Seligersee

Seligersee
	Nilov Monastery on the island of Stolobny
Geographical location	Russia ; Tver , Novgorod Oblast
Tributaries	110 tributaries
Drain	Selisharovka → Volga
Places on the shore	Ostashkov
	Data
Coordinates	57 ° 11 ' N , 33 ° 3' E Coordinates: 57 ° 11 ' N , 33 ° 3' E
Altitude above sea level	205 m
surface	212 km²
length	66 km
width	37 km
scope	528 km
Maximum depth	24 m
Middle deep	5.8 m
Catchment area	2310 km²

The Seligersee ( Russian озеро Селигер / osero Seliger ) is the largest lake in the Waldai Heights .

location

Most of the lake belongs to the Tver Oblast in the north-western part of the Central Russia region . The extreme north belongs to Novgorod Oblast in the Northwestern Russia Region . It lies at an altitude of 205 m, covers 212 km² and has around 160 islands. The largest island is Khachin, other important islands are Gorodomlja and Stolobny. The lake reaches an average depth of 5.8 m.

The Seligersee lies in a wooded and hilly landscape, the Waldai heights , in which the three great rivers Dnepr , Daugava and Volga arise. Due to its rich flora and fauna, the lake has been declared a nature reserve. The only town on the shore of the lake is Ostashkov .

The lake is popular as a destination and summer retreat. One of the sights is the Nilov Monastery on the island of Stolobny.

View of Ostashkov
View of the Nilow Monastery
Seligersee, pier at Falcon

history

On the island of Gorodomlja (Russian Городомля) a biological research station was set up in 1928, in which, among other things, research was carried out on the foot and mouth disease. From 1939 to 1941 the NKVD used the Nilow Monastery as a prisoner of war camp. Most of the predominantly Polish inmates were murdered in Tver in 1940, known as part of the Katyn massacre , and buried in Mednoye.

From 1946 Branch 1 of the Research and Development Institute for Space Rockets NII-88 (Russian: НИИ-88, научно-исследовательский институт ) was set up under the direction of Sergei Koroljow . From November 1946 to November 1953 more than 160 German rocket engineers were interned on the island together with their families who were working on the further development of ballistic liquid missiles as part of the Ossawakim campaign . The most important was Helmut Gröttrup , who was already involved in the development of the unit 4 (A4) at the Peenemünde Army Research Institute under Wernher von Braun . Because of this, the island gained some fame in the history of space travel . Until today the island with the settlement Solnetschny is one of the closed administrative-territorial entities (SATO) of Russia. The Stern plant (Russian Звезда), which belongs to the Russian state space agency Roskosmos (Russian Роскосмос), emerged from Branch 1 of the NII-88 and has been manufacturing high-precision gyroscopic instruments and accelerometers for aircraft and space travel there since 1958.

Gorodomlja Island (sketch by the German collective 1946–1952)
Gorodomlya island in summer 2016
Gorodomlya island in winter (February 2017)

Since 2005, the Seliger youth meeting has been held annually on the shores of the lake . It was initially organized by the government-loyal youth organization Naschi and has been organized by the state agency for youth affairs Rosmolodjosch since 2010 .

etymology

The name "Seliger See" appears for the first time under the name "Sereger" in Russian chronicles of the XII - XIII centuries.

The name of Lake Seliger ( Old Russian form "Seregѣr") is probably of Balto-Finnish origin, but the specific etymology remains controversial. Pogodin and Popov argue that the name comes from the Finnish “Selkäjärvi”. Kalima and Vasmer suspect that the name of the lake comes from the Finnish "Särkijärvi". The two versions are mutually exclusive and also have certain phonetic difficulties. The origin of the name of Lake Seliger remains controversial, also due to the difficulty of differentiating the Baltic-Finnish from other Baltic Sea languages in the region.

There is also speculation that the name of the lake has a North Germanic origin (séligr, sjáligr "famous, beautiful").

Web links

Commons : Seligersee - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Map of the lake
Alexander B. Korolew: Хронология Городомли (Chronology of Gorodomlija). Collection with many documents about the rocket development in Gorodomlya, also from other authors. Retrieved on August 23, 2019 (Russian, easily accessible with translation of the pages by Google).
Anatoly Zak: History of the Gorodomlya Island. August 5, 2012, accessed on May 14, 2019 (English, detailed description of the activities of the German collective from 1946 to 1953 (including photos)).

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b Article Seligersee in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia (BSE) , 3rd edition 1969–1978 (Russian)
↑ ^a ^b Lake Seliger in the State Water Register of the Russian Federation (Russian)
↑ Irmgard Gröttrup: The possessed and the mighty. In the shadow of the red rocket . Steingrüben Verlag, Stuttgart 1958, OCLC 73419520 (259 pages).
↑ Werner Albring: Gorodomlia. German rocket researchers in Russia . Luchterhand Literaturverlag, Munich 1991, ISBN 978-3-630-86773-1 (253 pages).
↑ Kurt Magnus: Rocket Slaves. German researchers behind red barbed wire . Elbe-Dnjepr-Verlag, Mockrehna 1999, ISBN 978-3-933395-67-2 (359 pages).
↑ Kate Brancke: In the golden cage. Unvoluntary in Russia 1946–1952 . RG Fischer, Frankfurt (Main) 1989, ISBN 3-89406-064-6 (183 pages).
^ History of the company "Stern". Retrieved on May 13, 2019 (in Russian, the film on the home page shows historical footage from the early years of research at the NII-88 from approx. 1:30 to 2:30).
↑ Pokazhchik geografichnih name, etnonіmіv (Ukr.) ( Memento from August 24, 2013 on WebCite ). Archived from the original source Aug 24, 2013.
↑ Max Vasmer - Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language. T. III. Pp. 595-596.
↑ Ivanov VF Region Toponymic Dictionary - Seliger ( Memento from August 25, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
↑ Farmer V. Indo-European ending * -men - / * - Mo in Slavic place names // Farmer V. From the history of Indo-European word formation SPb.: St. Petersburg State University, 2005, p. 247.
↑ North Germanic place names in Belarus and West Russia

[gse-1] Article Seligersee in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia (BSE) , 3rd edition 1969–1978 (Russian)

[gvr-2] Lake Seliger in the State Water Register of the Russian Federation (Russian)

[3] Irmgard Gröttrup: The possessed and the mighty. In the shadow of the red rocket . Steingrüben Verlag, Stuttgart 1958, OCLC 73419520 (259 pages).

[4] Werner Albring: Gorodomlia. German rocket researchers in Russia . Luchterhand Literaturverlag, Munich 1991, ISBN 978-3-630-86773-1 (253 pages).

[5] Kurt Magnus: Rocket Slaves. German researchers behind red barbed wire . Elbe-Dnjepr-Verlag, Mockrehna 1999, ISBN 978-3-933395-67-2 (359 pages).

[6] Kate Brancke: In the golden cage. Unvoluntary in Russia 1946–1952 . RG Fischer, Frankfurt (Main) 1989, ISBN 3-89406-064-6 (183 pages).

[7] History of the company "Stern". Retrieved on May 13, 2019 (in Russian, the film on the home page shows historical footage from the early years of research at the NII-88 from approx. 1:30 to 2:30).

[8] Pokazhchik geografichnih name, etnonіmіv (Ukr.) ( Memento from August 24, 2013 on WebCite ). Archived from the original source Aug 24, 2013.

[9] Max Vasmer - Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language. T. III. Pp. 595-596.

[10] Ivanov VF Region Toponymic Dictionary - Seliger ( Memento from August 25, 2012 in the Internet Archive )

[11] Farmer V. Indo-European ending * -men - / * - Mo in Slavic place names // Farmer V. From the history of Indo-European word formation SPb.: St. Petersburg State University, 2005, p. 247.

[12] North Germanic place names in Belarus and West Russia