Rzhev is a town in Tver Oblast

Tver Oblast

Tver Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . Its administrative center is the city of Tver. From 1935 to 1990, it was named Kalinin Oblast after Mikhail Kalinin. Population: Tver Oblast is an area of lakes, such as Seliger and Brosno...

, Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

, 49 kilometres (30.4 mi) southwest of Staritsa

Staritsa

Staritsa is a town and the administrative center of Staritsky District of Tver Oblast, Russia, located on the Volga River, from Tver. Population: -History:...

 and 126 kilometres (78.3 mi) from Tver

Tver

Tver is a city and the administrative center of Tver Oblast, Russia. Population: 403,726 ; 408,903 ;...

, on the highway and railway connecting Moscow

Moscow

Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

 and Riga

Riga

Riga is the capital and largest city of Latvia. With 702,891 inhabitants Riga is the largest city of the Baltic states, one of the largest cities in Northern Europe and home to more than one third of Latvia's population. The city is an important seaport and a major industrial, commercial,...

. It is the uppermost town situated on the Volga River

Volga River

The Volga is the largest river in Europe in terms of length, discharge, and watershed. It flows through central Russia, and is widely viewed as the national river of Russia. Out of the twenty largest cities of Russia, eleven, including the capital Moscow, are situated in the Volga's drainage...

. Population:

It was home to Rzhev air base

Rzhev (air base)

Rzhev is an air base in Tver Oblast, Russia located 5 km east of Rzhev. It was a Tupolev Tu-128 depot airfield during the Cold War, operated by BKhAT . The airfield also had an interceptor role during the 1960s and 1970s with the 23 IAP flying Sukhoi Su-9 jets...

 and Bakhmutovo

Bakhmutovo

Bakhmutovo was an air base in Tver Oblast, Russia located 18 km northwest of Rzhev. It was probably abandoned in 1970s; a treeline of forest surrounds the former airfield....

 air base during the Cold War.

Rzhev rivals Toropets

Toropets

Toropets is a town and the administrative center of Toropetsky District of Tver Oblast, Russia, located where the Toropa River enters Lake Solomeno. Population: -History:...

 as the oldest town in the region. Rzhevians usually point out that their town is mentioned in the Novgorod

Novgorod Republic

The Novgorod Republic was a large medieval Russian state which stretched from the Baltic Sea to the Ural Mountains between the 12th and 15th centuries, centred on the city of Novgorod...

 laws as early as 1019. Their neighbors from Toropets, on the other hand, give more credence to Rzhev's first mention in a major chronicle under 1216, when it was in possession of Mstislav the Bold

Mstislav the Bold

Mstislav Mstislavich the Bold was one of the most popular and active princes of Kievan Rus' in the decades preceding Mongol invasion of Rus. He was the maternal grandfather of Alexander Nevsky and the prince Leo of Galicia....

, Prince of Toropets. Whatever the truth may be, it is clear that medieval Rzhev was bitterly contested by three regional powers—the Republic of Novgorod, the Princedom of Smolensk

Smolensk

Smolensk is a city and the administrative center of Smolensk Oblast, Russia, located on the Dnieper River. Situated west-southwest of Moscow, this walled city was destroyed several times throughout its long history since it was on the invasion routes of both Napoleon and Hitler. Today, Smolensk...

, and the Grand Princedom of Vladimir-Suzdal

Vladimir-Suzdal

The Vladimir-Suzdal Principality or Vladimir-Suzdal Rus’ was one of the major principalities which succeeded Kievan Rus' in the late 12th century and lasted until the late 14th century. For a long time the Principality was a vassal of the Mongolian Golden Horde...

.

Following the Mongol invasion, Rzhev passed to a lateral branch of the Smolensk dynasty, which made the town its capital. Later the princes divided the town in two parts, which are still called the Prince-Dmitry's Side and Prince-Theodor's Side. In the mid-14th century, they had a hard time repelling attacks from Algirdas

Algirdas

Algirdas was a monarch of medieval Lithuania. Algirdas ruled the Grand Duchy of Lithuania from 1345 to 1377, which chiefly meant monarch of Lithuanians and Ruthenians...

 of Lithuania

Lithuania

Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...

 and Grand Princes of Tver, who bought all the villages around the town. Finally, they left for Moscow, where their descendants (the Rzhevsky family) have become comic characters of many an anecdote. In the meantime, the town was occupied for a short space by Tver, Poland-Lithuania

Poland-Lithuania

Poland–Lithuania can refer to:* Polish–Lithuanian union from 1385 until 1569* Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth from 1569 until 1795See also: Polish-Lithuanian...

, and finally by Muscovy.

In the 18th century, local merchants, mainly of Old Believer confession, brought a great measure of prosperity to the town. This was disrupted by the Russian Revolution

Russian Revolution of 1917

The Russian Revolution is the collective term for a series of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which destroyed the Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Soviet Union. The Tsar was deposed and replaced by a provisional government in the first revolution of February 1917...

 and the bloody and inconclusive Battles of Rzhev

Battles of Rzhev

Rzhev Battles is a general term for a series of World War II offensives launched during January 8, 1942—March 31, 1943 by the Soviet Red Army in the general directions of Rzhev, Sychevka and Vyazma against a German salient in the vicinity of Moscow, known as the "Rzhev meat grinder" for...

 (1942) which all but wiped out the town. More than one sixth of the population was sent off to forced labor in Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 during the Nazi

Nazism

Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...

 occupation and some 9,000 citizens were shot, starved or tortured to death in a concentration camp set up in the center of town.

"In the town of Rzhev there is a concentration camp with fifteen thousand captured Red Army soldiers in it and five thousand civilians," noted a smuggled report of December 1941. "They are holding them in unheated huts, and they feed them one or two frozen potatoes each a day. The Germans threw rotten meat and some bones through the barbed wire at the prisoners. This had made them ill. Every day 20-30 people are dying. The ones who are too ill to work are shot." (Ivan's War by Catherine Merridale - quote from the Center for the Documentation of Contemporary History, Smolensk Oblast)

Almost no old architecture survived the ravages of the Second World War

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

.

Rzhev has been hard hit by an outbreak of hepatitis A

Hepatitis A

Hepatitis A is an acute infectious disease of the liver caused by the hepatitis A virus , an RNA virus, usually spread the fecal-oral route; transmitted person-to-person by ingestion of contaminated food or water or through direct contact with an infectious person...

 associated with breakdown of sewage treatment

Sewage treatment

Sewage treatment, or domestic wastewater treatment, is the process of removing contaminants from wastewater and household sewage, both runoff and domestic. It includes physical, chemical, and biological processes to remove physical, chemical and biological contaminants...

 and water purification

Water purification

Water purification is the process of removing undesirable chemicals, materials, and biological contaminants from contaminated water. The goal is to produce water fit for a specific purpose...

 facilities. Vaccination

Vaccination

Vaccination is the administration of antigenic material to stimulate the immune system of an individual to develop adaptive immunity to a disease. Vaccines can prevent or ameliorate the effects of infection by many pathogens...

 is advised for travelers and is being given to workers in the food catering industry.

Rzhev produces most of the crane

Crane (machine)

A crane is a type of machine, generally equipped with a hoist, wire ropes or chains, and sheaves, that can be used both to lift and lower materials and to move them horizontally. It uses one or more simple machines to create mechanical advantage and thus move loads beyond the normal capability of...

s used in constructing apartment buildings and shopping mall

Shopping mall

A shopping mall, shopping centre, shopping arcade, shopping precinct or simply mall is one or more buildings forming a complex of shops representing merchandisers, with interconnecting walkways enabling visitors to easily walk from unit to unit, along with a parking area — a modern, indoor version...

s in Moscow.

Twin towns/sister cities

Rzhev is twinned

Town twinning

Twin towns and sister cities are two of many terms used to describe the cooperative agreements between towns, cities, and even counties in geographically and politically distinct areas to promote cultural and commercial ties.- Terminology :...

 with: Katrineholm

Katrineholm

Katrineholm is a locality and the seat of Katrineholm Municipality, Södermanland County, Sweden with 21,386 inhabitants in 2005.-Early history:The name Katrineholm comes from a ducal residence with this name, after Catherina Gyllenhorn who lived there...

, Sweden

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

 Salo, Finland

Salo, Finland

Salo is a town and municipality of Finland.It is located in the province of Western Finland and is part of the Finland Proper region. The municipality has a population of and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is ....

 Legionowo

Legionowo

Legionowo is a town in Masovia . According to the 2004 Census estimate the town has a total population of 50,759.Legionowo is located ca. 23 km to the north-east of the center of Warsaw and only 7 km to the south of Zegrze Reservoir , near the Warsaw-Gdańsk railroad and Warsaw-Suwałki...

, Poland Kovel

Kovel

Kovel is a city located in the Volyn Oblast , in northwestern Ukraine. Serving as the administrative center of the Kovelskyi Raion , the city itself is also designated as a separate raion within the oblast. The current estimated population is around 65,777.Kovel gives its name to one of the...

, Ukraine Silistra

Silistra

Silistra is a port city of northeastern Bulgaria, lying on the southern bank of the lower Danube at the country's border with Romania. Silistra is the administrative centre of Silistra Province and one of the important cities of the historical region of Southern Dobrudzha...

, Bulgaria Gütersloh

Gütersloh

Gütersloh is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, in the area of Westphalia and the administrative region of Detmold. Gütersloh is the administrative centre for a district of the same name and has a population of 96,320 people.- Geography :...

, Germany