Located at about 400 km east of Moscow, at the confluence of rivers Volga and Oka, Nizhny Novgorod is the fifth largest city in Russia, and has a history for more than 800 years. Its name literally means Lower Newtown to distinguish it from the older Veliky Novgorod. From 1932 to 1990, it was known as Gorky, after the writer Maxim Gorky, who was born there. The dominating feature of the city skyline is the grand Kremlin (1500-1511), with its red-brick towers. After Bolshevik devastation, the only ancient edifice left within the kremlin walls is the tent-like Archangel's Cathedral, first built in stone in the 13th century.
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