Nizhny Novgorod summary

Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Below is the article summary. For the full article, see Nizhny Novgorod.

Nizhny Novgorod , formerly (1932–90) Gorky, City (pop., 2002: 1,311,200), western Russia. It is located on the southern bank of the Volga River at its confluence with the Oka River. Founded in 1221, it was annexed to Moscow in 1392. It was strategically important in the Russian conquest of the Volga through the mid-16th century. In 1932 it was renamed for Maxim Gorky, who was born there. Under the Soviet regime it was a place of internal exile for Andrey Sakharov. The city has several 16th- and 17th-century buildings and is one of Russia’s major industrial centres.

The Dnieper, Don, and Volga river basins and their drainage network.

Volga River Summary

Volga River, river of Europe, the continent’s longest, and the principal waterway of western Russia and the historic cradle of the Russian state. Its basin, sprawling across about two-fifths of the European part of Russia, contains almost half of the entire population of the Russian Republic. The

Russia Summary

Russia, country that stretches over a vast expanse of eastern Europe and northern Asia. Once the preeminent republic of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.; commonly known as the Soviet Union), Russia became an independent country after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December