Tver Oblast (, ) is a federal subject of

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 ...

(an

oblast An oblast ( or ) is a type of administrative division in Bulgaria and several post-Soviet states, including Belarus, Russia and Ukraine. Historically, it was used in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union. The term ''oblast'' is often translated i ...

). Its

administrative center An administrative centre is a seat of regional administration or local government, or a county town, or the place where the central administration of a commune, is located. In countries with French as the administrative language, such as Belgiu ...

is the

city A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

Tver Tver (, ) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and the administrative centre of Tver Oblast, Russia. It is situated at the confluence of the Volga and Tvertsa rivers. Tver is located northwest of Moscow. Population: The city is ...

. From 1935 to 1990, it was known as Kalinin Oblast (). Population: Tver Oblast is a region of lakes, such as Seliger and Brosno. Much of the remaining area is occupied by the Valdai Hills, where the

Volga 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 ...

, the Western Dvina, and the

Dnieper The Dnieper or Dnepr ( ), also called Dnipro ( ), is one of the major transboundary rivers of Europe, rising in the Valdai Hills near Smolensk, Russia, before flowing through Belarus and Ukraine to the Black Sea. Approximately long, with ...

have their source. Tver Oblast is one of the tourist regions of Russia with a modern tourist infrastructure. There are also many historic towns: Torzhok,

Toropets Toropets () is a town and the administrative center of Toropetsky District in Tver Oblast, Russia, located where the Toropa River enters Lake Solomennoye. Population: History In 1074, when the town was first mentioned in chronicles, Torop ...

, Zubtsov, Kashin, Vyshny Volochyok, and Kalyazin. The oldest of these is Rzhev, primarily known for the Battles of Rzhev in

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. Staritsa was the seat of the last appanage principality in Russia. Ostashkov is a major tourist center.

Geography

Tver Oblast is located in the west of the middle part of the East European Plain. It stretches for 260 km from north to south and 450 km from west to east. The area borders Yaroslavl Oblast in the east, Vologda Oblast in the northeast, Novgorod Oblast in the northwest and north,

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

in the southeast, Smolensk Oblast in the southwest, and Pskov Oblast in the west. The area of Tver Oblast is 84201 km², the 38th of 85 subjects. This accounts for 0.49% of the territory of Russia, and it is the largest territory (by area) of the

Central Federal District The Central Federal District ( rus, Центральный федеральный округ, p=tsɨnˈtralʲnɨj fʲɪdʲɪˈralʲnɨj ˈokrʊk) is one of the federal districts of Russia, eight federal districts of Russia. Geographically, the di ...

Relief

Tver Oblast as a whole is characterized by flat terrain with alternating lowlands and highlands due to its location in the East European Plain. In the western part of the province, occupying about one-third of its area is Valdai Hills, with elevations of 200–300 m above sea level. It is surrounded by depressions, lowlands, and has a height of 100–150 m. The highest point of the area has a height of 347 m and is located on the hill Tsninsky (The top of the Valdai). The lowest point (61 m) – the extreme north-west area of the river's edge Kunya () on the border with the Novgorod Oblast.

Natural resources

Minerals discovered and developed in the Tver Oblast are mainly deposits of ancient seas, lakes and

swamp A swamp is a forested wetland.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p. Swamps are considered to be transition zones because both land and water play a role in ...

s, and partly a consequence of glaciers (clastic rocks). Minerals of industrial importance are the seams of brown coal, which form part of the Moscow coal basin. The largest deposit is Bolshoy Nelidovskiy, which gave between 1948 and 1996 about 21 million tons. Widespread powerful

peat Peat is an accumulation of partially Decomposition, decayed vegetation or organic matter. It is unique to natural areas called peatlands, bogs, mires, Moorland, moors, or muskegs. ''Sphagnum'' moss, also called peat moss, is one of the most ...

deposits totaling 15.4 billion m³. The estimated reserves of peat are 2.051 billion tonnes, representing approximately 7% of the stock of

European Russia European Russia is the western and most populated part of the Russia, Russian Federation. It is geographically situated in Europe, as opposed to the country's sparsely populated and vastly larger eastern part, Siberia, which is situated in Asia ...

. On an industrial scale mastered 43 peat deposits with a total area of about 300 hectares, the main exploited stocks are concentrated in five fields located in the central and southern parts of the oblast. From 1971 to 1999, has developed more than 44 million tons of peat. Distributed limestones (near the town of Bayou several centuries developed reserves of white Staritskogo stone). Dolomitic limestones are common along rivers Vazuza, Osugi, Tsna (marble-like limestone), there are deposits of

tile Tiles are usually thin, square or rectangular coverings manufactured from hard-wearing material such as ceramic, Rock (geology), stone, metal, baked clay, or even glass. They are generally fixed in place in an array to cover roofs, floors, wal ...

brick A brick is a type of construction material used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a unit primarily composed of clay. But is now also used informally to denote building un ...

and

pottery Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other raw materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. The place where such wares are made by a ''potter'' is al ...

( refractory ) of

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolinite, ). Most pure clay minerals are white or light-coloured, but natural clays show a variety of colours from impuriti ...

and

quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The Atom, atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon–oxygen Tetrahedral molecular geometry, tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tet ...

sand, sapropel are numerous underground fresh water and mineral formations, and sources for the medicinal table water .

Rivers

The region is a watershed of the Caspian Sea and Baltic Sea. In the south, the Belsky district has several tributaries of the upper reaches of the river Vop, the right tributary of the

River (basin of the Black Sea). Go to the Caspian Sea basin owns 70% of the region, the Baltic Sea – 29.7%. There are more than 800 rivers in the region longer than 10 km with a total length of about 17,000 km. The main river –

( 685 km within the region). Its source is in the Ostashkov area. The most important tributaries of the Volga: the Mologa (280 km), the Medveditsa (269 km), the Tvertsa (188 km). Other important rivers: the Western Dvina and its tributary the Mezha (259 km), the Msta and the Tsna (160 km).

Climate

The climate is humid continental, transitional from continental Russia to the more humid north-western regions. The area lies in a zone of comfort for living and recreation in climatic conditions. Average January temperatures range from in west to in northeast, and July from to °C. The average annual rainfall ranges from 560 to 720 mm, and the greatest amount of precipitation falls on the western slopes of the Valdai Hills. The snow cover starts in mid-November, the period with snow cover lasts 130–150 days, and snow depth is about 40–60 cm, with a maximum of 80 cm.

History

There was a settlement on land at the confluence of the Tmaka River and

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 ...

s in the 9th and 10th centuries. A fortress was built on the site much later, during the fighting between the Rostov-Suzdal princes and the Novgorod Republic. From the 13th to 15th centuries, the area was part of the Principality of Tver, which competed with Moscow for supremacy in Russia, except for the western outskirts with

, which were part of the Principality of Smolensk and

Grand Duchy of Lithuania The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a sovereign state in northeastern Europe that existed from the 13th century, succeeding the Kingdom of Lithuania, to the late 18th century, when the territory was suppressed during the 1795 Partitions of Poland, ...

. The south-western part with Bely formed part of the

Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, also referred to as Poland–Lithuania or the First Polish Republic (), was a federation, federative real union between the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania ...

until 1654. In the 18th century, Tver became an administrative center; at first, it was part of Saint Petersburg Governorate (1708–1727), and then, of Novgorod Governorate. In 1775, the Tver Viceroyalty was formed; in 1796, it was transformed into Tver Governorate. In September 1929, Tver became the administrative center of Tver District of

Moscow Oblast Moscow Oblast (, , informally known as , ) is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Russia (an oblast). With a population of 8,524,665 (Russian Census (2021), 2021 Census) living in an area of , it is one of the most densely populate ...

in the

Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (Russian SFSR or RSFSR), previously known as the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and the Russian Soviet Republic, and unofficially as Soviet Russia,Declaration of Rights of the labo ...

(Russian SFSR). In November 1931, the city of Tver was renamed Kalinin. On 29 January 1935, Kalinin Oblast was formed from parts of Western,

Leningrad Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

and Moscow Oblasts. Ostashkov housed a

NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (, ), abbreviated as NKVD (; ), was the interior ministry and secret police of the Soviet Union from 1934 to 1946. The agency was formed to succeed the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) se ...

prisoner-of-war camp for some 7,000 Poles, taken prisoner during the

invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign, Polish Campaign, and Polish Defensive War of 1939 (1 September – 6 October 1939), was a joint attack on the Second Polish Republic, Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany, the Slovak R ...

at the start of

, 6,300 of whom were murdered in 1940 in Kalinin as part of the

Katyn massacre The Katyn massacre was a series of mass killings under Communist regimes, mass executions of nearly 22,000 Polish people, Polish military officer, military and police officers, border guards, and intelligentsia prisoners of war carried out by t ...

, and buried in Mednoye. Germany occupied part of this area from 1941 to 1943. On 17 July 1990, by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR, the Kalinin Oblast was renamed Tver Oblast. On 21 April 1992, the Congress of People's Deputies of Russia approved the decision of the presidium of the parliament to rename the region, amending Art. 71 of the Constitution of the Russian SFSR of 1978, which entered into force on May 16, 1992. On 13 June 1996, Tver Oblast, alongside Leningrad Oblast and the city of

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

, signed a power-sharing agreement with the federal government, granting it autonomy. This agreement would be abolished on 19 February 2002. On August 23, 2023, a private jet carrying Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Wagner Group leader, crashed in the region.

Politics

During the

Soviet 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 ...

period, the high authority in the oblast was shared between three persons: The first secretary of the Tver CPSU Committee (who in reality had the biggest authority), the chairman of the oblast Soviet (legislative power), and the Chairman of the oblast Executive Committee (executive power). After the abolition of Article 6 of the Constitution of the USSR in March 1990, the CPSU lost its monopoly on power. The head of the Oblast administration, and eventually the governor was appointed/elected alongside elected regional parliament. The Charter of Tver Oblast is the fundamental law of the region. The Legislative Assembly of Tver Oblast is the province's standing legislative (representative) body. The Legislative Assembly exercises its authority by passing laws, resolutions, and other legal acts and by supervising the implementation and observance of the laws and other legal acts passed by it. The highest executive body is the Oblast Administration, which includes territorial executive bodies such as district administrations, committees, and commissions that facilitate development and run the day-to-day matters of the province. The Oblast administration supports the activities of the Governor who is the highest official and acts as guarantor of the observance of the Oblast Charter in accordance with the Constitution of Russia.

Government

On 13 March 2011, elections to the regional legislative assembly were held. United Russia received 39.8% of the vote, the Communist Party – 24.6%, A Just Russia – 21.3%, and the Liberal Democratic Party – 11.01%. Thus, according to the party lists, the United Russia party received nine seats in the Legislative Assembly. In single-mandate constituencies, candidates from United Russia also won in 17 out of 20 constituencies, and communist candidates won in the other three. In general, United Russia received 26 mandates out of 40. The Communists received eight mandates, A Just Russia – four, and the Liberal Democratic Party – two. Legislative power is exercised by the Legislative Assembly of the Tver Oblast, and executive power is exercised by the Government of the Tver Oblast, headed by the Governor.

Administrative divisions

Administratively, Tver Oblast is divided into two urban-type settlements under the federal government management ( Ozyorny and Solnechny), five cities and towns of oblast significance (

, Kimry, Rzhev, Torzhok, and Vyshny Volochyok), and thirty-six districts.

Economy

Tver Oblast has a very strong economy due to its machinery industry in the

automobile A car, or an automobile, is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of cars state that they run primarily on roads, Car seat, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport private transport#Personal transport, peopl ...

and

aeronautics Aeronautics is the science or art involved with the study, design process, design, and manufacturing of air flight-capable machines, and the techniques of operating aircraft and rockets within the atmosphere. While the term originally referred ...

sectors.

Transportation

The Oblast has a well-developed infrastructure consisting of railway, river, motor vehicle, air, and pipeline transportation systems. Tver Oblast has one of the highest proportions of paved roads in the country. The region's location between Russia's two major cities, Moscow and St. Petersburg, has an obvious influence on traffic flows from

Northern Europe The northern region of Europe has several definitions. A restrictive definition may describe northern Europe as being roughly north of the southern coast of the Baltic Sea, which is about 54th parallel north, 54°N, or may be based on other ge ...

and the Baltic countries to central Russia. Passes through the region connecting the main "two capitals" Railway – October single-track railway with branches in Rzhev and Vyazma, Kuvshinovo and Selizharovo through Torzhok. Equally important are single-track diesel Moscow – Kashin – St. Petersburg and Moscow – Riga, and Yaroslavl – Bologoe – Great Luke and Bologoe – The bottom of the (station ), but very popular. The area is crossed by two federal highways: M10 "Russia" and M9 "Baltic". Of internal roads are significant Torzhok A111 – A112 Ostashkov and Tver- Rzhev. The length of paved roads – 16,032 km. There are three civilian airports close to Tver: Migalovo with a runway for commercial aviation, 2500m in length, airport local lines Zmeevo (now – heliport) and Orlovka Airfield (ICAO: UUTO). The development of navigation on the Volga river port "Tver" with a cargo jetty for boats "river-sea" with a draft of up to four meters. Four railways going from Moscow to the north, northwest and west cross the region: to Saint Petersburg via Tver – Bologoye (main course of the Oktyabrskaya Railway), west across the Rzhev – Velikiye Luki (branch of

Riga Riga ( ) is the capital, Primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Latvia, largest city of Latvia. Home to 591,882 inhabitants (as of 2025), the city accounts for a third of Latvia's total population. The population of Riga Planni ...

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ) is the capital of and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, most-populous city in the Baltic states. The city's estimated January 2025 population w ...

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

and Kaliningrad –

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

. to Kimry – Sonkovo – Pestovo – St. Petersburg; to

Pskov Pskov ( rus, Псков, a=Ru-Псков.oga, p=psˈkof; see also Names of Pskov in different languages, names in other languages) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city in northwestern Russia and the administrative center of Pskov O ...

through Tver – Bologoe. The largest railway junction of Tver Oblast is located in Bologoye. Bologovskiy assembly includes five areas: Moscow, St. Petersburg, Pskov, Yaroslavl, and Great Luke. The narrow gauge railway of KSM-2 factory,

serves a factory of building materials No.2 in Tver.

Demographics

Population: Vital statistics for 2024: *Births: 8,064 (6.8 per 1,000) *Deaths: 19,758 (16.5 per 1,000) Total fertility rate (2024):
1.26 children per woman Life expectancy (2021):
Total — 67.87 years (male — 62.81, female — 73.04) Ethnic composition (2021): *

Russians Russians ( ) are an East Slavs, East Slavic ethnic group native to Eastern Europe. Their mother tongue is Russian language, Russian, the most spoken Slavic languages, Slavic language. The majority of Russians adhere to Eastern Orthodox Church ...

– 94.2% * Tajiks – 0.7% *

Armenians Armenians (, ) are an ethnic group indigenous to the Armenian highlands of West Asia.Robert Hewsen, Hewsen, Robert H. "The Geography of Armenia" in ''The Armenian People From Ancient to Modern Times Volume I: The Dynastic Periods: From Antiq ...

– 0.6% *

Ukrainians Ukrainians (, ) are an East Slavs, East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine. Their native tongue is Ukrainian language, Ukrainian, and the majority adhere to Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodoxy, forming the List of contemporary eth ...

– 0.6% *

Azerbaijanis Azerbaijanis (; , ), Azeris (, ), or Azerbaijani Turks (, ) are a Turkic peoples, Turkic ethnic group living mainly in the Azerbaijan (Iran), Azerbaijan region of northwestern Iran and the Azerbaijan, Republic of Azerbaijan. They are predomin ...

– 0.3% *

Tatars Tatars ( )Tatar
in the Collins English Dictionary are a group of Turkic peoples across Eas ...

– 0.3% * Karelians – 0.3% *Others – 3% *144,410 people were registered from administrative databases, and could not declare an ethnicity. It is estimated that the proportion of ethnicities in this group is the same as that of the declared group.

Religion

According to a 2012 survey, 30% of the population of Tver Oblast adheres to the

Russian Orthodox Church The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC; ;), also officially known as the Moscow Patriarchate (), is an autocephaly, autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodox Christian church. It has 194 dioceses inside Russia. The Primate (bishop), p ...

, 9% are unaffiliated generic

Christians A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the world. The words '' Christ'' and ''C ...

, and 1% are

Muslims Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

. In addition, 34% of the population declares to be " spiritual but not religious", 20% is atheist, and 5% follows other religions or did not give an answer to the question.

Tver Karelians

A branch of Karelians, known as

Tver Karelians Tver Karelians are a people who inhabit regions of Tver, Saint Petersburg, and Moscow. Their dialect is remarkable in that it does not borrow from other Balto-Finnic languages due to centuries of geographical isolation. Although the number of ...

, live in the oblast. They numbered 140,567 in 1926. Due to heavy casualties suffered during World War II, they vanished as a separate ethnic group from most parts of the oblast. The Tver Karelians numbered 14,633 according to the 2002 Census.Демоскоп Weekly — Приложение. – Weekly Demoscope – Application.

Culture

Bolshoe Zavidovo in Tver Oblast hosts Nashestvie, the largest festival of Russian rock, since 2009. Previously, in 2004–2008, it was hosted in Emmaus, also in Tver Oblast.

References

Sources

* *

External links

Official website of Tver Oblast
{{Use mdy dates, date=July 2012 States and territories established in 1935 1935 establishments in Russia