Voronezh

Voronezh is located twelve kilometres away from the spot where the Voronezh River empties into the Don and it is a large city in southwestern Russia. The city is divided into six administrative districts Kominternovsky, Leninsky, Levoberezhny, Sovetsky Tsentralny and Zheleznodorozhny.

Voronezh Воро́неж, in Russian is a large city in southwestern Russia, not far from Ukraine. It is located on the Voronezh River, twelve kilometers away from the spot where the Voronezh River empties into the Don. Voronezh is the administrative center of Voronezh Oblast. It is an important railway junction (with lines to Moscow, Rostov on Don, Kiev), as well as the center of Don Highway The city is divided into six administrative districts: Kominternovsky, Leninsky, Levoberezhny, Sovetsky, Tsentralny, and Zheleznodorozhny.
The Voronezh River was first mentioned in Hypatian Codex of 1177; the town was founded in 1585–1586 by Tsar Feodor as a fort protecting the Russian state from the raid of Crimean and Nogay Tatars. However, settlements had been present here since the Stone Age.

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, probably the first ever built in Russia, included the first Russian ship of the line, Goto Predestinatsia.

Owing to the Voronezh Admiralty Wharf, Voronezh became, for a short time, the largest city of South 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 the great Patriotic War of 1941–1945, Voronezh was the scene of fierce fighting between Russian and Wehrmacht troops. It was used by the Germans as a staging area for the attack on Stalingrad, and a key Don River crossing point.

In September 1989, there were famous UFO sightings in Voronezh, which drew attention from the press and TV. There were also reports on two strange creatures that came out of the UFO after it landed in the park.

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.. There are 7 theaters, 12 cinemas, 19 secondary schools in the city; it is also home to Voronezh State university. The city's large student population includes many foreigners as foreign students in Russia usually take one year of Russian language in Voronezh before moving on to universities elsewhere. This has led in the past to tension between foreign students and the indigenous population leading to a number of murders, the last one being of Peruvian student Enrique Anhelis Hurtado on October 9th 2005, a year that saw 45 reported attacks on foreigners in Voronezh.

Many famous people were born in Voronezh and the surrounding area. Among them are poets and writers such as Platonov, Bunin, Koitsov, Nikitin, Marshak; painters Kransskoi, Kuprin, the physicist Cherenjov; navigator and polar explorer Albanov; gymnasts Davydova, Tkachyovand the surgeon Voronoff. The Russian poet Osip Mandelstam was exiled to Voronezh after his arrest in 1934 and wrote a series of poems there collected under the title "Voronezh Notebooks".

Not far from Voronezh is the satellite town of Novovoronezh ("New Voronezh") which serves a local nuclear power plant. Both cities are served by Chertovistskoye Airport. Voronezh is also home to Voronezh Pridacha airport, a major aircraft manufacturing facility where the the so-called Concordski Tupolev Tu-144 was built and the only operational one is still stored. Voronezh also hosts Voronezh Malshevo air force base southwest of the city, which apparently houses nuclear bombers.