Tver is a city and the administrative center of
Tver OblastTver 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...
,
RussiaRussia 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...
. Population: 403,726 (2010 Census preliminary results); 408,903 (
2002 CensusRussian Census of 2002 was the first census of the Russian Federation carried out on October 9 through October 16, 2002. It was carried out by the Russian Federal Service of State Statistics .-Resident population:...
);
Tver, which is north of
MoscowMoscow 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...
, was formerly the capital of a powerful medieval state and a model provincial town in the
Russian EmpireThe Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
, with a population of 60,000 on January 14, 1913. It is situated at the
confluenceConfluence, in geography, describes the meeting of two or more bodies of water.Confluence may also refer to:* Confluence , a property of term rewriting systems...
of the
VolgaThe 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...
and
Tvertsa RiverTvertsa is a river in the Tver Oblast in Russia, a left tributary of the Volga River. The Starotveretsky Canal is considered Tvertsa's riverhead, which connects the river with the Vishnevolotskoye Reservoir. The latter drains up to 80% of its water from the Tsna River into the Tvertsa...
s. The city was known as
Kalinin from 1931 to 1990.
Medieval origins
The first written record of Tver is dated 1135. Originally a minor settlement of
NovgorodThe 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...
ian traders, it passed to the Grand Prince of
VladimirVladimir is a city and the administrative center of Vladimir Oblast, Russia, located on the Klyazma River, to the east of Moscow along the M7 motorway. Population:...
in 1209. In 1246,
Alexander NevskyAlexander Nevsky was the Prince of Novgorod and Grand Prince of Vladimir during some of the most trying times in the city's history. Commonly regarded as the key figure of medieval Rus, Alexander was the grandson of Vsevolod the Big Nest and rose to legendary status on account of his military...
granted it to his younger brother Yaroslav Yaroslavich (d. 1271), from whom a dynasty of local princes descended. Four of them were killed by the
Golden HordeThe Golden Horde was a Mongol and later Turkicized khanate that formed the north-western sector of the Mongol Empire...
and were proclaimed saints by the
Russian Orthodox churchThe Russian Orthodox Church or, alternatively, the Moscow Patriarchate The ROC is often said to be the largest of the Eastern Orthodox churches in the world; including all the autocephalous churches under its umbrella, its adherents number over 150 million worldwide—about half of the 300 million...
.
Formerly a land of woods and bogs, the Tver principality was quickly transformed into one of the richest and most populous Russian states. As the area was hardly accessible for Tatar raids, there was a great influx of population from the recently devastated South. By the end of the century, it was ready to vie with
MoscowMoscow 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...
for supremacy in Russia. Both Tver and Moscow were young cities, so the outcome of their rivalry was far from being certain.
Grand princedom
MikhailMikhail Yaroslavich , also known as Michael of Tver or Michael the Saint, was a Prince of Tver who ruled as Grand Prince of Vladimir from 1304 until 1314 and again from 1315-1318...
of TverThe title of Prince of Tver was borne by the head of the branch of the Rurikid dynasty that ruled the Principality of Tver. In 1247 Tver was allocated to Grand Prince Alexander Nevsky, and became an independent principality...
, who ascended the throne of
VladimirVladimir is a city and the administrative center of Vladimir Oblast, Russia, located on the Klyazma River, to the east of Moscow along the M7 motorway. Population:...
in 1305, was one of the most beloved of medieval Russian rulers. His policy of open conflict with the
Golden HordeThe Golden Horde was a Mongol and later Turkicized khanate that formed the north-western sector of the Mongol Empire...
led to his assassination there in 1318. His son Dmitry "the Terrible Eyes" succeeded him, and, concluding an alliance with the mighty
Grand Duchy of LithuaniaThe Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a European state from the 12th /13th century until 1569 and then as a constituent part of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth until 1791 when Constitution of May 3, 1791 abolished it in favor of unitary state. It was founded by the Lithuanians, one of the polytheistic...
, managed to raise Tver's prestige even higher.
Exasperated by Dmitry's influence, Prince Ivan Kalita of Moscow engineered his murder by the Mongols in 1326. On hearing the news of this crime, the city revolted against the Horde. The Horde joined its forces with Muscovites and brutally repressed the
rebellionRebellion, uprising or insurrection, is a refusal of obedience or order. It may, therefore, be seen as encompassing a range of behaviors aimed at destroying or replacing an established authority such as a government or a head of state...
. Many citizens were killed, enslaved, or deported. This was the fatal blow to Tver's pretensions for supremacy in Russia.
In the second half of the 14th century, Tver was further weakened by dynastic struggles between its princes. Two senior branches of the ruling house, those of
KashinKashin is a town and the administrative center of Kashinsky District of Tver Oblast, Russia, located around a rural agricultural area on the Kashinka River from Moscow and from Kalyazin...
and
KholmKholm is a town and the administrative center of Kholmsky District of Novgorod Oblast, Russia, situated at the confluence of the Lovat and Kunya Rivers, north of Toropets, southwest of Staraya Russa, and south of Veliky Novgorod. Population:...
sky, asserted their claims to the grand ducal throne. The claimants were backed up by Moscow and eventually settled at the
Moscow KremlinThe Moscow Kremlin , sometimes referred to as simply The Kremlin, is a historic fortified complex at the heart of Moscow, overlooking the Moskva River , Saint Basil's Cathedral and Red Square and the Alexander Garden...
court.
During the
Great Feudal WarVasily II Vasiliyevich Tyomniy was the Grand Prince of Moscow whose long reign was plagued by the greatest civil war of Old Russian history....
in Muscovy, Tver once again rose to prominence and concluded defensive alliances with Lithuania, Novgorod,
ByzantiumByzantium was an ancient Greek city, founded by Greek colonists from Megara in 667 BC and named after their king Byzas . The name Byzantium is a Latinization of the original name Byzantion...
, and the Golden Horde. Grand Prince
Boris of TverBoris of Tver or Boris the Great was a prince of Tver.Boris, the son of Alexander II of Tver, was Grand Prince of Tver from April 22 1426 to his death...
sent one of his men, Afanasiy Nikitin, to search for gold and diamonds as far as
IndiaIndia , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
.
Nikitin's travelogueA Journey Beyond the Three Seas is a Russian literary monument in the form of travel notes, made by a merchant from Tver Afanasiy Nikitin during his journey to India in 1466-1472....
, describing his journey from 1466 to 1472, is probably the first ever firsthand account of India by a European. A monument to Nikitin was opened on the
VolgaThe 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...
embankment in 1955.
Later history
At last, on September 12, 1485, the forces of
Ivan the GreatIvan III Vasilyevich , also known as Ivan the Great, was a Grand Prince of Moscow and "Grand Prince of all Rus"...
seized the city. The principality was given as an appanage to Ivan's grandson, only to be abolished several decades later. Last scions of the ruling dynasty were executed by
Ivan the TerribleIvan IV Vasilyevich , known in English as Ivan the Terrible , was Grand Prince of Moscow from 1533 until his death. His long reign saw the conquest of the Khanates of Kazan, Astrakhan, and Siberia, transforming Russia into a multiethnic and multiconfessional state spanning almost one billion acres,...
during the
OprichninaThe oprichnina is the period of Russian history between Tsar Ivan the Terrible's 1565 initiation and his 1572 disbanding of a domestic policy of secret police, mass repressions, public executions, and confiscation of land from Russian aristocrats...
. At that turbulent time, Tver was ruled by
Simeon BekbulatovichSimeon Bekbulatovich was a khan of the Khanate of Qasim. After the period of the Oprichnina , Ivan the Terrible named Simeon Grand Prince of All Rus' . He participated in the Livonian war as a commander of the main regiment of the Muscovite army. Subsequently, he was named Grand Prince of Tver'...
, a former khan of
KasimovKasimov is a town in Ryazan Oblast, Russia, which serves as the administrative center of Kasimovsky District . The town is situated on the left bank of the Oka River...
. The only remnant of his ephemeral reign is a graceful tent-like church in the village of Kushalino, 28 km north-east of Tver.
The city's decline was not irrevocable, however. With the foundation of
St. PetersburgSaint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
, Tver gained importance as a principal station on the highway (and later railway) from Moscow to St. Petersburg. It was much visited by Russian royalty and
nobilityThe Russian nobility arose in the 14th century and essentially governed Russia until the October Revolution of 1917.The Russian word for nobility, Dvoryanstvo , derives from the Russian word dvor , meaning the Court of a prince or duke and later, of the tsar. A nobleman is called dvoryanin...
travelling from the old capital to the new one and back.
Following a great fire of 1763, the city was rebuilt in Neoclassical style. Under
Catherine the GreatCatherine II, also known as Catherine the Great , Empress of Russia, was born in Stettin, Pomerania, Prussia on as Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg...
, the downtown was thoroughly reconstructed. Crumbling medieval buildings were razed and replaced with imposing
NeoclassicalNeoclassicism is the name given to Western movements in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that draw inspiration from the "classical" art and culture of Ancient Greece or Ancient Rome...
buildings. The most important of these are the Travel Palace of the Empress (designed by the celebrated Matvei Kazakov), and the Ascension church (designed by Prince Lvov and consecrated in 1813).
In 1931, the city was renamed Kalinin, after a notable Soviet leader
Mikhail KalininMikhail Ivanovich Kalinin , known familiarly by Soviet citizens as "Kalinych," was a Bolshevik revolutionary and the nominal head of state of Russia and later of the Soviet Union, from 1919 to 1946...
who had been born nearby. A last vestige of the pre-Petrine epoch, the Saviour Cathedral, was blown up in 1936. In 1940 the
NKVDThe People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the public and secret police organization of the Soviet Union that directly executed the rule of power of the Soviets, including political repression, during the era of Joseph Stalin....
executed more than 6,200 Polish policemen and prisoners of war from
OstashkovOstashkov is a town and the administrative center of Ostashkovsky District of Tver Oblast, Russia, located west of Tver on a peninsula at the southern shore of Lake Seliger. Population:...
camp.
The
WehrmachtThe Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...
occupied Kalinin for two months in 1941, leaving the city in ashes. A large-scale resistance movement in the city and the region resulted in over 30,000 German soldiers and officers being killed during the occupation of the city. Kalinin was the first major city in
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
to be liberated from the Wehrmacht.
During the
Cold WarThe Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
Kalinin was home to the air base
KryuchkovoKryuchkovo was an air base in Tver Oblast, Russia, located 34 km northwest of Tver. It is shown on a 1973 Department of Defense Global Navigation Chart No. 1 and was probably a 1950s era cold war airfield. Very little remains and its exact location is uncertain....
, which is no longer in service. The historic name of Tver was restored in 1990.
Apart from the suburban White Trinity Church (1564), there are no ancient monuments left in Tver. The downtown is graced with Catharinian and Soviet edifices, bridges and embankments. Tver's most notable industries are a
railroad carA railroad car or railway vehicle , also known as a bogie in Indian English, is a vehicle on a rail transport system that is used for the carrying of cargo or passengers. Cars can be coupled together into a train and hauled by one or more locomotives...
plant, opened in 1898, an
excavatorExcavators are heavy construction equipment consisting of a boom, stick, bucket and cab on a rotating platform . The house sits atop an undercarriage with tracks or wheels. A cable-operated excavator uses winches and steel ropes to accomplish the movements. They are a natural progression from the...
factory, and a glass making factory. Tver is home to
MigalovoMigalovo is an air base in Tver Oblast, Russia located 10 km west of Tver. It is a large military airlift base. It currently houses all of Russia's remaining Antonov An-22 fleet...
, which is one of Russia's biggest military airlift facilities.
Climate
Tver has got a humid continental climat, which is typical for Central Russia. Winters are long, snowy and cold, but extremely severe frosts (below -35°С) are rare. Summer is warm and humid, temperature is often higher than +30°C.
Education
Tver is home to Tver State University, the most highly rated university of the region. It is also home to the Tver State technical university, medical, and agricultural academies and more than 20 colleges and lyceums, branch campuses of some Moscow higher educational institutions and more than 50 high schools.
The
Tver State Medical AcademyThe Tver State Medical Academy is one of the oldest and leading educational institutions in Russia...
is a medical school located in Tver, one of the largest and most reputable in Russia.
Tver also houses the Zhukov Air and Space Defence Academy the main college of the Voiska PVO
Tver also has around 50 secondary schools, a private school (lycee) and a Suvorov military school
Religion
Tver has four functioning Russian Orthodox cathedrals, fifteen Orthodox churches, a Catholic church, a mosque, and a synagogue.
Transportation
Railway
The
Oktyabrskaya RailwayThe broad gauge Oktyabrskaya Railway or October Railway , which forms part of RZD, is the oldest railway in Russia, located in the north-west of the country. It stretches from Moscow's Leningrad Terminal in the south to Murmansk beyond the Arctic Circle in the north. The total length of the lines...
linking Moscow and St Peterburg is crossing the city. The primary Tver' Railway Station has a locomotive and car shed, allowing it to service both passenger and cargo trains. In plus to the Tver' Station, there are three minor stations within the city perimeter: Lazurnaya, Proletarskaya and Doroshikha. The suburban railway service links Tver to
MoscowMoscow 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...
, Bologoe,
TorzhokTorzhok is a town in Tver Oblast, Russia, famous for its folk craft of goldwork embroidery. Population: Torzhok has twenty-two large and medium-sized industrial enterprises. Two of them are especially significant...
and Vasilevsky Mokh (via separate line). Most trains passing from Moscow to the north-west regions make a short stop in Tver'.
The newly designed high-speed railway line between Moscow and St Peterburg is expected to have "New Tver'" station several kilometers southwards of city border.
Roads
The major M10 motorway linking Moscow and St Peterburg is also crossing the city. This motorway is a part of
Pan-European corridorsThe ten Pan-European transport corridors were defined at the second Pan-European transport Conference in Crete, March 1994, as routes in Central and Eastern Europe that required major investment over the next ten to fifteen years. Additions were made at the third conference in Helsinki in 1997...
system. The roads to
RzhevRzhev is a town in Tver Oblast, Russia, southwest of Staritsa and from Tver, on the highway and railway connecting Moscow and Riga. It is the uppermost town situated on the Volga River. Population:...
(A112),
VesyegonskVesyegonsk is a town and the administrative center of Vesyegonsky District of Tver Oblast, Russia. Population: The historical part of Vesyegonsk lies under the waters of the Rybinsk Reservoir....
(P84) and
VolokolamskVolokolamsk is a town and the administrative center of Volokolamsky District of Moscow Oblast, Russia, located on the Gorodenka River, not far from its confluence with the Lama River, northwest of Moscow. Population: -History:...
(P90), along with many smaller regional roads, originate in the city. The new highway between Moscow and St Peterburg, that is designed at the present time, will pass closely to the northern border of Tver'. Tver' is notable by a pretty high relative number of private cars: there are 288 cars per thousand residents, which is well above average among other regions of Russia.
There is also a local bus station that interconnects Tver' with minor towns of the home region, neighbouring regions, and Moscow.
Local public transport consists of
trolleybusA trolleybus is an electric bus that draws its electricity from overhead wires using spring-loaded trolley poles. Two wires and poles are required to complete the electrical circuit...
es, trams, buses, and fixed-run taxis known as "
MarshrutkaMarshrutka , from marshrutnoye taksi is a share taxi in the CIS countries, the Baltic states, and Bulgaria. Marshrutnoye taksi literally means routed taxicab...
". The latter two take priority during recent years.
Air
There are two airfields within the city:
MigalovoMigalovo is an air base in Tver Oblast, Russia located 10 km west of Tver. It is a large military airlift base. It currently houses all of Russia's remaining Antonov An-22 fleet...
military air base and Zmeevo airport.
Water
The riverside station is located on the left bank of Volga river, closely upstream the outfall of Tvertsa. There is also a small cargo port in the lower part of the Volga. During the summertime, the cruisers are acting up and down the Volga, having their base in the City Park.
Culture
Tver is home to:
- Tver Oblast Academic Drama Theater
- Tver State Youth Theater
- Tver State Puppet Theater
- Tver State philharmonic orchestra
- Tver State Circus
- The Tver Oblast Art Gallery
- The Tver state Art architecture and Literature Museum
Sports
The city association football team,
FC Volga TverFC Volga Tver is an association football club from Tver, Russia, founded in 1957. As of 2009, it plays in the Russian Second Division. It has played professionally in 1937, 1949, 1953 to 1956, 1958 to 1999, and from 2004. In 1992-1995, the club was called Trion-Volga Tver...
, plays in the Russian Second Division.
Notable natives
- Darya Klishina
Darya Igorevna Klishina is a Russian long jumper.She holds the Russian junior record with 7.03 m, the all time second best junior mark.-Personal bests:Key: RJR = Russian junior record-External links:...
, athlete
- Igor Aksyonov
Igor Vladimirovich Aksyonov is a retired Russian professional footballer. He made his debut in the Russian Premier League in 1999 for PFC CSKA Moscow. He played one game in the UEFA Champions League 1999–2000 qualification for PFC CSKA Moscow....
, footballer
- Anastasia Dobromyslova
Anastasia Dobromyslova-Martin is a professional darts player. She is a former winner of the Women's World Professional Darts Champion of the British Darts Organisation, winning it in 2008...
, professional darts player
- Vladimir Gardin
Vladimir Rostislavovich Gardin was a pioneering Russian film director and actor who strove to raise the artistic level of Russian cinema....
, actor and film director
- Ilya Kovalchuk
Ilya Valerevich Kovalchuk is a Russian professional ice hockey left winger who is an alternate captain of the New Jersey Devils of the National Hockey League. Drafted first overall in the 2001 NHL Entry Draft by the Atlanta Thrashers, he began his NHL career in 2001–02 with Atlanta and was...
, NHL professional hockey player
- Mikhail Krug
Mikhail Krug , born as Vorobyov , was a Russian singer, one of the leading singers of the style of songs known as blatnaya pesnya , or shanson, which has been part of Russian culture since the beginning of the twentieth century.Mikhail Krug was born in Morozovskiy Gorodok, a suburb of the city of...
, singer
- Miron Akimovich Ljubovsky
Miron Akimovich Ljubovsky was a Russian physician and one of the organizers of health care in Tver Oblast.-Biography:Ljubovsky received his training as a surgeon. He was the main organizer of the establishment of the Tver School for Nurses...
, surgeon
- Afanasy Nikitin
Afanasy Nikitin was a Russian merchant and one of the first Europeans to travel to and document his visit to India. He described his trip in a narrative known as The Journey Beyond Three Seas .-The voyage:In 1466, Nikitin left his hometown of Tver on a commercial trip to India...
, merchant and explorer
- Boris Pugo, politician
- Nadia Russo
Nadia Russo-Bossie was a pioneering aviatrix.-Biography:In 1936, Nadia Russo, from Chişinău, was one of the first women from Romania to obtain a flying licence...
, pioneering aviatrix
- Alexander Smirnov (figure skater)
Alexander Viktorovich Smirnov is a Russian pair skater. Smirnov teamed up with Yuko Kavaguti in the spring of 2006. They are the 2010 European champions, 2009 and 2010 World bronze medalists, and 2008-2010 Russian Champions. They have won a total of four European medals...
, ice skater
- Andrei Tupolev
Andrei Nikolayevich Tupolev was a pioneering Soviet aircraft designer.During his career, he designed and oversaw the design of more than 100 types of aircraft, some of which set 78 world records...
, aircraft designer
- Yuri Zhdanov
Yuri Andreyevich Zhdanov was a Russian chemistry professor and rector of the University of Rostov. He was the son of Soviet politician Andrei Zhdanov and a former husband of Joseph Stalin's daughter, Svetlana Alliluyeva....
, chemistry professor and husband of Svetlana Aliluyeva
Twin towns/sister cities
Tver is
twinnedTwin 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:
VadodaraVadodara formerly known as Baroda is the third most populated city in the Indian State of Gujarat . It is one of the four cities with the population of over 1 million...
,
IndiaIndia , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
BergamoBergamo is a town and comune in Lombardy, Italy, about 40 km northeast of Milan. The comune is home to over 120,000 inhabitants. It is served by the Orio al Serio Airport, which also serves the Province of Bergamo, and to a lesser extent the metropolitan area of Milan...
,
ItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
Kaposvár,
HungaryHungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
OsnabrückOsnabrück is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany, some 80 km NNE of Dortmund, 45 km NE of Münster, and some 100 km due west of Hanover. It lies in a valley penned between the Wiehen Hills and the northern tip of the Teutoburg Forest...
,
GermanyGermany , 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...
Veliko Turnovo,
BulgariaBulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
BesançonBesançon , is the capital and principal city of the Franche-Comté region in eastern France. It had a population of about 237,000 inhabitants in the metropolitan area in 2008...
,
FranceThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
LublinLublin is the ninth largest city in Poland. It is the capital of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 350,392 . Lublin is also the largest Polish city east of the Vistula river...
,
PolandPoland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
HämeenlinnaHämeenlinna is a city and municipality of about inhabitants in the heart of the historical province of Häme in the south of Finland and is the birthplace of composer Jean Sibelius. Today, it belongs to the region of Tavastia Proper, and until 2010 it was the residence city for the Governor of the...
,
FinlandFinland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
BuffaloBuffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...
,
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
YingkouYingkou is located in the northwestern portion of the Liaodong Peninsula, and on the left bank of the Daliao River, which enters the sea in the city. To the west is the Liaodong Bay of the Bohai Gulf, and the city thus looks across to Jinzhou and Huludao...
,
People's Republic of ChinaChina , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...