Ulyanovsk region. History of the Ulyanovsk region
Simbirsk province has always been an agricultural region, and most people lived in villages. Many villages are now, unfortunately, dying and make up the true, simple and not very history of our region, which is worth not only listening to, but also feeling. These village stories are, in fact, our genetic code, which allows us to feel like a citizen of the Great Country.
Konoplyanka village
54°04′27.2″N 46°27′45.1″E
Konoplyanka is now a very small village, located almost on the borders of the Inzensky and Karsunsky districts. But many travelers often go off the road to take a closer look at the ancient ship-type temple, towering majestically above the surrounding area. And the history of the appearance of this church, as well as the village, is quite interesting.
It all started not here at all, but several tens of kilometers away in 1647. At this time, the Karsun serif line (a defensive structure stretching from the Sursky fort and through Karsun to Sinbirsk) was actively being built. For military needs, the Talsky fortress (fortress) with a temple in honor of the Archangel Michael was built. But this place on the Tala River turned out to be very inconvenient: poor, swampy lands, a sea of midges, eternal impassability. In addition, no one was going to encroach on this fortress, and soon it completely lost its military and everyday significance, and the settlers simply fled down the river and formed a new village - Konoplyanka.
So, already in 1693 there were no people left in the Talsky fort, and the residents of Konoplyanka were allowed to “move” the Archangel Church to a new location. The current stone church was built already in 1925 to replace the old wooden one. It is interesting that before the revolution it contained “an ancient bell weighing 3 1/2 pounds with an ancient inscription, which is impossible to make out, icons of saints from the Tal church and the book “Reading the Saints by the Apostle,” as well as a gun, of which only one barrel remains intact now " The temple also had its own shrine - the icon of the Great Martyr Paraskeva Friday, revealed at the holy spring.
Now the church is inactive, and you can safely go inside. There are still paintings here and there, and the walls are still strong.
We continue our journey towards Inza. Soon the largest village of the Inzensky district appears on the right.
Trusleyka village
53°54′34.2″N 46°23′22.6″E
The village of Trusleika, located seven kilometers from the regional center of Inza, was founded on May 3, 1682 by 15 Cossacks to guard the border of the Russian state. Trusleyskaya Sloboda got its name from two Old Mordovian words: Turus - ravine and Leika - stream. Soon wooden houses covered with thatch began to appear in Trusleyskaya Sloboda.
In those days, the first wooden church appeared, built by Andrei Petrov and his comrades. In the 19th century, this church burned down, and in 1879-1880 a new wooden church was built. The church was built at the expense of parishioners, of whom at that time there were more than 2,000 people in the village of various ranks - from farm laborers and the poor to merchants and landowners. The church had two altars: the main (cold) one - in the name of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker and the warm one - in honor of the erection of the Honest and Life-Giving Cross of the Lord. At Soviet power the temple was closed and dismantled in 1958. The new birth of the temple took place already in 2003, which, according to the tradition of the village, was again built of wood. This church turned out to be small, but very cozy. 
The village also became famous for its fellow countryman - Mikhail Semenovich Floresov, a leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, teacher, confessor of the outstanding thinker P.A. Florensky. Floresov M.S. graduated from the Simbirsk Theological School (1864), the Simbirsk Theological Seminary (1870), and the Kyiv Theological Academy (1874). In 1874-1887 he served in Simbirsk, taught Latin and Russian literature at the Theological Seminary and Mariinsky Gymnasium. In 1887 in Simbirsk Pokrovsky monastery he was tonsured a monk with the name Anthony. In 1890 he was elevated to the rank of bishop, and at the beginning of the 20th century, with the support of P.A. Florensky revived the ancient monastery near Simbirsk - the Simbirsk Solovetsky Hermitage.
Village Pyatino
54°06′46.3″N 46°08′44.3″E
The village of Pyatino attracts attention with its unusually large church by rural standards, which is clearly visible from the road.
The story associated with this temple is one of the ten most famous love stories in the world. This happened thanks to the novel by Alexander Dumas the Father “Notes of a Fencing Teacher, or Eighteen Months in St. Petersburg” and the film “Star of Captivating Happiness.” This is a story of love and fidelity of a young Russian nobleman and a French woman. It was in these places that the gallant cavalry guard Ivan Aleksandrovich Annenkov and the milliner Mademoiselle Jeannette Polina Gebl found their love, which lasted 50 years.
For his participation in the uprising on Senate Square, Annenkov was stripped of his noble title and exiled to Siberia. His French lover spent several years seeking permission to follow her beloved. Only after her personal meeting with the emperor was such permission obtained, and Polina Gebl went into voluntary exile in Siberia along with other wives of the Decembrists. There, Ivan and Polina got married, survived exile together, returned together, and they even died almost simultaneously. They are buried in the same grave in Nizhny Novgorod. Their love began on Simbirsk land, and in memory of this love we have a majestic temple. Life-Giving Trinity, built by Anna Ivanovna Annenkova with a prayer for her “unlucky” Decembrist son.
There is a legend that Anna Ivanovna Annenkova, being really fabulously rich, bought the design of this temple from Simbirsk, and therefore the architect Corinthian created a new project for the city’s Cathedral Square, again the Trinity Church. It turns out that the oldest temple in Ulyanovsk, built in honor of the victory over Napoleon, by the will of fate ended up on the edge of the province, but at the same time remained not destroyed. Now the temple is being restored.
However, this is only a small part of the history of this village.
And again the road leads us forward. We turn right into Tiyapino and rush along the Sura, looking at the open spaces, oxbow lakes, forests and fields.
Village Chumakino
54°09′49.8″N 46°19′40.1″E
This village gave our region one of the true believers and unbending people - the priest St. Alexander Nikolaevich Telemakov. He came from the clergy, born and raised in a pious family of an official. In 1890 he graduated from the Simbirsk Theological Seminary and was assigned as a psalm-reader to the Simbirsk Cathedral. In 1893, Alexander became a priest, and in 1908 he began serving as a priest. Chumakino.
Father Alexander and his wife Anna raised nine children. To support a large family, the priest was engaged in peasant labor, which is why he especially understood the needs and troubles of the parishioners. The family did not have wealth, but lived in abundance, and under Soviet rule they were subjected to repression. In 1925, Fr. Alexander was deprived of voting rights, and in 1928 the priest’s family was “dispossessed,” deprived of almost all their property and doomed to an existence of starvation. Mother Anna became a victim of the terrible famine of 1932. In the same year, Fr. Alexander was arrested on trumped-up charges and sentenced to 5 years in a camp.
In 1934, Fr. Alexander was released early. He returned to his native village, where he continued to unofficially perform Orthodox rites: baptize newborn children, bury the dead in a Christian manner. At the beginning of 1936, residents achieved the almost impossible - the opening of the old St. Nicholas Church for worship, but just a year later the temple was closed again. However, Father Alexander did not give up preaching and began to walk around the surrounding villages, carrying the ray of Faith. This irritated the authorities so much that on December 24, 1937, the priest was arrested again and sent to Ulyanovsk - and just four days later he was sentenced to death. Father Alexander was shot on February 17, 1938 and buried in a mass grave near the engine plant.
Now in the village of Chumakino there are two churches: one in honor of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, a destroyed, ancient one, where the Holy Martyr preached, and the second - a new one, in honor of Alexander Telemakov himself.
Hieromartyr Priest Alexander Telemakov, presbyter of Chumakinsky, was canonized as a pan-church saint by a resolution of the Holy Synod of August 17, 2004, in accordance with the decision of the Consecrated Jubilee Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church in 2000.
From Chumakin there is only one road - to the largest village in this region of Posurye - Korzhevka.
Village Korzhevka
54°10′54.6″N 46°22′39.9″E
Places near Korzhevka have been inhabited by people since ancient times, as evidenced by many archaeological finds. But the first mention of the village refers to XVII century. The Patriarchal Prikaz Foundation reports on the construction of the Church of the Archangel Michael in the Korzhevka settlement in 1682. The village is located along the Sura River and had 3 piers, which determined its commercial purpose. At that moment, it was Sura that was an active transport artery, and it was convenient to organize a “trade and service center” here. First of all, they organized the supply of sacks (this is burlap woven from sponges and matting, absolutely necessary for packaging goods during transportation).
The Korzhev ones were considered the best coolies. From here they dispersed throughout the province and beyond, to the Sursky and Volga piers, to ship the best varieties of flour. So Korzhevka was considered the main market for sacks, matting, and mats. They were made here in large quantities. They also traded here fish, caught in great abundance in Sura and surrounding lakes. Sterlet was especially prized, as its taste differed better from that of the Volga and cost one and a half times more. In addition, reliable ship equipment was made from oak trees growing in the surrounding area. Korzhevka also supplied barge haulers (a hired worker who pulled a river boat against the current with a towline). Moreover, it was here that the first women's barge hauler artels were formed. In general, Korzhevka was one of the most significant trading villages on Sura.
It is interesting that local residents, in order to emphasize their wealth, decorated the platbands, arches and gates of their houses with surprisingly fine and colorful carvings. These houses still decorate the ancient village, creating magic effect touches to the distant past.
The village of Novosursk
54°13′57.5″N 46°26′55.1″E
Previously, the village was called Kuneevo. Most likely, the name comes from the Russian word “Kuna”. This word was the name for the expensive fur of the marten, which, by the way, was abundant in the local forests. The founding date of the village is attributed to either the end of the 16th or the very beginning of the 17th century.
Already in 1780, a suede factory was established here, “belonging to the Moscow 1st guild merchant and manufacturer Ivan Pivovarov, with 130 workers. The completed items are taken for sale to Moscow, the materials are bought in the villages of this province.” However, the main trade that employed almost the entire local population was fishing. The main fish caught in pre-revolutionary times was pike perch. However, the desired fishing trophies were sterlet and whitefish. Commercial fish included burbot, pike, catfish, and bream. In the spring, there was an active catch of crucian carp, which ended up in the Sura after the river overflowed and the flooding of many floodplain lakes.
The villagers used a special type of fishing from numerous flood lakes. They dug a ditch up to Sura and drained the water, blocking the drainage area with nets. The remaining fish were collected from the mud. The next year, when the lake overflowed, it was again filled with water and fish during the flood. Fishing provided quite large incomes, since most of the fish were sold in Nizhny Novgorod. From ancient times, a children's tease has been preserved: “chakushki-frogs,” since all the Kuneevs swam very well and were always on the water. All local residents can be noted for their love of fishing: even at the beginning of our century, one could easily meet a grandmother with a fishing rod on the banks of the Sura.
Now the village is almost deserted. The only attractions here are the dilapidated temple in honor of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker and huts decorated with beautiful wooden carvings. However, the most interesting is a pair of houses whose roofs are lined with wooden linden planks, since the technology for making such roofs has been lost.
Through the village, along the paving stones left over from tsarist times, we climb a hill. We turn left a little and get to the edge.
White Mountain
54°14′23.1″N 46°27′04.4″E
Every road has an ending. We traveled from the Tala River and along the Sura for tens of kilometers, learning more and more new stories of our region. And this place is ideal for relaxing and comprehending what you see. Outwardly, the White Mountain is almost invisible, but once you get to the edge, you will feel all the space and beauty of the harsh Sura River. Right under the mountain fast waters are rapidly carried away into the distance. And what are the views here!!! The sunset pleases with the bright colors of the setting sun, and the dawn with gentle reflections through the thick fog. Magical and majestic.
By the beginning of the construction of the city in 1648, Sinbirskaya Mountain was a sparsely populated place with two small (Mordovian and Tatar) villages. The “crown”, the top of the mountain, was chosen for its central part - the Kremlin. Together with Bogdan Khitrovo, Arzamas, Nizhny Novgorod and other nobles and boyar children, Tatar Murzas and others arrived here service people. Khitrovo himself, having founded the city, left for Moscow for “another sovereign service,” and Ivan Bogdanovich Kamynin was appointed governor of Sinbirsk, who continued the construction of the city. In addition to Sinbirsk and Karsun, forts were built along the line - Sursky, Argashsky, Talsky, Sokolsky, Malokarsunsky, Karsunsky, Urensky, Tagaisky and Yushansky. They were wood-earth fortifications small sizes. They housed a garrison of 10-50 archers, who served, as we would now say, “on a rotational basis.”
But even the notched lines did not always save the settled population from the raids of nomads. For example, in 1682, the united hordes of Bashkirs and Kalmyks broke through the Zakamsk line and marched with fire and sword along the left bank of the Volga to the Maina and Utka rivers, destroying everything in their path. After spending the winter near Lake Cherdakly, they freely went to the Ural steppes, taking away prisoners and loot. That is why, in 1669, the government ordered the transformation of the territory adjacent to the Maine and Utka rivers, located in the rear of the abatis line, into a kind of fortified area. In connection with this, the Main (Staromainsky) fort was built, quite significant - it had a circumference of 2200 fathoms, with twelve blind and 6 passage towers, and a small Utkinsky fort. Under the protection of these two fortresses, by the 90s of the 17th century, all the lands along Utka and Maina were inhabited. Colonization of the Left Bank moved further and further to the south and southeast. Settlement began in Bolshoy and Maly Cheremshan. And at the end of the 17th century there was already so much population here that it became necessary to allocate a special Cheremshansky volost.
Ulyanovsk was founded in 1648 by decree of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich by voivode Bogdan Matveevich Khitrovo as the fortress of Sinbirsk (later Simbirsk).
In the autumn of 1670, Sinbirsk was besieged by the army of Stepan Razin. Razin did not complete the siege and was wounded in battle. In 1672, Sinbirsk was granted the first coat of arms for its defense against Stepan Razin.
In 1774, the prisoner Emelyan Pugachev was brought to Sinbirsk. Here his first interrogation took place before being sent to Moscow. In 1780, Simbirsk became the main city of the newly established governorate consisting of 13 districts. Since 1796 Simbirsk has been a provincial city.
It turned from a fortified city into provincial town with developed infrastructure (theatres, hospitals, gymnasiums). The best and richest part of it was located on Venets, where there were cathedrals, private mansions, provincial administrative institutions, educational institutions, craft workshops, public gardens and boulevards. Nearby there was a busy shopping part of the city centered in the Gostiny Dvor. The main occupation of the townspeople was crafts, Agriculture and fishing.
In 1864, on August 12, a terrible fire began in Simbirsk, which lasted 9 days. A quarter of the city survived. The Karamzin Library, Spassky Monastery, 12 churches, a post office, all the best private buildings burned down.
In 1789, the first in the city and one of the first serf theaters in Russia, the Durasov Fortress Theater, was opened in the house of the landowner Durasov. The wonderful stage master P. A. Plavilshchikov took part in preparing the actors for him. Also, one of the first libraries in the Volga region was opened - the Karamzin Public Library, and in 1893 - the Goncharov Library.
In 1809, the first men's classical gymnasium was opened in Simbirsk, in 1864 - the Mariinsk women's gymnasium, and by 1913 there were already two men's and three women's gymnasiums in the city. In 1873, a cadet corps was established in Simbirsk. On September 7, 1824, in the presence of Emperor Alexander I, the foundation stone of the Trinity Cathedral was laid.
IN different time Simbirsk was the center of the Simbirsk district, the Simbirsk province, the Simbirsk governorship, and the Simbirsk province.
On July 21, 1918, Simbirsk was captured by a Russian-Czech detachment of White Guards under the command of Kappel. On September 12, 1918, it was again taken by the Simbirsk Iron Division under the command of Guy.
The city gained the greatest fame as the birthplace of Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (Lenin). In this regard, on May 9, 1924, Simbirsk was renamed Ulyanovsk.
Since 1928, the city was part of the Middle Volga region (krai), since 1936 - in the Kuibyshev region. In the 1930s, almost all temples and churches in Ulyanovsk were destroyed; the Protestant church, Neopalimovskaya and Resurrection churches survived.
During the Great Patriotic War In Ulyanovsk, the Moscow Patriarchate was evacuated. In addition, a number of people were evacuated from Moscow industrial enterprises(including the Stalin Automobile Plant). In 1943, Ulyanovsk became the center of the newly formed Ulyanovsk region. In the post-war Soviet period, Ulyanovsk from a city with pronounced agricultural and craft employment of the population became an industrial city; mechanical engineering enterprises were built there, including the defense and aviation industries.
Since the 60s of the twentieth century, thanks to the high pace of housing and industrial construction, Ulyanovsk has increased both in area and in population. On the site of former villages adjacent to the city, modern residential areas were built, which later formed the Zasviyazhsky, Zavolzhsky and Zheleznodorozhny districts. The old city and the adjacent northern part formed the Leninsky district. On the eve of the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the birth of V.I. Lenin, in the 1969-1970s, the historical center of the city was built up with modern buildings: the Lenin Memorial, the Venets Hotel, the building of the Ulyanovsk State Pedagogical University, the Palace of Culture of Trade Unions appeared , a new Railway Station, a new River Station, Central Airport, etc. In 1970, the city was awarded the Order of Lenin for the outstanding labor achievements of its residents and the excellent organization of preparations for the centenary of the birth of Vladimir Lenin. Since then, Ulyanovsk has become important tourist center THE USSR. A city unlike some others regional centers, was not closed, but foreign guests were not allowed to deviate from the tourist route.
Excluding the native Ulyanovsk residents, most of the mature population (over 40 years old and under 70) came to the city in the 70s and 80s of the twentieth century, or due to the distribution of universities from various parts of the USSR to closed enterprises (Kometa, Mars ", "Iskra", etc.), or to the all-Union Komsomol construction site, where everyone was guaranteed apartments in a month, six months or a year - Aviastroy (in fact, the construction of the most modern aircraft production base at that time and the accompanying social base - a full-fledged a residential complex with all necessary facilities (shops, hospitals, kindergartens). Young people, for the most part, are native Ulyanovsk residents of the first generation.
Tourist portal of the Ulyanovsk region: www.goulyanovsk.ru
The village of Staraya Gryaznukha... An ancient settlement in which there was one of the oldest churches in the modern Staromainsky district - Nikolaevsky, built in 1712 (of course, it was subsequently rebuilt more than once). It belongs to the category of villages about the history of which offensively little information has been preserved. Why? Yes, because the village itself has been gone for 60 years, and in the new village of Volzhskoye (in the first years after the resettlement, residents called it Gryaznukha out of old memory), to which the former residents of Staraya Gryaznukha and the nearby village of Novaya Gryaznukha moved, there are only two old residents left. The rest either died or left.
The village of Volzhskoye is an endangered village; now it’s mostly summer residents who live here, and even then mostly in the summer. Even in the major work of the Staromaynsky local historian Yu.N. Mordvinov only three sheets of text are dedicated to him. And this is one of the few villages for which it was never possible to find at least one photograph before 1955. True, but in the National Archives of the Republic of Tatarstan I discovered a unique document - drawings of the design of the St. Nicholas Church of 1887! But more on this later.
So, the village of Volzhskoye (until 1955 Staraya Gryaznukha) is located on the shore of the Kuibyshev reservoir, 8 km north of the regional center Staraya Maina (along the direct waterway, and 42 km along the land road). It is part of the municipal formation “Zhedyaevskoe rural settlement” (Ulyanovsk region). From 1861 to 1920 belonged to the Zhedyaevskaya volost of the Spassky district of the Kazan province (from 1920 to 1943 - to the Melekessky and Staromainsky districts of the Samara (Middle Volga, Kuibyshev) region (region).
The location of Volostnikovka and Volzhskoye on the border of the Ulyanovsk region and the Republic of Tatarstan (if we take modern administrative-territorial concepts) and the transition from one territory to another and back led to the fact that documents on these villages were deposited in different regional archives. Another thing is that very few documents have survived so far. Thus, in the State Archive of the Ulyanovsk Region, the village is mentioned fragmentarily in documents mainly from 1930 - 1954. (4 cases). Clergy records of the Nicholas Church for 1815 - 1910. stored in the National Archives of the Republic of Tatarstan.
According to a unique document discovered in the Russian Archive of Ancient Acts, the village of Nikolskoye (Gryaznukha) appeared in the 1670s, and in 1716 it had 4 owners (among them A.A. Golovkin, apparently a relative of the famous politician G. I. Golovkin, the founder of the village of Golovkino (Uren), there were 7 households and 84 serfs. According to Yu.N. Mordvinov, it was founded in 1674 by immigrants from the Nizhny Novgorod district.
During the work on the project “Cultural heritage of the flood zones of the Kuibyshev and Saratov hydroelectric power stations in the Ulyanovsk region” I was able to visit Volzhsky twice - in March and July 2014. Great help in finding historical information provided by local residents, in particular Svetlana Nikolaevna Chuvaeva and former residents of the villages of Staraya Gryaznukha and Novaya Gryaznukha - Vladimir Ivanovich Maslov (the last resident of Novaya Gryaznukha, living in Volzhsky), Zoya Vasilyevna Kalacheva and Anatoly Alekseevich Zubarev.
In the modern village there are five streets: Lesnaya, Otradnaya, Pribrezhnaya, Polevaya and Yubileinaya. The history of Volzhsky (Old Gryaznukha) is not reflected in them in any way. The demographic statistics of the village are sad. In 1795 there were 65 households and 447 people, in 1897 - 88 households and 408 residents, in 1959 - 482 people, and in 2014 - 28 households and 57 residents, as well as 26 country houses and there are 53 people in them. The indigenous inhabitants of Volzhskoye, the bearers of cultural traditions and historical memory of the Old and New Gryaznukha, will soon disappear. Will summer residents need the history of the village?
Gryaznukha artifacts
Evidence of ancient history The localities are very fragmentary and contradictory. The earliest of them date back to the end of the 19th – beginning of the 20th century. In volume VI (Middle and Lower Volga and Trans-Volga regions, 1901) complete geographical description Russia it was indicated: “Between the villages of Staraya Gryaznukha (500 inhabitants - E.B.) and Novaya Gryaznukha (400 inhabitants - E.B.) there was an ancient settlement.” Antiquities were also noted in the vicinity of nearby villages: Maklasheyevki (Tatar settlement, where a treasure of Arab coins of the 10th – 11th centuries was discovered), a metal oriental mirror was found not far from Zelenovka, etc.
Before the village was flooded, in the 1930s and 1950s. archaeological expedition led by A.V. Zbrueva identified and examined the settlement “Old Gryaznukha” (located near the southern outskirts of the village), dating back to the end of the 2nd – beginning of the 1st millennium BC. It is interesting that the features of the found ceramics made it possible to classify this monument as one of the few objects of the Prikazan culture of the Late Bronze Age in the Ulyanovsk Volga region. And flint tools could have belonged to an earlier time.
In the official list of archaeological monuments of the Staromainsky district (order of the Head of Administration of the Ulyanovsk region dated July 29, 1999) of the Ulyanovsk Regional Committee for cultural heritage There are now 4 objects in the Volzhsky area: 1) the settlement “Gryaznukha-1” (3rd quarter of the 1st millennium); 2) settlement “Gryaznukha-2” (3rd quarter of the 1st millennium); 3) settlement “Gryaznukha-3” (3rd quarter of the 1st millennium); 4) settlement “Gryaznukha-4” (3rd quarter of the 1st millennium). All of these simultaneously existing monuments are located at a distance of 600 m to 3 km from the village and date back to the late Imenkovo and early Bulgarian times, when the local Slavic and Finno-Ugric and newcomer Turkic populations merged.
I think it is impossible not to mention such a significant monument as the so-called Staromaynskoye (Gryaznukhinskoye) settlement. Despite the name, it is located closer to the modern village of Volzhskoye (about 2 km) - the successor of the former Staraya Gryaznukha - than to Staraya Maina. Several archaeological expeditions worked at the site (1939, 1954, 1961), but the largest excavations were carried out by the Samarsky expedition state university under the leadership of G.I. Matveeva in 1984 - 1987, 1990 - 1991 and 2005, and in the end more than 2,500 square meters of the cultural layer were studied. I note that it is mentioned in “In Memory of Macarius of Kislovsky” in 1659, an article by S.M. Melnikov (1859), book by K.I. Nevostruev (1871) and the works of other, later researchers.
G.I. Matveeva said: “Fourteen centuries ago, on a cape located 2 km south of the village of Gryaznukha, there stood a small, reliably protected fortress. The site of the cape was surrounded on all sides by a high log palisade, and from north side protected by four high ramparts and four deep ditches, which are clearly visible to this day. Such fortresses served as shelter in case of enemy attack.” Not long ago, a voluminous ancient Russian copper cross with balls at the ends, presumably from the 12th-13th centuries, was found there. The monument is also interesting because several long rectangular houses (up to 12 m long) have been excavated on its territory, which have not yet been found in any of the known Imenkovo settlements. They probably served as dwellings for large patriarchal families or were public buildings. Analogues of such buildings are known among the Germans and Western Slavs.
After many years of study, it became clear that the Staromainsky settlement, located opposite the modern Staraya Maina, was one of the most important settlements in the area, a large tribal center of the Imenkovsky time, and later of the Bulgarian one. Around it there were unfortified settlements, whose inhabitants were engaged in agriculture, cattle breeding and fishing.
A legend about the invasion of foreigners has survived to this day in the Staromainsky region. When ancient tribes lived here, Batu Khan decided to conquer their lands. But he lost the battle, and many soldiers from his army were captured. For each fighter, Batu offered a bag of gold or silver, but the winners demanded a ram for each captive. The conqueror was angry that his army was compared to a herd of sheep, and again attacked this territory, but was never able to capture it. Who knows if the medieval fortress (Staromainsky settlement) is connected with this legend?
Why Dirty, and old at that?
The origin of the name of the village does not raise any questions. It is quite obvious that it comes from a sticky, marshy area or river. According to the authoritative historian V.F. Barashkova, Gryaznukha often referred to small rivers with sticky banks and dirty, muddy water during rains, and some villages along them. In addition to the villages of Staraya Gryaznukha and the village of Novaya Gryaznukha, now flooded by the Kuibyshev reservoir, in the Staromainsky district, in the territory of the modern Ulyanovsk region, this is how the village of Primorskoye (Melekessky district) and the village of Lugovoe (Ulyanovsky district) were called in the past. According to the recollections of old-timers, the Gryaznushka River flowed next to the village and the church, and towards the Volga the area decreased, so it was swampy, damp and swampy, especially after rains. I think that dirt in these places was actually synonymous with fertility.
But why is Gryaznukha old? On the map of Spassky district of the Kazan province at the beginning of the 20th century. (and other pre-revolutionary) village is designated as “Nikolskoye Gryaznukha”. The first name is after the St. Nicholas Church. Here it is necessary to recall that next to the village there was the village of Novaya Gryaznukha - according to the same map - “Vyselok of the village of Nikolskogo”. If the village has been known since at least 1674, then the village has been known since approximately the beginning of the 19th century. Yu.N. Mordvinov wrote: “It is interesting that Polivanov (one of the owners of the village - E.B.) did not like something in the village, and he moved his peasants to another place, forming a settlement named after the village Nikolsky (New Gryaznukha), therefore the main From the beginning of the 19th century, the village of Gryaznukha began to be called Staraya Gryaznukha...” However, these new names began to appear on maps after 1917.
Forgotten Temple: “Great joy brought to the earth; praise the heavens of God’s glory”
For a long time I could not find an image of the St. Nicholas Church, which stood on the outskirts of the village near the Gryaznushka River. Painstaking searches in archives, museums and photo albums of former village residents did not bring results. But while working at the National Archives of the Republic of Tatarstan, I managed to discover drawings of the design of a wooden church on a stone foundation in 1887. However, it was known that in 1906 a new stone church was built in the village in the name of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. Why did the project of a wooden church, approved by the construction department of the Kazan provincial government, never take place? This question was partially clarified during a trip to Volzhskoye in July 2014, when I found there a former resident of Staraya Gryaznukha, Anatoly Alekseevich Zubarev. I was extremely lucky, because at 81 he not only preserved good memory, but even in his youth he lived near the church. Therefore, looking at the printed copy of the project, Anatoly Alekseevich immediately determined that it coincided with the external appearance of the stone temple.
For some reason unknown to us, the 1887 project was reformatted into a stone church, while maintaining the main architectural features of the structure. It is unclear whether they built a new wooden church (according to archival documents, it was rebuilt in 1890), or simply renovated the old one, and then decided to build a brick one according to the old design. A.A. Zubarev recalled that the church was built of red brick, whitewashed, without plaster. Former resident of neighboring Novaya Gryaznukha V.I. Maslov said: “Before the flooding, in the Starogryaznukhinsky church there was a grain warehouse, I went there - it was empty. Bricks from the church were used for the foundations of houses and silos in the new village (Volzhsky - E.B.). The temple was blown up in 1953 or 1954. The water began to arrive in the fall of 1956. When I arrived from the army in 1958, there was already water.” According to Z.A. Kalacheva, who lived in Staraya Gryaznukha, “on the outskirts of the village there was a church - a good one, three domes, next to it there was a cemetery, and behind there was a river. Everything in the church was destroyed even before the flooding; there were no more icons. We were evicted here (to Volzhskoye - E.B.) in 1953, and the church was blown up after us. They say that they drilled into the walls where explosives were placed. From our village we could see the Golovkin Church.” In the absence of other images and evidence, for now we must be content with what we have.
The first single-altar wooden church in the name of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker was built in 1712, 38 years after the settlement was founded by immigrants from the Nizhny Novgorod district. In 1750 and 1890, the temple was rebuilt and repaired. In 1842, his clergy included priest Alexander Dmitriev Predtechensky and sexton Pavel Stefanov Lentovsky, and in 1858 priest Vasily Yakovlev Smelov and sexton Ivan Golosnitsky.
The National Archives of the Republic of Tatarstan contains a unique document on the history of the St. Nicholas Church - its main inventory, made in 1899. It is interesting not only for the description of the wooden church that existed at that time, covered with iron and sheathed with planks, 19.2 m long and 6.4 m wide (with eight windows, two doors, one stove, without wall paintings, etc.), but also a mention of a new stone roof being built with an iron roof, 32 m long and 21.4 m wide (1.7 times longer than the previous one, and 3.3 times wider in width), with twenty windows, four doors, a three-tier bell tower and two gilded iron crosses. The wooden temple was surrounded by a wooden fence on a stone foundation, and also had 5 bells. Only the largest of them indicated the weight (32 pounds 20 pounds, or 533.2 kg) and contained the following inscriptions: “factory of Saratov merchants, in the city of Saratov of the Gudkov brothers, master Vasily Kemenev, 1881” and “Great joy that brings good news to the earth , praise the heavens of God's glory; preach the salvation of our God day by day; I have loved the beauty of your house and the dwelling place of your glory.” In addition, on the top of the bell were depicted cherubs, in the middle - the Mother of God, St. Archangel Michael and the unmercenary saints Cosmas and Damian.
When describing the altar of the temple, it was noted that it had become askew due to age, and the silk yellow antimension (quadrangular scarf - E.B.) on the throne was consecrated in 1885 by His Eminence Palladius, Archbishop of Kazan. There was also an icon of Tikhvinskaya Mother of God, and in a high place there is an icon of the miraculous image of the Savior and other objects of worship. In total, there were 17 icons in the altar. In the pre-altar three-tiered iconostasis, decorated with gilded cornices and carvings, there were 15 icons, including a very ancient icon of the Prophets with 4 faces and erased inscriptions. In other places, 27 icons hung, some of which were distinguished by their antiquity and rich design. The inventory also mentions 9 lamps, 12 candlesticks, 1 chandelier, 2 analogues, 9 altar crosses, 17 various liturgical vessels, 32 names of tabernacles and related items, 4 censers and other ritual utensils. 6 Gospels were kept in the sacristy, the oldest of which was printed in 1694 in Moscow, and the rest were printed in the period from 1875 to 1896. Of particular interest is the inventory of the book depository, which included: 1) one Bible; 2) liturgical books: Festive Menaion of 1767 and 3 writings of the Holy Fathers; 3) 14 books of spiritual content; 4) periodicals: the magazine “Orthodox Interlocutor” for 12 years (1863 – 1899), Church Gazette for 1889 – 1899, News of the Kazan Diocese for 1868 – 1899. etc. In addition, the church contained registry books for 1782 - 1899, ecclesiastical paintings for 1828 - 1899, and clergy records for 1829 - 1899. and other documents. It’s a pity that of all the listed cultural values, only crumbs have reached us...
194 years after the construction of the first church, in 1906, a new single-altar stone church was built at the expense of parishioners, which indicates the good well-being of the villagers at the beginning of the 20th century. The position of priest was performed by Gavrila Aleksandrovich Troitsky.
The following documents on the church history of Staraya Gryaznukha date back to 1930. In April, the authorities decided to remove 5 bells with a total weight of 1710.5 kg from the St. Nicholas Church. At this time there were two ministers. Soon, by decree of the Staromainsky district executive committee of May 15, due to non-payment of the insurance fee in the amount of 544 rubles 82 kopecks, it was closed. However, the believing villagers actively fought against the arbitrariness of the authorities. On June 22, 1931, members of the presidium of the district executive committee heard the petition of the Starogryaznukha Church Council for permission to open a church. As a result, they decided to return it to the rural community of believers, inviting the village council to rent out the building and religious property according to the existing inventory. It was not possible to establish when the temple was finally closed, but in 1935 only two churches were operating in the Staromainsky district - Alexander Nevskaya in Staraya Maina and Znamenskaya in Volostnikovka.
One of the last mentions of the St. Nicholas Church is contained in the minutes of the meeting of the Staromainsky executive committee for February 11, 1952, at which the issue of transferring the building of the former church to the village was discussed. Staraya Gryaznukha to the regional point “Zagotzerno”:
« The brick building of a former church in the village of Staraya Gryaznukha falls into a flood zone due to the construction of the Kuibyshev hydroelectric power station and is subject to demolition.
Considering the great need for construction materials at the Staromainsky point of Zagotzerno, the warehouses of which are being transferred from the flooded zone... to new site, the executive committee of the regional Council of Workers' Deputies decides:
1. Transfer the brick building of the former church in the village of Staraya Gryaznukha, subject to demolition... to the Staromainsky point of Zagotzerno for dismantling and using bricks and rubble as building materials during the transfer storage facilities from the flooded area to the new site.
2. Ask the executive committee of the Ulyanovsk regional Council of Workers' Deputies to approve this decision».
But later, in August 1953, the district authorities decided, in order to provide the Staromainsky site of the Ulyanovskselstroy trust with bricks for the relocation and new construction of school buildings, medical, cultural, educational and other institutions, to transfer to it the former church building in the village. Old Mud for disassembling into bricks.
New life for the village?
At the beginning of 1952, the residents of Staraya Gryaznukha learned that their village was in the flood zone of the Kuibyshev hydroelectric power station, and in its place in 1957 a man-made sea would splash.
In February 1952, the Staromainsky district executive committee decided: “The villages of Staraya Gryaznukha (collective farm named after Kalinin) and Novaya Gryaznukha (team of the collective farm named after Kalinin) ... be relocated to a new site, as settlements in which the brigades of one enlarged collective farm named after Kalinin are located.” But, apparently, the villagers refused to move to new lands near the village of Archilovka, and decided to settle in the “Za porubom” tract - where Volzhskoye is now located. Moreover, the opinion of the residents of Staraya and Novaya Gryaznukha was unanimous, and the resolution of the general meeting of December 21, 1952 was approved by the district executive committee, which rarely happened at that time. However, according to archival data, residents were supposed to move to the village of Volzhsky (at first the new economic center was called Staraya Gryaznukha), the village of Archilovka and the village of Bazarno-Mordovsky Yurtkul. The chairman of the village council during these difficult years was Vladimir Ivanovich Avdeev.
According to A.A. Zubarev, in Staraya Gryaznukha in the early 1950s. there was a village council, a school, two shops, a club and a paramedic station. Archival documents in the village indicate 15 stone buildings (there were seven stone houses in Novaya Gryaznukha), including the village council, club, storeroom and private buildings, as well as Primary School(wooden, moved in 1953), village council, first-aid post, maternity hospital and Volostnikovsky general store.
Zoya Aleksandrovna Kalacheva recalled: “In Staraya Gryaznukha there were several streets, the main one was Bolshaya Street, also “Ktora” (“Khutora”?), Zady. The village was large, about 1.5 - 2 km long, there were a lot of people living there - about 600 people or more. The village council and the collective farm board were located in separate stone buildings. From the village we went to an island on the Volga to pick berries (about 2 km away), rosehips, and drive cattle there. The Gryaznukha river flowed nearby and there were two lakes - Bolshoye and Gryaznushka. The conditions were good, the terrain was wonderful - there were meadows, forests, and berries nearby. They didn’t know what the wind was (especially in Novaya Gryaznukha), they caught a lot of fish - a special fishing team worked, there were many lakes. This is what the village was famous for! There was a stone mill (steam mill, built before the revolution), an oil mill, two schools - a stone one at one end, a wooden one at the other, so that the children could not walk far, because the village was long. We studied there for 4 grades, then studied at Staraya Maina. Beekeeping, fishing and general farming were developed - everyone kept a lot of livestock. They moved us to a bare field, behind the forest, to the so-called “fishing field”, from here to Novaya Gryaznukha - 4 km, to Staraya - 6 km. It was the decision of the village residents to settle in one place, closer to the flooded villages. We lived together, there was no theft, there was nothing like that, no one touched the cattle.” Back in the early 1990s. in Volzhsky there was a school, a canteen, a bakery, a club and production (farms), but now there is nothing left...
As a rule, brick houses in the flood zone were demolished and dismantled into bricks and gravel for the construction of new buildings in new settlements, which experienced an acute shortage of almost all building materials. Wooden buildings were moved or burned.
