Kulebakskiy District borders the Navashinskiy District, Ardatovsky District, and Vyksunsky District Districts of the Nizhny Novgorod Region.
The district contains 28 populated localities, including the regional-significance city of Kulebaki and two urban-type settlements, Veletyma and Gremyachevo.
History of the District
The origins of the city of Kulebaki date back to the late 17th century. Amid Mordva settlements, dense Muroma forests, sandy hills, swamps, lakes, and small rivers, the village of Kulebaki took shape in a small clearing — with just 7.5 desyatinas of arable land and 58 inhabitants (according to 1719 records; the village's first documentary mention dates to 1678).
The name Kulebaki has no definitive, scientifically established etymology. The first settlers engaged in beekeeping and charcoal burning, and later, until the mid-18th century, in hunting and various crafts related to wood processing.
In the early 1860s, local landowner Fyodorov, together with Vyksa merchant Borodachev, built a metallurgical (mining) plant in Kulebaki intended to use local iron ore deposits as raw material. However, the deposits proved too small and there was a shortage of specialists, which forced the owners in 1872 to sell the plant to the Austrian brothers Struve. After subsequently heading the Society of Kolomna Locomotive-Building Plants, the Austrian entrepreneurs made the Kulebaki plant their primary metallurgical base. In 1877, the plant built Russia's first wheel-tire rolling shop, which produced tires for locomotives and railcars. Production of merchant and sheet rolled metal, rails, springs, boiler iron, and other goods was also established.
Much water has flowed through our beauty the Tyosha River since then; several generations have come and gone and life has changed entirely. From a small, obscure hamlet, Kulebaki has grown into a developed industrial and cultural center.
In the 1920s, a timber mill was built in Kulebaki to process lumber harvested by the local logging enterprise.
In 1929 the village of Kulebaki was granted the status of a workers' settlement, and in 1932 the status of a city; from 1939 Kulebaki became a city under regional jurisdiction.
To restore railroad bridges and industrial enterprises destroyed during the war, a structural steel plant was built in Kulebaki in 1943, drawing on metal from the Kulebaki and Vyksa metallurgical plants. Over the course of its existence, the plant produced around two million tons of steel structures for countless construction projects across the country — including major enterprises such as automobile plants in Nizhny Novgorod, Tolyatti, and Naberezhnye Chelny, metallurgical combines in Cherepovets and Kostamuksha, as well as for export to Finland, India, Yugoslavia, Algeria, Nigeria, Vietnam, Cuba, and Sri Lanka.
In order to make fuller use of female labor resources, a branch of the NITEL") — a radio-unit factory — and one of the largest garment factories in the Region were built. To meet the population's needs, the food industry, agriculture, and the service sector were developed across the district, and a construction base was established. Based on a dolomite deposit, a mining and processing combine was founded in 1979 in the urban-type settlement of Gremyachevo to produce limestone flour for soil deacidification and crushed stone for road construction and repair, and for railroad bed ballasting.
By the early 1990s, the district had developed a multi-level, balanced economic base founded on full employment, efficient use of local natural resources, and productive use of industrial assets.
With the onset of perestroika, the district's economy suffered serious upheaval. Kulebaki found itself on the brink of survival — and managed not only to survive but to set out confidently on a path of economic development.
Industry
The district's favorable economic-geographical location determines its economic specialization. A powerful metallurgical, metal-extraction, and machine-building base has been established here. The district also has enterprises in the light, food, and radio-engineering industries, and the service sector is well developed.
Kulebakskiy District is counted among the industrial districts of Nizhny Novgorod Region.
Links
- "Fse Kulebaki" — Electronic directory of enterprises, firms, and state organizations of Kulebaki (archive)