Balakhna, Russia

Balakhna is a city (since 1536) in the Nizhny Novgorod region of Russia. The city is located on the right bank of the Volga River, 34 km from Nizhny Novgorod.

 

History

In the III-II millennium BC, tribes of the Balakhna Neolithic culture lived on the territory of the present Nizhny Novgorod region, which was named after the most typical site excavated near Balakhna. In the vicinity of Balakhna, such sites were found near the villages of Bolshoye Kozino and Maloye Kozino. The people of Balakhna settled in small villages of 25-30 adults, and the villages were located in compact groups. Balakhna residents were hunters and fishermen. Judging by the tools found, they knew how to grind, polish, gouge and saw a stone, and make pottery. They knew weaving from plant fibers. In the second half of the 2nd millennium BC, they learned how to smelt metal, knew hoe farming, and were engaged in animal husbandry.

From the 9th century, the influence of Russia began to spread between the Volga and Oka rivers. In the second half of the XII century, Gorodets appeared, which became the center of the Gorodets principality. At the beginning of the XIII century, Nizhny Novgorod was founded, the future center of the Nizhny Novgorod-Suzdal Grand Duchy. It can be assumed that by the time the Nizhny Novgorod possessions were annexed to the Moscow state (mid-15th century), the Volga coast between Gorodets and Nizhny Novgorod was sufficiently developed, although it was subject to periodic ruin by the Kazan Khanate.

In 1401-1402, the Grand Duke of Moscow Vasily Dmitrievich, in exchange for Volok, transfers part of the former Gorodetsky appanage principality to the Serpukhov prince Vladimir Andreevich. In the spiritual of that time, left by Vladimir Andreevich to the children, it is mentioned: "And my children, Prince Semyon, Prince Yaroslav know Salt on Gorodets from one thing, but they divide their own floors, oprise Fedorovski varnits, and another does not enter Gorodetsk varnits without the command of my children." ... On the basis of these facts, modern historians conclude that already at that time there was a salt industry near Gorodets, identifying Sol-na-Gorodets with Balakhna.

 

However, the name Balakhna is found in documents only in 1536. This year is officially considered the year of its foundation. The city is already mentioned as rich and populous when it suffered from the troops of the Kazan khan Safa-Girey. Soon after that, the first wooden fortress was built to protect against Tatar raids.

In the Middle Ages, the city was a significant center of the salt industry, the administrative center of the Balakhna district.

Under Ivan the Terrible, the city, among others, was appointed by the tsar to his oprichnina.

During the Troubles, the Balakhna voivode supported False Dmitry II and, together with the Arzamas voivode, tried to take Nizhny Novgorod, which remained loyal to Tsar Vasily Shuisky. In response, on December 2, 1608, the Nizhny Novgorod army took Balakhna by storm, forcing the inhabitants to kiss the cross to Shuisky. In 1610 Balakhna suffered from the Cossacks, many temples were destroyed. Balakhna is the supposed homeland of Kuzma Minin, the organizer of the Nizhny Novgorod militia of 1611-1612. On the way from Nizhny Novgorod to Yaroslavl, the militia passed through Balakhna, collecting funds from the residents to organize the militia. Nevertheless, in the 17th century Balakhna remained the center of salt production. The Balakhna merchants Sokolovs in the 17th century owned salt mines both in Balakhna itself and in the Solikamsk district.

In 1714 Balakhna became part of the Nizhny Novgorod province as a district town of Balakhna district.

In the 18th-19th centuries, the city was an important center for shipbuilding.

In 1925, the Nizhegorodskaya TPP, operating on peat, was commissioned; in 1928, a pulp and paper mill and a cardboard mill produced their first products.

On February 1, 1932, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee decided to include the village of Kubintsevo in the Balakhna region in the city limits of Balakhna.

 

Modernity

In 1993, the working settlement of Pravdinsk was included in Balakhna.

Until 1998, the city was home to the Balakhna-Sortirovochnaya and Balakhna-Passenger stations of the Balakhninsko-Shuya network of narrow-gauge railways.