Dictionary:
Vol·go·grad (vŏl'gə-grăd', vōl'-, vəl-gə-grät')  |
| 5min Related Video: Volgograd |
| Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Volgograd |
For more information on Volgograd, visit Britannica.com.
| Columbia Encyclopedia: Volgograd |
Founded in 1589 as a stronghold to defend Russia's newly acquired land along the Volga, the city was originally called Tsaritsyn. It fell to the Cossack rebels under Stenka Razin in 1670 and Yemelyan Pugachev in 1774. In the 19th cent. it became an important commercial center. During the Russian civil war the city was defended (1918) by Soviet forces under Stalin, Voroshilov, and Budenny, but White troops under Denikin took it in 1919-20. The city was renamed Stalingrad in 1925, then Volgograd in 1961, following Nikita Khrushchev's denunciations of Stalin's dictatorship.
During World War II, the city was nearly destroyed in a battle that marked a major turning point in the war and a landmark in military history. In Sept., 1942, a German army exceeding 500,000 men (including Italians, Hungarians, and Romanians) and commanded by Gen. Friedrich von Paulus began an all-out attack on Stalingrad, which was defended by 16 Soviet divisions under Gen. Vasily I. Chuikov. Stalin ordered that the city be held at all costs. After two months of house-to-house fighting, the Germans had taken most of the city; but the Soviet garrison, receiving supplies across the Volga, held out, thus giving Gen. Georgi Zhukov time to prepare a counteroffensive.
Hitler reaffirmed his intention to take Stalingrad, despite great losses and lack of reserves. He refused, against his general staff's advice, to allow Paulus to withdraw. In Nov., 1942, two Soviet forces, advancing from the north and south in a pincers movement, encircled the Germans. In December a German relief force was routed. Paulus surrendered the remnants of his army on Feb. 2, 1943. The combined German and Soviet losses during the battle were staggering-the Germans alone suffered approximately 300,000 casualties. The Soviets followed up with a westward drive and generally remained on the offensive for the remainder of the war. Rebuilding began immediately after the city's liberation.
Bibliography
See A. Beevor, Stalingrad (1998).
| Geography: Volgograd |
City located in southern Russia, amid the lower Volga and Don Rivers.
| Weather: Volgograd |
| Dialing Code: The telephone dialing code for: Volgograd, Russia |
The country code is: 7
The city code is: 8442
| Local Time: Volgograd, Russia |
| Wikipedia: Volgograd |
| Volgograd (English) Волгоград (Russian) |
|
|---|---|
| — Inhabited locality — | |
.JPG) Volgograd railway station |
|
 Volgograd on the map of European Russia |
|
| Coordinates: 48°42′N 44°31′E / 48.7°N 44.517°ECoordinates: 48°42′N 44°31′E / 48.7°N 44.517°E | |
 Coat of arms |
 Flag |
| Holiday | Second Sunday of September[citation needed] |
| Administrative status | |
| Country | Russia |
| Federal subject | Volgograd Oblast |
| In administrative jurisdiction of | Volgograd Oblast[citation needed] |
| Administrative center of | Volgograd Oblast[citation needed] |
| Municipal status | |
| Municipal Status | Urban okrug |
| Head[citation needed] | Roman Grebennikov[citation needed] |
| Representative body | City Duma[citation needed] |
| Statistics | |
| Area | 565 km2 (218.1 sq mi)[citation needed] |
| Population (2002 Census) | 1,011,417 inhabitants[1] |
| - Rank | 12th |
| - Density | 1,790 /km2 (4,600/sq mi)[2] |
| Time zone | MSK/MSD (UTC+3/+4) |
| Founded | 1555[citation needed] |
| Postal code(s) | 400001..400138[citation needed] |
| Dialing code(s) | +7 8442[citation needed] |
| Official website | http://www.volgadmin.ru |
Volgograd (Russian: 
Волгогра́д [,vɔlgə'grʌd] (help·info)), formerly called Tsaritsyn (Russian: Цари́цын (help·info)) (1589–1925) and Stalingrad (Russian: Сталингра́д (help·info)) (1925–1961) is an important industrial city and the administrative center of Volgograd Oblast, Russia. It is 80 kilometres (50 mi) long, north to south, situated on the western bank of the Volga River and has a population of 1.011 millon people. The city was made famous for its resistance and extensive damage during the Battle of Stalingrad during World War II.
Contents |
_(1857).png)
Volgograd originated with the foundation in 1589 of the fortress of Tsaritsyn at the confluence of the Tsaritsa and Volga Rivers. The fortress Sary Su (a local Tatar language name meaning: Yellow Water/River ), was established to defend the unstable southern border of Tsarist Russia. It soon becamse the nucleus of a trading settlement. It was captured twice by Cossack rebels, under Stepan Razin in the rebellion of 1670 and Yemelyan Pugachev in 1774. Tsaritsyn became an important river port and commercial centre in the 19th century.
The city was the scene of heavy fighting during the Russian Civil War. Bolshevik forces occupied it during 1918, but were attacked by White forces under Anton Ivanovich Denikin.
Under Stalin, the city became heavily industrialized as a centre of heavy industry and trans-shipment by rail and river. During World War II (Great Patriotic War), Stalingrad became the center of the Battle of Stalingrad as well as a pivotal turning point in the war against Germany. Essentially, the German offensive was checked at Stalingrad. The Battle of Stalingrad lasted from August 21, 1942 to February 2, 1943, where 1.7 million to 2 million Axis and Soviet soldiers were killed, wounded or captured, in addition to over 40,000 civilians killed. The city was reduced to rubble during the fierce fighting, but reconstruction began soon after the Germans were expelled from the city.
Stalingrad was awarded the title Hero City for its heroism in 1945, and King George VI of the United Kingdom awarded the citizens of Stalingrad the jeweled "Sword of Stalingrad" in admiration of their bravery. A memorial complex commemorating the battle, dominated by an immense allegorical sculpture of Mother Russia, was erected on the Mamayev Kurgan, a hill that saw some of the most intense fighting during the battle. A number of cities around the world (especially that which had suffered similar wartime devastation) established sister/friendship/twinning links (see list below) in the spirit of solidarity or reconciliation. One of the first "sister city" projects was that established between Stalingrad and Britain's Coventry during World War II (as both suffered extensive devastation from aerial bombardment).
The Panorama Museum sited on the Volga contains artifacts from World War II. These include a panoramic painting of the battlefield from the location of the monument "Mamayev Kurgan." A rifle of the famous sniper Vasily Zaytsev (popularized in Western media in the film Enemy at the Gates) is also on display.
In 1961, Stalingrad was changed to Volgograd ("Volga City") as part of Nikita Khrushchev's programme of de-Stalinization. This was and remains somewhat contentious, given the fame of the name "Stalingrad" and its importance in wartime remembrance. There were once serious proposals to revert the name to "Stalingrad" during Konstantin Chernenko's brief administration in 1985. There remains a strong degree of local support for a reversion but intermittent proposals have been not yet accepted by the Russian government. On May 21, 2007, the CPRF or Communist Party of the Russian Federation obtained an important success in the Volgograd mayoral election. Communist candidate Roman Grebennikov was elected as mayor with 32.47% of the vote. Grebennikov is Russia's youngest mayor of a regional capital.
Modern Volgograd remains an important industrial city. Industries include shipbuilding, oil refining, steel and aluminium production, manufacture of machinery and vehicles, and chemical production. A large Volgograd Hydroelectric Plant stands a short distance to the north of Volgograd.
Volgograd is a major railway junction serviced by Pri Volga Railway. Rail links include Moscow; Saratov; Astrakha; the Donbas region of Ukraine; the Caucasus and Siberia. It stands at the east end of the Volga-Don Canal, opened in 1952 to link the two great rivers of Southern Russia. European route E40, the longest European route connecting Calais, France with Ridder, Kazakhstan, passes through Volgograd. Volgograd's public transport system includes a light rail service known as the Volgograd metrotram.
Volgograd is a major rail junction and with trains travelling from the city to Moscow, Saratov, Astrakhan and other cities . The M6 highway between Moscow and the Caspian Sea passes the city. The Volgograd Bridge, under construction since 1995, has been inaugurated in October 2009.[3] The city river terminal is the centre for local passenger shipping along the Volga river.
Volgograd International Airport provides air links to major Russian cities as well as Antalya, Yerevan and Aktau.
Local public transport is provided by buses trolleybuses and trams.
| Weather data for Volgograd) | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Average high °C (°F) | -4.5 (24) |
-4.3 (24) |
2.6 (37) |
15.4 (60) |
22.7 (73) |
26.9 (80) |
29.3 (85) |
27.9 (82) |
21.6 (71) |
12.2 (54) |
4.0 (39) |
-1.9 (29) |
12.7 (55) |
| Average low °C (°F) | -10.7 (13) |
-10.7 (13) |
-4.5 (24) |
5.1 (41) |
12.0 (54) |
16.1 (61) |
18.4 (65) |
17.1 (63) |
11.6 (53) |
4.0 (39) |
-1.3 (30) |
-7.0 (19) |
4.2 (40) |
| Precipitation mm (inches) | 10.0 (0.39) |
11.3 (0.44) |
26.2 (1.03) |
37.5 (1.48) |
58.6 (2.31) |
53.9 (2.12) |
55.7 (2.19) |
51.2 (2.02) |
48.0 (1.89) |
32.4 (1.28) |
15.8 (0.62) |
9.9 (0.39) |
410.5 (16.16) |
| Source: Гидрометцентр России[4] 2008-08-31 | |||||||||||||
Institutions include:
FC Volgograd and FC Rotor Volgograd are both Russian Second Division football clubs, having been relegated after being in the Russian Premier League in the early 1990s. Lukoil-Spartak represent the city in water polo.
As of 2008, Volgograd has 21 sister cities[5]:
|
 Volgograd from Space |
 Map of Volgograd's City Districts |
.jpg) The Motherland Calls on the Mamayev Kurgan in spring time |
 The Mamayev kurgan |
 Volgograd Planetarium with the sculpture by famous Vera Mukhina |
 Underground station of Volgograd metrotram — Lenin's Square |
 Volgograd State Medical University (left) and New Experimental Theater of Volgograd |
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Volgograd |
|
||||||||||||||
|
|||||
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
| Translations: Volgograd |
 | Volzhsky |
| Volzhskiy (city of southwest Russia on the Volga River) |
| Saratov (city of southwest Russia on the Volga River) |
 | What is the main language of Volgograd Russia? Read answer... |
| What is the former name of volgograd? Read answer... |
| How many miles is it between Moscow Russia to Volgograd Russia? Read answer... |
 | What river runs through Volgograd? |
| How many miles from Saint Petersburg to Volgograd? |
| What is the distance of kilometres between Volgograd and Kiev? |
Copyrights:
 |
 | Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
 |
| Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
 |
| Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/. Read more |
 |
| Geography. The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Edited by E.D. Hirsch, Jr., Joseph F. Kett, and James Trefil. Copyright © 2002 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved. Read more |
 |
| Weather. © 2008 AccuWeather, Inc. Read more |
 |
| Dialing Code. © 1999-2009 by Answers Corporation. All rights reserved. Read more |
 |
| Local Time. Copyright © 2009 - Chaos Software. All rights reserved. Read more |
 |
Maps. ©2008 Google. All rights reserved. Read more | |
 |
| Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Volgograd". Read more |
 |
| Translations. Copyright © 2007, WizCom Technologies Ltd. All rights reserved. Read more |
Mentioned in
