KALUGA, a central government of European Russia, surrounded by those of Moscow, Smolensk, Orel (Orloff), and Tula. The area is estimated at 25,594 square.miles, or according to the maps of the Kaluga surveying office 27,407. For the most part the surface is flat, and the culminating point of the government is a hill in the northern district of Meduin, 910 feet in height. In the north-west there is a considerable tract of peat-bog. The Oka, a main tributary of the Volga, and its confluents (the Zhizdra, the Ugra,. &c.), drain all but a strip of country in the west, which is traversed by the Bolva, an affluent of the Dnieper. Strata of Carboniferous Limestone prevail except in the north, where Jurassic rocks take their place. The coal though common enough is of poor quality, and has been comparatively little worked. Clays from the southern districts are employed in the glass-works of Kaluga and the surrounding governments. Iron-ore is obtained in considerable abundance between the left-hand feeders of the Bolva and the upper course of the Zhizdra. According to the reports of the statistical committee for 1880 (Pam-yatnaya Knizhka, 1881) about 1,246,874 acres were covered with forest (pines, firs, birches), large tracts more especially existing in the Zhizdra district; 20,000 acres consisted of marsh land, 903,580 acres were under tillage, and 2,201,208 were devoted to pasturage. The soil in most parts of the government is composed of sand or clay; and it is only in certain portions of the districts of Peremuishl, Kozelsk, and Meshtchovsk that the famous “black earth” is found. Agriculture is in a comparatively low state in Kaluga, requiring a great increase in the outlay of capital, and especially the keeping of more live stock for the fattening of the soil...
Rye and oats are the principal crops, but the production is less than the local demand. Buckwheat, potatoes, flax, and hemp are also grown. Manufacturing industries are on the increase, the cloth and cotton factories employing upwards of 2000 men, the iron-works more than 6000, the paper-mills about 1300, and the match-works more than 1500. The breeding of canaries, which are sent to all parts of Russia, was a source of livelihood to 350 persons in 1880. Railway lines from Moscow to Orel, from Moscow to Smolensk, and from Smolensk to Orel enclose the government in a triangle, but none of them touch its territory. By means, however, of the navigable streams, a good deal of traffic is carried on. The government is divided into eleven districts (uyezd):— Kaluga, Mosalsk, Meshtchovsk, Likhvin, Kozelsk, Zhizdra, Peremuishl, Meduin, Borovsk, Maloyaroslavets, and Tarusa. The following are the towns of more than 5000 inhabitants, according to the returns for 1870 Kaluga, 38,600; Zhizdra, 11,700; Borovsk, 9500; Meduin, 7800; Kozelsk, 7350; Sukhinitchi, 6050; Meshtchovsk, 5450; Maloyaroslavets, 5150. The government had a population of 1,114,372 in 1880.
Kaluga, the chief town of the above government, is situated 475 feet above the sea-level on the left bank of the Oka, at the confluence of the Yatchenka, 114 miles south-west of Moscow, in 54° 3Γ N. lat. and 36° 6' E. long. Among the public buildings may be mentioned the cathedral of the Trinity (rebuilt in the present century in room of an older edifice dating from 1687), two monastic establishments, a male and a female gymnasium, an ecclesiastical seminary (with 219 students in 1879), an infant asylum, an orphanage, a public hospital, a lunatic asylum, a hospital for incurables, and a house of correction. The principal articles of production are leather, oil, bast mats, wax candles, starch, and a particular kind of cake known in Russia by the name of the town. This last item alone counts for more than 1,000,000 roubles (£156,000) per annum in the local trade. Situated as it is on a navigable river, and at the junction of important roads, Kaluga is naturally the centre of no small commercial activity. Even in the beginning of the century its merchants and manufactures were known in Leipsic, Bremen, and Dantzic. Including the suburban villages of Yamskaya and Podsavalya the town had 36,880 inhabitants in 1870.
The first historical mention of Kaluga occurs in 1389, when Demetrius of the Don assigned it to his son; and its final incorporation with the principality of Moscow belongs to the year 1518. In 1607 it was held by the pretender Bolotnikoff, and vainly besieged for four months by the forces of Shuiski; but in 1619 it fell into the hands of the Zaporogian hetman. Nor was it from war alone that Kaluga suffered. Two thirds of its inhabitants were carried off by a plague; and in 1622 the whole place was laid waste by a conflagration. It recovered, however, and, in spite of several extensive conflagrations (especially in 1742 and 1754) has continued to flourish. The rank of chief town of a province was obtained in 1719. In 1734 the population numbered 13,788, and by 1785 had increased to 17,078. On several occasions Kaluga has been chosen as the residence of political prisoners; among others, the famous Schamyl (see Russkαyα Stanna, 1877) spent his exile there. .
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