Murom

Murom (m`rəm), city (1989 pop. 124,000), W central European Russia, on the Oka River. It is a port and a rail junction, with railroad repair shops and machinery, woodworking, and textile industries. First mentioned in the chronicles in 862, it became the capital of the Murom principality in the 12th cent. The city was ravaged by Mongols in the 13th cent., and in 1393 it passed to the grand duchy of Moscow. In medieval times, Murom was an important trade center on the Oka-Volga water route. The city has a cathedral and some monasteries dating from the 16th and 17th cent.

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Murom 

a city under oblast jurisdiction, the administrative center of Murom Raion, Vladimir Oblast, RSFSR. Landing on the left bank of the Oka River; junction of railroad lines to Moscow, Kovrov, and Kazan. Population, 105,000 (1973; 12,500 in 1897; 40,000 in 1939; 72,000 in 1959).

Murom was first mentioned in the Lavrent’ev chronicles for 862. It became the capital of the Murom-Riazan principality in 1097 and served as the capital of the Murom principality from the mid-12th to the early 15th century. It became a part of the Grand Principality of Moscow in 1392 and a district city in 1778.

Murom developed according to a radial plan until 1788, at which time a regular plan was introduced. Churches in the city include the Church of Cosmas and Damian (1565; roof collapsed in 1868) and the Voskresenskaia Church (from 1658, with a covered gallery and tent-roofed porch). Murom is the site of a number of monasteries with structures from the 16th to 19th centuries, including the Spasskii Monastery (cathedral, from the second half of the 16th century), the Troitskii Monastery (cathedral, 1642–43; the Kazan Church [1648] and the bell tower [1652] are joined by a covered passageway), and the Blagoveshchenskii Monastery (cathedral, 1664; the Stefanovskaia Church, 1716). There are mid-19th-century market rows and dwellings in the classical style.

Contemporary Murom is an important industrial center. It has machine-building (diesel locomotives, electric locomotives, and Oka refrigerators), radio (radiograms, radio receivers for motor vehicles, electric musical instruments), wood-products (plywood combine), and linen-processing industries. There is a branch of the All-Union Correspondence Machine-building Institute, a medical school, and a pedagogical college. The city has a museum of local lore and is the site of a house-museum in memory of I. S. Kulikov, a painter who lived and worked in Murom. There is a bronze monument to V. I. Lenin by the sculptor Iu. G. Neroda, which was erected in 1962.

REFERENCE

Mongait, A. Murom. Murom, 1947.