VLADIMIR PUTIN
ARCHIVE OF THE OFFICIAL SITE
OF THE 2008-2012 PRIME MINISTER
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
VLADIMIR PUTIN
ARCHIVE OF THE OFFICIAL SITE
OF THE 2008-2012 PRIME MINISTER
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
VLADIMIR PUTIN
The city was founded in 1663 on the Penza and Sura (a tributary of the Volga River) Rivers as an outpost at the southeastern border of old Russia.
The city's economy has a developed and diversified structure. As of January 1, 2011, over 15,539 businesses were registered in Penza. Industry is the city's leading sector and includes enterprises producing chemicals and chemical products, hardware items, cars and equipment, paper, construction materials, and light industry goods.
Trade has been growing rapidly in the city. In 2010, over 11,120.1 square meters of new sales space was opened, which helped create about 1,000 jobs.
The city's municipal education system is represented by 86 pre-school institutions (about 18,000 children), 76 general education institutions (over 39,000 students), and 13 optional education institutions, including four child recreation and education centres and one all-school education centre.
The Penza Museum of Local Lore, founded in 1905, forms the mainstay of Penza's cultural heritage. The museum displays over 112,000 exhibits. In particular, the exposition features the world's largest collection of Finno-Ugric traditional clothes as well as the remains of a giant ornithoscelida that inhabited the Mesozoic seas, a skeleton of a glacial-period mammoth, and stone tools dating to 6,000 BC, among other many other unique pieces.
There are 180 landmarks in the city, including the baroque Peter and Paul Cathedral (18th century, the bell tower of the 19th century), the former Nobility Assembly (late 18th century), the Governor's House (late 18th century), the Cathedral of the Saviour Transfiguration Monastery done in the Imperial style (18th – 19th centuries), the classical city hospital (1830), the gymnasium and musical college (19th century), and the Lermontov Library (early 20th century).
Penza is associated with a number of great names in the Russian literature. The land of Penza inspired outstanding Russian writers and poets to create their greatest works. Nikolai Leskov, Alexander Kuprin, Michail Saltykov-Shchedrin, and Denis Davydov were impressed by the Sura land. Lermontov spent almost half of his life in the Tarkhany manor, where his remains are now preserved.
The musical life of Penza is rich in traditions. In 1882, the Penza Musical College under the Penza branch of the Russian Emperor's Musical Society was founded and became one of the Russia's first education institutions of the kind. In 1974, the regional folk philharmonic orchestra which united the city's best musical bands was founded on the basis of the concert and guest bureau in Penza.
The gem of today's philharmonic orchestra is the Governor's Symphonic Orchestra, a repeated winner of international and Russian prizes.
In 2007, Penza became the site of the III Summer Student Games, thus leaving behind such important bidders as Samara, Omsk, Kazan and others.
In 2008, Penza gained the right to be home to the IV Summer Student Games which were held in 2009. Again, the city gained victory over strong bidders, Kazan and Rostov-on-Don.
