Balakhna

Kremlin-shaped stele at the entrance to Balakhna

Balakhna is one of the oldest cities in the Nizhny Novgorod Region (founded in 1474). It is the administrative center of Balakhninsky District and holds the status of a historic city of the Russian Federation.

Historical background

The Balakhna land is the birthplace of Kuzma Minin, patriot of the Russian land, who together with Prince Pozharsky raised a people's militia in the early 17th century that liberated Moscow from foreign invaders and helped bring the Romanovs to the Russian throne. The city has erected a monument and opened a museum in memory of the feat of its native son, Kuzma Minin. In the 17th century Balakhna was a major salt-production center of the Russian state, as evidenced by the salt wells located on the bank of the Volga River. A beautiful legend about two brothers, the Plesyanyches, who discovered saline solutions on the Volga's bank, gave rise to the urban settlement and the development of salt-making.

From the mid-17th century Balakhna became a major center of shipbuilding. The city's former glory is reflected in its coat of arms, which depicts two ship's knees (kokory) on a silver field, symbolizing its distinguished tradition of shipbuilding.

The Balakhninsky District contains unique architectural monuments: the stone tent-roofed Nikolskaya Church, the second oldest in the Nizhny Novgorod Region, built in 1552 to commemorate the conquest of Kazan; the Church of the Nativity of Christ, with its magnificently preserved 17th-century iconostasis; and the Church of the Savior, built in 1668, adorned with tiles crafted by Balakhna masters. At the turn of the 17th–18th centuries, Balakhna was one of the centers of decorative tile production in the Russian state. Balakhna tiles adorn the Cathedral of St. Basil the Blessed in Moscow on Red Square. Most of the 17th-century stone buildings in Nizhny Novgorod were built from Balakhna brick.

In the village of Yurino, on the former ancestral estate of the Pozharsky princes, a 17th-century monument of wooden architecture survives — the Church of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God. The history of the city and district is presented at the Balakhna Local History Museum, located in the ensemble of the Pokrovsky male monastery. The museum holds unique collections of ancient Russian painting, 19th-century wooden sculptures, and lacework. Balakhna is renowned for its bobbin lacemaking. The city developed its own distinctive style known as the "Balakhna manner" of lacemaking, based on a multi-pair technique. On the first Sunday of September, Balakhna celebrates City Day. On this day, residents honor their native son Kuzma Minin. The city's main square hosts a grand theatrical performance in which visiting guests are also invited to take part; workshops run by painters, woodcarvers, potters, lacemakers, wickerwork craftsmen, and clay-whistle makers are open throughout the day.

Development of the city

Ancient times

A settlement on the site of Balakhna existed three to four millennia before it was declared a city.

Under the name Balakhna it is first mentioned in the Patriarchal Chronicle from the time a fortress was built there in 1536. Supporting evidence comes from a remark by S. Herberstein from the early 16th century, noting that "two miles from Nizhny Novgorod there were very many houses, resembling a town or settlement, where salt was boiled."

In 1536, the Kazan Khan Safa-Girey virtually destroyed the city of Balakhna. The "common people of Balakhna" who rose to defend it, "not knowing the art of war," were savagely defeated.

After this, the mother of Ivan the Terrible, Yelena Glinskaya, ordered a fortress to be built there: "on the 20th of June of that same year… the construction of a fortified town was begun at the Salt works on Balakhna, for the settlement is large and the people are many." The fortress burned down in 1730.

The fortress, standing some 500 meters from the salt works, occupied a strategically advantageous position, blocking the old road from Nizhny Novgorod to Kostroma. It was situated on the right bank of the Netecha River (formerly the Zheleznitsa) at the confluence with a channel from Lake Petrovskoye, gaining natural protection from the north and east. On the south and west sides the fortress was enclosed by a moat with a sloped palisade along its bottom. Surrounded on all sides by water obstacles, the fortress had a plan close to a square. Judging by a 17th-century description, it was encircled by massive log walls 4.4 meters thick, set on earthen ramparts ("osypi"), and tall combat towers. Of the 9 towers, 4 had gateways. Within the fortress stood administrative buildings, a voivode's court, an arsenal, and siege-shelter yards. One of the first structures built inside the fortress was the cathedral Church of the Ascension, which is mentioned in sources as early as 1541.

From this period survives the oldest surviving building in Balakhna — the Nikolskaya Church, second in antiquity in the Nizhny Novgorod Region only to the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin. The construction of this church in 1552 in Balakhna marked the Russian forces' victory over Kazan.

In ancient Rus, Balakhna was the sole major center of the salt industry. In the 1670s, specifically between 1674 and 1676, Balakhna counted 33 brine pipes with nearly 25,000 buckets of brine, which was evaporated in 86 saltworks to produce salt. The salt was sold on-site, but the greater part was shipped by river barges along the Volga, the Oka, and the Klyazma.

The last year with the highest volume of salt produced was 1870. By the end of the 19th century, salt-making had ceased entirely.

Alongside salt-making, the people of Balakhna were renowned throughout Rus as first-rate shipbuilders, and Balakhna had long been celebrated for its shipbuilding. The true artistry of Balakhna's builders was demonstrated in 1636, when they constructed, on commission for the Holstein embassy, one of the largest vessels of the time — the first ship built in Russia — the "Friedrich." During the reign of Peter I, beginning in 1699, Balakhna became one of the centers for building sailing warships for the tsar's Azov campaign. The construction work drew not only local residents but also craftsmen who came from Kostroma, Vladimir, and other governorates.

Modern era

In the early nineteenth century, Balakhna became the Volga's largest center of wooden shipbuilding, particularly renowned for its rasshivy (flat-bottomed river barges) and belyany (large timber-carrying rafts), and later for its barges. Around 100 barges were built in Balakhna every year. It is worth noting that T. Shevchenko, returning from exile in 1857 and having stopped over in Nizhny Novgorod, made a special trip to "take a look at this mother of countless picturesque rasshivy." Barge construction continued only until the end of the nineteenth century, however: Balakhna's shipbuilding could not withstand competition from the Sormovo shipyard, built nearby in 1849.

Why, then, did steamship construction not replace wooden shipbuilding in Balakhna? The answer lies in the opposition mounted by shortsighted city fathers, who did everything in their power to prevent the establishment of steam-powered shipbuilding here, fearing it would undermine the wooden shipbuilding trade — in which Balakhna's "rulers," as owners of the shipyards, had a direct personal stake. For this reason, steamship construction never took hold in Balakhna, even though the seeds of it were present: the steamships Perm and Minin i Pozharsky, among the first on the Volga, were built here, and the Sormovo plant was originally planned to be built here as well.

In the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries, Balakhna was famed for the production of stove and architectural tiles (izrazets). These tiles were used in church construction, the facing of houses, and the laying of stoves. The tent-shaped roofs of St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow were decorated with iridescent tiles crafted by Balakhna masters. Bricklayers from Balakhna also took part in the construction of the Moscow Kremlin. During the same period, lace-making crafts flourished widely in Balakhna. Lace-making brought Balakhna's lacemakers fame throughout all of Russia. Balakhna lace, which rivaled that of Brussels, found great demand not only within the country but also abroad. The lace trade brought the weavers (lacemakers) very meager earnings, and from the late nineteenth century the craft began to decline. It has survived to the present day on a very small scale.

Balakhna's most prominent historical distinction is that it was the birthplace of the future Nizhny Novgorod Elder — the great hero and citizen of Russia across her thousand-year history — Kuzma Minin, who, together with his military commander Dmitry Pozharsky, saved Russia from complete collapse, pretenders to the throne, humiliation, and foreign invaders.

In the Soviet era, the city experienced a revival and became an important industrial center. Balakhna acquired an entirely new economic role — it was transformed into a major energy hub and the largest center of the paper and woodworking industries. Giants of socialist industry were built here: the Balakhna power station and a pulp-and-paper mill, as well as large enterprises such as a cardboard factory and a furniture factory.

The choice of Balakhna as the site for the power station was determined, on the one hand, by its proximity to its principal consumer of electricity — the City of Gorky — and on the other by the availability of a fuel base, namely large deposits of peat.

The Balakhna power station was one of the first projects of Russia's electrification plan (GOELRO). Its construction began in 1923, and within a year it produced its first electricity. The Balakhna power station — which A. A. Zhdanov once called the skeleton of Nizhny Novgorod industry — formed the energy foundation for the rapid industrial development of the Gorky industrial district during the subsequent five-year plan years.

To supply the power station with fuel, several large peat enterprises (Chernoramensky, Pervomaysky, and Chisty) were established around the city, with mechanized peat extraction.

The Balakhna area also proved a highly favorable location for the construction of a pulp-and-paper mill, since paper production consumes not only enormous quantities of raw material (timber) but also requires large amounts of energy and water.

The F. E. Dzerzhinsky Pulp-and-Paper Mill, like the power station, was built in a short time: in 1925 the site was still wasteland, and by 1928 the mill had produced the country's first tonnes of paper. Its construction was of great importance in reducing dependence on imported paper.

In the same year a cardboard factory was built, and in 1932 a furniture factory was established on the basis of an industrial combine. Thus, right at the beginning of the industrialization period, Balakhna had already created an entire complex of woodworking and wood-processing facilities, which was subsequently supplemented by chemical industries linked to them.

Balakhna was transformed as a city as well. Growing new settlements on its outskirts, it expanded and was renewed. The city's population, compared with pre-revolutionary figures, nearly increased tenfold in the pre-war years alone. Pravdinsk alone had three times more residents than old Balakhna.

The railway branch line serving the city was built in 1923 and in 1948 was extended to the Gorky Hydroelectric Station.

Until 1922, Balakhna was the center of its uyezd. In 1922, the uyezd center was moved to the selo of Gorodets, which was simultaneously elevated to town status. In 1929, Balakhninsky District was created with Balakhna as its center. In 1930, Balakhna was classified as a city of regional subordination. In 1932, the selo of Kubentsovo was incorporated within the city limits.

In 1940, Balakhna became a city of oblast subordination.

Coat of Arms of Balakhna

The current coat of arms of Balakhna is based on the coat of arms from the era of the Russian Empire and takes the form of a silver shield, in the upper field of which appear elements of the coat of arms of Nizhny Novgorod Region: a red deer with black antlers and hooves, and in the lower field — two red kokory. A kokora (knee timber) is a curved structural element of a wooden ship's frame, made from the part of a tree that includes the root. The historical coat of arms of the city of Balakhna was approved on August 16, 1781, when Balakhna was a district town of the Nizhny Novgorod Viceroyalty.

Interesting Facts

For a long time the city was the sole center of salt production in the Russian state. In 1676, Balakhna counted 33 brine pipes with 25,000 buckets of brine, which was evaporated in 86 saltworks.

In 1636, by order of the Holstein Embassy, the first large sailing ship in Russia, the Friedrich, was built here.

In 1925, the world's largest peat-burning power station was built in Balakhna.

Problems of the Gratis Sports Club

"Friends! I want to tell you a story whose end may come very soon. In the city of Balakhna, in Nizhny Novgorod Region, sport has always been loved and supported. Our city has many sports clubs, a sports and recreation center (FOK), a cultural center with halls, the House of Moscow, and a few more decent venues. And all would be well, except that recently the Balakhna authorities have begun to act with complete lawlessness! It started when, a year ago, two FOKs were merged into one, driving a large number of people out onto the street. Having met no resistance, the authorities grew emboldened. And waiting for the elections to end and having formed their own team of deputies, they decided to strike a fresh blow against the health-conscious residents of Balakhna!

And now their new target is the Gratis club! The only club where an entire district (population up to 25,000) can train — adults and children alike — they simply want to sell off for development! The club currently cultivates two Olympic sports (taekwondo and weightlifting) as well as a state-supported sport (sambo). All the children who train at the club (more than 100 of them) are local residents. If the club closes, they will be forced to quit training, since getting to the FOK on the other side of the city through the traffic jams will be impossible. The results achieved by the children training there (in taekwondo) are outstanding! In the five years since taekwondo was introduced at Gratis, Roman Palatin's students have won around 50!!!!! first-place finishes (at regional, all-Russian, and international tournaments), and the number of second and third places is beyond counting. Among them is Sofya Solovyova, a participant in the Nastavnik ("Mentor") project. The reigning champion of the Volga Federal District championships, she is today ready to conquer the world and Olympic stage! All she needs for that is proper conditions and a coach who believes in her.

Besides Sofya, the club has several more current Nizhny Novgorod Region champions! All of them will be forced to interrupt their training, since school classes and homework leave children no possibility of spending another hour and a half commuting!

If the current authorities do not meet with proper resistance from those who want a healthy future for their children, Balakhna will sink into alcoholism and drug addiction, having no other path.

Friends! We need your support! All residents of this district are against the sale of the club — it is a road to nowhere! Help save the club! By doing this good deed, you will save an entire generation of children…. Thank you for your support!"

Contact Phone Number

8-915-946-98-01 Roman

Demolition of the Cultural Center

On April 15, 2017, the cultural center of the Chernoramensky Peat Enterprise was demolished in Balakhna (Gidrotorf district). This was preceded by a dispute between advocates for the preservation of architectural heritage (Igor Ruzankin) and the building's owners. Ruzankin succeeded in having the building included on the list of cultural heritage sites (by order of the Nizhny Novgorod Region State Authority for the Protection of Cultural Heritage Objects, No. 273, dated December 14, 2016), whereupon the owner — who had connections within the Balakhna Authority — successfully challenged this decision in the city court on March 13, 2017. It became known that the cultural heritage protection authority had been preparing a new expert evaluation of the building, after which the owner demolished it.