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.
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.
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.