Описание (английский)
Penza is a city and the administrative center of Penza Oblast, Russia, located on the Sura River, 625 kilometers (388 mi) southeast of Moscow.
Penza was founded as a Russian frontier fortress-city,
and to this day, remnants of the Lomovskaya sentry line built in 1640
have been preserved at the western edge of the city, and remains of
earth ramparts dating from the mid-16th century are preserved in the
city center. Until 1663, Penza was a wooden stockade with only a small
settlement. Then in May 1663, the architect Yuri Kontransky arrived in
Penza on the Tsar's orders to direct the construction of a fortress
city, as part of a wider fortress building program to protect Russia from attacks by Crimean Tatars.
The initial construction consisted of a wooden Kremlin, a village, and quarters for the nobility, small tradesmen, and merchants.
In 1774, the insurgent army led by Yemelyan Pugachev occupied Penza after the citizens of the city welcomed the rebellious Cossacks. The first stone houses started to appear after 1801, and by 1809 Penza's population had grown to more than 13,000 people.
In 1918, Vladimir Lenin sent a telegram to communists in the Penza area, complaining about the "insurrection of five kulak districts". He urged the public hanging
of 100 "landlords, richmen, bloodsuckers", grain seizure, and hostage
taking. This telegram has been used in several historical works on the
period and on Lenin.
During the Russian Civil War, the Czechoslovak Legions launched an anti-Bolshevik uprising in Penza.
During the Soviet period, the city developed as a regional industrial center. The Ural mainframe was made here between 1959 and 1964.