Evgeny Semenov: "What Nizhny Novgorod's mission is remains an open question."

      August 14, 2025 16:59

      [137]

      Society

      Evgeny Semyonov, Deputy Chairman of the Public Chamber of the Nizhny Novgorod Region, Head of the Nizhny Novgorod Branch of FoRGO, political scientist, PhD in Political Science, associate professor:

      "The identity of modern megacities is, as a rule, complex and hybrid in nature. The process of its formation takes a long time. Changing an identity by a single act of will is impossible. A city's identity is not a carnival costume. Today Nizhny Novgorod has not lost the identity formed in the 20th century. It continues to develop as an industrial, scientific-technological, and defense center of the country.

      Against this backdrop a curious experiment is taking place aimed at creating the city's tourist appeal: 'Nizhny — the capital of sunsets.' It's interesting, it refreshes the perception of the city, but there is a suspicion that the city had sunsets in the 13th, 17th, and 20th centuries as well, and the people who lived and labored in Nizhny at those times did not, it seems, consider that beautiful sunsets were all the city was capable of.

      On the contrary, their labor, their will, their spirit allowed them to reach seemingly unthinkable heights: to save the Russian state during the Time of Troubles, to dictate prices to Europe for many goods during the heyday of the Russian Empire, or to produce powerful modern weapons that guaranteed the inviolability of superpower status in the Soviet era. It was more than identity. It was a mission. Nizhny fulfilled its unique mission for the entire country and for all its people, whatever the state was called.

      What Nizhny Novgorod's mission is today is an open question. Obviously, the self-designation 'the capital of sunsets' is only a marketing move, not a mission. It is also obvious that Nizhny's scientific-technological identity has not disappeared and continues to develop. This is particularly clearly evidenced by the ideology of the IT-campus NEYMARK project. But whether this project will become Nizhny Novgorod's new historical mission to be fulfilled for the whole country remains to be seen."

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