Tver and Rhzev

Travel Stories - Russia

introduction

We arrive just over four in the middle of the night at the Tver busstation. Half asleep we trudge towards the waiting room where only those nasty iron benches stand. Dangerous because they tilt and if you sit on both sides and someone stands up it may be that you are being launched. We sit down for an hour when I decide to put my bag on the floor and try to sleep on a mat for an hour to sleep.

It is when I have just drift of (despite the crowing of some people and the sound of the announcer) a security officer finds it necessary to wake me up. We wait another hour before we walk up the large open area in front of the train station and look around to see if we can get a bite to eat. Again a kind of sushi snack bar and we decide to order a cup of coffee and a breakfast at the Mac Donalds.

Then we take a brand new tram towards the center. Too late we get off, after we crossed the bridge. We get off and walk back over the bridge which is worth it. We see the skyline of Tver with its beautiful colored houses on the banks of the Volga River, its towers and the old cast-iron bridge.

Tver

After checking in at a hostel in the center we decide to lay on the bed for a while to get some sleep. We sleep fort wo hours after we decide to go into the city. We walk towards the park on the river where a kind of amusement park has been set up and many young couples, families and children are present.

We take a look at the travel or transit palace built by Kathinera the Great who used the city as a stopover between Moscow and Saint Petersburg. The green, white and yellow palace has been beautifully renovated, but there are still large blue fences around i tand we can’t enter the complex unfortunately.

We can still take a look at a distance and when we have walked half way around we decide to walk back to the main street where we again end up on a large square with another Lenin monument. We notice that we have seen a terrace here in this city a few times in recent days. In other towns we see none. We come into the pedestrian area and where we first eat and then order a cold beer on the same terrace to see the shoppers and parading girls come by. After a good meal we go on supermarket hunting.

The girl from the restaurant shows us one and then we walk back to our hostel "Kalinin" (named after the old Soviet lady who chaired a dolls cabinet during WWII in Russia, for example Stalin). The rest of the day we relax and prepare for our trip to Rhzev tomorrow morning.

Rhzev

We buy a morning bus ticket and at 10:00 sharp our bus is leaving the Tver bus station tot he city of Rhzev. The route is like many here in Russia; short trees and shrubs for many kilometers. Sometimes a swampy area, a river, some small colored wooden houses; We drive on a dual carriageway and sometimes we stop at a small busstop where people get out and we wonder where they are going.

There is also a whole row of army vehicles on the side of the road. In Rhzev we find our intended hotel over time to find out that they are requesting a registration form that we do not possess. An apartment is arranged and somebody is picking us up at the hotel to take us there. We drive to the east of the city at about 4 km from the center. There we drive under a network of pipes and come in a appartmentblock-neighbourhood with many potholes in the road.

We park the car and walk behind the pretty nervous and sweating man to the building which have a thick steel door. It smells badly for piss and other excrement when we walk to the 5th floor. There again a steel door and then an OK looking apartment. It is furnished but very basic. We pay the guy and put our bags in the corner. I look at the black and white couch which reminds me of an old porn couch from the seventies. We decide to walk into the center to check out the city.

The battles in and around Rhzev (WW2):

The Battles of Rhzev is the name for a series of offensives during WW2, launched between January 8, 1942 and March 31, 1943, in the direction of Rzev, Sychevka and Vjazma with the aim of breaking the German salient in the Moscow area. The offensives were accompanied by high losses on both sides.

1941-1942

During the counter-attacks of the Soviet Union in the winter of 1941-1942, and the First Rziev-Vjazma offensive (January 1942-April 1942), the German troops from the Moscow area were expelled. The result was that a salient was formed in the front line in the direction of Moscow. This salient came to be known as the Rzev-Vjazma salient. This area was for the German army group Middle essential for the capture of Moscow. This was also the reason that it was heavily defended.

Soviet troops on the Kalinin front and the Soviet West Front broke through the German lines west of Rizev in January, but because they had poor supplies, they were left without ammunition and food. As a result, the 22nd, 29th and 30th Soviet armies were surrounded. Because these troops, despite their encirclement, threatened the rear part of the German 9th army, the Germans started Operation Seydlitz on 2 July, with the aim of eliminating the encircled troops.

The operation was in favor of the Germans and the three surrounded Russian armies were destroyed in their entirety. Between July and October, Russian troops tried to break through the German lines several times, but every attempt came to an early end. Although the Russians did not know how to break through the German lines, they did regain some ground. Thus the front line came closer to Rjzev and the city of Subzow was reconquered.

1942-1943

The Second Russian Rjzev-Sychevka offensive took place from November 1942-December 1942 and was codenamed Operation Mars. Although the offensive was at least as bloody as the first Rjzev-Sychovka offensive and it also resulted in a failure, it was of great strategic importance. The troops that the Germans wanted to deploy for the relief of the German 6th army in Stalingrad were now forced to halt the second Rjzev-Sychevka offensive. The Russians deliberately relayed information to the German secret service, so that they retained troops that would otherwise be used in the relief of Stalingrad.

No official figures have been published on the exact losses. It is estimated that the Soviet Union lost between 500,000 and 1,000,000 men. The Germans also suffered heavy losses. Estimates range from 300,000 to 450,000 lost men.

Tver-Rhzev-Wolga-Rivercrossing-Bridge-Russia-Monument

We walk back halfway and from there we take the marshrutka and get out at the park where we also left earlier. Here we do groceries and find after some time an underground restaurant where we order some borche and pelini. Then we still want to see the valley with a view of the river. An old WWII cannon and many monuments for the many battles that have taken place here. A large pillar, an eternal flame and many red stars in the stone work.

We walk over the bridge with the not so wide Volga river here towards the first bus stop. It has been nice and with some fortune we find our apartmentblock and room back. We unfold our sofa beds and prepare ourselves for an evening "at home" with music, cheap wine in a suburb of Rhzev.

tips & advice (2016)

Both the train and bus station (next to each other) are located about 4 km south of the center of Tver. Several marshrutkas drive up and down the main north-south axis, where you can take tram number 5 (19R).

Tver - Rhzev: there are about 4 buses a day from Tver to Rhzev of which 08:05 or 09:50 are the two in the morning. The journey takes about 2.5 hours and the costs are 322R.

Rhzev - Smolensk: there is certainly a train from Rhzev to Smolensk at 07:30. Arrival around 12:45. The cheapest (seating) price is 540R.

In Ul Volnogo Novgoroda in Tver (see hostel) there are some nice cafes where you can drink a cup of coffee or eat something on a wooden deck terrace. In a small side street of the main shopping street (and pedestrian zone) is the snack-eatery Ali Baba where you can order a beer but also a good cheap bite to eat.

Name: Kalinin hostel (Tver)

Address: Ul Volnogo Novgoroda

Price: 500 (dormitory)

Phone nr. : 8 (4822) 60 90 60

Website: www.kalininhostel.ru

Content:

Located in the center of Tver this is a great option for a night or more to sleep. The door is at the back of the street and the code of the bell is indicated here. It is at a high level and is an oasis of modernity (black-red-white) and professionalism. It is spotlessly clean and is very effectively classified. The small kitchen, sitting (lobby) area and reception is in a front of the appartment together and the rooms are spacious.

The showers and toilets are very good and again clean. Coffee, tea and filtered water are free and you get a large and small towel handed out on arrival. Your linen is super clean and there is free WIFI. Too bad the receptionist does not speak English.