To the zealots of the old faith, 70,000 dessiatins (76,300 hectares) of the best land on the left bank of the Volga were allocated for use.

The convenient location on the shipping routes helped the village to grow rapidly due to wheat trade.

The beginning of the 20th century was marked by a significant expansion of the borders of the village, as well as an increase in the number of industrial enterprises.

In May 1911, the Highest Ordinance was signed to confer on Balakovo the status of a city with the rights of self-government.

On the eve of the 1917 revolution, there were 6 churches, 7 schools, the grain market, the ironworks of Fyodor Blinov and the mechanical plant of oil engines of the Mamin brothers, ship repair and furniture workshops, sawmills, mills, a commercial college opened in 1910, with considerable financial assistance of the merchant - a patron of Ivan Kobzar, the Zemsky hospital and the city factory ambulance (polyclinic), a library, and a power plant, which was organized by the "Light" partnership.

Inventors-self-taught Fyodor Abramovich Blinov and Yakov Mamin glorified Balakovo as the birthplace of the world's first caterpillar tractor, wheel self-propelled gun and Russian diesel engine.

Carefully preserving and restoring the historical landscape of the central part, the people of Balakovo constantly improve the appearance of a new, young city with spacious avenues, straight as arrows, avenues, slender buildings with elegant facades.

In the period from 1956 to 1971, the Saratov Hydroelectric Station was built in Balakovo, which led to the flooding of the Volga and the flooding of part of the coastal territory and the changing appearance of the modern city, as well as its sharp growth associated with obtaining the necessary electricity.

Balakovo has a humid continental climate (Köppen: Dfa) with long cold winters and warm, often hot summers.

In 2002 a new section of the contact network was put into operation, which allowed increasing the number of trolleybus routes.

Earlier in Balakovo, there was a similar airport (located near the village of Malaya Bykovka), which until the late 1990s received regular flights.