Today are travel notes from the northeast of the Tver region.
The former Mikhailovo-Prudsky churchyard with two abandoned churches, the notorious Mologa river, the dying village of Dryutskovo near Bezhetsk and the abandoned Antoniev Krasnokholmsky monastery of the 15th century.

Local residents call these places Bezhetsky Verkh after the nearby city of Bezhetsk and the hill. The area is open - there are fewer forests than here, nowhere in the Tver region. There are no large cities either, there are many dying villages. You feel like you are somewhere in the Vologda or Kostroma wilderness.

1. The first stop is the village of Kuznetsovo near Rameshki on the Tver-Vesyegonsk highway. From a distance you can see the huge abandoned Trinity Church. It's amazing how much Lately life has changed - now it would be nice to have 100 people in the village, half of whom come here to their dacha in the summer, but once a huge church was in demand. Even two

2. Kuznetsovo - the former Mikhailovo-Prudsky churchyard with the Trinity and Kazan churches. Nowadays, local residents are trying to restore churches from the 19th century and hold services in them. However, in such cases they say “there are shepherds, but no flock.” Even if the churches are repaired, then for whom? For several dozen people, what do they live here? Obviously they are not all Orthodox. The revival of religion in the village is most likely a utopia. Like the NON-dacha village itself

3. The sun kept hiding and coming out. Bell of Trinity Church

6. Let's move on. The sources of the Mologa are located in these places. The same river that, during the construction of the Rybinsk reservoir, along with the Volga, flooded vast territories and the city of the same name

7. But in the Bezhetsk region the Mologa is not yet full of water

8. A little further along the highway is the village of Dryutskovo, where most of the plots are overgrown with hogweed. I noticed that in these places it was popular to attach barns directly to houses to save heat and keep livestock warm

9. The village once had a rare wooden Church of the Nativity of the Virgin. Now there are not even paths there, grass the size of a man and hogweed. On other sides everything is overgrown with forest.
The Soviet government closed this temple. The second one, the cemetery one, was destroyed and the cemetery was razed to the ground.
But the collective farm “Shining Path” appeared in the village. Exactly like in the comedy “The weather is good on Deribasovskaya..” Now, of course, the collective farm is dead

10. The houses are no more lucky; many will be gone in a few years.

We will pass Bezhetsk and Krasny Kholm, which require separate posts, and stop at the Anthony Kraskholm Monastery.

Although it is located right on the highway, few people know about the monastery.
It remains unclear why it has not been restored, like many others, because the monasteries are not scattered throughout the villages, churches, here the regional center is close and it is easier to find support from sponsors.

12. General view. Now there are farms on the territory of the monastery

13. The road to nowhere. The entrance gate is overgrown

14. Gate temples are destroyed

15. However, the ruins also look beautiful. Ascension Church

17. At first I thought that the builders wanted to make it look antique. It turned out there was nothing of the kind - this is St. Nicholas Cathedral of the 15th century

18. It looks like it was blown up. The altar wall collapsed

19. Paintings have been preserved inside

21. In our time, a cross was erected in memory of the monastery. About 20 years ago they tried to preserve the buildings from destruction, but nothing came of it. Why crowds of tourists are taken to some 15th-century churches, while others cannot even be restored, is an unanswerable question

, Muscovy, Russian Historical Dictionary, Udelnaya (Horde) Rus'

BEZHETSKY VERKH (Bezhichi) is an ancient Russian city of the 12th-17th centuries. (20 km north of modern Bezhetsk, Tver region). The first mention dates back to the end of the 12th century. The center of Bezhetskaya Pyatina (which was sometimes also called B. v.). In the 14th century object of struggle between Novgorod, Tver, Moscow; at the end of the 15th century. annexed to the Moscow State. Later - the village.

Bezhetsky top

Since ancient times, one of the most important trade routes through Novgorod to the center of the Russian land passed through Bezhetsky Verkh. The Bezhetskaya Upland serves as a watershed for the Northern Dvina and Volga rivers; the Mologa River with its tributaries, as well as tributaries of the Volga and Medveditsa rivers, originate on it. Already in the 12th century, our ancestors laid water trade routes through these places: the Mstinsko-Tver route along the rivers Msta, Mologa and Medveditsa - to the Volga region; along Mologa - to the north-west of Rus'.

Legendary information about this place dates back to the time of Gostomysl (early 9th century), when strife in Veliky Novgorod forced some of its inhabitants to flee the city and settle on the banks of the Mologa River. (The earliest settlements on this land were inhabited by Finno-Ugric tribes - Chud and Vepsians. Later they were joined by settlements of the Novgorod Slavs.) In the Novgorod chronicle it is written as follows - “the strife of the great people and the escape of many from death and disorder, hiding in remote and empty places of Novgorod possessions." The people who settled here began to be called Bezhichi, and their settlement began to be called Bezhichi (today this place is the village of Bezhetsy). Later, in the chronicles of the 12th century, this place began to be called Bezhetskaya Pyatina, since it was located on a hill and belonged to the possessions of Novgorod. The Novgorod land included five parts - “pyatin”: Votskaya, Shelonskaya, Obonezhskaya, Derevskaya and Bezhetskaya lands.

But, despite the fact that according to the chronicles Bezhetsk has been known as a city since the 12th century, according to legends, the Novgorodians built it already in the 10th century on the site of an ancient Novgorod town called Gorodetsko. The first mention of the fortified city of Gorodetsko at the confluence of the Mologa and Ostrechina rivers dates back to 1137 and earlier. Gorodetsko was part of the Novgorod lands and, having only earthen fortifications, suffered from raids first from the Lithuanians, and then from Tver and Muscovites.

In 1245, the Lithuanians raged in the Bezhetsk land: “ Lithuania fought near Torzhok and Bezhitsa...“But help arrived from Novgorod and defeated them and took away all the captured residents of Bezhetsky Verkh. After 1273, when the old settlement was destroyed by the Tver prince Svyatoslav Yaroslavich, the Novgorodians, according to historians, moved it 15 kilometers up the river, to the Gorodetsko fortress. And the fortress began to be called Gorodetsko in Bezhetsky Verkh. After the next Polish invasion, the city was destroyed, after which construction began on a more powerful wooden fortress with thirteen towers. This land was also subject to raids by the Tatars, who left their Baskaks here.

Kostygov S.Yu. - “Bezhetsky collection”

Bezhetsky Verkh was formed as a single economic unit in the first half of the 13th century. By this time, its territory and political affiliation were clearly defined. Five volosts were formed here, directly subordinate to the Novgorod administration. Until the middle of the 14th century. The exclusive secular and spiritual power of the Novgorod rulers was established. But the political power of Novgorod over Bezhetsky Verkh is not the only and not the main thing that connected the region with the Ilmen region.

Another ancestors of the Ilmen Slovenes in the 7th - 9th centuries. began active settlement of the basins of the Tvertsa, Medveditsa and Mologa rivers. Since then, people from the north-west of Rus' have persistently and consistently developed the lands of Bezhetsky Verkh, bringing here their language, traditions and rituals. Residual effects of these influences survived until the 19th century, when ethnographers clearly recorded Novgorod dialects, the so-called “tsokaniye”, as well as the ancient cut of clothing, dating back to the Novgorod tradition, in many areas of the Bezhetsk district. Finally, the culture of flax growing itself, so widely known in the region in the 18th - 19th centuries, came precisely from Novgorod.

One of the busiest and most significant trade routes from Novgorod to the lands of North-Eastern Russia passed through Bezhetsky Verkh. Along the Msta and further along the Mologa, Medveditsa and their tributaries it was possible to quickly get to almost any point in the Rostov-Suzdal principality, and at the same time it was the shortest route to Novgorod. Such a significant part of the Novgorod trade turnover was carried out through the Bezhetsky Verkh, especially in bread, that the suppression of trade in one way or another caused a sharp increase in bread prices in Novgorod and even the threat of famine. The Tver and Moscow princes often took advantage of this to put pressure on Novgorod. Military conquests of the Bezhetsk region in 1271, 1305, 1312, 1332. were a clear success, and the Novgorodians made concessions.

The presence of a busy trade route that passed through almost the entire region and the convenience of communications allowed the residents of Bezhetsky Verkh to actively engage in trade not only with Novgorod, but also with neighboring regions of the Volga region - especially since they were much closer than the Ilmen region. Close economic contacts should have led to the establishment of strong cultural and everyday ties with the Volga region. However, in the XIII - XIV centuries. this did not happen, since the political conflicts of Novgorod with the princes of North-Eastern Rus' forced the Novgorodians to artificially slow down the development of close ties of their border lands, in particular Bezhetsky Verkh, with their neighbors. This was done by legally isolating the border territories and giving them a special status to one degree or another. This was supposed to limit any attempts to penetrate these lands without the consent and control of the Novgorod authorities. This was especially evident in the agreements between Novgorod and Tver and Moscow in the 13th - 14th centuries.

Thus, in the XII - first half of the XIV centuries. the only region with which long-term, unhindered and closest contacts of the Bezhetsky Upper were carried out was Novgorod.

From the middle of the 13th century. The Tver princes are making attempts to penetrate Bezhetsky Verkh and subordinate it first to their political influence, and then to include it in the sphere of economic activity. Despite the fact that the proximity of Tver and Bezhetsky Verkh partly compensated for the lack of direct, convenient routes between them, and also despite the general similarity of the economic base (trade with the Volga region and Novgorod), close relations between Tver and Bezhetsky Verkh were not developed. At the turn of the XIII-XIV centuries. all types of connections with Novgorod in Bezhetsky Verkh were still quite strong. The artificial territorial exclusion and change of administrative power could not be painless for both sides. Hence the strong resistance of the Novgorodians and residents of Bezhetsky Verkh to attempts to penetrate the region of the Tver princes. This struggle can be partly traced through the Novgorod-Tver charters of 1264-1327. The methods by which the Tver princes tried to attract the inhabitants of the region were clearly not suitable for such a case. Forceful influence, capture and destruction of Bezhetsky Verkh by troops of Tver in 1272, 1305, 1312, 1371, 1372 and even in 1443-1445. could only cause among the inhabitants of the region an active rejection of everything Tver, which they rightly associated with violence and robbery. There is no other way to explain the fact that later, with changes in the political and economic situation, even in the border areas of Bezhetsky Verkh and Tver district, various contacts were very limited until the 18th century, and Tver was never an economic partner or authority for Bezhetsk in the field of culture and traditions.

Undoubtedly, the attempts of the Moscow princes in the 14th - 15th centuries were more successful. include Bezhetsky Verkh in its sphere of influence. But these attempts were largely one-sided and, therefore, ineffective. But refugees viewed contacts with Moscow more favorably than with Tver. However, Moscow and the Moscow Principality initially lay outside the sphere of economic interests of the Bezhetsky Upper Region and did not have convenient routes of communication with it, primarily waterways. The population of these regions was distinguished by cultural and everyday traditions.

The sharp decline of Tver and the simultaneous rise of Moscow led to significant changes in the political situation in North-Eastern Russia in the middle of the 14th century. During this period, Novgorod began to gradually lose its former political and economic authority, and therefore began to weaken control over its own vast possessions, especially in the border zone. At the same time, the residents of Bezhetsky Verkh begin to be burdened by the strict control that existed over them and the restrictions on commercial activity. The result of this was the acquisition by Moscow of the right to jointly manage Bezhetsky Verkh with Novgorod. At the same time, through profitable land acquisitions Moscow practically surrounds Bezhetsky Verkh with its possessions: Uglich, Ustyuzhna, Beloozero.

With the weakening of Novgorod control, residents of Bezhetsky Verkh begin to conduct more active independent economic activities and are looking for new trading partners. Relations with the cities of the Volga region are reaching a new level: Uglich, Ustyuzhnaya, Mologa, Yaroslavl, Kostroma. Strengthening economic ties with the Volga centers while weakening political opposition to them on the part of Novgorod served as the reason for the rapid inclusion of Bezhetsky Verkh in the sphere of economic activity of Moscow, which owned almost all of the listed cities. She became a catalyst for this process, uniting under her political power Volga region centers and Bezhetsky Verkh. The residents of Bezhetsk even took part in military campaigns organized by the Moscow princes against Novgorod, the former main political and trading partner of the Bezhetsky Upper. In 1386

The army of refugees ends up in the army of Dmitry Donskoy during his campaign to Novgorod. It is curious that the reason for this campaign was the desire of the Moscow prince to punish the Novgorodians for their frequent robberies on the Volga and the devastation of Yaroslavl and Kostroma. Isn’t this fact what inspired the refugees to take just revenge? One way or another, the growing cooperation with the Volga cities contributed to the speedy entry of the Bezhetsk Region into the unified economic system of the future all-Russian state, in which Moscow was assigned the role of political leader. In cultural, everyday and especially economic terms, Moscow remained distant and alien for refugees for a long time.

The final formation of the Russian centralized state pushed the factor of political affiliation, which determines economic, cultural, and other types of regional ties, into the background. But new Administrative division to a certain extent took into account the external orientation of certain areas and thereby contributed to their development and consolidation. Bezhetsky Verkh becomes a district of the Moscow state, while maintaining the power of the Novgorod ruler. Church subordination to Novgorod apparently turned out to be so strong that it remained until the end of the 18th century. Otherwise, Bezhetsky Verkh clearly did not develop contacts in the northwestern direction. But connections with the cities of the Volga region constantly increased.

In the second half of the 15th century. In Bezhetsky Verkh, the formation of a vast estate of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery begins around the village of Priseki. By the end of the next century, it becomes one of the largest and most economically developed regions, while at the same time the no less powerful Prilutsk estate is being formed in the Uglitsky district. The mechanism of the administrative and economic organization of these possessions, the legal status, and the significance in the economic life of the monastery were so similar that the closest contacts were established between them, which is confirmed by numerous documents of the 15th-16th centuries. Of course, the entire district inevitably had to be drawn to such large and developed formations as the Prisetsk and Prilutsk estates; they largely determined life in their districts. This naturally strengthened the ties between Bezhetsky Verkh and Uglich. Moreover, in the second half of the 15th century. Bezhetsky Verkh ended up with Uglich as part of the same fief and was governed directly from this Volga city, which tied the two regions even more closely to each other. Subsequently, the administrative dependence of Bezhetsk district on Uglich only emphasized the strengthened connection between these regions. At the end

XVI century Bezhetsky district was included in the Uglitsky inheritance of the young Tsarevich Dmitry and his mother Maria Fedorovna. And throughout the entire 18th century, Bezhetsky Verkh was part of the Uglitsky province. Despite the geographical proximity of Bezhetsk and Uglich, the journey along Mologa and the Volga was very long and therefore inconvenient. Already at the beginning of the 16th century. a direct land route is being formed from Uglich to Bezhetsky Verkh through Kashin. At the beginning of the 17th century. According to the census conducted by clerk Kutuzov in Gorodetsko (Bezhetsk), it is clear that the central, oldest street of the city is called nothing less than Bolshaya Uglitskaya Road. The establishment of a strong land route, which significantly shortened the distances between regions, approximately the same standard of living and economic development, and close economic ties contributed to the migration of population from one region to another. It is curious that among the modern residents of Bezhetsk and the region there are many who have relatives in the Uglitsky region or were even born there themselves. These are mainly representatives of the older generation - 50 years or more. For example, old-timers in the villages of Mikhalikha, Krupskoye, and Zakrupye in the Bezhetsky district recalled that in the 30s, fleeing forced collectivization, many families from this rural area were forced to move to distant relatives in the Uglitsky district.

In addition to Uglich, other Volga cities were also included in the sphere of close economic contacts of the Bezhetsky Verkh. So, in the XV-XVI centuries. Guests from Uglich, Yaroslavl, Kostroma, and Ustyuzhna gathered at the famous Vesyegonsk fair. The centers of the north-west - Pskov and Novgorod - did not remain in oblivion. Later, in the 17th century, their colleagues from Tver, Kashin, Moscow and the cities near Moscow appeared among the trading partners of the refugee merchants. Kashin, by the way, was one of the first centers of the former Tver principality, which already in the 16th century. became a trading partner of Bezhetsk. This happened solely due to the close ties between Bezhetsky Verkh and Uglich. The Kashin residents conducted active trade on the Volga, where they inevitably encountered refugees. And the road from Bezhetsk to Uglich passed through Kashin. So there was no point in ignoring him.

In the 16th century There is a short-term strengthening of trade relations with Ustyuzhnaya Zhelezopolskaya. In any case, for the residents of the northern volosts of Bezhetsk district, they played a decisive role. The road that ran from Uglich through Bezhetsky Verkh ended there. However, contacts between the Bezhetsky Verkh and Ustyuzhnaya did not reach a higher level than just commercial ties. Probably, Ustyuzhna, which was a fairly large trading center, had longer-term and stronger ties with Uglich, and Bezhetsky Verkh found itself in the role of a secondary partner.

Yaroslavl and Kostroma, despite the high level of economic and social development, remained just trading partners of Bezhetsky Verkh, albeit very reliable ones. Commercial ties between these regions and Bezhetsk can be traced over five centuries, starting from the 15th century.

The relationship between Bezhetsky Verkh and Uglich extended to the cultural and everyday sphere. At the end of the 16th century. The widow Tsarina Maria Feodorovna gives the Vvedensky Monastery in Gorodetsko an icon of the holy warrior Uar. The day of remembrance of this saint fell on the birthday of Tsarevich Dmitry. This explains the very wide spread of the cult of this little-known saint in Rus' in Uglich during the years of Mary Nagaya’s life there with her son Dmitry. Close contacts with Uglich contributed to the acquaintance of refugees with this cult, and it quickly took root in Bezhetsky Verkh. In Gorodetsko on the day of remembrance of St. War (October 19, old style) until the beginning of the 20th century. was committed procession and a solemn service in the Vvedenskaya Church. There was a donated icon there, which the refugees considered miraculous, healing children. Suffering people from all over near and far flocked to worship her. Images of Saint Huar were also found in other churches in the city.

In 1704, a small and rather modestly-architected Church of the Exaltation of the Cross was built in Bezhetsk. But in its decor traces of the influence of the “Naryshkin baroque” are clearly visible, and not in its Moscow version, but in the Yaroslavl one. The stone patterns of the platbands, the design of the northern and southern gates, the zakomari - all this is very similar to the decor of the Church of St. John Chrysostom in Yaroslavl. It is possible that Yaroslavl architects also took part in the construction of the Church of the Exaltation of the Cross.

The architecture of Bezhetsk was influenced by Moscow traditions to a greater extent than by Yaroslavl or Uglitsky ones. But this is more pressure from the capital than a natural acceptance of the Moscow style. In 1610, Moscow architect Ivan Filippov arrived in Gorodetsko to build a new fortress. Unfortunately, the Kremlin he built was wooden and at the end of the 18th century. due to dilapidation and uselessness, it was dismantled. In 1680-1682. The first stone structures of Bezhetsk are erected - the Vvedensky Church and the bell tower of the Vvedensky Monastery. They were built at the expense of a prominent nobleman, a close relative of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, Duma boyar Semyon Zaborovsky. Such an influential customer attracted the best capital craftsmen to the construction. We do not know their names, but the bell tower that has survived to this day allows us to judge the talent of these architects, who built a building in Bezhetsk in the best traditions of hipped-roof architecture, so widespread in Moscow architecture of the 17th century. The iconostasis of the Vvedensky Church was made by the outstanding master Simon Ushakov, although Bezhetsk has long had its own icon painting tradition.

But Moscow’s influence was limited to this. The main regions of the economic, political, cultural and everyday orientation of the Bezhetsky Upper region remained until the beginning of the 18th century. cities of the near Volga region with a distinct center of Uglich. With the beginning of the 18th century and changes in the general domestic and foreign policy of Russia, the old traditional economic, commercial and cultural centers, especially in the internal regions of the country, began to gradually decline, giving way to new ones with powerful potential energy for development. From this moment on, the reorientation of Bezhetsky Verkh to new, more promising regions begins.

Bezhetsk - a city (since 1137) in Russia, the administrative center of the Bezhetsky district of the Tver region.

Population - 22,717 people. (2015), the city area is 17 km².

The name “Bezhetsk” probably comes from “bezh” - refugees, fugitives. According to legend, the village of Bezhichi was founded by refugees from Novgorod.

The village of Bezhichi, located 20 km north of the modern city, is mentioned in the Novgorod chronicle since 1137 as Bezhetsky Verkh - the center of the Bezhetsk Pyatina of the Novgorod land, although archaeological finds suggest that it arose much earlier. The village was devastated in 1272 by the Tver prince Svyatoslav Yaroslavich, after which the center of the region was moved to the Gorodetsk fortress on the site of modern Bezhetsk.

At the end of the 14th century, it became part of the Moscow Principality, and from 1433 it found its own prince - Dmitry Yuryevich the Red, grandson of Dmitry Donskoy. Mentioned in the chronicle “List of Russian cities near and far.” Until 1766 it was called Gorodetsk; it became a city in 1775. From 1796 (until 1929) - the center of the Bezhetsk district of the Tver province. In 1876, a railway passed through the city; at the end of the 19th century, the city was a major flax trading center. In 1929, the city became the center of the Bezhetsky district and the Bezhetsky district of the Moscow region.
In 1935-1990 - a city of regional subordination and the center of the Kalinin region district.

Bezhetsk - one of the oldest cities in the Tver region. It was first mentioned in 1137 in the charter of the Novgorod prince Svyatoslav.

Initially the settlement was called Bezhichi. The name of the settlement comes from its inhabitants - refugees from Novgorod, the Ilmen Slavs. Numerous monuments testify to this. ancient culture and everyday life found during archaeological excavations.

In the 13th century, the Bezhetsky region was subjected to devastating raids by Tatar hordes. Tradition says that in the village of Alabuzin in the winter of 1238 there was a camp of Khan Batu. The region was also subjected to raids by Lithuanian conquerors. The chronicle tells about it this way: “Lithuania was at war near Torzhok and Bezhitsa, and the Novotorzhians with Prince Yaroslav Vladimirovich chased after them and fought with them.”

But it was not only hordes of foreign enslavers who ravaged the local region. The internecine wars of the princes of Tver, Novgorod and Moscow also caused damage to it. So, in 1272, as a result of the raid of the Tver prince Svyatoslav Yaroslavich, Bezhichi was defeated and turned into a pile of ruins.

In the 14th century, another settlement became the center of the region - the Gorodetsko fortress, located on the high steep banks of Mologa and Pokhvala, later called Badov Stream. Protected from the north by deep ravines and from the east by impenetrable swampy forest, the fortress was safer for the stay of the governor of Novgorod.

The Novgorod princes wanted to maintain their power over the refugee lands at all costs. They were attracted here by loamy soils suitable for growing flax, many rivers and lakes rich in fish, and dense forests in which there were many animals. Important trade routes from Novgorod to Persia, Turkey, and Bulgaria passed through the refugee lands.

In 1332, Moscow prince Ivan Kalita captured the refugee lands, but Veliky Novgorod bought them back. In 1397, the Bezhetsk region finally came into the possession of the Moscow princes. They did not conduct extensive trade, like the Novgorodians, and the importance of the region - the main supplier of fish, furs and other goods - fell sharply. His lands during this period belonged to princes and boyars, and later to monasteries.

Gorodetsko was not much different from an ordinary village. All buildings were wooden. Only in 1680 the first stone building appeared - the bell tower of the Vvedensky Monastery. It has survived to this day and is registered with the state as a monument to ancient Russian tent architecture.

In 1766 Gorodetsko was renamed Bezhetsk. In “Topographic News of the Academy of Sciences for 1772” it is said about the then city that it “was built on one right side of Mologa. It was formerly fenced with a wooden wall, ditches on two sides, a deep stream on the third, and the bank of the Mologa River on the fourth. The measures contained 460 fathoms in circumference, but now the walls have rotted and the ditches have swollen. Inside the city there are two parishes and churches, and two wooden ones.”

In 1777, the first schools appeared in Bezhetsk: theological - for the children of the clergy and primary - for the children of merchants and rich townspeople. The city had seven drinking houses, 152 shops, a windmill; two wax factories, a malt factory and four brick factories constituted its industry.

In the second half of the 18th century, a new part of the city arose - the Invalid Side. Difficult, lasting a quarter of a century military service turned many recruits into disabled people. Disabled soldiers who had completed their service found refuge in monasteries. By decree of Catherine II, monasteries were released from the obligation to support disabled people, and land plots began to be allocated from small towns for their settlement. 200 disabled people were assigned to Bezhetsk. They lived in barracks. The settlement had its own department of disabled officers, its own headquarters. Since then, the name Headquarters has been assigned to this part of the city.

In 1876, a railroad passed through the city. It revived trade and boosted the economy. From Bezhetsk to St. Petersburg, to the cities of the Volga region and abroad along railway they began to send agricultural products, and above all the famous Bezhet flax. Representatives of trading companies from France, England, and Germany appeared in the city. Bezhetsk is turning into a center of trade for a number of neighboring counties.

Small enterprises for processing agricultural raw materials, several brick factories and wine factories - this is all the industry that existed in the city at the beginning of the 20th century. A quarter of the population of the county was engaged in local and waste trade in order to somehow make ends meet and feed themselves.

The news of the victory of the socialist revolution came to Bezhetsk on October 27, 1917. However, the zemstvo government, which was in the hands of the Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries, stubbornly resisted the establishment of Soviet power in the city and district. The final transfer of power into the hands of the Soviets occurred only on December 15, 1917. A bureau of the Bolshevik Party was organized, headed by administrative commissar Pyotr Filippovich Skvortsov. The bureau included B.P. Machulsky-Kisel, P.F. Fedorov, N.S. Gusarov, D.I. Loginov and other active participants in the establishment of Soviet power. On behalf of the bureau, P. F. Skvortsov organized a detachment of the Red Guard.

The IV Extraordinary District Congress of Soviets, which opened on January 20, 1918, decided to put an end to the subversive work of the zemstvo government. A delegation led by Skvortsov was sent to the zemstvo congress. Skvortsov's speech was interrupted by insulting shouts and shots were fired. Skvortsov was villainously killed, and the counter-revolutionaries, fearing just punishment, cowardly fled. The city's communists had to wage a brutal struggle against anarchists, kulaks and deserters.

In July 1918 he was elected new line-up district executive committee, which included M. S. Chudov, D. I. Loginov, V. A. Alekseev and others. On January 5, 1919, the first issue of the newspaper, called “Revolutionary Banner,” was published in Bezhetsk.
In honor of the fighters for the people's happiness who died during the revolution, an obelisk was erected on May 1 Square.

During the years of Soviet power, Bezhetsk turned into a city with developed industry and agriculture. A mechanical plant was created on the basis of small weapons workshops, producing auto repair equipment and consumer goods. In 1927, at the All-Union Exhibition, the plant was awarded a gold medal for the production of high-quality instruments. In 1929-1930 The mechanical plant carried out an honorable order for the production of spare parts for tractors produced by the Putilov plant. In those years, new buildings rose in the wetlands. Since 1933, after reconstruction, the plant began to produce auto garage equipment and devices, receiving a new name - “Garo”.

In 1945, on a vacant lot called Shelomen, the buildings of Bezhetskselmash grew up. This is the only enterprise in our country that produces flax harvesters, flax hoe and other machines necessary for the comprehensive mechanization of flax growing. Equipped with high-performance equipment, the plant is the largest in the city. Machines manufactured in Bezhetsk work not only in the fields of our country, but also in Czechoslovakia, Poland, Bulgaria and other countries.

In 1963: at the international Leipzig fair, the LK-4M flax harvester was awarded a gold medal and a 1st degree diploma. In 1966, at the International Exhibition of Modern Machines in Moscow, the plant's products were awarded four gold medals for their high scientific and technical level, originality of solution and efficiency in production and operation. The flax pulverizer produced by the Bezhetsky plant was awarded the State Quality Mark.

Near the enterprise a whole city has grown up with bright multi-storey buildings, schools, dispensaries, a hospital, a Palace of Culture, and shops.

A garment factory, a meat processing plant, a reinforced concrete structures plant, a pilot plant and a mechanical repair plant were built in Bezhetsk. The products of the pilot plant greatly contribute to the mechanization of production processes at such giants of domestic agricultural engineering as the Chelyabinsk, Volgograd, Minsk and Lipetsk tractor plants.

Rural eastern suburb of Zhokhovo.

Annunciation Convent.

Big street.

View of Bolshaya Street from Torgovaya Square.

Boulevard.

Vvedensky Temple.

Bell tower of the Vvedensky Church.

View from the side of the sand pit at the Annunciation Monastery.

View of the Annunciation Monastery from the bank of the Ostrechina River.

View of Vvedensky Lane with the Bezhetsky School from the Vvedensky Church.

City school.

Graduates of the Bezhetsk Real School.

View of a state-owned winery on the opposite bank of the Ostrechina River.

Bridge over the Ostrechina River.

State-owned winery and warehouse.

View of Postoyalaya Street from Torgovaya Square.

View of the central part of the city, of the Trinity, St. John the Theologian churches, Kazan and Resurrection cathedrals.

View of the central part of the Headquarters district from the bridge over the Mologa River.

View from the railway station.

View of the Ostrechina River and the station.

View of Rozhdestvensky Lane with the Church of the Nativity on Rozhdestvenskaya Square.

View from the opposite bank of the Mologa River to the Trinity (left) and St. John the Theologian churches, the central part of the city.

View from the shopping area to the Kazan and Resurrection Cathedrals.

View of Kashinskaya street, in perspective - Kazan Cathedral.

Train station Bezhetsk station.

Territories Bezhetsky, Vesyegonsky, Kesovogorsky, Krasnokholmsky, Lesnoy Molokovsky, Sandovsky, Sonkovsky districts.
Potential opportunities. Creation of various forms of family hospitality and tourism business based on the rich historical, cultural and natural base of the territory of “Bezhetsky Verkh”.
Cultivation and promotion of local modular centers of family hospitality to serve a variety of tourist routes: sports (ski and water), cultural, historical and ethnographic, commercial (hunting, fishing, mushroom and berry picking), agricultural.
Formation of a unique resort in the single water area of ​​the Rybinsk reservoir, the vast water spaces of which (the total area of ​​the reservoir is 4550 sq. km) create excellent conditions for the massive development of active types of tourism, extreme sports (yachting, jet skiing, surfing, kiting, water skiing), sports and amateur fishing.
Construction of the “Shelter of Poets” theme park, occupying the territory of the Slepnevo estate, which belonged to N.N.’s mother. Gumilyov.
Land market. It is possible to purchase land plots on the primary and secondary markets at reasonable prices.

CENTERS OF TOURIST AND BUSINESS GRAVITY
Bezhetsk
The historical center of administrative and political formation as part of first Veliky Novgorod, and then the centralized Russian state, called Bezhetsky Verkh in the 12th-16th centuries.
Vesyegonsk
The northernmost city of the Tver region. A village called Egonskaya Ves stood on the Mologa, 75 km from its confluence with the Volga in the middle of the 15th century. In 1776, by decree of Catherine II, Vesyegonsk became a city.
Hradnice
At the beginning of the 20th century, 15 versts from Bezhetsk in Slepnevo there was an estate that belonged to the mother of the poet N.N. Gumilyov. In the period from 1911 to 1925, being married to a poet, Anna Akhmatova often stayed here for a long time. Here, in my grandmother’s house, the prominent Russian historian and philosopher Lev Gumilyov grew up. In the 30s, the Gumilevs' house was moved to Gradnitsa. On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of A. A. Akhmatova, a memorial exhibition was opened there, telling about the refugee pages of the life of the Gumilev family.
Rybinsk Reservoir
The flooding of the low-lying Mologo-Sheksninsky interfluve and the formation of the Rybinsk reservoir was completed by 1947. The surface area of ​​the reservoir was 4550 sq. km. It is one of the recognized centers of extreme tourism, yachting and fishing. Fishing goes on all year round - pike perch, catfish, perch, burbot, pike, roach, bluegill. The rivers flowing into the reservoir are known for the spring movement of large “sea” roach, blue bream and bream.
Sandovo
One of the beekeeping centers in the Tver region. More than 100 residents are engaged in beekeeping here. A bee museum has been created in the village, where you can visit honey and mead tasting.