Uglich(redirected from Uglitsch)
Uglich(o͞o`glyĭch), city (1989 pop. 40,000), N central European Russia, on the Volga River. Founded in 1148, Uglich became the center of an independent principality in 1218. It joined the grand duchy of Moscow in the first half of the 14th cent. Czarevich Dmitri was allegedly murdered (1591) in the city's 15th-century fortress, which has been preserved.
a city under oblast jurisdiction and the administrative center of Uglich Raion, Yaroslavl Oblast, RSFSR. A landing on the Uglich Reservoir of the Volga River. Linked by a railroad branch line with the Kaliazin station on the Moscow-Sonkovo line, 47 km from Uglich. Population, 37,500 (1976).
According to a local chronicle, Uglich has existed since 937; the Hypatian Chronicle mentions the city in its entry for 1148. In the 12th and early 13th centuries, Uglich was part of the Vladimir-Suzdal’ principality; the city was incorporated into the Rostov principality in 1207, and in 1218 it became the capital of the Uglich principality. In 1329 it was annexed to the Grand Principality of Moscow, and in the 14th and 15th centuries it was the capital of an appanage principality dependent on Moscow. Tsare-vich Dmitrii Ivanovich perished in the city in 1591. Between 1608 and 1611, Uglich was destroyed by Polish interventionists. At the beginning of the 18th century it became part of St. Petersburg Province, and in 1796 it became a district center of Yaroslavl Province. Soviet power was established in Uglich on Dec. 12 (25), 1917. The city was part of Rybinsk Province in 1921 and 1922, after which it was incorporated into Ivanovo Industrial Oblast. Since 1936 it has been part of Yaroslavl Oblast.
The Uglich Hydroelectric Power Plant is located in the city. Industry includes machine repair shops, an experimental machine repair shop, and a clock and watch factory. The Uglich Scientific Industrial Association, which includes the All-Union Scientific Research Institute of Butter and Cheese Production and a number of experimental production enterprises, is in the city, which also has a branch of the Scientific Research Institute of the Clock and Watch Industry, an evening technicum for instrument-making, a branch of a dairy industry technicum, a pedagogical school, and a history and art museum.
Part of Uglich juts out into the Volga River. In this part of the city is a kremlin, with the following points of architectural interest: the throne room of the prince’s palace (known as the Palace of Tsarevich Dmitrii, 15th century), the Church of Dmitrii’s Blood (1692), and the Spaso-Preobrazhenskii Cathedral (rebuilt in 1713 in the style of the 17th-century Yaroslavl school; bell tower, 1730). Architectural monuments in the city proper include the Uspenskaia (Divnaia) Church, crowned with three shatry (tent-shaped roofs), in the Aleksei Monastery (1628); the Church of John the Precursor (1681); the cathedral refectory, Church of Odigitriia (Virgin of Smolensk), and the belfry of the Voskresen-skii Monastery (1674–77); the Church of the Birth of John the Precursor (1690); the complex of the Bogoiavlenskii Monastery (mostly from the first half of the 19th century); and various 18th-century dwellings.
An important role in the layout of Uglich has been played by the general plan of 1784, which features three main streets radiating from a main square on the southern side of the kremlin. In accordance with the plan, dwellings and administrative buildings were constructed in the classicist style (for example, the building of the former municipal duma, 1815). Structures of the Soviet era include the Uglich Hydroelectric Power Plant (1950, architects D. B. Savitskii, M. L. Shpektorov, and others) and a number of industrial enterprises. Today construction is carried out in accordance with the general plan drawn up in 1968 (Lengiprogor).
REFERENCESIvanov, V. N. Rostov Velikii: Uglich. Moscow, 1964.
Kovalev, I. A., and I. B. Purishev. Uglich: Putevoditel’ po gorodu i okrestnostiam, 2nd ed. Yaroslavl, 1971.