Meshchovsk

city Meschchowsk Mezovsk coat of arms Federal district Central Russia Oblast Kaluga Rajon Meshchovsk head Alexander Glinkow First mention 1238 City since 1776 surface 6  km² population 4100 inhabitants (as of Oct. 14, 2010) Population density 683 inhabitants / km² Height of the center 210  m Time zone UTC + 3 Telephone code +7 (48446) Post Code 249240 License Plate 40 OKATO 29 227 501 Website www.meshovsk.ru Geographical location Coordinates 54 ° 19 ′  N , 35 ° 17 ′  E Coordinates: 54 ° 19 ′ 0 ″  N , 35 ° 17 ′ 0 ″  E

Location in the western part of Russia

Location in Kaluga Oblast

List of cities in Russia

Meschtschowsk ( Russian Мещовск ) is a small town in the Kaluga Oblast ( Russia ) with 4100 inhabitants (as of October 14, 2010).

geography

The city is located about 85 km southwest of the Oblast capital Kaluga on the Tureja , a left tributary of the Serena in the river system of the Volga .

Meshchovsk is the administrative center of the raion of the same name .

history

The city was first mentioned in 1238 as a fiefdom of the Principality of Chernigov . Various forms of name such as Mestschewsk , Mesezk , Mesetsch (e) sk , Mesezesk , Mesesk , Meschtschorsk are known from the following period , which indicate a Baltic origin, derived from forest (cf. Latvian mežs ). After the disintegration of Chernigov, Meschtschowsk was temporarily the center of an independent splinter principality in the group of the Ober-Oka principalities .

In the 15th century the city belonged to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania . In 1503 it was conquered by the Grand Duchy of Moscow . In 1584 the city withstood a siege by the Crimean Tatars , during the time of turmoil another by the troops of the second "False Dimitris" . In 1617, Polish troops were able to take the city for a short time.

In Empire Meshchovsk received in 1776, the modern city status as the administrative center of a Ujesd (circle) will be awarded.

During World War II , Meschtschowsk was occupied by the German Wehrmacht on October 7, 1941 and recaptured on January 6, 1942 by the Western Front of the Red Army during their counter-offensive in the Battle of Moscow .

Population development

year	Residents
1897	3635
1926	2724
1939	3629
1959	4939
1970	5130
1979	4949
1989	5382
2002	4540
2010	4100

Note: census data

Culture and sights

The most important sight is the Cathedral of the Annunciation ( собор Благовещения / sobor Blagoveschchenija) from 1832 with a bell tower from 1907. The bell tower has a tower clock, which is relatively rare in Russia.

Here is also the Saint George Monastery ( Свято-Георгиевский монастырь / Swjato-Georgijewski monastyr), which was founded in the 19th century instead of an old monastery of the same name but further away, closed during the Soviet era and reopened in 2003.

Economy and Infrastructure

In Meschchowsk there are smaller companies in the food and building materials industries.

The Kudrinskaja station on the Moscow - Brjansk - Kiev railway line, which opened in 1899, is located 21 kilometers east of the city (route km 237).

The M3 Moscow – Bryansk – Ukrainian border (from there to Kiev) passes twelve kilometers southeast of the city.

sons and daughters of the town

• Valentin Berestow (1928–1998), youth writer and translator
• Nikolai Gudzow (1885–1957), materials scientist and university professor
• Nikolai Michailowski (1842–1904), sociologist, publicist and theoretician of the folk movement
• Vyacheslav Plehwe (1846–1904), statesman

Web links

Commons : Meshchovsk  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Rajon and City Administration website (Russian)
• Meshchovsk on mojgorod.ru (Russian)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Itogi Vserossijskoj perepisi naselenija 2010 goda. Tom 1. Čislennostʹ i razmeščenie naselenija (Results of the All-Russian Census 2010. Volume 1. Number and distribution of the population). Tables 5 , pp. 12-209; 11 , pp. 312–979 (download from the website of the Federal Service for State Statistics of the Russian Federation)