Vyshny Volochyok is located in the Tver Poozerye. Vyshny Volochek and
its surroundings are called Russian, sometimes Tver Venice. Standing on
the shore of a lake on numerous islands, crossed by canals and connected
by arched bridges, this city with preserved historical buildings truly
resembles Venice. This city gave the name to the first Russian
artificial hydraulic system - Vyshnevolotskaya, which connected the
Caspian and Baltic seas in 1703.
Popular as a tourist destination
for those traveling by train or car between St. Petersburg and Moscow.
However, taking into account the launch of a high-speed bypass road, to
explore the city you will need to leave the highway.
1 Kazan Convent (Red Town). The Kazan Monastery in Vyshny Volochok
was founded in 1881 from a women’s community that had already existed
for 9 years, created at the expense of Prince Arseny Putyatin. During
Soviet times, the monastery was closed; its revival began in 1992. The
main temple of the monastery is the Kazan Cathedral, built in 1882 in
the neo-Russian style. Next to the residential buildings of the
monastery are the tall Church of Sirin and Neonila (1883-1888) and the
eclectic church Church of the Andronik Icon of the Mother of God.
2 Epiphany Cathedral, emb. Obvodny Canal. Located on an artificial
island between the bypass canal and the Tsnoi River. The impressive main
temple of the city was built from 1810 to 1814; its architecture
combines classicism and neo-Russian style.
3 Trading rows, st.
Moscow. Built in the mid-19th century, they are now in very poor
condition.
4 Monument to Venetsianov, Kazansky Avenue. Venetsanov is
a portrait artist who often painted scenes from the life of peasants.
The monument, designed by sculptor O. Komov, opened on February 18,
1980, depicts an artist drawing a portrait of a peasant woman sitting
next to her.
5 Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker and Alexander
Nevsky, st. Ekaterininskaya, 70. Built in 1883, the influence of late
classicism is felt. Restored in 1998-1999.
6 Travel Palace of
Catherine the Second, st. Ostashkovskaya, 3. Nowadays school number 6.
7 Ryabushinsky estate, North of the station behind the factory (a
landmark for a taxi driver can be said to be the Hatchery station, which
is not far from the factory entrance). Located outside the city, this is
the only wooden mansion in the Art Nouveau style in Vyshny Volochyok.
8 Monument to Catherine II. Vyshny Volochek became a city after the
reforms of Catherine II. And in 2007, a bronze monument to the empress
was unveiled here.
9 Savior Transfiguration Church, at the
Pyatnitskoye cemetery. This is the most temple in the city, built in
1779-1783. Recovering.
1 Vyshnevolotsky Drama Theater , Kazansky Prospekt, 20. ☎ +7
(48233) 6-20-93. Schedule in the group on VKontakte.
2 Museum
“Russian felt boots”, Paris Commune street, 37/26.
3 Vyshnevolotsk
Museum of Local Lore , Kazansky Prospekt, 63. The main museum of the
northern part of the Tver region. Opened in 1932.
By train
Vyshny Volochyok is located on the Moscow-St. Petersburg
line, along which high-speed Sapsan buses run every 2 hours. With their
help, you can go to the city for one day, arriving in the morning and
leaving in the evening. The journey will take about 2 hours. Some
long-distance trains also stop in Volochek, but at inconvenient times:
usually late in the evening or late at night. Electric trains run to
Bologoe (45 minutes) and Tver (2 hours), 4-5 times a day.
If you
are traveling by Sapsan, please note that before boarding the train
there is additional control with ticket checking and baggage screening.
Officially, this procedure begins an hour and ends 15 minutes before
departure. In reality, you can arrive a little later, but not quite
right next to the train. After security, there is a small waiting room
where you can sit warm while waiting for the train.
1 Railway
station. Historic train station from the 1850s. did not survive, but to
replace it, even before the revolution, something even more interesting
was built - perhaps the first station building in Russia with an
elevated pedestrian crossing across the tracks. Inside the station, note
the intricate cast-iron structure supporting the staircase, and on the
northern platform for the staircase there is a separate pavilion built
for the staircase, all done in chic early 20th-century brick style.
Otherwise, the Vyshny Volochok station is not very interesting. The
building has a 24-hour buffet and old luggage storage cells (120
rubles/day). On the station square there are several shops and a Gourmet
cafe with unknown opening hours.
By bus
Almost all buses pass
from Tver to Udomlya and Firovo, only 4-5 times a day. The Tver-Vyshny
Volochyok express train, departing from Volochyok early in the morning,
has also been announced. The only useful function of these buses is to
get to Torzhok, where there are no direct trains. Commercial minibuses
run to Tver much more often, on average once an hour from 6:00 to 20:00,
but many of them do not call at Torzhok. If you need to go in the other
direction, you will have to catch the Tver-Veliky Novgorod bus that runs
once a day.
✦ Auto ticket office (in the railway station
building). 5:30–21:30, break: 11:30–12:30.
2 Autoexpress cash
register, Kazansky Prospekt, 90 (Dixie store). ☎ +7 (952) 089-96-89.
Ticket offices and minibus stop.
By car
The M10 highway passes
through the city, 300 km from Moscow, 130 km from Tver, 410 km from St.
Petersburg. A toll bypass has been built around Vyshny Volochok, where
passenger cars are charged 200 rubles (2016). Many drivers find this
price too high, and truck drivers in particular. Because of this, the
city is stuck in endless traffic jams, and trucks move along the central
streets in a continuous stream. If you are traveling by car, turn off
the highway as early as possible, because in the center - at the
intersection of Bolshaya Sadovaya Street and Kazansky Prospekt - there
is a traffic light and a constant traffic jam.
1 In the heat of the moment, Kazansky Ave. 22 (next to the theater,
opposite the museum). Cafe-dining room with unknown opening hours -
apparently only during the day. By evening, the food runs out and the
establishment switches to nightclub mode. Cozy and inexpensive, there is
a coffee machine.
2 Family cafe “Assorted” , Vanchakov line, 23.
Mon–Sat 11:00 – 19:00, Sun 10:00 – 20:00. The concept of a family cafe,
transferred to the village soil. The counter from a grocery store and
tables with iron legs are more reminiscent of a factory canteen, but
there is actually a play corner in the corner, and the menu, consisting
of cakes, pancakes and drinks, will most likely suit children quite
well. You can also have lunch during the day. The establishment can also
pretend to be a city coffee shop due to the lack of an alternative. Oct
2016 edit
3 Tasty, period!. Former McDonalds
4 Chicken
House, Paris Commune St., 24.
5 Coffee House, Siversova St., 6.
1 Hotel “Berezka”, Sadovaya st., 61/95.
2 Hotel complex
“Parallel”, Sadovaya st., 41/45.
3 Hotel “Laguna”, Egorova St., 22a.
4 4-star hotel “Hit-Park”, Bauman str., 16.
The most common date for the first mention of Vyshny Volochok is
1437, when the head of the Russian Church, Metropolitan Isidore, passed
through it to the Florence Cathedral. This was reflected in the “Walking
to the Council of Florence” written at the same time. However, the
Russian historian V.N. Tatishchev, relying on chronicle sources,
believed that Vyshny Volochyok was first mentioned in 1135. The drag
itself in this place is mentioned in the Moscow chronicle of the late
15th century in 1196: “And Yaroslav prince to Torzhka , and according to
the volost and the tribute, and along the top of Masta, behind the
portage, the tribute was collected.” The problem with dating the first
mention of Volochok is that in Russian chronicles one or another
Volochok is mentioned quite often, and it is not always possible to
determine exactly which one is meant.
The first generally
accepted chronicle mention of Vyshny Volochok was in 1471, in the
Resurrection Chronicle.
The city arose on the watershed of two
water basins - the Baltic and Caspian. Cargoes from the Volga were
raised along the Tvertsa River to the Nikolo-Stolbenskaya pier, unloaded
and transported by horse-drawn transport to the Tsna River. There the
goods were again loaded onto ships, which were dragged overland, and
went by water to Novgorod. The place of land transportation of ships and
land transshipment was called “Volok” or “Volochek”. The word “Vyshny”
distinguishes it from the “Lower” Volok, which was built to bypass the
Borovichi rapids downstream of the Tsna River and Lake Mstina on the
Msta River.
The portage from Tvertsa to Tsna was part of the
Novgorod land.
Under Ivan the Third, the Vyshnevolotsky pit was
established.
In the 16th century, Vyshny Volochyok was a large
craft trading settlement in Bezhetsk Pyatina. It was called the Nikolsky
churchyard, or the churchyard on Vyshny Volochok. In 1546, in Vyshny
Volochyok there were “73 tax yards, 13 church yards and 9 empty ones.”
According to the scribe book, in 1582 there were two churches, 5 shops,
one barn, and 45 “plowed and unplowed courtyards.” Judging by the
decrease in the number of households from 1546 to 1582, it can be
assumed that Volochyok suffered from the oprichnina army of Ivan the
Terrible passing through it, heading in 1569 from Tver on a punitive
campaign against Novgorod.
During the Time of Troubles, Volochyok
was captured and destroyed by Polish troops.
Foreign travelers
visiting Russia in the 17th century often mentioned Vyshny Volochyok,
and in the travel album of the imperial ambassador Meyerberg there is an
image of it dating back to 1661, with the inscription: “Vyshny
Volochyok, the village of the Grand Duke by the Tsna River.”
In
1703-1722, by order of Peter I, the Tveretsky Canal from Tvertsa to Tsna
was built in Vyshny Volochyok - the first artificial waterway in Russia.
The channel was transferred to the maintenance of the Novgorod merchant
M.I. Serdyukov. In 1719-1722, under his management, the Tsninsky Canal
was built, now one of the dominant features of the central part of the
city. As a result of his activities in the arrangement and development
of canals and other hydraulic structures, the Vyshnevolotsk water system
arose - the oldest artificial water system in Russia. The entire history
of Vyshny Volochok in the 18th - first half of the 19th centuries is
closely connected with this system, thanks to which this settlement grew
in trade, grew in size and became a city. It was actually located along
canals and was heavily dependent on passing convoys of ships.
In
1770, Vyshny Volochyok received the status of a city within the Novgorod
province. In 1772, the imperial decree “On the organization of the newly
established cities of Vyshny Volochyok, Valdai, Borovich and Ostashkova”
followed, in connection with which discussions periodically arise about
the date of Volochyok receiving city status. From 1775 - in the Tver
governorship (from 1796 - province).
Until the beginning of the
19th century, the Vyshnevolotsk system served as the most important
route for communicating St. Petersburg with central Russia and supplying
the new capital with food. This led to the special attention of the
imperial authorities to Vyshny Volochok, which was reflected in the
city’s coat of arms, approved by Catherine II. The decree approving the
coat of arms noted: “Vyshny Volochyok is a village that, through the
sluices available near it and through the great passage of ships, brings
great benefit to Russian commerce; For this reason, his coat of arms
depicts all this with the following signs. A silver shield with a top of
ermine fur, on which is depicted an imperial golden crown, signifying
the mercy and protection of Her Imperial Majesty; at the end of the
shield, on a blue wavy terrace depicting water, a boat loaded with a
natural color is visible, showing the passage of ships near this
village.”
In 1785, Catherine II visited Vyshny Volochyok
specifically to inspect the structures of the water system, after which
she ordered the finishing of the locks and canals with granite, which
has determined their characteristic appearance to this day.
Transportation on the water system reached its maximum in 1823-1829. In
the first half of the 19th century, industrial enterprises appeared in
Vyshny Volochyok: two candle factories, one rope factory, a tannery and
four brick factories. Three schools were opened - a district religious
school with a parish school, a district civil school with a preparatory
class, and a school for soldiers' children for military communications
(cantonists). In the period from 1833 to 1841, M. F. Vanchakov, a
merchant of the first guild, an honorary citizen of Vyshny Volochok, was
elected mayor 3 times in a row. Under him, Vyshny Volochyok became one
of the most comfortable cities in the province, old wooden pavements
were replaced with stone ones, 3 stone bridges were built: Petersburg,
Tveretsky and Tsninsky, drainage canals, the first building of shopping
arcades and a stone Trinity Church were built on the banks of the
Tveretsky Canal. By the middle of the 19th century, Vyshny Volochyok was
one of the largest cities in the Tver province.
In August 1849,
traffic began along the Vyshny Volochyok - Tver section of the
Nikolaevskaya Railway, which was then under construction. In November
1851, it came into operation in its entirety, and in 1870, the
Rybinsk-Bologovskaya Railway. Railways quickly take over the main
freight traffic, and the Vyshnevolotsk water system is gradually losing
its importance. After this, industrial production became the main
direction of the city's development: textile, glass and woodworking
industries developed.
In 1857, F. Ya. Ermakov founded the
Volochyok paper weaving factory in Soldatskaya Sloboda (now the Paris
Commune factory), since 1887 it belonged to K. Prokhorov;
In the
same year, in the village of Zavorovo, the trading house “A. Shilov and
Son" built a paper spinning mill, which was bought by the brothers P.
and V. Ryabushinsky in 1869 (now Vyshnevolotsk Cotton Mill LLC).
In 1859, on the Klyuchinskaya wasteland, V. F. Samarin opened a chemical
plant, which was then purchased by the Vyshnevolotsk merchant A. V.
Bolotin and repurposed into a glass plant. In Soviet times, the plant
was named “Red May”. Here, a government order for the production of ruby
stars for the Moscow Kremlin was twice fulfilled.
In 1875, the
sawmill of the merchant N. Fedorov was founded, now OJSC Vyshnevolotsk
Furniture and Woodworking Plant.
In 1881, Tabolka, the second
large factory of the Prokhorovskaya manufactory, opened in Vyshny
Volochyok. In Soviet times, it received the name “Proletarian
Avant-Garde” and became one of the largest enterprises in the city. By
the mid-2000s, the company ceased to exist.
At the beginning of
the 20th century in Vyshny Volochyok there were 9 churches, several
stone and wooden chapels, 1 synagogue. In the vicinity of the city there
were 2 monasteries: Kazan women's monastery and Nikolo-Stolpensky men's
monastery.
Since 1896, the Vyshnevolotsk Regional Drama Theater
has been operating in the city.
In 1912, the first cinema in the
city was built and opened - “Kinematograph Zvezda” (Kazansky Ave., 22).
On October 26 (November 8), 1917, the Council of Workers' Deputies
in Vyshny Volochyok elected a revolutionary committee and established
Soviet power in the city. On October 30, the city garrison, four
companies of the 261st Infantry Regiment and the 5th Kazan Shock
Battalion, went over to its side.
On March 30, 1918, the
newspaper “Izvestia of the Vyshnevolotsk Council of Peasant and Workers’
Deputies” began to be published, which, after changing many names since
1940, has been called “Vyshnevolotskaya Pravda” - until now the main
official printed organ of the city.
In the summer of 1918, in
Vyshny Volochyok, as throughout the country, there was an acute shortage
of food. At the end of 1918, the largest enterprises in the city were
nationalized: textiles - the manufactory of the Ryabushinsky brothers
(received the name “Vyshnevolotskaya manufactory”), “Tabolka”,
“Volochok”, and others.
In July 1919, near the village. In
Spas-Yasenovichi (now Yesenovichi) of Vyshnevolotsk district, an
anti-Bolshevik uprising of the “greens” took place, the main force of
which was local peasants, outraged by the surplus appropriation system.
Regular military units, including artillery, were sent to Vyshny
Volochyok to suppress the uprising from Tver and Moscow.
By the
end of the Civil War, out of 26 factories and factories in the city and
district, only the Vyshnevolotsk Manufactory and the Klyuchinsky Glass
Factory were operating, and not at full capacity. In 1922-1926, work was
carried out to restore production. In particular, in 1925-1926, the work
of the Volochyok (Paris Commune) and Tabolka (Proletarian Avant-Garde)
factories was resumed. In 1926, the city's textile industry generally
restored its pre-war (i.e. pre-1914) level of production.
In
1935, the main temple of the city, the Kazan Cathedral built in 1771
(located on the site of the current city court), was demolished. Around
the same time, the Peter and Paul Church near the city garden and the
Trinity Church behind the Tveretsky Canal were demolished.
In
1941-1943, the city was located in the front line, was subject to German
air raids, and 21 hospitals were located in large public buildings. The
fraternal military cemetery contains the rest of 1,727 Soviet soldiers
and officers who died from wounds in these hospitals.
In 1970,
for travel between the city center and the Vyshnevolotskaya district, an
overpass was built across the Oktyabrskaya Railway.
At the end of the 19th century they noted: “The climate is damp and extremely unhealthy. Cholera, having visited the Tver province several times this century, has never once passed Vyshny Volochok." The climate of Vyshny Volochok is moderate continental, with long, snowy winters and short, moderately warm summers that do not go beyond the calendar.