Background
Yaroslavl is situated on the river Volga on the place of the settlement known as Medvegy Ugol (Bear’s Corner). The legend says that Duke Yaroslav Mudry occupied this settlement and carved an image of a bear with his battle-axe, hence a bear carrying the battle-axe can be seen on the city’s emblem. According to the other version of the legend the great duke killed a real bear. In 1463 Yaroslavl became a part of Moscow area (knyagestvo) and was the largest trade center of Russia. Here lived the founder of russian pedagogical science Ushinsky, the poet Nikolai Nekrasov, and the first woman-cosmonaut Valentina Teregkova. In XVII the first russian theatre was founded in Yaroslavl by Fedor Volkov.
On the left bank of the river Volga there is the Tolgsky Svyato-Vedensky monastery. At different times it was a shelter for wounded soldiers and a hospital. Only in 1987 was it given back to the church and nuns started to live there. Today it is the first re-established, functioning monastery in Russia.
