Soltsy

About the town. Soltsy is 628 years old: its first written mention dates to 1390. The Novgorod Chronicle records that in 1390 Novgorodians with Prince Semyon Olgerdovich campaigned against Pskov and stopped at Soltsy. Even earlier, in 1239, Prince Alexander Nevsky founded a fortified settlement called Gorodok, 3 km from the town, to defend the Novgorod lands. The name Soltsy comes from numerous salt springs rising along the left bank of the Shelon River. Residents once evaporated salt from them, and the springs were also valued for their healing properties. As Soltsy grew from village to larger settlement, its administrative importance increased. On 10 March 1781, Empress Catherine II issued a decree granting the former artillery settlement of Soltsy the status of a posad with its own town hall and the rights of urban townspeople (Complete Collection of Laws of the Russian Empire, volume XXI). Merchant dynasties such as the Ardamatskys, Bogrovs, Vanyukovs, Krasikovs, Bogovskys, Yulins and Dubetskys supported churches, schools and almshouses. By the turn of the XIX — XX centuries, Soltsy had paved streets, stone houses, large textile shops, small stores and craft workshops. Local crafts included spinning, weaving, needlework and blacksmithing. The Ilyinsky fairs were held from 20 to 28 July, with turnover of 90–100 thousand gold rubles each. After the outbreak of the First World War, in 1915 Soltsy received resort-town status when the Bogovsky merchant family opened a sanatorium for wounded officers on their estate. Later, at the end of the 20s, a balneological and mud resort was organised around the sanatorium, with three mineral-water springs similar to North Caucasian narzan waters. A nearby mineral-water plant bottled the water. The town was also a centre of the flax trade. In 1927, Soltsy became a town and the centre of Soletsky District within the newly created Western Region. In 1930–44 it belonged to Leningrad Region, and from 1944 became a district centre of the Novgorod Region. During the Great Patriotic War, the town was under Nazi occupation from 1941 to 1944. Many buildings, including the resort, were destroyed or burned. In mid-July 1941, Soviet troops near Soltsy carried out one of their first successful counterattacks and delayed the German advance toward Leningrad. Soltsy is officially listed among Russia’s historic settlements. Today it is a district centre with about 9 thousand residents. Historic merchant houses, shops and religious buildings survive, including an Old Believer prayer house, an 18th-century wooden Church of the Protection, and the active St. Elijah Cathedral built in 1824–1825 in the Classical style. In Vybitty village, 10 km from Soltsy, stands the ancestral estate of the Vasilchikov princes, with a landscaped park and buildings dating from the late 18th to early 19th centuries. It belonged to four generations of the family. Illarion Vasilyevich was a hero of the War of 1812 and a member of the State Council. Alexander Illarionovich was a public figure and writer who served as second in Lermontov’s duel with Martynov. Viktor Alexandrovich was a general and Crimean War hero. Boris Alexandrovich led the Novgorod provincial nobility, served as Minister of Land Management and Agriculture in Stolypin’s cabinet and was a member of the State Council. Other nearby sights include the former Vanyukov merchant estate of the 19th century in Gorki village, the 19th-century Church of the Dormition in Molochkovo, and the Church of St. John the Theologian in Velebitsy from the 2nd half of the 19th century. Writers M. M. Prishvin, V. Ya. Shishkov and I. S. Sokolov-Mikitov, artist K. S. Petrov-Vodkin, composers P. I. Tchaikovsky and T. N. Khrennikov, and academician A. P. Karpinsky all spent time in the Soltsy area. The town’s tourism symbol, “Mishka-Varyazhek”, is a souvenir salt cellar inspired by Soltsy’s salt-trading history and the image of a Varangian merchant. According to V. I. Dahl’s dictionary, in Russia the word “Varangian” could mean a travelling trader rather than only a Norman mercenary. The souvenir is a brightly painted red-clay bear, an animal shown on the coats of arms of both Veliky Novgorod and Soltsy, mounted on a small base with diagonal stripes suggesting the continuous movement of salt-makers and traders through the southern Lake Ilmen lands.