izhny Novgorod was founded on the confluence of the two great Russian rivers - the Volga and the Oka - by Prince Yuri Vsevolodovich in 1221 as a strong standpoint of defending the Russian frontiers from Mordvinians, Cheremisians and Tatars. The City got its name "Nizhny" may be because of its location on the "Lower" lands comparing with Novgorod the Great or with the so called "Old Little Town" that was situated four versts up the Oka-river, the record of which could be found in literature till the beginning of the 17th century. The Nizhny Novgorod city is the most economically progressive and reformist in Russia. History decreed that the Nizhny Novgorod city should be the "heart of Mother Russia", situated as it is in the very center of the European part of the Russian Federation, on the banks of the River Volga. The City has advantageous geographical location for economic and social development. A great number of historical, architectural and cultural monuments has remained in the City, what gave premises to UNESCO for inclusion of Nizhny Novgorod in the list of 100 cities constituting world historical and cultural value. In the course of centuries of its history Nizhny Novgorod has been playing a noticeable role in the country's life.