Volgograd

Stalingrad is a redirect to this article. Further meanings are listed under Stalingrad (disambiguation) .

The title of this article is ambiguous. Further meanings are listed under Volgograd (disambiguation) .

city Volgograd Волгоград flag coat of arms Federal district Southern Russia Oblast Volgograd Urban district Volgograd mayor Andrei Kosolapov Founded 1589 Earlier names Tsaritsyn (until 1925) Stalingrad (1925–1961) City since 1780 surface 565  km² population 1,021,215 inhabitants (as of Oct. 14, 2010) Population density 1807 inhabitants / km² Height of the center 80  m Time zone UTC + 4 Telephone code (+7) 8442 Post Code 400000-400138 License Plate 34, 134 OKATO 18 401 Website www.volgadmin.ru Geographical location Coordinates 48 ° 42 '  N , 44 ° 29'  E Coordinates: 48 ° 42 '0 "  N , 44 ° 29' 0"  E

Location in the western part of Russia

Location in Volgograd Oblast

List of cities in Russia

Volgograd ( Russian Волгоград ^{? / I} ), Tsaritsyn until 1925 (Russian Царицын ^{? / I} ), from 1925 to 1961 Stalingrad (Russian Сталинград ^{? / I} ), is a Russian city ​​of over 1,021,215 inhabitants (as of October 14, 2010). It is the administrative and economic center on the Lower Volga . The city is a major transport hub and an important industrial center.

The city ​​went down in world history as the site of the Battle of Stalingrad in World War II .

geography

Volgograd is located almost 1000 km southeast of Moscow on the western bank of the Volga , around 400 km north of the mouth of the river into the Caspian Sea . The city extends over 60 km along the banks of the Volga in a width of up to 10 km.

The city district Volgograd also included next to the city of Volgograd to 2009 settlements of urban type Gorkowski (16,436 inhabitants), Gumrak (6053), Wodstroi (4483) and Youzhny (1914) and 18 villages with a total of 6,286 inhabitants (calculated as of 1 January 2009) . These localities were incorporated in March 2009, so that the city of Volgograd is now the only locality in the urban district and, as in the 1990s, its population is slightly above one million despite a continued decline .

history

Tsaritsyn

The area around Volgograd was an important trade route in ancient times due to its geographical location on the isthmus between the Volga and Don . Here settled in the 5th century BC. BC Scythians . In the 8th and 9th centuries the area belonged to the empire of the Khazars , in the 11th and 12th centuries various tribes and hordes stayed here, including the Polovcians or the Golden Horde , which was about 50 km east of Volgograd, on the river Akhtuba , built one of its centers with the city of Znamensk and ruled Volgograd since the Mongol storm in the 13th century. The beginnings of the Russian Volgograd are not illuminated in detail. The official founding date is July 2, 1589, when the city was founded as a fortress to protect Russia from the nomads from the south. The city's first name was Tsaritsyn, derived from the nearby tributary of the Volga.

The facility, made of wood, was initially located on a now defunct Volga island opposite the mouth of the river Zariza (from Tatar sari su "yellow water"). After a fire it was moved to the right bank of the Volga. The first stone building was built in 1664. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the town, which had a few hundred inhabitants, was besieged and captured several times by rebellious Cossacks: in 1670 under Stenka Razin and in 1774 under Jemeljan Pugachev . After the conquest of the Crimea and the Kuban region in 1783, Tsaritsyn lost its strategic military importance and gradually developed into a commercial and economic center. Above all, the construction of the railway line to Kalach on Don in 1862 and to Gryazi in 1872 led to an economic upswing and made Tsaritsyn a hub for oil supplies and transport links from the Caspian Sea to the Black Sea and from the Caucasus to central Russia . As a result, large-scale industry also settled here, including metal and wood processing companies, oil refineries for the crude oil from Baku , several mills and tanneries.

Renaming in honor of Stalin

During the Russian Civil War of 1917–1920 there was heavy fighting here, because the city was at the crossroads of transport routes for food from the south of the country to Moscow and Petrograd . On April 10, 1925, it was renamed Stalingrad ("Stalin City") in honor of Josef Stalin , who had served as army commissioner here during the civil war .

During the German-Soviet War , Stalingrad was one of the targets of the “ Fall Blau ” offensive and was encircled on three sides by over 230,000 soldiers of the German 6th Army in late summer 1942 in the Battle of Stalingrad . The fighting began on August 23, 1942, u. a. with a massive bombing of the city by the air force . The fighting reached downtown in September, with several key points (including the Central Station and Mamayev Hill ) switching hands several times. The defending troops of the Red Army could only get their supplies from the unoccupied east bank of the Volga by ships. The tactical goal of the Wehrmacht was, by taking the city, the shipping traffic on the Volga, over the u. a. Allied aid supplies were transported from the Persian Corridor and the Caspian Sea to northern and central Russia.

Ruins of a workshop in the “Red October” steelworks, January 1943

At the beginning of November the Wehrmacht had captured 90 percent of the city area. However, the complete conquest of the city did not succeed due to the continued resistance of the Red Army, although Hitler in his speech on November 8, 1942 described the battle as largely won. Instead, the German troops and their allies (especially Romanians and Croats) were surrounded by the Soviet counter-offensive " Operation Uranus " on November 19, 1942 . A German attempt at relief with the " Winter Storm Company " failed. On February 2, 1943, the remnants of the Sixth Army under General Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus stopped fighting. Around 108,000 German and allied soldiers were taken prisoner. During the fighting, the city was almost completely destroyed. Reconstruction began immediately after the liberation in February 1943. In the same year, the town twinning with the English Coventry was closed. In 1945 the city was given the official title of City of Heroes by the leadership of the Soviet Union.

In the city were the three Soviet POW camps 108, 361 and 362 for POWs of the Second World War , plus the POW Hospital 5771. Camp 362 existed until 1954.

Renamed to Volgograd

As part of the de-Stalinization , the name of the city was changed to Volgograd on November 7, 1961 . Since then, the suggestion has repeatedly arisen to rename the city back to Stalingrad or to use this name at least temporarily or alternatively. In 2013, the City Duma decided to use the term “Hero City Stalingrad” on the occasion of the celebrations for the 70th anniversary of the surrender of the German troops and on other memorial days. In 2015, a petition signed by 50,000 people from President Putin called for the reintroduction of the old name, which the latter did not rule out and which he recommended to vote on. For commemorative events, the city has been temporarily called Stalingrad again since around 2017.

Attacks in 2013

→ Main article : Volgograd attacks in 2013

Towards the end of 2013 there was a series of attacks in Volgograd by North Caucasian Islamists who want to detach their home region from Russia and set up a Muslim emirate there. In October, a burst suicide a bus , killing six passengers . On December 29, a lit bombers in the station a belt of explosives , corresponded to the explosive force of 10 kilograms of TNT, and ripped 17 people to their deaths. The next day, another suicide bomber killed at least 16 people in a bus.

climate

Volgograd
Climate diagram
J F. M. A. M. J J A. S. O N D.     37   -5 -11     29   -4 -11     26th   3 -5     25th   15th 5     37   23 12     37   27 16     36   29 18th     37   28 17th     26th   22nd 12     24   12 4th     43   4th -1     46   -2 -7 Temperature in ° C ,  precipitation in mm Source: Roshydromet

Average monthly temperatures and rainfall for Volgograd Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Max. Temperature ( ° C ) −4.5 −4.3 2.6 15.4 22.7 26.9 29.3 27.9 21.6 12.2 4.0 −1.9 O 12.7 Min. Temperature (° C) −10.7 −10.7 −4.5 5.1 12.0 16.1 18.4 17.1 11.6 4.0 −1.3 −7.0 O 4.2 Precipitation ( mm ) 37 29 26th 25th 37 37 36 37 26th 24 43 46 Σ 403 Rainy days ( d ) 8th 6th 6th 5 6th 6th 5 4th 4th 5 8th 10 Σ 73 Source: Roshydromet

Population development

year	Residents
1897	55.186
1926	147,900
1939	445,312
1959	593,844
1970	817,647
1979	928,692
1989	998.894
2002	1,011,417
2010	1,021,215

Note: census data (1926 rounded)

Culture and sights

Monumental statue Mother Motherland calls in Volgograd

The city is characterized by the typical architecture of late Stalinism of the 1950s and 1960s of the Soviet Union. One of the city's main attractions is the memorial of the Battle of Stalingrad on Mamayev Hill . There is also the mother-home statue , which carries a 33 meter long sword and weighs 7,900 tons (including the foundation). The statue's sword alone weighs 14 tons. At 85 meters (measured from the sole of the foot to the tip of the sword) it is one of the tallest statues in the world .

In the southernmost district of Volgograd (in Krasnoarmeisk) is the former German settlement Alt Sarepta, which was founded in 1765 by the Moravian Brethren . Not far away, right at the confluence of the Volga-Don Canal into the Volga, is Russia's largest statue of Lenin.

From 2014, the city was actively preparing for the World Cup matches. In particular, the international stadium “Volgograd Arena” was built at the foot of the Kurgan “Mamayev”.

In addition, three training grounds based on the Academy for Physical Culture and Sport, the “Olympia” sports complex, the “Zenit” stadium and three new hotels were built and reconstructed in the city for the World Cup. The number 25 ambulance clinical hospital has been reconstructed. A helipad, a road (with a total length of 280 km), utility lines, and a number of objects of the airport were built on the territory.

See also : Kazan Cathedral (Volgograd)

Sports

Volgograd Arena (2018)

One of the most famous sports clubs in the city is the FK Rotor Volgograd football club , which plays in the second division . The city is also home to the women's handball team GK Dynamo Volgograd , which is one of the most successful teams in Russia. The men's handball team of the GK Kaustik Volgograd takes part in the Super League game.

Volgograd was one of the venues for the 2018 World Cup . For this purpose, the new Volgograd Arena was built at the foot of the memorial on Mamayev Hill and on the bank of the river , which can accommodate around 45,000 people.

Economy and Infrastructure

After the fall of the Soviet Union , Volgograd was also badly affected by the general economic crisis in the early 1990s. In the meantime, a recovery has started again. Modern Volgograd is still an important industrial center of Russia today . Important branches of industry are shipbuilding , black and non-ferrous metal processing , petroleum processing , steel and aluminum production , plant and mechanical engineering , as well as wood , food and chemical industries . There is also a large run-of-river power plant north of the city , the Volgograd hydropower plant . The Volgogradski Traktorny Zavod was an important tractor manufacturer and armaments factory in the city for almost 90 years.

It was planned to build a nuclear power plant with district heating in Volgograd. However, plans for two blocks were halted.

The main train station of Volgograd

traffic

First construction phase of the Volga Bridge near Volgograd

Trolleybus operation in Volgograd

Volgograd maintains a large tram network and since 1984 a light rail (Russian: Skorostnoi Tramwai ) with a track length of 13.5 km, of which 3.3 km in the tunnel. In addition, the so-called Volga Bridge , the 7.1 km longest beam bridge in Europe, connects the urban area of ​​Volgograd on the western Volgaufer with the city of Krasnoslobodsk on the eastern bank. The bridge was opened in October 2009 after a 13-year construction period. Worldwide recognition gained the equivalent of 330 million-euro bridge on May 20, 2010, when strong gusts of wind unique for girder bridges resonance oscillations triggered in the building, which otherwise are only suspension bridges like the former Tacoma Narrows Bridge or the Millennium Bridge in London could watch . This was expressed, among other things, in the fact that a section of reinforced concrete about one kilometer long made waves up to one meter high in the longitudinal direction. The bridge was then closed to traffic and pedestrians, but reopened to pedestrians and cars five days later, following an investigation by Russian experts who found no damage.

Trunk roads

Volgograd is connected to the area around the Russian capital Moscow via the R22 Kaspi highway . At the same time, the city is the starting point of the A260 junction , which leads west via Rostov Oblast to the Ukrainian border . This is where the R228 ends , which leads from Syzran via Saratov here.

Airport

The Volgograd airport has lost much since the independence of the neighboring former Soviet republics of its importance as a central hub in southern Russia. With the exception of the summer months, when there are still some direct flights abroad (e.g. to Munich ), all international air traffic goes through the Moscow Sheremetyevo , Moscow Domodedovo and Moscow Vnukovo airports .

education

• Branch of the International Academy for Entrepreneurship
• Branch of the International Slavonic University of G.R. Derschawin (of the institute)
• Branch of the Moscow State Trade University
• Branch of the Moscow Consumer Cooperation University
• Branch of the State Academy for Waterways Transport of the Volga Region
• Branch of the All-Russian Remote Institute of Finance and Economics
• College of Investigative Authorities of the Ministry of Interior
• Institute for Youth Policy and Social Work
• Institute of Art and Culture Volgograd
• Volgograd Legal Institute
• Modern humanities institute
• Orthodox University of Saint Sergius of Radonezh
• Social pedagogical college
• Municipal Institute of the Arts
• Technological College
• Academy for the Volgograd State Service
• Institute of Economics, Sociology and Law Volgograd
• Volgograd Legal Institute of the Ministry of Interior of Russia
• Volgograd Medical Academy
• Volgograd State University of Architecture and Construction
• Volgograd State Agricultural Academy
• Volgograd State Pedagogical University
• Volgograd State Sports Academy
• Volgograd State Technical University
• Volgograd State University
• Volgograd Municipal Art Institute
• planetarium

politics

mayor

• 1991–2003: Yuri Viktorovich Chekhov
• 2003: Alexander Wiktorowitsch Tjurin (acting)
• 2003-2006: Yevgeny Petrovich Ischenko
• 2006–2007: Roland Tamasowitsch Cherianow (acting)
• 2007–2011: Roman Georgievich Grebennikow
• 2011–2012: Valeri Denissowitsch Wasilkow (acting)
• 2012–2013: Irina Anatoljewna Solowjowa (acting)
• 2013–2014: Irina Mikhailovna Gusewa
• since 2014: Andrei Vladimirovich Kosolapov

Mayor Roman Grebennikov, who was elected in 2007 and supported the Kremlin party United Russia and the Communist Party of the Russian Federation in the election, was removed from office on February 23, 2011 after he had previously lost a vote of confidence in the city parliament. Since then the post of mayor has been vacant. Valery Wasilkov and Irina Solovyova acted temporarily until Irina Gussewa was elected mayor on September 16, 2013.

Town twinning

Volgograd lists the following twin cities :

• Coventry , England (1943)
• Ostrava , Czech Republic (1948)
• Kemi , Finland (1953)
• Liege , Belgium (1954)
• Dijon , France (1959)
• Turin , Italy (1961)
• Port Said , Egypt (1962)
• Chennai , India (1966)
• Hiroshima , Japan (1972)
• Cologne , Germany (1988)
• Chemnitz , Germany (1988)
• Cleveland , Ohio , USA (1990)
• Toronto , Canada (1991)
• Jilin , People's Republic of China (1994)
• Chengdu , People's Republic of China (1998)
• Kruševac , Serbia (1999)
• Russian , Bulgaria (2001)
• Tiraspol , Moldova / Transnistria (2006)
• Izmir , Turkey (2006)
• Płońsk , Poland (2008)
• Sandanski , Bulgaria (2008)
• Orlando (Florida) , USA (2008)
• Olevano Romano , Italy (2010)
• Yerevan , Armenia (2015)

sons and daughters of the town

→ Main article : List of sons and daughters of the city of Volgograd

The sons and daughters of the city of Volgograd include: a. the politician and chairman of the Soviet secret service KGB Vladimir Kryuchkov (1924-2007), the test pilot and general of the air force Alexander Fedotov (1932-1984), the former soccer player and former coach of the Russian national soccer team Leonid Sluzki (* 1971), the weightlifter and Olympic champion Alexei Petrow (* 1974), the athlete and Olympic champion Jelena Issinbajewa (* 1982), the high jumper and Olympic champion Jelena Slessarenko (* 1982) and the long-distance swimmer Larissa Iltschenko (* 1988).

Web links

Commons : Volgograd  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Map of Volgograd drawn up in 1963
• www.volgograd.ru (Russian)
• www.volgadmin.ru (Russian, parts also in English and German)
• Volgograd Association - To promote the city partnership Cologne-Volgograd
• Article in the Encyclopedia of Eastern Europe
• Volgograd - Pictures of a City

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Itogi Vserossijskoj perepisi naselenija 2010 goda. Tom 1. Čislennostʹ i razmeščenie naselenija (Results of the All-Russian Census 2010. Volume 1. Number and distribution of the population). Tables 5 , pp. 12-209; 11 , pp. 312–979 (download from the website of the Federal Service for State Statistics of the Russian Federation)
2. ↑ Map of Russia on Yandex.ru . Yandex . Retrieved May 1, 2009.
3. ↑ Order No. 20/652 of the Volgograd Oblast Duma of March 11, 2009 (Russian)
4. ↑ Maschke, Erich (ed.): On the history of the German prisoners of war of the Second World War. Verlag Ernst and Werner Gieseking, Bielefeld 1962–1977.
5. ↑ Volgograd becomes Stalingrad again. In: Internet presence of the radio station Voice of Russia . January 31, 2013, accessed February 2, 2013 . 
6. ↑ "Russia's resurgent love for Josef Stalin" , AlJazeera , June 3, 2015.
7. ↑ The Battle of the Century on the Volga , NZZ, February 1, 2018, page 7
8. ^ Russians study Islamic video threatening Sochi Olympics. dailynews.com, January 19, 2014, accessed September 27, 2019 . 
9. ↑ http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/10/21/blast-on-bus-in-russiakillsatleast5.html
10. ^ "Terrorist attack in the train station: Putin sends special aircraft to Volgograd" , RIA Novosti of December 29, 2013 (updated October 5, 2015).
11. ↑ Possible background to the bomb attacks in Volgograd. In: CNN. January 6, 2014, accessed June 12, 2018 . 
12. ↑ 2018 FIFA World Cup ™ in eleven venues. In: fifa.com. FIFA, September 29, 2012, accessed November 21, 2013 . 
13. ^ The stadiums of the World Cup in Russia: Volgograd Arena. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung Online. June 12, 2018, accessed June 12, 2018 . 
14. ↑ A. Panasenkov, VG Sychev, K. Mensel: A promising area for collaboration: Nuclear heat supply systems in CMEA countries. IAEA Bulletin, Volume 26, Issue 4, Vienna 1984. pp. 22–28 ( A promising area for collaboration (PDF; 769 kB) ( Memento from January 1, 2014 in the Internet Archive ))
15. ↑ The Volgograd 1 nuclear power plant on the IAEA's PRIS ( Memento from August 1, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
16. ↑ The Volgograd 2 nuclear power plant on the IAEA's PRIS ( Memento from March 16, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
17. ↑ "The most dangerous bridge in the world" , in blick.ch of May 23, 2010.
18. ^ "Volgograd: For the time being, only cars are allowed to cross the dancing bridge" , RIA Novosti report from May 25, 2010.
19. ↑ http://www.vlg.aif.ru/politic/gover/70955