Along the Volga
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Volga Region (Поволжье)

The Volga is the longest river in Europe, stretching almost 2,300 miles to the Caspian Sea.  Linked by canals to both Moscow and St. Petersburg, and to the Black and Baltic Seas, the Volga is a vital part of Russia's transportation infrastructure.  "Mother Volga" is also inextricably linked to Russian history and culture.
During the 13th century, the Volga region came under the control of the Mongols (or Tatars), who established their western capital at Sarai, near modern-day Volgograd.  The logo for GAZ, manufacturer of the world-famous Volga sedan, features the symbol of Nizhny Novgorod The lower stretches of the river remained beyond the reach of Russian tsars until the 16th century, when Ivan IV (the Terrible) conquered the Golden Horde.
Today, the Volga remains an ethnically and religiously diverse region populated by Russians, Tatars, Cossacks, and even Germans whose ancestors were invited to settle here during the imperial era.

Nizhny Novgorod (Нижний Новгород)
Dmitrovskaya Tower, as seen from a taxi on Minin and Pozharsky Square Located at the confluence of the Oka and the Volga rivers, Nizhny Novgorod is the third-largest city in Russia.  Founded by Grand Prince Yuri II in 1221, this "new town" was designated "Nizhny" ("lower" or "lesser") to distinguish it from the much older Novgorod the Great. Archangel Michael's Cathedral, erected in 1631 to celebrate the victory over the Poles
  Memorial commemorating 60 years of Soviet victory in the Great Patriotic War  
Display of WWII military equipment manufactured in Nizhny Novgorod Soviet La-7 fighter prepares for takeoff behind the Dmitrovskaya Tower
Like much of Russia, Nizhny succumbed to the "Tatar yoke" in the 13th century.
An etenal flame dedicated to local victims of the Great Patriotic War stands in front of the Archangel Cathedral   Built on the 19th century, the Governor's Palace inside the kremlin was once the headquarters of the local Communist Party   Guarding the kremlin's eternal flame
Cross behind the Archangel Cathedral

In fact, the city was attacked no less than seven times by the Mongols during this period.

 Highly-decorated tree next to the WWII memorial
Gary lags behind after snapping a few more photos Gary took this picture of Laura, Craig, & Cathy at the kremlin
With the dissolution of the ancient Kievan Rus state, Nizhny Novgorod became capital of an independent principality in 1341.
Young artists inspired by the view from just outside the kremlin walls View towards the Kanavinsky Bridge over the Oka River Nikolskaya Tower, with a pedestrian bridge over Pozharsky Street
Koromyslova (Yoke) Tower, one of 11 bastions still encircling the kremlin     Italian architect Peter Friazin began construction of the kremlin walls in the early 16th century
Another WWII memorial, this one dedicated to local military units that perticipated in the war
Its independence was short-lived — by the end of the century, Nizhny Novgorod owed allegiance to Moscow, which was consolidating control over the Volga region.
Statue of Hero of the Soviet Union Valery Pavlovich Chkalov (1904-38) The Chkalov monument stands just outside the kremlin on the upper Volga embankment Gary captured this beautiful sunset near our hotel on the upper Volga embankment Chkalov was a local test pilot who flew nonstop over the North Pole from Moscow to Vancouver, Canada in 1937
With the Muscovite conquest of Tatar strongholds farther downstream in the 16th century, Nizhny developed a successful shipbuilding industry.
Built in 1916, the former Sirotkin Mansion on the upper Volga embankment now houses the local art museum Stairs leading from the lower to the upper embankment Another local pilot, Peter Nesterov (1887-1914), performed the first loop-the-loop in history in 1913
  Rest area on the way up the Chkalov Staairs  
We trudged up over 400 stairs on our climb to the Chkalov monument The Chkalov Stairs offer magnificent views of the Volga below
Panorama of the city from Ilyinsky (Elijah) Hill, featuring the Kanavinsky Bridge (left), Alexander Nevsky Cathedral (center), and the confluence of the Oka & Volga rivers (right)
Volga sedan on Kozhevennaya (Leather) Street, below the kremlin During the "Time of Troubles" which inaugurated the 17th century, Nizhny Novgorod came to the rescue of Moscow.  Two local citizens, Kuzma Minin and Dmitri Pozharsky, led a peasant army to victory over the Polish-Lithuanian troops who occupied Moscow in 1612. Another war memorial in the lower town
  A glimpse of Our Lady of the Sign Church on Dobrolyubov Street  
The home of the merchant Afanasy Firsovich Olisov on Ilyinsky Hill dates from the 1670s Odd juxtaposition of an 18th-century church and a 20th-century apartment block on Ilyinsky Hill
The Church of the Assumption on Ilyinsky Hill was commissioned in 1672 by the merchant A. F. Olisov

In 1817, Nizhny began hosting an All-Russia trade fair which brought increased affluence and international renown to the city. 

The Assumption Church was restored in 1967 by architect S. L. Agafonov
Multicolored domes of the Nativity Church View of the Nativity, or Strogonov, Church from Ilyinsky Hill
The Rozhdestvenskaya (Nativity) Church was built in 1719 Russian Baroque belfry of the Nativity Church The church was funded by the Strogonovs, a prominent merchant family
In 1932, Soviet authorities renamed the city after a Nizhny native, author Maxim Gorky.  That same year, the largest automobile plant in Russia — the Gorkovsky avtomobilny zavod, or GAZ — began operation.
Built in the 1830s, the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral is the third largest in Russia Drawing initially on plans provided by Ford, GAZ was soon producing original designs, including rugged trucks, tanks and artillery pieces during World War II, and the ubiquitous Volga sedan. River port on the west side of the Oka River, next to the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral
 

 

 The trading halls were built on the west side of the Oka at the turn of the 20th century  
Gorky became a major military research and manufacturing center during the Cold War, and so was closed to foreigners. Another famous local resident was Andrei Sakharov, a Soviet scientist turned dissident who was exiled here in 1980.
View of the Nativity Church and the Church of the Assumption on Ilyinsky Hill from across the Oka River With the collapse of Communism, Sakharov was freed, the trade fair resumed, and the city's name was restored in 1990. One last look at the Kanavinsky Bridge and the churches across the river before arriving at the train station
The Oka River is one of the major tributaries of the Volga View of the Annunciation Monastery across the Oka

Practical Information

We visited Nizhny Novgorod in July 2005 with our friends, Cathy & Gary.

  • Hotels: We stayed in the Hotel Volzhsky Otkos ("Volga Slope", formerly the Hotel Rossiya), a low-budget Soviet-style tourist complex on the Upper Embankment.  Cathy and Gary opted for the Western amenities of the nearby Hotel Oktyabrskaya.
  • Restaurants: We were pleasantly surprised to discover that the Mexican  restaurant just off Minin and Pozharsky Square wasn't completely awful.  We also enjoyed Ot i Do ("From & To"), on the lower Volga embankment, which served traditional Russian cuisine in a dungeon-like atmosphere.
  • Transportation: We arrived in Nizhny in a chartered minivan, and departed by train to Kazan.  In between, we walked a lot, and took a taxi to the train station.

Kazan (Казань) UNESCO World Heritage List
Domes of the Kul Sharif Mosque, inside the Kazan kremlin As odd as it may sound, Muslims have lived in the Volga region for well over a millennium. Moonrise over the kremlin mosque
The ancient Bulgars, kin to modern-day Bulgarians, converted to Islam in 922. Tatarstan shield That was over six decades before the neighboring Slavs adopted Christianity.
The original Kul Sharif Mosque was destroyed by Tsar Ivan the Terrible in 1552 During Mongol invasions, the influx of Turkic-speaking peoples collectively known as Tatars only reinforced the faith of the local inhabitants. Recently reconstructed, this mosque is the largest in Europe

Kazan, the capital of Tatarstan, was founded around 1005.

 The Kul Sharif Mosque was named in honor of its last Imam, Seid Kul Sharif

The city was celebrating its 1,000-year jubilee when we visited.
 As internal divisions weakened the Golden Horde — an empire founded by Batu Khan, grandson of Genghis — Kazan became an independent khanate in 1438.
Tower of the 17th-century Artillery Cannon Foundry, built on the site of the kremlin's former arsenal and the khan's guard quarters Statues of the Pskov architects Postnik Yakovlev and Ivan Shiryai stand in front of the cathedral they erected in 1561-1562 The Cathedral of the Annunciation is the largest building in the Kazan kremlin
Preobrazhenskaya (Transfiguration) Tower inside the Kremlin     Possibly designed by Italian architects, Suyumbike Tower is one of the few kremlin structures which survived the Russian siege
The Russians built 13 towers around the kremlin, including this one with no name
Although the Kazan kremlin could accommodate 30,000 of the khan's troops, the Russians managed to conquer this stronghold in 1552 after a seven-week siege.
Spasskaya (Savior) Tower was also built by Postnik Yakovlev and Ivan Shiryai in 1556-62

To honor his victory, Ivan the Terrible had St. Basil's Cathedral erected in Moscow's Red Square

Main entrance to the kremlin, with the Kul Sharif Mosque in the distance
The Governor's Palace, built in 1845-48 by the architect K.A. Ton, is now home to the Tatarstan president Suyumbike Tower and the Governor's Palace, built on the site of the former khan's residence
Although largely destroyed in 1774 during the revolt of Cossack leader Emelian Pugachev, Kazan was rebuilt along Russian lines soon thereafter.
Soviet-era sculpture outside the kremlin gates Approaching the Spasskaya Tower along Kremlevskaya (Kremlin) Street The Church of the Vernicle is housed in the Spasskaya Tower
  Reflection of Spasskaya Tower at sunset  
National Museum of the Republic of Tatarstan, opposite the kremlin Sunset over the kremlin
Russians dominated the "uppper" town around the kremlin, while Tatars were primarily confined to the "lower" town beyond the Bulak Canal.
Peter & Paul Cathedral, built in 1723-26 to commemorate a visit by Peter the Great, was under scaffolding during our visit Gary goes out of his way for a photo of St. Nicholas Cathedral (1696-1703), near the kremlin Domes of the John the Baptist Monastery, just outside the kremlin Founded soon after the conquest of Kazan, John the Baptist Monastery was rebuilt after a 1649 fire
The university (1804) counts among its former students Leo Tolstoy and Vladimir Lenin.
The turmoil of the Civil War exacerbated ethnic tensions throughout the Russian Empire. Bust of renowned mathematician Nikolai Lobachevsky at Kazan State University, where he taught from 1812 to 1846 In 1920, Tatars declared their own Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic within the USSR.
Monument to Mullanur Vakhitov (1885-1918), a local Muslim revolutionary hero who died defending city during the Civil War Statue of a young Lenin in front of Kazan State University, from which he was expelled in 1887 for his revolutionary activities
Bell tower of the Bogoyavlenskaya (Epiphany) Church, built in 1897-1904

The Republic of Tatarstan was established within the Russian Federation in 1992.

 Passage through the bell tower on Bauman Street
Refurbishing a fountain on Bauman Street, now reserved for pedestrians Monument to world-famous opera singer Feodor Chaliapin (1873-1938) next to the church where he was baptized
Tatar clock at the end of Bauman Street   Laura takes a break on Bauman Street   State Bank on Bauman Street, the city's most popular promenade
Reconstruction of Kul Sharif Mosque, destroyed during the kremlin siege, began in 1996.
The kremlin itself was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2000.
The Nurulla Mosque, built in 1845-49 by architect A.K. Loman, was closed by Soviet authorities Ironically, Kazan also holds a special place in the Orthodox community, after an icon was discovered here in 1579. Most remaining mosques in Kazan, such as the Sultan Mosque (1867), lie in the "lower" town south of the Bulak Canal Prince Pozharsky carried this image of the Virgin and Child into battle against the Poles in 1612.
  Church dedicated to the miraculous Tikhvin icon of the Mother of God on the Tatar side of town     The Kazan train station was our first introduction to the city
As a result of this and other military victories, Our Lady of Kazan is revered throughout Russia. Cathedrals were built to house this miracle-working icon, first in Kazan itself, then in Moscow and St. Petersburg.
The icon disappeared in 1918, but a copy turned up in America.  Despite efforts by the Vatican to return the icon, Russian Patriarch Alexei II refused to allow the Pope to deliver it in person, and the "protectress of Russia" only made it home in 2004.

Practical Information

We continued our July 2005 journey along the Volga with a stop in Kazan.

  • Hotels: Just down the street from the kremlin, the Hotel Giuseppe was pricy but luxurious, and featured a pizzeria next door.
  • Restaurants: In addition to pizza, the Giuseppe Pizzeria offered decent gelato, while the selection of Russian ravioli and beer at the Pelmennaya "Eli-Pili" (literally "they ate, they drank", a play on the Russian expression for "once upon a time") was impressive.
  • Transportation: We arrived in the city by train, and departed from the airport on our way to Moscow.  Kazan is busy building a subway, but we got around on foot and by taxi.

We also visited the Golden Ring towns of Yaroslavl and Kostroma.

Other cities along the Volga:
  • Volgograd / Stalingrad / Tsaritsyn (Волгоград / Сталинград / Царицын)

This page was first published 24 November 2005, and last updated 30 October 2005.