Ozyory, Russia

Ozyory is a small town in the south of the Moscow region.

Ozyory are located on the left bank of the Oka, the distance from here to Kolomna is about 30 kilometers, and to Moscow - 130 kilometers. The name of the city can safely be interpreted literally, because it is located in the Oka floodplain and during the flood period, many small “lakes” actually formed here. In the 19th century, light industry developed in Ozyory, and today the name of the city is familiar to those with a sweet tooth from the products of the local confectionery plant “Ozersky Souvenir”.

 

Sights

1  Palace of Culture, St. Lenina, 20. The Palace of Culture in Ozyory was built between 1930 and 1937. Unfortunately, in the 2010s, the building underwent a “Russian-style renovation” with a ventilated façade, plastic doors and other classics of the genre, and the architectural style of the once solid late-constructivist cultural center can now be rather described as a “European-quality renovation from the Chinese construction market.”
2  Church of the Holy Trinity , St. Lenina, 18. Architectural “calling card” of Lakes. A neoclassical temple built in the mid-19th century with funds from the owners of local weaving factories.

 

How to get there

By plane
By train
Ozyory railway station. The final station of the branch from the main route of the Kazan direction. Rail buses run from/to Golutvin: four pairs a day on weekdays, five pairs on weekends. To get to Moscow or Ryazan, you need to change trains in Golutvin.
There is also a stop point “38 km” on the same line within the city, served by the same trains, but it is located on the outskirts of the city and you most likely will not need it.

By bus
In Ozyory, the bus station, contrary to established tradition, is NOT located next to the railway station.

Ozyory bus station. There are two bus routes to Moscow: to Kotelniki (No. 331) and to Krasnogvardeiskaya / Zyablikovo (No. 341); also routes to Kolomna (No. 22), Kashira (No. 36), Zaraysk (No. 43), Stupino (No. 58). The routes to Kashira and Zaraysk pass through the Oka River on a pontoon bridge, and in the spring during the flood period they may be temporarily interrupted.

On the ship
There is no organized shipping

 

Buy

1  Shop at the Ozersky Souvenir factory, St. Lenina, 13. In Ozyory there is a confectionery factory “Ozersky Souvenir”, the products of which (known under the brand “O'ZERA”) are valued by gourmets among those with a sweet tooth and are relatively rarely found in ordinary stores. In the factory's store, these products in all their diversity can be purchased at a moderate markup.
2  Supermarket “Auchan”, St. Lenina, 2. 8:00–23:00.

 

Geography

The city is located 125 km southeast of Moscow (along the M5 highway - 126 km from the Moscow Ring Road and 132 along the M4), in a small depression on the left bank of the Oka in the Oka-Moscow Plain, stretches along the Oka for 7 km and is surrounded by natural conifers and mixed forests. The city and its surroundings abound with small lakes, rivers and ponds.

 

Climate

The prevailing climate is moderate continental. July is the warmest month of the year with an average temperature of 18.5°C. January is the coldest month of the year with an average temperature of -10.7°C.

The average annual precipitation is 575 mm.

 

History

Formation of the city

Initially, on the site of the city there was the village of Ozerok (or Ozerki), which received its name from the many small lakes that abound in this place of the Oka floodplain. The first settlers appeared near Lake Nizhneye (another name is Marvinskoye). The oldest mentions of the village of Ozerki are found in a scribe book for 1588.

Until 1917, Ozerki was administratively subordinate to the Gorskaya volost of the Kolomensky district of the Moscow province, with the volost center in the village of Gory (formerly Gorki).

In 1834, two families of local wealthy peasants - the Morgunovs and the Shcherbakovs - built the first paper-weaving and finishing factories, which became the source of the development of Ozerki.

In 1851 a church was built and the village was converted into a village. By the end of the 19th century, manufactories had grown into large mechanized textile factories, thanks to which the population rapidly increased due to women flowing to work from all over central Russia.

Over 10 years (from 1880 to 1890), the number of factory workers increased 5 times, to almost 6 thousand people. By the revolution of 1917, Ozerki was on the list of the most important industrial and commercial centers of the Moscow province.

 

Soviet period

In October 1917, the Council of Workers' and Peasants' Deputies was formed in Ozerki, and the village for the first time became a district administrative center, to which 5 volosts that were previously part of Kolomensky district were subordinated.

In 1921, the village, by decree of the Moscow Council of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies dated December 1, 1921, was transformed into a factory (worker) village, and by decree of the Presidium of the Kolomna Executive Committee of R.S. and K. Deputies of October 6, 1924, a factory settlement the village (worker) was classified as an urban settlement - which happened thanks to the efforts of the then chairman of the village council I.I. Volodin, who thus sought to save the local owners from dispossession.

On August 17, 1925, Ozerki was given the status of a city and its modern name by decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, and I. I. Volodin became the chairman of the city council. Since then, this day has been celebrated as City Day.

In 1929, Ozyory became the administrative center of the Ozersky district, formed from part of the Kolomensky district of the Moscow province and part of the Zaraisky district of the Ryazan province.

By a decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of March 10, 1932, the village of Bolotovo with its estate plots was included within the city of Ozyory.

Due to textile manufactories, transformed into factories, nationalized during the revolution and later transformed into the Rabochiy cotton mill with its own workers' dormitories, the city continued to grow, and the mill became a city-forming enterprise. The active attraction of new workers to the plant from all over Russia led to the fact that the bulk of the city’s population were women (up to 8/10 of the population).

During the Great Patriotic War, the front line almost reached Ozyory - the positions of the German troops were on the opposite, high bank of the Oka, which made it possible to bomb and shell the entire city, but the Germans failed to cross the Oka and the city was not captured.

After the war, a second industrial enterprise was built in the city - the Ozersky Mechanical Plant, which produced optical instruments commissioned by the USSR Ministry of Defense. Thanks to the attraction of specialists with higher education to the plant, the social and gender composition of the population improved slightly - the proportion of women dropped to 6/10.

In 1990, the city was ranked among the historical cities of the Moscow region.

In the 1990s, the mechanical plant and textile mill fell into complete disrepair, were privatized and sold in parts, after which they completely ceased to exist.

 

Modern period

In 2015, the city was classified as a city of regional subordination of the Moscow region. The Ozersky municipal district was transformed into the Ozyory urban district, the center of which became the city. The administrative center of the Ozyory urban district remained until October 6, 2020, after which the Ozyory urban district was merged with the Kolomna urban district into the Kolomna Urban District.

On November 13, 2020, a bill was submitted for consideration to change the category of the city of Ozyory to the category of a city administratively subordinate to a city of regional subordination. On December 10, 2020, the law was signed.