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🌊 Rzhev: The city of two rival banks

Friends, today we are traveling to the upper Volga, to one of the oldest cities in Central Russia. A place where the river not only divided the city, but separated two different worlds from each other over the course of centuries—two banks that rivaled each other for trade, influence, and even in matters of faith.

Welcome to Rzhev.

🏙️ Two cities, one river

Rzhev has been known since the 12th century and was one of the important settlements on the upper Volga. The river divided the city into two historic districts: the Knyaz-Fyodorovskaya side on the left bank and the Knyaz-Dmitrievskaya side on the right bank.

Each side had its own marketplaces, churches, moorings, and merchants’ quarters. Residents spoke of “our side” and “the other side”—the rivalry between the two banks was part of life in the city for a long time.

⛪ Faith as a dividing line

Another dividing line emerged as a result of the church schism of the 17th century. Old Belief gained considerable influence, particularly among Rzhev’s merchants.

Rzhev thus developed into one of the most important centers of the Old Believers in Tver Governorate. At the same time, the wealthy merchant class played a significant role in the city’s trade and social life.

The boundary between the two sides therefore ran not only along the Volga, but also between the different religious traditions that shaped the relationship between the city’s districts.

🌾 The wealth of the Volga

Prosperity came via the river. In the 19th century, Rzhev developed into a major center of the flax trade. Hemp, hemp yarn, ropes, and grain also played an important role.

Large quantities of goods were transported along the Volga, and in the 1870s Rzhev was one of the most important trading centers in Tver Governorate.

Merchants’ houses, churches, warehouses, and bustling moorings shaped the cityscape at that time.

🔥 The end of a world

Little of this historic Rzhev survives today. The heavy fighting for the city in 1942–1943 destroyed a large part of its buildings.

On March 3, 1943, the Red Army liberated the city.
Of the 5,443 residential buildings that had once stood there, reportedly only 297 remained after the liberation.

Old photographs of Rzhev, with its dense merchants’ quarters, numerous churches, and bustling moorings along the Volga, therefore look today almost like images of another city.


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📍 The coordinates of the location are available here

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