Podolsk, city, Moscow oblast (region), western Russia. It lies south of Moscow on the Pakhra River, a tributary of the Moskva. The village of Podol, created a town in 1781, owed its development to its position on a main highway and, after the 1860s, on a railway running south from Moscow. The city now has engineering, nonferrous-metallurgical, cement, and food-processing industries. Pop. (2006 est.) 179,525.