Voronezh (English) Воронеж (Russian)
-  Inhabited locality  -
View of Voronezh
Location of Voronezh Oblast in Russia
Voronezh Location of Voronezh in Voronezh Oblast
Coordinates: 51°40′15″N 39°12′51″E / 51.67083°N 39.21417°E / 51.67083; 39.21417Coordinates: 51°40′15″N 39°12′51″E / 51.67083°N 39.21417°E / 51.67083; 39.21417
Coat of arms	Flag
Holiday	Second Sunday of September
Administrative status
Country	Russia
Federal subject	Voronezh Oblast
Administrative center of	Voronezh Oblast
Municipal status (as of June 2008)
Urban okrug	Voronezh Urban Okrug
Head	Sergey Koliukh
Representative body	City Duma
Statistics
Area	590.43 km2 (227.97 sq mi)
Population (2010 Census, preliminary)	889,989 inhabitants
- Rank in 2010	15th
Population (2002 Census)	848,752 inhabitants
- Rank in 2002	16th
Density	1,507 /km2 (3,900 /sq mi)
Time zone	MSD (UTC+04:00)
Founded	375, 1585, or 1586
Postal code(s)	3940xx
Dialing code(s)	+7 473
Official website

Voronezh (Russian: Воро́неж, IPA: [vɐˈronʲɪʂ]) is a city in southwestern Russia, the administrative center of Voronezh Oblast. It is located on both sides of the Voronezh River, 12 kilometers (7.5 mi) away from where it flows into the Don. 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: 889,989 (2010 Census preliminary results); 848,752 (2002 Census); 886,844 (1989 Census); 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.

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. The town is named for the river, itself named for an earlier town destroyed by the Mongol invasion, whose name in turn was borrowed from a place name in the Principality of Chernigov, derived from the personal name Voroneg.

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 center of a large and fertile region. In 1711 it was made the administrative center of Azov Governorate, which eventually morphed into Voronezh Governorate.

In the 19th century, Voronezh was a center 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 June 1941 on Voronezh excavator factory were built two artillery installation БМ13 (Fight machine N 13 "Katusha"). In July the construction of "Katusha" was rationalized so that its manufacturing became easier and the time of volley repetition was shorten from 5 min to 15 sec. More than 300 БМ-13 units manufactured in Voronezh were used in counterattack near Moscow in December 1941. In October 22 of 1941 because of forthcoming of German troops there was opened the city committee of defense. On November 7, 1941 there was parade of troops devoted to anniversary of October revolution. There was only 3 of such parades that year: in Moscow, Kuybyshev, and Voronezh. On July 6, the German army occupied the right-bank part of the city. On July 10, the northeastern part of the city was released, on the right bank of Voronezh river there was created the Chizhovskiy springboard.

Until January 25, 1943, there were permanent defenses of Voronezh which was important for protection of Moscow from the 2nd German army. During the attack mission "Small Saturn" and then "Ostrogogsko-Rossoshanskoy" and "Voronezhsko-Kastornenskoy" missions of Voronezh battlefront there were destroyed 2nd German army, 8th Italian and 2nd Hungarian armies. There was destroyed about 26 German divisions under Voronezh. On January 25, 1943, Voronezh was liberated. During the war there city was almost completely ruined, with 92% of all buildings destroyed.

1950-1980

By 1950, the reconstruction of Voronezh was accomplished. A lot of buildings and historical monuments were repaired. In 1950-1960 there were created new factories: tire factory, machine-tool factory,the factory of heavy mechanical press and other

Supersonic plane Tupolev Tu-144

Domestic Aerobus Il-86

At the end of 1950-XX on Voronezh CBCA (design office of chemistry and automatic) there was developed oxygen-kerosene liquid-propellant rocket engine РД-0105 for the 3-d step of carrier rocket "Luna" which in 1959 first time in the world reached the 2-nd space velocity.

On the base of РД-0105 there was designed the rocket engine for the 3-d step of space craft Vostok 1, on which the Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin on 12 April 1961 first in the world made a flight of a man into space.

In 1968, on Voronezh Aviation factory there was established the serial production of supersonic plane Tupolev Tu-144. On October 1977 there was built first Domestic Aerobus (wide-body plane) Il-86.

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.

Education

Voronezh is a major center of higher education in central Russia. The main educational facilities are:

• 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.

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.
• Andrei Platonov, author, famous for The Foundation Pit
• The Russian punk band Sektor Gaza was founded there.
• Mitrofan Yefimovich Pyatnitsky, musician, gatherer of Russian folk songs. He established the famous Pyatnitsky Choir.

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).

Climate

Voronezh experiences a humid continental climate (Köppen climate classification Dfb) with long, cold winters and short, warm summers.

Transportation

Not far from Voronezh is the satellite town 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

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, et cetera, to Voronezh.

In 1989, Voronezh was the subject of international media attention after the TASS newspaper published a story recounting an alleged UFO landing that occurred in the city's park, and subsequent encounters between citizens and extraterrestrial beings. The account was later reported in America by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and received coverage by several other media outlets including the NBC Nightly News and the ABC Evening News. Details of the incident have been featured in several books, most notably UFO Chronicles of the Soviet Union: A Cosmic Samizdat by Jacques Vallée, The UFO Encyclopedia, Volume 1: UFOs in the 1980s by Jerome Clark, and UFOs: The Secret History by Michael Hesemann.

Attractions

Annunciation Cathedral, Voronezh is the largest church in Russia outside Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Beside pine-tree groves in the lowland of the river Voronezh known for their favorable influence on human being, more famous is historical and cultural monument – Divnogorye, and Divnorsky monastery which is an ensemble of unique Orthodox Churches gouged by Russian monks within a huge chalk mountain on the banks of the river Tikhaya Sosna in Liskinsky District.

Besides, there are a lot of summer and winter tourist camps, sanatoriums and reserves, monasteries, churches, cultural and historical monuments on the territory of Voronezh oblast of Russia.

The city has 7 theatres, 12 museums, 11 Cinema theatres, Philarmonic Hall, Circus. There is a number of sport and fitness complexes, night clubs, Casino, Cafe and Restoraunts and also about 100 shoping malls .

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

Buses 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.

International relations

Date		Sister City
1968		Brno, Czech Republic
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

Cities and towns in Voronezh Oblast Administrative center: Voronezh Bobrov · Boguchar · Borisoglebsk · Buturlinovka · Ertil · Kalach · Liski · Novokhopyorsk · Novovoronezh · Ostrogozhsk · Pavlovsk · Povorino · Rossosh · Semiluki