Malaya Vishera

About the town. Malaya Vishera grew with construction of the St. Petersburg — Moscow railway. In 1843, a team of serf peasants built a government log house from old pines on the riverbank for railway supervisors; it became the first building of the future town. The Malaya Visherka River, a right tributary of the Volkhov, has a clearly non-Slavic name. 15th-century census books preserve traces of Baltic-Finnic settlements along the Volkhov and its tributaries. The locality was originally called “Kontsy”, after a nearby village. The stop itself was not a terminus but stood on the St. Petersburg — Moscow railway. In 1874, the station was named Bolshaya Vishera after the local river. On 18 December 1871, celebrations marked the elevation of the settlement at Malaya Vishera station to posad status. Only three stations on the line had the highest rank: Malaya Vishera, Bologoye and Tver. Several historic episodes are associated with the town. On the night of 1 March 1917, the imperial train stopped here after Nicholas II was informed that Lyuban and Tosno were occupied by insurgents. He wrote in his diary that the train turned back from M. Vishera during the night. Malaya Vishera and its surroundings were also a favourite retreat for the capital’s nobility. Alexander II, a passionate hunter among 19th-century Russian rulers, helped make bear hunting fashionable at court. Poet N. A. Nekrasov also liked to hunt here. On 10 March 1918, at Malaya Vishera station, a train carrying Vladimir Ilyich Lenin encountered hostile anarchist sailors who had left the front without authorisation. The “anarchist train” was disarmed with the help of Latvian Riflemen. In 1918–1927, Malaya Vishera was the administrative centre of Malaya Vishera Uyezd in Novgorod Governorate. During the Great Patriotic War, M. Vishera became the first town liberated from Nazi German forces (20 November 1941).