More about the city of Gagarin
- Rzhev ~ 110 km
- Sychevka ~ 96 km Torzhok ~ 284 km
- Staritsa ~ 206 km Tver ~ 200 km
- Volokolamsk ~ 130
- Vitebsk ~ 340 km
- Mozhaysk ~ 77 km
- Moscow (MKAD) ~ 179 km
- Vyazma ~ 65 km
- Smolensk ~ 233 km Yukhnov ~ 168 km
- Obninsk ~ 152 km
- Kaluga ~ 221 km
- Newspaper of the city administration«Gzhatskiy vestnik». Circulation 800 copies.
- Newspaper«Orbita plus – region». Circulation 6 000 copies.
- Radio station «Radio Dacha», 100.4 FM
- Radio station «Love Radio», 101.0 FM
- Radio station «Dorozhnoye radio», 107.5 FM
- Radio station «Radio Vanya», 98.9 FM
- Radio station «Khorosheye FM», 96.3 FM
- Cable TV and TV channel «Orbita plus»
Gagarin (until 1968 Gzhatsk) is a city in Russia, the administrative center of the Gagarin district of the Smolensk region and the Gagarin urban settlement.
The area of the city is 14.46 km², the population is 29,285 people. (2017).
The city is located on the Gzhat River (Volga basin) in the southern part of the Gzhatsko-Vuzuzskoy lowlands, 180 km south-west of Moscow and 239 km north-east of Smolensk.
Geographical position
The city is located on a flat terrain in the valley of the river Gzhat, a tributary of Vazuza.
Distance from Gagarin to major cities (by road):
Coat of arms of the city
In a silver field on azure (blue, blue) waves a scarlet (red) barque, loaded with golden bags. In the free part of the coat of arms of the Smolensk region. The shield is crowned with a municipal crown of the established sample. The motto “Homeland of the first cosmonaut” is inscribed with scarlet (red) letters on a silver ribbon.
History
The name Gzhatsk comes from the local name of the Gzhat River, given for the rusty shade of water.
In 1703, on the orders of Peter I, it was founded as a pier on the Gzhat River (called the Gzhatskiy pier).
 “Year 1703 … Finally, after correcting everything, the Great Sovereign returned to Moscow; and in this year, His Majesty’s vigilant care was built in Sestrebek an armory and foundry, and on the Gzhati river a pier, with which it would be convenient to load by barges next to St. Petersburg, which in the same year the Monarch populated wealthy merchants by transferring these from Mozhaisk , Vereya, Borovsk, Kaluga and other cities closest to it. ”
In 1719, the first baroque caravan delivered food to St. Petersburg. Since then, Peter I ordered to consider the Gzhatskiy pier to be the breadbasket of St. Petersburg. From the middle of the XVIII century – Gzhatskaya settlement; in 1776, by decree of Catherine II, she was transformed into the county town of Gzhatsk and received the coat of arms: “a barge in a silver field loaded with bread and ready for departure as a sign that there is a glorious grain pier at this city”.
The city was formed at the intersection of water and land routes – Moscow (from east to west) and Smolensky (from the south parallel to the river). According to the regular plan of 1773, it received the shape of a triangle, one side of which was stretched parallel to the Gzhat River, the other – parallel to the road to Moscow, the base of the triangle connecting both sides. The city was surrounded by a shaft, inside which streets were arranged in a rectangular grid. Not far from Gzhatsk in the village of Tsarevo-Zaimische on August 29, 1812, M.I. Kutuzov assumed command of the Russian army. On the day of the entry of the Napoleonic army at night, the city caught fire and burned for several days. A partisan detachment of Denis Davydov began to operate near Gzhatskoye. The Russian army re-entered the city on November 2, 1812. When the city was restored in 1817, the former regular planning was mainly preserved.
In the middle of 1905, demonstrators with a red flag were held in the Gzhatsky village of Novo-Pokrovsky during a crowded fair. October 31 (November 13), 1917 Soviet power was proclaimed in Gzhatsk and the county. A year later, a counter-revolutionary rebellion broke out. In June 1919, the Union of Communist Youth was organized.
Before World War II, a flax factory, a sawmill, a brick factory, a roller mill, a bakery, a weaving mill, a power station and an artel worked in the city. In 1935, a sound cinema was opened. There were a district club, a library, a teacher’s house.
The years of the Great Patriotic War
October 9, 1941 the city was occupied by the Germans. During the battles and the occupation, the Kazan Church (XVII — XVIII century), the Forerunner and Annunciation churches, the building of the Zemstvo administration (XVIII century) and other monuments, large buildings of the Soviet era (theater, power station, school) were destroyed.
On March 6, 1943, during the Rzhev-Vyazma operation, the city was liberated by the forces of the 5th Army.
Rename
On April 23, 1968, by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR, the city of Gzhatsk was renamed into the city of Gagarin in honor of Yu. A. Gagarin, born on March 9, 1934 in the village of Klushino, Gzhatsky District, and killed on March 27, 1968.
Modern period (since 1992)
New buildings on the street Builders
With the collapse of the USSR and the change in the political and economic situation in the country, new trends and problems touched Gagarin. The largest industrial enterprises were on the verge of bankruptcy (“Dynamics”, etc.). The city from a predominantly industrial center retrained to other sectors of the economy.
From the mid-1990s, the city began the rapid development of trade, services, construction and food industry. The shape of the city is changing beyond recognition. Despite the dilapidation of the old housing stock in the outskirts, large shopping and office centers and elite residential buildings are growing in the central part.
From 2001–2002, the city gradually emerged from the economic crisis of the 1990s; the largest federal trade networks appeared in the field of trade. Private business is actively investing in services and entertainment. New investors partially reanimate industry. Production of tires, diesel engines, injectors, cartridges, mechanical presses, etc. is resumed.