Tver
Tver () is a city in
Russia, the administrative center of
Tver Oblast. Population: 408,903 (
2002 Census). Tver was formerly the capital of a powerful medieval state and the model provincial town of
Imperial Russia. It is located at the confluence of
Volga and
Tvertsa Rivers. The city was known as
Kalinin () from
1931 to
1990.
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 descended. 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.
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17th century icon of St. Michael of Tver, slain by the Mongols, holding the town of Tver in his hands. |
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. His son Dmitry "the Terrible Eyes" succeeded him, and, concluding an
alliance with the mighty
Lithuania, managed to raise Tver's prestige even higher.
Exasperated by Dmitry's influence, prince
Ivan Kalita of
Moscow engineered his murder by the Mongols in
1326. 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.
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.
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Following a great fire of 1763, the city was rebuilt in Neoclassical style. |
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. In
1940 the NKVD executed more than 6,200 Polish policemen and prisoners of war from
Ostashkov camp. 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 major city in
Europe to be liberated from the Wehrmacht. 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.
Tver is home to
Tver State University, the most highly rated university of the region. It is also home to a technical university, medical, military, and agricultural academies and more than 20 colleges and lyceums, branch campuses of some Moscow higher educational institutions and more than 50 high schools.
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English-language website on Tver*
Amateur photos of Tver
