TVER, a province of the Russian S.F.S.R., surrounded by those of Smolensk, Pskov, Novgorod, Cherepovetz, Yaroslavl and Moscow, and not coinciding with the pre-1917 province of that name. • Area 61,095 sq.krn. Pop. (1926) 2,239,177, mainly Great Russians, with Karelians in the north.
The climate is continental with severe winter frosts of five months' duration and an average July temperature of 67° F. Av erage rainfall 18-2o in. per annum. Coniferous forests, especially firs, cover 32.2% of the province, and 12% is marsh land. In the remaining area meadow and grassland prevail, ploughed land occupying only 25%. There has been a marked diminution of grain production since 1887 and dairying, with an export trade in butter and cheese. is developing. Rye, oats and barley are the chief crops.
Hunting and fishing supplement the income of the peasants, and there are koustar (peasant) industries of leather and fur prepara tion, textiles and wooden wares. Factory industries include saw milling, flour-milling, leather goods, textiles, bricks, glass, machin ery, oil-pressing and brewing. Vyshniy-Volochok and Rhzev have populations of more than 30,00o and Tver has more than 100,000.
The province is well drained by the upper Volga and its tribu taries, especially the Tvertsa and Mologa; 17% of the rivers are available for steam navigation, and boats and rafts can be floated on many of the others. The Vyshniy-Volochok system of canals connects the Volga with the Baltic and the Tikhvin system con nects the Mologa with Lake Ladoga. Railways are comparatively
good and the province is thus well situated for trade.
TVER (now Kalinin), chief town of Tver province, on both banks of the Volga, at its confluence with the Tvertsa in 56° 52' N., 35° 48' E. The low right bank is protected from inunda tions by a dam. The town is growing rapidly; its population in 190o was 45,644 and in 1933 it had reached 145,00o. Its situ ation on the Moscow-Leningrad railway and on the navigable Volga has given it great trading importance, as a centre for a pro ductive region. Its chief manufactures are machinery, textiles and leather goods.
A fort was erected in 118o at the mouth of the Tvertsa to protect the Suzdal principality against Novgorod. In the 13th century it became the capital of an independent principality, and remained so until the end of the 15th century. It long remained an open question whether Moscow or Tver would ultimately gain the supremacy in Great Russia. In 1486, when the city was almost entirely burned down by the Muscovites, the son of Ivan III. became prince of Tver; the final annexation to Moscow followed four years later. In 157o Tver had to endure, for some rea son now difficult to understand, the vengeance of Ivan the Ter rible, who ordered the massacre of 90,000 inhabitants of the prin cipality. The town and province have been renamed Kalinin.