Cherepovets

General Information

Cherepovets is called in Russia a city with a rich past and great prospects for the future. It is situated in the Vologda oblast (130 Km or 81 MI off Vologda, 620 Km or 385 MI from Moscow and 475 Km or 295 MI from St. Petersburg). Its relative proximity to the biggest Russian cities, substantial economic potential and highly skilled labour made Cherepovets one of the most advanced industrial centres in Russia.

The history of the town dates back to the XVIIIth century. Empress Catherine II referred to it as the "town of Cherepovets" and ordered to "submit a plan of what she said town should be" in her decree in 1777.

Cherepovets always attracted travellers. A mentioning of Cherepovets is to be found in the travel notes of Prince Andrey Kurbsky in the year 1553.

Nikolay Nekrasov, the noted Russian poet, used some of the motifs that he saw here in his poem "Who Lives Well in Russia". Such famous Russian writers as Anton Chekhov and Gleb Uspensky wrote about the town, as did Anatoliy Subbotin, the essayist, who called Cherepovets "Northern Athens".

Historic Sites

In ancient times the Slavs settled at the places suitable for farming. They cultivated the land, hunted and went fishing. The Slavs were followed by Christian missionaries who became founding fathers of many northern monasteries and brought into being new cultural traditions. One of such monasteries sprouted up at the confluence of two rivers - the Sheksna and Yagorba. Later the city of Cherepovets grew on this spot.

As history annals say, the monastery emerged at the place where once a ship belonging to a Moscow merchant was nearly wrecked but miraculously survived. The merchant returned to the place a year after and raised a bellfry in the name of resurrection. Later the Resurrection monastery was built at the place where the action was said to have happened.

As years passed the monastery grew, acquired the lots, villages and settlements. The exact date of the monastery's appearance is unknown. It was first mentioned in the charter of Belozersk Prince Mikhail Andreevich in 1449. The legend states that it was founded by the monks Feodosy and Afanasy the Iron Crozier. The experts studied some documents and had every reason to suppose that the temple was erected in 1362. So the Resurrection Monastery is one of the oldest monastic seats in the North of Russia.

The monastery was ravaged and hit by flames several times. The entire structure was ruined in 1610 by Poles and Lithuanians. During this invasion the neighbouring villages were also destroyed. Only by the mid 17th century the Resurrection Monastery revived. Much effort was put into the restoration of it.

In 1721 stone construction began: the foundation of the stone temple was laid. Soon it became clear that the base was too big - the monastery could not afford it owing to the high cost of stone. The construction work was suspended. And only the year 1752 saw the erection of the Resurrection Church made of stone. The skilled craftsman Ivan Semyonov made new icons for the iconostasis. In 1758-1761 the Trinity Church was built. In 1764 the monastery was abolished and the churches were turned into parish ones. As soon as the city of Cherepovets was founded the Resurrection Church became a city temple. Only the building of this church was preserved, though not to its original appearance. Over the following centuries the church has been extensively reconstructed.

The original interior of it was not preserved. The murals on the walls and vaults were painted in 1851. They depicted Holy Week, the theme which was very popular at that time.

In spite of the reconstruction and damage, the Resurrection Church still remains a monument of stone church architecture in Cherepovets. The structure raised in 1752 remains the foundation of it, the vaults and arches remain intact, since the successive architects were faithful to the original plans.

Another point of interest historically is the Museum of Local Lore that was established in 1895. The history of the museum began with the collection of relics - a gift of the renowned scientist E.Barsov. The first organizers of the museum were a teacher of the local seminary N.Podvysotsky and A.Korovkin. The exhibits help the visitors to the city get to know the history of it. Here one can see the monuments left by the tribes who had lived on the banks of the Sheksna river before the Slavs appeared. The museum tells the story of the development of the region, paying particular attention to people's way of life in the preceding centuries. The museum boasts an element of interest - a small ivory icon set in silver - "Resurrection".

Another point of interest is a rich collection of early Russian painting that was accumulated mostly in the 1920-1930s, though some of the monuments were collected long before the Revolution times. Of the earlier works of Russian art to be found in the museum is the icon that depicts St. Nicholas and an image of the Virgin Odigitria on the reverse side. The portrayal of St.Nicholas dates back to the 14th century and the picture of the Virgin - to the 16th century. The icons are executed with great skill and are unique works of art reflecting the talent of the masters who created them.

Over the recent years the museum of local lore has displayed a number of works of art belonging to the brush of local painters of the 15-17th centuries. The Cherepovets icon painting developed subsequently, in close stylistic interconnection with the Novgorod, Tver and Rostov schools.

The collection of wooden sculptures also merits great attention. Among the exhibits are figures of flying angels and crosses. They date back to the 18th century and give a good idea of the Russian ecclesiastical plastic art.

The museum has a valuable collection of manuscripts and books published before the 18th century. The bulk of the exhibits was provided by the Resurrection Monastery, the Kirillo-Novozersky Monastery, neighbouring churches and country estates. One of the books from the Kirillo-Novozersky Monastery dates from the 17th century. It describes the life and posthumous "miracles" of Kirill Novozersky. The book contains over 50 miniatures depicting some views of the Kornilievo-Komelsky Monastery (Gryazovets district), the Kirillo-Novozersky Monastery and Kirill Novozersky himself in the background of the monastery.

Ancient garments executed with great skill are preserved in the museum. On display are distaffs, carved works and embroidery.

All the exhibits in the collection of the museum are in fact monuments of the history of the Russian state. At the same time they are unique works wrought by talented masters.

Industry

Many years have passed. Today, just as before, Cherepovets stands on the bank of the Sheksna that flows out of Beloe Lake and, together with other rivers - the Suda, the Yagorba, and the Yuzhok runs through the Lesser Sheksna Lowland. In its environs, plains alternate with hills, lakes with marshes, and spruce and pine forests with mixed ones. The climate still remains the same - temperate continental. The life of the city, however, has undergone quite a few changes, particularly so after World War II. The leadership of the former USSR decided to build a number of giant metalmaking and chemical facilities in Cherepovets.

"Peter the Great's dream and dictator Stalin's favourite idea has at last come true," one of the Western magazines, Engineering and Mining, wrote at the time. Four immense complexes were built. People came to work here from various places all over the country, some of them very remote. The city was given substantial funds for carrying on industrial construction and its share in the country's economy grew markedly, for it now produced metal not only for making sewing needles, but also for manufacturing spaceships, and the chemical fertilizers produced here helped increase harvests not only in the USSR, but also in quite a few countries of Eastern Europe.

Today there are two metalmaking giants in Cherepovets (Severstal and AO ChSPZ), two major chemical production associations (Ammophos and Azot) producing mineral fertilizers, sulphuric acid, ammonia, and urea.

Owing to its advantageous geographical situation the city found itself in the centre of the vast North-western oblast of the country. The city has convenient access to major Russian markets. Its extensive transport network includes a high-capacity railway junction, a well-ramified network of motor roads, and a big airport. Another factor ensuring to Cherepovets excellent business opportunities is its proximity to the Volga-Balt canal, one of the main routes in Russia, linking the Baltic Sea with the Volga basin. Thus, a thousand threads connect this generally recognized outpost of Russia's heavy industry with its various oblasts by air, land and water. In exchange for its products Cherepovets receives from its Russian partners apatites, ore concentrates and iron-rich pellets, coming from the Kola Peninsula, cooking coal, sent from the Pechora and Kuznetsk coal basins, and natural gas, supplied from the Volga area, the Republic of Komi and the Tyumen Oblast. The suppliers of raw materials are 315 to 3,400 kilometres from Cherepovets. The city is an active user of high technology and high-tech services and imports various equipment manufactured not only in Russia, but also in Western Europe.

The city's potential is not confined to the four industrial leaders of Cherepovets. It has also a number of relatively small light, food, woodworking and building materials enterprises, as well as rather big construction and logging and lumbering complexes. Ever greater attention is given in the city to the development of the private sector of the economy, in particular, medium and small-sized businesses. Their influence on the economic situation is constantly growing.