Описание (английский)
Cherepovets is a city in Vologda Oblast, Russia, located in the west of the oblast on the banks of the Sheksna River (a tributary of the Volga River) and on the shores of the Rybinsk Reservoir.
The foundation of Cherepovets is traditionally ascribed to two orthodox monks Feodosy and Afanasy. In 1362, they founded the Cherepovets Resurrection Monastery, in the vicinity of which a small village of Fedosyevo was founded. Historians consider the former village of Fedosyevo to be in the center of modern Cherepovets. It took several centuries to develop the small village into a prominent trade, manufacturing, and transportation regional center. Cherepovets was granted city status in 1777 by Catherine the Great and became the center of a separate uyezd in the administrative structure of the Novgorod Governorate.
Construction of Mariinsk canal system in 1810 year made a significant impact in development of the city. The Mariinsk Canal System connected Cherepovets with Volga river to the south and the Baltic Sea to the west. At that time, city was still in the very early stage of development with the population of 3000 residents by year 1863. For a long time the city brickworks with seven workers was the sole industrial enterprise in Cherepovets. The development of city became more dynamic after Emancipation Reform happened in 1861 and appearance of ship building industry. The city soon became a prominent shipbuilding and logistics center tying major regional rail- and water-ways.
The population had grown up to 10,000 mark by 1915. After the revolution, in March 1918 eastern uyezds of the Novgorod Governorate was renamed to separate Cherepovets Governorate centered around Cherepovets. The new governorate existed for less than ten years. In 1927 it was merged with Leningrad, Novgorod, Pskov and Murmansk Governorates into a single Leningrad Oblast. In September 1937 most of the former Cherepovets Governorate territories (with the exception of Tikhvin district) were transferred to the newly established Vologda Oblast. The subsequent development of the city is closely tied to the completion of construction Cherepovets metallurgy plant (now known as Severstal) in 1955, the second biggest in the country. Unlike the majority of the most important metallurgy centers in the former Soviet Union, the location of the future steel plant was selected far away from the actual mineral resources and deposits.
The reason for that was the logistic advantage of having well developed infrastructure that allowed to connect the north and northwest of the country by rail, road, and water ways into a single operation system. It connected such remote mining centers like Vorkuta and Olenegorsk, Murmansk Oblast. Rapid growth of industry center drastically changed the city, and by the early 1960s its population exceeded 100,000 residents (three times bigger than the pre-World War II population). By 1970 Cherepovets became the most populated city in Vologda Oblast.