Yepifan () is an urban locality (a work settlement) in Kimovsky District of

Tula Oblast Tula Oblast () is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject (an Oblasts of Russia, oblast) of Russia. It is geographically located in European Russia and is administratively part of the Central Federal District, covering an area of . It has a ...

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 ...

, located on the left bank of the Don River about southeast of Kimovsk and southeast of Tula, in the proximity of the Kulikovo Field. Population: Yepifan was founded by Prince Ivan Mstislavsky (

Ivan the Terrible Ivan IV Vasilyevich (; – ), commonly known as Ivan the Terrible,; ; monastic name: Jonah. was Grand Prince of Moscow, Grand Prince of Moscow and all Russia from 1533 to 1547, and the first Tsar of all Russia, Tsar and Grand Prince of all R ...

's cousin) as a fort against the

Crimean Tatars Crimean Tatars (), or simply Crimeans (), are an Eastern European Turkic peoples, Turkic ethnic group and nation indigenous to Crimea. Their ethnogenesis lasted thousands of years in Crimea and the northern regions along the coast of the Blac ...

(see Great Abatis Border). The people of Yepifan supported Ivan Bolotnikov during the

Time of Troubles The Time of Troubles (), also known as Smuta (), was a period of political crisis in Tsardom of Russia, Russia which began in 1598 with the death of Feodor I of Russia, Feodor I, the last of the Rurikids, House of Rurik, and ended in 1613 wit ...

. The town was ravaged by Ivan Zarutsky and the Tatars on several occasions. The last Tatar raid on Yepifan was recorded in 1659.

Peter the Great Peter I (, ; – ), better known as Peter the Great, was the Sovereign, Tsar and Grand Prince of all Russia, Tsar of all Russia from 1682 and the first Emperor of Russia, Emperor of all Russia from 1721 until his death in 1725. He reigned j ...

intended to connect the Volga and the Don Rivers through a system of waterways and sluices centred on Yepifan. It soon became clear that the projected Ivanovsky Canal was not suitable for navigation, and the project of the Yepifan Admiralty was abandoned. Andrei Platonov wrote a novella on the subject. In the 19th century, Yepifan was the center of an '' uyezd'' famed for its annual fair. The Neoclassical cathedral of St. Nicholas was consecrated in 1850 and remains the settlement's most important landmark.

References

{{Authority control Yepifansky Uyezd Defunct towns in Russia Former cities in Russia Former urban-type settlements of Tula Oblast Populated places established in 1566