Sormovo — this term has several meanings:
- Sormovo District — Sormovsky District, Sormovo — an industrial district of Nizhny Novgorod in the river-lowland part of the city. One of the oldest districts of the city. It was built as a workers' settlement for compact…
- Sormovskiy Park — the Sormovo Park of Culture and Recreation — a park on the border of Sormovsky and Moskovsky Districts of Nizhny Novgorod. Sormovskiy Park is one of the favorite leisure spots of Nizhny Novgorod residents. Located…
- Krasnoye Sormovo Plant — the largest shipbuilding enterprise in the region and one of the most iconic, tracing its history back to the final period of brisk international trade on the Volga, and having built the most…
- Glubokoye Sormovo — the name "Glubokoye" refers to the ZKPD-4 area, Gaugelya Street, the Sormovo Cemetery, and so on.
- The 1905 Uprising in Sormovo — the 1905 uprising in Sormovo: revolutionary events of 1905 that spilled over into fighting in the centers of Sormovo and Kanavino, the shelling of Moscow Railway Station by government artillery, and "incidentally…
- The Lenin Monument in Sormovo — the Lenin Monument on Kominterna Street was erected for the 10th anniversary of the Great October Revolution on the site of the 1905 barricades. The sculpture was created by V. V. Kozlov. The monument was built with funds…
The origin of the name
Sormovo predates its own name: the first recorded mention appears in a charter of Tsar Ivan the Terrible dated 1542, before which the settlement was called Maryino. It was owned by a beekeeper named Terentiy Shumenev, nicknamed Soroma — and his lawsuit over a починок (small farmstead) is linked to one version of the name's origin.[1]
The second version is Turkic: the root *sor-* or *ser-* denotes a shallow, rocky ford with a firm bottom — which is precisely what the Volga is like near the Sormovo bank.[1]
In 1928, by a decree of the presidium of the provincial Soviet's executive committee, Sormovo was incorporated into Nizhny Novgorod and became an urban district.[1]
The plant that gave its name to everything
On July 21, 1849, a plant was founded on the Volga bank — known today as the Krasnoye Sormovo Plant. It became Russia's largest manufacturer of locomotives, railcars, and vessels, and it was from this plant that the workers' settlement grew.[1][2][3]
The list of Sormovo firsts is long: in 1869, the cargo-passenger steamboat *Perevorot* (Revolution) — the first on the Volga with a two-deck superstructure — was launched from the slipways; in 1898, the first Sormovo-built locomotive was tested; in 1908, the *Preri* was constructed; and here too was assembled the world's first river motor vessel, the *Vandal*.[2]
The military chapter is no shorter: in 1934, the first submarine *Komsomolets* was launched; in 1941, the S-13 — the very boat later commanded by Aleksandr Marinesco; on March 10, 1945, the jubilee ten-thousandth T-34-85 tank was dispatched to the front. In 1958, the winged *Raketa*-1 hydrofoil set out onto the open Volga, and on November 8, 1967, the lead nuclear submarine of Project 670 *Skat* followed.[2]
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| July 21, 1849 | founding of the plant |
| 1869 | the steamship Perevorot — the first on the Volga with a two-story superstructure |
| 1898 | the first Sormovo locomotive was tested |
| 1908 | the Prairie-type 1-3-1 locomotive was built |
| 1913 | the dry-cargo motor vessel Danilikkha |
| 1934 | the first submarine, Komsomolcts |
| 1941 | submarine S-13 |
| March 10, 1945 | the ten-thousandth T-34-85 tank was dispatched to the front |
| 1958 | the hydrofoil vessel Raketa-1 |
| November 8, 1967 | the lead nuclear submarine of Project 670 Skat |
A Layer of Names on the Map
The streets of Sormovo read like a chronicle of a working-class district. About thirty of them bear names from the revolutionary era: Barrikad (formerly Aleksandro-Nevskaya), Vosstaniya (formerly Glukhaya), Svobody (formerly Uzkazavodskaya), Bolshevistskaya. A separate group is named after participants in the Sormovo events: Gaugel, Yefremov, Komandin, Kotov, Mochalov, Pavlov, Chigurin, Rybakov, Shimborsky, and Shishkin.[4]
The second layer is industrial: Mednoliteinaya, Formovochnaya, Klinkernaya, Staraya Kanava. The third is military: Ivanova, Rubinchika, Sutyrina, Parashutistov, Pobednaya, Strelkovaya, Tankistov, and Slavy Square. By 1983, the district counted 228 streets, lanes, and squares.[4]
Sormovskaya Liricheskaya
The district's name spread beyond its boundaries along with a song: "Sormovskaya Liricheskaya" was written in 1949 by Boris Mokrousov to lyrics by Yevgeny Dolmatovsky. In March 2019, the composer's 110th anniversary was celebrated at the Nizhny Novgorod Youth Theatre, where the song was performed alongside "Vologda," "Odinokaya Garmon'," and "Vesna na Zarechnoy Ulitse."[5]
The Nizhny Novgorod land cherishes the memory of this outstanding native son, who celebrated his home city of Nizhny Novgorod before all of Russia with his "Sormovskaya Liricheskaya"[5]
Sources
- sormlib.nnov.ru — Centralized Library System of Sormovsky District — Land of Our Ancestors: the History of Sormovo (archive)
- sormlib.nnov.ru — Centralized Library System of Sormovsky District — Memorable Dates of the Krasnoye Sormovo Plant (archive)
- sormlib.nnov.ru — Centralized Library System of Sormovsky District — The History of the Krasnoye Sormovo Plant (archive)
- sormlib.nnov.ru — Centralized Library System of Sormovsky District — What the Streets Tell Us (archive)
- Nizhegorodskaya Pravda — When the Heart Sings. Boris Mokrousov's Anniversary Celebrated at the Nizhny Novgorod Youth Theatre, March 7, 2019