mechanical engineering plant went bankrupt in 2011 and no longer exists. Transportation A railway which connects Bologoye and Pskov passes through Staraya Russa. Staraya Russa is connected by roads with Novgorod, Demyansk, and Bezhanitsy via Kholm. There are also local roads. There is a wharf on the Polist River in the Lake Ilmen basin. The Polist is navigable downstream from Staraya Russa. The town is served by the Staraya Russa Airport. Attractions Staraya Russa is a spa. A summer residence of the Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky, who wrote his novels The Brothers Karamazov and Demons there, is open to visitors as a museum. Monuments include the Transfiguration Monastery, which includes a cathedral built in seventy days in 1198 and partly rebuilt in the 15th century, and several 17th-century buildings and churches. The principal city cathedral (1678) is dedicated to the Resurrection of Christ. Other notable churches are consecrated to St. George (1410) (the Dostoyevsky family stayed in the house of the priest of this church), Mina the Martyr (14th century), and the Holy Trinity (1676). Notable people Sergei Rachmaninoff was born in 1873, in the family estate in the village of Semyonovo, near Staraya Russa. His birth was registered in Semyonovo church book and signed by Priest Platon Savitsky and acolyte Peter Lubochsky Fedor Dostoyevsky owned a house in Staraya Russa. References Citations General sources External links Official website of Staraya Russa General description and sights Cities and towns in Novgorod Oblast Novgorod Republic Spa towns in Russia Starorussky Uyezd