Nikolsk is a city in Russia, the administrative center of the
Nikolsky district of the Penza region. Forms the municipality of the
city of Nikolsk with the status of an urban settlement as the only
settlement in its composition.
By order of the Government of
the Russian Federation of July 29, 2014 No. 1398-r "On approval of
the list of single-industry towns", the city was included in the
category "Single-industry municipalities of the Russian Federation
(single-industry towns), in which there are risks of deterioration
of the socio-economic situation."
The city is located 27 km south of the Nochka railway station on the Ruzaevka-Samara line, 110 km north-east of Penza, on the Vyrgan River (Inza and Sura basin). Located in the eastern part of the Russian Plain. The climate is moderately continental with distinct seasons. Winters are relatively mild (average temperature is −10 °). Summers are dry, with a predominance of heavy rainfall.
It arose
from two villages: Nikolskoe (Nikolo-Pestrovka), known since 1668,
and Pestrovka (Malaya Pestrovka), founded in the 1680s. In 1761,
both villages were in the hands of one owner and formed a single
settlement. This was facilitated by the abundance of natural
resources - forests, good quality sand and the ability to float
products in the spring along the Mais - Inza - Sura rivers.
In 1764 the owner of the village. Nikolskaya Pestrovka A. I.
Bakhmetev founded here a crystal factory (since 1920 - the factory
"Red Giant"), whose products have received international
recognition. Crystal was made for the royal court, the masterpieces
of the art of Nikolsk masters are kept in the Hermitage, the Russian
Museum, the Pavlovsk Palace, the State Historical Museum and in the
Nikolsk Museum of Art Glass. In 1785 the village of Pestrovka
(together with the villages of Mokraya Polyana and Teply Stan) was
shown behind the landowner Agafokleia Ivanovna Bakhmeteva (770
revision souls). The modern city has a dairy and a bakery, a timber
processing plant, 4 secondary schools, a vocational school, 5
libraries, an art school, a children's sports school, an orchestra
of folk instruments (created in 1904), 2 polyclinics, and a
hospital. The street layout is straightforward, modern buildings
have kept continuity and are tied to the main enterprise of the city
- the Krasny Giant plant with cascades of ponds on the river. Vyrgan
and with the main street connecting the two historical centers of
the city.
In 1906, Vasily Mikhailovich Rogov, a worker at the
Nikolsko-Pestrovsky crystal factory, a native of the Gorodishchensky
district, was elected to the first Russian parliament - the State
Duma of the Russian Empire of the 1st convocation from the Penza
province. He was one of the earliest supporters of labor trade
unions and "conciliation chambers." Its fate after 1908 is unknown.
Soviet period (1917-1991)
In Nikolo-Pestrovka, Soviet power
was established without armed struggle. In 1905, the first in the
province council of workers 'and soldiers' deputies at the plant
began work in the city. Since 1928 - the working village of
Nikolskaya Pestrovka and the regional center as part of the
Kuibyshev region of the Middle Volga region, since 1939 - as part of
the Penza region. On April 15, 1954, it received the status of a
city and the name Nikolsk. The natives of Nikolsk and the region
took an active part in the Great Patriotic War. 12 people were
awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. After the war, the
city was actively developing. Industrial production grew, new
districts of the city, residential buildings, infrastructure
facilities were built.
1990s
After the collapse of the
USSR, the Soviet system of power remained in Nikolsk until 1993.
Most of the district leaders were transferred from the district
council to the district administration. Since the end of 1993 all
local councils have lost real power, including the Nikolsky District
Council of Deputies. Nikolsk also affected the main problems of the
new Russia: crime was growing at an alarming rate, the economic
potential of the region was declining, until 1999 the gross product
was steadily falling. Many businesses have ceased operations.
However, the city-forming enterprise of the city - the plant "Red
Giant" - continued to work, despite financial difficulties. Private
production was gaining momentum - mainly due to trade, light and
food industries.
2000s
A difficult situation has developed
at the city's backbone enterprise - the Krasny Gigant plant. Since
the end of 2008, "Red Gigant" has completely stopped production and
is in the process of declaring it bankrupt. Today the Krasny Gigant
plant no longer exists as such. Economic growth was observed only in
trade. For 10 years (1999-2009), the number of retail outlets,
grocery, household and other specialized stores has noticeably
increased in the city. Since 2009, shops selling products of Nikolsk
enterprises have been marked with a special sign (brand).
In
2005, a new sports complex "Olympus" was opened, in 2008 the
swimming pool "Lazurny" was put into operation. New courthouse and
prosecutor's office buildings were built.
One of the earliest monuments in Russia to V.I. Lenin (1926), a
memorial to the residents of Nikolsk who died during the Great
Patriotic War, busts of 11 Heroes of the Soviet Union, natives of
the city and region, a common grave of soldiers who died in
1941-1945 in a local hospital. Monument to Soviet soldiers who
performed their international duty in Afghanistan. Homeland of Hero
of the Soviet Union Sergei Dmitrievich Sorokin (1910-1970),
lieutenant, commander of a self-propelled artillery installation,
08/17/1944, the first to go to the state border of the USSR with
East Prussia, after a heavy oncoming battle with superior enemy
forces, in which Sorokin knocked out 3 German tanks and being
seriously wounded did not leave the combat vehicle. In 1943-1944 in
Nikolsk he worked as the second secretary of the district committee
of the CPSU (b), the future member of the Politburo of the CPSU
Central Committee Fyodor Davydovich Kulakov (1918-1978). The
homeland of a number of outstanding masters of art crystal,
scientists, technicians, and cultural workers. Leo Tolstoy, musician
and composer V.V. Andreev, the creator of the famous Academic
Orchestra of Folk Instruments named after Osipov in Moscow (in
Nikolo-Pestrovka he personally worked with the orchestra of folk
instruments), the sculptor V.I.Mukhina also visited here. V.
Sadovsky's novel "Diamond Edge" was written about the city and the
plant "Red Giant". The plant management building is an architectural
monument (1792), the breeder's mansion is a historical and
architectural monument (1862).
Nikolsk has a unique "Museum
of Glass and Crystal", founded in 1789 (one of the 5 oldest in
Russia). Initially, it was a factory model at the glass factory of
Alexei Ivanovich Bakhmetev (Nikolsko-Bakhmetev factory). In 1990 a
new museum building was built.
On the initiative of the head
of the local administration Lyudmila Linina, a local history museum
was opened in 2015. It includes a local history hall, a flora and
fauna hall, an art gallery, an exhibition hall and a conference
hall.