Tver: Encyclopedia - Tver

Tver

Tver (Russian: Тверь) is a city in Russia, an administrative center of Tver Oblast. Formerly the capital of a powerful medieval state and the model provinical town of Imperial Russia, it has a population of 453,000 (as of 2003). Tver is located at 56°52′N 35°55′E, at the confluence of Volga and Tvertsa rivers. The city was known as Kalinin (Калинин) from 1931 to 1990.

Tver - Medieval origins

The first written record of Tver is dated 1164. Originally a minor settlement of Novgorodian traders, it passed to the Grand Prince of Vladimir in 1209. In 1246, Alexander Nevsky granted it to his younger brother Yaroslav Yaroslavich (d. 1271), from whom a dynasty of local princes descends. Four of them were killed in the Golden Horde and were proclaimed saints by the Russian Orthodox church.

Formerly a land of woods and bogs, the Tver principality was quickly transformed into one of the richest and most populous Russian states. As the area was hardly accessible for Tatar raids, there was a great influx of population from the recently devastated South. By the end of the century, it was ready to vie with Moscow for supremacy in Russia. Both Tver and Moscow were the young cities, so the outcome of their rivalry was far from being certain.

Tver - Grand princedom

Mikhail of Tver, who ascended the throne of Vladimir in 1305, was one of the most beloved of medieval Russian rulers. His policy of open conflict with the Golden Horde led to his assassination there in 1318. It is an opinion of many historians that he was in fact killed en route to the Golden Horde by a band of Muscovite soldiers. The Moscow duke Ivan Kalita had agreed to murder his rival in exchange for the all-Russia reign, that was granted by the Horde. His son Alexander "the Terrible Eyes" succeeded him, and, concluding an alliance with the mighty Lithuania, managed to rise Tver's prestige even higher.

Exasperated by Alexander's influence, prince Yury of Moscow engineered his murder by the Mongols in 1327. On hearing the news of this crime, the city revolted against the Horde. The latter joined its forced with Muscovites and brutally repressed the rebellion. Many citizens were killed, enslaved, or deported. This was the fatal blow to Tver's pretensions for supremacy in Russia.

In the second half of the 14th century, Tver was further weakened by dynastic struggles between its princes. Two senior branches of the ruling house, those of Kashin and Kholmsky, asserted their claims to the grand ducal throne. The claimants were backed up by Moscow and eventually settled at the Kremlin court.

During the Great Feudal War in Muscovy, Tver once again rised to prominence and concluded defensive alliances with Lithuania, Novgorod, Byzantium, and the Golden Horde. Grand Prince Boris of Tver sent one of his men, Afanasiy Nikitin, to search gold and diamonds as far as India. Nikitin's travelogue, describing his journey from 1466 to 1477, is probably the first ever first-hand account of India by an European. A monument to Nikitin was opened on the Volga embankment in 1955.

Tver - Later history

At last, on September 12, 1485, the forces of Ivan the Great seized the city. The principality was given as an appanage to Ivan's grandson, only to be abolished several decades later. Last scions of the ruling dynasty were executed by Ivan the Terrible during the Oprichnina. At that turbulent time, Tver was ruled by Simeon Bekbulatovich, a former khan of Kasimov. The only remnant of his ephemeral reign is a graceful tent-like church in the village of Kushalino, 28 km north-east of Tver.

The city's decline was not irrevocable, however. With the foundation of St. Petersburg, Tver gained importance as a principal station on the highway (and later railway) from Moscow to St. Petersburg. It was much visited by Russian royalty and nobility travelling from the old capital to the new one and back.

Under Catherine the Great, the downtown was thoroughly reconstructed. Crumbling medieval edifices were razed and replaced with imposing Neoclassical structures. The most important of these are the Travel Palace of the Empress (designed by the celebrated Matvey Kazakov), and the Ascension church (designed by Prince Lvov and consecrated in 1813).

In 1931, the city was renamed Kalinin, after a notable Soviet leader Mikhail Kalinin. A last vestige of pre-Petrine epoch, the Saviour Cathedral, was blown up in 1936. The Wehrmacht occupied Kalinin for two months in 1941, leaving the city in ashes. A large-scale resistance movement in the city and the region resulted in over 30,000 Nazi soldiers and officers eliminated during the occupation of the city. Notably, Kalinin was the first city in the whole world to be liberated from the Axis. The historic name of Tver was restored in 1990.

Apart from the suburban White Trinity Church (1564), there are no ancient monuments left in Tver. The downtown is graced with Catharinian and Soviet edifices, bridges and embankments. Tver's most notable industries are a railroad cars plant, opened in 1898, an excavation-machine factory.

Russian military base Migalovo that is situated in the west of the city is used as a major point on route of equipment and personnel to the Chechnya war.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Tver", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki