Pavlovo-on-the-Oka, Pavlovo — a prosperous industrial city in the Nizhny Novgorod Region, and a district center. The birthplace of PAZ buses, the Pavlovo lemon, and a great many picturesque little houses.
History
Pavlovo arose in the 16th century as a settlement at a river crossing over the Oka River on the road from Nizhny Novgorod to Moscow. It is believed that its founder was a ferryman named Pavel, from whose name the settlement took its name. To defend the crossing, escort important cargo, and transport criminals, a fortress with an earthen rampart was built at Pavlovo, where a garrison was stationed (recalled today by the names Ostroznaya Hill and Streletskaya Street). In the 17th century it was known as the palace village of Pavlovo, or Pavlov Ostrog. In 1621 it was granted to Prince Cherkassky, and in 1742 it passed into the possession of the Sheremetev counts.
In the 18th century, Pavlovo became a prosperous trading and industrial village. Its inhabitants were engaged primarily in blacksmithing and the lock-and-knife trade. Pavlovo blacksmiths could make locks as large as a man and as small as a pinhead. There was a craftsman in the village by the name of Zavyalov who made a chain of 240 tiny padlocks with little keys. It weighed three zolotniki (a zolotnik being just over 4 grams). In Pavlovo they say: "Tula masters shod the English flea, but Pavlovo craftsmen made it a collar and chain so it couldn't run away." A Pavlovo craftsman named Biryukov, upon seeing the railway from St. Petersburg to Moscow for the first time, returned home and forged miniature rails and built a tiny locomotive.
Pavlovo-made goods were sold — and continue to be sold — not only in Russia but abroad as well. "Who has not heard of Pavlovo goods?" wrote the Russian author Pavel Melnikov-Pechersky. "Almost every one of us dines with a Pavlovo knife and fork, sharpens his pen with a Pavlovo penknife, locks his belongings with a Pavlovo latch, and of late has even started shaving with Pavlovo razors."
It is also worth noting that Pavlovo became the first village in Russia to begin publishing a local newspaper. It reported news to residents and was distributed free of charge to every household, funded by the village community. The newspaper "Proceedings of the Organs of the Pavlovo Peasant Village Community" was published from 1895 to 1898, until it was banned by the censors.
From the early 20th century, craftsmen producing edged tools, everyday peasant goods, knives, cutlery, and scissors began forming artels, which over time gave rise to a number of the city's industrial enterprises. In 1919, Pavlovo was granted town status, and the district center was relocated here from the neighboring town of Gorbatov.
The city gained particular renown for the PAZ-brand buses manufactured here. The story of how these buses came to be is a curious one. Workers and engineers at one of the tool factories put forward an initiative to begin producing buses. Moscow refused. Undeterred, the factory quietly built three prototype buses and drove them to the capital in time for a holiday... A few months later, in 1951, a decision was signed to convert the tool factory into a bus factory.
Today PAZ is Russia's largest bus factory, producing up to 9,000 buses in 30 configurations per year. In addition to it, the city is home to the Kirov Artistic Metalware Factory (which produces cutlery), a mechanical engineering plant, and a locksmith and assembly tool plant.
Pavlovo is the birthplace of the prominent chemist and academician A. E. Favorsky (a monument to him stands in the square on Favorsky Street, also known as Vokzalnaya Street). In the past, Pavlovo had a drama theater in which the well-known actor G. Zhzhenov performed.
Sights
- The Gomulin Estate — a museum and the most notable local architectural landmark