Galich (an old Russian Galich Mersky) - a city
(from 1159) in the Kostroma region of Russia, an independent
municipality - the urban district Galich, the administrative center
of the Galich municipal district. The city is included in the list
of settlements of Russia with the official status of "historical".
Population - 16,922 people. (2017).
The territory of Galich
since ancient times was inhabited by man. This is evidenced by such
ancient Neolithic sites as the Galich Hill. The founding date is
usually considered 1159 year. During the reign of Prince Yury
Dolgoruky, who at that time strengthened the borders of the
Rostov-Suzdal principality, Galich was called upon to play the role
of an outpost of North-Eastern Russia in the development of the
North and Vyatka land.
However, in written sources, Galich
was first mentioned under the year 1237, when the Laurentian
Chronicle indicated that the Tatars "capture everything all along
Wolze Dooge and before Galich Mersky."
The city is located on the southern shore of a reservoir of the same name - Lake Galich. Located 114 km (by road) northeast of the regional center, the city of Kostroma.
The oldest time
The territory of Galich has
been inhabited by humans since ancient times. This is evidenced by
such ancient Neolithic sites as the Galichskaya Gorka.
The
date of foundation is usually considered to be 1159. During the
reign of Prince Yuri Dolgoruky, who at that time strengthened the
borders of the Rostov-Suzdal principality, Galich was called to play
the role of an outpost of North-Eastern Russia in the development of
the North and Vyatka land.
However, in written sources, he
was first mentioned under 1237, when the Laurentian Chronicle
indicated that the Tatars "captured everything along the Volza River
and up to Galich Mersky."
The first archaeological research
of the city, carried out in 1957, showed that the cultural layer
with ceramics of the 12th century goes under the base of the rampart
of the Lower Settlement - the oldest fortress of Galich. In the
embankment itself, several fragments of ceramics were discovered,
dated by the researcher to the XI-XII centuries, it was concluded
that by the middle of the 12th century a Slavic settlement already
existed on the site of the future city. In 2009, the study of the
Lower Settlement was continued. The presence of the Old Russian
layer of the XII century has been confirmed. At the same time, the
settlement of the XI century that existed on the site of the future
settlement, although it is confirmed both by individual finds and by
the first discovered burial complexes with traces of pagan rituals,
is correlated with the “Meryan” population.
In 1246, Galich
became the capital of an independent principality, formed after the
death of the Grand Duke of Vladimir Yaroslav Vsevolodovich. The
first prince of Galich was Konstantin Yaroslavich - the son of
Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, brother of Alexander Nevsky. In 1255 he died
and Galich began to be ruled by an independent prince, his son David
Konstantinovich. The Nikon Chronicle reports that in 1280 “the great
prince David Konstantinovich Galich and Dmitrovsky died”. Thus,
Galich in the second half of the XIII century was the center of the
princely volost. In the second half of the 13th-15th centuries, the
Galich principality owned vast lands in the basins of the Galich and
Chukhloma lakes, along the left bank of the Volga, the Kostroma
River and its tributaries, along the middle course of the Unzhi and
Vetluga rivers. Among the settlements of that time, Chukhloma and
Sol Galitskaya are known, which were rich enough and densely
populated. Galich himself at that time was one of the centers of
defense of the Russian lands. In the first half of the XIV century,
Galich was part of the "font" of Ivan Kalita. The Galich princes
continued to rule the principality, but lost their independence. In
1362, according to the Nikon Chronicle, "the great prince Dmitry
Donskoy is sent from the Galich reign of Prince Dmitry Galitsky."
Galich became part of the Grand Duchy of Moscow. The city was
directly subordinate to the Grand Duke, and Dmitry Donskoy ruled in
Galich, as in his fiefdom. So, in 1378, Metropolitan Pimen, rejected
by the Grand Duke, was sent to confinement in Galich, and then in
Chukhly.
After the death of Dmitry Donskoy, Galich went to
his son Yuri Dmitrievich. Being strategically important - covering
the central parts of the Moscow Grand Duchy from the northeast -
Galich was subjected to invasions by its opponents. In 1398, during
the war between Novgorod and the Grand Duke Vasily Dmitrievich, the
Novgorodians captured Veliky Ustyug and devastated the outskirts of
Galich. In 1408, the detachments of Edigei reached Galich. In
December 1428, “Tatarov came unknown and standing” to Galich (they
stood at the walls of the city for a month, but could not take it).
In the 15th century, the Galician princes took an active part in
the Internecine War in Moscow Russia (1425-1453). Having suffered a
defeat in it, the Galician prince Dmitry Shemyaka fled to Novgorod,
where he was poisoned, and Galich himself was finally annexed to
Moscow in 1450. Since that time, it has become the center of the
district, which included the Sudayskaya, Chukhlomskaya,
Soligalichskaya, Parfenievskaya, Kologrivskaya and Unzhenskaya
sieges. To manage such a huge territory in Moscow, a special order
was created, called the Galician Chetya.
XVI-XVIII centuries
After annexation to Moscow, Galich became a stronghold of Moscow in
the struggle against the Kazan Khanate, so the third fortress was
built in Galich.
In October 1523, the Kazan Khan Sahib Giray
undertook a retaliatory raid on the Russian lands and laid siege to
Galich, but could not take the city. Sahib Giray ravaged the
surrounding villages and took many prisoners.
Galich retained
its defensive significance until 1552, when the Kazan Khanate was
annexed to Moscow.
In the Time of Troubles, Galich fell into the
hands of the Poles, and a punitive detachment led by Lisovsky burned
the city and ravaged it completely. The scribal book on the city of
Galich attested to the scale of the destruction in the city: about
350 households in Galich were declared beggars, and out of 239
trading places, a fifth was empty.
Galich found itself in the
center of the country, lost its defensive significance, but
gradually got stronger economically, since trade with Siberia went
through it, Galich traded with Arkhangelsk, Vyatka and Moscow, and
later with St. Petersburg. From here came the fur trade with Western
Europe and Asia, and the fish trade was also developed. The Rybnaya
Sloboda appeared in the city, the first mention of which dates back
to 1626. There were 10 monasteries in medieval Galich and its
surroundings.
XVIII century - early XX century
By decree
of Peter I in 1709, Galich, together with other northeastern cities,
went to the Arkhangelsk province, after the establishment of the
Kostroma governorship in 1778, and then the province became a
district town and received its coat of arms: in a scarlet field,
military fittings with the cross of John emerging from it Baptist.
Since that time, the appearance of the city has changed, as it began
to be built up according to a new regular plan.
According to
the census of 1897, 6,237 people lived in Galich.
In the
first half of the 19th century, industrial enterprises appeared in
the city. In 1845, Galich merchants Vakorin and Redkin established a
fur factory for processing squirrel skins, in 1852 the same Vakorin
opened a factory for processing fox skins, and in 1854 - a glove
factory.
A school has been operating in Rybnaya Sloboda since
1872.
By the early 1880s, the city was already connected to
the general telegraph network of the Ministry of Posts and
Telegraphs of the Russian Empire. In 1882 a new telegraph line was
extended from Galich through Chukhloma to Soligalich.
The
city administration leases fishing on the Galich Lake to the Rybnaya
Sloboda society. By the beginning of the 19th century, fishermen
caught up to 160 tons of fish per year. The city's income from
fisheries in 1903 was 1200 rubles. - 4.5% of the total city budget.
At the beginning of the 20th century, a railway was opened in
Galich. The native of the Kostroma province Ivan Sytin, who believed
that it was the railway that would help Galich turn into a large
industrial center, especially advocated the construction of the
railway. In 1905, the first train arrived in Galich, and a section
of the road was opened in November 1906. The railway that connected
St. Petersburg with the Urals sharply pushed the industrial
development of the city: by 1913 the number of factories had grown
to 68, and their output doubled compared to the previous decade.
At the beginning of the 20th century, there were four tanneries
in Galich, the Arkhangelsk brewery, the Gromov distillery, three
brick factories, a windmill, a state-owned wine warehouse and other
enterprises. The Arkhangelsk brothers' electrotheatre "Dreams" and
the private printing house of Alexandrov operated.
There were
two fire brigades in the city, one city built with the money of the
townspeople and merchants in 1899, the other belonged to the Rybnaya
Sloboda society.
From the centralized city institutions in
the city there was also a network of street lighting, represented by
several kerosene-incandescent lamps of the Galkin "Russia" system,
located on the square and along Proboynaya street.
At the
beginning of the century in the city there are: county and parish
schools, the zemstvo maintains a hospital, 15 churches, and one
almshouse.
Trade is well developed: there are 107 shops in
the city.
XX-XXI centuries
After the 1917 revolution,
Galich continues to develop as one of the largest industrial centers
of the region. Many modern industrial enterprises of the city arose
on the basis of pre-revolutionary enterprises and production artels
created in the 1920s-1930s.
In 1917, Vladimir Alexandrovich
Vishnevsky came to Galich. He is engaged in equipping a shoe factory
and organizing the first power plant in Galich according to his own
graduation project. On May 1, 1920, the official opening of the
power plant took place.
In the post-war period, a sewing,
furniture factory, a metalware factory appeared, in 1961 the first
excavator was produced in Galich, which marked the beginning of the
history of the Galich Truck Crane Plant. During the years of Soviet
power, new districts of the city appeared in the city, consisting of
typical five-storey buildings.
In 2009 Galich celebrated its
850th anniversary. From the 15th century to 1928, Galich was the
center of the Galich district, now the city is the center of the
Galich region.
Advanced development area
In January 2019,
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree on the
creation of a priority development area in the city of Galich.
It is planned to invest about 8.5 billion rubles in the city's
economy.