Chaplygin, Lipetsk Oblast

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other uses, see Chaplygin.

Coordinates: 53°15′N 39°58′E / 53.25, 39.967

Chaplygin (Russian: Чаплы́гин) is a town in Lipetsk Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Stanovaya Ryasa and Yagodnaya Ryasa Rivers, 85 kilometers (53 mi) north of Lipetsk. It is the administrative center of Chaplyginsky District. Population: 13,656 (2002 Census); 14,343 (1989 Census).

The settlement of Ust Stanovykh Ryas (Усть Становых Ряс) was founded on the territory of modern Chaplygin in the first half of the 17th century. It later grew into the village (selo) of Slobodskoye (Слободское). In 1695, Peter the Great built a small wooden palace in the near vicinity and in 1702—a small fortress under the name of Oraniyenburg (Ораниенбург). The name, originally an adoption of the German "Oranienburg", later degraded to "Raninburg" and later to "Ranenburg" (Раненбург).

In 1702, both the fortress and the village of Slobodskoye were granted to Alexander Menshikov, who built a small monastery here in 1712.

Town status was granted to Ranenburg in 1778. In 1948, it was renamed Chaplygin after the Russian physicist Sergey Chaplygin, who was born here in 1869.