Korcheva () was a town in central

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

, on the territory of the modern

Konakovsky District Konakovsky District () is an administrative and municipalLaw #4-ZO district (raion), one of the administrative divisions of Tver Oblast, thirty-six in Tver Oblast, Russia. It is located in the southeast of the oblast and borders with Kimrsky Distr ...

Tver Oblast Tver Oblast (, ) is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast). Its administrative center is the city of Tver. From 1935 to 1990, it was known as Kalinin Oblast (). Population: Tver Oblast is a region of lakes, such as Seliger and Brosno. Much o ...

, on the

Volga River The Volga (, ) is the longest river in Europe and the longest endorheic basin river in the world. Situated in Russia, it flows through Central Russia to Southern Russia and into the Caspian Sea. The Volga has a length of , and a catchment ...

, 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 Catherine II. (born Princess Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst; 2 May 172917 November 1796), most commonly known as Catherine the Great, was the reigning empress of Russia from 1762 to 1796. She came to power after overthrowing her husband, Peter III ...

. Korcheva was the administrative center of Korchevskoy Uyezd, one of the uyezds of

Tver Viceroyalty Tver Viceroyalty () was an administrative-territorial unit (''namestnichestvo'') of the Russian Empire, which existed from 1775 until 1796. Its seat was in Tver. In 1796, it was transformed to Tver Governorate. The area of the viceroyalty is cu ...

and subsequently, from 1803, of

Tver Governorate Tver Governorate () was an administrative-territorial unit (''guberniya'') of the Russian Empire and the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic, Russian SFSR, which existed from 1796 until 1929. Its seat was in Tver. The governorate was lo ...

. 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 (), informally known as the Moscow Sea, is the uppermost reservoir on the Volga, in Moscow Oblast, Moscow and Tver Oblasts of Russia, located some north of Moscow. The dam of the reservoir is situated ...

and the

Moscow Canal The Moscow Canal (), named the Moskva–Volga Canal until 1947, is a canal in Russia that connects the Moskva (river) with the Volga. It is located in Moscow itself and in the Moscow Oblast. The canal connects to the Moskva River in Tushino (an ...

were constructed during the stalinist development of the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

, 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, graveyard, or a green space called a memorial park or memorial garden, is a place where the remains of many death, dead people are burial, buried or otherwise entombed. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek ...

, 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 Vasilyevich Chayanov (; 17 January 1888 – 3 October 1937) was a Russian, then Soviet agrarian economist, scholar of rural sociology, and advocate of agrarianism and cooperatives. Personal life Chayanov was born in Moscow, the son ...

, 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 (; – 25 March 1966) was a White Russian academic, historian, and scholar of Oriental studies, best known for his contributions to the study of history of Iran and the Iranian peoples such as Persians, Lurs, and ...

(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

Notes

Submerged places Geography of Tver Oblast Former populated places in Russia Korchevskoy Uyezd {{TverOblast-geo-stub

Cultural references

Notable citizens

Gallery

See also

Notes