Taldom () is a town in Moscow Oblast, Russia, located north of Moscow, on a suburban railway connecting Moscow to Savyolovo. Population: It is located within the Moscow Standard Time Zone (GMT+3).
Between 1918 and 1929, it was known as Leninsk.
Etymology
The origin of the town's name remains controversial. There are three main theories: Finno-Ugric, Tatar and Russian. According to the first one, the word has Finno-Ugric (Meryan or Karelian) roots and originates from words with the root "tal" (talo - house; talous - household). There is also a linguistic justification of the Tatar theory. According to it, the word Taldom comes from the Kipchak root meaning a nomad camp.
The Russian theory is folk. It is based on people's ignorance of Finno-Ugric or Turkic roots in the past. According to it, a priest was passing by the place and saw smoke from a bonfire on the site of the future town and said: "There is a smoke" (rus. Там дым, Tam dym). It was transformed into Taldom.
In the story "Shoes" (rus. Башмаки, Bashmaki), M. M. Prishvin refers to the versions of the Taldom priest of the early 20th century, M. Krestnikov. According to one of them: "Taldom is a Tatar word and means nomad camp," another: "Taldom is Finnish and means yellow soil." According to the folk version: "Taldom — it was set a new house" (rus. Талдом — стал (новый) дом, Taldom — stal (novy) dom). Formally it remained a village until 1918 but in fact it gained the population of an awerage town in the middle of the 19th century.
Before the foundation of the village
No older settlements have been found on the territory of the town. Although the surroundings of Taldom have been inhabited since the late Stone Age. No comprehensive archaeological work has been carried out on the territory of the town. Not even any treasures were found.
Taldom in the 17-19th centuries
The first mention of the toponym dates back to 1650. In the census of the wastelands of Lukian Mizintsov, boyar son from Kashin. Taldom was first mentioned as a village in 1677. This fact is widely recognized by local historians, because there is no mention of a village called Taldom in the Kashinskaya Pistsovaya Kniga (the scrible book of Kashin) of 1627–1629. However, in the scribal book of Kashin from 1677, there is a mention of one.
From 1677 to 1688, Taldom was a part of the Kimry Palace Volost. Until the year of 1764 it was a property of the Archbishop of Tver and Kashin. In 1680, a wooden church was built (by local historian Leo Krylov). The church was built up to 1717. Between 1688 and 1719 Taldom was a part of Gostunskaya volost (rus. Гостунская волость) of Kashin uezd. Since the year 1702, Taldom was part of the Governatory of Ingermanland, which since 1711 became the Governatory of St. Petersburg. Since 1719, it was the part of Uglich Province. In 1727 Uglich Province became a part of the Governatory of Moscow.
Thought that the present-day District of Taldom is a part of the medieval Grand Duchy of Tver. The town itself was economically closer to Yaroslavl until the mid-20th century when it became closer to Moscow due to internal migrations.
After the Secularisation reform of Cathrene the Great in 1764, Taldom became an economical settlement (rus. экономическое поселение, economicheskoye poseleniye) belonged to the College of Economics of the Sinodal Bord. After this, Taldom became a trading village. In 1776, the Kalyazinsky uezd was formed as part of the Tver Governorate, which included the village of Taldom. Taldom volost was formed around it.
In 1778, a fire broke out in the village of Taldom. Many houses and a church burned down. In 1780, the church was rebuilt in wood, and in 1795 it was rebuilt in stone. In 1808, the stone church was consecrated. In 1829, there were 30 yards in Taldom. In 1835, there were 41 yards. In 1859, more than 1,000 people (508 men and 537 women) lived in Taldom, and there were 147 households. However, despite the rapid population growth, Taldom remained a village. This growth temporarily stopped in 1869, when the second major fire occurred in Taldom, which, according to the testimony of the clerk of the Ermolino estate of Saltykovs, V. I. Bylinin, destroyed up to 155 houses. The village burned 2 times within 4 days. According to Bylinin, "clean fields were created." However, by the 1880s the village had recovered. After the abolition of serfdom in 1861, the influx of labor and the growing demand for shoes further contributed to the development of the shoe industry in the Taldom. The trade was held in tents near the St. Michael's Church on the Trading (rus. Торговая, Torgovaya) Square (now Karl Marx Square). In the 18th century, "bricks" (rus. кирпичи, kirpichi) were produced here - men's shoes with a clay lining. Then came the technology of manufacturing "ostashi" (rus. осташи) (boots with high tops made of rough, unpainted leather). In the 19th century, the manufacture of corduroy and velvet shoes with fur began. This legend speaks about the high quality of Taldom shoes. However, those shoes were really famous abroad: in France and in Italy. The competitors of the villagers were residents of the neighboring Kimry, also known for their shoe products. In addition, Moscow craftsmen tried to oust the shoe market of Taldom and Kimry handicrafts. Muscovites came up with various tall tales about how bad the neighbors' shoes were and how good were their. However, this did not affect the sales volume of Taldom shoes. On the contrary, sales volumes only grew every year. Taldom and Kimry competed for the title of the "shoe capital" of Russia.
At this time, not only Orthodox Christians live in Taldom, but also a significant proportion of Old Believers. In particular, representatives of one of the most respected and wealthy families of the village, the Volkovs, came from the Old Believers. The Old Believers' Church was located on the site of a modern monument to the soviet partisan Zina Golitsyna. However, until 1905, the Old Believers were persecuted in Russia as heretics. It was only in 1906, after the introduction of religious tolerance in Russia, that the Old Believers were able to transform the prayer house into a church. There was also an Old Believers' cemetery, on the site of which a cultural center was built in Soviet times. During the Soviet times most of the Old Believers abandoned their religion for atheism or Orthodoxy.
In 1894, a private Pashkevich's pharmacy was opened in Taldom, and a year later a six-bed zemstvo (local) hospital was built. Wooden shopping malls have been built. I.I.Bychkov's company was founded, which sells children's, ladies' and men's shoes. In 1897, the first public library named after Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna was opened in Taldom. In 1901, the Savyolovskaya branch of the Moscow Railway passed through Taldom, connecting the village with Dmitrov, Degunino, Moscow and Kimry (Savyolovo). Thanks to the efforts of a group of merchants, the railway did not pass by the village, as planned at the beginning, but through it. In 1907, the export of leather shoes by railway alone from Taldom station amounted to 31,000 pounds or 350,000 pairs. In addition to shoe production, tailoring, furriery, and felting industries were developed, as well as logging for firewood and timber. In 1906, the Kashin trakt was paved. Now the house of Volkovs is a local museum.
In addition to these houses, other unique Art Nouveau apartment buildings were built. Among them are the houses of merchants Mashatins. The houses of the brothers Alexey and Vladimir eventually merged into one house, which now houses the town administration. Alexey Mashatin, before the revolution, was engaged in the leather trade, lent loans to Taldom artisans and bought shoes from them. Vladimir Mashatin was engaged in the grocery trade. The third brother, Matvey, was also engaged in the grocery trade and owned the printing house, the oldest civilian brick building in Taldom that has survived to this day. It was founded in 1899. The houses of shoe merchants Yefim (built in 1908) and Alexey (1906) Kharitonov, located on Kalyazinskaya Street, are noteworthy. Sadov's shoe maker's House (1909), merchant S. S. Smirnov's apartment building with shopping malls (1912) and F. A. Vorontsov's apartment building (1912), which housed the city's first cinema, and later an art school that still exists. With the money of the Smirnov merchants, a brick fire station and a brick fire tower were built, which still exist. There was a fire brigade "The Red Rooster" (rus. Красный петух, Krasny petukh) with a 4-lane fire wagon train. Unfotinatly, some of the great buildings of this time were destroyed during the 20th century an so they are not presented anywhere else but on the old photos.
As for the wooden construction of the village, it remained dominant outside the center. However, the wooden houses were no less rich and large than the stone ones. Almost any wooden house of that time is richly decorated with wood carvings, especially the architraves. There is often an image of a snake in the carving patterns, which is typical for the Upper Volga region, especially for the Tver and Yaroslavl regions. The richest houses often have the owner's initials carved on the facade, and sometimes the year of construction or the name of the contractor. Many wooden houses in the city are two-storied. However, the most common type of wooden house in Taldom remained a one-story five-story building. Only in Taldom and Kimry (rarely in neighboring towns) houses with a mezzanine in the form of a bicorne hat have been preserved.
In 1908, the wooden shopping malls were rebuilt in stone. At that time, the square on which they are located (now Karl Marx Square) became known as Cathedral (rus. Соборная, Sobornaya) Square, since the Cathedral of Archangel Michael was located on it. Far beyond the borders of Tver Governorate, the faience iconostasis of the cathedral was known, which was only partially preserved after the destruction of the cathedral by the Bolsheviks. Actually, the Bolsheviks began to enter the city in 1904.
It is ironic that the events that killed Sobtsov began in his native village of Myakishevo. On March 12, 1918, the villagers held a meeting to discuss food issues. Nikolai Merkulov proposed to arrange a flag and on May 14 he would go to Taldom to ask the authorities for bread and free trade. Citizen Ivan Korzhin raised money for the flag for 40 kopecks per person. The flag was a banner with the inscription: "Government, give us bread, long live free trade!" (rus. Власть, дай хлеба, да здравствует свободный торг!, Vlast', day khleba, da zdravstvuyet svobodny torg!). The flag was created by Nikolai Merkulov, Sergey Kunitsyn and Pavel Belov. On May 14, a crowd of angry wealthy peasants headed from Myakishevo to Taldom, passing along the Kashinsky trakt through the villages of Sotskoye, Karachunovo, Akhtimneevo, Kostino and Vysochki, where the crowd noticeably increased due to local residents joining the march. At that time, a meeting was held in Taldom with the participation of members of the audit commission (rus. Ревизионная комиссия, Revizionnaya commissia). Ivan Guryanovich Zyablikov met the crowd at the Executive Committee building (rus. Исполком (Исполнительный комитет), Ispolkom (Ispolnitel'ny comitet). He offered to choose deputies for negotiations, to which the crowd did not agree and demanded the extradition of Sobtsov. In addition, the crowd demanded the release of those arrested for non-payment of the emergency tax. Zyablikov, along with the rebels, went to the detention facility, where it turned out that almost all of those arrested, except one, had already been released by the rebels. The police were disarmed, and Zyablikov was arrested. The crowd took him to the telegraph office to forbid him from receiving and sending any telegrams about the events taking place. Following that, Sedov, the security commissioner, and Korolev, a member of the volost executive committee, were arrested and beaten. I. M. Malkov played a key role in the arrests of the committee participants. Kachalov, a member of the executive committee, tried to send a telegram about the events to Savelovo through the telegraph, but Vladimir Fedotov, the telegraph operator, refused to send the message. Andrei Zyablikov came to the telegraph station and arrested Kachalov. He took him to the crowd, who beat him with extreme brutality. After the arrest of the committee participants, the crowd split up. Some of the rebels went to conduct searches in the homes of Soviet employees, while the other, the main one, went to look for Sobtsov. The fact that Sobtsov is at home was indicated by his neighbor by the name of Guzikova. She supervised the search from the window. As a result, Sobtsov was found in the basement, taken outside and killed by several shots from a revolver by a peasant from the village of Sotskoye, Ivan Spiridonovich Kozhevnikov. Searches also took place in the houses of the secretary of security (rus. Секретарь охраны, Sekretar' okhrany) Khlebnikov, the Commissioner of Labor (rus. Комиссар труда, Comissar truda) Kostyorin, policemen Fuchsin and Podkidyshev, in the warehouse of the union of Dmitrov cooperative and in the apartment of Yevdokia Ivanova.
At 6 p.m., the gathering began under the command of Nikolay Stepanovich Smirnov, the ideological mastermind of the uprising. Smirnov proposes to establish a new government body instead of the old one, which was beaten and arrested. He suggests that the village committee (rus. Сельский комитет, Sel'skiy comitet) take over the functions of the executive committee, to which the village committee agrees. Citizen Gromov was elected Chairman of the village assembly. The gathering lasted until 10 p.m., after which the crowd dispersed, leaving the guards. At this time, Kosterin, who was fleeing from persecution, reached the Lebzino station. Later, Volkonsky joined him. Together they went to Savyolovo, as the phone in Lebzino was not working. From there, they called Taldom to find out what the situation in the village was like and received an answer that everything was calm and nothing had happened. In the morning, Kosterin and Volkonsky returned to Taldom with a punitive detachment. The squad fired at the council building, after which the guards fled. After that, the leaders of the uprising were arrested. The uprising was suppressed, and Soviet power was restored in the village. Later, the Moskovskaya Street where Sobtsov's murder took place was renamed in his honor. Now there is a monument to the revolutionary on it. In June 1918, the village council (rus. поселковый совет, poselkovy sovet) was formed, and in July the council of economic development or sovnarkhoz was established (chairman - M. P. Sedov). In the same year, a club was opened in the house of merchant Chernov. tThe first electric light bulb in the town lit up (the current was given from the cinema engine). A shoe-block factory was opened in December.
On November 5, 1918, the deputy soviet of Taldom decided to give a town status for the village and rename it to Leninsk. By the decision of the Presidium of the Tver Provincial Executive Committee of December 3, 1918, the village of Taldom was renamed the town of Leninsk — the first settlement to be renamed after Vladimir Lenin (who was still alive then) — and the Taldomskaya volost was renamed to Leninskaya. In response to the "petitions of the population" of the volosts of the Tver, Moscow, and Vladimir provinces adjacent to Leninsk and economically connected with the production of footwear, on August 15, 1921, by decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, a new Leninsk District was formed as part of the Moscow Governorate with its center in the town of Leninsk.
In 1919 due to the Civil war in Russia, Taldomskaya volost was declar under martial low.
During the years of the civil war and war communism, the shoe trade of the residents of Taldom declined sharply. Only during the New Economic Policy did handicraft shoe production begin to revive, but it did not reach its former scale. As the NEP was winding down, the shoe industry declined again, and by the mid-1930s, it disappeared completely due to dekulakization. In 1923, the town was electrified.
In January 1920, the district committee of the Bolshevik Party was formed (chairman - A. K. Kosterin). On May 1, the Museum of nature and life of the local region was opened. In August, the district committee of the Communist Youth Union (rus. Коммунистический союз молодёжи, Communisticheskiy soyuz molodyozhi) was established. In the same year, the town's power plant was built, which operated until 1945. A veterinary clinic was opened. The activities of the Union of Dmitrov Cooperatives, as an organization in opposition to the Bolsheviks, have been terminated. On April 15, 1921, the first district congress of the Komsomol was held. On August 15 of the same year, Leninskaya Volost was transformed into Leninsky Uyezd, which covered the territories of the modern Taldomsky district and part of the current Dmitrovsky district. An elementary school building was built in 1922. In 1923, the district library and the "Lenstroy" housing and cooperative partnership were organized, which built six houses. In December, the third Uyezd Congress of Soviets was held. In 1924, the first 1,200 meters of water supply were laid. In 1925, a large shoe fair was held in Leninsk. In the same year, as part of the fight against religion in the USSR, the Church of Archangel Michael, the only Orthodox church in the town, was closed. In the same year, the Leninsk Consumer Society opened a bakery. In 1926, the artel of tailors "Avangard" (now "Yunost-2") was opened, and in 1927 the artel of shoemakers (now "Taldomobuv'") was opened. 2,110 people died in battle, 763 died of wounds and diseases in captivity, and 3,389 were missing. The Moscow Canal and Ramenskoye Forest, which was then part of the Taldomsky district, separated Taldom from the front line. The Wehrmacht forces marched along the edge of this forest, occupying the western part of the Dmitrov district, but without taking control of a single settlement in the Taldomsky district. This was prevented by the Red Army's counteroffensive near Moscow in 1941, during which the territories of the nearby Dmitrov district were liberated.
In 1943, the district food processing plant was organized with workshops (departments): confectionery, soft drinks, starch and treacle, and fruit and vegetable farming. In 1945, Taldom and Taldom district were connected to the state power grid. In 1946, a new secondary school was built in the town (1, Orlova Street), and a new public bathhouse was opened. In 1949, a group of the All-Union Society of the Blind was organized.
In the 1950s, active asphalting of roads connecting Taldom with regional settlements began. In 1955, an ambulance service was organized, and the "Spartak" ("Harvest") stadium was built. In 1956, the Sobtsov artel was renamed the Taldom Shoe Factory. By this time, almost all artisans began working at the "Yunost" factories and at the shoe factory. On average, representatives of the generation born before the 1950s, almost without exception, owned one or another craft. The post-war generation stopped learning crafts, as new windows of opportunity began to open, including the opportunity to go to study or work in Moscow. In 1957, an artel of household sanitation was established in Taldom. In 1959, a cultural center was built on the site of the demolished Old Believers cemetery. In 1960, a new water pumping station began to supply water to the town's water supply network, construction of a boarding school for 920 people began (Taldom Secondary school No. 3 is now located here), and the children's music school (piano, accordion, and violin classes) accepted its first students.
The 1960s were the last decade before the start of mass migration, typical of all small towns in the European part of Russia at that time. In the 1960s, the massive construction of the town began with typical apartment buildings - "Khrushchevki", and later — "Brezhnevki". They replaced the previously existing barracks and bunkhouses, which were housed in large private houses. The construction of three new residential districts of the town, consisting entirely of panel houses, begins: Jubilee (rus. Юбилейный, Yubileyny), Sovkhoz (rus. Совхоз), PMK-21 (rus. ПМК-21). On average, most houses did not exceed a height of five floors. In 1962, the Taldom Consumer Services Plant was established, which had a sewing workshop, dry cleaning, a watch and furniture workshop, a photo studio, a shoe repair shop, and the Taldom Metal Products Factory was organized on the basis of a former hardware factory.
In 1962, Taldom district was abolished and merged to Dmitrov district, but in 1965, it was reestablished due to the fall of administrative reform.
In 1965, the first issue of the regional newspaper "The Dawn" (rus. Заря, Zarya) was published, the most popular in the town, until the closure of the printing house in 2018. In 1967, the construction of the "Jubilee" microdistrict began. In the same year, on the site of the Old Believers church, a monument to the partisan Zina Golitsyna, who operated during the Great Patriotic War, was unveiled. In 1969, the metal products plant was renamed the technological equipment plant. In 1970, a monument to those who died during the Great Patriotic War was erected in the "Jubilee" microdistrict, and Victory Park (rus. Парк Победы, Park Pobedy) was laid out. In the same year, a bus station building was opened. On the central estate of the Taldom collective farm the "Wheat" (rus. Колос, Kolos) cultural center was opened. On July 3, 1971, Taldom established its own traffic police department. In 1972, the gasification of the town began. The shoe-brick factory became part of the technological equipment plant.
A communications center and a PBX for 2,000 subscribers have been built in the town center. In 1973, the bakery factory was put into operation. In 1974, an agrochemical center was established in Taldom. In 1975, the Taldom Shoe Factory and Taldom Shoe Factory No. 1 merged into the Taldom Shoe Factory as part of the Moscow shoe manufacturing association "The East" (rus. Восток, Vostok). In 1977, Taldom celebrated its 300th anniversary. In honor of this event, the first electric train came to the town. The House of everyday life was built in the same year. TRUEMS was founded in 1984. (Taldom District Repair and Maintenance Association of Land Reclamation and Water Management) on the basis of the Dubna Interdistrict Department for the Operation of Land Reclamation Systems and Water Facilities and the Dubna PMK. A new secondary school No. 2 ("white") has been opened.
With the beginning of Perestroika in 1985, the town's economy began to decline. People began to leave en masse for neighboring towns and cities: Dubna, Dmitrov and Moscow, where there were more opportunities for self-realization. At the same time, in the 1990s, against the backdrop of the food crisis in Moscow, some people, on the contrary, went to small towns such as Taldom to run their own subsidiary farms. Cottage settlements of summer residents have grown up around the town, including numerous GNCP (gardening non-commercial partnerships). Since the beginning of privatization, most of the enterprises have either closed or fallen into disrepair. The local population began to trade in the market and quit their previous jobs en masse. At the same time, there is an active spiritual revival of the town. In 1990, the Church of St. Michael the Archangel was reopened. In 1991, the Taldom town Soviet ceased its activities. On February 1, 1993, the Taldom Museum received the status of a historical and literature museum. In the same year, on September 1, a youth center and a temporary shelter for minors opened in Taldom. After the events of October 1993 in Moscow, the district Soviet of People's Deputies and village soviets were dissolved. Their legal successors were the administration of the Taldom district and the administrations of the territories of rural councils. In 1994, by decree of the ruling bishop, His Eminence Juvenal, Metropolitan of Krutitsy and Kolomna, the Taldom church district was established. An orphanage has been opened in Taldom (closed in 2009). In 1995, the new train station building was inaugurated. In 1996, the Taldom Children's Art School was reorganized into the lyceum "School of Arts". Life in the town is beginning to be preserved. A large number of young people have moved to other places, so the population of Taldom has noticeably became older. This was also typical for other small towns in Russia at that time. During the 20th century, the city turned from a county craft village with poor infrastructure into a developed industrial city, but the difficulties of the 1990s disrupted this picture. During the late USSR — 1990s, up to 200 residents became internationalist soldiers who fought in Afghanistan and Chechnya.
A modern town
Until 2013, the town remained in a rather sad situation regarding the degree of improvement and restoration of historical buildings. Although new jobs began to appear in the town, the population decline continued. In 2001, the bus station building was renovated. A monument to the writer Sergey Klychkov was unveiled in the courtyard of the library (the house of the merchant Kiselyov). In 2004, on September 1, a municipal institution of secondary vocational education, the college of Decorative and Applied Arts and folk crafts, was opened on the basis of the lyceum, and a ring road was built in the "Jubilee" microdistrict. In 2007, the "Atlant" (rus. Атлант) Sports Palace was opened. Since his departure, the district has been headed by Yuri Vasilyevich Krupenin, with whom accusations of corruption by local authorities from residents have only increased. In particular, in 2024 — 2025, a criminal case was opened under the article abuse of office (corruption) against the former deputy head of the district, Victoria Zaitseva, who signed fictitious contracts for the repair of wells in the district for 2.4 million rubles, for which she was sentenced to 3 years in a penal colony. In 2024, the improvement of the town center began. It ended in 2025.
Against the background of the economic crisis in Russia, in 2024, the shoe company Ralf Ringer, which owned the "Taldomobuv'" factory, went bankrupt. After that, the factory was closed, which ended the glorious history of the Taldom shoe industry.
Heads of the town
The head of the town was also the head of the urban settlement of Taldom until the Administrtive reform of 2018.
- 2005–2013, Grigory Stepanovich Miroshnichenko (United Russia).
- 08/09/2013 — 30/07/2018, Yury Vitalyevich Zhurkin (Communist Party of the Russian Federation).
- 30/07/2018 — 31/07/2018, Vladislav Yuryevich Yudin (United Russia) (as the Head of Taldom urban disctrict)
- 31/07/2018 — present, Yury Vasilyevich Krupenin (United Russia) (as the Head of urban district).
Demography
The population of the town as of 2024 was 16,940 people. Despite the constant outflow, which has been recorded since 2011 by an average of 0.5-1.5% per year due to the lack of jobs and low prospects in those places that exist, the population increased sharply in 2020, most likely due to the fact that some of the Taldom residents who lived in Moscow and other cities, they moved back during the coronavirus epidemic because pandemic situation here was better than in Moscow. After the end of the epidemic and the outbreak of war in Ukraine, the population is again regularly decreasing by 1-1.5% per year. The trend is likely to continue, as the town's largest employer enterprises (Taldomobuv', Yunost', and others) closed in the first half of the 2020s. Young people are trying to move to Moscow and Dubna. At the same time, the town suffers from illegal migration from Central Asian countries, which is typical for the entire Moscow region.
The age structure of the town is characterized by a predominance of the working-age population: 43.01% of residents are between the ages of 31 and 60. The share of elderly people (60 years and older) is 23.2%, and children and adolescents under 18 years of age is 21.8%. The national composition of the Taldom is predominantly homogeneous: 79.8% of the population are Russians. Other ethnic groups include Tatars (3.83%), Ukrainians (2.03%) and Bashkirs (1.15%). The gender ratio shows the numerical predominance of women (55.92%) over men (44.08%).
Among the peoples who lived in Taldom before the collapse of the USSR and the beginning of migrations from the Caucasus region and Central Asia, one can distinguish: Chuvash (143 people), Mordvins (73 people). A large diaspora of Mordvins (Moksha and Erzya) was formed in the post-war years. Udmurts (55 people), Mari (53 people) and Belarusians (71 people).
Besides Orthodoxy, Christianity is also represented by Baptism. There is an Evangelical Christian Baptist church in the town. Baptism appeared in Taldom in the 1950s. The leader of the local believers was Pastor Nikolai Sokolov, who served time in the Gulag for plundering state property. After the 1953 amnesty, he was released and organized a secret (in Soviet times, any Christian churches were persecuted) Baptist sect. Above it was the Baptist church in Kimry. Sokolov and his parishioners scattered letters to the sites urging them to prepare for the "last judgment" and send this letter to seven more acquaintances. In 1960, Sokolov was arrested and sentenced to two years in exile for his "parasitic lifestyle." Allegedly, with donations from parishioners, Sokolov built himself a house, bought a motorcycle and practically did not work. After that, the spiritual life of the Baptists in the town was revived only in 2002. The presbyter at that time was Adelina Philippovna Stumpf.
Some people remain unbelievers and atheists.
Culture
Museums and galleries
There are two museums and one art gallery in the town. The Historical and Literary Museum is located in Dmitry Ivanovich Volkov's mansion on Saltykov-Shchedrin Street. In fact, the museum also performs the functions of a historical archive. It contains historical documents related to the town and the district, including census books. The museum has several halls: "Cathedral Square" (furniture, church utensils, antique photographs, things used in everyday life by citizens are performed there), "Merchant's Living Room" (portrait of poet Sergey Klychkov and his personal belongings, photographs and personal belongings of writer Peter Slyotov (Kudryavtsev)), "Literary Hall" (furniture, belongings and autographs of Saltykov-Shchedrin, J. P. Polonsky, S. A. Klychkov, M. M. Prishvin and V. N. Azhaev) and "Porcelain" (porcelain plaques with images of the evangelical apostles, made by the artist Pavel Zvayev in 1880, porcelain products from the Gardner and Kuznetsov factories (Verbilki Porcelain Factory). There are exhibitions of Taldom shoes, and the hut of a master shoemaker has been recreated. There is an exhibition telling about the history of the Old Believers (books, icons, crosses and folds, utensils, vestments and costumes). There is a stuffed bear, the remains of a faience iconostasis that was in the church of St. Michael the Archangel until it was destroyed by the Bolsheviks.
The second museum, "of Military Glory", is dedicated to the participation of Taldom residents in various wars and is located on Victory (rus. Победы, Pobedy) Street. First of all, the museum focuses on the World War II. There are exhibitions dedicated to the wars in Afghanistan, Chechnya and Ukraine. There are 3 halls and 4,000 exhibits in total.
There is also an art gallery "Light around" (rus. Свет вокруг, Svet vokrug) in Taldom. This is an urban project that includes a private gallery and a cultural and leisure center. The permanent exhibition is based on the collection of paintings by Russian artists, which has been collected by Nikolay and Natalia Galushin for many years. The gallery has a grand piano for music evenings, a lecture hall for lectures, presentations and creative evenings, as well as a studio for master classes and various types of creative activities. The lobby of the building features paintings, art objects, and albums from an extensive art history collection and books.
Cultural center
There is a cultural center in Taldom. It traces its history back to the first social club founded in 1918, so it celebrated its 105th anniversary in 2023. In 1959, the cultural center moved to its modern building near the town's center. Until recently, the "Wheat" (rus. Колос, Kolos) cultural center operated in the Sovkhoz district.
Town day
Taldom town day is celebrated on August 2. This is due to the celebration of the Orthodox day of Elijah the Prophet, who is considered the patron saint of the town. The celebrations are accompanied by the closure of traffic in the center of the town and the organization of mass celebrations in the center and in the town park, accompanied by concerts and performances by creative teams. An aircraft festival is held at the town airfield in the village of Yurkino, where anyone can fly in aircraft over the town.
Economy
Historically, the two largest employers of the town were two enterprises: shoe (Taldomobuv' factory) and furry (Yunost' factory). After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Taldomobuv' plant passed into the hands of "Stivali" LLC, which leased the plant to "Ralf Ringer" in 2019. However, in 2022, "Ralpf Ringer's" debt to "Stivali" amounted to more than 20 million rubles, and in 2024, the Taldom branch of "Ralph Ringer" went bankrupt. Yunost factory was declared bankrupt in 2020. So Taldom lost two main employers who supported traditional local crafts. The food industry, which was developed during the Soviet era, has now practically disappeared. The bakery and dairy are no longer in operation and are abandoned. The state farms adjacent to the town (including a significant pig breeding complex in Soviet times) were closed and demolished. Formally, there are two companies engaged in the canning of fish and seafood. There are industries for corrugated metal, lubricants, spices, sheet steel products, plastics, detergents, and a construction company.
Administrative and municipal status
Within the framework of administrative divisions, it is, together with three urban-type settlements (Severny, Verbilki, and Zaprudnya) and a number of rural localities, incorporated as the town of oblast significance of Taldom. As a municipal division, the town of Taldom, together with the same localities, is incorporated as Taldom Urban Okrug.
Administrative and municipal history
Until 2018, Taldom was the center of Taldomsky District. As part of the reform of the administrative and municipal division of Moscow Oblast, Taldomsky District was abolished, and its territory, including the urban-type settlements of Severny, Verbilki, and Zaprudnya, and a number of rural localities, was subordinated to the town of Taldom, which at the same time was elevated to the town of oblast significance. As a municipal division, Taldomsky Municipal District was abolished, and the same territory was incorporated as Taldom Urban Okrug. The formal denomination of the area is since 2018 the town of oblast significance of Taldom with added territory.
Sports
Since 2007, the "Atlant" (rus. Атлант) sports complex has been operating in Taldom, which includes both outdoor sports grounds (football stadium, volleyball courts, tennis courts, skating rink, exercise machines, etc.) and indoor sports halls. The sports complex has a swimming pool. There are exercise machines in the town park.
Taldom transmitter
Taldom transmitter () is a large facility for longwave and shortwave broadcasting near Taldom. It transmits on two longwave frequencies, on 153 kHz with 300 kW and on 261 kHz with a power of 2500 kW. The latter is, according to the World Radio TV Handbook's listings, the most powerful broadcasting station in the world. There are two longwave transmissions aerial systems: a single mast radiator for 153 kHz, and a ring antenna system consisting of five masts arranged in a circle around a 275 metre high guyed mast for 261 kHz (at ). The latter antenna delivers good skywave suppression. The shortwave antenna system consists of several masts arranged in a row which are interconnected by cables at various heights.