Tver Guberniia

• Main Author: Pethybridge, Roger
• Format: Book Part
• Language: unknown
• Published: Oxford University PressOxford 1990
• Subjects: karelians
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198219279.003.0012; https://academic.oup.com/book/chapter-pdf/52540424/isbn-9780198219279-book-part-12.pdf

Abstract Moving north-east from Smolensk guberniia, a travelling kustar in 1926 would cross into Tver guberniia. Both provinces abutted on Moscow guberniia. Whereas Smolensk connected the capital via the railway to Western Europe, the city of Tver lay on the line to Leningrad. The north and east of Tver guberniia were on the route to nowhere in particular, and the hinterland was so densely forested as to provide a natural barrier to good communications and enlightenment of all kinds. The 1926 census shows the population of Tver guberniia to be 2,242,350,just 50,239 less than Smolensk. Nearly all of them were Great Russians (unlike Smolensk), though there was a small group of 140,567 Karelians. Those living in Tver city totalled rn8,413, whilst the rest of the inhabitants were dispersed over a scattered firmament of small-scale settlements: no less than 263,503 of these existed in an area larger than the whole of Holland or Switzerland. Tver city lay near the more densely populated southern edge of the guberniia, looking towards Moscow.