Staraya Russa

Staraya Russa (Russian Старая Русса ) is a city in Russia, and with 31 809 inhabitants (as of October 14, 2010 ). the third largest town in Novgorod Oblast.

Geography

The city is located about 250 kilometers south of St. Petersburg and 99 km south of the regional center of Veliky Novgorod. Through the city flows the river Polist from the catchment area of Lake Ilmen. Staraya Russa is the administrative center of the homonymous Rajons of Novgorod Oblast.

History

First records of the town was in 1167 under the name Russa ( Руса ). Originally belonging to the Republic of Novgorod, Russa was in the 13th and 14th centuries the center of the salt-works. In 1478 the city became part of the Grand Duchy of Moscow and has developed over this time both as a salt boiler as well as a trading, as he lay on the water route " from the Varangians to the Greeks ". Since the mid-16th century, the city bore the name of Staraya Russa ( Старая Руса ), which means as much as "Old Russa ".

1608 Staraya Russa was largely destroyed in an attack on the part of Poland-Lithuania. Even though it was rebuilt a few years later, the place was its former importance for trade since then no longer obtain. 1763 fell Staraya Russa victim to a conflagration and was then cultivated for a new General Plan with stone houses. A little later, in 1776, it received city rights and was part of the Novgorod province.

Beginning of the 19th century the production of salt in Staraya Russa has been set. At the site of the former saltworks and a mud bath was set up in 1828. Since then, the city is also because of several ligands is located here thermal springs, as a spa. 1858 a ship connection via the Ilmensee of Staraya Russa was set to Novgorod, and two decades later arose between the two cities is also a rail link.

During the Second World War Staraya Russa was occupied from August 1941 to February 1944 by the Wehrmacht, and could only be freed as part of the Leningrad - Novgorod operation of the Red Army.

Demographics

Note: Census data

Economy

Today in Staraya Russa of new mechanical engineering and the chemical industry as well as a number of food factories.

Personalities

From 1875 to 1878 and 1880 lived in the city, the poet Fyodor Dostoevsky. It Today a museum and a monument in Staraya Russa.

The composer Sergei Rachmaninoff was born in 1873 on the estate Semyonovo at Staraya Russa, and lived there until the family moved to St. Petersburg in 1882.