Kstovo
Encyclopedia
Kstovo is a town and the administrative center of Kstovsky District
of Nizhny Novgorod Oblast
, Russia
, located on the right bank of the Volga River
, 22 kilometres (13.7 mi) southeast of Nizhny Novgorod
. Population:
The village of Kstovo was mentioned as early as the 14th century. The place name is said to have originated from the Mordvin
ksty, meaning "strawberry".
With the construction of Novogorkovsky Oil Refinery in the 1950s, a new town was built a few kilometers to the southeast of the old village of Kstovo, on the high ground between the Volga
and the Kudma River
s.
Since then, the western part of the town centered around the original village of Kstovo, and, still quite rural in character, has been commonly referred to as the Old Kstovo (Staroye Kstovo), while the newer eastern part, built in the 1950s, and still expanding, is known as the New Kstovo (Novoye Kstovo). As the New Kstovo expanded over the years, it completely or partially displaced several smaller villages.
Kstovo was granted urban-type settlement
status in 1954 and town status in 1957.
Kstovo's main industrial zone is located south of the city, on the southern side of the Kudma River
. It is centered around the petrochemical plants of LUKOIL
-Nizhegorodnefteorgsintez (formerly NORSI-Oil and Novogorkovsky Oil Refinery), a subsidiary of LUKOIL
, which is the city's main employer in the town, and, historically, the reason for the town's existence.
Some of the technological processes developed at the oil refinery have been patented in the USSR and the USA.
The "BVK" plant, which started operation in 1973 and was closed in 2003, used n-paraffin
s (produced by the oil refinery nearby) as feed for yeast
, in order to produce the so-called "protein and vitamin concentrate" (single-cell protein) for use as animal food. The facility was originally run by the Soviet Ministry of Microbiological Industry. As of ca. 1990, it produced some 300,000 tons of its product per year. The facility also produced certain pharmaceutical products, e.g. Coenzyme Q10 (Ubiquinone-10), used as a dietary supplement.
SIBUR-Neftehim, a subsidiary of Gazprom
, operates an ethylene
production facility EP-300 nearby, which produces 300,000 tons of ethylene annually, as well as other chemical products.
Belgium's Solvay
is working with SIBUR on building a vinyl
resins and caustic soda production facility.
There are also a bitumen plant, a wine/liquor distillery , a tire repair & recycling plant,
and the usual assortment of local food industry enterprises.
A cogeneration
power plant supplies electricity into the regional electric grid (305 MWt) and hot water for heating
city apartment buildings. In November 2008, the local power company announced its plans to increase the power plant's electricity production capacity to 605 MWt; the new power generation unit is scheduled to be brought on-line by the end of 2011. Plans for the construction of another cogeneration plan elsewhere in Kstovsky District
, namely at the site of the abandoned Gorky Nuclear Cogeneration Plan (Горьковская АСТ) near the village of Fedyakovo
, are considered as well.
The town has a large farmer's market, and a decent selection of supermarkets and retail stores.
), a river tanker
port on the Volga, an electric railroad branch, and a number of oil and oil-product pipelines
(e.g. Sever Pipeline
).
The city has a history of building bypass roads
to keep some of the transit traffic (either the east-west traffic on M-7, or traffic destined for the petrochemical industrial area south of the city) off the city streets, only to see the development overtake them a decade or so later, the "bypass" not being a true bypass anymore. Most recently, in 2003 a highway bypass was completed a few kilometers south of the city (cutting through a section of the Zelyony Gorod
forest) both taking M-7 away from the city and providing convenient road access to the Lukoil
area.
The Kstovo railroad branch is primarily used to serve the needs of the oil refinery
. Although commuter trains from Nizhny Novgorod
's Myza
terminal stop not far from both the Old and the New Kstovo, the stations are not particularly conveniently located, the trains are fairly slow and only run 2-3 times a day, and are thus popular mostly with retirees and other persons eligible for free or discount fares.
Volga hydrofoil
boats used to stop at Kstovo in the 1970s and 80s, but the town no longer appears in the boat schedules.
Therefore, most of passenger travel between Kstovo and Nizhny Novogorod is by road. i.e. by bus or private car. Commuter buses and "passenger vans
" to Nizhny Novgorod, as well as suburban buses to villages throughout Kstovksy District run from a bus station on the west side of the New Kstovo. Some long-distance buses between Nizny Novgorod and points east (Lyskovo
, Cheboksary
, etc) stop there as well. There are also shuttle buses from Kstovo's downtown Lenin Square to the Mega shopping mall in Fedyakovo
, in the western part of Kstovsky District.
Most summers, during the beach season, ferry
boat service operates between Kstovo and the beach area on the north bank of the Volga.
An Oil Industry Community College (Neftyanoy Technicum
) trains skilled
workers and technicians for the petrochemical
industry.
Nizhny Novgorod Tehcnological University offers evening classes in Kstovo for the students studying in its Distance Education
chemical engineering
program.
Nizhny Novgorod Military Engineering College , founded in 1801 in Saint Petersburg
and moved in 1960 to Kaliningrad
, received its current name in 1995, when
it was transferred to Kstovo.
Kstovo's best known sporting venue is The World Academy of Sambo
, which has hosted many national and international Sambo wrestling competitions. Its origins go back to 1964, when the first local Sambo club was formed. In October 1976, a Sambo School building was opened on the western edge of the city; in 1995, in time for the Sambo World Cup, a new, taller building was constructed next to it, the facility becoming known as the "World Academy of Sambo".
The town also has a puppet theater, a palace of culture
, a public library
, and an active chess
club.
The movie theater (originally named "Saturn", then "50 Let VLKSM" (i.e., "50 Years' Anniversary of Komsomol
", and finally "Rus'"), was popular with the citizens during the Soviet era, but closed down after the advent of VCRs and DVD
s. Part of its premises were used by an Eldorado electronics store for a few years in the early 2000s.
The spiritual needs of the Christians of the town are served by three Orthodox churches in the city and immediately adjacent villages. The Church of Our Lady of Kazan
in the Old Kstovo was built in the late 19th century, closed during the Communist era, when its building was used for a printshop, and re-opened and augmented in the early 1990s.
Another Church of Our Lady of Kazan is located in the village of Velikiy Vrag, just northeast of the city; it was built in 1792 and is now protected as a heritage site, owned by the federal government.
Finally, the small Church of St.Vladimir in Vishenki village, just south of the city line, is the closest to most of the city's residential neighborhoods.
Kstovsky District
Kstovsky District is an administrative and municipal district in Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, Russia. Itsadministrative center is the town of Kstovo. Population: -Geography:...
of Nizhny Novgorod Oblast
Nizhny Novgorod Oblast
Nizhny Novgorod Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . Its administrative center is the city of Nizhny Novgorod. Population: The oblast is crossed by the Volga River. Apart from Nizhny Novgorod's metropolitan area, the biggest city is Arzamas...
, Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, located on the right bank of the Volga River
Volga River
The Volga is the largest river in Europe in terms of length, discharge, and watershed. It flows through central Russia, and is widely viewed as the national river of Russia. Out of the twenty largest cities of Russia, eleven, including the capital Moscow, are situated in the Volga's drainage...
, 22 kilometres (13.7 mi) southeast of Nizhny Novgorod
Nizhny Novgorod
Nizhny Novgorod , colloquially shortened to Nizhny, is, with the population of 1,250,615, the fifth largest city in Russia, ranking after Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, and Yekaterinburg...
. Population:
History
Mordvinic languages
The Mordvinic languages, alternatively Mordvin languages, or Mordvinian languages, are a subgroup of the Uralic languages, comprising the closely related Erzya language and Moksha language.Previously considered a single "Mordvin language",...
ksty, meaning "strawberry".
With the construction of Novogorkovsky Oil Refinery in the 1950s, a new town was built a few kilometers to the southeast of the old village of Kstovo, on the high ground between the Volga
Volga River
The Volga is the largest river in Europe in terms of length, discharge, and watershed. It flows through central Russia, and is widely viewed as the national river of Russia. Out of the twenty largest cities of Russia, eleven, including the capital Moscow, are situated in the Volga's drainage...
and the Kudma River
Kudma River
Kudma is a river in Nizhny Novgorod Oblast of Russia, a right tributary of the Volga.The river is 144 km long, and drains 2200 square kilometers in thesouthern suburbs of Nizhny Novgorod....
s.
Since then, the western part of the town centered around the original village of Kstovo, and, still quite rural in character, has been commonly referred to as the Old Kstovo (Staroye Kstovo), while the newer eastern part, built in the 1950s, and still expanding, is known as the New Kstovo (Novoye Kstovo). As the New Kstovo expanded over the years, it completely or partially displaced several smaller villages.
Kstovo was granted urban-type settlement
Urban-type settlement
Urban-type settlement ; , selyshche mis'koho typu ) is an official designation for a type of locality used in some of the countries of the former Soviet Union...
status in 1954 and town status in 1957.
Economy
Kudma River
Kudma is a river in Nizhny Novgorod Oblast of Russia, a right tributary of the Volga.The river is 144 km long, and drains 2200 square kilometers in thesouthern suburbs of Nizhny Novgorod....
. It is centered around the petrochemical plants of LUKOIL
LUKoil
Lukoil/LUKoil ; ) is Russia's second largest oil company and its second largest producer of oil. In 2009, the company produced 97.615 million tons of oil; ....
-Nizhegorodnefteorgsintez (formerly NORSI-Oil and Novogorkovsky Oil Refinery), a subsidiary of LUKOIL
LUKoil
Lukoil/LUKoil ; ) is Russia's second largest oil company and its second largest producer of oil. In 2009, the company produced 97.615 million tons of oil; ....
, which is the city's main employer in the town, and, historically, the reason for the town's existence.
Some of the technological processes developed at the oil refinery have been patented in the USSR and the USA.
The "BVK" plant, which started operation in 1973 and was closed in 2003, used n-paraffin
Paraffin
In chemistry, paraffin is a term that can be used synonymously with "alkane", indicating hydrocarbons with the general formula CnH2n+2. Paraffin wax refers to a mixture of alkanes that falls within the 20 ≤ n ≤ 40 range; they are found in the solid state at room temperature and begin to enter the...
s (produced by the oil refinery nearby) as feed for yeast
Yeast
Yeasts are eukaryotic micro-organisms classified in the kingdom Fungi, with 1,500 species currently described estimated to be only 1% of all fungal species. Most reproduce asexually by mitosis, and many do so by an asymmetric division process called budding...
, in order to produce the so-called "protein and vitamin concentrate" (single-cell protein) for use as animal food. The facility was originally run by the Soviet Ministry of Microbiological Industry. As of ca. 1990, it produced some 300,000 tons of its product per year. The facility also produced certain pharmaceutical products, e.g. Coenzyme Q10 (Ubiquinone-10), used as a dietary supplement.
SIBUR-Neftehim, a subsidiary of Gazprom
Gazprom
Open Joint Stock Company Gazprom is the largest extractor of natural gas in the world and the largest Russian company. Its headquarters are in Cheryomushki District, South-Western Administrative Okrug, Moscow...
, operates an ethylene
Ethylene
Ethylene is a gaseous organic compound with the formula . It is the simplest alkene . Because it contains a carbon-carbon double bond, ethylene is classified as an unsaturated hydrocarbon. Ethylene is widely used in industry and is also a plant hormone...
production facility EP-300 nearby, which produces 300,000 tons of ethylene annually, as well as other chemical products.
Belgium's Solvay
Solvay (company)
Solvay S.A. is a Belgian chemical company with its head office in Ixelles, Brussels, Belgium. It was founded in 1863 by Ernest Solvay to produce sodium carbonate by the solvay process. Since then the company has diversified to two major sectors of activity: chemicals and plastics...
is working with SIBUR on building a vinyl
Vinyl
A vinyl compound is any organic compound that contains a vinyl group ,which are derivatives of ethene, CH2=CH2, with one hydrogen atom replaced with some other group...
resins and caustic soda production facility.
There are also a bitumen plant, a wine/liquor distillery , a tire repair & recycling plant,
and the usual assortment of local food industry enterprises.
A cogeneration
Cogeneration
Cogeneration is the use of a heat engine or a power station to simultaneously generate both electricity and useful heat....
power plant supplies electricity into the regional electric grid (305 MWt) and hot water for heating
District heating
District heating is a system for distributing heat generated in a centralized location for residential and commercial heating requirements such as space heating and water heating...
city apartment buildings. In November 2008, the local power company announced its plans to increase the power plant's electricity production capacity to 605 MWt; the new power generation unit is scheduled to be brought on-line by the end of 2011. Plans for the construction of another cogeneration plan elsewhere in Kstovsky District
Kstovsky District
Kstovsky District is an administrative and municipal district in Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, Russia. Itsadministrative center is the town of Kstovo. Population: -Geography:...
, namely at the site of the abandoned Gorky Nuclear Cogeneration Plan (Горьковская АСТ) near the village of Fedyakovo
Fedyakovo
Fedyakovo is the name of several rural localities in Russia:*Fedyakovo, Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, a selo in Nizhny Novgorod Oblast*Fedyakovo, Pskov Oblast, a village in Pskov Oblast*Fedyakovo, name of several other rural localities...
, are considered as well.
The town has a large farmer's market, and a decent selection of supermarkets and retail stores.
Transport
Kstovo is served by the Moscow-Nizhny Novgorod-Kazan Highway (Highway M-7M7 highway (Russia)
The Russian Route M7 is a major trunk road running from Moscow through Vladimir and Nizhny Novgorod to Kazan in Tatarstan and Ufa in Bashkortostan...
), a river tanker
Tanker (ship)
A tanker is a ship designed to transport liquids in bulk. Major types of tankship include the oil tanker, the chemical tanker, and the liquefied natural gas carrier.-Background:...
port on the Volga, an electric railroad branch, and a number of oil and oil-product pipelines
Pipeline transport
Pipeline transport is the transportation of goods through a pipe. Most commonly, liquids and gases are sent, but pneumatic tubes that transport solid capsules using compressed air are also used....
(e.g. Sever Pipeline
Sever Pipeline
Sever pipeline is an oil product pipeline in North-West Russia. It transports diesel fuel EN-590. The pipeline is owned and operated by Transnefteproduct, a subsidiary of Transneft.-History:The project was approved by Decree of the Russian Federation Government No. 853-p of 24 June 2002...
).
The city has a history of building bypass roads
Bypass (road)
A bypass is a road or highway that avoids or "bypasses" a built-up area, town, or village, to let through traffic flow without interference from local traffic, to reduce congestion in the built-up area, and to improve road safety....
to keep some of the transit traffic (either the east-west traffic on M-7, or traffic destined for the petrochemical industrial area south of the city) off the city streets, only to see the development overtake them a decade or so later, the "bypass" not being a true bypass anymore. Most recently, in 2003 a highway bypass was completed a few kilometers south of the city (cutting through a section of the Zelyony Gorod
Zelyony Gorod
Zelyony Gorod is a urban locality Zelyony Gorod is a urban locality Zelyony Gorod is a urban locality (a resort settlement under the administrative jurisdiction of the city of oblast significance of Nizhny Novgorod, Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, Russia, located in a forested area to the southeast of...
forest) both taking M-7 away from the city and providing convenient road access to the Lukoil
LUKoil
Lukoil/LUKoil ; ) is Russia's second largest oil company and its second largest producer of oil. In 2009, the company produced 97.615 million tons of oil; ....
area.
Oil refinery
An oil refinery or petroleum refinery is an industrial process plant where crude oil is processed and refined into more useful petroleum products, such as gasoline, diesel fuel, asphalt base, heating oil, kerosene, and liquefied petroleum gas...
. Although commuter trains from Nizhny Novgorod
Nizhny Novgorod
Nizhny Novgorod , colloquially shortened to Nizhny, is, with the population of 1,250,615, the fifth largest city in Russia, ranking after Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, and Yekaterinburg...
's Myza
Myza
Myza is a genus of bird in the Meliphagidae family.It contains the following species:* Dark-eared Myza * White-eared Myza...
terminal stop not far from both the Old and the New Kstovo, the stations are not particularly conveniently located, the trains are fairly slow and only run 2-3 times a day, and are thus popular mostly with retirees and other persons eligible for free or discount fares.
Volga hydrofoil
Hydrofoil
A hydrofoil is a foil which operates in water. They are similar in appearance and purpose to airfoils.Hydrofoils can be artificial, such as the rudder or keel on a boat, the diving planes on a submarine, a surfboard fin, or occur naturally, as with fish fins, the flippers of aquatic mammals, the...
boats used to stop at Kstovo in the 1970s and 80s, but the town no longer appears in the boat schedules.
Therefore, most of passenger travel between Kstovo and Nizhny Novogorod is by road. i.e. by bus or private car. Commuter buses and "passenger vans
Marshrutka
Marshrutka , from marshrutnoye taksi is a share taxi in the CIS countries, the Baltic states, and Bulgaria. Marshrutnoye taksi literally means routed taxicab...
" to Nizhny Novgorod, as well as suburban buses to villages throughout Kstovksy District run from a bus station on the west side of the New Kstovo. Some long-distance buses between Nizny Novgorod and points east (Lyskovo
Lyskovo
Lyskovo is a town and the administrative center of Lyskovsky District of Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, Russia, located on the southern side of the Volga River , opposite the mouth of the Kerzhenets River, southeast of Nizhny Novgorod.. Population: It was first mentioned in 1410...
, Cheboksary
Cheboksary
-Twin towns/sister cities:Cheboksary is twinned with: Eger in Hungary Antalya in Turkey Santa Clara in CubaAlso Partnerships are shown with: Rundu in Namibia -External links:****...
, etc) stop there as well. There are also shuttle buses from Kstovo's downtown Lenin Square to the Mega shopping mall in Fedyakovo
Fedyakovo, Nizhny Novgorod Oblast
Fedyakovo is a rural locality in Kstovsky District of Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, Russia, located just a few kilometers outside of the Nizhny Novgorod's city line, with the apartment blocks on the south-eastern edge of the city being easily visible from the village.The village church is that of...
, in the western part of Kstovsky District.
Most summers, during the beach season, ferry
Ferry
A ferry is a form of transportation, usually a boat, but sometimes a ship, used to carry primarily passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo as well, across a body of water. Most ferries operate on regular, frequent, return services...
boat service operates between Kstovo and the beach area on the north bank of the Volga.
Education
Technicum
Technicum was a Soviet institute of vocational education. A mass-education facility of "special middle education" category 1 step higher than PTU, but aimed to train low-level industrial managers or specializing in occupations that require skills more advanced than purely manual...
) trains skilled
workers and technicians for the petrochemical
Petrochemical
Petrochemicals are chemical products derived from petroleum. Some chemical compounds made from petroleum are also obtained from other fossil fuels, such as coal or natural gas, or renewable sources such as corn or sugar cane....
industry.
Nizhny Novgorod Tehcnological University offers evening classes in Kstovo for the students studying in its Distance Education
Distance education
Distance education or distance learning is a field of education that focuses on teaching methods and technology with the aim of delivering teaching, often on an individual basis, to students who are not physically present in a traditional educational setting such as a classroom...
chemical engineering
Chemical engineering
Chemical engineering is the branch of engineering that deals with physical science , and life sciences with mathematics and economics, to the process of converting raw materials or chemicals into more useful or valuable forms...
program.
Nizhny Novgorod Military Engineering College , founded in 1801 in Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
and moved in 1960 to Kaliningrad
Kaliningrad
Kaliningrad is a seaport and the administrative center of Kaliningrad Oblast, the Russian exclave between Poland and Lithuania on the Baltic Sea...
, received its current name in 1995, when
it was transferred to Kstovo.
Culture, recreation and sports
Sambo (martial art)
Sambo is a Russian martial art and combat sport. The word "SAMBO" is an acronym for SAMooborona Bez Oruzhiya, which literally translates as "self-defense without weapons". Sambo is relatively modern since its development began in the early 1920s by the Soviet Red Army to improve their hand to hand...
, which has hosted many national and international Sambo wrestling competitions. Its origins go back to 1964, when the first local Sambo club was formed. In October 1976, a Sambo School building was opened on the western edge of the city; in 1995, in time for the Sambo World Cup, a new, taller building was constructed next to it, the facility becoming known as the "World Academy of Sambo".
The town also has a puppet theater, a palace of culture
Palace of Culture
Palace of Culture or House of Culture was the name for major club-houses in the former Soviet Union and the rest of the Eastern bloc. It was an establishment for all kinds of recreational activities and hobbies: sports, collecting, arts, etc., and the Palace of Culture was designed to have room...
, a public library
Library
In a traditional sense, a library is a large collection of books, and can refer to the place in which the collection is housed. Today, the term can refer to any collection, including digital sources, resources, and services...
, and an active chess
Chess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
club.
The movie theater (originally named "Saturn", then "50 Let VLKSM" (i.e., "50 Years' Anniversary of Komsomol
Komsomol
The Communist Union of Youth , usually known as Komsomol , was the youth division of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The Komsomol in its earliest form was established in urban centers in 1918. During the early years, it was a Russian organization, known as the Russian Communist Union of...
", and finally "Rus'"), was popular with the citizens during the Soviet era, but closed down after the advent of VCRs and DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
s. Part of its premises were used by an Eldorado electronics store for a few years in the early 2000s.
The spiritual needs of the Christians of the town are served by three Orthodox churches in the city and immediately adjacent villages. The Church of Our Lady of Kazan
Our Lady of Kazan
Our Lady of Kazan, also called Theotokos of Kazan , was a holy icon of the highest stature within the Russian Orthodox Church, representing the Virgin Mary as the protector and patroness of the city of Kazan. Copies of the image are also venerated in the Catholic Church...
in the Old Kstovo was built in the late 19th century, closed during the Communist era, when its building was used for a printshop, and re-opened and augmented in the early 1990s.
Another Church of Our Lady of Kazan is located in the village of Velikiy Vrag, just northeast of the city; it was built in 1792 and is now protected as a heritage site, owned by the federal government.
Finally, the small Church of St.Vladimir in Vishenki village, just south of the city line, is the closest to most of the city's residential neighborhoods.