YAROSLAVL

city and administrative centre of Yaroslavl oblast (province), western Russia. It lies on the right bank of the Volga River, 175 miles (282 km) northeast of Moscow. Yaroslavl is believed to have been founded in 1010 by Prince Yaroslav the Wise, and it served as the capital of an independent principality from 1218 until 1471, when it came under the rule of Moscow. Yaroslavl was sacked by the Tatars in 1238 and by Ivan I Kalita in 1332 and was captured by Novgorod in 1371, but on each occasion its recovery was swift. The opening of trade with the West during the 16th century brought prosperity to the town, which lay at the intersection of the great Volga River and MoscowArkhangelsk trade routes. The Yaroslavl Great Manufactory, one of the earliest and largest textile mills in Russia, was established in 1722, and by the late 18th century Yaroslavl had become an important industrial centre. Yaroslavl's industries now produce heavy machinery (particularly diesel engines and electrical equipment), refined petroleum products, textiles, and synthetic rubber and tires. Power is produced by coal-burning electric plants and by the Rybinsk and Uglich hydroelectric stations, located upstream on the Volga. Many fine churches survive in Yaroslavl, including the Transfiguration Cathedral (150516) of the Saviour Monastery. The churches of Elijah the Prophet, Nikola Nadein, and St. John the Baptist all date from the 17th century. Yaroslavl has a university, several institutes of higher education, four theatres (including Russia's first public theatre, founded in 1750), an art gallery, several musuems, and a symphony orchestra. Pop. (1991 est.) 638,100. oblast (province), western Russia. It has an area of 14,100 square miles (36,400 square km) and lies in the upper Volga River basin. Most of the oblast is a low plain traversed by the Volga River and broken only by the low, morainic Danilov and Uglich uplands, which run northeastsouthwest across it. In the northwest is the 1,768-square-mile (4,579-square-kilometre) Rybinsk Reservoir on the Volga; most of the reservoir lies within the oblast. The oblast's natural vegetation is forest of spruce, pine, oak, maple, and ash, with many patches of swamp and with floodplain meadows along the rivers. Agriculture is dominated by dairying, and the region is noted for its cheeses; flax, oats, fodder crops, and vegetables are also grown. Textile manufacture, timber working, and food processing are widespread in the towns, with engineering and chemical industries in the two main centres, Yaroslavl city (oblast headquarters) and Rybinsk. Power is supplied by the Rybinsk hydroelectric station. Pop. (1991 est.) 1,475,700.