Novorossiysk Road

After an approach by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office a friendship link was established between Plymouth and the Russian port of Novorossiysk in 1953, indeed the Russians themselves suggest it was slightly earlier, however it wasn't until 1990 that the two cities were formally twinned.

Although the two have had similar experiences, Novorossiysk, on the Black Sea Coast, is a comparatively modern port - it was founded as a fort in 1838. In 1882 cement works were constructed there and it became a port six years later. Today it is the largest centre of the cement industry in Russia. Heavily damaged during the last war, Novorossiysk was partly occupied by the Germans in 1942. In 1993 they celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of their liberation.

In the 1960s, when the new Plymouth estates of Leigham and Estover were laid out, the opportunity to mark the link between the two cities was taken in the naming of the main artery road between the estates.

EH 10 September 1994