Volgograd << VOL guh `grad` or VOHL guh `grad` >> (pop. 1,028,036) is an important manufacturing city, river port, and transportation hub in southwestern Russia. It lies along the west bank of the Volga River. The city’s industries include oil refining, steel and cement production, shipbuilding, and food processing.
Volgograd was founded in 1589 as Tsaritsyn to defend Russia’s colonized territory along the Volga. In 1925, as the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin was acquiring dictatorial power, the city was renamed Stalingrad for him. From August 1942 to February 1943, the Stalingrad area was the site of a battle that marked a turning point in World War II (see Stalingrad, Battle of). In the battle, the Soviet Red Army destroyed Germany’s Sixth Army and ended the German advance into the Soviet Union.
Stalingrad was rebuilt after World War II. A dam and a hydroelectric plant were constructed north of the city on the Volga. In 1961, after Stalin was denounced by the Soviet leader who succeeded him, the city’s name was changed to Volgograd.
