Balakhna (Russian: Балахна́) is a town and the administrative center of Balakhninsky District in Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, Russia, located on the right bank of the Volga River, 32 kilometers (20 mi) north of Nizhny Novgorod, the administrative center of the oblast.

[citation needed] After the Khan of Kazan razed it to the ground in 1536, a wooden fort was constructed to protect the settlement against further Tatar incursions.

That year several shipwrights from Holstein built the first Russian ships here, thus establishing Balakhna as a foremost center of national river shipbuilding.

The people of Balakhna were also reputed for their skills in knitting and making colored tiles, which were used for decoration of the Savior Church (1668) and other local temples.

The settlement was named after the Moscow Pravda newspaper, which at some point may have been the largest consumer of newsprint produced at the local paper mill.