City of Gorky — the official name of Nizhny Novgorod from October 7, 1932 to October 22, 1990.[1][2] The name of the writer Maxim Gorky, a native of the city, was conferred to mark the fortieth anniversary of his literary career.[1] Under this name, the city became one of the country's chief centers of defense industry; from 1959 to 1991 it was closed to foreign visitors,[3] and from 1980 to 1986 it served as the place of exile for Academician Academician Sakharov.[4] The historic name was restored by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR: the city had borne the name "Gorky" for 58 years and 20 days.[2]

The 1932 Renaming

The resolution on the renaming was adopted by the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR on October 7, 1932, timed to coincide with the fortieth anniversary of Maxim Gorky's literary career.[1] The campaign for the new name was conducted through the press: the newspaper Nizhegorodskaya Kommuna reported that the proposal had been put forward by a Sormovo worker named Ovsyannikov, and was supported by a docker named Karnadsky on behalf of the workers of the Nizhny Novgorod port, and by an autoworker named Barusdin.[1]

In the wake of the city's renaming, the region and its enterprises followed suit. The Nizhny Novgorod Automobile Plant, which had entered service on January 1, 1932 and had rolled out its first one-and-a-half-ton truck under the NAZ-AA marque on January 29, became the Gorky Automobile Plant, and its truck became the GAZ-AA.[5]

The concept of a monument to the writer appeared in 1936; an all-union competition was held in 1939, but construction was interrupted by the war. The seven-meter bronze figure, the work of Vera Mukhina, was unveiled on the former May Day Square only in 1952; the square was subsequently renamed Gorky Square.[6]

Center of the Defense Industry

Throughout the 1930s the region resembled one vast construction site: over the course of that decade the automobile, aviation, and machine-building plants came on line, along with a milling-machine factory, a glassworks at Bor, a pulp-and-paper mill at Balakhna, and chemical enterprises at Dzerzhinsk, while the older Nizhny Novgorod plants — Krasnoye Sormovo Plant, Red Etna, and Dvigatel Revolyutsii — underwent reconstruction.[7]

On the eve of the war, 44 of the region's 194 enterprises were working for the defense sector.[7] It was precisely this concentration of military production that determined both the city's role in the war and its closed status for the three decades that followed.

The Great Patriotic War

Over the course of the war, the military enlistment offices of Gorky Region mobilized 822,000 people for the front; more than 100,000 joined the people's militia; and 79 formations and units of the Red Army were raised on the region's territory.[7]

On October 23, 1941, the Gorky City Defense Committee was established in the city, headed by the first secretary of the regional party committee, Mikhail Rodionov. Its primary concern was the defensive line: by January 1942, a force of 350,000 people had built 1,134 kilometers of fortifications, 2,332 firing positions, and 4,788 dugouts.[7]

The city endured its first German air raid on the night of November 4–5, 1941 (Flight on November 4): of around 150 bombers, eleven broke through to the city, but the Lenin Plant, Dvigatel Revolyutsii, and the automobile plant all sustained damage.[7] The heaviest bombing came in June 1943: between June 5 and 22, the city withstood 25 raids involving 655 aircraft, which dropped 1,631 high-explosive and 33,934 incendiary bombs on the city. The Avtozavod district suffered the most — 50 buildings were destroyed or damaged; 35,000 Gorky residents turned out to rebuild the workshops, and they completed the task in a hundred days.[7]

Over the four years of the war, Gorky's factories supplied the front with 38,318 tanks and self-propelled guns (37 percent of total Allied production), 101,673 artillery pieces (23.9 percent), 16,324 combat aircraft, and 22 submarines (43.1 percent).[7] The region operated 171 evacuation hospitals with 71,640 beds, through which 422,949 wounded passed.[7]

More than 300 Gorky residents became Heroes of the Soviet Union; more than 300,000 were awarded combat orders and medals.[7]

Strategic Sites of the City in 1941

The list of targets against which German aviation operated in the summer of 1941 is drawn from the article based on the book Swastika over the Volga: The Luftwaffe Against Stalin's Air Defenses.

Closed City

On August 4, 1959, the Council of Ministers of the USSR issued a resolution closing the City of Gorky to foreign visitors.[3] The reason was the defense plants and design bureaus: according to data from that period, in 1956 the city was visited by 78 foreign guests, among whom 22 were identified as intelligence agents, and in 1957 by 245 foreigners, 26 of whom were identified as agents; those visiting showed particular interest in city maps, the locations of military units, and the approaches to Krasnoye Sormovo and the aircraft plant.[3]

The city remained closed for 32 years. The restriction was lifted on September 6, 1991, by which time the city had already had its historic name restored.[3]

The Postwar City

The city grew up around its factories: over the Soviet decades its population increased more than tenfold compared to pre-revolutionary Nizhny Novgorod, and according to the 1989 census, 1,438,133 people lived in Gorky.[8]

On November 20, 1985, at 5:30 in the morning, the first train of the Gorky Metro left the depot; the construction had taken eight years.[9]

Everyday life in the city during those decades — the riverboats of the Volga lines, the first hydrofoil catamarans, the queues and counters of state shops — is captured in photographs that have survived from that era.

Andrei Sakharov's Gorky Exile

On January 22, 1980, Academician Andrei Sakharov was detained on his way to work and exiled without trial to Gorky — a city closed to foreigners — following his public statements against the introduction of Soviet troops into Afghanistan.[4] Sakharov and his wife Yelena Bonner were housed in apartment 3 at 214 Gagarin Avenue, in the Scherbinki microdistrict.[4]

During his exile Sakharov remained a research fellow at the Lebedev Physical Institute, writing and publishing academic papers, but all his contacts were kept under surveillance.[10] He staged three hunger strikes — one of seventeen days, one of twenty-six days in May 1984, and one lasting from April to October 1985 — in an effort to secure permission for Yelena Bonner to travel abroad for surgery.[10]

On December 16, 1986, Mikhail Gorbachev permitted Sakharov to return to Moscow; the exile had lasted nearly seven years.[4] In 1991, a memorial Sakharov Museum opened in that same apartment.[10]

Restoration of the Name

The question of restoring the city's historic name was put to a public vote in March 1990, in conjunction with elections to the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR: the majority voted in favor.[1] The formal process was set in motion by the chairman of the city council, Omari Sharadze.[1]

On October 22, 1990, by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR, the city was restored its name of Nizhny Novgorod.[2] Its status as a closed city was lifted almost a year later, on September 6, 1991.[3]

The City's Name After 1990

The name itself survived the renaming in dozens of proper nouns. The GAZ marque was retained by the automobile plant; the Gorky Railway remains a branch of Russian Railways — as of August 2026, it is still referred to as the Gorky Main Line.[11]

The name also returned to the city's urban geography: on November 4, 2012, the Gorkovskaya metro station opened in the Upper Town, named after Gorky Square, to which it provides access.[12]

A Photographic Chronicle of the Decades

Photographs of the city taken during the years when it was called Gorky.

Gorky Region in the 1930s: An Essay Based on Archival Documents

The following essay was prepared from documents held in the State Socio-Political Archive of Nizhny Novgorod Region by staff members of the documents publication and use department, M. A. Marchenko and T. G. Dobrovolskaya. It is printed as originally written.[7]

In the 1930s, Gorky Region gave the impression of one enormous, unbroken construction site. No other city in the Soviet Union at that time could compare with ours in the number of objects under construction or in the scale of building work. During this period, the Gorky automobile, aviation, and machine-building plants came into operation, as did a milling-machine factory. In Dzerzhinsk, major chemical industry enterprises were built; in Bor, a glassworks; in Balakhna, a pulp-and-paper mill; and others besides.

At the same time, the older Nizhny Novgorod factories underwent reconstruction and technical re-equipment: Krasnoye Sormovo, Krasnaya Etna, Dvigatel Revolyutsii, and the metallurgical plants of the cities of Gorky, Vyksa, and Kulebaki.

Light and food industries developed as well: pasta and confectionery factories were built, bread and dairy plants and mills were mechanized. The leading branches of industry were machine-building and machine-tool manufacturing, metalworking, and chemicals.

Industrial enterprises in the city and region strove to fulfill their production output plans. To this end, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR issued its decrees of June 26, 1940 "On the Transition to an Eight-Hour Working Day and a Seven-Day Working Week and on the Prohibition of the Unauthorized Departure of Workers and Employees from Enterprises and Institutions," and of July 10, 1940 "On Liability for the Production of Substandard Goods."

On the eve of the Great Patriotic War, many enterprises, alongside civilian goods, had begun producing military equipment, machinery, and supplies. Of the 194 enterprises operating in Gorky Region at the start of 1941, 44 were working for the defense sector.

In order to strengthen the country's defense capability and provide industry with qualified personnel, the bureau of the Gorky Regional Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) adopted a resolution on August 20, 1940, on the organization of 48 new factory training schools (FZU) and the expansion of student enrollment at 49 existing schools, with a total of 29,450 students.

Rural workers were tackling the challenge of transforming the region from a predominantly food-importing area into one capable of producing agricultural goods and feeding itself. However, 1938 and 1939 proved unfavorable years for agriculture: many districts suffered from drought, winter crops and perennial grasses perished, and as a result yields were low — an average of 7.5 centners of grain per hectare. In 1940, an average yield of 10.5 centners per hectare was achieved. In 1938–1939, sown areas shrank, including those under grain crops and potatoes. Livestock farming presented many problems, having been especially hard hit by the slaughter of animals during the period of forced collectivization. In 1939, the region's livestock sector was back to its 1932 level.

In 1940, the government allocated 2 million rubles for the creation of a vegetable-growing operation to supply the population of the city of Gorky, and vegetable and potato plantings in the collective farms of the suburban zone were expanded.

Before the war, 94 machine-tractor stations had been organized in the region. Despite enormous difficulties, the region's rural workers broadly succeeded in supplying the growing urban population with food and industry with raw materials, and participated in building up the reserves and mobilization stockpiles of foodstuffs needed in the event of war. The best farms took part in agricultural achievement exhibitions of the national economy in Moscow.

The people of Gorky went about their peaceful work while following with growing anxiety the newspaper reports of a Second World War that burned ever more fiercely and drew ever closer to the borders of the USSR. Yet they still hoped that if war came, it would not come soon.

The People of Gorky and the Great Patriotic War: An Essay Based on Archival Documents

Staff members of the documents publication and use department of GU OPANO: M. A. Marchenko, T. G. Dobrovolskaya

The Start of the War

In total, over the course of the Great Patriotic War, the military enlistment offices of Gorky Region mobilized 822,000 Gorky residents for the front.

A few hours after the start of the war on June 22, 1941, a radio address was broadcast to the Soviet people calling on them to rise in defense of the Fatherland; that same day an emergency edition of the newspaper Gorkovskaya Kommuna was published.

A rally attended by thousands was held at Sovetskaya Square (now Minin and Pozharsky Square), where I. M. Guryev, secretary of the Gorky Regional Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks), addressed the assembled crowd. Mass rallies and meetings swept across the entire region.

In the resolutions adopted at the rallies, the people of Gorky expressed their readiness to "take up arms in the fight against the enemy" and to "give all their strength, and if need be their lives, for the complete victory over the fascist aggressors." On the second day of the war, all newspapers published the decrees of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on martial law and on the declaration of mobilization across a number of military districts.

From June 23 onward, mobilization of military-age men born in 1905–1918 began in Gorky Region. Conscripts born in 1919–1921 were already serving in the Red Army and were the first to face the enemy.

On the very first day of the war, without waiting to be called up, 5,486 applications were submitted to the military enlistment offices of the city of Gorky, and up to 10,000 across the region. Local authorities at all levels adopted resolutions on the conduct of mobilization. Ten assembly points for military-age men were organized in the city, located in schools, the Palace of Culture of Plant No. 92, the Krinov Club, and the Vodnik and Torpedo stadiums. Between 800 and 1,000 people passed through these points each day.

During the Great Patriotic War, 79 formations and units of the Red Army were raised in the territory of Gorky Region, including: the 89th (160th) Guards Belgorod-Kharkov Division, the 322nd Zhitomir, 42nd Priluky, and 85th Guards Riga Rifle Divisions, the 8th Guards Tank Corps, the 27th Guards Tank Brigade named after the NKSM, the 31st Special Gorky-Warsaw Armored Train Division, and others. All military units and formations followed a difficult combat path, received decorations and commendations from the Supreme High Command; a number of divisions and brigades were awarded Guards status.

In July 1941, the formation of a people's militia began in Gorky Region. The militia drafted men and women subject to military service and those not subject — workers and engineers, doctors and teachers, students and pensioners — all who were capable of bearing arms. Although only men were formally called up, women also submitted applications. By July 25, 61,112 people had enrolled in the people's militia in the city of Gorky; 44,392 were accepted, of whom 16,506 were women. In total, more than 100,000 people joined the people's militia across the region. Medical personnel were trained within the militia units, and combat drills were conducted according to a unified plan. The militia prepared a reserve for the Red Army. From June 25, 1941, destruction battalions began to be formed in Gorky Region with the mission of guarding industrial facilities, railway installations, and power stations, and combating enemy airborne landings and reconnaissance groups.

In the autumn of 1941, the destruction battalions were reorganized into 74 destroyer battalions and several ski units. Overall command of the destroyer battalions was exercised by the regional headquarters of the NKVD Directorate for Gorky Region. The destroyer battalions fought against parachute landings, saboteurs, and spies, and assisted the militia (police) in maintaining public order.

From the personnel of the destroyer battalions, 2 battalions and a destruction-partisan group were formed, successfully carrying out special assignments for the commands of the Western and Northwestern Fronts. Gorky detachments operated behind enemy lines in Moscow, Leningrad, Smolensk, Pskov, and other regions.

Gorky on the Front Line

Gorky, as a major industrial center of the country, had come to the attention of the aggressor even during the planning of the campaign to destroy the USSR, known as Operation Barbarossa.

Under that plan, the Germans expected to capture Moscow in early September 1941 and to enter the city of Gorky in early October.

In the autumn of 1941, the German-fascist forces of Army Group Center were closing in on Moscow, and Red Army troops were fighting the most brutal battles.

On October 22, 1941, the State Defense Committee resolved to establish defense committees in 46 cities, including the city of Gorky. On October 23, the Gorky City Defense Committee was established in the city of Gorky. It was headed by Mikhail Ivanovich Rodionov, First Secretary of the Gorky Regional Committee and City Committee of the VKP(b). The GGKO was the local emergency governing body under wartime conditions. It united civilian and military authority in the city and the region. Compliance with GGKO decisions was unconditional.

A particular concern of the GGKO was the construction of defensive lines, which began in October 1941. By November 10, it was decided to construct the Gorky defensive perimeter, and by November 15 — defensive lines along the left bank of the Volga and along the Oka River, with a perimeter for the defense of the city of Murom.

The civilian population was mobilized for construction work under a labor-duty obligation; students of higher educational institutions, senior students of technical schools, and pupils of grades 9–10 were also permitted to be drafted. A total of 350,000 people took part in building the defensive fortifications. They dug trenches and anti-tank ditches, built pillboxes, felled trees across forest roads, and erected tank obstacles. By January 1942 the construction of the defensive line was complete. It stretched 1,134 km — roughly equivalent to 75% of the length of the Fergana Canal.

Under the conditions of autumn and the severe winter of 1941–1942, approximately 12 million cubic meters of earthworks were carried out, 2,332 firing positions and 4,788 dugouts were built.

For exemplary fulfillment of State Defense Committee assignments in constructing the defensive line and perimeters around the cities of Gorky and Murom, 80 participants in the construction were awarded orders and medals. Ten thousand 186 builders of the defensive line were recognized with Certificates of Honor from the City Defense Committee, and 873 people received bonuses.

Repair and construction work on the defensive lines in the region was then carried out throughout all of 1942, and was halted only after the victory of our army at Kursk in 1943.

With the outbreak of war, air defense of the city of Gorky became a matter of the first importance. The first raid on the city was carried out by enemy aircraft on the night of November 4–5, 1941. It involved groups of Heinkel-111 and Junkers-88 bombers — up to 150 aircraft in all. Only 11 reached the city. Yet even they caused significant damage to the Lenin Plant, the Engine of Revolution Plant, and the automobile plant. The raid was repeated on the night of November 5–6 (of 150 aircraft, 14 broke through). They inflicted casualties on the population and damaged several shops of the Automobile Plant. During the bombings on those days, 127 people were killed, 176 seriously wounded, and 195 lightly wounded. Following these raids, the Gorky Brigade Air Defense District, which had been guarding the city, was incorporated into the active Red Army.

Enemy aircraft raids on the city of Gorky also occurred in 1942. In 1943, as the Germans prepared for the battle at Kursk, they carried out a large-scale bombing operation. Enemy aviation made an attempt to destroy the industrial center that was supplying the front with weapons. Between June 5 and June 22, 1943, the city was subjected to 25 air raids. A total of 655 enemy aircraft participated; 100 of them broke through to the Automobile Plant. The city was struck by 1,631 high-explosive bombs and 33,934 incendiary bombs.

Particularly severe damage was inflicted on the Automobile Plant. Fifty buildings and structures were destroyed or damaged.

Thirty-five thousand Gorky residents came to restore the Automobile Plant's buildings, which lay in ruins, and managed to do so in just 100 days.

All districts of the city of Gorky and the region rendered assistance in repairing the damage to the Automobile Plant and its residential settlements.

Contributions for the War Effort

From the very first days of the war, on workers' initiative, various forms of the patriotic movement "In Aid of the Front" began springing up everywhere. Workers in the city and countryside donated a portion of their wages to the Defense Fund of the country, made voluntary contributions, and paid off war bonds early; arts workers staged performances and concerts. Surplus hectares were sown for the Defense Fund, along with various valuables, warm clothing, and food. According to a report by N. Gulyaev, manager of the Gorky Regional Branch of the USSR State Bank, from the start of the war through October 1, 1943, the Defense Fund received from the population of the city of Gorky and the region 328 million 896 thousand rubles, of which 310 million 22 thousand rubles were designated for the construction of tanks and aircraft.

The workers of the region built tanks, aircraft, and armored trains with their own hands and at their own expense, and presented them to the defenders of the Motherland. As early as the autumn of 1941, the young pioneers of School No. 102 in the Kirovsky District of Gorky appealed to all Gorky pioneers and schoolchildren to raise funds for the construction of a tank called "Gorky Pioneer." On January 18, 1942, the completed tank was dispatched to the front.

Over the years of the war, the funds raised by pioneers and schoolchildren of the region paid for the construction of 7 tanks and an aircraft called "Gorky Pioneer."

The hearts of Gorky residents were greatly moved by the appeal in May 1942 from Komsomol members at the S. Ordzhonikidze Aviation Plant to raise funds for the construction of an air squadron named after Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya. For this purpose they collected scrap metal, organized concerts, and worked overtime. On June 15, 1942, the Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya aircraft squadron flew to the front.

Young automobile workers took the initiative in raising funds for the "Gorky Komsomol" tank column.

On the initiative of Gorky and Murom railway workers and with their own funds, the armored trains Kuzma Minin and Ilya Muromets were built in early 1942; they became part of the 31st Special Gorky-Warsaw Armored Train Division.

In December 1942, a call rang out across the entire region from collective farmers of the Chkalovsky District to raise funds for the construction of the Valery Chkalov aircraft squadron. The fundraising drive became a truly mass movement. A report on incoming funds submitted to the Gorky Regional Committee of the VKP(b) addressed to M. I. Rodionov shows that by January 28, 1943, the workers of the region had contributed 110 million 194 thousand rubles for the construction of the V. P. Chkalov air squadrons and 200 thousand rubles for the construction of the Alexander Nevsky squadron. In total, over the years of the war, Gorky residents contributed more than 114 million rubles for the construction of the V. P. Chkalov air squadrons. With funds raised by the workers of Gorky Region, 48 tanks and 6 aircraft had been built by June 1, 1943.

The patriotic movement of Gorky residents was approved by the country's leadership. Government telegrams contained words of gratitude. One of them, bearing the signature of I. V. Stalin, was sent on April 9, 1943, to the workers of the Sverdlovsky District of Gorky and expressed thanks for raising funds for the tank column.

In the autumn of 1941, the workers of the region began collecting warm clothing for the soldiers of the Red Army. On September 6, 1941, a regional commission was established for the collection of warm clothing and linen for the Red Army; it operated until the end of the war. From the start of the war through September 1943, the population of the region contributed 27,000 fur coats, 11,000 vests, 29,000 padded jackets, 77,000 pairs of felt boots, and 86,000 fur-flap caps.

During the war years it became a cherished tradition to send gifts to soldiers on notable dates — New Year, Red Army Day, May 1st, the anniversary of the Great October Revolution. Hundreds of thousands of kilograms of various foodstuffs were delivered to active units and formations: sausage, meat, sugar, honey, cheese, biscuits, confectionery, millions of tins of canned goods, as well as vast quantities of soap, tobacco, cigarettes, and various everyday essentials. Pupils from schools and vocational institutes took an active part in preparing gifts for soldiers. Parcels to the front were accompanied by heartfelt letters addressed to the fighting men, and even poems. And from the front, letters arrived at the Gorky Regional Committee of the VKP(b) from Red Army commanders and soldiers with words of thanks for the gifts they had received.

In total, during the war years Gorky residents sent more than 800,000 various gifts to the front, bearing witness to the unbreakable bond between the front and the home front.

Agriculture in the Region During the War Years

Over the years of the Great Patriotic War, Gorky collective farmers delivered to the state approximately 70 million poods of grain, tens of thousands of tons of potatoes and vegetables, and thousands of tons of meat, butter, milk, and other produce.

At the start of the war, conditions in the collective-farm countryside became extremely difficult. The majority of men had gone to the front. In the first year of the war alone, 300,000 people were called up into the Red Army from the collective farms of the region. Draft animals were drastically reduced in number. Nevertheless, despite the hardships caused by the war, women, elderly people, schoolchildren, and students fought hard, exerting themselves to the utmost in bringing in the harvest during the grim autumn of 1941. From dawn to dusk a true battle for bread was waged. The collective farms of the region gathered a record harvest — 12 centners per hectare. It was the highest yield in the preceding three years.

The spring sowing and harvest of 1942 took place under exceptionally difficult conditions. Shortfalls in skilled mechanizers had to be made good, additional draft-animal resources had to be found, spare parts had to be procured, and the question of seed supply had to be resolved, and so on. On the eve of the spring sowing, the wives and sisters of frontline soldiers in the "12 Years of October" collective farm of Gorodetsky District pledged to put in no fewer than 350 workdays in 1942, and successfully fulfilled their pledge. The spring sowing was completed 18 days earlier, and the harvest 30 days earlier, than in 1941. The sown areas of the region's collective farms increased by more than 150,000 hectares.

Gorky Region was the first in the country to fulfill its grain-procurement plan. The state plan for livestock development was also successfully fulfilled. For achievements in the All-Union Socialist Competition of agricultural workers in 1942, Gorky Region was awarded the State Defense Committee's rotating Red Banner and second prize for high crop yields. In 1943, the spring sowing was completed 16 days earlier than in 1942. And on October 26, 1943 — 56 days ahead of the 1942 schedule — Gorky Region settled its grain-procurement accounts with the state in full.

The socialist competition among rural youth gained wide momentum. As early as 1941, Komsomol members of the Buturlinskiy District initiated the preparation of dried foodstuffs for the Red Army. This labor initiative was taken up by many of the region's collective farms.

In the autumn of 1942, on the initiative of Komsomol members from Bogorodsky and Vetluzhsky Districts, a "Red Convoy Week" was held in Gorky Region. Komsomol members pledged to complete the delivery of grain to the state within a week. They worked through the night on mowing, stacking, and threshing, and kept their word. For active participation in agricultural work, the regional Komsomol organization received the rotating Red Banner of the Central Committee of the Komsomol.

The progress of sowing and harvest campaigns was reported in special editions of the newspaper Gorkovskaya Kommuna.

City residents came to the aid of agricultural workers. In 1943 and 1944, more than 240,000 urban residents traveled to the collective farms of the region.

Industrial enterprises served as patrons of collective farms and machine-tractor stations, helping with the repair of equipment, the manufacture of spare parts, and the conduct of agricultural work. Research staff at the Gorky Agricultural Institute developed a method of rapid drying of vegetables (potatoes and onions), which was successfully applied on the region's collective farms, and introduced new crops into production (kok-saghyz, sugar beet, sunflower, and medicinal herbs).

Students and faculty of higher educational institutions assisted rural residents with the spring sowing and harvest. For example, Fokeeva, a third-year student of the agronomy faculty at the Gorky Agricultural Institute, harvested 230 hectares of grain crops during the harvest season. Her daily output was 14 hectares, compared with the standard norm of 8.

Schoolchildren and vocational students rendered great assistance to agricultural workers in weeding, haymaking, and harvesting. The organized collection of grain ears by schoolchildren in the autumn of 1942 yielded hundreds of additional centners of grain for the country. Eighty-seven thousand pioneers and schoolchildren took on the patronage of poultry farming. At the 1944 regional pioneer rally, 500 Bogorodsky pioneers and schoolchildren reported on their work: they had raised 400 chicks, prepared 5,000 kilograms of feed, and brought 250 hens from their homes to the collective farm's poultry unit.

Daily Life in the City and Region During the War

Life in the cities, as in the countryside, was unimaginably hard and harsh during the war years. In the first days of the war, bread shortages began; people had to stand in enormous queues to buy it. Prices for food products on the markets rose sharply. With a skilled defense-industry worker earning 400–900 rubles a month, meat at the market cost 60 to 100 rubles per kilogram, milk 10–15 rubles per liter, butter 100–130 rubles per kilogram, and so on.

Additional difficulties in supplying the population with food were also caused by the substantial influx of evacuees into Gorky Region. According to a report by the head of the resettlement department, by August 20, 1941, 124,467 people had arrived in the region from the front-line zone, and from Moscow and Leningrad.

From September 1, 1941, ration cards for bread, sugar, and confectionery were introduced in Gorky city and in the towns and urban-type settlements of Gorky Region, with strict allocation norms set according to category. First-category workers and engineering-technical staff were entitled to 800 grams of bread per day; office workers to 500 grams; second-category workers to 600 grams and office workers to 400 grams; dependents and children under 12 received 400 grams. Cards were later introduced for virtually all food products: groats, meat, and fats, as well as for kerosene and even firewood. Difficulties arose not only with supplying the population with food but also with accommodating the evacuees. By February 1942 their number had grown to 175,075.

It was impossible to house that many newcomers in the city, so the majority — especially women and children — were sent to the rural districts of the region. In the cities of the region every square meter of residential space was accounted for; Palaces of Culture and clubs were converted into housing, and by means of doubling up, hundreds of families were billeted.

The evacuation of the population was often carried out in great haste; as a result, many evacuees left without having had time to take warm clothing, footwear, and sometimes without even a change of underwear. Local executive committees were obliged to provide those in acute need with one-time cash assistance, to resolve questions of employment, fuel supply, and the placement of children in childcare institutions.

With the onset of winter, a no less merciless enemy — cold — closed in on the city. With the temporary loss of the occupied coal-basin territories of the Donbas and the Moscow Region, an acute shortage of fuel began to be felt.

To connect the city with the forest tracts, a decision was made in July 1943 to build a narrow-gauge railway from Gorky to Kerzhenets. Many enterprises of the city and region took part in its construction. The Gorky Machine-Building Plant supplied the metal; the Kulebaksky Metallurgical Plant rolled it and manufactured the rails; Krasnaya Etna provided the fastening materials; Krasnoye Sormovo overhauled old locomotives. Railway workers repaired the wagons and helped lay the track.

People of all ages and occupations labored on the construction of the railway bed. The line from the city to Kerzhenets station covered 52 kilometers. The entire route was divided into 11 sections (corresponding to the number of city districts), with each district responsible for the construction work on its own stretch. Three months later the track-laying was finished, making it possible to deliver the necessary fuel to the city. At the same time, another narrow-gauge line was built, connecting the Sormovsky District with the Kablukovskoye peat bog. Such were the war years — enemy air raids and the soul-chilling whistle of falling bombs. German aircraft bombed not only factory buildings but also residential areas. Families who had suffered as a result of enemy air raids received material assistance.

In those days of severe trial, our fellow countrymen did not grow hard of heart. Although their own lives were far from easy, Gorky residents sent 128 railway wagons of food to the residents of besieged Leningrad in March and November 1942. The rural districts of the region set aside for the defenders of the city on the Neva 1,200 tons of grain, 200 tons of flour, 154 tons of peas, 197 tons of meat, and more.

Among the very first to arrive in Stalingrad in 1943 to begin its reconstruction were 300 graduates of factory-training schools in Gorky. Every enterprise and institution in our city strove to contribute something to the ruined Stalingrad. In the spring of 1943, 7 railway trains, 9 steamships, and 3 barges carrying industrial goods, equipment, construction materials, and tools were dispatched to assist it. In addition, 78 wagons were sent by Dzerzhinsk residents and 14 by Balakhna residents. Gorky residents took on patronage of the Traktorozavodsky District of Stalingrad and two rural districts. The countryside allocated 3,000 head of cattle, 4,000 sheep, 3,000 pigs, 5,000 ploughs, and 5,000 harrows to the adopted collective farms. Collective farmers ploughed extra "Stalingrad" hectares. Workers at the Lenin Plant put in two hours of unpaid overtime for several months fulfilling Stalingrad orders. Gorky residents can rightly take pride in having written one of the distinguished pages in the reconstruction of Stalingrad.

Output of Gorky's Factories

It was not without reason that German aviation strove to wipe the factory buildings and enterprises of the city of Gorky from the face of the earth: the industry of Gorky Region, from the very first days of the war, began converting its production to the manufacture of weapons and ammunition, and to mastering new types of military equipment for the Red Army.

The largest enterprise of our region — the Gorky Automobile Plant — became one of the most versatile in the country during the Great Patriotic War. It produced T-60 and T-70 tanks (the latter was designed at the plant), tank engines, armored cars, self-propelled guns, mortars, armor-piercing shells, and rocket projectiles for the Katyusha. Automobile production continued, including all-terrain vehicles with two drive axles. In 1942, GAZ-AA half-ton trucks went straight from the factory to the front. They were the first to venture out onto the barely frozen ice of Lake Ladoga and the last to leave its icy routes.

The oldest shipbuilding plant, Krasnoye Sormovo (No. 112), in cooperation with the Automobile Plant, the milling-machine plant, the Vyksunsky and Kulebaksky metallurgical plants, and other enterprises, and in accordance with State Defense Committee Resolution No. 1-ss, began producing T-34 medium tanks. The first tanks left for the Battle of Moscow as early as October 1941.

By a decree of December 6, 1941, the GGKO obliged the Krasnoye Sormovo Plant to increase its rate of combat-vehicle production. By December 20, 1941, the plant was required to produce 5 tanks per day; from December 20, 1941 to January 20, 1942, output was to be raised to 8 per day; and from January 20, 1942, to 10 tanks per day.

In January 1942, the Sormovo workers resumed the production of submarines, which had been halted in 1941.

Over the years of the Great Patriotic War, the Sormovo plant delivered 10,159 tanks to the front (10.2% of total USSR production) and 22 submarines (43%). The I. V. Stalin Machine-Building Plant (No. 92) was the leading producer of artillery systems during the war. In 1941 the plant produced 5,600 guns; in 1942, 25,000; and by January 1, 1943, production of divisional guns had been brought to 1,200 per month.

In the first two and a half years of the war, 27 models of various artillery pieces were designed. Shells fired from the 57 mm ZIS-2 gun passed straight through a German tank and continued beyond. The accuracy of fire was so great that the gun could hit a lone standing man. In February 1942 the ZIS-3 gun was put into mass production. Light and maneuverable, simple to operate both in battle and on the march, it earned great esteem in the army.

During the Great Patriotic War, 101,673 guns were produced (23.9% of total USSR production).

The S. Ordzhonikidze Aviation Plant (No. 21) also participated in fulfilling military orders, producing LaGG-3 combat fighters in 1941.

In 1942, the plant's workforce mastered the production of the La-5 fighter with an air-cooled engine. In 1944, production of the La-7 aircraft model was begun alongside the La-5.

The aviation industry of the region supplied the front with 16,324 combat aircraft (26% of total USSR fighter production).

In 1943, specialists at the S. Ordzhonikidze Aviation Plant developed and successfully applied a method of restoring aircraft that had been in crashes and whose repair had previously been considered impossible.

The Borsky Glass Plant in September 1941 organized the production of "stalinit" glass, used in the manufacture of transparent armor for ground-attack and fighter aircraft.

The Ulyanov Plant — the only one in the country — produced specialized marine electrical equipment for shipbuilding, for shore installations, and for vessels of the Navy.

The V. I. Lenin Radio-Telephone Plant manufactured army-level, front-level, and divisional radio stations for aircraft and ships. It was the supplier of intercom systems for all types of military equipment.

The Krasnaya Etna Plant, which produced fasteners, springs, and wire, supplied all the country's industrial enterprises with cold-rolled strip. The M.V. Frunze Plant mastered the production of radio stations for tanks, self-propelled guns, and armored vehicles.

Until 1943, the main supplier of rocket artillery installations ("Katyushas") was the milling machine plant. In the autumn of 1941, fourteen divisions (117 installations) of rocket artillery were dispatched to the front. They played an enormous role in the defeat of the German fascist forces near Moscow.

Six chemical plants in Dzerzhinsk also produced goods for the front. In June 1941, the Chernorech Chemical Plant managed to assemble a production unit for the self-igniting liquid "KS" in just 36 hours and began filling it into containers. Plant No. 80 produced up to 50% of all explosives manufactured in the country, enabling the output of more than three million shells, mines, and aerial bombs per month.

The metallurgical plants of Vyksa and Kulebaki increased their production of steel and rolled metal. At the Gorky Metallurgical Plant, the production of high-quality armor steel, sheet metal for rocket installations, and ferroalloys was mastered. Between 1941 and 1945, the plant smelted nearly 224,000 tonnes of steel and 255,000 tonnes of rolled metal. This made it possible to significantly increase the production of tanks, aircraft, guns, mortars, and ammunition.

Hospitals and Medicine

From the very first days of the fierce fighting, Gorky Region had to receive and treat enormous numbers of wounded. On 11 July 1941, the first military medical train, No. 347, arrived in the city of Gorky. According to the plan for deploying evacuation hospitals in Gorky Region, dated 9 July 1941, the initial provision called for establishing hospitals in existing clinics, sanatoriums, and rest homes, with a total of 8,270 beds. Subsequently, hospitals were also set up in many schools. At various periods during the war, 171 evacuation hospitals with 71,640 beds operated in Gorky Region (including 28 relocated from other regions), where 422,949 Red Army soldiers received treatment.

On 9 October 1941, a regional committee for aid to wounded soldiers and commanders of the Red Army was established. Its work was directed by I.M. Guryev, secretary of the Gorky Regional Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks). City and district committees were formed at the local level. They saw their task as providing concrete assistance to hospitals: receiving the wounded and sending the recovered back; supplying food, fuel, internal equipment, and an uninterrupted supply of medicines, dressings, and literature; and providing attentive and caring service to wounded soldiers.

To fulfill this task, the committees drew widely on trade unions, the Komsomol, and other public organizations, as well as the intelligentsia, in the form of patronage by enterprises, institutions, collective farms, and individual citizens over specific hospitals. There was not a single hospital in the region that did not have a patron organization.

Cultural and educational work among the wounded was carried out extensively by arts workers from the city of Gorky and the region, amateur performers, and schoolchildren.

Gorky's medical professionals demonstrated an example of tremendous self-sacrifice and courage through their heroic labor in saving the wounded. At the start of the war, there was a shortage of qualified surgeons — one for every 1,000 beds. Nearly all of them had gone to the front. This required intensive effort by the public health authorities to provide doctors with theoretical and practical training in the shortest possible time.

The working people of Gorky Region showed great patriotic spirit in saving the lives of wounded soldiers and officers of the Red Army by supplying them with donor blood. Already in the first days of the war, applications for voluntary blood donation were coming in. Workers, collective farmers, and students became donors. The assigned target for blood collection was 100 liters (600 donors) per day, not counting local needs. Data submitted by the regional blood transfusion station indicate that in 1943, 80,666 donors in Gorky Region donated 34,888 liters of blood, exceeding the collection target. During the war years, local authorities paid considerable attention to the children of servicemen, particularly orphans.

According to a report on the network and population of children's homes during the Great Patriotic War, Gorky Region had 28 children's homes (2,267 children) as of 1 January 1941, and 147 children's homes (11,739 children) as of 1 January 1943. In addition to local children, these homes housed children evacuated from Latvia, Lithuania, Belorussia, Moscow, and Leningrad, as well as 48 children of Polish citizens. In Krasnobakovskiy District, at the Lesnoy Kurort rest home, an international children's boarding school operated from the start of the war until June 1944, housing and educating more than 730 children of Comintern and Central Committee of MOPR workers. The People's Commissariat of Education of the RSFSR gave particular attention to ensuring that children's homes were supplied with all necessities as quickly as possible, especially food and fuel.

Komsomol members from the Avtozavod and the Krasnoye Sormovo Plant, workers from the repair plant in Bogorodsk and other laborers, and performers from Gorky's theaters and philharmonic contributed earnings to the fund for the children of servicemen. Commissions for organizing gifts for the children of servicemen were established under the Regional Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks).

Sanatoriums were opened in a number of districts of the region for the treatment of sick children. The Regional Committee of the All-Union Leninist Young Communist League's health resort — the largest children's health institution — served up to 300 children of servicemen per month. The care shown for the families of military personnel found a warm response in letters from the front.

Awards to Frontline Soldiers and Factories

On 8 May 1945, in Karlshorst on the outskirts of Berlin, the act of Germany's unconditional surrender was signed. For the first time in many days of war, a public holiday was declared by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. 9 May 1945 became Victory Day. On 23 June 1945, the 12th session of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR passed the law "On the Demobilization of Older Age Groups of Active Army Personnel." Demobilization began on 5 July 1945.

On 17 July 1945, at six o'clock in the morning, the first troop train carrying demobilized soldiers arrived in the city of Gorky. Despite the early hour, thousands of Gorky residents came to meet them. One after another, more and more troop trains followed.

Special commissions were created in the districts of Gorky Region to organize the reception of demobilized soldiers from the Soviet Army. They devoted considerable attention to finding employment for servicemen, particularly for disabled veterans of the Great Patriotic War. Local authorities allocated funds to provide them with everything necessary. In the very first months, nearly three thousand apartments and rooms were made available to those in greatest need; thousands of apartments belonging to families of servicemen and disabled veterans were repaired at the expense of local authorities.

The working people of Gorky Region made a worthy contribution to the nationwide cause of Victory. More than 300 Gorky residents were awarded their homeland's highest honor — the title of Hero of the Soviet Union — for their military feats. The majority received this title during the years of the Great Patriotic War:

Generals Arseny Vasilyevich Vorozheykin and Vasily Georgiyevich Ryazanov became twice Heroes of the Soviet Union.

More than 300,000 of our fellow countrymen were awarded combat orders and medals for their incomparable feats on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War. More than 9,000 Gorky residents — home-front workers — were honored with government awards.

Many of the factories in Gorky Region that produced defense products during the war years were also awarded decorations:

The City's Nature and Layout: A Survey from 1972

The following is a description of the city as seen by a geographical survey of 1972; all assessments, figures, and references to "the present" relate to that time.

Where the two naturally distinct parts of Gorky Region — the elevated forest-steppe Right Bank and the low-lying forested Zavolzhye — meet along the banks of the Volga, at the confluence of the Oka with the Volga, the city of Gorky spreads out spaciously across a vast territory of 334 square kilometers, one of the largest cities in the country.

Its population exceeds 1.2 million. It is the third city in Russia after Moscow and Leningrad.

Compared with pre-revolutionary times, it has grown more than tenfold both in area (the area of pre-revolutionary Nizhny Novgorod within city limits was only 32 sq. km) and in population (on the eve of the October Revolution it had 107,000 inhabitants).

Four-fifths of the territory of the city of Gorky lies in the low-lying left bank of the Oka, extending in a broad wedge toward the Strelka — the point where the Oka meets the Volga. Here are located five of the city's eight districts: Kanavinsky (at the Strelka), Moskovsky, Sormovsky (on the Volga side of Zarechye), Leninsky, and Avtozavodsky (on the Oka side). The elevated, upper part of Gorky contains three districts: Nizhegorodsky (adjacent to the Volga and the Oka), Sovetsky, and Prioksky.

The city of Gorky is one of the few cities on the Russian Plain characterized by large variations in elevation. The difference in elevation between the upper town and the Zarechye parts of Gorky reaches 100 meters. This difference in elevation, and the entire complex of natural conditions, affects the city's layout, construction, and transport links.

The upper part of the city spreads across the gently sloping plateau of the Dyatlov Hills, which form the northwestern extremity of the Volga Upland. The steep riverbank slopes — the otkoses — are cut through by deep ravines. Some of these cross almost the entire upper portion of the city. In the past, the ravines were even more prominent features of the terrain. Some have since been filled in.

In the distant past, the ravines and hillsides provided natural protection for the city — it is no coincidence that the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin was built on elevated ground bounded by large ravines. But later, when the Kremlin had lost its defensive role, the ravines became a considerable nuisance for the city's residents. Descents had to be built and bridges thrown across them. The first such bridge was built in the early seventeenth century across the Pochaina Ravine (the site is now occupied by an earthen embankment — the Lykova Dam, built in the first half of the nineteenth century). There are now more than a dozen old and new descents within the city limits.

The directions of the ravines largely determined the radial-ring layout of the old part of the city (the present-day Nizhegorodsky District). Its streets, fanning out from the Kremlin, ran along the broad ridges separating the ravines. The modern streets of Sverdlov and Dzerzhinsky stretch between the Pochainskiy and Zvezdinskiy ravines. The site of the filled-in Zvezdinsky Ravine is now a boulevard. Along the other side of the Pochainskiy Ravine runs Krasnoflotskaya Street, while Minin Street and Ulyanov Street lie between the Otkos and the Kovalikhinsky Ravine, which over time became Kovalikhinsky Street.

The upper part of the city was not only ravine-cut — in former times it was also heavily forested. Dense forests covered the steep riverbanks. Such wooded riverbank slopes were known as Sluda. A section of it survives to this day along the bank of the Oka above the Molitovsky Bridge, forming part of the Lenin Komsomol Park. Near Myza, the wooded bank of the Oka was once known as the Nizhny Novgorod Switzerland for its picturesque quality. For the most part, however, these forests in the upper town have given way to small deciduous groves, such as Maryina Roshcha, which once began beyond the present-day pasta factory and wrapped around the southern edge of the city.

In the city's layout, forested areas serve as buffer strips between built-up zones and as recreation spaces. In the upper town, however, only one surviving forested area — that of the Schelokovsky Khutor — fulfills this purpose, and even it is increasingly encroached upon by urban development.

The layout of the newer districts in the upper town — Sovetsky and Prioksky — has a different structure from that of the Nizhegorodsky District. But the influence of the terrain remains very strong here too.

In Sovetsky District, several long longitudinal streets stand out — Nevzorovykh, Genkina, and others. They run along a gently sloping plateau parallel to the valley of the Starka stream and the Kadochka Ravine. Perpendicular to these axial longitudinal streets runs a series of shorter transverse ones. In the lower part of the Starka valley, the microdistricts of Lapshikha have grown up over the past decade on wasteland, divided in pairs by a hollow. Further on, the Kuznechikha microdistrict is expanding.

Prioksky District occupies the territory of a broad riverine ridge cut through by dales (Sakharnyy Dol and others). It has a settlement-and-microdistrict layout (Myza — the historic core of the district — Novy Posyolok, the microdistricts of Scherbinki, and others) with Gagarin Avenue as the connecting arterial road running along the Oka.

A characteristic feature of the riverbank sections is landslide activity. This is linked to the fact that the upper part of the city is composed of loose rock (marls) interbedded with impermeable (slippery) clays. The abundance of groundwater combined with the steep angle of the riverbank slopes (up to 40–45°) causes individual layers of soil to shift.

Landslides, which occurred repeatedly throughout the city's long history, became particularly frequent in the second half of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in the areas of the Volga Otkos and the Sluda, where a railway (to Arzamas) was being built along the bank of the Oka. During its construction, soil was excavated on the hillsides, and when the Volga Otkos was developed, ravines were filled in without adequate drainage work. In a number of places this led to increased water content in the soil layers composing the hillsides and to a loss of their stability. It became necessary to undertake extensive construction of drainage adits, which now cut through the Volga and Oka hillsides at various levels, forming a branching catchment system. Over the past ten to fifteen years, major earthworks have also been carried out on the Oka and Volga slopes, with paved pathways installed.

The numerous areas of fill on former ravine sites and the risk of landslides in the upper part of the city require additional geological surveys before buildings and other structures are constructed, and the reinforcement of building foundations.

The Zarechye part of the city of Gorky is an entirely different matter.

The layout here is different, and so are the problems. Zarechye occupies the low-lying, in places sandy-hummocked and waterlogged interfluve of the Volga and the Oka — part of the vast Oka-Volga lowlands, formed of glaciofluvial and alluvial deposits. The territory of Zarechye rises only 7–9 meters above the level of the Volga and the Oka (and only 12–14 meters in places). Groundwater here lies close to the surface — only 2–3 meters down — which accounts for the waterlogging of the terrain. As recently as two decades ago, about a quarter of the Zarechye territory within the city was waterlogged. Built-up patches were like islands amid boggy wastelands, such as the vast Shuvalovo Bog stretching along the Gorky–Moscow railway line.

The use of land in the Zarechye part of the city is further hampered by its annual flooding during the spring high-water periods of the Volga and the Oka. These rivers are fed by snowmelt for almost two-thirds of their flow, with the remainder coming from groundwater and, to a minor extent, rainwater. In spring they raise their levels by an average of 6–7 meters (in some years, one and a half times higher), and before the Nizhny Novgorod Hydroelectric Station dam was built (1956), the water rise reached 13 meters. In major floods, up to 15 percent of Zarechye's territory was frequently inundated.

With the construction of the Cheboksary Hydroelectric Station, when the level of the Volga and Oka rises by 3.5–4 meters, the problem of land use in the Zarechye part will become even more complex. The need for bank-protection structures and large-scale hydraulic land reclamation naturally arises. At present, powerful machinery — dredges and ditch-diggers — is already carrying out such hydraulic fill operations; in addition, canals are being laid, and the swamps of Zarechye are gradually disappearing, giving way on flat expanses to blocks of multi-storey buildings. To drain the swamps of Zarechye it is important to create a unified canal network making use of the ancient bed of the Oka and the small rivers flowing through the area.

The natural conditions of the Zarechye part of the city have also left their imprint on its planning structure. The alternation of sandy ridges and gravel banks, where old settlements (former villages) that found themselves within the boundaries of the large city took root, with flat expanses containing newer settlements; the chaotic layout of some parts and the grid-like linear layout of others — these are the most general features of this structure. Zarechye includes more than three dozen old and new settlements, which form the ever-more-merging sections of the Zarechye districts.

With the construction of Komsomolskoye Highway, which linked the radial routes of Lenin Avenue, Moskovsky Highway, and Sormovsky Highway in a sweeping arc, the radial-ring structure of the general plan of this Zarechye part of the city was broadly established.

Zarechye has also preserved extensive forested areas. These are remnants of the once dense, predominantly pine forests (such as the Striginskiy Bor) that covered the entire interfluve of the Volga and the Oka. It is true that they have not everywhere survived, and are not everywhere preserved, as buffer strips within the urban fabric. Yet these buffer strips are all the more important because for a large industrial city with a high concentration of heavy industry enterprises like Gorky, forested areas are a kind of filter that purifies the air.

In all, forests — now converted into forest parks — occupy about one-fifth of the city's territory (roughly the same as residential development). And this area can be expanded further by using for afforestation the marginal lands that still constitute one-seventh of Gorky's total area, of which roughly two-thirds lie within the built-up zone. This significantly complicates urban planning problems while at the same time making it possible to implement original planning solutions and give individual neighborhoods in new development areas a distinctive character.

As we can see, the city of Gorky has very remarkable natural features that give it a unique character, on which its rich history has also left a deep imprint.

City Districts: A Survey from 1971

No matter which direction you approach our city — by rail or by water — you will always find yourself in the center, even though the railway and river stations are located in different parts of it. Gorky is one of those cities that have historically developed several centers.

Each of these parts of the city, unique in its individuality, embodies the city's defining characteristics: the part enclosed within the boundaries of Nizhny Novgorod — the Nizhegorodsky District — personifies the city's historical role and serves as its cultural center; Sormovo serves as the main center of Volga shipbuilding; Sotsgorod serves as the center of automobile manufacturing; and Kanavino fulfills the city's transport function as the "gateway to the Volga Region." The city of Gorky is so multifaceted and many-sided that it is genuinely perceived as a confluence of several different cities. And it would be no exaggeration to say that many residents of some districts go years without visiting others.

The city's districts, corresponding to its two main natural sections, are divided into upper-town and Zarechye groups. Each of these two parts, or sides, of Gorky has certain characteristic common features.

The upper town spreads across the gently sloping, ravine-cut elevated interfluve of the Oka and the Volga.

The Nizhegorodsky District is above all the seat of regional and municipal organizations, educational institutions, research institutes, and cultural and educational establishments. The passenger section of the river port is also located here. As the oldest part of the city, this district is distinguished by its historical and architectural monuments and by sites associated with the names of illustrious local figures. The Nizhegorodsky District contains seven of the city's ten institutions of higher education: the polytechnic and the Institute of Water Transport Engineers, the civil engineering, medical, and pedagogical institutes (one of foreign languages), and the conservatory.

The district's industrial significance is defined by its light and food industries, as well as metalworking.

The Nizhegorodsky District is the most picturesque part of the city. Gorky's historic center — the Kremlin — recalls the important role the city played in the distant chapters of the country's history. Adjacent to the Kremlin is Minin and Pozharsky Square (the site of the old Upper Posad). At its center is a garden with a monument to Kuzma Minin. Here, too, overlooking the Volga, stands a monument to V.P. Chkalov.

Six streets fan out from Minin and Pozharsky Square, among them the main thoroughfare of the upper side of the city — Sverdlov Street, which passes through Gorky Square, where a monument to the Stormy Petrel of the Revolution rises high in a spacious garden.

From the Kremlin, Figner Street leads to another of the city's squares — Freedom Square. There, facing the opera house, stands a distinctive monument, resembling a barricade, to the "Heroes and Martyrs of the Revolution of 1905."

From Freedom Square to Gorky Square runs the main section of Gorky Street, which is currently being rebuilt into a broad ceremonial thoroughfare where new buildings for the drama theater and the Young Spectator Theater will be located.

The most beautiful spot on the upper side, and indeed in the entire city — and arguably along the entire Volga — is the Verkhne-Volzhskaya Embankment, the Otkos, which begins at the Georgievskaya Tower of the Kremlin. From the Otkos there opens a breathtaking view of the Volga and its confluence with the Oka — the Strelka, with the soaring cranes of the freight port — the Zavolzhye meadows with their glinting lakes, and the haze-blue distances with a line of forest on the horizon...

Below the Otkos runs the concrete-clad Nizhne-Volzhskaya Embankment, which, starting from the Kremlin, transitions into the trading quarter of old Nizhny Novgorod (the Lower Posad). Here, in tightly packed stone buildings, are shops, various trading depots, and warehouses. This part of the city also has industrial enterprises (the Ulyanov Plant, nearly as old as the Sormovo Plant, several garment factories, the Krasny Obuvshchik factory, and others).

The lower part of the upper side of the city of Gorky (main street: Mayakovsky Street) is the passenger port district, with the river terminal and landing stages. One of the monumental buildings houses the management of the Volga United River Shipping Company.

Gorky can rightly be called the Volga capital, a role it has long played. Once upon a time, great barge-hauler markets were held here, drawing thousands upon thousands of the destitute from numerous provinces. With the development of steamship navigation in the second half of the nineteenth century, up to a dozen shipping companies established themselves in Nizhny Novgorod, and it became the starting point for all the navigable lines of the Volga basin. The barge haulers were succeeded by sailors, helmsmen, pilots, and captains, many of whom were born on Nizhny Novgorod soil.

Mayakovsky Street leads to the Oka Bridge, which arcs across nearly a kilometer, connecting the upper town with the Zarechye side of the city more than a quarter century ago. Before the bridge was built (1933), a wooden pontoon (plashkout) bridge was laid across the river each summer.

The always lively lower part of the city, where the "breath" of the great river is felt at every step, has a particular charm all its own. And it is hard to imagine that this was once the site of the famous Millioshka, depicted by A.M. Gorky in his play "The Lower Depths."

A characteristic feature of the overall appearance of the Nizhegorodsky District, as the old part of the city, is the density and compactness of its development. Almost all new construction comes at the expense of demolishing old houses. The district has acquired a new skyline: looking at the upper side from the Strelka, one sees multi-storey buildings (from 5 to 14 floors) rising where the mass of old grey hovels and "dachas" of the so-called Vostochny Bazaar once stood — the place where merchants arriving for the Nizhny Novgorod Yarmarka used to stay. And along the otkos stretches the handsome Verkhne-Okskaya Embankment with bridges thrown across the descents.

Sovetsky District is a new district in the upper part of the city that has grown particularly rapidly over the past decade. As an industrial district, it is distinguished by its food and light industries: here are located a pasta factory, a dairy combine, a champagne winery, a hosiery and knitwear production association, and other enterprises.

Sovetsky District is also a cultural center: it houses the new university buildings, the Higher Party School, and several technical colleges.

Above the Sluda, from which the new Molitovsky Bridge spans the Oka, a complex of sports facilities is concentrated: a sports palace, a swimming pool, and others.

The main arterial road of Sovetsky District is Beketov Street, branching off from Gagarin Avenue (formerly Arzamas Highway).

In recent years the district has expanded greatly in its eastern part, where construction of the Lapshikha microdistricts is nearing completion.

Prioksky District is also a new district. It is home to the V. I. Lenin Television Plant and other enterprises. Its nucleus is the former dacha settlement of Myza, reached from Gagarin Avenue running along the Oka. One side of the avenue is fully built up, while the other is lined with a parkland zone. From here, the high riverbank offers a sweeping panorama of the industrial left-bank area. The forest of Schelokovsky Khutor enjoys great popularity as a recreational and sports destination, not only within the district but throughout the city. On the southern outskirts of Prioksky District the buildings of an agricultural institute have risen, and the Scherbinki microdistricts — one of the city's principal new residential areas — continue to grow.

The left-bank (trans-Oka) side of Gorky is the city's principal industrial and transport core, with both new and old factories that define the city's industrial character.

A distinctive feature of the left-bank side's appearance is the partly surviving "island" layout of its built-up blocks and their uneven, mixed-scale development — an alternation of built-up and undeveloped plots, new high-rise areas and old low-rise ones — a consequence both of natural conditions and of the fact that suburban settlements were absorbed into it (more than a dozen former villages: Kostarikha, Vysokovo, Karpovka, Strigino, and others).

Kanavinsky District, adjoining the Strelka, is the city's industrial, transport, and commercial district. It is home to the railway junction with the Moscow Railway Station and the freight wharves of the Gorky River Port.

Kanavino (known before the revolution as Kunavino) grew from a small suburban sloboda (settlement) to which the yarmarka was transferred from Makaryev in 1817. For six weeks a year, at the height of summer, commercial life surged through Kunavino; then the doors and windows of the forty-eight stone wings of the Gostiny Dvor and other trading rows were boarded up tight, and the Kunavino sloboda, populated by small craftsmen and tradespeople, sank back into the drowsy quiet of petty-bourgeois life.

The Nizhny Novgorod Yarmarka — which earned the name of "all-Russia's trading place" — drew up to 200,000–300,000 people from every corner of Russia and from near and distant lands (as far away as America), who brought with them much of what those lands had to offer. In the late nineteenth century, when the All-Russian Commercial, Industrial, and Fine Arts Exhibition was held in the Kanavino area (on the site of what is now the 1 May Park), the Nizhny Novgorod Yarmarka reached its peak: its trading turnover amounted to around 300 million rubles.

In the Soviet period, industrial development of Kanavino began and a number of enterprises grew up, some of them on the sites of former semi-artisan establishments. These include the M. Vorobyev Plant (producing mill and elevator equipment), the Sverdlov Plant (peat-harvesting machinery), Krasny Yakor ("Red Anchor," chains and anchors), a metallurgical plant (the country's principal supplier of saws), Vtorchermet, a flour mill, an oil-and-fat combine, and others.

In terms of its transport role, Kanavino places Gorky first among all Volga cities. The intersection here of waterways and railways has made the city a major transhipment point. Here, at the confluence of the Volga and the Oka — which together, like a fork, encompass the country's Central Region — lies the nearest outlet from Moscow and its surroundings onto the main stretch of the Volga route.

That is why the Moscow–Nizhny Novgorod railway (1862), the second to be built in Russia, was brought to these "gateway" points from the Center to the Volga Region.

The greater part of the freight traffic passing through Gorky falls to the railways, along six of their lines: three trunk lines to Moscow, Kirov, and Penza, and three local lines to Pavlovo, Zavolzhye (to the Gorky Hydroelectric Station), and Kstovo.

As a result of the reconstruction of the Gorky railway junction — augmented with new tracks — and the construction of a railway bridge across the Oka, the junction's capacity increased significantly, giving the left-bank part of the city, as well as the vast territories of Zavolzhye, direct access to the right bank and to the southern regions of the country.

A further bridge across the Volga has since been built alongside the single-track bridge. The construction of this two-tier bridge not only increased the capacity of the Gorky railway junction still further, but also established for the first time a highway connection between the city of Gorky and the trans-Volga districts of the region.

The main flow of waterborne freight is handled at the mechanized wharves of the Gorky Port (at the Strelka and at other points). With the opening of the Volgo-Balt waterway system, the port's importance grew still further.

The outward appearance of Kanavino has many distinctive features that combine old and new. The district's main thoroughfare — Sovetskaya Street — runs from the Strelka for a considerable distance as an embankment of the Oka, along an artificial embankment protecting the bank from flooding during spring high water.

In its middle section, Sovetskaya Street opens out to form a spacious square — the city's main square, named after V. I. Lenin, where a monument to the leader stands. It was laid out on the site of the former trading rows of the Nizhny Novgorod Yarmarka. Sovetskaya Street leads to Revolution Square — a crossroads of routes running to different parts of the city. This is the city's busiest square, where the Moscow Railway Station is located. Beyond it begins Moscow Highway, running parallel to the railway.

From Kanavino, one road leads past Moskovsky District to Sormovo, and another goes through Leninsky District to the Auto Plant.

Moskovsky District lies along the highway of the same name, on its northern side. Having been separated from the expanding Sormovo, it is one of the city's principal industrial districts, with a number of large factories, including the S. Ordzhonikidze Aviation Plant, Orgsintez, and others.

The district is growing rapidly. Moscow Highway, Gastello Street, and others are the main thoroughfares of new construction. The streets of the Kalinin settlement, lined with multi-storey buildings, are richly planted with greenery. Strazh Revolyutsii Street and others are true tree-lined allées.

Sormovsky District, whose entire history is bound up chiefly with the development of the Krasnoye Sormovo Plant, has grown from the small suburban village that Sormovo was a hundred years ago into a major industrial center.

Besides the Krasnoye Sormovo Plant, the district has other enterprises as well, including the oil-and-lubricants plant named after the 26 Baku Commissars and Neftegaz.

Sormovo, encompassing a number of old and new settlements (Komsomolsky, Koposovo, and others), looks in many ways like an entirely new district that came into being only during the Soviet years, despite its long history (as a settlement it dates back to the sixteenth century). No trace remains of the old workers' sloboda that used to be mired in mud and soot — those "small grey houses" on the Sormovskaya Bolshaya Doroga from which, at the call of the roaring factory whistle, "gloomy men, who had not had time to refresh their muscles with sleep, ran out into the street like frightened cockroaches" (M. Gorky, Mother). Today the "Sormovska bolsha doroga" has been transformed into a broad tree-lined street — the Kominterna Street allée — lined with fine multi-storey buildings. It is at the same time a historic street of the city of Gorky: in 1905, Sormovo workers fought on barricades here.

Not long ago, Sormovskoe Highway from Kanavino to the center of Sormovo stretched through wastelands. Now it is built up with multi-storey houses along its entire length. A Yubileyny Boulevard with a row of nine-storey buildings has appeared on what was literally the site of a swamp. On the Komsomolsky settlement, Korablestroiteley Avenue is taking shape.

Leninsky District occupies mainly the territory along the Oka. It is a new industrial district, though its historical nucleus is the old settlement of Molitovka, where a linen-weaving factory was established before the revolution (now the Krasny Oktyabr linen combine, producing tarpaulin and sacking).

The district has up to a dozen industrial enterprises of various types (in this respect it resembles Kanavinsky District), among which the milling-machine plant and Dvigatel Revolyutsii ("Engine of the Revolution," producing diesels and gas-motor compressors) stand out in particular.

A distinctive industrial character is lent to the district by the auto plant's supplier factories: Krasnaya Etna — the country's principal supplier of automotive fasteners (bolts and rivets) — along with gearbox plants, heavy-stamping plants, Novaya Sosna (producing bodies for trucks), and the specialized motor-vehicle plant (vans, trailer shops). Also located here are the Krasny Kozhevnik leather-and-footwear combine and the large Volga brewery, built in the postwar period.

The industry of Leninsky District is one expression of the manifold internal production links of the city of Gorky. Like Kanavinsky District, it also plays an important role in the city's internal and external connections. The district is home to the Molitovsky freight section of the river port, and all transport flows between Avtozavodsky and the other districts pass through it. Along Lenin Avenue — the central artery not only of the district but arguably of the entire city — vehicles move in an unbroken stream. Here in particular the city's need for a metro is keenly felt. Indeed, around one and a half million people use public transport every day, and half of them are carried by buses.

Large-scale construction is under way in Leninsky District, especially along Lenin Avenue — the former Avtozavodskoe Highway.

Avtozavodsky District is an entirely new industrial district of the city, which came into being in 1930 together with the automobile plant. It has since grown so large that it can be compared to a number of sizeable cities, such as Vladimir or Oryol.

Avtozavodsky District has much in common with Sormovsky District, although they arose at different times: both are the city's largest industrial districts, are related in the profile of their production (transport engineering), and the importance of their main enterprises — the automobile and shipbuilding plants — is equally great.

The construction of the automotive giant — one of the largest plants in the world — specifically in Gorky was determined by a number of factors. It was connected with the exceptional advantages of the city's transport position in the country's principal industrial region, with proximity to the power base — the Balakhna power station — and also with the availability of the necessary labor force, which was of great importance in the initial period of socialist industrialization.

Spread across a vast territory with its numerous production buildings, the auto plant is linked in production to hundreds of enterprises throughout the country, many of which are its suppliers.

About a dozen such supplier plants are concentrated in the cities of the Gorky Region, supplying engines (Zavolzhye), automotive glass (Bor), body hardware (Pavlovo), automotive electrical equipment (Lyskovo), leather and synthetic parts (Bogorodsk), and other products.

The auto plant is not the only enterprise in the district. Also operating here are sanitary-fittings, woodworking, and other plants, as well as the Nizhegorodets furniture factory.

In outward appearance, Avtozavodsky District differs markedly from the others. While in Sormovo, alongside large multi-storey buildings, one can still see — as A. N. Tolstoy wrote — "workers' cottages, cosily arranged, with their own households and kitchen gardens," at the Auto Plant there is "a different system: a city has been built for the workers, consisting of enormous architecturally designed complexes — magnificent buildings with every modern comfort, the envy of any capital."

The district began to be built on open land. A new avenue — Yuzhny (Southern) — has recently emerged as one of its main thoroughfares.

In its layout, Avtozavodsky District stands out more than any other city district for its grid-plan development, with a characteristically spacious arrangement of buildings surrounded by small garden squares and green areas. Where the development is in places more dense, broad landscaped inner-courtyard spaces are typical (as in the Busygin quarter, for example), with wide grassed strips along the outer sides of the blocks. On the whole, in many places the district resembles a vast garden with large buildings arranged in it in regular rows.

The compositional center of Avtozavodsky District is the square in front of the Palace of Culture, onto which the allée of Oktyabrsky Avenue opens. At the center of the square rises the enormous Palace of Culture building (containing more than 500 rooms), with an extensive park alongside. Such a center is indeed befitting of Sotsgorod — as the central part of the Auto Plant district is called — a new, growing city.

Sources

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