Nizhny Novgorod , colloquially shortened to Nizhny, is, with a population of 1,250,619, the fifth largest city in Russia and the administrative center of Nizhny Novgorod Oblast. From 1932 to 1990, it was known as Gorky (, ), after the writer Maxim Gorky, who was born there. The city is an important economic, transportation and cultural center of Russia and the vast Volga-Vyatka economic region. It is located about 400 km east of Moscow, where the Oka empties into the Volga.