Rybinsk

Rybinsk (rĭ`bĭnsk), formerly Andropov, city (1989 pop. 251,000), NE European Russia, on the upper Volga and the Rybinsk Reservoir. The site of a hydroelectric station, it is a major inland port with shipyards and factories producing road-building equipment, cables, and printing presses. Known since 1137, it has been a trade and shipping center for traffic between Moscow and Arkhangelsk since the 16th cent. The Mariinsk Waterway, built in 1810, linked Rybinsk with the Baltic for the first time. In the 1870s it developed as a shipping point to St. Petersburg. The construction of the Volga-Baltic canal system increased its importance as a river port. Between 1946 and 1958 the city was called Shcherbakov, and between 1984 and 1992 it was called Andropov, after the Communist party general secretary Yury Andropov.