Zubtsov is a town and the administrative center of Zubtsovsky District

Zubtsovsky District

Zubtsovsky District is an administrative and municipal district , one of the 36 in Tver Oblast, Russia....

 of Tver Oblast

Tver Oblast

Tver 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...

, Russia

Russia

Russia 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...

, located at the confluence

Confluence

Confluence, 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 Volga

Volga River

The 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 Vazuza River

Vazuza River

Vazuza is a river in Smolensk Oblast and Tver Oblast, Russia, a right tributary of the Volga River. Length: 162 km, watershed area: 7120 km². The lower part of the river has been transformed into Vazuza Reservoir. The towns of Sychyovka and Zubtsov are located on the Vazuza ....

s, 153 kilometres (95.1 mi) south of Tver

Tver

Tver is a city and the administrative center of Tver Oblast, Russia. Population: 403,726 ; 408,903 ;...

, 18 kilometres (11.2 mi) southeast of Rzhev

Rzhev

Rzhev 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:...

, and 44 kilometres (27.3 mi) southwest of Staritsa

Staritsa

Staritsa is a town and the administrative center of Staritsky District of Tver Oblast, Russia, located on the Volga River, from Tver. Population: -History:...

. Population: 8,100 (1998 est.).

Zubtsov was first mentioned in a chronicle

Chronicle

Generally a chronicle is a historical account of facts and events ranged in chronological order, as in a time line. Typically, equal weight is given for historically important events and local events, the purpose being the recording of events that occurred, seen from the perspective of the...

 in 1216. In the Middle Ages

Middle Ages

The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

, it was a border fortress of the Principality of Tver

Tver

Tver is a city and the administrative center of Tver Oblast, Russia. Population: 403,726 ; 408,903 ;...

. Muscovy annexed it with the rest of the Tver Principality in 1485. Subsequently, the town was important chiefly as a market for trade in flax

Flax

Flax is a member of the genus Linum in the family Linaceae. It is native to the region extending from the eastern Mediterranean to India and was probably first domesticated in the Fertile Crescent...

. Its Neoclassical cathedral was constructed in 1801.

During the Great Patriotic War, the town was almost razed to the ground. It was a place of fierce fighting of the Battle of Rzhev. About 15,000 of Red Army soldiers are buried at the Zubtsov's memorial. The town was revitalized after the Vazuzsk Reservoir project was started in the 1970s. The reservoir now provides Moscow with one quarter of its drinking water.