On July 23, a stamp dedicated to the 950th Anniversary of the town of Toropets of the Tver Region was put into postal circulation

Toropets is the oldest town in the Tver Region of Russia. It was first mentioned in 1074. The annalistic text tells about the death of Toropets resident, Monk Isaac of the Caves in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra. The city itself was first mentioned in documents in 1168 as the center of the independent Toropets Principality. It is held that in 1239, Toropets hosted the marriage of Grand Duke Alexander Nevsky with Alexandra, the daughter of Polotsk prince Bryachislav. As legend has it, the young wife presented the citizens with an icon of Our Lady of Korsun.

In the 16th-17th centuries, the role of Toropets as a trade and craft center on the western borders of the Russian state increased. From the 18th century, leather craft was flourishing there. Since 1777, it received the status of the chief town of a district in the Pskov Province. After construction of the Toropets section of the railroad in 1905-1907, the town became the center of timber trade.

Since 1935, the town was part of the Kalinin Region of the RSFSR. From August of 1941 until January of 1942, it was occupied by Nazi troops; it was liberated during the Toropets-Kholm offensive.

Today, it is the administrative center of the Toropets District, where it forms a municipal formation of the town of Toropets with the status of urban settlement as the only settlement in its composition.

There are 41 cultural monuments of all-Russian significance and more than 50 cultural monuments of regional significance on the territory of the city. In the southern part of the city, on the shore of Lake Solomennoye, the ramparts of the High Small settlement still soar up; to the south and west of it there lies the Big Old settlement; and on the island where the Toropa River flows out of Lake Solomennoye there is the Red Val settlement (the town's Kremlin of the 16th-17th centuries).

The postage stamp provides an image of the monument in token of the marriage of Alexander Nevsky and Princess Alexandra Bryachislavna (sculptor A. Kovalchuk) against the background of the High Small settlement and the Cathedral of the Icon of Our Lady of Korsun, as well as the coat of arms of Toropets.

In addition to the issue of the postage stamp, JSC Marka produced First Day Covers and special cancels for Moscow, Tver and Toropets of the Tver Region.


Design Artist: M. Bodrova
Face value: 50 rubles.
Stamp size: 42×30 mm, sheet size: 146×174 mm.
Emission form: a sheet with formatted margins with 15 (3×5) stamps.
Quantity: 90 thousand stamps (6 thousand sheets).

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