Kaluga

Kaluga (Russian: Калу́га, IPA: [kɐˈɫuɡə] ) is a city and the administrative center of Kaluga Oblast, Russia. It stands on the Oka River 150 kilometers (93 mi) southwest of Moscow. Its population was 337,058 at the 2021 census. Established in the 14th century as a Russian border fortress, Kaluga was notable as a place of exile for political prisoners, leaders and officials of other nations under the Russian Empire, and has served as the seat of regional administration since 1776. Kaluga's most famous resident, the space travel pioneer Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, worked there as a school teacher from 1892 to 1935. The Tsiolkovsky State Museum of the History of Cosmonautics in Kaluga is dedicated to his theoretical achievements and to their practical implementations for modern space research, hence the motto on the city's coat of arms: Колыбель Космонавтики, Kolybélʹ kosmonávtiki ("The Cradle of Space Exploration").