Sharangsky Municipal District (known as Sharangskiy District from 1929 to 2023) — a municipal formation in the northeastern part of Nizhny Novgorod Region, centered on the urban-type settlement of Sharanga.[1] As of January 1, 2025, the district covers 1,600 square kilometers and comprises 93 rural localities; its population density is 7.0 people per square kilometer, compared to the regional average of 39.7.[2]
Geography and Boundaries
The district lies at the eastern edge of the Region, at the junction with the Republic of Mari El and Kirov Oblast: prior to 1929, the Sharanga lands were part of Vyatka Governorate, and until 1960 they belonged to Kirov Oblast.[1][3]
The administrative center is the urban-type settlement of Sharanga, which received that status in 1972.[1] In addition to it, the district contains 93 rural localities,[2] including Bolshoye Ustinskoye, Rozhentsovo, Chernomuzh, and Pestovo.[1]
In terms of population density, the district is one of the most sparsely populated in the Region: 7.0 people per square kilometer, against a Nizhny Novgorod Region average of 39.7.[2]
First Mention and Settlement
The earliest known mention of Sharanga dates to March 1719: centurion Azamat Tenseev and elected representatives Akigit Poryspayev, Timosh Ildybayev, and Oniska Ibayev "with companions" submitted a "skazka" (declaration) concerning the yasak-paying people of Ustinskaya volost, and among the listed households appears the village of Sharanga — 10 households; the volost as a whole counted 115 households and 326 males.[3][1]
The document is held in the Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts; also kept there is a geometric special plan of the villages of Sharanga and Chernomuzh of the Ustinskaya volost of the Yaransky Uyezd of Vyatka Governorate, on which the lands are recorded as being in the possession of "newly baptized Cheremis." According to this plan, Sharanga, "existing in four places," had 17, 4, 5, and 7 households.[1]
The first settlers of Sharanga are considered to be the Cheremis — the Mari; Russians came to these lands considerably later.[1] In the early 19th century, the majority of the 23 settlements of the Sharanga land and its surroundings were Mari, while Abramovo, Vasenevo, Bakhtinskaya, and Zagulyaevskaya were recorded as Russian; by the mid-century, pochinki (new farmstead settlements) began to appear around the arable fields.[1]
These places are associated with the legend of a "battle trail" along which troops marched on Kazan; according to tradition, the name of the Mari settlement Karem — meaning "ravine" — was changed to Chernomuzh after the tsar's warriors encountered a dark-faced local inhabitant. The village bears this name to this day.[3]
From a Vyatka volost to a Nizhny Novgorod district
By 1876, the selo of Sharanga had 74 households, over four hundred residents, a church, and a water mill. Twenty years later, in 1896, 550 people lived here; there was a stone church, a parish school, and a zemstvo public school, and a water mill, a dyeing works, and two taverns were in operation; residents engaged in agriculture and trades — blacksmithing, carpentry, felt-boot making, leatherworking, coopering — as well as linseed oil pressing and grain milling.[3][1]
Until 1903, Sharanga was part of the Yukshumskaya volost, centered in the selo of Bolshaya Rudka: 163 settlements, 5,101 households, 38,372 residents. In 1903, the administrative division was revised; the center of the Yukshumskaya volost was moved to Kushnur, and Sharanga became the center of its own Sharangskaya volost; by that time, 23 linseed oil processing plants were operating in the volost.[3]
Soviet power in the Sharangskaya volost was established on 27 March 1918. On 16 June 1929, the Sharangsky District was formed, joining the Kotelnichesky Okrug of Nizhny Novgorod Krai: 20 rural soviets, 38,746 residents, and approximately 1,800 square kilometers of territory. From December 1934, the district belonged to Kirov Krai, and from 1936 to Kirov Oblast.[3]
By a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR on 6 January 1960, the Sharangsky District was transferred from Kirov Oblast to Gorky Oblast — the present-day Nizhny Novgorod Region Region.[3] In 2023, the district was reorganized into the Sharangsky Municipal Okrug.[1] By 1 January 2025, no districts remained in the Region at all: it consists of 36 municipal okrugs and 14 urban okrugs.[2]
The head of local self-government of the okrug is Dmitry Ozhiganov, the Council of Deputies is chaired by Ivan Blinov; the administration is located in Sharanga at 2 Svoboda Street.[4]
Economy
The local economy is based on farming and timber processing.[1] The district has long been renowned for growing and processing flax: in 1938 it recorded the highest flax harvest in the country, and flax cultivation continues there to this day.[1]
For its agro-industrial performance, the district has been awarded the Governor of Nizhny Novgorod Region's Honorary Standard in 2010, 2011, 2021, 2022, and 2023. At the Russian Agro-Industrial Exhibition "Golden Autumn" in 2020 it received a silver medal for its results in managing rural development, and in 2022 a bronze medal for implementing integrated rural development projects and a gold medal for attracting off-budget investment.[1]
Livestock farming and horticulture have been transformed within a single generation: in 2018 the Soyuz farm commissioned a beef cattle complex with a capacity of 1,200 head, while Novy Vek planted the largest apple orchard in the district's history — over 26 hectares. In 2024, a robotic farm for 130 head began operating in the village of Pestovo.[1]
Mari Heritage
Mari people have lived on Sharanga's land longer than Russians, and this remains visible to this day.[1] In the village of Chernomuzh, a cultural center with 182 seats was built in 2018, and in 2019 a house-museum called "Mari Izba" opened — the district's center of Mari culture.[1]
The Mari sacred groves — keremetishcha — have been designated natural monuments of regional significance within the district.[1] These are sites of Mari traditional religious rites, protected as natural landmarks.
According to observations made by journalists from the publication Vremya N who visited Sharanga in 2019, there were around two thousand Mari people in the district at that time, while the neighboring village of Chernomuzh was home to about two hundred families.[5]
Nature and Protected Areas
In 1987, the Kilemарsky Integrated Forest Wildlife Refuge was established on the district's territory — a benchmark site of southern taiga and a habitat for plants and animals listed in the Red Book.[1]
In addition to the wildlife refuge, the protected areas include the Mari sacred groves, which have been granted the status of natural monuments of regional significance.[1]
Infrastructure and Social Facilities
Sharanga is known as the "northern pearl": the urban-type settlement of Sharanga has many fountains, flowerbeds, and small architectural features, and since 2006 the district has won prizes in the regional competition "Most Well-Appointed Locality of Nizhny Novgorod Region."[1] In 2011, Sharanga took third place in the All-Russian competition for the title of "Most Well-Appointed Urban (Rural) Settlement of Russia" and confirmed the title in 2012.[1]
In 2012, the settlement opened the Zhemchuzhina ("Pearl") sports and recreation complex and the Lukomorye children's entertainment park, which draws visitors from neighboring districts and the Republic of Mari El. In 2013, the Zvezda Geroya ("Hero's Star") memorial complex was opened in the Molodezhny microdistrict, dedicated to local residents who were Heroes of the Soviet Union.[1]
Zarechny Park, established in 1967 in the southern part of the settlement, was renovated in 2018 under a regional Comfortable Urban Environment (federal program) program: the central promenade was widened and resurfaced, new facilities were built, a ski trail of more than one kilometer was lit, and later a modern outdoor stage was installed and a beach area was improved.[1]
Since 2013, the district has participated in the local initiatives support program "Your Decision! (Nizhny Novgorod regional initiative budgeting programme))))!" — over twelve years, 94 facilities have been improved.[1] In 2021, a two-year water supply construction project in the selo of Bolshoye Ustinskoye was completed; in 2022, a 160-place kindergarten opened in Sharanga; in 2023, a modular feldsher-midwife station was built in Rozhentsovo and the arts school building underwent major renovation.[1]
In 2024, the Tayny Yurongi ("Mysteries of Yurongi") resort complex opened in the selo of Bolshoye Ustinskoye. In 2025, the Udarnitsa recreation area and a section of Svoboda Street in Sharanga were improved, along with a recreation area on Pobedy Street; renovation of the settlement's water supply network, stretching more than 24 kilometers, also began at that time.[1]
Culture, Churches, and Press
Sharanga has a local history museum and the Mariyskaya Izba ("Mari House") house-museum, as well as its own radio and television.[1] Five Orthodox churches operate in the district; around the turn of the twenty-first century, the Church of the Holy Trinity was built in the settlement.[1]
The district newspaper Znamya Pobedy ("Banner of Victory") has been published since 1931 — it was previously known as Kolkhozny Put ("Collective Farm Path"), Kolkhozny Natisk ("Collective Farm Onslaught"), and Stalinskiy Klich ("Stalin's Call"). Today it is a weekly of twelve A3-format pages with a circulation of around two thousand copies; the newspaper also has an online edition.[6]
Sources
- sharanga.nobl.ru
- 52.rosstat.gov.ru
- sharanga.nobl.ru
- nobl.ru — Sharangsky Municipal District
- Vremya N — How the "northern pearl of the Nizhny Novgorod Region," Sharanga, lives
- gazeta-znamya-pobedy.ru