Nizhny Novgorod colloquially shortened to Nizhny, is, with the population of 1,250,615, the fifth largest city in 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...

, ranking after Moscow

Moscow

Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

, St. 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...

, Novosibirsk

Novosibirsk

Novosibirsk is the third-largest city in Russia, after Moscow and Saint Petersburg, and the largest city of Siberia, with a population of 1,473,737 . It is the administrative center of Novosibirsk Oblast as well as of the Siberian Federal District...

, and Yekaterinburg

Yekaterinburg

Yekaterinburg is a major city in the central part of Russia, the administrative center of Sverdlovsk Oblast. Situated on the eastern side of the Ural mountain range, it is the main industrial and cultural center of the Urals Federal District with a population of 1,350,136 , making it Russia's...

. It is the economic and cultural center of the vast Volga-Vyatka economic region

Volga-Vyatka economic region

Volga-Vyatka economic region tr.: Volgo-Vyatsky ekonomichesky rayon) is one of twelve economic regions of Russia.-Composition:*Chuvash Republic*Kirov Oblast*Mari El Republic*Republic of Mordovia*Nizhny Novgorod Oblast...

, and also the administrative center 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...

 and Volga Federal District

Volga Federal District

Volga Federal District is one of the eight federal districts of Russia. It forms the southeastern part of European Russia. Its population was 29,900,400 according to the 2010 Census, living on an area of...

.

From 1932 to 1990, the city was known as Gorky , after the writer Maxim Gorky

Maxim Gorky

Alexei Maximovich Peshkov , primarily known as Maxim Gorky , was a Russian and Soviet author, a founder of the Socialist Realism literary method and a political activist.-Early years:...

 who was born there.

The city is an important economic, transport and cultural center of the Russian Federation.
After the destruction of the Mordvin Inäzor Obram, a hillfort named Obran Osh (Ashli

Ashli

Ashli or Aşlı was a mysterious medieval Volga Bulgarian town. In Russian chronicles it is known as Oshel .Whereas archaeologic excavations prove that the city appeared as early as in 11th century, the Tatar legends and the Russian Tver Chronicle state that the city was founded by Alexander the...

) at the site of future stone Kremlin in 1220, a small Russian wooden hillfort was founded by Grand Duke Yuri II of Russia in 1221.