Tver
Tver names 2 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Tver a province of Russia
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a province of Russia, surrounded by the provinces of Novgorod, pr Jaroslav, Vladimir, Moscow, Smolensk, and Pskov; area, 24,975 square miles; pop. about 2,500,000. From the Volchonski Forest, a range of thickly wooded limestone hills in the W., offsets running between lakes and swamps intersect almost the whole of Tver. In the Ostashkov district are the headwaters of the Volga, Düna, and Msta. Tver is drained by the Volga and its affluents. The Volga is connected with the Msta by the canal of Vishnij Volotchok, and by the Mologa and the Tichvin canal with the Tichvinka and Sias, which run into Lake Ladoga. There are 100 lakes in Tver, of which the largest are Seliger, Ochvat- Shadenje, and Steresh. One-fourth of the surface is forest. Potatoes and flax are increasingly cultivated. The chief occupations are the cutting and floating of wood, and the preparation of tar, pitch, and turpentine.
Tver a city and capital of the Russian province of the same name
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a city and capital of the Russian province of the same name, is on both sides of the Volga at its confluence with the Tverza and the Tmaka, 110 miles N. W. of Moscow. It has fine streets and squares, a former imperial palace, a cathedral, and many churches, several monasteries, a priests' college, a gymnasium, a technical school, a cavalry cadets' school, a teachers' seminary, a ladies' college, several benevolent institutions, and a theater. There were before the World War many factories. Its position on the Petrograd-Moscow railway and on the river Volga gave Tver great transit traffic, which was chiefly in corn and metal wares. Entirely burnt in 1763, Tver was speedily rebuilt by Catharine II., who has here a monument. Pop. about 65,000.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
When Collier's wrote this in 1921 the city was still Tver, capital of a province of some 2,500,000 people; in 1931 it was renamed Kalinin after the Soviet head of state Mikhail Kalinin, and the province became Kalinin Oblast in 1935. German troops took the city in October 1941, and its recapture on 16 December 1941 was among the first Soviet successes of the counter-offensive before Moscow; the historic centre and many of the factories Collier's mentions were wrecked. Both city and region resumed the name Tver in 1990, and the "Petrograd-Moscow railway" now carries Sapsan high-speed trains between Moscow and St Petersburg. The oblast's population has roughly halved since 1921, to about 1.2 million, while the city itself holds around 420,000.
Written for this edition, 2026.