Tarusa

Tarusa ( _ru. Тару́са) is a town in Kaluga Oblast, Russia. It is located on the left bank of the Oka River, 36 km south of Serpukhov, 76 km northeast of Kaluga and about 140 km south of Moscow. Population: 9,893 (2002 Census).

The town of Tarusa is known to have existed since 1246, when it was the capital of one of the Upper Principalities. Later, the local rulers moved their seats to Meshchovsk and Boryatino, and Tarusa was subjugated by Muscovy in the late 14th century. Tarusa has been used as a stronghold at the southern approaches to Moscow in the 15th-17th centuries. The Soviet authority in Tarusa was established on December 27, 1917. The town was occupied by the Germans between October 24 and December 19, 1941.

The name is from that of the river Tarusa, a tributary of the Oka; "Tar-" is a hydronym base characteristic of regions of ancient Baltic settlement. [E.M. Pospelov, "Geograficheskie nazvaniya mira" (Moscow, 1998), p. 411.] (According to popular belief, the name derives from Tarusa's geohistorical position as a border town to the adjoining realm of Lithuania situated on the bank of the Oka. Questions about travelers' whereabouts from the other bank were answered with the answer "To - Rus!", meaning "This is Russia," eventually becoming the name of the town.)

Remnants of the town's fortifications and the town wall can still be seen today in the community park near the city church.

A number of famous Russian people attracted by inspirational beauty of the place used to live and create in Tarusa, such as painter Viktor Borisov-Musatov, poet and writer Marina Tsvetaeva, crystallographer Georgi Wolf, Nobel Prize-nominated writer Konstantin Paustovsky, sculptor Vasili Vatagin, painters Nikolai Krymov and Veniamin Kostitsin, Vasili Baksheyev and others. Vasily Polenov's museum is located not far from Tarusa.

References

ee also

*Open Russian Festival of Animated Film (held near Tarusa until 2002)