Rybinsk

Historically a major transshipment and grain trading hub on the upper Volga and the Vyshny Volochyok/Mariinsk–Tikhvin waterway system, Rybinsk expanded rapidly in the 18th–19th centuries and was chartered as a town in 1777. In the Soviet era it developed into an engineering center and inland river port associated with the construction of the Rybinsk Reservoir and Rybinsk Hydroelectric Station. The city is noted for its 19th‑century merchant architecture along the Volga embankment and is sometimes included in extended Golden Ring of Russia itineraries. Rybinsk has borne several names: Ust‑Sheksna (until 1504), Rybnaya Sloboda (until 1777), Shcherbakov, and Andropov. In 2021 Rybinsk was awarded the honorary title “City of Labour Valour”.