Penza

Penza (??????) is a city in Russia, administrative center of Penza Oblast in the Volga Federal District. It stands on the Sura River, 709 km south-east of Moscow, at

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Penza was founded in 1663 as a frontier outpost on the then southeastern border of Russia.

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Its population (census 2002) is 518,200.

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The city of Penza bears the name of the river that it was originally built upon. As it was originally a frontier city, many of the early houses were wooden and emerged without any central plan. The first stone houses were built from 1801 to 1928.

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Currently, the city of Penza is seen as a regional center for higher education. It has five universities (The State Technical University, The Pedagogic University, The Academy of Agriculture, The Technology Institute and the Institute of Civil Building), 13 colleges and 77 public schools. Besides this, Penza is home to three theatres, four museums, and three art galleries.

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In topographical sense, Penza greatly differs from the cities around it because of its rolling hills and dense surrounding forests.

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Russia: The Russian Federation (, transliteration: Rossiyskaya Federatsiya or Rossijskaja Federacija), or Russia (Russian: ???????, transliteration: Rossiya or Rossija), is a country that stretches over a vast expanse of Europe and Asia. With an area of 17,075,400 km? (6,595,600 mi?), it is the largest coun...

Penza Oblast: Penza Oblast (??????????? ????????) is an administrative division of the Russian Federation. It is located in the Privolzhsky (Volga) Federal District. The administrative center is Penza....

Volga Federal District: Volga (Privolzhsky) Federal District (, Privolzhsky federalny okrug) is one of the eight federal districts of Russia. It forms the southeastern part of European Russia. Its population was 31,154,744 (70.4% urban) according to the 2002 Census, living on an area of . Grigory Rapota was appointed the f...