Tver region is a region located in the northwestern part of the Russian Federation. It is within its borders that the famous Russian river Volga is born. The area of the Tver region is 84.2 thousand square meters. km, and the population is 1.3 million people. The region includes 23 cities in which there are numerous enterprises of the chemical complex, manufacturing industry and the electric power industry.
Tver region: a brief description of the region
The total area of the Tver region is 84201 square kilometers (the region is 38th in size among the constituent entities of the Russian Federation). The territory of the region is located in the northwestern part of the country (the map is marked in red). The administrative capital of the region is the city of Tver.
The population of the Tver region totals about 1.3 million people. Settlement density: 15 inhabitants per square kilometer of territory.
The region in its modern borders was formed in 1935 on the basis of the previously existing Tver province. The governor of the Tver region Igor Mikhailovich Rudena assumed this position in September 2016. His predecessor was Andrei Shevelev, who was dismissed by decree of the President of Russia. By the way, the current governor of the Tver region has worked hard in the food industry and agriculture of the country.
The economy of the region is based on the electric power industry and developed manufacturing industry. In addition, a number of enterprises producing construction materials, glass and textiles are operating in the region.
Education of the Tver region
The history of the modern region began on January 29, 1935. Its predecessor was the Tver province, which existed on the map of the Russian Empire for more than a century - from 1796 to 1917. It is worth noting that the area of the modern Tver region significantly exceeds the size of the historical province of the same name (almost 20 thousand square kilometers).
The first settlements in the region arose in the 9th century. This is evidenced by numerous archaeological finds. In 1135, the city of Tver was founded, and by the middle of the 13th century an autonomous state entity, the Principality of Tver, appeared on the political map of Europe. For a long time, it competed with Moscow for the right to act as a consolidating core in the process of unification of Russian lands.
During the XV-XVI centuries, the principality was one of the main centers of crafts and trade in Russia. The land was already famous for its skilled craftsmen - painters and builders. It was from Tver in 1468 that the world famous wanderer and merchant Athanasius Nikitin set off on his grandiose journey.
Not very bright events brought these lands of the XVII and XVIII centuries. Tver more than once suffered from the devastating raids of the Poles and Lithuanians, as well as from several serious fires. After one of these fires, which happened in 1773, the city had to be restored from scratch.
Another important fact from the history of the region: from the beginning of 1935 to 1990, the region was called Kalinin, and its regional center, respectively, was Kalinin.
Tver region: coat of arms and flag
At the beginning of the XVIII century, herbalism in Russia became not only fashionable, but also very necessary. The first historical emblem of Tver’s land was the French Count Francis Santi, who came to the country precisely to help create “land emblems”. The main elements of this image - the monarch's headdress on a golden chair - are preserved on the coat of arms of the region to this day.
The flag of the Tver region was approved on November 28, 1996. It consists of three vertical stripes: two yellow and one red (in the center). On a red background is a princely golden throne with a Monomakh cap on his green pillow. The same picture can be seen on the modern coat of arms of the region.
Common features of nature
The geography of the Tver region is characterized by three main points. These are: flat terrain, a dense network of rivers and lakes, as well as scarce reserves of mineral resources.
The territory of the region is flat advantage. Only in the western part the region rises a little, after which it again passes into the lowland (Ploskoshskaya). The highest point (Makushka Valdai, 347 m) is located in the Firovsky district. The climate of the territory is temperate continental, the amount of precipitation does not exceed 650 mm per year.
Within the Tver region there are over 1700 lakes and about 800 rivers, the main of which is the Volga. It originates within the Ostashkovsky district. There are many artificial reservoirs in the region - reservoirs. The largest of them are Rybinsk, Ivankovsk, Verkhnevolzhsk and Uglich. More than half of the region’s area (about 54%) is occupied by forests.
The territory of the Tver region is poor in minerals. Of the diversity of mineral resources, the subsoil of this region can offer its residents only peat, limestone, brown coal, clay and sand.
Demographic issues
The demographic situation in the region is one of the most critical in the country. The population of the Tver region, unfortunately, is rapidly declining. Over the past 25 years, according to statistics, the region has lost almost 20% of its inhabitants. In absolute terms, this is almost 350,000 people.
In 2015, the natural population decline in the region amounted to almost 6,500 people. It is not reduced only in Tver and several other villages of the region (in particular, in Maksatikha). Another serious problem in this region is the extinction and degradation of villages. The number of abandoned villages in the region is already in the tens. So, one of the leaders in the number of extinct villages and farms is the Staritsky district of the Tver region, located in the central-southern part of the region.
An equally sad tendency of the region is the outflow of youth. Students and skilled workers actively leave the cities of the Tver region, moving to neighboring, more promising areas of the country.
Administrative divisions and cities
Administratively, the Tver region is divided into 35 districts and 8 urban districts. The largest districts in terms of the number of inhabitants are Konakovsky, Kalininsky, Bezhetsky and Bologovsky.
Within the region there are 23 cities, 20 villages and 319 rural settlements. The largest cities are Tver, Rzhev, Torzhok, Kimry, Vyshny Volochek. There are relatively young cities in the Tver region that received such status only in the 20th century (such as the Western Dvina or Andreapol). But most of them were founded much earlier. The oldest cities in the Tver region: Torzhok, Bezhetsk, Toropets, Staritsa and Tver.
Tver is the capital of the region, its oldest and largest city. There are unusually many monuments and architectural attractions. Many cultural figures of Russia visited Tver - writers Dostoevsky and Ostrovsky, poet Pushkin, fabulist Krylov and others.
Culture and tourism
In Soviet times, the Tver region occupied an honorable second place in the RSFSR in the number of tourists. Today, the attendance of the region by travelers is significantly lower. Nevertheless, cultural, educational, ecological tourism, short-term recreational recreation, and sailing are quite well developed in the region.
The area is rich in various natural beauties. The following objects and places are especially popular among tourists and vacationers: Lake Seliger, the so-called Moscow Sea (Ivankovskoye reservoir), Bezhetsky Upland.
The natural beauty of the region is successfully complemented by a rich cultural life. In the region, beautiful artists of world renown create five theaters and about 40 museum institutions. The region annually hosts many interesting and diverse festivals. The most famous of them is the Invasion rock music festival.
TOP 15 most famous sights of the region
Tver region is about 5,000 monuments of archeology and over 9 thousand historical and cultural monuments. This land of lush monasteries and old estates. Throughout the region are tourist routes of the Golden Ring of Russia. About 250 thousand tourists visit the region annually.
Below are the most visited and most famous attractions of the Tver region:
- Nilova Deserts (monastery on Lake Seliger);
- Holy Assumption Monastery (Staritsa);
- Borisoglebsky Monastery (Torzhok);
- Manor Vasilevo (Torzhok district);
- Tolstoy estate in Novye Yeltsy (Ostashkovsky district);
- the 14th-century Church of the Nativity of the Virgin in the village of Gorodnya - the oldest religious building in the region (Konakovsky district);
- unusual and beautiful temple of the Transfiguration of the Lord (Old Woman);
- source of the Volga river (Ostashkovsky district);
- Nikolskaya bell tower, half flooded by the waters of the Volga (Kalyazin);
- Monument to Athanasius Nikitin (Tver);
- Starovolzhsky bridge (Tver);
- the city of Kimry - the “shoe capital” of Russia with an abundance of wooden estates in the Art Nouveau style (Kimry);
- channels of the Vyshnevolotsk water system - the first in Russia (Vyshny Volochek);
- Lake Brosno, in the waters of which, according to legend, a real dinosaur lives (Andreapolsky district);
- mystical pyramid of the Famine with amazing properties (Ostashkovsky district).
Conclusion
The area of the Tver region is over 84 thousand square meters. km On this territory there are 23 cities along with the ancient Tver. This is a region with a deep history, picturesque Russian nature and numerous monuments of architecture and antiquity.