The name is from that of the Tarusa River, a tributary of the Oka; Tar- is a hydronym base characteristic of regions of ancient Baltic settlement.[9] According to a popular belief, the name derives from Tarusa's geohistorical position as a border town to the adjoining realm of Lithuania situated on the bank of the Oka. Questions about travelers' whereabouts from the other bank were answered with the answer To—Rus!, meaning "that is Russia," eventually becoming the name of the town.
History
Tarusa is known to have existed since 1246,[10] when it was the capital of one of the Upper Oka Principalities—the Principality of Tarusa.[11] The first ruler of this principality was Grand Duke Yury Mikhailovich, the son of Grand Duke Mikhail Vsevolodovich of Chernigov. Later, the local rulers moved their seats to Meshchovsk and Boryatino, and Tarusa was subjugated by the Grand Duchy of Moscow in the late 14th century. In the mid-15th century, Tarusa passed to Lithuania, and later on it fell back to the Grand Duchy of Moscow.[11] In the 16th century, it was fortified with ramparts and trenches in defense against the Crimean Tatars and Nogai Horde.[11] In 1876, there were 40 craftsmen and 7 small factories in Tarusa.[11]
Soviet authority in Tarusa was established on December 27, 1917. In the following years, the town's churches were closed and a monument to Stalin was erected on the central square. During World War II, German troops approached Tarusa and took it on their way to Moscow. The town was occupied by the Germans between October 24 and December 19, 1941. After that, the town was retaken by the Red Army which crossed the Oka River in winter under the frantic German fire and successfully attacked the German strongholds on the higher bank of Oka. Remnants of the town's fortifications and the town wall can still be seen today in the community park near the Peter and Paul Cathedral.
In 1961, Konstantin Paustovsky fought to publish his famous Tarusa Pages, which became the only book in the Soviet Union which escaped Moscow-based central party censorship and offered its pages for various free-thinking and dissident writers. After the book was published, it was declared ideologically harmful and removed from all bookstores and libraries. The director of the Kaluga publishing house was reprimanded, the editor-in-chief was fired, and other repressions were to follow. It was only Paustovsky's personal appeal to Nikita Khrushchev that stopped the wave of planned repressions. Nevertheless, the Tarusa Pages became a significant and meaningful event in the Soviet literature. The book introduced to the public such authors as Bulat Okudzhava, Vladimir Maksimov, Frida Vigdorova, Nadezhda Mandelstam, and Naum Korzhavin, who enjoyed immense popularity in the later years.
The town has a number of popular museums—the Tarusa Regional Museum of Local Lore and the Tsvetayevs Family Museum. It is also home to the Tarusa Town Picture Gallery, which is a branch of Kaluga Regional Museum of Art, boasting a rich collection of such Russian artists as Boris Kustodiev, Nikolay Krymov, Ivan Aivazovsky, Lev Lagorio, and Vasily Polenov.
Tarusa has two cemeteries: the Old Cemetery and the New Cemetery. Writer Konstantin Paustovsky, sculptor Vasily Vatagin, Marina Tsvetaeva's daughter Ariadna Èfron, builder Sergey Krutilin, and writer Nadezhda Krandievskaya are buried in the Old Cemetery.
^ abcdSłownik geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego i innych krajów słowiańskich, Tom XII (in Polish). Warszawa. 1892. p. 218.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Sources
Законодательное Собрание Калужской области. Закон №369-ОЗ от 1 ноября 2004 г. «Об установлении границ муниципальных образований, расположенных на территории административно-территориальных единиц "Думиничский район", "Кировский район", "Медынский район", "Перемышльский район", "Сухиничский район", "Тарусский район", "Юхновский район", и наделении их статусом городского поселения, сельского поселения, муниципального района», в ред. Закона №728-ОЗ от 29 мая 2015 г. «О внесении изменений в Закон Калужской области "Об установлении границ муниципальных образований, расположенных на территории административно-территориальных единиц "Думиничский район", "Кировский район", "Медынский район", "Перемышльский район", "Сухиничский район", "Тарусский район", "Юхновский район", и наделении их статусом городского поселения, сельского поселения, муниципального района"». Вступил в силу после вступления в силу Закона Калужской области "Об изменении статуса населённых пунктов, расположенных на территории административно-территориальных единиц "Думиничский район", "Кировский район", "Медынский район", "Перемышльский район", "Сухиничский район", "Тарусский район", "Юхновский район" Калужской области", но не ранее чем через десять дней после его официального опубликования. Опубликован: "Весть", №336–338, 10 ноября 2004 г. (Legislative Assembly of Kaluga Oblast. Law #369-OZ of November 1, 2004 On Establishing the Borders of the Municipal Formations Located on the Territory of the Administrative-Territorial Units of "Duminichsky District", "Kirovsky District", "Medynsky District", "Peremyshlsky District", "Sukhinichsky District", "Tarussky District", "Yukhnovsky District", and on Granting Them the Status of an Urban Settlement, Rural Settlement, Municipal District, as amended by the Law #728-OZ of May 29, 2015 On Amending the Law of Kaluga Oblast "On Establishing the Borders of the Municipal Formations Located on the Territory of the Administrative-Territorial Units of "Duminichsky District", "Kirovsky District", "Medynsky District", "Peremyshlsky District", "Sukhinichsky District", "Tarussky District", "Yukhnovsky District", and on Granting Them the Status of an Urban Settlement, Rural Settlement, Municipal District". Effective as of after the Law of Kaluga Oblast "On Changing the Status of the Inhabited Localities Located on the Territory of the Administrative-Territorial Units of "Duminichsky District", "Kirovsky District", "Medynsky District", "Peremyshlsky District", "Sukhinichsky District", "Tarussky District", "Yukhnovsky District" of Kaluga Oblast" takes effect, but no earlier than after ten days since the official publication have passed.).