Khvalynsk

Khvalynsk 

a city under oblast jurisdiction and administrative center of Khvalynsk Raion, Saratov Oblast, RSFSR. Landing on the right bank of the Volga (Saratov Reservoir). Situated 38 km south of the Vozrozhdenie railroad station on the Saratov-Syzran’ line. Population, 16,000 (1974).

Khvalynsk was founded in 1556 as a Russian outpost on Sosnovyi, an island of the Volga. In 1606 the settlement was moved to its present site and was named Sosnovyi Ostrov. In 1780 it became the district capital of Saratov Province and was renamed Khvalynsk after the Khvalynskoe Sea, the Old Russian name for the Caspian. In the 18th and 19th centuries the city was the local center for trade in grain and agricultural produce. It was a center of the Old Believers.

Enterprises in Khvalynsk include a plant for the production of hydraulic equipment, a vegetable-oil plant, a cannery, a butter factory, an industrial combine, a logging and timber distribution establishment, and a poultry-packing plant. There are three sovkhozes. Cultural institutions in the city include a museum of local lore and the K. S. Petrov-Vodkin Picture Gallery, a branch of the museum. Khvalynsk also has a sanatorium and three houses of rest.