Kaluga (, ) is a city and the administrative center of Kaluga Oblast, Russia. It stands on the Oka River southwest of Moscow. Its population was 337,058 at the 2021 census.

Established in the 14th century as a Russian border fortress, Kaluga was notable as a place of exile for political prisoners, leaders and officials of other nations under the Russian Empire, and has served as the seat of regional administration since 1776. Kaluga's most famous resident, the space travel pioneer Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, worked there as a school teacher from 1892 to 1935. The Tsiolkovsky State Museum of the History of Cosmonautics in Kaluga is dedicated to his theoretical achievements and to their practical implementations for modern space research, hence the motto on the city's coat of arms: , Kolybélʹ kosmonávtiki ("The Cradle of Space-Exploration").

History

Kaluga, founded in the mid-14th century as a border fortress on the southwestern borders of the Grand Duchy of Moscow, first appears in the historical record in chronicles in the 14th century as Koluga; the name comes from Old Russian kaluga is "bog, quagmire". In the late 14th century, it was located on the Muscovite border with Lithuania. During the period of Tartar raids it was the western end of the Oka bank defense line. The Great stand on the Ugra River was fought just to the west. It was an important strategic location in Muscovy's fights against Lithuania and the Crimean Khanate. In the Middle Ages Kaluga was a minor settlement owned by the Princes Vorotynsky. The ancestral home of these princes lies southwest of the modern city.

During the Uprising of Bolotnikov, it was successfully defended by Bolotnikov against Tsarist forces. In 1777, the local coat of arms was approved.

thumb|left|Kaluga in

Kaluga is connected to Moscow by a railway line and by the ancient roadway, the Kaluga Road (now partly within Moscow (as the Old Kaluga Highway), partly the A101 road). This road offered Napoleon his favored escape route from the Moscow trap in the fall of 1812. But General Kutuzov repelled Napoleon's advances in this direction and forced the retreating French army onto the Old Smolensk Road, previously devastated by the French during their invasion of Russia.

During World War II, the German army briefly occupied Kaluga during the climactic Battle of Moscow, as part of Operation Barbarossa. The city was under full or partial German occupation from 12 October to 30 December 1941. The Germans operated the Dulag 127 transit prisoner-of-war camp in the city. There was a high mortality rate in the camp, and then it was relocated west to Roslavl.

Demographics

As of the 2021 Census, the ethnic composition of Kaluga was:

{|

| valign="top" |

{| class="standard"

|-

!Ethnic group

!Population

!Percentage

|-

|Russians

| align="right" |310,622

| align="right" |91.9%

|-

|Armenians

| align="right" |4,527

| align="right" |1.3%

|-

|Tajiks

| align="right" |3,260

| align="right" |1.0%

|-

|Uzbeks

| align="right" |3,100

| align="right" |0.9%

|-

|Ukrainians

| align="right" |2,876

| align="right" |0.9%

|-

|Other

| align="right" |13,691

| align="right" |4.0%

|-

|}

|}

Administrative and municipal status

Kaluga is the administrative center of the oblast. Within the framework of administrative divisions, it is, together with seventy-two rural localities, incorporated as the City of Kaluga—an administrative unit with the status equal to that of the districts.

Economy

The Kaluga Turbine Plant is located here as is Kaluga Machine Works, which manufactures track machines for railways. In recent years, Kaluga has become one center of the Russian automotive industry, with a number of foreign companies opening assembly plants in the area:

On 28 November 2007, Volkswagen Group opened a new assembly plant in Kaluga, which further expanded by 2009. The investment has reached more than 500 million Euro. the plant assembled the Volkswagen Passat, Škoda Fabia and Škoda Rapid.

On 15 October 2007, the Volvo Group broke ground on a new truck assembly plant, that was inaugurated on 19 January 2009, with a yearly capacity of 10,000 Volvo and 5,000 Renault trucks.

On 12 December 2007, PSA Peugeot Citroën announced its decision to build a new assembly plant in Kaluga.

Transportation

The city is served by the Grabtsevo Airport. Since 1899, there has been a railway connection between Kaluga and Moscow.

Public transportation is represented by the trolleybuses, buses, and marshrutkas (routed taxis).

<gallery mode="packed">

Kaluga Lenina 96 02.jpg|ZiU-682 trolleybus

Kaluga trolleybus 129 2013-07.jpg|ZiU-682 trolleybus

Kaluga 2013 trolleybus 34.jpg|BKM-321 low-floor trolleybus

Terminal of Grabtsevo Airport (Kaluga, Russia) KLF UUBC (33977439235).jpg|Kaluga Airport

Калуга. Вокзал станции Калуга I.jpg|Kaluga Railway Station

</gallery>

Climate

Kaluga has a humid temperate continental (Köppen climate classification: Dfb), with warm and humid summers; and long, cold and snowy winters. Winter extreme records can be as low as , while summer heat may reach up , but normal variation is between and during winter and between and during summer in Kaluga.

Notable people

Kaluga's most famous resident was rocket science pioneer Konstantin Tsiolkovsky (1857–1935).

Other notable people include:

  • Sergei Avagimyan (born 1989), former professional footballer. Born in Russia, he played for the Armenian national football team.
  • Alexander Amfiteatrov (1862–1938), writer, novelist, and historian
  • Yuri Averbakh (1922–2022), chess grandmaster
  • Valentin Berestov (1922–2022), poet, lyricist
  • Mykola Azarov (born 1947), Ukrainian politician
  • Pafnuty Chebyshev (1821–1894), mathematician
  • Alexander Chizhevsky (1897–1964), interdisciplinary scientist
  • David Edelstadt (1866–1892), poet
  • Alexander Gretchaninov (1864–1956) Russian-American composer
  • Jonah of Hankou (1888–1925), Bishop
  • Andrei Kalaychev (born 1963), football player
  • Valery Kobelev (born 1973), ski jumper
  • Ivan Kuliak (born 2002), artistic gymnast
  • Stanislav Kunyaev (born 1932), poet, journalist, translator, and literary critic
  • Mikhail Linge (1958–1994), track and field athlete
  • Yevgeny Obolensky (1796–1865), Decembrist
  • Bulat Okudzhava (1924–1997), lived and taught Literature in public school in the 1950s
  • Nikolai Panchenko (1924–2005), poet
  • Pavel Popovich (1930–2009), cosmonaut, the only person to receive two honorary citizenships of Kaluga (1962 and 1964)
  • Larisa Popugayeva (1923–1977), geologist
  • Nikolai Rakov (1908–1990), violinist, composer and conductor
  • Imam Shamil (1797–1871), political, military, and spiritual leader of North Caucasian resistance to Imperial Russia in the 1800s
  • Nikolay Skvortsov (born 1984), swimmer
  • Tamara Syomina (born 1938), actress
  • Yuliya Tabakova (born 1980), track and field sprint athlete
  • Serafim Tulikov (1914–2004), composer
  • Georgy Zhukov (1896–1974), Soviet military leader who served as a top commander during World War II
  • Olesya Zykina (born 1980), 400m athlete

Twin towns – sister cities

Kaluga is twinned with:

  • Suhl, Germany (1969)

<!--Lahti - twinning ended-->

  • Tiraspol, Moldova (2005)
  • Panorama, Greece (2011)
  • Minsk, Belarus (2015)
  • Binzhou, China (2015)
  • Yalta, Ukraine (2016)
  • Niš, Serbia (2017)

Partner cities

In addition to twin towns, Kaluga cooperates with: