Rybinsk is a Volga river port in Yaroslavl Oblast, where the city's history is written in grain, barges and water. It started as a fishing village, and its name comes from the Russian word for fish. By the nineteenth century it had become the main grain port of the upper Volga, where cargo from the south was transferred from large river boats to smaller vessels that could travel north through the canals to St. Petersburg. Thousands of men worked on the quays, and the city's warehouses and exchange building, a handsome brick structure that stands on the embankment, recall that boom.
The workers included the burlaks, the barge haulers who dragged vessels upstream along the riverbank with ropes, a job of famous misery. The painter Ilya Repin made them an icon of Russian suffering in his picture Barge Haulers on the Volga, and a monument to the burlaks stands on the Rybinsk waterfront. Another landmark is the great reservoir that spreads north of the city. The Rybinsk Reservoir, created in the early 1940s, was for a time the largest man-made lake in the world, and it drowned the old town of Mologa and many villages, which now lie under the water. In dry years, the old foundations sometimes emerge, a haunting sight.
The city is large, with over two hundred thousand people, a mix of industry and old buildings. It builds aircraft engines, and the Transfiguration Cathedral and the museum of local history are worth visiting. The embankment is pleasant for a walk in the evening. The surrounding country is gentle, with farmland and wood on either side of the Volga, and the roads are fairly flat and quiet, with long straight sections and occasional curves. The summer is warm, with a good chance of rain, and the autumn can be brilliant.
Fuel stations, supermarkets and cafes are everywhere, and Rybinsk is a reliable stop on the way to Uglich or Myshkin. A Volga fish, smoked or fried, is the natural thing to eat, and local places often serve it with potatoes and pickles.
Look at the river from the embankment in the late afternoon. The water is broad and slow, and the old warehouses glow in the light.