Korcheva () was a town in central
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
, on the territory of the modern
Konakovsky District
Konakovsky District (russian: Конако́вский райо́н) is an administrative and municipalLaw #4-ZO district (raion), one of the thirty-six in Tver Oblast, Russia. It is located in the southeast of the oblast
An oblast (; ; Cyr ...
,
Tver Oblast
Tver Oblast (russian: Тверска́я о́бласть, ''Tverskaya oblast'', ), from 1935 to 1990 known as Kalinin Oblast (), is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast). Its administrative center is the city of Tver. It was named after Mikhai ...
, on the
Volga River
The Volga (; russian: Во́лга, a=Ru-Волга.ogg, p=ˈvoɫɡə) is the List of rivers of Europe#Rivers of Europe by length, longest river in Europe. Situated in Russia, it flows through Central Russia to Southern Russia and into the Cas ...
, with a population of a few thousand people. It was first mentioned in the 1540s as a
selo.
Korcheva received town status in 1781 by the order of the empress
Catherine II
, en, Catherine Alexeievna Romanova, link=yes
, house =
, father = Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst
, mother = Joanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp
, birth_date =
, birth_name = Princess Sophie of Anha ...
. Korcheva was the administrative center of
Korchevskoy Uyezd
Korchevskoy Uyezd (''Корчевской уезд'') was one of the subdivisions of the Tver Governorate of the Russian Empire. It was situated in the eastern part of the governorate. Its administrative centre was Korcheva.
Demographics
At the ti ...
, one of the uyezds of
Tver Viceroyalty
Tver Viceroyalty (russian: link=no, Тверское наместничество, ''Tverskoye namestnichestvo'') was an administrative division of the Russian Empire, which existed from 1775 until 1796. Its seat was in Tver. In 1796, it was tran ...
and subsequently, from 1803, of
Tver Governorate
Tver Governorate (russian: Тверская губерния, ''Tverskaya guberniya'') was an administrative division (a ''guberniya'') of the Russian Empire and Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic, Russian SFSR, which existed from 1796 ...
. The town was prosperous until it was bypassed by the railroads in the latter half of the nineteenth century.
As the
Ivankovo Reservoir
Ivankovo Reservoir or Ivankovskoye Reservoir (russian: link=no, Иваньковское водохранилище), informally known as the Moscow Sea, is the uppermost reservoir on the Volga, in Moscow and Tver Oblasts of Russia, located some ...
and the
Moscow Canal
The Moscow Canal (russian: Кана́л и́мени Москвы́), named the Moskva–Volga Canal until 1947, is a canal in Russia that connects the Moskva River with the Volga River. It is located in Moscow itself and in the Mosc ...
were constructed during the
stalinist development of the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
, the town was abandoned and destroyed in 1936, and mostly submerged under the waters of the reservoir the next year. Most of the population was resettled into the nearby town of
Konakovo. One can still find the only surviving house (which belonged to merchant Rozhdestvensky), a
cemetery
A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite or graveyard is a place where the remains of dead people are buried or otherwise interred. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek , "sleeping place") implies that the land is specifically designated as a buri ...
, and a foundation of the ruined
Kazanskaya church at an impracticable bank of the reservoir.
Cultural references
*
Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin
Mikhail Yevgrafovich Saltykov-Shchedrin ( rus, Михаи́л Евгра́фович Салтыко́в-Щедри́н, p=mʲɪxɐˈil jɪvˈɡrafəvʲɪtɕ səltɨˈkof ɕːɪˈdrʲin; – ), born Mikhail Yevgrafovich Saltykov and known during ...
refers to Korcheva a number of times in his novels, particularly in ''
Modern Idyll'' (1883), in which his travelers stop there in a voyage on the Volga and are not impressed.
*
Alexander Chayanov
Alexander V. Chayanov (russian: Александр Васильевич Чаянов; 17 January 1888 – 3 October 1937) was a Russian, then Soviet agrarian economist, scholar of rural sociology, and advocate of agrarianism and cooperatives.
...
, in his story "Istoriya parikmakherskoi kukli" ("The Tale of the Hairdresser's Mannequin"), sets a chapter in Korcheva, where a panopticon has set up its tents "on the high bank of the Volga."
[Muireann Maguire, ''Red Spectres'' (OVERLOOK, 2013; ), p. 43.]
Notable citizens
*
Vladimir Minorsky
Vladimir Fyodorovich Minorsky (russian: Владимир Фёдорович Минорский; – March 25, 1966) was a Russian Orientalist best known for his contributions to the study of Persian, Lurish and Kurdish history, geography, ...
(1877–1966), orientalist
* Vadim Lyovshin (1896–1969), physicist
Gallery
Дом купцов Рождественских - panoramio.jpg, Rozhdestvensky house
Корчева.jpeg, Dumsky Lane in Korcheva by nurse Anna Zhdanova, 1910
Korcheva 1855.jpg, 1855 plan of the town
See also
*
Mologa
Mologa (russian: Моло́га) was a town in Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia, formerly situated at the confluence of the rivers Mologa and Volga, but now submerged under the waters of the Rybinsk Reservoir.
Mologa existed at least since the 12th cen ...
*
Flooded Belfry
The Kalyazin Bell Tower (russian: Калязинская колокольня) is a Neoclassical campanile rising to a height of over the waters of the Uglich Reservoir on the Volga River opposite the old town of Kalyazin, in Tver Oblast, northw ...
, Kalyazin
Notes
Submerged places
Geography of Tver Oblast
Former populated places in Russia
Korchevskoy Uyezd
{{TverOblast-geo-stub