Volokolamsk

a city; center of Volokolamsk Raion, Moscow Oblast, RSFSR, situated on the Gorodenka River near its confluence with the Lama River. It is 5 km from the Volokolamsk railroad station (on the Moscow-Rzhev line) and 129 km northwest of Moscow, with which it is also connected by a highway. Population, 15,000 (1970). Its industry includes processing agricultural products (a poultry combine and a dairy). There are mechanical-repair and construction-material plants, a metal founding and working plant, and a textile mill. A secondary specialized polytechnic and a veterinary technicum are also located here.

Volokolamsk is first mentioned in the Lavrentii Chronicle under the year 1135. It arose at a portage (5 km long) on the Lama River on the water route from Novgorod to the Moscow-Riazan lands; its name means portage (volok) on the Lama. In 1382 the Tatar khan Tokhtamysh was defeated below Volokolamsk. In 1513 it was absorbed into the Muscovite Principality. After 1781 it became an uezd (small district) city in Moscow Province. Soviet power was established in Volokolamsk at the end of October 1917. During the Great Patriotic War (1941-45), bitter battles were fought in the region by Soviet soldiers and partisans against the German fascist aggressors. In November 1941, 9 km from Volokolamsk in the area of the Dubosekovo railway siding, 28 members of the Panfilov 316th Rifle Division halted the enemy’s tanks and kept them from breaking through to the Volokolamsk-Moscow highway. A monument was erected 1.5 km from Dubosekovo on the outskirts of the village of Nelidovo.

Architectural monuments of the 15th through 17th centuries have been preserved in the area, including Voskresenskii Cathedral, Rozhdestvo na Vozmishche Church (16th century), and the architectural ensemble of the Joseph Volokolamsk Monastery (15th through 17th centuries), located 17 km to the northeast.