Nizhny Novgorod
Nizhny Novgorod (
Russian Нижний Новгород) (sometimes written in
English Nizhniy-Novgorod or
Nizhni Novgorod), is the third largest city in
Russia, with a population of 1.5 million. It lies in the
Privolzhsky District, at the confluence of the
Oka and the
Volga rivers, and is the economic and cultural center of the vast Volgo-Vyatski region. Nizhny Novgorod was known from
1932 to
1990 as
Gorki (Gorky), after the
Russian writer
Maxim Gorki, who was born here in
1868. During
Soviet rule, Nizhny Novgorod was closed to foreigners.
According to an old saying, Saint Petersburg was the head of Russia, Moscow was the heart and Nizhny Novgorod was its pocket. Some say that Nizhny Novgorod is more Russian than both Saint Petersburg and Moscow are, because of the foreign influence to them. Many famous Russians came from the city. The physicist and the Nobel laureate in Peace for 1975 Andrei Sakharov was exiled there until 1986.
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