Welcome to Nizhny Novgorod!
Nizhny Novgorod (Russian: Ни́жний Но́вгород), colloquially shortened to Nizhny, is Russia's fifth largest city, ranking after Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk and Yekaterinburg. It had a population 2018 of 1.26 million. It is the economic and cultural center of the vast Volga economic region, and also the administrative center of Nizhny Novgorod Oblast and Volga Federal District.
From 1932 to 1990 the city was known as Gorky (Го́рький), after the writer Maxim Gorky. Following the fall of the Soviet Union, the old name was restored.
Do not confuse Nizhny Novgorod with Novgorod (or, fully, Veliky Novgorod), which is a different city. In particular, do not shorten the name Nizhny Novgorod to Novgorod.
Nizhny Novgorod (Russian: Нижний Новгород,), colloquially shortened to Nizhny, known as Gorky (Горький) between 1932 and 1990, is the administrative center of Nizhny Novgorod Oblast and the Volga Federal District. 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, up to roughly 1.7 million residents in the urban agglomeration. Nizhny Novgorod is the sixth-largest city in Russia, the second-most populous city on the Volga, as well as the Volga Federal District. It is an important economic, transportation, scientific, educational, and cultural center in Russia and the vast Volga-Vyatka economic region, and is the main center of river tourism in Russia. In the historic part of the city, there are many universities, theaters, museums, and churches.
The city was founded on 4 February 1221 by Prince Yuri II of Vladimir. In 1612, Kuzma Minin and Prince Dmitry Pozharsky organized an army for the liberation of Moscow from the Poles. In 1817, Nizhny Novgorod became a great trade center of the Russian Empire. In 1896, at a fair, an All-Russia Exhibition was organized. During the Soviet period, the city turned into an important industrial center. In particular, the Gorky Automobile Plant was constructed in this period. Then the city was given the nickname "Russian Detroit". During World War II, Gorky became the biggest provider of military equipment to the Eastern Front. Due to this, the Luftwaffe constantly bombed the city from the air. The majority of the German bombs fell in the area of the Gorky Automobile Plant. Although almost all the plant production sites were completely destroyed, the citizens of Gorky reconstructed the factory after 100 days. After the war, Gorky became a closed city and remained one until after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. At that time, 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 main center 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 male or "нижегородка" (nizhegorodka) for female, rendered in English as Nizhegorodian. Novgorodian is inappropriate, it refers to a resident of Veliky Novgorod, in northwestern Russia. Nizhny Novgorod was one of the host cities of the 2018 FIFA World Cup.