Gagarin is located in the Smolensk region.
The city of Gagarin
(until 1968 - Gzhatsk) is located in the east of the Smolensk region on
the Gzhat River. It is the administrative center of the Gagarinsky
district. Founded by decree of Peter I as the Gzhatsk pier in 1719.
Population: about 30,000 people.
Parks
Park of culture and recreation.
Veterans Square.
Monuments
Monument to Yu.A. Gagarin.
Monument to A.T. Gagarina.
Monument to Soldiers-Liberators.
Monument to Peter I.
Monument to
the partisan detachment Victory.
Monument to F.F. Solntsev.
Cannon
(monument to the 5th and 33rd armies), at the entrance to the city.
Churches
Cathedral complex: Annunciation Cathedral, Church of the
Joy of All Who Sorrow, Tikhvin Church (museum of local history).
Kazan Church.
Church of the Ascension.
Chapel of Memory of the
Fallen.
Building
House of Children and Youth Creativity (M.I.
Kutuzov stayed in this house on August 29, 1812).
The building of the
music school and folk theater.
Museums
House-Museum of Yu.A.
Gagarin.
Museum of the first space flight.
By plane
There are no airports.
By train
From Smolensk
by passenger and some fast trains. From Moscow from the Belorussky
railway station, on suburban, passenger and some fast trains.
After launching Lastochka to Smolensk, this is the most convenient way
to get to the city.
By car
Along the highway along the M1
“Belarus” federal highway (240 km from Smolensk, 180 km from Moscow).
By bus
Bus service to Smolensk, Vyazma, Moscow, Mozhaisk.
On the ship
The Gzhat River is unsuitable for navigation.
Bus (1 route).
There are 4 cellular operators in the city: MTS, Beeline, Megafon, Tele 2.
The city is located on flat terrain in the valley of the Gzhat River, a tributary of the Vazuza.
In June 2020, the environmental monitoring post ASPC-2 was put into
operation. The main purpose of installing the post is to prevent air
pollution, as well as control emissions of substances from industrial
enterprises in the area, including the woodworking plant OOO EGGER
Drevproduct Gagarin.
The data can be viewed on the
administration’s website and on the information board on the city’s Red
Square.
In a silver field on azure (blue, dark blue) waves there is a scarlet (red) barge loaded with golden bags. In the free part is the coat of arms of the Smolensk region. The shield is topped with a municipal crown of the established pattern. The motto “Homeland of the first cosmonaut” is inscribed in scarlet (red) letters on a silver ribbon.
The name of the city comes from the hydronym Gžat of Baltic origin,
from gùžas ‘stork’.
In 1703, on the orders of Peter I, it was
founded as a pier on the Gzhati River (called Gzhatskaya pier).
Year 1703... Finally, after everything was corrected, the Great
Sovereign returned to Moscow; and in the same year, under the constant
care of His Majesty, an arms and foundry factory was built in Sestrebek,
and a pier on the Gzhati River, from which it would be convenient to
load barges heading to St. Petersburg, which in the same year the
Monarch populated with wealthy merchants, having transferred them from
Mozhaisk , Vereya, Borovsk, Kaluga and other cities close to it.
In 1719, the first caravan of barges delivered food to St. Petersburg.
Since then, Peter I ordered that the Gzhatskaya pier be considered the
granary of St. Petersburg. From the middle of the 18th century -
Gzhatskaya Sloboda; in 1776, by decree of Catherine II, it was
transformed into the district city of Gzhatsk and received a coat of
arms: “a barge loaded with grain and ready for departure in a silver
field as a sign that there is a glorious grain pier near this city.”
The city was formed at the intersection of water and land routes -
Moscow (from east to west) and Smolensk (from the south parallel to the
river). According to the regular plan of 1773, it took the shape of a
triangle, one side of which was extended parallel to the Gzhat River,
the other parallel to the road to Moscow, the base of the triangle
connected both sides. The city was surrounded by a rampart, inside which
the streets were located in a rectangular grid. Not far from Gzhatsk in
the village of Tsarevo-Zaymishche on August 29, 1812, M. I. Kutuzov took
command of the Russian army. On the day the Napoleonic army entered, the
city caught fire at night and burned for several days. A partisan
detachment of Denis Davydov began operating near Gzhatsk. The Russian
army re-entered the city on November 2, 1812. When the city was restored
in 1817, the previous regular layout was largely preserved.
In
mid-1905, in the Gzhat village of Novo-Pokrovsky, during a crowded fair,
demonstrators with a red flag marched. On October 31 (November 13),
1917, Soviet power was proclaimed in Gzhatsk and the district. A year
later, an anti-Bolshevik uprising broke out, which, despite fierce
resistance, was brutally suppressed. In June 1919, the Union of
Communist Youth was organized.
Before the Great Patriotic War, a
flax mill, a sawmill, a brick factory, a roller mill, a bakery, a
weaving factory, a power plant and artels operated in the city. A sound
cinema was opened in 1935. There was a district club, a library, and a
teacher's house.
On October 9, 1941, the city was occupied by German troops. After the end of hostilities, out of 1,600 buildings in the city, only 300 remained; the Germans blew up, burned and destroyed the city's power plant, water supply system, hospital, agricultural college, two college dormitories, a teacher's house, a nursery, an orphanage, a cinema, a city club, a Red Army club, a bakery, a bathhouse, a factory of the industrial cooperation "Metalist", a home for the disabled, a regional veterinary hospital, the building of the district military registration and enlistment office and other government organizations and institutions. The churches were turned into stables and warehouses, later the Kazan Church (XVII-XVIII centuries) and the Church of the Baptist were blown up, and a slaughterhouse for cattle was set up in the Church of the Annunciation. During the retreat, the wells were poisoned and mined[9]. On March 6, 1943, the city was liberated by troops of the 5th Army of the Western Front during the Rzhev-Vyazemsk operation.
On April 23, 1968, by Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR, the city of Gzhatsk was renamed to the city of Gagarin in honor of Yu. A. Gagarin, who was born on March 9, 1934 in the village of Klushino, Gzhatsk district and died on March 27, 1968.
With the collapse of the USSR and the change in the political and
economic situation in the country, new trends and problems affected
Gagarin. The largest industrial enterprises found themselves on the
verge of bankruptcy (Dynamic, etc.). The city has retrained from a
predominantly industrial center to other sectors of the economy.
Since the mid-1990s, the city has seen rapid development of trade,
services, construction and food industries. The appearance of the city
is changing beyond recognition. Despite the deterioration of the old
housing stock of the outskirts, large shopping and office centers and
residential buildings are growing in the central part.
Since
2001-2002, the city has been gradually emerging from the economic crisis
of the 1990s, and the largest federal retail chains have appeared in the
trade sector. Private business is actively investing in the services and
entertainment sector. New investors are partially reviving the industry.
The production of tires, diesel engines, injectors, cartridges,
mechanical presses, etc. is being resumed.