The city is situated where three rivers meet, splitting the town into northern and southern parts by the Volga, and divided again into quarters by theTvertsa River, which splits the left (northern) bank into east and west halves, and theTmaka River which does the same along the southern bank. According to one hypothesis, the name of the Tvertsa is ofFinnic origin,*Tiheverä.[14]
Tver was formerly the capital of a powerful medieval state and a model provincial town in theRussian Empire, with a population of 60,000 by 14 January 1913. The city was known asKalinin (Калинин) from 1931 to 1990.
Aside from the White Trinity Church (1564), built of limestone (rather than usual brick) and located in a district of traditional log houses away from the city center, there are no pre-Petrine buildings left in Tver. The central part, featuring the Volga embankments and bridges, is graced withCatharinian and Soviet edifices.
Formerly a land of woods and bogs, thePrincipality of Tver was quickly transformed into one of the richest and most populous Russian states. As the area was hardly accessible forTatar raids, there was a great influx of population from the recently devastated south. By the end of the century, it vied withMoscow for supremacy in Russia. Both Tver and Moscow were recently founded cities, so the outcome of their rivalry was far from certain.
Exasperated by Dmitry's influence,Ivan Kalita, theprince of Moscow, engineered his murder by the Mongols in 1326. On hearing the news of this crime, the cityrevolted against the Mongol Horde. The Horde joined its forces with the Muscovites and brutally repressed therebellion. Many citizens were killed, enslaved or deported. This was the fatal blow to Tver's aspirations for supremacy in Russia.
In the second half of the 14th century, Tver was further weakened bydynastic struggles between its princes. Two senior branches of the ruling house, those ofKashin andKholmsky, asserted their claims to the grand princely throne. The claimers were backed up by Moscow and eventually settled at theMoscow Kremlin court.
During theGreat Feudal War in theGrand Duchy of Moscow, Tver again rose to prominence and concluded defensive alliances with Lithuania, Novgorod,Byzantium, and the Golden Horde.Boris of Tver sent one of his men,Afanasy Nikitin, to search for gold and diamonds as far asIndia.Nikitin's travelogue, describing his journey from 1466 to 1472, is one of the first ever firsthand accounts of India by a European. A monument to Nikitin was opened on the Volga embankment in 1955.
On 12 September 1485, the forces ofIvan III seized the city, leading to it to be formally annexed by Moscow. Theprincipality was given as anappanage to Ivan's son,Ivan the Young,[15] only to be abolished several decades later. The last scions of the ruling dynasty were executed byIvan the Terrible during theoprichnina. During that turbulent time, Tver was ruled bySimeon Bekbulatovich, a former khan ofKasimov. The only remnant of his ephemeral reign is a gracefultent-like church in the village ofKushalino, 28 kilometres (17 mi) northeast of Tver.
The city's decline was not irrevocable, however. With the foundation ofSt. Petersburg, Tver gained importance as a principal station on the highway (and later railway) en route from Moscow. It was much visited byRussian royalty andnobility traveling from the old capital to the new one and back.
Following a devastating fire of 1763, the city was rebuilt in aNeoclassical style. UnderCatherine the Great, the central part was thoroughly reconstructed. Crumbling medieval buildings were razed and replaced with imposing Neoclassical buildings. The most important of these are the Travel Palace of the Empress (designed by the celebratedMatvei Kazakov), and the Ascension church (designed byNikolay Lvov and consecrated in 1813).
In 1809, a committee was established to improve the city.[17] An architect designed the Cathedral of Christ and houses on the waterfront and in the city center (30 buildings), and rebuilt the summer palace.Catherine Pavlovna (a sister ofAlexander I) was married to the governor of Tver, and the palace was a social center andliterary salon for Tver and visitors from Moscow and St. Petersburg. Writer and historianNikolay Karamzin read excerpts from hisHistory of the Russian State to Alexander.[18] Napoleon was near Tver in 1812.
The main church of Tver, dating from the 17th century, was demolished in 1935. It was rebuilt to the same design in the 2010s.
On 12 July 1929, the governorates and uyezds were abolished. Tverskoy District, with the administrative centre in Tver, was established withinTver Okrug ofMoscow Oblast.[19] On 23 July 1930, the okrugs were abolished, and the districts were directly subordinated to the oblast.[20]
On 20 November 1931, the city was renamedKalinin after the nominal head of state (1919–1946) and affiliate ofJoseph Stalin,Mikhail Kalinin, who had been born nearby.[21][22] Simultaneously, Tverskoy District was renamed Kalininsky District. On 29 January 1935,Kalinin Oblast was established, and Kalininsky District was transferred to Kalinin Oblast.
The last vestige of the pre-Petrine epoch, the Saviour Cathedral, was blown up in 1936. In 1940, theNKVD executed more than 6,200 Polish policemen and prisoners of war fromOstashkov camp.
TheWehrmacht entered Kalinin on Monday 13 October 1941 according to MI9 photographs, occupied Kalinin for two months from Monday 13 October 1941/Tuesday, 14 October to 19 December 1941, leaving the city in ashes. Kalinin was the first major city inEurope to be retaken from the Wehrmacht.
During theCold War, Kalinin was home to theKryuchkovo air base, which is no longer in service. The city's historic name of Tver was restored on 17 July 1990.[23][24]
The city was divided into districts in 1936. The districts were updated several times in 1965 and 1976. The final city division, currently in use, divides the city into four districts:
Zavolzhsky City District – part of the city, on the left bank ofVolga River
Moskovsky City District – east of the city, on the right bank ofVolga River oriented towards Moscow
Proletarsky City District – west part of the city, named after the Proletarka plant.
Tsentralny City District – central part of the city including historical downtown and neighbourhood in a near proximity.
Seat of the Tver City Duma and City Administration on Lenin Square
TheTver City Duma, the localparliament, is composed of 33 deputies. The executive branch is the Administration of Tver. The structure consists of the mayor (since 2017 – Alexey Ogonkov), his deputies, industry bodies (departments of architecture and construction, housing and communal services, health and social policy, property management and land resources; economy, investment and industrial policy, a number of departments and divisions), as well as the administration of the four districts: Zavolzhsky, Moskovsky, Proletarsky and Tsentralny. A considerable part of the government buildings of the city of Tver and the Tver Oblast lay along Sovetskaya Street: the building on the square ofSt. Michael (Sovetskaya, 44) is the residence of the Governor of the Oblast, and a former Regional Party Committee (Sovetskaya, 33) is TheLegislative Assembly of Tver Oblast.
Tver City Duma as a representative body of the city existed from 1785 to 1918, was reconstituted after the dissolution ofcouncils and adoption of the newConstitution of Russia in 1993. On 20 March 1994, elections were held in the House of Representatives, which on 26 May was renamed Tver City Duma. On 7 June deputies were able to hold the first meeting, and on 14 June Valery Matitsyn was elected a speaker (later this post was held by Valery Pavlov, Victor Pochtaryov, Dmitry Bazhenov, Igor Serdyuk, Andrei Borisenko, Lyudmila Polosina, Vladimir Babichev). In 1996, deputies adopted the founding document of the city – the Charter of the city of Tver, putting in it the principle of rotation in the Duma elections. Second election based on it was held on 27 October 1996 . In the future years elections held every two years in the "even" and "odd" electoral districts. In 2007, 12 former deputies (including the former chairman of the Duma Victor Pochtaryov) were convicted of taking bribes for decisions in favor of Rosvodokanal and other utilities. In October 2008, the elections of some deputies have already passed on party lists, and in March 2009 the entire City Duma has been transferred to this system, while discontinued the practice of rotation of deputies. In the elections of 2009, the best result (49 % of the vote) was shown bylocal communists.
On 27 October 1996 simultaneously with elections to the City Duma passed the first general elections of the head of the city, won by Alexander Belousov, who led the municipal administration since 1991 and received more than 50 % of the vote. On 30 October 2000 he was reelected to a second term, and on 9 April 2003 he died of a heart attack. On 26 July 2001 in early Mayoral elections opposition candidate Oleg Lebedev won. On 2 December 2007 when he was supported by the pro-government partyUnited Russia, he was re-elected for a second term, receiving more than 70 % of the vote. On 11 April 2008 he was suspended by the Tsentralny District Court in connection with a criminal case opened in 2005, closed in 2006 and renewed by theProsecutor General of Russia in March 2008 (Lebedev was accused of hindering the work of the investigation against his deputy Oleg Kudryashov). On 2 May Oleg Lebedev was reinstated, and on 3 June, again dismissed, and on 25 June he was taken into custody and transported toKashin, where he was convicted by visiting college of Tver Regional Court jury to eighteen years’ imprisonment, which automatically meant the termination of his powers. In 2009, he was released on parole, but the position was not restored.
In late 2008, Tver City Duma adopted amendments to the charter of the city, under which direct elections of the Mayor were abolished and a new position of head of the city administration introduced. This amendment to the charter of the city was met with a mixed public reaction and local attempts to bring the issue by the Communists to citywide referendum were not supported by City Duma. In March 2009, City Duma elected Vladimir Babichev as the new mayor (now ceremonial post), and in May the same year, Vasily Toloko was appointed as the head of the city administration. He had previously been the first deputy governor of the Tver Oblast. The mayor and the head of the local administration were elected with a thin majority of seventeen votes (United Russia, Fair Russia and the Liberal Democratic Party) against sixteen (Communist Party). On 27 December 2011 by a majority vote (22 for, six against) City Council voted in favor of early termination of Vasily Toloko. On 29 March 2012 the Tver City Duma (25 for, 4 against) appointed Valery Pavlov to the post of Head of the Administration. He had previously held the post of the first deputy head of Cuty Administration.
On 2 November 2012 Alexander Korzin was appointed as mayor of the city. In 2014, he left his post, and on May 28, 2014, by the decision of the Tver City Duma, Yury Timofeev was appointed to this post, previously working for 10 years as the head of theZapadnodvinsky District. On 22 September 2016, immediately afterIgor Rudenya assumed the post of governor, Timofeev resigned and Alexey Ogonkov, who claimed this position in 2014, became acting Mayor.
In August 2017, the Tver City Duma adopted amendments to the Charter of the city, according to which the Mayor also heads the administration. Thus, the "two-headed management" system introduced in 2008 was abolished. The amendments entered into force on November 2, 2017, after Alexander Korzin's term as Mayor has expired. Thus, from 2 November 2017 Alexey Ogonykov became the Mayor.
Tver is home toTver State University, the highest rated university in the region. It is also home to the Tver State technical university, medical university, agricultural academy, and more than twenty colleges and lyceums, branch campuses of some Moscow higher educational institutions and more than fifty high schools.
Tver's most notable industries arerolling stock manufacturerTver Carriage Works, opened in 1898, anexcavator factory, and a glass factory. Tver is home toMigalovo, which is one of Russia's biggest military airlift facilities.
TheTver Garment Factory was established in 1918. As of 2016, the factory has 300 workers.
TheOktyabrskaya Railway linking Moscow and St. Petersburg crosses the city. Since 1850, there has been a railway connection between Tver and Moscow.[25] The primary Tver Railway Station has a locomotive and car shed, allowing it to service both passenger and cargo trains. In addition to the Tver Central Station, there are four minor stations within the city perimeter: Lazurnaya, Proletarskaya, Doroshikha and PPGT. The suburban railway service links Tver toMoscow,Bologoye,Torzhok. Most trains passing from Moscow to the north-west regions make a short stop in Tver. The high-speed trainSapsan, which connects Moscow with St. Petersburg, also makes stops in Tver, as well as theTolstoy train connecting Moscow toHelsinki, Finland.
The newly designed high-speed railway line between Moscow and St Petersburg is expected to have a "New Tver'" station several kilometres southward of the city border.[26]
The majorM10 Highway linking Moscow and St. Petersburg also crosses the city. This motorway is a part of thePan-European corridors system. The roads toRzhev (A112),Vesyegonsk (P84) andVolokolamsk (P90), along with many smaller regional roads, originate in the city. The new highway between Moscow and St. Petersburg, that is designed at the present time, will pass close to the northern border of Tver. Tver is notable for a high number of private cars: there are 288 cars per thousand residents, which is well above average among the other regions of Russia.[27]
There is a local bus station that interconnects Tver with minor towns of Tver Oblast, neighbouring oblasts, and Moscow.
Local public transit consists oftrolleybuses, buses, andmarshrutkas (routed taxis). The latter two have taken priority during recent years.
In the past, trams carried passengers in Tver, however, in November 2018, the tram traffic in Tver was completely stopped. On August 7, 2019, all car drivers, as well as track fitters and support staff of the trams, left by "mutual agreement".[28] At the same time, the dismantling of the contact network and the tracks along the last existing route began. The city administration said that it was necessary to completely repair the roadbed.
In recent years, there has been a tendency to reduce the route network of trolley buses. During the first quarter of 2020, local authorities plan to introduce a new transport model, which implies the elimination of trolleybus traffic and the duplication of its routes with buses. From April 14, 2020, the last of the existing trolleybus routes (No. 2) was replaced by a bus route 42 on which diesel buses now operate.[29]
Theriver station (Речной Вокзал, "rechnoy vokzal") is located on the left bank of the Volga River, close to the confluence with the riverTvertsa. There is also a small cargo port in the lower part of the Volga. During the summertime, pleasure boats ply up and down the Volga, with their base off the river station.
Tver has ahumid continental climate, which is typical for Central Russia. Winters are long, snowy and cold, but extremely severe frosts (below −35 °C (−31 °F)) are rare, less than 10 calendar days per annum. The summer is generally warm and humid, with the temperature often rising higher than +30 °C (86 °F). The highest temperature (+38.8°C) was recorded on August 7, 2010, the lowest temperature (−43.8°C) was recorded on December 31, 1978.[33]
Climate data for Tver (1991–2020, extremes 1871–present)
Tver has four functioning Russian Orthodox cathedrals, fifteen Orthodox churches, aMormon chapel, a Catholic church, amosque, and asynagogue.
Within Tver, as in other cities ofCentral Russia, the main religion isRussian Orthodox Christianity. Tver is the centre ofDiocese of Tver and Kashin of the Russian Orthodox Church, having the diocesan administration and residence of the ruling bishop. Since 14 July 2018 theMetropolitan of Tver and Kashin has been Savva (Mikheyev).
White Trinity Temple in Zatmachye, recently renamed Trinity Cathedral, built in 1564 and since repeatedly reconstructed, is the oldest surviving stone building in Tver. It is subordinate to the ruling bishop. Ascension Cathedral, built in the 1750s, is in the historic centre of the city on Tverskoy Avenue and has the status of an episcopal monastery. Preserved Assumption Cathedral 18th century pre-existing Otroch monastery is in Trans-Volga district, near the mouth ofTvertsa river. Resurrection Cathedral was built in 1912–1913, marking the300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty, and in the 1990s, after the return of the church, received the status of the cathedral and is directly subordinate to the ruling bishop. Not far from the cathedral is the Cathedral of the Nativity of Christ and the monastery, built in the 1810s.
^Fritz Rudolf Künker GmbH & Co. KG.Diocese of Tver. Künker Auktion 130 - The De Wit Collection of Medieval Coins, 1000 Years of European Coinage, Part II: Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Bohemia, Moravia, Hungary, Silesia, Poland, Baltic States, Russia and the golden Horde. "Numismatischer Verlag Künker".
Тверская городская Дума. Решение №137 (358) от 13 декабря 2012 г. «Об утверждении гимна города Твери». Вступил в силу со дня официального опубликования. Опубликован: "Вся Тверь", №14, 20 декабря 2012 г. (Tver City Duma. Decision #137 (358) of December 13, 2012On the Adoption of the Anthem of the City of Tver. Effective as of the day of official publication.).
Законодательное Собрание Тверской области. Закон №34-ЗО от 17 апреля 2006 г. «Об административно-территориальном устройстве Тверской области», в ред. Закона №66-ЗО от 1 октября 2014 г. «О внесении изменения в статью 18 Закона Тверской области "Об административно-территориальном устройстве Тверской области"». Вступил в силу со дня официального опубликования. Опубликован: "Тверские ведомости", №17 (специальный выпуск), 19 апреля 2006 г. (Legislative Assembly of Tver Oblast. Law #34-ZO of April 17, 2006On the Administrative-Territorial Structure of Tver Oblast, as amended by the Law #66-ZO of October 1, 2014On Amending Article 18 of the Law of Tver Oblast "On the Administrative-Territorial Structure of Tver Oblast". Effective as of the official publication date.).
Законодательное Собрание Тверской области. Закон №4-ЗО от 18 января 2005 г. «Об установлении границ муниципальных образований Тверской области и наделении их статусом городских округов, муниципальных районов», в ред. Закона №65-ЗО от 24 июля 2012 г. «О внесении изменения в статью 2 Закона Тверской области "Об установлении границ муниципальных образований Тверской области и наделении их статусом городских округов, муниципальных районов"». Вступил в силу через десять дней после официального опубликования. Опубликован: "Тверские ведомости", №3, 21–27 января 2005 г. (Legislative Assembly of Tver Oblast. Law #4-ZO of January 18, 2005On Establishing the Borders of the Municipal Formations of Tver Oblast and on Granting Them the Status of Urban Okrugs, Municipal Districts, as amended by the Law #65-ZO of July 24, 2012On Amending Article 2 of the Law of Tver Oblast "On Establishing the Borders of the Municipal Formations of Tver Oblast and on Granting Them the Status of Urban Okrugs, Municipal Districts". Effective as of the day which is ten days after the official publication.).
Президиум Верховного Совета РСФСР. Указ от 17 июля 1990 г. «О переименовании города Калинина в город Тверь». Опубликован: "Ведомости СНД РСФСР и ВС РСФСР", №8, ст. 117, 1990 g. (Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR. Decree of July 17, 1990On Changing the Name of the City of Kalinin to the City of Tver. ).
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