Volgograd

Tsaritsyn was established in 1555 and was named after the Tsaritsa River. It was written as Царицынъ, with the hard sign. When Vladimir Lenin died in 1924, Joseph Stalin was the General Secretary; Tsaritsyn was renamed Stalingrad in honour of his role in the defence of the city. The name is derived from the compound of Stalin (Сталин; his name) and grad (град: name for a settlement in Russian). In the aftermath of Stalin's death, Nikita Khrushchev announced the policy of de-Stalinization. The name was changed to Volgograd in 1961, derived from the name of the Volga river, on whose bank the city is situated.

Although the city may have originated in 1555, documented evidence of Tsaritsyn at the confluence of the Tsaritsa and Volga rivers dates from 1589. The structure stood slightly above the mouth of the Tsaritsa River on the right bank. It soon became the nucleus of a trading settlement. At the beginning of the 17th century, the garrison consisted of 350 to 400 people. In 1607 the fortress garrison rebelled for six months against the troops of Tsar Vasili Shuisky. In the following year saw the construction of the first stone church in the city, dedicated to St. John the Baptist. From Streltsy in Dimitrovsk (Kamyshan) and Tsaritsynye, voivodes, were often appointed to Kazan and Kazan-Meshchersk orders from the cities of Sviyazhsk, Cheboksary, Alatyr, Kurmysh, Yadrin, Ottudova and Streltsov were hired. …

Volgograd has a hot-summer humid continental climate (Köppen climate classification Dfa) with hot summers and cold winters, which borders with cold semi-arid climate (Köppen climate classification BSk). Precipitation is low and spread more or less evenly throughout the year.