Tikhvin

a city under oblast jurisdiction and the administrative center of Tikhvin Raion, Leningrad Oblast, RSFSR. Located on the Tikhvinka River, in the basin of Lake Ladoga, 200 km east of Leningrad. A railroad and highway junction. Population, 48,300 (1975).

Beginning in 1383, Tikhvin was known as Predtechenskii pogost, which was part of the Obonezhskaia piatina of the Novgorod feudal republic. From 1560 to 1764, it was a vassalage of the Tikhvinskii Bogoroditskii Bol’shoi Monastery. It was named Tikhvin in 1724. In 1773, it was made the administrative center of a district in the Novgorod namestnichestvo, which became Novgorod Province in 1796. Soviet power was established in Tikhvin at the end of 1917. Tikhvin became the administrative center of a district in Cherepovets Province in 1918 and the administrative center of a raion in Leningrad Oblast in 1927. From Nov. 8 to Dec. 9, 1941, the city was occupied by fascist German troops. The Tikhvin area was the site of fierce battles during the Tikhvin Defensive Operation of 1941 and the Tikhvin Offensive Operation of 1941.

Tikhvin has metallurgical, welded-structural-component, and tractor plants of the Kirovskii Zavod Production Association. Other industries include wood processing, timber chemistry, and the construction of prefabricated housing. Educational institutions include a secondary specialized polytechnic, a foundry and mechanical-engineering technicum, a medical school, and a branch of a polytechnic institute. The house-museum of the composer N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov is in Tikhvin. On Oct. 24, 1974, Tikhvin was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War First Class.