Nizhniy Novgorod << NIHZH nee NOV guh `ROD` >> (pop. 1,226,076) is an industrial center in Russia. It lies at the fork of the Volga and Oka rivers. Nizhniy Novgorod is one of the oldest cities in Russia and is known as the Cradle of the Russian Empire. The city’s upper part contains a fortress and historic cathedrals. The lower town is the industrial section. One of Russia’s largest automobile factories is in Nizhniy Novgorod. Other products include locomotives, airplanes, machine tools, and chemicals.
Nizhniy Novgorod was an important commercial center in the Middle Ages, a period in history that lasted from the 400’s through the 1400’s. During this period, west-east travel along the Oka River and through a low pass in the Ural Mountains met north-south travel on the Volga River. In 1932, when Russia was a republic of the Soviet Union, the city was renamed Gorki (also spelled Gorky) in honor of the Russian writer Maxim Gorki. The city was renamed Nizhniy Novgorod in 1990, about a year before the Soviet republics became independent.
