powerboat danger zone

Power Boats

Introduction

Operating Safely & Responsibly

Life Jackets

Children on Board

Basic Navigation

Good Practices

Tow Sport Safety

Falls Overboard

Carbon Monoxide

Awareness Zone & Propellers

Fire & Explosions

Local Navigation and Laws

The Environment

Tiller-Steered Fishing Boat

• Wheel-Steered Boat

Ski & Runabout Boats

Pontoon & Deck Boats

• Getting Started
• Watch the Videos
• Take the Test
• Tiller-Steered Boat
• Pontoon / Deckboat
• Ski / Runabout
• Request a Video Copy
• Difficulty Viewing?

Power Boats What You Need to Know

Watch a set of brief educational videos on general boating safety, followed by a boat-specific segment that covers the particular safety concerns for many popular boats! Such as Tiller Steered Boats, Wheel Steered Boats, Ski/Runabouts, Pontoon Boats, and House/Cabin Boats.

In less than twenty minutes, you will cover all aspects of basic rental boat safety! A twenty five question assessment is also available for you to take and review how much you've learned.

Be sure to watch all the  videos above  before beginning the assessment.

Please log in to take the assessment.

All boaters' number one goal should be:.

• To experience zero accidents
• To have a fun time on the water
• To experience less than one accident per five passengers on board
• To prevent only fatal accidents

Which of the following is an example of safe and responsible boating behavior?

• Bow-riding or riding on seatbacks, gunwales, or the transom
• Refraining from the use of alcohol or drugs when operating a boat
• Practicing adventurous water skiing/tow sport practices
• Using excessive speed in the vicinity of other boats or in dangerous waters

What is the single best practice to prevent drowning?

• Practice swimming regularly to ensure you are in good physical shape
• Operate the boat at a safe speed to prevent passengers from falling overboard
• Ensure you don't swim in deep waters
• Wear a properly-fitted, Coast Guard approved life jacket

How many wearable, properly-fitted Coast Guard approved life jackets should be on board your boat?

• Enough for each child on board
• At least five
• As many as can fit in the stow areas
• One for every passenger on board

When should children wear life jackets on board your boat?

• At all times
• When the child is tired/sleepy
• Only when the boat is moving

Most collisions on a boat happen as a result of:

• Inclement weather
• Excessive speed and operator inattention
• Too many boats on the water
• Poor visibility on the water

If possible, if another boat is coming at you head on, you should:

• Speed up to get around the boat
• Do nothing - let the other boat yield to your boat
• Steer right (starboard)

As a motor-boat or power-driven boat operator, it is your responsibility to yield to the following types of boats:

• Only kayaks
• Only canoes
• All non-motorized boats
• Only sailboats

You are required to display lights on your boat in the following conditions:

• Only in inclement weather
• Only at night when it is dark
• Only when you think you need lights to see
• Between sunset and sunrise and anytime visibility is poor

What is the universal sign for danger or need for assistance?

• Three short blasts on the horn, followed by two long blasts
• One long blast on the horn
• Five short blasts on the horn
• Three short blasts on the horn

When operating a boat, when should you have your appointed lookouts in place?

• Before all passengers board the boat
• Once you have left the dock
• Only when visibility is a concern
• Before you start the motor

Too much weight or uneven distribution of weight on your boat:

• Is not a concern - your boat should be able to handle it
• Is only a hazard if the boat operator is inexperienced or distracted
• Can cause the boat to swamp or capsize, and the boat can become difficult to control
• Is a great way for a boat operator to test his/her boating skills

Which of the following statements regarding tow sport safety is incorrect?

• If the ladder is not easily accessible, it is completely fine to use the boat's propeller to reenter the boat
• Make sure that the operator and lookout always keep the person being towed in view
• Use a tow rope that is at least 30 feet long
• Turn the motor off well before approaching the person, and leave it off until the passenger is back safely in the boat

Which of the following statements are true regarding onboard safety?

• It is perfectly fine for people to walk around the boat freely when it is moving, as long as the person is wearing a life jacket
• Children are the only passengers that need to consider following additional safety measures on a moving boat
• There are no restrictions or safety concerns for passengers on a moving boat, as long as the driver is operating at a safe speed.
• If a passenger must move around the boat while it is in motion, stay in contact with the boat at all times, keeping a firm grip on the rail or other solid part of the boat

When can a passenger safely enter the boat’s “awareness zone,” (front, sides, rear, swim platform, and 30 feet of water around boat)?

• When the boat motor is turned off, the keys are removed, and you have counted to ten
• When the boat motor is turned off
• When the boat motor is turned off and the keys are removed

A boat should always be anchored from which section?

• The gunwales
• Any section of the boat is fine

What should you do if you fall into cold water to reduce risk of hypothermia?

• Dog paddle under the surface of the water to stay warm
• Swim vigorously, ensuring that you keep your heart rate up to maintain a safe body temperature
• Float on your back to ensure most of your body is above water
• Hold your knees to your chest and wrap your arms across your chest, hugging your life jacket

If you are unsure about local navigation and laws, you should:

• Don’t worry about them if you’re a skilled boater
• Ask your boat rental company to explain any hazards that may exist in your area of operation
• Not go boating
• Keep an extra careful eye out when you enter the water

The rule, “Boat it in, Boat it out” refers to:

• How many passengers may board your boat
• Number of boats allowed on the water
• Time of day that you are allowed to boat
• The laws against littering on the water

When operating a tiller-steered fishing boat, it is important to:

• Keep the engine running while cleaning the prop
• Always start the engine in gear
• Make abrupt steering movements when necessary to balance out the boat’s weight
• Ensure you don’t slow down or turn too quickly to prevent the boat from swamping or capsizing

When operating a wheel-steered boat for fishing, which of the following statements are false:

• Be careful moving about the boat, as there are usually more trip hazards in general
• Keep all of your fishing gear out and close at hand, even if you’re not using it.
• Be careful where you cast your line to prevent injury to others
• Ensure you stow items not being used

Which of the following statements is false? When operating a runabout boat, hazards are most often related to:

• The boat’s power and speed capabilities, and not being able to stop quickly enough
• Encountering another boat’s wake
• The number of people in the boat
• Turning too quickly at high speeds

When operating a pontoon boat, which of the following statements is accurate?

• There is no person capacity on your boat as long as you have enough properly fitted, Coast Guard approved life jackets on board for each passenger
• Never allow passengers to ride on the platform at the front of the boat, as a slip and fall can funnel them directly into the engine
• Diving is a fun activity from a pontoon, and as long as you are in deep water, there are no additional hazards to consider
• If you exceed the weight capacity of your boat, there is no concern as long as you travel at a slower than normal speed

When operating a houseboat, which of the following statements is false?

• Be sure that the boat is anchored before swimming, and ensure a qualified operator remains on board an unanchored boat
• Do not run the generator exhaust when swimmers are in the water
• Always take a head count of passengers before starting the motor
• Diving from a moving boat is fine as long as the boat is in deep water

Ultimately, boating safety depends primarily on:

• The water conditions and the weather
• The Boating Law Administrators in my state
• My boat rental company and the boating manufacturer
• Me, the boat operator

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Boat Sound Signals: Time To Sound Off

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When caught in a situation with restricted visibility, you'll need know how to let others know where you're located — and interpret where they are.

Photo: Stacey Nedrow-Wigmore

While the term "restricted visibility" may sound like there's something in your path that obstructs or blocks the view of where you're going, in maritime terms, it describes not only a situation where an operator can't see hazards in their path and around them, but also one that prevents your boat from being seen by others. Two common examples of this would be operating a vessel at night or during inclement weather. But restricted visibility can also occur due to unusual circumstances, such as dust storms or even smoke from nearby forest fires.

Boats need to be aware of each other's position at all times to operate safely, which is why adherence to navigational rules (such as the proper display of lights and use of sound signals) during periods of restricted visibility is so crucial.

Similar to the visual information provided by navigational lighting, sound signals provide an audible means of conveying your intentions, while also helping you understand what other boats around you are doing. This is especially important in situations of restricted visibility, such as fog, heavy rain, or when transiting areas where a vessel operator may experience limited visibility due to physical characteristics (a sharp bend in a narrow river, for example). In situations like these the effectiveness of navigation lights may be reduced or eliminated altogether.

Inland Vs. International

In some cases, the sound signals for International Rules may differ slightly from those described in the Inland Rules (the focus of this article). If traveling overseas, be sure to consult and familiarize yourself with the International Rules beforehand as provided in the Navigation Rules. While every boat owner should have sound-signal information on board for quick reference, a printed copy of the Navigation Rules is mandatory for vessels over 12 meters (39.4 feet) in length.

Sound-Producing Devices And Characteristics

Sound signals are described as "blasts," of which there are two types: A "short blast" means a blast of about 1 second, while a "prolonged blast" is 4 to 6 seconds.

The word "whistle" is defined in the Navigation Rules as any sound-signaling device capable of producing the required blasts as described by Annex III of the Rules. While Annex III provides the technical details of what constitutes a proper blast (such as frequencies and intensity) a simple interpretation for most recreational boaters would be how far the blast can be heard. For example, the minimum audibility range for a whistle or horn (both can be used interchangeably) required for a vessel 20 meters (65.6 feet), but less than 75 meters (246 feet) in length is 1 nautical mile. The minimum range for a vessel 12 meters (39.4 feet), but less than 20 meters is .5 nautical miles.

Most every vessel is required to carry some form of sound-producing device, and even those that are not would do well to have one on board, regardless of mandated carriage requirements.

That said, the Navigation Rules state a vessel 12 meters or more in length shall be provided with a whistle and a bell. Vessels of 100 meters or more in length shall additionally carry a gong, the tone and sound of which cannot be confused with that of the bell. The bell and gong may be replaced by equipment having the same respective sound characteristics, provided that manual sounding of the prescribed signals is always possible. An example of this would be an electronic loud hailer system that can generate the required sounds.

Acceptable sound-producing devices on board a boat can ­include an air horn, bell, or whistle, depending on the boat. (Photos: Air horn: Getty Images/gabrieletamborrelli; Bell: Getty Images/Yury Karamanenko)

Vessels less than 12 meters in length are required only to carry an "efficient" sound-producing device, such as a bell, air horn, or whistle. While banging on that galley pot may technically qualify as meeting the letter of the law, do yourself (and everyone else) a favor and carry an appropriate a sound-producing device. As the goal here is to be heard, ditch that wimpy horn and get one that makes the other boats think the Queen Mary is headed their way!

Sound Signals During Restricted Visibility

The below summary focuses on sound signals applicable for recreational vessels during restricted visibility. Keep in mind, however, that vessels engaged in other activities (towing, for example) will often have different or additional sound signal requirements and that sometimes variations may apply. When in doubt, always refer to the Navigation Rules .

• Power vessels making way through the water must sound one prolonged blast at not more than 2 minute intervals.
• A power vessel underway but stopped (not making way) must sound two prolonged blasts roughly 2 seconds apart at intervals of not more than 2 minutes.
• A sailing vessel, a vessel not under command, a vessel restricted in her ability to maneuver (whether underway or at anchor), or a vessel engaged in fishing (underway or at anchor) must sound three blasts in succession (one prolonged followed by two short blasts) at intervals of not more than 2 minutes.
• A vessel at anchor must ring a bell rapidly for about 5 seconds at intervals of not more than 1 minute apart. For vessels 100 meters or more in length (which require both a bell and gong), the bell shall be sounded in the forepart of the vessel and immediately after the ringing of the bell, the gong shall be sounded rapidly for about 5 seconds in the after part of the vessel. A vessel at anchor may, in addition, sound three blasts in succession; namely, one short, one prolonged and one short blast, to give warning of her position and of the possibility of collision to an approaching vessel. When anchored in a special anchorage area designated by the Secretary, vessels less than 20 meters in length, barges, canal boats, scows, or other nondescript craft are not required to give the sound signals described above for anchored vessels.

While vessels less than 12 meters in length are not required to give the above signals, they are required to make some type of efficient sound signal at intervals not more than 2 minutes apart. While there is leeway regarding sound signals for vessels less than 12 meters, why try to reinvent the wheel here? Having a proper sound-signaling device on smaller vessels and using the same sound signals (where practical and permitted by the rules) are a win-win for everyone on the water, in my opinion.

Finally, a vessel nearing a bend or an area of a channel or fairway where other vessels may be obscured by an intervening obstruction must sound one prolonged blast. This signal must be answered with a prolonged blast by any approaching vessel that may be within hearing around the bend or behind the intervening obstruction.

Remember these sound signal rules (we recommend carrying a cheat sheet on board), and you can cruise with the confidence of having added to your boating safety skill set.

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Danger Zone

• Add to quote

Oh due tell.. Who will be supporting that ride??  

that is a nice skater  

Is that the same danager zone w/ twin 900 sc's on offshore only?  

Tell more info.  

Is it the same boat from Florida in the Rick Ross Speeding Video???????  

Speedwake said: The 36' Skater 'Danger Zone' has a new home and you'll be seeing it in North Eat MD this summer... Click to expand...

TalkinTrash said: Is that the same danager zone w/ twin 900 sc's on offshore only? Click to expand...

Mario - see your new name? It will get a few upgrades before boating season arrives. [/B][/QUOTE] Yes, I do see that... Thanks so much for that... So I will speculate... Trainors or Ted.... I know both are looking or I should say Both were talking about CATS..' The mystery begins...  

there has been a red 43 nor tech cat in fort lauderdale for the last 3 years called danger zone that was just converted from a hardtop to a roadster. Boat has 1150 nor tech power. I guess now there are two  

Attachments

I was sitting in the back seat off of north miami with 4 other people. Randy Sweers of Fastboats was driving  

bgchuby01 said: there has been a red 43 nor tech cat in fort lauderdale for the last 3 years called danger zone that was just converted from a hardtop to a roadster. Boat has 1150 nor tech power. I guess now there are two Click to expand...

I guess someone else also is using the same name, cool name for a boat  

Paul Merrick... Do I win a Prize??  

LiquidVitamin said: This was the 1st Danger Zone since it is an 01' It is currently in the shop at Links Marine.. I will say the new owner is now a 6 boat owner if that tells you anything Click to expand...

links said: Click to expand...

LiquidVitamin said: I will say the new owner is now a 6 boat owner if that tells you anything Click to expand...

American Pride said: I'm guessing Bud Tresch traded/sold On the Prowl and bought Danger Zone. I saw a different cat backing into Bud's garage behind my house a while ago. Just a guess though....... Click to expand...

Whoa...that is one clean area she is sitting in...I guess we can say you are prepping her for surgery :winker:  

Jakewood said: Whoa...that is one clean area she is sitting in...I guess we can say you are prepping her for surgery :winker: Click to expand...

links said: DANGER ZONE'S New home will be here for a while ... Click to expand...

LiquidVitamin said: It's all brand new!!! Links just finished a Major Renovation of his new shop he took over a few short months ago. It's an awesome facility which can pretty much accomodate any size performance boat. He fit's a 43' Nortech Super Cat in there no problem I would say he's 98-99% complete. Click to expand...

links said: I would like to thank those that helped with the renovation process! You all know how you are. Thanx :thanks: Click to expand...

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‘DANGER ZONE’ A WINNER IN POWERBOAT RACES

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Danger Zone and throttleman Carlos Capilla of Miami, with an average speed of 76.7 mph, won the Sportsman D Class at the Sunday’s on the Bay at Haulover Flash Teltec Offshore Powerboat Classic.

Saturday’s races, at Haulover Beach in Miami, benefitted the Society for Abused Children.

The winner in the Modified Class was M11 American Dream and Pete Hidalgo of Miami Lakes (72.5 mph). In the Pro Stock division, Allan Dunteman, driving P40 Alligator won at 64.9 mph.

Other winners were Juan Granado’s B33 Condor in the Sportsman B Class (57.3 mph) and Jon Gordon and Fish Peddler in Sportsman C (63.6 mph).

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Interpreting Wave Forecasts for Boating

• By Jim Hendricks
• August 30, 2022

First, let me plead, “Mea culpa.” I’ll admit to fixating on marine wind forecasts before venturing out to sea, sometimes to the exclusion of wave projections.

That shortcut has more than once come back to bite me in the stern quarters. 

While wind has a major effect on sea conditions, boaters need to pay attention to other elements outlined in the marine forecast and how they translate to real-life conditions at sea. 

Planning an ocean trip without reviewing the wave forecast can lead to startling and uncomfortable surprises, as it did for me one windless morning in spring as we headed out the inlet of Mission Bay in San Diego. Had I checked the wave forecast, I would have known that a healthy lump generated by a spring gale far out in the Pacific was rolling in from the west. 

As waves approached the shallows at the west-facing cut, they rose up and closed ranks like menacing demons, with steep 6- to 7-foot faces and cresting tops. Our 21-footer made it out, but the experience certainly ramped the pucker factor and required careful throttle work to climb each wave without launching and slamming hard on the back side before facing the next one and eventually escaping the danger zone. 

Had I checked the wave forecast, I might have decided to launch the boat a mile down the coast in San Diego Bay, which has a much wider opening, a deeper channel and faces south, so it’s less vulnerable to a lump out of the west. 

Fortunately, the waves mellowed out during the course of the day, so the return to Mission Bay was not nearly as gnarly as the exit. But the lesson here is to pay close attention to the wave forecast as well as the projected winds. 

Interval Influence

Not all waves are created equal, even those of equal size. If that sounds like double talk, bear in mind that the interval between the waves has a major effect on sea conditions. For example, 3- to 4-foot waves that roll in about 12 seconds apart prove far more friendly than waves of the same height that are four to five seconds apart, as depicted in the illustration (left). 

The interval also affects the shape. Three- to 4-foot waves 15 seconds apart (so-called long-period waves) tend to have gently sloping shapes. Waves of the same height that roll in four to five seconds apart tend to be much steeper, especially the faces of the waves.

With long-period waves, a boat can usually cruise smoothly at a decent clip and near-maximum efficiency. 

Running into or with tightly spaced waves presents challenges. In so-called four-by-four seas (4 feet by four seconds), bigger boats might bridge the waves, but smaller boats often need to slow down and slog it out. Even with skillful boathandling, such conditions are unpleasant, hurt fuel efficiency, and can threaten safety, such as if the boat takes water across the bow or over the stern. 

Negotiating tightly spaced cross seas can also prove dangerous because waves that can roll over the gunwales and shove the boat sideways lash at the boat, threatening to capsize it. These are situations that boaters want to avoid, and that’s why interpreting wave forecasts is so important. 

Don’t fall into the bad habit of focusing on the wind forecast alone. Make sure you also know the projected height, interval and direction of waves relative to your anticipated course, and what that might mean for your time afloat. Based on what you learn and the size of your boat, be prepared to adjust or even postpone your plans until seas prove more favorable.

Read Next: Local Notice to Mariners

Marine Forecast Services

Here are four of the marine weather apps I use on my mobile phone to check wave and wind forecasts, and other weather elements affecting sea conditions before venturing out on the ocean.

• Buoy Weather (free with in-app purchases)
• NOAA Marine Weather Forecast ($1.99 per year)
• Windy (free with in-app purchases)
• Fish Weather (free with in-app purchases)
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Districts [ edit ]

The city is divided by the River Oka into two major parts: the Upper city ( Verkhnyaya or Nagornaya chast ) on the hilly right side and the Lower city ( Nizhnyaya or Zarechnaya chast — what literally means "the part over the river") on the left bank of the river. The Upper city is the old historical part of Nizhny Novgorod, whereas the Lower city is larger, newer and consists of more industrial districts.

Understand [ edit ]

History [ edit ]

The city was founded by Grand Duke George II of Russia in 1221 at the confluence of two most important rivers of his principality, the Volga and the Oka. Its name literally means Newtown the Lower , to distinguish it from the older Novgorod . A major stronghold for border protection, Nizhny Novgorod fortress took advantage of a natural moat formed by the two rivers.

Along with Moscow and Tver, Nizhny Novgorod was among several newly founded towns that escaped Mongol devastation on account of its insignificance and grew up into important centers of Russian political life during the period of Tatar yoke. For a short period of time it was the capital of the Suzdal Principality and competed with Moscow for the power in the region. However the competition with Moscow was lost and in 1392 the city was incorporated into Muscovy. Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin was built in 1508-1511 (under supervision of the Italian fortress engineers) and became one of the strongest Russian citadels. There is a legend saying that the project was initially developed with participation of Leonardo da Vinci. However there is no documented proof of Leonardo's work for that project, the only thing the legend is based on is the striking resemblance of Leonardo's sketches and the actual Kremlin schemes. The fortress was strong enough to withstand Tatar sieges in 1520 and 1536.

In 1612, the so-called national militia , gathered by a local merchant Kuzma Minin and commanded by Knyaz Dmitry Pozharsky expelled the Polish troops from Moscow, thus putting an end to the Time of Troubles and establishing the rule of the Romanov dynasty.

In 1817, the Makaryev Monastery Fair, one of the liveliest in the world the 16th-18th centuries, was transferred to Nizhny Novgorod, which thereupon started to attract numerous visitors and by the mid-19th century it turned Nizhny Novgorod into trade capital of the Russian Empire.

Under the Soviet period, the trade connections of the city were abandoned and Nizhny Novgorod became an important industrial centre instead. During the communist time the city was closed to foreigners to safeguard the security of Soviet military research. The physicist and the Nobel laureate Andrei Sakharov was exiled there during 1980-1986 to limit his contacts with foreigners.

Climate [ edit ]

The climate in the region is humid continental and it is similar to the climate in Moscow , although colder in winter, which lasts from late November until late March with a permanent snow cover.

By car [ edit ]

Nizhny Novgorod is situated on the M7/E30 road. The road is in decent condition, although with traffic it can take anywhere from 4 to 8 hours to drive to/from Moscow .

By boat [ edit ]

Turflot [dead link] , Infoflot , and many other companies operate multi-day river cruises down the Volga from early May to the end of September.

Many companies operate passenger boat service between Moscow and Astrakhan , with stops at most cities along the Volga River.

Get around [ edit ]

By foot [ edit ].

The city centre is compact and walkable. However, there are many inclines or steps from the river banks. The bridges are not pedestrian friendly since the sidewalk is very narrow and cars drive extremely fast close to the pedestrians.

By city rail [ edit ]

The City Rail connects areas where there are no metro lines. Connects with the subway at the Moscow railway station. It has 2 lines: Sormovskaya and Priokskaya. The fare by train costs 28 rubles. According to the Citicard Transport Card, the fare is 26 rubles. Also by train you can get to the nearest suburb, or transfer to suburban trains to Dzerzhinsk, Bor, Semenov or Arzamas.

By bus and trolleybus [ edit ]

As of May 2017 in each district of the city there are several city bus routes. The number of trolleybus routes is much less. In one district of the city there are 1-2 trolleybus routes. Trolleybus routes are completely absent in the Leninsky city district. It is worth noting that trolleybuses do not connect the Lower City to the Upper. This is because the trolleybuses do not have enough power to climb the mountain.

The trolleybus network is divided into 3 parts:

• The upper trolleybus network (it unites all three districts - Nizhegorodsky, Sovetsky and Prioksky) with a turning circle on the Minin Square, near the Kremlin.
• The lower trolleybus network (connects Kanavinsky, Moskovsky and Sormovsky districts)
• The Avtozavod trolleybus network (connects all the distant sleeping microdistricts among themselves)

By tram [ edit ]

Throughout the city, land trams run. The longest route of all is 417. It connects the outskirts of Avtozavodsky district with the Moskovsky Rail Terminal. The journey takes about 1 hour and 20 minutes. The route passes through the sleeping areas (approximately 75% of the way). Also in remote neighborhoods there are routes of several more trams, but in most cases, they are in the Upper City. By the way, you can reach there by tram 27 or 10 directly from the Moscow railway station.

By marshrutka [ edit ]

Marshrutkas do not stop at every stop. To indicate your intention to exit a marshrutka, press a button and to indicate your intention to enter a marshrutka en-route, you need to wave your hand.

By bicycle [ edit ]

Nizhny Novgorod has not very developed bicycle infrastructure. Special bike paths exist only on the Upper-Volga and Lower-Volga embankments and on Rozhdestvenskaya Street.

The upper city is very hilly and full of steep inclines and even many locals will get off their bicycles and push their bikes up the hill by foot. Drivers can be reckless and pose a danger to cyclists. The roads can also be icy during the winter. City cyclists solve this problem by replacing summer tires with winter tires.

Also, in 2017 the implementation of a new integrated transport scheme of the city began. It provides for a large number of bicycle paths in the Upper City (including on Bolshaya Pokrovskaya Street) and in the Lower City.

See [ edit ]

Monuments [ edit ]

• Monument to Valery Chkalov, the famous test pilot of the 1930s, known for his ultra long flight from Moscow to Washington State via the North Pole.
• Maxim Gorky, at the square named after him
• Alexander Pushkin (at the entrance to the Theatre of Opera and Ballet)
• 56.327974 44.001982 26 Prince George and Saint Simon of Suzdal , The Kremlin, St. Michael the Archangel Cathedral . Monument to the founders of the city of Prince Yuri II of Vladimir (also George Vsevolodovich) and Simeon of Suzdal ( updated Jun 2017 )

Religious [ edit ]

• Pechersky Ascencion Monastery , near Sennaya Square a couple miles east of downtown, halfway down the slope to Volga. With a cathedral and several churches surrounded by a restored stone wall, the monastery is the seat of the archbishops of Nizhny Novgorod.
• A big variety of other churches and convents.

Buy [ edit ]

Sleep [ edit ]

All hotels and hostels offer free Wi-Fi and many have computer terminals. Almost all accept credit cards. Hotels and hostels will usually provide a visa invitation and registration for an additional fee.

Connect [ edit ]

Phone [ edit ].

For information on purchasing a SIM card in Russia, see Russia#Connect .

Note that Nizhny Novgorod is in the Volga region zone, and SIM cards purchased elsewhere, such as in Moscow or Saint Petersburg , may be subject to roaming charges.

There are payphones in the streets; however, you can only buy phone-cards in the post offices and in a few newspaper kiosks.

Internet [ edit ]

Free WiFi is available in most hotels, shopping malls, university buildings, restaurants and cafes, the airport as well as several metro stations. There is also free public WiFi on B. Pokrovskaya street.

Cope [ edit ]

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The Zone of Interest is about the danger of ignoring atrocities – including in Gaza

If Jonathan Glazer’s brave Oscar acceptance speech made you uncomfortable, that was the point

I t’s an Oscar tradition: a serious political speech pierces the bubble of glamour and self-congratulation. Warring responses ensue. Some proclaim the speech an example of artists at their culture-shifting best; others an egotistical usurpation of an otherwise celebratory night. Then everyone moves on.

Yet I suspect that the impact of Jonathan Glazer’s time-stopping speech at last Sunday’s Academy Awards will be significantly more lasting, with its meaning and import analyzed for many years to come.

Glazer was accepting the award for best international film for The Zone of Interest, which is inspired by the real life of Rudolf Höss, commandant of the Auschwitz concentration camp. The film follows Höss’s idyllic domestic life with his wife and children, which unfolds in a stately home and garden immediately adjacent to the concentration camp. Glazer has described his characters not as monsters but as “non-thinking, bourgeois, aspirational-careerist horrors”, people who manage to turn profound evil into white noise.

Before Sunday’s ceremony, Zone had already been heralded by several deities of the film world. Alfonso Cuarón, the Oscar-winning director of Roma, called it “probably the most important film of this century”. Steven Spielberg declared it “the best Holocaust movie I’ve witnessed since my own” – a reference to Schindler’s List, which swept the Oscars 30 years ago.

But while Schindler List’s triumph represented a moment of profound validation and unity for the mainstream Jewish community, Zone arrives at a very different juncture. Debates are raging about how the Nazi atrocities should be remembered: should the Holocaust be seen exclusively as a Jewish catastrophe, or something more universal, with greater recognition for all the groups targeted for extermination? Was the Holocaust a unique rupture in European history, or a homecoming of earlier colonial genocides, along with a return of the techniques, logics and bogus race theories they developed and deployed? Does “never again” mean never again to anyone, or never again to the Jews, a pledge for which Israel is imagined as a kind of untouchable guarantee?

These wars over universalism, proprietary trauma, exceptionalism and comparison are at the heart of South Africa’s landmark genocide case against Israel at the international court of justice, and they are also ripping through Jewish communities, congregations and families around the world. In one action-packed minute, and in our moment of stifling self-censorship, Glazer fearlessly took clear positions on each of these controversies.

“All our choices were made to reflect and confront us in the present – not to say, ‘Look what they did then’; rather, ‘Look what we do now,’” Glazer said, quickly dispatching with the notion that comparing present-day horrors to Nazi crimes is inherently minimizing or relativizing, and leaving no doubt that his explicit intention was to draw out continuities between the monstrous past and our monstrous present.

And he went further: “We stand here as men who refute their Jewishness and the Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation which has led to conflict for so many innocent people, whether the victims of 7 October in Israel or the ongoing attack on Gaza.” For Glazer, Israel does not get a pass, nor is it ethical to use intergenerational Jewish trauma from the Holocaust as justification or cover for atrocities committed by the Israeli state today.

Others have made these points before, of course, and many have paid dearly, particularly if they are Palestinian, Arab, or Muslim. Glazer, interestingly, dropped his rhetorical bombs protected by the identity-equivalent of a suit of armor, standing before the glittering crowd as a successful white Jewish man – flanked by two other successful white Jewish men – who had, together, just made a film about the Holocaust. And that phalanx of privilege still didn’t save him from the flood of smears and distortions that misrepresented his words to wrongly claim that he had repudiated his Jewishness, which only served to underline Glazer’s point about those who turn victimhood into a weapon.

Equally significant was what we might think of as the speech’s meta-context: what preceded it and immediately followed. Those who only watched clips online missed this part of the experience, and that’s too bad. Because as soon as Glazer wrapped up his speech – dedicating the award to Aleksandra Bystroń-Kołodziejczyk, a Polish woman who secretly fed Auschwitz prisoners and fought the Nazis as a member of the Polish underground army – out came actors Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt. Without so much as a commercial break to allow us to emotionally recover, we were instantly jettisoned into a “Barbenheimer” bit, with Gosling telling Blunt that her film about the invention of a weapon of mass destruction had ridden Barbie’s pink coat tails to box-office success, and Blunt accusing Gosling of painting on his abs.

At first, I feared that this impossible juxtaposition would undercut Glazer’s intervention: how could the mournful and wrenching realities he had just invoked coexist with that kind of California high-school prom energy? Then it hit me: like the fuming defenders of Israel’s “right to defend itself”, the sparkly artifice that encased the speech was also helping to make his point.

“Genocide becomes ambient to their lives”: that is how Glazer has described the atmosphere he attempted to capture in his film, in which his characters attend to their daily dramas – sleepless kids, a hard-to-please mother, casual infidelities – in the shadow of smokestacks belching out human remains. It’s not that these people don’t know that an industrial-scale killing machine whirs just beyond their garden wall. They have simply learned to lead contented lives with ambient genocide.

It is this that feels most contemporary, most of this terrible moment, about Glazer’s staggering film. More than five months into the daily slaughter in Gaza, and with Israel brazenly ignoring the orders of the international court of justice, and western governments gently scolding Israel while shipping it more arms, genocide is becoming ambient once more – at least for those of us fortunate enough to live on the safe sides of the many walls that carve up our world. We face the risk of it grinding on, becoming the soundtrack of modern life. Not even the main event.

Glazer has repeatedly stressed that his film’s subject is not the Holocaust, with its well-known horrors and historical particularities, but something more enduring and pervasive: the human capacity to live with holocausts and other atrocities, to make peace with them, draw benefit from them.

When the film premiered last May, before Hamas’s 7 October attack and before Israel’s unending assault on Gaza, this was a thought experiment that could be contemplated with a degree of intellectual distance. The audience members at the Cannes film festival who gave The Zone of Interest a rapturous six-minute standing ovation likely felt safe toying with Glazer’s challenge. Perhaps some looked out at the azure Mediterranean and considered how they had themselves gotten comfortable with, even uninterested in, news of boats packed with desperate people being left to drown just down the coast. Or maybe they thought about the private jets they had taken to France, and the way flight emissions are entangled in the disappearance of food sources for impoverished people far away, or the extinction of species, or the potential disappearance of entire nations.

Glazer wanted his film to provoke these kinds of uneasy thoughts. He has said that he saw “the darkening world around us, and I had a feeling I had to do something about our similarities to the perpetrators rather than the victims.” He wanted to remind us that annihilation is never as far away as we might think.

But by the time Zone made it into theatres in December, Glazer’s subtle challenge for audiences to contemplate their inner Hösses cut a lot closer to the bone. Most artists try desperately to tap into the zeitgeist, but Zone, whose theatrical release has been muted given the initial response, may well have suffered from something rare in the history of cinema: a surplus of relevance, an oversupply of up-to-the-minuteness.

One of the film’s most memorable scenes comes when a package filled with clothing and lingerie stolen from the camp’s prisoners arrives at the Höss home. The commandant’s wife, Hedwig (played almost too convincingly by Sandra Hüller), decrees that everyone, including the servants, can choose one item. She keeps a fur coat for herself, even trying on the lipstick she finds in a pocket.

It is the intimacy of the entanglements with the dead that are so chilling. And I have no idea how anyone can watch that scene and not think of the Israeli soldiers who have filmed themselves rifling through the lingerie of Palestinians whose homes they are occupying in Gaza, or boasting of stealing shoes and jewelry for their fiances and girlfriends, or taking group selfies with Gaza’s rubble as the backdrop. (One such photo went viral after the writer Benjamin Kunkel added the caption “The Zone of Pinterest”.)

There are so many such echoes that, today, Glazer’s masterpiece feels more like a documentary than a metaphor. It’s almost as if, by filming Zone in the style of a reality show, with hidden cameras throughout the house and garden (Glazer has referred to it as “Big Brother in the Nazi House”), the movie anticipated the first live-streamed genocide, the version filmed by its perpetrators.

Zone offers an extreme portrait of a family whose placid and pretty life flows directly from the machinery devouring human life next door. This is most emphatically not a portrait of people in denial: they know what is happening on the other side of the wall, and even the kids play with scavenged human teeth. The concentration camp and the family home are not separate entities; they are conjoined. The wall of the family’s garden – creating an enclosed space for the children to play, and shade for the pool – is the same wall that, on the other side, encloses the camp.

Everyone I know who has seen the film can think of little but Gaza. To say this is not to claim a one-to-one equation or comparison with Auschwitz. No two genocides are identical: Gaza is not a factory deliberately designed for mass murder, nor are we close to the scale of the Nazi death toll. But the whole reason the postwar edifice of international humanitarian law was erected was so that we would have the tools to collectively identify patterns before history repeats at scale. And some of the patterns – the wall, the ghetto, the mass killing, the repeatedly stated eliminationist intent , the mass starvation, the pillaging, the joyful dehumanization, and the deliberate humiliation – are repeating.

So, too, are the ways that genocide becomes ambient, the way those of us a little further away from the walls can block the images, and tune out the cries, and just … carry on. That’s why the Academy made Glazer’s point for him when it hard-cut to Barbenheimer – itself a trivialization of mass slaughter – without missing a beat. Atrocity is once again becoming ambient. (One might see the entire Oscar spectacle as a kind of live-action extension of The Zone of Interest , a sort of Denialism on Ice.)

What do we do to interrupt the momentum of trivialization and normalization? That is the question so many of us are struggling with right now. My students ask me. I ask my friends and comrades. So many are offering their responses with relentless protests, civil disobedience, “uncommitted” votes , event interruptions, aid convoys to Gaza, fundraising for refugees, works of radical art. But it’s not enough.

And as genocide fades further into the background of our culture, some people grow too desperate for any of these efforts. Watching the Oscars on Sunday, where Glazer was alone among the parade of wealthy and powerful speakers across the podium to so much as mention Gaza, I remembered that exactly two weeks had passed since Aaron Bushnell , a 25-year-old member of the US air force, self-immolated outside the Israeli embassy in Washington.

I don’t want anyone else to deploy that horrifying protest tactic; there has already been far too much death. But we should spend some time sitting with the statement that Bushnell left, words I have come to view as a haunting, contemporary coda to Glazer’s film:

“Many of us like to ask ourselves, ‘What would I do if I was alive during slavery? Or the Jim Crow south? Or apartheid? What would I do if my country was committing genocide?’ The answer is, you’re doing it. Right now.”

Naomi Klein is a Guardian US columnist and contributing writer. She is the professor of climate justice and co-director of the Centre for Climate Justice at the University of British Columbia. Her latest book, Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World, was published in September

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here .

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How Nizhny Novgorod became the trade center of the Russian Empire 

“St. Petersburg is Russia’s head, Moscow is its heart and Nizhny Novgorod is its pocket.” This old Russian saying is probably the most succinct way of explaining the meaning and importance of the trading that took place in Nizhny Novgorod.

Why did Nizhny Novgorod become a center of commerce?

The city is very conveniently located at the confluence of two major rivers, the Volga and Oka, which run across the whole of Russia and flow into the Caspian Sea. In addition, the Volga was the only arterial waterway linking the West with the East. Nizhny Novgorod, moreover, was on the railway network, so one could travel to the Caucasus, Persia, Turkey, Central Asia and even India and China from there. Thanks to its geographical position, the city had always been a thriving trade hub and archeologists have found Arabic and Byzantine artifacts proving that it had trading links with the East as early as the 13th-14th centuries. The first documented fairs and gatherings of merchants go back to the 16th century.

Nizhny Novgorod at the end of the 19th century

Initially, fairs were held not in the city itself, but by the walls of the Makaryev Monastery lower down the Volga. They were temporary affairs and lasted one or two days. In the 17th century, however, Tsar Aleksey Mikhaylovich established a five-day duty-free period for trade, thus attracting even more merchants. These often stayed for longer periods, paying tax to the treasury outside the period of exemption.

In the early 19th century, it became clear that the space near the monastery was not big enough to accommodate all comers and, furthermore, the makeshift rows of wooden shopping booths burned down at one point. By that time, the Nizhny Novgorod Fair had already become incredibly important, bringing an enormous amount of money to the state treasury. 

View of the fair at the end of the 19th century

The fair was moved to Nizhny Novgorod proper - to the point of land where the Volga and Oka converge. Emperor Alexander I postponed repairs in his own palace to allocate six million rubles for the construction of a new building for the fair. And he didn’t lose out - merchants brought merchandise worth 24 million rubles to the first fair, which opened on the new site in 1817, with the figure increasing to 57 million rubles by 1846.

One of the buildings of the Gostiny Dvor (indoor market) in Nizhny Novgorod

Contemporaries called the Nizhny Novgorod Fair the “trading court of Europe and Asia”. Foreigners sold their wares wholesale to local merchants and manufacturers and 90 percent of all goods from the East passed through the Nizhny Novgorod Fair, from where they were distributed throughout Russia. In turn, foreign merchants bought goods from Europeans and Russians.

What was bought and sold at the Nizhny Novgorod Fair?

General view of the fair, chromolithograph, 1896

By the 1850s, up to 700 foreign merchants would attend the Nizhny Novgorod Fair. At the same time, the volume of trade with Asia in the middle of the 19th century exceeded turnover with Western Europe by one-and-a-half to three times.

One of the main items of trade was tea from China. In the 1880s, between 800 and 900 poods (a Russian unit of weight equal to about 16.38 kilograms) of tea worth 42 million rubles were brought to Russia every year. There were even separate Asian trading pavilions in the style of Chinese pagodas at the fair.

Chinese pavilions at the fair, late 19th century

In return, the Chinese bought the furs and skins of all kinds of animals; from foxes, squirrels and muskrats to sheep and cow hide.

From Iran, handmade rugs, silks, cotton fabrics, as well as a wide range of dry foodstuffs - walnuts, pistachios, dried pitted and unpitted apricots, almonds, prunes, millet and rice - were brought to Russia. And the Persians themselves took back wool, metal and leather goods, porcelain, writing paper and many other things.

Pyotr Vereshchagin. Lower Bazaar in Nizhny Novgorod, 1860s

Russia also exported sugar, linen, hemp, cotton and leather goods, wool, wood, metals and much more to the East. The variety of merchandise was astounding. In the 1820s, Russian official Yegor Meyendorff gave a list of the goods purchased by Bukhara merchants: “The goods exported from Russia include cochineal [a red dye - ed.], cloves, sugar, tin, red and blue sandalwood, cloths, red Kungur, Kazan and Arzamas leather, wax, some honey, iron, copper, steel, gold thread, small mirrors, otter skin, pearls, Russian nankeen [cotton fabric - Russia Beyond], cast-iron cauldrons, needles, coral, plush, cotton headscarves, brocade, small glassware and a small quantity of Russian canvas…”  

Fishing also became a very important article of trade. “Fishing for beluga, sturgeon, stellate sturgeon, catfish and some other fish species was almost completely monopolized by Russian merchants throughout the Southern Caspian,” according to historians A.A. Ivanova and A.V. Ivanov.

Fishing boat of the Murmansk fishery industry

Over time, products from new developing industries, including metallurgy and textile   manufacturing, were added to the exports. They included inexpensive chintz manufactured at the famous Shuya factories in Ivanovo Region. And, in the 1880s-1890s, trading in oil and oil products even began here.

The machinery section at the fair in 1896

With the passage of time, bank branches were opened at the fair, the services of lawyers became available and exchange dealings were transacted. The fair was a very important event for major Russian merchants and manufacturers. But self-employed artisans and representatives of the arts and crafts industry also took a very active part. Spinning-wheels, wooden spoons, folk costumes, painted trays, crockery, lace - the work of the best artisans from all over Russia was represented. They, in turn, would spend the whole year preparing for the fair and would try to bring their best wares.

The handicrafts section in 1896

How the fair was organized

Jules Verne's ‘Michael Strogoff’ describes the Nizhny Novgorod Fair as follows: “This plain was now covered with booths symmetrically arranged in such a manner as to leave avenues broad enough to allow the crowd to pass without a crush. Each group of these booths of all sizes and shapes formed a separate quarter particularly dedicated to some special branch of commerce. There was the iron quarter, the furriers’ quarter, the woolen quarter, the wood merchants quarter, the weavers’ quarter, the dried fish quarter, etc… In the avenues and long alleys there was already a large assemblage of people… An extraordinary mixture of Europeans and Asiatics, talking, wrangling, haranguing and bargaining… On one of the open spaces between the quarters of this temporary city were numbers of mountebanks of every description; harlequins and acrobats deafening the visitors with the noise of their instruments and their vociferous cries… In the long avenues, the bear showmen accompanied their four-footed dancers, menageries resounded with the hoarse cries of animals…”

General view of the fair during spring high water on the River Oka, 1890

From the mid-19th century onwards, the official duration of the fair was a little over a month, but, in practice, trading continued from July to September. The fair was an occasion for general festivity in the city - more than 200,000 people would arrive in Nizhny Novgorod during the period of trading and there would be a circus and a theater and performing musicians. Electricity and water supply were brought to the site of the fair in the 1870s-1880s. The fair had a positive impact on the whole of the city - Nizhny Novgorod had convenient infrastructure facilities, and hotels and inns were extensively built. One of the first tram lines in Russia was inaugurated there in 1896.

Eastern traders at the fair

There were also two cathedrals at the site of the fair - the ‘Staroyarmarochny’ (“Old Fair”) Transfiguration Cathedral, which opened in 1822. The architect was Auguste de Montferrand (who later built St. Isaac’s Cathedral in St. Petersburg with a very similar colonnaded drum under the main dome). 

The ‘Staroyarmarochny’ (“Old Fair”) Transfiguration Cathedral

In 1881, Emperor Alexander III himself, along with his spouse and son, the future Nicholas II, were present at the inauguration of the Alexander Nevsky ‘Novoyarmarochny’ (“New Fair”) Cathedral. Construction of a new main fair building, in the Russian style, was completed in the same year (the similar GUM department store on the Red Square appeared later). All three buildings survive to this day. 

The fair’s principal building

In 1896, the All-Russia Industrial and Art Exhibition was held in the grounds of the Nizhny Novgorod Fair - the biggest such exhibition in the history of the Russian Empire. More than 100 temporary pavilions were built for it. The first Russian motor car, as well as engineer Vladimir Shukhov’s steel lattice structures, were on display at the exhibition.

16th All-Russia Industrial and Art Exhibition in Nizhny Novgorod, 1896

After the 1917 Revolution, the fair continued to function for a time, but it was not as popular as before - and there was no longer any freedom of trade, the latter having been fully placed in the hands of the state. In 1929, the Bolsheviks finally closed down “this capitalist, socially hostile phenomenon”. Many of the fair’s buildings were demolished - or converted into residential housing. 

One of the last Nizhny Novgorod fairs in the Soviet time, 1924

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