Tarusa (Russian: тару́са), also known as Tarussa (тару́сса), is a town and the administrative center of Tarussky District in Kaluga Oblast, Russia, located on the left bank of the Oka River, 76 kilometers (47 mi) northeast of Kaluga, the administrative center of the oblast.ater, the local rulers moved their seats to Meshchovsk and Boryatino, and Tarusa was subjugated by the Grand Duchy of Moscow in the late 14th century. Tarusa was used as a stronghold at the southern approaches to Moscow in the 15th-17th centuries.