицу Большую Покровскую вечером.jpg|thumb|Bolshaya Pokrovskaya Street.]]
This is the main street of Nizhny Novgorod, located in the city centre. Most of it is pedestrianised. There are many architectural monuments and various street sculptures.
Nizhny Novgorod has a significant art gallery with more than 12,000 exhibits, an enormous collection of works by Russian artists such as Viktor Vasnetsov, Karl Briullov, Ivan Shishkin, Ivan Kramskoi, Ilya Yefimovich Repin, Isaak Iljitsch Lewitan, Vasily Surikov and Ivan Aivazovsky. There are also greater collections of works by Boris Kustodiev and Nicholas Roerich, as well as art including works by David Teniers the Younger, Bernardo Bellotto, Lucas Cranach the Elder, Pieter de Grebber, Giuseppe Maria Crespi and Giovanni Battista Piranesi.
The gallery also includes a collection of Russian avant-garde works including those by Kazimir Malevich, Wassily Kandinsky, Natalia Goncharova and Mikhail Larionov. There is also a collection of East Asian art.
There can be little doubt that the most original and delightful churches in the city were built by the Stroganovs in the nascent Baroque style. Of these, the Virgin's Nativity Church (1719) graces one of the central streets, whereas the Church of Our Lady of Smolensk (1694–97) survives in the former village of Gordeyevka (now, part of the city's Kanavinsky District), where the Stroganov palace once stood.
Other notable churches include:
The centrally located Nizhny Novgorod Synagogue was built in 1881–1883; disused during the Soviet era, it was renovated and reopened circa 1991.
There are also architectural buildings:
File:Вид на Нижегородский кремль с высоты.jpg|View of Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin
File:Верхне-Волжская набережная 2024.jpg|Verkhnevolzhskaya embankment.
File:Чкаловская лестница. Вид со стороны Нижне-Волжской набережной.jpg|Chkalov Stairs.
File:Вид на набережную Федоровского и Парк 800-летия Нижнего Новгорода вечером. Световая инсталляция включает более 1 000 элементов.jpg|Fedorovsky embankment.
File:Пакгаузы на Стрелке.jpg|Warehouses on the Strelka (Spit) of Nizhny Novgorod.
There are also twenty research institutes located in the city.
| FC Nizhny Novgorod | Football | 2015 | Russian Premier League | 1st | Nizhny Novgorod Stadium |
| Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod | Ice hockey | 1946 | Kontinental Hockey League | 1st | Trade Union Sport Palace |
| Start Nizhny Novgorod | Bandy | 1932 | Bandy Super League | 1st | Start Stadium |
| BC Nizhny Novgorod | Basketball | 2000 | VTB United League | 1st | Trade Union Sport Palace |
| ASC | Volleyball | 2016 | Major League A | 2nd | FOK Zarechye |
| Sparta | Volleyball | 2000 | Women's Volleyball Supreme League A | 2nd | FOK Zarechye |
| Futbol-Hokkey NN | Futsal | 1996 | Futsal Supreme League | 2nd | FOK Krasnaya Gorka |
Nizhny Novgorod television networks:
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