Voronezh Information
Voronezh (Russian: Воро́неж [vɐˈronʲɪʂ]) is a large city in southwestern Russia, not far from Ukraine. It is located either side of the Voronezh River, twelve kilometers away from where it flows into the Don. Voronezh is the administrative center of Voronezh Oblast. It is an operating center of the Southeastern Railway (connecting European Russia with Ural and Siberia, as well as Caucasus and Ukraine), as well as the center of the Don Highway (Moscow—Rostov-on-Don). Population: 961,823 (2010 est.);[citation needed] 848,752 (2002 Census);[3] 886,844 (1989 Census);[9] 660,000 (1970); 447,000 (1959); 344,000 (1939); 120,000 (1926). The city is divided into six administrative districts: Kominternovsky, Leninsky, Levoberezhny, Sovetsky, Tsentralny, and Zheleznodorozhny.
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History
The Voronezh River was first mentioned in the Hypatian Codex in 1177, but human settlement on the site is attested since the Stone Age by archeological finds. The present town was founded in 1585 or 1586 by Feodor I as a fort protecting the Russian state from the raids of Crimean and Nogay Tatars.
In the 17th century, Voronezh gradually evolved into a sizeable town, especially after Tsar Peter the Great built a dockyard in Voronezh, where the Azov Flotilla was constructed for the Azov campaigns in 1695 and 1696. This fleet, the first ever built in Russia, included the first Russian ship of the line, Goto Predestinatsia.
View of Voronezh in the 18th century.Owing to the Voronezh Admiralty Wharf, for a short time, Voronezh became the largest city of Southern Russia and the economic centre of a large and fertile region. In 1711 it was made the administrative centre of the Azov Province, which morphed into the Voronezh guberniya (known as namestnichestvo in 1779-1824).
In the 19th century, Voronezh was a centre of the Central Black Earth Region. Manufacturing industry (mills, tallow-melting, butter-making, soap, leather and other works) as well as bread, cattle, suet, and the hair trade developed in the town. A railway connected Voronezh with Rostov-on-Don in 1868 and Moscow in 1871.
During World War II, Voronezh was the scene of fierce fighting between Russian and combined Axis troops. The Germans used it as a staging area for their attack on Stalingrad, and made a key crossing point on the Don River.
In September 1989, residents of Voronezh claimed UFO sightings, which drew attention from the press and TV. There were reports of two strange creatures said to come out of the UFO after it landed in a park.[citation needed]
Between 1991 and 2000 the city, high in unemployment, became a part of the Communist-voting region known as Russia's "Red Belt". Today Voronezh is the economic, industrial, cultural, and scientific center of the so-called Black Earth Region. It has seven theatres and twelve cinemas; it is also home to Voronezh State University.
The city's large student population includes many foreigners. Foreign students in Russia usually take one year of intensive Russian language in Voronezh before moving on to universities elsewhere. This has led to tension between foreign students and the native population, resulting in a number of murders. The Peruvian student Enrique Anhelis Hurtado was killed on October 9, 2005. There were 45 reported attacks on foreigners in Voronezh in that year.
Annunciation Cathedral, Voronezh is the largest church in Russia outside Moscow and St. Petersburg.Notable natives and residents
- Nikolay Basov, Nobel-prize winning physicist, inventor of laser;
- Ivan Bunin, The First Russian writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature;
- Pavel Alekseyevich Cherenkov, Nobel-prize winning physicist;
- Mikhail Semyonovich Tsvet, Russian botanist, inventor of adsorption chromatography;
- Konstantin Petrovich Feoktistov, Soviet cosmonaut and an eminent space engineer;
- Poets and writers such as Platonov, Koltsov, Nikitin, Marshak, Peskov, Troepolsky;
- Painters Kramskoi, Ge, Kuprin, Vikentii Trofimov;
- Valerian Albanov, navigator and polar explorer with ill-fated Arctic ship St. Anna;
- Grigory Sanakoev, chess player ;
- Irina Makarova, mezzo-soprano, soloist of the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow and La Scala in Milan;
- Yelena Davydova, Alexander Vasilyevich Tkachyov, gymnasts;
- Valentina Popova, weightlifter and Dmitri Sautin, diver;
- Voline, the anarchist;
- Serge Voronoff, the surgeon.
- Osip Mandelstam, poet, was exiled to Voronezh after his arrest in 1934 and wrote a series of poems there collected under the title Voronezh Notebooks.
- The Russian punk band Sektor Gaza was founded there.
Sports
After the city had two seasons without a professional football team, the Fakel Voronezh franchise was restored for the 2010 season. They compete in the Russian regional leagues (equivalent to the English League 1).
Transportation
Not far from Voronezh is the satellite town of Novovoronezh ("New Voronezh") which serves a local nuclear power plant.
Both cities are served by Chertovitskoye Airport which is the home of Polet Airlines. Voronezh is also home to Voronezh Pridacha airport, part of a major aircraft manufacturing facility, VASO - Voronezhskoye Aktsionernoye Samoletostroitelnoe Obshestvo (Voronezh aircraft production association) where the Concordski, Tupolev Tu-144, was built and the only operational one is still stored. Voronezh also hosts Voronezh Malshevo air force base in the south-west of the city, which, according to a Natural Resources Defense Council report, houses nuclear bombers.
Further reading
Intercession Cathedral (1833–1847).Charlotte Hobson's book, "Black Earth City", is an account of life in Voronezh at the time of the fall of the Soviet Union based on her experiences after spending a year in Voronezh as a foreign student in 1991–1992.
Nadezhda Mandelstam's Hope Against Hope, the first volume of her memoirs concerning her husband, the poet Osip Mandelstam, provides many details about life in Voronezh in the 1930s under Stalinist rule.
From the mid-nineteenth century is the diary of a British soldier, a sergeant in the Royal Welch Fusiliers, published as "Prisoners of Voronesh (sic)". George Newman was captured in the Crimean War and then marched under a loose guard with a motley crew of PoWs, convicts, etc., to Voronezh.
Statue of Peter the Great (1860).Urbanization
Voronezh city has been completely urbanized in the last 3 years. The city has 20 nightclubs, more than 100 shopping malls, 5,000 citybuses, and an International Airport.
Transport
Air transport
Chertovitskoye International Airport with IATA airport code VOZ, is located north of the city. It has a single runway 2300 metres long. There are regular flights to Moscow with a flight time of about 1 hour.
Regular flights to: Antalya, Baku, Istanbul, Kiev, Milan, Minsk, Munich, Prague, Tel-Aviv and Yerevan.
Rail transport
Rail services form part of the Southeastern Railway of RZD (Russian Federal Railways). There are regular express trains to Moscow that take about 10 hours. Other destinations served direct from Voronezh include K'yiv, Kursk, Novorossiysk, Sochi and Tambov.
Local transport
Setra and SsangYong Transtar buses at the central bus stationBuses and minibuses provide the bulk of local public transport. There are some trolleybuses but the system has been allowed to degrade. The once extensive tramway network was finally abandoned on 15 April 2009.[10]
Education in Voronezh
Voronezh is a major center of higher education in central Russia. Some of the educational facilities include:
- Voronezh State University
- Voronezh State Technical University
- Voronezh State University of Architecture and Construction
- Voronezh State Pedagogical University
- Voronezh State Agricultural University
- Voronezh State Technological Academy
- Voronezh State Medical Academy
- Voronezh State Academy of Arts
- Voronezh State Forestry Engineering Academy
- Voronezh State Institute of Physical Training
- Voronezh Institute of Russia's Home Affairs Ministry
- Voronezh Military Aviation Engineering University
and a number of other affiliate and private-funded institutes and universities. There are 2000 schools within the city.
Climate
Voronezh experiences a humid continental climate (Köppen climate classification Dfb) with long, cold winters and short, warm summers.
| Climate data for Voronezh | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Average high °C (°F) | -5.6 (21.9) | -4.4 (24.1) | 1.2 (34.2) | 12.9 (55.2) | 20.9 (69.6) | 24.0 (75.2) | 25.4 (77.7) | 24.5 (76.1) | 18.5 (65.3) | 10.2 (50.4) | 2.4 (36.3) | -2.4 (27.7) | 10.63 (51.14) |
| Average low °C (°F) | -12.1 (10.2) | -11.6 (11.1) | -5.6 (21.9) | 3.2 (37.8) | 9.1 (48.4) | 12.5 (54.5) | 14.3 (57.7) | 13.0 (55.4) | 8.0 (46.4) | 2.4 (36.3) | -2.7 (27.1) | -8.0 (17.6) | 1.88 (35.38) |
| Precipitation mm (inches) | 41 (1.61) | 32 (1.26) | 31 (1.22) | 40 (1.57) | 46 (1.81) | 66 (2.6) | 73 (2.87) | 57 (2.24) | 54 (2.13) | 39 (1.54) | 50 (1.97) | 50 (1.97) | 579 (22.8) |
| Avg. precipitation days | 9 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 7 | 9 | 10 | 7 | 8 | 7 | 10 | 11 | 100 |
| Source: World Meteorological Organisation (UN) [11] | |||||||||||||
International relations
| Date | Sister City | |
|---|---|---|
| 1968 | Brno, Czech Republic[12] | |
| 1989 | Wesermarsch, Lower Saxony, Germany | |
| 1991 | Charlotte, North Carolina, United States | |
| 1992 | Chongqing, People's Republic of China | |
| 1995 | Sliven, Bulgaria | |
| 1996 | León, Castile and León, Spain[13] |
References
- ^ a b c d e f http://www.voronezh-city.ru/mat/post/ustav_gogv.doc
- ^ http://www.voronezh-city.ru/index.php?r=gov&d=9189
- ^ a b Федеральная служба государственной статистики (Federal State Statistics Service) (2004-05-21). "Численность населения России, субъектов Российской Федерации в составе федеральных округов, районов, городских поселений, сельских населённых пунктов – районных центров и сельских населённых пунктов с населением 3 тысячи и более человек (Population of Russia, its federal districts, federal subjects, districts, urban localities, rural localities—administrative centers, and rural localities with population of over 3,000)" (in Russian). Всероссийская перепись населения 2002 года (All-Russia Population Census of 2002). Federal State Statistics Service. http://perepis2002.ru/ct/html/TOM_01_04_1.htm. Retrieved 2009-08-19.
- ^ The value of density was calculated automatically by dividing the 2002 Census population by the area specified in the infobox. Please note that this value may not be accurate as the area specified in the infobox does not necessarily correspond to the area of the entity proper or is reported for the same year as the Census (2002).
- ^ "Историческая хроника" (in Russian) (DOC). Муниципальное учреждение культуры Централизованная библиотечная система города Воронежа Центральная городская библиотека имени А. Платонова. 2009. http://www.voronezh-city.ru/mat/history.doc. Retrieved 25 September 2009.
- ^ "Воронеж может оказаться намного старше" (in Russian). Вести. 19 August 2010. http://www.vesti.ru/doc.html?id=386902. Retrieved 3 October 2010.
- ^ http://www.e-adres.ru/postcodes/3800347/
- ^ http://www.rt.ru/help-info/mg/index.php?SELECTED_CHAR=В
- ^ "Всесоюзная перепись населения 1989 г. Численность наличного населения союзных и автономных республик, автономных областей и округов, краёв, областей, районов, городских поселений и сёл-райцентров. (All Union Population Census of 1989. Present population of union and autonomous republics, autonomous oblasts and okrugs, krais, oblasts, districts, urban settlements, and villages serving as district administrative centers.)" (in Russian). Всесоюзная перепись населения 1989 года (All-Union Population Census of 1989). Demoscope Weekly (website of the Institute of Demographics of the State University—Higher School of Economics. 1989. http://demoscope.ru/weekly/ssp/rus89_reg.php. Retrieved 2007-12-13.
- ^ Buses Worldwide ISSN 0961-2122, issue 161, July 2009
- ^ "World Weather Information Service – Voronez". United Nations. http://worldweather.wmo.int/107/c01020.htm. Retrieved 01 January 2011.
- ^ "Brno - Partnerská města" (in Czech). © 2006–2009 City of Brno. http://www.brno.cz/index.php?nav02=1985&nav01=34&nav03=1010&nav04=1016&nav05=1249&nav06=1272. Retrieved 2009-07-17.
- ^ http://www.larazon.es/noticia/ciudades-y-pueblos-se-benefician-del-hermanamiento-con-otros-territorios
External links
| Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Voronezh |
- Voronezh State University - City page
- Voronezh.Net City site (Russian)
- Voronezh City Аdvertising (Russian)
- Voronezh News (Russian)
- Big Voronezh forum "U Antona" (Russian)
- Voronezh city churches (English)
- Site about old Voronezh (English)
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Categories: Cities and towns in Voronezh Oblast | Populated places established in 1586 | Archaeological sites in Russia | Cities of Military Glory
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