(Source: http://www.giraftv.ru/nelidovo.html)

The town of Nelidovo in Tver Oblast grew out of a railway station in the ancient village of Yotkino (or Iotkino). Yotkino has been known since XV century, and the working settlement of Nelidovo received a status of town after the World War II, in 1949.

The residents of Nelidovo worked in the coal mines of the Moscow Coal Basin, which became the engine of urban development. After the mines were closed in the 1990s, a depression started, although the town still has operating businesses. They are building machines, processing wood and making plastic products.

There is a ghost of the past - the monumental Palace of Culture of Miners with crumbling columns - on the central square. The Square, of course, still bears the name of Lenin. Behind the Culture Palace there is a square with an abandoned fountain. You can sit here in silence, look at the passers-by and children playing. Time as if stands still, like 30 years ago, no one is in a hurry.

One of the Soviet rarities of Nelidovo stands out - a pair monument of Lenin and Gorky. The bright leader of the proletariat and the round-shouldered proletarian writer are depicted very vividly, in compliance with the noticeable difference in their height, gazing thoughtfully at the nearby shop. It looks like it’s a typical monument, because almost the same monuments decorate squares in Novokuznetsk and Bryansk. The pair monument of Nelidovo was not lucky – it was moved from the main square to the outskirts.

Local Pecularities

The surroundings contain Matrenino estates that belonged to the landlords Ogon-Doganovskie and “Baturino” – the estate of Engelgarts on the shores of the large Baturinskoe Lake.

The fans of extreme sports will be interested in event tourism: motocross competitions have been held near Nelidovo for more than fifty years. A few years ago even the Cup of Europe has been held here.