Rybinsk

Template:Short description {{#invoke:other uses|otheruses}} Template:Redirect Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox Russian inhabited locality

Rybinsk (Template:Langx, {{#invoke:IPA|main}}) is the second-largest city of Yaroslavl Oblast in Russia. It lies at the confluence of the Volga and Sheksna rivers, Template:Convert north-north-east of Moscow. Population: Template:Ru-census Template:Historical populations

It was previously known as Ust-Sheksna (until 1504), Rybnaya Sloboda (until 1777), Shcherbakov (1946–1957), and Andropov (1984–1989).

HistoryEdit

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Early historyEdit

File:Рыбинск. Вид на церковь Спаса Нерукотворного Образа и город. Начало XX века.jpg

City center and cathedral in the 19th century

Rybinsk is one of the oldest Slavic settlements on the Volga River. The place was first recorded by chroniclers in 1071 as Ust-Sheksna, i.e. "the mouth of the Sheksna".Template:Citation needed During this period the settlement was a regional center for craft and metal based produce and for trade. In the mid-13th century, Ust-Sheksna was laid waste by invading Mongols. For the next few centuries, the settlement was referred to alternatively as Ust-Sheksna or Rybansk. From 1504, it was identified in documents as Rybnaya Sloboda (literally: "the fishing village"). The name is explained by the fact that the settlement supplied the Muscovite court with choice sturgeons and sterlets. In the 17th century, when the sloboda was capitalizing on the trade of the Muscovy Company with Western Europe, it was rich enough to build several stone churches, of which only one survives to the present. More old architecture may be found in the neighborhood, including the last of Muscovite three-tented churches (in the Alexandrov Hermitage) and the Ushakov family shrine (on Epiphany Island).

Golden ageEdit

In the 18th century, the sloboda continued to thrive on the Volga trade. Catherine the Great granted Rybnaya Sloboda municipal rights and renamed it Rybinsk. It was a place where the cargo was reloaded from large Volga vessels to smaller boats capable of navigating in the shallow Mariinsk Canal system, which connects the Russian hinterland with the Baltic Sea. With the population of 7,000, the town daily accommodated up to 170,000 sailors and up to 2,000 river vessels. Consequently, the local river port became known as the "capital of barge-haulers".

File:Belonogov.jpg

General view of Rybinsk in the 1820s

The town's most conspicuous landmark, the Neoclassical Savior-Transfiguration Cathedral, was constructed on the Volga riverside from 1838 until 1851. It was built to a design that the Dean of the Imperial Academy of Arts, Avraam Melnikov, had prepared for Saint Isaac's Cathedral in St. Petersburg. After Melnikov lost the contest for the best project of St. Isaac's Cathedral to Auguste de Montferrand, he sold his grandiose design to the municipal authorities of Rybinsk.

File:Yug.jpg

A 19th-century photo of a monastery near Rybinsk, now submerged under the waters of the Rybinsk Reservoir

File:Rybinskbourse.jpg

Grain bourse in Rybinsk. For a more recent picture, see this.

As a trade capital of the Upper Volga, Rybinsk formerly attracted scores of foreigners, who built a Lutheran church and an imposing Roman Catholic cathedral, said to be the tallest on the Volga. There is also the Nobel Family Museum, documenting the operations of that prominent Swedish family during the Russian Empire.

20th-century American film moguls Nicholas Schenck and Joseph Schenck were born in the town, and there is a grand 18th-century mansion of the Mikhalkov family, whose living members include Sergey Mikhalkov, Nikita Mikhalkov, and Andron Konchalovsky.

20th centuryEdit

In the Soviet years, Rybinsk continued its impressive renaming record, for it changed its name four times: to Shcherbakov (after Aleksandr Shcherbakov) in 1946, back to Rybinsk in 1957, to Andropov (after Yuri Andropov) in 1984, and back to Rybinsk in 1989.

Administrative and municipal statusEdit

Within the framework of administrative divisions, Rybinsk serves as the administrative center of Rybinsky District, even though it is not a part of it.<ref name="Ref154">Law #12-z</ref> As an administrative division, it is incorporated separately as the city of oblast significance of Rybinsk—an administrative unit with the status equal to that of the districts.<ref name="Ref154"/> As a municipal division, the city of oblast significance of Rybinsk is incorporated as Rybinsk Urban Okrug.<ref name="Ref269">Law #65-z</ref>

EconomyEdit

Template:Unsourced section The most important industries of modern Rybinsk are NPO Saturn (two plants) AL Turborus aircraft engines, power and naval gas turbines manufacturing, RGT small plant 30 - 100 MW range gas turbines, electronics radiotronics (NPO Luch), Kalashnikov Pella Rybinsk shipyard Euroyachting, Vympel Shipyard, and a hydroelectric power station. As the experts warn,Template:Who the giant Rybinsk dam which holds the Rybinsk Reservoir (formerly touted as the largest man-made body of water on Earth) places the town in the imminent danger of the dam breaking and the reservoir flooding the city. The city is served by the Staroselye Airport.

GeographyEdit

ClimateEdit

Rybinsk has a four-season humid continental climate<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> with significant differences between winters and summers, although the cold winters are still significantly less severe than those found on similar parallels further east in Russia. Spring comes in the second half of March and lasts about 2 months. The weather in spring is usually dry and partly cloudy and the temperature rises quickly. Summer begins in the second half of May, but short-term returns of cold weather are possible. Summer is moderately warm and humid, lasting about three and a half months. The warmest month is July, when the weather is often hot with daytime temperatures up to +30 degrees. Autumn begins in early September, but the temperature decreases slowly, so the weather is relatively warm and sunny until the middle of the month. Later the weather becomes cloudy and it rains often. November can be either the last month of autumn, with cloudy weather and frequent rains, or the first month of winter, with frosts and stable snow cover. The yearly mean is around Template:Convert.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Template:Weather box

PaleontologyEdit

Near Rybinsk, fossils of Early Triassic temnospondyls were discovered. Remains of Thoosuchus and Benthosuchus have been found in the Lower Olenekian deposits.<ref name=Novikov2018>Template:Cite book {{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

International relationsEdit

Template:See also

Rybinsk is twinned with:

Template:Flagicon Kingsport, Tennessee, United States (1989)
Template:Flagicon Johnson City, Tennessee, United States (1989)
Template:Flagicon Bristol, Tennessee, United States (1989)

Notable peopleEdit

ReferencesEdit

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SourcesEdit

External linksEdit

Template:Yaroslavl Oblast Template:Golden Ring Template:Authority control