History of the Oryol region from ancient times to the end of the 18th century. Royal and princely families in the history of the Oryol region

Early ethnic history of the Oryol region.

Report: Kaluga archaeological
conference "Upper Poochie".
Krasnitsky L.N.

Initial stages ethnic history of any size region is always hidden by the "dust of centuries" and depends on many factors - geographical and historical.

This is also characteristic of the Oryol Territory within its present borders, which at present looks like an almost unified ethnic monolith in the center of European Russia. The early past of the Oryol region, being on the whole a page of the ancient history of the Upper Oka region, is directly connected with the past of the "Oryol square" (the author's term) of four rivers surrounding the region from all sides of the world: the Desna, the Ugra, the Upper Don and the Seim.

The Oryol Territory, as well as the surrounding regions, was mastered by modern man in the late Paleolithic era 40-35 thousand years ago. years ago. Traces of his predecessors - Neanderthals of the Mousterian era were found on the Desna near Bryansk and dated 70-60 thousand years ago[ Paleolith SSSS 1984, p.108, Bryansk region 1993, p.36, Oryol region 1992, p.27, SPC Archive] .

In the Middle Stone Age (8-5 thousand years ago), the Oryol region was part of the Mesolithic distribution area of ​​the Volga-Oka interfluve, and in 4-3 thousand BC. the region was inhabited by Neolithic tribes of hunters and fishermen, close to the population of the Desna, the Middle Oka and the Upper Don[ Mesolithic of the USSR 1989, p.68, Smirnov 1991, p.70, Oryol region 1992, p.54, SPC Archive] .

The first written sources reporting on the population of the Oryol region do not fall below the verge of the 9th-10th centuries. and extremely fragmented. The main information about the early stages of the history of the region is provided by archaeological sites, not accidentally called genetic code nation. The card file of the Oryol Research and Production Center for the Protection and Use of Historical and Cultural Monuments (hereinafter referred to as the SPC) contains information about 400 more or less studied and dated archaeological objects of the region, which allows us to reconstruct to some extent the historical picture of the past of our region in the period from 2 thousand BC to the 13th century.

The natural and climatic conditions of the Oryol region, close to modern, developed about 4 thousand years ago. The Oryol region is located along the Central Russian Upland of the Russian Plain on the border of the forest belt and the forest-steppe, which separates the forest from the steppes of the Northern Black Sea region. The conditional boundary of the forest-steppe in the region is considered to be the course of the Oka and Zushi.[ Nature of the Oryol Territory 1983, p.40,94]

The south-east of the region - the Bystraya Sosna river, as well as the Upper Don and Seim rivers, are included in the forest-steppe zone. The left bank of the Oka, together with the rivers of the Upper Desna and the Ugra, belong to the forest belt

The boundary between the forest and the forest-steppe often shifted depending on the periods of desiccation and humidification of the climate. Thus, 3 thousand years ago, the forest-steppe moved north beyond the Oka, and the south-east of the region was completely covered with steppe. About a thousand years ago, during the period of moisture, broad-leaved forests (now almost cut down) reached the Sosna stream, leaving "tongues of the steppes" in the central part of the region. The relic steppe ravine "Neprets" near Orel and "Orlovskoe Polesie" in the northwest of the region along the Vytebet River - the outskirts of the famous "Debryansk forests" of Russian chronicles[ Nature of the Oryol Territory 1983, p.8, physical map Oryol region 1988] .

A large role in the past of the region was played by its dense hydraulic system. The Oka, Sosna and tributaries of the Desna, which have their sources in the Oryol region, connect the region both with the central regions and with the most important river arteries of the Russian Plain - the Volga, Don and Dnieper.Rivers in ancient times were roads of settlement of tribes and peoples, in historical times - trade and military routes and always - places of residence of the main part of the population of the region. Watersheds, sparsely populated until the 13th-11th centuries, were usually contact zones for the spread of archaeological cultures, tribes, appanages, volosts and principalities.

From the middle of the 3rd millennium BC, when natural conditions became close to modern, the forest belt was developed by newcomer tribes of great historical community: "cultures of battle axes and corded ceramics", which brought pastoral cattle breeding, the beginnings of agriculture and bronze foundry. Moving along the river valleys, the Corded Ware tribes spread along the forest belt from Baltic Sea to the Middle Volga, often descending south into the forest-steppe. Most researchers consider them to be the first Indo-Europeans of the forest belt of Europe, who have not yet divided into Germans and Baltoslavs.[ Tretyakov 1966, p.63, Bronze Age of the SSSS forest belt 1987, p.35] .

The Desna basin with the Seim and the Ugra are occupied by related tribes of the Middle Dnieper and Fatyanovo cultures. In the 2nd floor. 2 thousand BC these cultures in the Desna basin are replaced by the Sosnitskaya culture that developed on the basis of the Middle Dnieper culture, the tribes of which assimilated the remnants of the tribes of the "survival Neolithic" of the region[ The Bronze Age of the forest belt SSSS 1987, p.106] . Along the tributaries of the Desna, the Middle Dnieper-Sosnitsa tribes penetrated the forested left bank of the Oka. Their separate monuments are open in Kromsky and Shablykinsky districts[ Oryol region 1992, p.46, 47, 75, 76] .

Most of the known monuments of the Bronze Age were discovered along the Sosna River in the forest-steppe south-east of the region. In the 2nd floor. 2 thousand BC in the steppes of the Northern Black Sea region, successive catacomb and log-house cultures of steppe pastoralists and farmers are formed, and the forest-steppe from the sources of the Seim to the Urals in the 2nd half. 2 thousand BC occupied by the tribes of the Abashev culture, which later advanced into the forest Middle Volga region[ The Bronze Age of the forest belt SSSS 1987, p.124] . Settlements and burial mounds of these cultures were examined on the Kshen River (the right tributary of the Sosna) near the village of Rogatik, Dolzhansky District, on the Livenka River north of the city of Livna in the Klyuchevka tract and throughout the Oryol current of the Sosna[ Krasnoshchekova 1995, p.10, Oryol region 1992 p.43,49,52] .

The question of the ethnos of the above-mentioned cultures of steppe pastoralists and farmers is debatable. If the Srubnaya culture is considered the main substratum of the historically known Scythians of the 1st millennium BC, then in relation to the Abashevites, who were previously attributed to the ancestors of the Finno-Ugric peoples of the Volga region, they are currently speaking cautiously, more often the definition of their ethnic group as Indo-Iranian sounds[ The Bronze Age of the forest belt SSSS 1987, p.131] . Thus, on the basis of archaeological data, it can be assumed that within the limits of the Orovo region along the forest-steppe southeast and the forested left bank of the Oka in the 2nd half of the 2nd millennium BC. e. Two groups of the population lived, which had significant differences both in the forms of making tools and ceramics, and in the basics of the economy. Probably, we can also talk about the ethnic difference between these groups, because their descendants, the Scythians and Balts, spoke in 1 thousand BC. e. different languages.

The vast majority of the known archaeological sites of the Oryol region belong to the Iron Age, the total time span of which can be divided into the following archaeological periods:

Already in the RZhV, in addition to unfortified settlements - settlements, fortified settlements were built, some of which later became historical cities(Mtsensk, Kromy, Novosil, etc.). From the border e. until the final victory of Christianity, the mound burial rite dominates with cremation, later inhumation of the dead.

In the middle of 1 thousand BC. e. in the region of the "Orlovsky square" the following archaeological picture is being formed.In the forest belt from the Baltic Sea to the Upper Oka, on the basis of the descendants of the Corded Ware tribes, a number of related cultures of the ancient Balts are formed, from which the Germans have already separated, but the Slavs have not yet separated. The Desna was occupied by the Balts of the Yukhnov culture, the main course of the Ugra was the tribes of the Smolensk group of the Balts of the Dnieper-Dvina culture [Sedov 1970, p. 25, Schmidt 1992, p. 10].

The lower reaches of the Ugra, the Middle Oka and the Upper Don were part of the region inhabited by the tribes of the ancient Finno-Ugric peoples of the Dyakovo and Gorodets cultures. Monuments of Gorodets culture are known in the Tula right bank of the Oka along the Upa river and along the Lipetsk course of the Sosna to the mouth of the river. Vorgol [Tretyakov 1966, p.145, Yelets and its environs 1991, p.9, 95].

According to the Sejm from Ser. 1 thousand BC e. the tribes of the forest-steppe Seima culture of the RZhV era lived (the old name of the culture was "late Scythian ash-pit"). Their settlements with wooden constructions of ramparts are known. Finds of the cultural layer of settlements characterize the agricultural and cattle-breeding life of the population, developed craft[Steppes of the European part of the USSR in the Scythian-Sarmatian time 1989, p.74, 75].

The question of the ethnos of the forest-steppe population of European Russia in the interfluve of the Dnieper and Volga is the most difficult problem of the RZhV era, although from the middle of the 1st millennium BC. e. written sources appear. One of them is the work of the ancient Greek "father of history" Herodotus (middle 5th century BC), whose fourth book is devoted to the description of Scythia and its neighbors [Geradot 1972, book. IY]. Having given a description of the nomadic and settled Scythians, incl. steppe "royal", Herodotus lists non-Scythian peoples who lived north of the "royal" in the forest-steppe and along the southern outskirts of the forest belt. The historian notes that among the inhabitants of the forest-steppe there were Scythians-renegades who went north from the main Scythian steppe core, and Iranian-speaking Savromats (Sarmatians) related to the Scythians, who spoke "the spoiled Scythian language", and Gelons - immigrants from the Greek cities of the Northern Black Sea region, who spoke in Greek and Scythian. Among the non-Scythian peoples mentioned by Herodotus, there are no disputes about androphages and neurons, Tissagets and Irks - they are associated with the Balts of the forest belt and the Finno-Ugrians of the Dyakovo and Gorodets cultures, based on their clearly non-Scythian way of life. In relation to others, Herodotus emphasizes that many of them had Scythian clothes, customs and lifestyle. Most of all disagreements on the archaeological linking of Herodotus melanchlens ("black-cloaked") and boudins, in whose name the forest-steppe population of the Seim is among the contenders [Steppes of the European part of the USSR in the Scythian-Sarmatian time, 1989, p. 42,43,75,76, Medvedev 1990, p. 183, Yelets and its environs 1991, p. 95, 96].

The question of the language of the forest-steppe population of the Seim remains debatable and, speaking of the "veil of the Scythian culture", some researchers classify the culture of the Seimas as Scythian. However, one of the greatest Scythologists of the USSR B.N. Grakov believed that the Iranian-speaking, actually Scythian environment, which was based on the Bronze Age log culture, defeated local languages ​​in the vast expanse of the Northern Black Sea steppe and adjacent forest-steppe [Grakov 1977, p.152,217]

Since the era of the RZhV in the Oryol region, the ancient past of the southeast of the region and the interfluve of the Oka, Zushi and Sosna is rather unclear. If the interfluve, crossed from the southwest to the northeast by the course of the Nerucha River, is the most poorly studied part of the region archaeologically, then along the Sosna river neither studies of past years nor continuous exploration of the 90s by Krasnoshchekova S.D. practically did not reveal monuments of the middle of the 1st millennium BC. e. except for a few single ones [Krasnoshchekova 1989/96, NPC Archive].

For XII - XYI centuries. this is historically clear:Behind the Pine began the Polovtsian field, which received the name "Wild" after the invasion of the Mongol-Tatars. In the XIY - XYI centuries. south of the modern city of Livny, four famous land "ways" converged - Bakaev, Muravsky, Izyumsky and Kalmiussky, which, together with the "Nogai dogora", were not only trade roads, but also favorite routes for campaigns and raids of the nomadic population of the southern Russian steppes [Soviet Historical Encyclopedia 1964, v.5, p627, Kargalov 1998, p.323].

In the area of ​​the mouth of the river Livenka to Sosna, the paths forked again. One way to the north - "Muravskaya road" went to Tula - Moscow. The second path to the northwest along the "language" of the steppes reached the Oka in the interfluve of the Rybnitsa and Optukha and diverged beyond the Oka at different sides to Kromy, Karachev-Bryansk and Bolkhov-Belev-Kaluga. It is no coincidence that in the XNUMXth century. fortress towns Bolkhov (1556), Orel (1566), Livny (1586) were founded on the northwestern route, and the fortifications of chronicle Krom were restored.

It seems that the archaeological White spot"in the south-east of the Oryol region is due to the fact that the region of the connection of the ways even before our era was both commercial and military" gates "of roads from the Northern Black Sea region to the forest regions of the future Central Russia, which caused its youth population in turbulent times from 2 half the 1st millennium BC to the XY - XYI centuries, which swept across the steppe and forest-steppe like a rampart of countless wars. recent centuries 1 thousand BC displaced by the Sarmatians, who were already under the name of the Alans at the beginning of our era. the Goths of the Chernyakhov culture are crowding from the west, and from the IY century - the Huns who came from the east. After the Huns, the Turks appeared in the southern Russian steppes - Avars, Bulgarians, Khazars, who founded at the end of the YII century. Khazar Khaganate [Pletneva 1986, p.13].

From the end of 1 thousand BC. e. Before the establishment of the power of the Golden Horde Tatars, there is a constant change of owners of the steppe-Khazars, Ugric peoples (Magyars), Pechenegs, Torks, Polovtsians. Part of the steppe population during the wars went to the forest-steppe and settled at the borders of the forest belt, entering the ancient Russian chronicles under the names of black klobuks, berendeevs, kovuevs and other "their filthy" [Steppes of Eurasia in the Middle Ages 1981, p. 213, Pletneva 1990, p.70].

The left bank of the Oka and the right bank of the Zushi have been studied much better in the Oryol region. Until 1950, the settlements of the RZhV era along the Upper Oka were attributed to the monuments of the ancient Finno-Ugric peoples, who occupied the 2nd half. 1 thousand to. n. e. Middle Oka and Upper Don. However, the studies of the 50s of Nikolskaya T.N. it was established that the population of the Upper Oka from the mouth of the Orlik river to the mouth of the Ugra from the 2nd half. 1 thousand BC e. to the twelfth century A.D. e. belonged to the easternmost group of the Balts of the forest belt, whose culture was called the Upper Oka. Along the watershed of the Oka and Desna, the Upper Oka Balts bordered on the Yukhnov, the watershed of the Oka and Ugra - on the Dnieper-Dvina Balts. The watershed of the Oka and the Upper Don separated the Upper Oka tribes from the tribes of the Gorodets culture. All researchers emphasize the proximity of the Upper Oka Balts with the Yukhnov ones and the close ties between the population of the Desna - Upper Oka and the Scythian world of the forest-steppe [Nikolskaya 1959, p. 80, Tretyakov 1966, p. 173-174, Sedov 1970, p.32, Steppes of the European part of the USSR in the Scythian-Sarmatian time 1989, p.75].

If the Yukhnov Balts bordered on the forest-steppe Scythians in the IY century. BC e. along the right bank of the Seim, the contact zone of the Upper Oka tribes with the forest-steppe tribes was assumed along the course of the Sosna.

But examining the monuments of the Balts of the Oryol current, the Oka Nikolskaya discovers two settlements of the middle of the 1st millennium BC. e. near the village of Luzhki, Kromsky district, and near the village of Vorotyntsevo, Novosilsky district, which, according to characteristic finds and ceramics, are attributed by her to the Seima culture. Later, settlements with similar pottery were found along the Oka from the upper reaches of the village. Tagino, Glazunovskiy region, to the mouths of Zushi and Nugri [Nikolskaya 1969, p. 17, Frolov 1982, Archive of the IA RAS No. 10655, Krasnitsky 1987, Archive of the IA RAS No. 12020].

Thus, it can be argued that in the middle of the 1st millennium BC. e. the tribes of the forest-steppe Scythians occupied the entire Oryol right bank of the Oka. From Yv. BC e. the Balts begin to move south. However, if the Yukhnov tribes displace the forest-steppe Scythians from the right bank of the Seim, then the Upper Oka tribes, having occupied the course of the Zushi, did not advance along the Oka above the mouth of the Orlik - the forest-steppe settlements near the village of Luzhka and with. Tagino functioned until the 1st century. BC e. [Frolov 1985, p.29, Steppes of the European part of the USSR in the Scythian-Sarmatian time 1989, p. 75, Archive of the NPC: passports of the settlements of Luzhki, Vorotyntsevo, Tagino].

At the turn of the a.d. noticeable changes occur in the forest belt associated with the advance of the tribes of the late Zarubinets (Pochep) culture from the Middle Dnieper. Displacing and assimilating the Yukhnov population of the Desna, the newcomers, following the departing Yukhnovists, penetrate the Upper Oka. Some researchers consider them Proto-Slavs, others - Balts [Tretyakov 1966, p.234, Sedov 1970, p.44].

But if on the Desna the newcomers replaced the Yukhnov population, then along the Oka they dissolved in the Upper Oka environment, entering the Moshchin culture of the late eastern Balts of the Upper Oka of the 4th-20th centuries, which preceded the Vyatichi annals [Sedov 1982, p.43].

The Moshchin tribes occupied the upper reaches of the Oka along the Oryol region, but did not move southeast further than the line of the river Neruch - Upper Zusha. Down the Oka River, the Moshchinites advanced to its middle course, where the descendants of the Gorodets tribes, forced out from the Upper Don by the Alano-Bulgarians, retreated [Medvedev 1990, p.181].

In the second half of 1 thousand BC. e. from the Dnieper to the north and north-east, the Eastern Slavs are advancing, mastering the forest belt and forest-steppe.

By the thirteenth century The Seim and the Desna are occupied by northerners who have moved south and left the tribal name in the hydronym "Seversky Donets". To the east of the Desna, the northerners advanced to the watershed of the Desna and Oka (the western border of the Oryol region). The remnants of the Alan-Bulgarian population of Poseimye joined the northerners, which is confirmed both archaeologically - by the monuments of the Volyntsev culture in the region of the Severyanskaya proper - Romny, and by a tribal, clearly non-Slavic name (in the annals often "north"), in which they see the Iranian ethnonym "black ", which brings to mind the Herodotus melanchlens [Sedov 1982, p.138].

Upper Oka in the 13th century. Vyatichi are occupied by the Vyatichi, who came with the relatives along the PVL "from the Poles" - i.e. from the lands to the west of Kiev [PSVL 1997, v.1, stb.12].

The Desna northerners divided the Vyatichi and Radimichi, but the upper reaches of the Desna and Ugra are occupied by a mixed Slavic population of Radimichi, Severyans, Vyatichi and Smolensk Krivyachs [Sedov 1982, p.161].

Mapping of Vyatichi monuments YIII - Xv. shows that their tribes in the southeast of the Oryol region did not cross the Moshchin border Neruch - Upper Zusha[Sedov 1982, p.161].

The Balts of the Upper Oka were very quickly assimilated by the Slavs, although individual "islands" of the Moshchin population are mentioned in the annals under the name "golyadi" in the middle of the 12th century. on the Protva (a tributary of the Oka) [Sedov 1982: 161].

Upper Don in YIII - X centuries. was occupied by the Slavic population of the Borshchev culture. The Don Slavs were previously considered either northerners or Vyatichi, based on the proximity of cultures: the Romany northerners, the Romano-Borshchiv Vyatichi and the Borshchevskaya Don Slavs. Recently, the opinion has been established that the Don Slavs are a separate territorial grouping of the Slavs, close to both the northerners and the Vyatichi. By the end of the X century. under the pressure of the Pechenegs, the bulk of the Don Slavs withdrew to the Upper and Middle Oka (future Ryazan land). When the PVL was compiled (end of the 11th - beginning of the 12th centuries), there was no longer a large group, so their tribal name did not appear on the pages of the annals.

Along the Pine, the settlements of the Don Slavs reached the mouth of the Vorgol River near Yelets [Sedov 1982, p.161].

In the middle of the IX century. Northerners, Vyatichi and undoubtedly the Don Slavs became dependent on the Khazar Khaganate. PVL under 859. reports that the Khazars "... took a shelyag (silver coin) and a squirrel from the smoke from the northerners and Vyatichi" [PSVL 1997, v.1, stb.19].

If the northerners a year after the capture of Kiev by Oleg (882) became part of Kievan Rus, then the Vyatichi tribes paid tribute to the Khazars "... for a shelyag from the ral" (from a plow) until the mid-60s. X century, which did not prevent them from participating in the campaigns of the same Oleg and Igor against Constantinople. Such a long preservation of political dependence is most likely due to the benefits of trade with the East along the Volga and Byzantium along the Don, controlled by the Khazar Khaganate. Since the trade of Eastern Europe in the YIII - X centuries. was carried out mainly along the rivers, it was beneficial for the Vyatichi people of the Upper Oka to maintain independence with relative dependence on the weakened Khazar Khaganate. In addition, at the turn of the IX - X centuries. on the Volga, another state is formed - Volga Bulgaria, with which the Vyatichi had a direct connection along the Oka, and along the outskirts of their lands (along the Upper Don) an overland route from Kiev to Volga Bulgaria passed.

Probably, the Vyatichi along the Orel course of the Oka, connected by river routes with the Volga, Don and Dnieper, turned out to be in the most advantageous position, and by land - with the Northern Black Sea region. Another feature of the Orel hydro-network probably played a big role in this period. Currently, the Oka begins at the village of Aleksandrovka, Glazunov District, near the border of the Kursk Region. But according to Kursk local historians, in ancient times the Oka began to the south - from the Samodurovsky swamp lake. Here is a description of it for 1929: "... a depression up to 530 m wide, which is a continuous peat bog that does not dry out in summer .... Not so long ago (39-40 years) this depression was an impenetrable swamp (rather a lake), the width of which in some places reached up to 2 km and the depth from 10 to 21 meters.From this, almost drained at present, a huge swamp originate: Svapa, Again (tributaries of the Seim), the river Ochka (upper Oka) [Chrestomatiya 1994, p. 114-115].

Those. there was a direct route, without heavy "portages", from the Dnieper to the Volga and along the system: Desna-Seim-Svapa / Again-Oka. It should be added that 2-4 km from Samodurovka, the Sosna and Neruch tributaries originate, flowing into Zusha. Thus, in the south of the Oryol region there was an important, at least in the spring flood, river junction connecting the Dnieper, Volga and Don. The use of this river system in trade is confirmed by the finds of treasures of silver Arab dirhams (the most common monetary unit of the 9th - 10th centuries) along the banks of the rivers of the Seim and Oka basins, and the finds of Roman coins of the 1st - 3rd centuries. in the Kursk region they talk about its use in the 1st half. 1 thousand AD e. [Reader 1994, p.111-113].

Perhaps along the Samodurovsky path in 964-966. the famous Kiev prince Svyatoslav Igorevich broke into the Volga region and dealt a mortal blow to the Khazar Khaganate, subjugating the Vyatichi at the same time, and 15 years later his son Vladimir the Baptist twice went to pacify the "overgrown" inhabitants of the dense forests [PSVL 1997, v.1, stb.64,65 ,81,82].

The almost uninhabited south-east of the Oryol region until the end of the 10th century. remained., probably, the contact zone of both the Slavs: the Don, Vyatichi and Northerners, and the forest-steppe Alano-Bulgarian population of the 10th century.

After the collapse of the Kiev state, the lands of the Vyatichi along the Oryol course of the Oka became part of the Chernigov principality, its Novgorod-Seversky appanage, the Forest Land volost [Zaitsev 1973, p. 98, Nikolskaya 1981, p.10]. Chernihiv princes advance outposts to Pine, as evidenced by the construction in the XI - XII centuries. settlements of Klyuchevka on the Livenka River and Gorodetskoe on the Foshna River, however, researchers include the Sosna basin up to Yelets into the Chernihiv lands very presumably [Zaitsev 1973, p. 8, Fig.2].

The entry of the Upper Oka into the Kievan Rus caused an increase in the number of settlements: the centers of the princely administrative nobility, who moved from the Kiev region with their "yards". In addition, due to the pressure of nomads, not only from the Upper Don, but also from the territory of the southern Russian principalities, part of the population leaves for the "Forest Land" along the Oka. So, according to the studies of Lipetsk local historians, people from Chernihiv lands settled along the Sosna area of ​​the city of Yelets [Yelets and its environs 1991, p.30].

In connection with the events of the feudal wars of the XII century. in the annals, the first mentions of cities on the land of the future Oryol region appear: Mtsensk (1146), Kromakh, Spascha, Domagoshche (all - 1147), Novosil (1155). There were much more cities in the region, but some of them, after stubborn resistance, were so wiped off the face of the earth by the invasion of Batu that they did not even leave names in written sources (urban settlements of Vorotyntsevo, Slobodka, Ganyuchevo, etc.).

Chroniclers emphasize the desire of the Vyatichi for internal autonomy. Even Vladimir Monomakh in his "Instruction" proudly wrote that the first one passed "through the Vyatichi" in the 80s. XI century by a direct route from Kiev to Rostov and Murom - before that, in the interfluve of the Oka and Volga, the princely administration traveled through Smolensk [PSVL 1997, v.1, stb.247].

Perhaps these events formed the basis of the epic "Ilya Muromets and the Nightingale the Robber", the site of which the Oryol legend connects with the village of Nine Oaks on the border of the Khotynets and Karachevsky regions. And in the feudal wars of the XII century. Vyatichi did not want to participate on anyone's side.

The Oryol Vyatichi, probably due to the mentioned tendency to isolation, for a long time retained the old borders of their compact settlement to the southeast to the line Neruch - Upper Zusha. This can be traced by I.I. Borisova when mapping the ethnographic elements of the famous Orlovsky "scribe", the distribution of which coincides with the archaeological map of the Vyatichi people of the 13th - 13th centuries. and does not affect the southeast of the region [Borisova 1999: 109].

No information has reached us about the raids on the Oryol course of the Oka either by the Pechenegs, who depopulated the Upper Don, or by the Polovtsy, although the latter, as allies, participated in feudal wars. XII century. and went to Karachev, Bryansk, Belev and Kozelsk. Perhaps no written sources have been preserved, but it is likely that this is due to the population of the southeastern outskirts of the Russian lands, known from the annals as "wild Polovtsy": the remnants of the Alano-Bulgarians, Pechenegs, Torks and small hordes of Polovtsy, who were not part of the large Polovtsian steppe associations XI - XII centuries, who lived in the forest-steppe and did not settle, like the aforementioned "their nasty ones" on the Russian border .. It was they who were most often attracted by princes as allies in civil strife. At enmity with the steppe, the "wild Polovtsy" partly covered the southeast of Russia from the raids of the steppe relatives. Chroniclers, together with the "wild Polovtsy" from the XII century. they mention on the right tributaries of the Don "wanderers" (proto-Cossacks) - the free Russian population, who led a mobile lifestyle like their forest-steppe neighbors [Pletneva 1981, p.221, 257, Pletneva 1990, p.92,93]. Probably, the wanderers also blocked the paths of the steppe Polovtsian raids on the upper reaches of the Oka.

From the middle of the XIII century. beyond the Pine began the lands of the Golden Horde nomads. The Tatars probably also settled on the territory of modern Orlovshchina. So the village of Borilovo, Bolkhovsky district, local historians at the end of the 19th century. was called Tatar, which is confirmed by the finds of Golden Horde coins at the Borilovsky settlement [Orlovskaya oblast 1992, p.25].

In the XIY - XY centuries. from the west to the Upper Oka, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, a Russian-Lithuanian state, advanced, more than once conquering or controlling the fragmented "Verkhovsky principalities" of the specific descendants of the Chernigov-Bryansk princes. After the entry of the Upper Oka into the Muscovite Rus in the XYI - the first half of the XYII centuries. there is a large influx of population both from the central regions and from the Russian lands that remained in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Russian settlements in the Oryol region reached and crossed Sosna. The advance of the state to the south turned the Oryol region into one of the central regions of Russia.

As a memory of the former Balto-Iranian contact, the difference between the hydronyms of the left bank of the Oka and the river Sosna remained. If hydronyms ending in - MA, CHA, SA, SHA (Kroma, Vodcha, Ressa, Zusha) linguists consider Baltic, then in the names of the right tributaries of the Sosna: Tim, Kshen, Olym - they see Iranian roots [Sedov 1979, p.41, Sedov 1970, p.9,11].

The 800-year-old borderland of Russian lands in the region played a big role in the formation of the "compatriotic" self-awareness of the population of the upper reaches of the Oka. In view of the intensive exchange of socially significant information in the environment of the past multi-ethnic population of the Oryol region, a synthesis of diverse traditions arises, a special way of both material and spiritual values ​​is being formed, incl. and language.

It is no coincidence that, according to N.S. Leskov, "... Oryol has made as many Russian writers drunk on its shallow waters as no other Russian city has put them to the benefit of the Motherland."

In the ninth century Vyatichi were dependent on the Khazar Khaganate, and later, as the Old Russian state strengthened in the 10th-11th centuries. are part of it (Chernigov Principality).
During the period of the Mongol-Tatar invasion, the Orel region is actively involved in the fight against enemies. So, in the battle on the Kalka in 1223, detachments of the Chernigov and Trubchesky princes participated. In 1380, the boyar Peresvet Bryansky from the detachment of the governor of Prince Dmitry Bryansky began the battle on the Kulikovo field with single combat with the Tatar Murza. In 1422-1423. detachments of the Mtsensk and Novosilsk lands under the leadership of the Mtsensk governor Protasyev and Prince Novosilsky defeated the Tatar Khan Barak near Odoev. In 1423, the inhabitants of the Mtsensk land defeated Khan Kuidadat. In 1430-1431. Mtsensk withstood a three-week siege by the Tatars. Traces of mass and long stay of the Mongol-Tatar troops in the territory of the region were not revealed. However, serious historians have long abandoned the theory that has become familiar to the mass historical consciousness of a three-hundred-year period of the yoke, perceived as the occupation of the period of total wars of the 20th century.
Simultaneously with the Mongol-Tatar raids, there was an active onslaught from the west of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which from the middle of the XIV century until 1503 included the Oryol lands, including Mtsensk, Novosil and Bolkhov.
From the beginning of the XVI century. Oryol lands became part of the Muscovite state. To the south of the Oka there is a steppe. Where did the raids of the Crimean and Nogai Tatars continue. In 1562, Divlet-Giray reached Mtsensk, burned down the settlement and ruined the county, as well as Novosil and Bolkhov; in 1565, the Bolkhovians put up stubborn resistance to the Tatars, withstood a 12-day siege, and forced Divlet Giray to retreat. From that time on, the strengthening of border lines began, through the construction of fortresses, guard posts, and fences. So, at the direction of Ivan the Terrible, the Orel fortress was built.
Officially, the founding date of Orel is considered to be 1566, when, at the direction of Ivan the Terrible, the Orel fortress was founded at the confluence of the Oka and Orlik rivers to protect the southern borders of the Moscow state.
The speed of construction of the main temple and the fortress itself (from the summer of 1566 to the spring of 1567) and the unfortunate choice of the construction site from a fortification point of view (on a river cape flooded by floods, well shot through from the neighboring high bank) is explained by the fact that the fortress was erected on the earthen ramparts of the old Orlovsky settlement. The earthen ramparts of the Orlovsky Kremlin have survived to this day in the city's children's park.
In 1567, Vasily Rostovsky and Vladimir Bezobrazov were appointed governors in Oryol. Strengthening the border contributed to the rapid settlement of the region, its economic development; people were attracted by fertile lands, service in the guards.
In 1595, there were 598 settlements in the Orlovsky district, 3110 households, of which 1326 were landlords. 282 - hereditary small landowners, 1429 - peasant and Bobyl households. By the beginning of the 17th century, a mass of fugitive peasants and serfs, exiled participants in the Khlopok uprising defeated in 1603, had accumulated in the Oryol border lands, and this factor, against the backdrop of increased feudal oppression and rumors about the rescue of Tsarevich Dmitry, contributed to the creation of a very turbulent situation in the region. Peasant unrest, which began in the Komaritskaya volost, spread to Liven, Yelets, reinforced by the detachments of Ivan Bolotnikov, who defeated the tsarist troops near Kromy and Yelets in August 1606. The Oryol fortresses, one after another, opened the gates, first to False Dmitry I, then to False Dmitry II. In the winter of 1607-1608. Orel was the residence of False Dmitry II.
The result of all the ups and downs of the "Time of Troubles" for the Oryol lands was their ruin, the almost complete extermination of the population throughout the space from the Don to the Desna, the transformation of Orel into ruins until 1625. In 1636, the city was restored to its original place.
Gradually, the Oryol fortress was overgrown with new buildings, and by 1652 it had three rows of fortifications. Until the 70s of the XVII century. the issue of transferring the fortress to the neighboring high bank was repeatedly considered, but the transfer was never made. By the end of the century, the Oryol fortress fell into disrepair. But due to the fact that the border of the Russian state moved far to the south, raids from the Crimea became less and less frequent, the fortress was not restored, and already at the beginning of the 18th century. was abolished and demolished.
Oryol region from the middle of the 15th century. from the border region began to turn into one of the centers of grain and hemp trade, the export was carried out mainly along the Oka (rafting, during floods and during the descent of special dams on tributaries).
After the provincial reform carried out by Peter I, Orel, together with other cities and lands, as part of districts and provinces, in 1708 entered first into the Kiev province, then in 1727 into Belgorod.
Only in 1778, by the Decree of Catherine II, the Orel Province was created from 13 counties: Orel, Karachevsky, Bryansk, Yelets, Bolkhovsky, Trubchevsky, Sevsky, Kromskoy, Mtsensk, Livensky, Maloarkhangelsky, Lugansky, Deshkinsky. In 1779, Orel was almost completely re-planned, active building of the city began according to a regular plan, beautiful architectural ensembles were created, stone houses were built, the administrative center of the city was formed, at the same time the Orel River was renamed Orlik. Until 1796, Orel was the administrative center of not only the province, but also the Oryol viceroy. The population of the province at the end of the 18th century was about 968 thousand people, among them more than five thousand noble estates, including: Apraksins, Golitsyns, Dashkovs, Kamenskys, Kurakins, Lopukhins, Romanovs, Chernyshevs.
There is not a single significant event in the history of Russia in which the natives of the Oryol Territory would not take part. The Orlovtsy fought in the ranks of the troops of Peter I, fought in all the Russian-Turkish wars of the 18th-19th centuries, the Patriotic War of 1812. Orlovtsy M.F. Kamensky, A.P. Ermolov, D.V. Davydov.
During the Patriotic War of 1812, troops passed through Oryol on their way to the active Russian army. Reserve units were formed here, reserve artillery was stationed. By order of M.I. Kutuzov in the building of the gymnasium, the house of the vice-governor, some private houses, the "Main Temporary Hospital" was deployed. During the war, three recruitings (11,300 soldiers) were carried out in the province. The heroes of 1812 were the Oryol landowners: General A.P. Ermolov, D.V. Davydov, Prince. P.I. Bagration.
Formation of Russian estate culture of the XVIII-XIX centuries. created fertile ground for the formation in the Oryol region of a unique layer of great Russian writers, speaking of which the words of N.S. Leskov that "Orel has made so many great writers drunk on its shallow waters, as no other city has placed at the service of Russia."
For a long time, noble estates were the centers of the spiritual life of the province. An event in Orel's life was the opening of a theater in 1815, owned by Count S.M. Kamensky. The theater operated until 1835. The “Great Reforms” of Alexander II, in particular, the abolition of serfdom, undermined noble estate, the owners left them, moving to the cities.
But the Oryol land has become a second home for well-known Russian politicians. Here passed the years of formation as personalities of such significant figures for the history of Russia as S.A. Muromtsev and P.A. Stolypin.
By this time, Oryol fully carried out the functions of the administrative, commercial, cultural center of the agrarian province. In 1859, a telegraph communication line with Orel of St. Petersburg and Moscow passed through the territory of the province. In the 1860s, laying began through the territory of the province railway. Two railway lines ran through Orel: Moscow-Kurskaya and Rigo-Orlovskaya. They went into operation in 1868. At the same time, the first station with locomotive depot buildings was built. A network of educational institutions appears, public libraries open. In 1898, an intracity tram service was opened in Orel. In 1901, about 50 electric arc lamps were lit in the city.
In the events of 1905, Oryol, along with other provinces, showed the greatest revolutionary activity: two-thirds of the workers participated in the strike movement, 136 landowners' estates were destroyed by the peasants. The land question remained the main one in all subsequent years.
Orlovtsy actively participated in political life Russian Empire. Among the deputies from the Oryol province were representatives of polar opposites political forces. Sincerely devoted to the ideals of the reorganization of society, cadet F.F. Tatarinov, the future minister of the tsarist government, who was shot as a hostage by A.N. Khvostov, one of the authors of the idea of ​​turning south Siberian rivers, disillusioned with liberalism, the Russian philosopher and economist S.N. Bulgakov, organizer of the "Union of Michael the Archangel" S.A. Volodimerov.
On August 3 (according to the new style), 1914, the “Highest Manifesto” to the peoples was read in the Peter and Paul Cathedral (now the place where the Central Regional Library is located) Russian Empire about the beginning of the war with Germany and Austria-Hungary. From Orel to the west, stationed in the city, the 17th Hussar Chernigov (for some time it was commanded by Grand Duke Mikhail Romanov), the 141st Mozhaisk, and the 142nd Zvenigorod regiments went west.
On March 2 (according to the new style), 1917, the news of the revolution that had taken place in Petrograd reached the population of the province. In the period from March to October 1917, many powers reigned in Orel and the province. On October 26, 1917, a telegram arrived in the city about the uprising in Petrograd, the overthrow of the Provisional Government and the victory of the Bolsheviks. Since that time, the province begins to live differently, new life opening a new page in their history.
During the Civil War, Orel became the final point of the White Army's advance to the north during the attack on Moscow in the autumn of 1919. The city was under the control of the troops of A.I. Denikin from October 13 to October 20, 1919. Having suffered a defeat in the Oryol region, his troops began to retreat, ending a year later with the final defeat of the white movement. On November 4, 2009, the diorama " Civil War”, dedicated to the events of 1919.
Since 1928, the Oryol region was part of the Central Black Earth Region with its capital in Voronezh (until 1930 - the city of Orel - the center of the Oryol District), and since 1934 - a part of the Kursk Region. On September 27, 1937, the region was restored as the largest in the USSR (3.5 million people - 59 districts - 67 sq. km. - This is more than Switzerland, Holland, Spain). In 1976, 19 rural districts remained in the region. Currently, the Oryol region (administrative center - Orel) is one of the smallest in the Central Federal District.
During the Great Patriotic War, on October 3, 1941, Orel was captured by the 4th Panzer Division of the 24th Motorized Corps of the 2nd Panzer Group of Guderian. high rates German offensive they did not allow organizing the defense of the city, which was limited to the heroic resistance of individual units of the Soviet troops.
On August 5, 1943, during the offensive phase of the Kursk operation, Orel was liberated by Soviet troops. The banner over the city was installed in a house on Ilyinskaya Square (modern Peace Square) by scouts Sanko and Obraztsov. On September 19, 1943, the first parade of partisan formations stationed in the Orel region in the history of the Great Patriotic War took place in Orel. The liberation of the city and the region is dedicated to the diorama "Breakthrough of the defense of the Nazi troops at the Orlovsky bridgehead in July 1943".
After the war, the city was restored as an industrial center, focusing both on traditional sectors of the economy associated with the processing of agricultural products, and on new ones - instrument making and mechanical engineering.
Having gone through, like many regions of Central Russia, a period of development as a typical Soviet industrial center, the Oryol region has fully experienced the difficulties of the transition period and adaptation to market economy at the turn of the XX-XXI centuries, having lost a significant part of the industrial potential, as a result of the rupture of economic ties of the Soviet planned economy. Today, the region is taking on a new face in the context of focusing on the formation of a highly productive agro-industrial complex based on new innovative technologies as the basis of the region's economy.

In 1967 the region was awarded the Order of Lenin.
Aronov. D.V., Doctor of Historical Sciences, Head of the Philosophy and History Department, Oryol State Technical University.

Pavlova OI, Candidate of Historical Sciences, Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy and History, Oryol State Technical University.

Decree on the establishment of the Oryol gukernia ( 1778 .)

We, considering it to be a good thing to re-establish the Oryol province, most mercifully ordered our general, Prince Repnin, this province, without wasting time, to go round and, according to the approximate schedule given by us, to 12 districts on the spot, to examine them conveniently and, both about this and what new cities for attributing counties to them will need to be appointed, we personally present it.

Catherine II

The starting point of the history of the Oryol province can be considered the foundation of the city of Orel in 1566 by Tsar Ivan the Terrible and the formation of the Oryol district.

In 1708, the first provinces were formed in Russia - the Orlovsky district, together with Volkhov, Bryansk, Livensky, Mtsensk, Novosilsky and others, became part of the Kiev province.

Already in 1719, the Oryol province appeared as part of the Kiev province and united the county towns of Volkhov, Belev, Mtsensk, Novosil and Chern.

Having retained its borders, the Oryol province in 1727 became part of the Belgorod province, and under these conditions, the life of the Oryol people proceeded calmly until 1778.

And on September 5, Catherine II issued a decree on the formation of the Oryol vicegerency from thirteen counties: Arkhangelsk, Volkhov, Bryansk, Deshkinsky, Yelets, Karachevsky, Kromsky, Livensky, Lugansk, Mtsensk, Orlovsky, Sevsky and Trubchevsky. The territory of the Oryol governorship occupied 41,040 square miles, and its population was 968,300 people.

Until 1796, the governor-general ruled the Oryol, Belgorod and Smolensk governorships. And in 1796 the general governments were liquidated. The name "governorship" was abolished, and the territory of the Oryol Territory began to be referred to only as the Oryol province.

The cities and villages of the Oryol region were transformed. The villages of Deshkino, Lugan, Arkhangelskoye were transformed into cities with the latter being renamed Maloarkhangelsk.

Novosilsky district was assigned to the Tula governorship.

In 1782, the county center from the village of Lugani was transferred to the village of Dmitrovka, renamed the city of Dmitrovsk.

Deshkinsky uyezd existed until 1798, then it was divided between Volkhov and Mtsensk uyezds. The city of Deshkin was abolished (now the village of Deshkino, Mtsensk district). In the same year, the cities of Dmitrovsk and Maloarkhangelsk were abolished, in 1802 they were restored again and became the centers of county towns again. Finally, from the above year, the Oryol province was finally formed, and its administrative-territorial division was preserved until 1920.

In total, in the 19th century there were twelve counties: Volkhovsky, Dmitrovsky, Bryansky, Yelets, Karachevsky, Kromsky, Livensky, Maloarkhangelsky, Mtsensk, Orlovsky, Sevsky and Trubchevsky.

The territory of the province occupied 46.7 thousand square kilometers, the population according to the 1897 census was 2,033,798 people.

2013 marks the 400th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty.

Since ancient times, the territory of the Oryol province and the regions adjoining it have been closely connected by their historical roots with representatives of princely, grand ducal and royal families, who became famous and glorified the lands in the upper reaches of the Oka. Many cities and towns were named after the Vyatichi princes Khotynets, Korach, Radko, Khodota, Boryata, Gordey, Zhdan, Skryab, Teshan, Khot, Dobrodeya, and others. Novosil - to the princes of Novosilsky, the city of Vorotynsk-old (now the village of Vorotyntsevo on the Zusha River, a few kilometers from Novosil) - to the princes of Vorotynsky, the city of Zvenigorod, according to V.M. Nedelin, which was once located near Orel on the river. Nepolod,  - to the princes of Zvenigorod, the ancient cities of the Vyatichi Karachev and Bryansk gave the name to the princes of Karachevsky and Bryansk. During the ruin of Chernigov by the Tatars, the capital of the Chernigov-Bryansk principality was movedvElikimTOPrince Roman of Bryansk, father of the Holy Prince Oleg of Bryansk, to Bryansk, to the lands that were less affected by the Horde. The principality claimed at that moment the role of one of the centers of the consolidation of Russia.

The city of Trubchevsk laid the foundation for the families of the princes Trubchevskiy and Trubetskoy. Their ancestor is considered to be the Grand Duke Trubchevsky, Bryansk and Novgorod-Seversky Koribut Olgerdovich, in holy baptism Dimitri,  - the son of the Grand Duke of Lithuania Olgerd and cousin of the Grand Duke of Lithuania Vitovt.

Grand Duke Dmitry entered into the hand of Moscow and participated in the Battle of Kulikovo, and also owned the city of Pereyaslavl-Zalsky. From marriage with the daughter of the Grand Duke of Ryazan Oleg had six sons. This union laid the foundation for many well-known not only Russian, but Lithuanian and Polish families of Voronetsky, Zbarozhsky, Poretsky and Vishnevetsky. At the end of the 16th century, the Vishnevetsky princes were related to the Gospodars of Moldavia and Wallachia Mogils. The son of the Gospodar of Moldavia, Simeon, Metropolitan of Kiev, Peter Mogila, became a well-known church leader of the 17th century. Ivan Vyshnevetsky was the first hetman of the Zaporozhye Cossacks in the 16th century. Prince Dmitry Vishnevetsky owned lands near Belev from 1557 to 1562. One of the Vyshnevetskys, Prince Jeremiah, became the worst enemy of the Cossacks in the struggle for the independence of Ukraine. In 1667 Mikhail Koribut Vishnevetsky was elected king of Poland.

From the marriage of the daughter of the Grand Duke Trubchevsky Maria Koributovna with Prince Novosilsky and Odoevsky Fedor in 1442, a branch of the princes Vorotynsky and Przemyslsky went. The grandfather of Prince Fyodor Simeon and his uncle Stefan - the princes of Novosilsky - were heroes of the Battle of Kulikovo. By the way, the mother of St. Prince Dmitry Donskoy was born Princess Bryansk. From the boyars of Bryansk came the hero of the Battle of Kulikovo, the monk Alexander Peresvet.

By the end of the 14th - beginning of the 15th century, after the collapse of the Chernigov-Bryansk principality, the princes of Novosilsky became the eldest in the family of the princes of Chernigov, and, consequently, were the senior princely branch among all the Rurikoviches.

Most of the princes who had inheritances on the territory of the Verkhovsky principalities of the Novosilsky, Karachevsky and Tarussky houses came in 12-16 tribes from the legendary Rurik, being the descendants of the prince of Kiev and Chernigov Svyatoslav Yaroslavich, the son of Yaroslav the Wise, known for inflicting the first serious defeat near Slavsk in 1068 to the Polovtsians and laid the foundation of the main temple of the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery - the Assumption Holy Mother of God under Abbot Theodosius in 1075.

The great-great-great-grandson of Prince Svyatoslav Yaroslavich, the Holy Prince of Chernigov Mikhail, died at the headquarters of Batu Khan in the Horde on September 20, 1246, refusing to accept the pagan rite and bow to idols. He became the founder of the senior branch of the princes of Rurik's root, the seniority of which was inherited by his five sons. The eldest son Rostislav settled in Hungary and married the daughter of King Bela Anna.

The second son, Roman Bryansky, the founder of the powerful Chernigov-Bryansk principality, through two sons who were based in Poland, laid the foundation for the family of the Osovetsky princes.

From the third son, Prince Novosilsky and Glukhovsky Simeon, the clans of the princes Novosilsky, Belevsky, Odoevsky, Vorotynsky and Przemyslsky went.

From the fourth son, Prince Mstislav Karachevsky, the families of the princes Mosalsky, Khotetovsky, Zvenigorodsky, Kozelsky, Bolkhovsky, Eletsky and Gorchakov descended.

The fifth son, Yuri Mikhailovich Torussky, became the founder of the families of the princes of Torussky, Mezetsky, Baryatinsky, Volkonsky and other noble families.

Many representatives and descendants of these families left their mark in the following centuries on the Oryol land.

On the territory of the Oryol province, in addition to the princes of Novosilsky and Vorotynsky, Bryansk and Trubchevsky, the princes of the Karachevsky house had appanages. From Prince Mstislav Karachevsky, princes Ivan Mstislavovich, nicknamed Hotet, in the 16th generation from Rurik, who gave the name to the princes of Hotetovsky, stood out as independent destinies. Prince Zvenigorodsky Tit Mstislavovich, from 1339 Prince Kozelsky, had sons: Svyatoslav Karachevsky, who was married to the daughter of the Grand Duke of Lithuania Feodora Olgerdovna; Ivan Kozelsky, whose son Fyodor, having married the daughter of Prince Oleg of Ryazan, received the city of Yelets as an inheritance and laid the foundation for the family of the princes of Yelets, participated in the Battle of Kulikovo, died during the defense of the city of Yelets from the troops of Tamerlane; Prince Adrian Titovich Zvenigorodsky, married to the daughter of the Lithuanian prince Gamant (according to other sources, Heydemin), who passed Zvenigorod to his eldest son, Fedor, who beat the Tatars in 1377, and to the younger Ivan, nicknamed Bolkh, the city of Bolkhov, who, in turn, gave the surname princes Bolkhovsky.

In 1408, the princes of Zvenigorod, Khotetovsky, Belevsky, Seversky, led by Prince Svidrigailo, left their lands and moved to Moscow.

In the service of the Moscow Grand Dukes and Tsars, the princes of Zvenigorodsky, Khotetovsky and Bolkhovsky served as governors, courtiers, stolniks, and ambassadors. From the princes of Zvenigorodsky came the Moscow nobles Ryumin, Tokmakov, princes Nozdrevaty. After the death of her first husband, Prince Dmitry Petrovich Yeletsky, Princess Maria Vasilievna Nozdrevataya married Prince Vladimir Timofeevich Dolgorukov, from whom she gave birth to a daughter, who became the Queen, the first wife of Tsar Mikhail Feodorovich Romanov. The branches of the princes of Zvenigorod, Khotetovsky, Novosilsky, Vorotynsky, Yelets and Bolkhovsky stopped in the 17-18 centuries.

Vandthe history of the families of the Russian nobility for 1886 in the first volume, among 339 nicknames of princes and nobles in the section of the clans of princes, considered to this day to be descended from Rurik, among the five surnames, the Bolkhovsky family is mentioned, about which it is said: “What are the persons called princes Bolkhovsky, in particular nobles Bologovsky, but they are not able to document their origin. However, in previous generations, no one doubted the continuation of this kind.

One of the last representatives of the family was the abbess of the Kazan Mother of God Monastery, Princess Sofya Borisovna Bolkhovskaya.

A well-known figure of the era of Tsar John the Terrible Governor, Prince Semyon Dmitrievich Bolkhovskoy, by royal decree, went to Siberia at the head of a detachment of archers, together with an associate of Yermak Timofeevich Ivan Koltso for its final conquest. Leaving Moscow in 1582, he reached the Stroganovs, from them he swam down the Chusovaya River. He reached Psker only towards the end of 1583. Having united with the Cossacks, he fought off the attacks of local tribes. In 1584 he died of starvation and scurvy.

In 1869, Prince Vladimir Fedorovich Odoevsky died (the family of the princes Odoevsky, descended from the princes Novosilsky, died on him), the last descendant in the male line.

In addition to the natural princes, the Oryol Territory owes its very history and emergence as a territorial unit of the Russian state to the will of the Russian sovereigns, who often visited these lands and actively participated in their improvement. The Oryol province was formed almost entirely within the boundaries of Zvenigorod, Bolkhovsky, Khotetovsky, Bryansk, Trubchevsky, Karachevsky, Yeletsky pre-existing specific principalities. (The principality of Novosilsk lasted the longest. According to various sources, it was abolished in the period from 1562 to 1578.)

A new stage in the history of the Oryol province began under Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible and his son Tsar Theodore Ioannovich. In 1566, Tsar John Vasilievich visited the city of Bolkhov, rewarding the governor Ivan Zolotoy and Vasily Kashin, who repelled a 12-day siege of the city by the Crimean Khan Devlet Giray. In the same year, the Oryol fortress was founded.

In the book V.  M. Nedelin “The Primal Eagle” mentions the boyar Ivan Ivanovich Godunov, who, among the few boyars in Orel under the governor Sheremetyev, did not take the oath to the impostor.

On the one hand, how could it be that close relatives of Tsar Boris were at that time on the very outskirts of the Muscovite state? This can be explained by the fact that Ivan Ivanovich Godunov, the son of the boyar Fyodor Ivanovich, was married to the daughter of the boyar Nikita Romanov, Irina. After the accession of Boris Godunov, most of the Romanovs, except for Irina Godunova and the boyar Ivan Nikitich (Kashi), were deported or imprisoned in different parts of Russia, where most of them died or perished. Opala, apparently, touched the branch of the Godunovs, who became related to the Romanovs.

Irina Nikitichna Godunova, who is the niece of the last Rurik Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich, the son of Tsar John IV, the sister of Patriarch Filaret and the aunt of the first Tsar of the Romanov family, Mikhail Feodorovich, outlived all her relatives. Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich named his first daughter Irina in honor of his aunt Irina Nikitichna Godunova, and at the wedding of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich on January 16, 1648, she was a planted mother.

The bride of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich was Maria Ilyinichna Miloslavskaya, the daughter of a poor nobleman Ilya Danilovich Miloslavsky, who owned the village of Ilinskoye near Bolkhov, whose ancestors came from the GreatToPrincipality of Lithuania. In 1390, Vyacheslav Sigismundovich, as part of the retinue of Sofia Vitovtovna, the bride of Grand Duke Vasily I, arrived in Moscow, his grandson Fyodor Terentyevich took the name of Miloslavsky. Ilya Danilovich himself began his service as a steward, helmsmanPosolsky order, then was the ambassador in Constantinople and Holland. After the wedding of his daughter, he was granted to the boyars. 10 days after the royal wedding, his second daughter Anna married the uncle-educator of the Tsar boyar Boris Ivanovich Morozov.

The royal father-in-law and many of his relatives, the Miloslavskys, Pleshcheevs, Trakhonitovs, Sakovnins, were close to the throne, were participants in many events of that time: the Salt and Copper riots, numerous wars, the Church schism, the suppression of the uprising of Stepan Razin, the rebellions of archers, and intra-dynastic struggle.

A year after the marriage of boyar B.  AND. Morozov on A.  AND. Miloslavskaya, his younger brother Gleb Ivanovich married a relative of the Miloslavskys, Feodosia Prokopievna Sakovnina, the daughter of the butler of the Empress, Prokopy Fedorovich Sakovnin. Subsequently, the noblewoman Morozova, in the nun Theodore, became one of the main opponents of the church reforms of Patriarch Nikon. Until now, she and her own sister - Princess Urusova - are revered by the Old Believers as martyrs. For a long time they were saved from repressions by the intercession of Tsarina Maria Ilyinichna until her death in 1669.

However, the Queen, by her natural kindness, was an intercessor for many, including the deposed in 1666 Church Council Patriarch Nikon.

The marriage of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich with Tsarina Maria Ilyinichnaya lasted 31 years, was distinguished by modesty and kindness, and turned out to be happy. The couple had 13 children, five died in infancy, and three more did not live to adulthood.

A year earlier, in 1668, the boyar Ilya Danilovich Miloslavsky died, buried on the territory of the Bolkhovsky Optina Monastery, in the crypt-tomb of the Miloslavskys, built by him earlier, where the coffins with the remains of all the Miloslavskys were transferred.

The death of the Queen was used to his advantage by Stepan Razin. In the Cossack circle, he accused the sovereign's enemies of the death of Tsarina Maria Ilyinichna and Tsarevich Alexei and Simeon, who died in 1670 and 1669. The uprising took place under the monarchical flag of Tsarevich Alexei, who allegedly escaped from Moscow. The role of impostors was alternately played by Prince Andrei Cherkassky, who was captured by the Razintsy during the capture of Astrakhan, and the Don Cossack Maxim Osipov. The first city that Razin's troops could not take on the Volga was Simbirsk, it was defended by the governor Ivan Miloslavsky for a month, until the approach of the tsarist troops of Prince Baryatinsky. After the execution of Stepan Razin on June 6, 1670, the boyar Miloslavsky was sent with an army to Astrakhan to pacify the remaining rebels. When the city was surrendered on November 27, 1670, no one was executed for a year.

After the second marriage of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich to Natalya Kirillovna Naryshkina in 1671, new favorites at courtmThe Moscow Tsar was the close boyar Artamon Matveev, the uncle and tutor of the new Tsaritsa, and her relatives the Naryshkins. Many Miloslavskys were sent by governors to distant cities. In the book V.  M. Nedelin “The Primordial Eagle” is a description of the Oryol courts of the boyars Ivan Mikhailovich Miloslavsky and Bogdan Matveyevich Khitrovo, Matveev’s worst enemies. And near Bolkhov Ivan Mikhailovich after the death of his uncle I.  D. Miloslavsky passed the village of Ilyinskoye, where he ran a household at that time.

Unlike the Miloslavskys and numerous royal relatives, who were distinguished by their adherence to the old Russian and Moscow foundations, monastic views and piety, Tsaritsa Natalya Kirillovna and her tutor boyar A.  WITH. Matveev, who became the Tsar's closest friend and adviser, were admirers of Western European fashion and traditions.

The hostility of the older branch of the Romanovs-Miloslavs to the younger - from the Naryshkins - largely influenced the course of events and history. The struggle between the two clans lasted almost a hundred years and ended in victory for the younger branch.

After the death of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich in 1675, his 14-year-old son Feodor Alekseevich became Tsar. His tutor was his cousin uncle, the boyar Ivan Mikhailovich Miloslavsky.

After some time, Artamon Sergeevich Matveev was accused of witchcraft and passion for cabalism, deprived of all titles, all estates and estates, and exiled to Pustozersk. The investigation was conducted by the boyar Ivan Bogdanovich Miloslavsky. Two brothers of the Queen - Ivan and Afanasy Naryshkin - were sent to Ryazhsk. The Tsarina herself, together with her son Tsarevich Peter, were removed to the village of Preobrazhenskoye.

Under Tsar Feodor Alekseevich, in the short 6-year period of his reign, a number of transformations were carried out: parochialism was abolished, councils of church and military people were convened, and church reforms continued. In 1681, Archbishoprics were established, the center of one of which was to be the city of Bolkhov. By decree, it included the cities of Mtsensk, Novosil, Oryol, Kromy, Karachev.

The death of the Tsar in 1681 prevented his plans for the creation of the Bolkhov diocese in the homeland of his maternal relatives from being realized. His only son, who lived only a few days, from his marriage to Agafia Semenovna Grushetskaya, the Tsar named Ilya in memory of his grandfather Ilya Danilovich Miloslavsky, who was buried in Bolkhovo.

By the second marriage, the Tsar married the goddaughter A.  WITH. Matveeva Marfa Matveevna Apraksina. A few months after the wedding, the Matveevs and Naryshkins were returned from exile. Tsar Fyodor Alekseevich treated his godson Tsarevich Peter with love. A small pond was dug in Izmailovo, where the five-year-old future Tsar had the opportunity to sail on a small boat. April 27, 1682 Tsar Fyodor Alekseevich died. Under pressure from the Naryshkins, the Zemsky Sobor, with Patriarch Jokim presiding over it, elected Peter I Alekseevich Tsar. But soon the Miloslavskys, the boyar Ivan Mikhailovich, Tsarevna Sofya Alekseevna, with the support of the archers, led by Prince Khovansky, restored the birthright of Tsarevich John. As a result of the coup in Moscow, the boyar Matveev, the Naryshkin brothers and many of their supporters were killed. An active role in these events was played by the nephew and adjutant I.  M. Miloslavsky Pyotr Andreyevich Tolstoy, founder of the Tolstoy line. (Later, already under Emperor Peter I, he made a successful career as a diplomat and senator, being one of the people closest to Peter, despite his former orientation towards the Miloslavskys. He led the search and court case for Tsarevich Alexei. Under Catherine I, he was a member of the Supreme Privy Council .)

On May 26, 1682, two Tsars were crowned to the kingdom at the same time - John V and Peter I under the regent Tsarevna Sofya Alekseevna. Tsar John V Alekseevich was crowned king by the last of the Russian Tsars with the famous cap of Monomakh, Tsar Peter I Alekseevich was sewn a cap of the second outfit. When Tsar Peter came of age and his marriage in 1689 to Evdokia Lopukhina, Tsarevna Sophia tried to organize a coup with the help of archers, which failed, and she herself was removed to the Novodevichy Convent. In 1696, Tsar John V died, and Tsar Peter I began to rule alone.

After the Streltsy rebellion of 1698, many Miloslavskys fell into disgrace and imprisonment: Tsarevna Sophia, Martha, Maria.

Persecution did not affect only Princess Feodosia Alekseevna, who died in 1713 and was buried in the Dormition Monastery next to her sister Martha.

Tsar Peter most favorably treated the family of the late brother and co-ruler of Tsar John V, with whom he maintained warm relations, despite the clan war of the Naryshkins and Miloslavskys. Three orphaned daughters of Tsar John - Ekaterina, Anna and Praskovya - lived in the village. Izmailovo together with his mother Tsaritsa Praskovya Feodorovna (nee Saltykova). In 1708 they moved to the new capital of Emperor Peter, they revered him not only as an uncle, but also as a father, calling him father-uncle.

In 1705, Peter I with Tsarevich Alexei visited the patrimony of the Miloslavskys - the city of Bolkhov. According to the Tsar's decree, Archimandria was ordered to be in the Trinity Optin Monastery.

In 1710, Peter married the middle daughter of Tsar John Alekseevich - Anna - to the nephew of the Prussian king Frederick I, Duke of Courland Friedrich-Wilgelm. Anna's older sister Ekaterina was extradited to  1716   yearfor the Duke of Meglenburg-Schwerin, Karl-Leopold, from a family descended from Neklot, the leader of the Baltic Slavs.

Just two months after the wedding, the Duchess Anna of Courland was widowed, and Catherine returned to Russia six years later with her four-year-old daughter, who in Orthodoxy adopted the name Anna, named after her aunt Anna Ioannovna. After the unexpected death of Emperor Peter II, the Duchess of Courland Anna Ioannovna received an offer from the Supreme Privy Council to take the Russian throne. Largely under the pressure of her sister Catherine, Anna was married to the kingdom on April 28, 1730. Empress Anna Ioannovna was the last full-blooded Russian Empress, although it is generally accepted that during her reign Russia suffered from the dominance of the Germans. This prevailing stereotype is not entirely true, since most of the Germans who served then Russian state, appeared in previous years, even under Tsars Alexei Mikhailovich and Peter I. The news of the birth of the niece Anna Leopoldovna (daughter of Ekaterina Ioannovna) from Prince Anton Ulrich of Brunswick's son John, Empress Anna Ioannovna met with relief: the throne remained with her closest relatives - the senior line Romanov-Miloslavsky. Four months after the birth of the heir to the throne, on January 23, 1740, she died. The infant John VI Antonovich, named after his great-grandfather Tsar John V Alekseevich, was proclaimed Emperor of All Russia under two regents - Biron and mother Anna Leopoldovna. He stayed on the throne for only one year, and spent the rest of his life in prison. After the coup committed by the daughter of Peter I, Elizabeth, the baby was exiled with his parents. In fact, Elizabeth usurped the throne, since John Antonovich received the throne according to the will of the Empress Anna Ioannovna in accordance with the Peter's Charter on succession to the throne. Emperor John VI is one of the tragic figures in Russian history.

In 1764, during an attempt to free the Emperor, Lieutenant of the Smolensk Regiment V.  I AM. Mirovich in the Shlisselburg fortress, John Antonovich was stabbed to death by the guards guarding him. For a long time, in the eyes of the people, he was revered as a martyr for a just cause. His parents, mother Anna Leopoldovna and father Anton Ulrich, died in exile in Kholmogory. The brothers and sisters of Emperor John VI - Peter, Alexei, Elizabeth, Catherine - were released by Empress Catherine II at the beginning of 1780 and sent to Denmark to their aunt, Queen Juliana-Marianna. The small town of Horens was chosen as their place of residence, where they lived until their death and where they were buried in the local Lutheran church, but according to the Orthodox rite. The last to die was the eldest of the sisters, Ekaterina Antonovna, in 1807. She was the last representative of the Royal branch of the Romanovs in the female line of the Miloslavskys. In Bolkhov itself, places associated with the history of the Royal Family have been preserved: the Miloslavsky burial vault, the Trinity Optin Monastery, the Trinity Cathedral, built at the expense of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich and Tsarina Maria Ilyinichna, the Transfiguration Cathedral, donations for which were made by Tsar Fedor Alekseevich, Tsarevna Sofya, Tsars John V and Peter I.

Cathedral BuilderbOlkhovsky governor Ivan Ivanovich Rzhevsky (ancestor of A.  WITH. Pushkin), a descendant of the princes of Smolensk, who died during the defense of Chigirin from the Turks in 1678, married to S.A. Miloslavskaya, who was tonsured a nun with the name of Solomonia, had sons Timofey, Alexei and Ivan Ivanovich, married to Daria Gavrilovna Sakovnina, who had a daughter, Evdokia Ivanovna, whose husband was the batman of Peter I, and later the first governor-general of Moscow, one of the chicks of Petrov's nest , a large Oryol landowner, a native of the village of Krasnoye, present-day Oryol Region, Count Grigory Petrovich Chernyshev. Tsar Peter I respected Evdokia Ivanovna, honored her special attention, jokingly calling Avdotya a boy-woman. Their son Peter was a prominent diplomat and senator; Gregory - foreman; Zakhar Grigorievich - Field Marshal Shalom, an outstanding military leader of the Elizabethan and Catherine eras in the Seven Years' War, who occupied Berlin; Ivan Grigoryevich - Field Marshal General from the Navy, was the First Present and President of the Admiralty College under Emperor Paul I, his son Grigory Ivanovich, a participant in the capture of Ishmael, a chamberlain and a diplomat, was buried on the territory of Uspensky monastery in Orel.

One of the closest associates of Peter I was Gospodar of Moldavia Dmitry Cantemir, who, during Peter's unsuccessful campaign within the boundaries of the principality, joined the Russian troops with his escort after the conclusion of the Treaty of Prut. In Russia, he received large funds from the royal treasury, land and estates for the settlement of his people and retinue within the boundaries of the modern Dmitrovsky district of the Oryol region, the district and the city of Dmitrovsk are named after him. The former Gospodar was given the title of lordship by Peter, granted the rank of privy councilor and the rank of senator. In 1723, he received the title of Prince of the Holy Roman Empire from the Austrian Emperor.

The ancestor of the Oryol landowners from the family of the princes Kurakins in the region was Prince Boris Ivanovich Kurakin, a relative of Tsar Peter I, married to the sister of Tsaritsa Evdokia Feodorovna, Anna Fedorovna Lopukhina.

In 1778, the great-nephew of Tsaritsa Evdokia, Avraam Stepanovich Lopukhin, became the ruler of the Oryol viceroy, its first governor-general. His father, Vice-Admiral and Chamberlain under the Empresses Anna Ioannovna and Elizaveta Petrovna, Stepan Vasilyevich, in 1748, on the denunciation of the life physician Lestok, was exiled to Siberia with a curtailment of his tongue for expressing doubts about the rights to the throne of Empress Elizaveta Petrovna as a premarital daughter of Tsar Peter I, and hopes for the accession to the throne of the deposed Emperor - the baby John Antonovich, with whose parents the Lopukhins were close. In the Oryol province, they owned the village of Sergievskoye. Numerous representatives of this family had extensive possessions and estates throughout the province. The Oryol vicegerency was under the jurisdiction of the governor-general of Prince Nikolai Vasilievich Repnin, who descended from the Obolensky princes, direct descendants of St. Prince Mikhail of Chernigov, who in the 13-16 centuries reigned along with other Olgovichi in the upper reaches of the Oka, on the lands of modern Oryol, Tula, Bryansk, Kursk, Kaluga, Lipetsk regions. Under Tsar Ivan the Terrible, the relics of St. Michael of Chernigov were transferred from Chernigov to the Assumption Cathedral of the Kremlin, symbolizing by this act the consolidation and unification of the clans of old Russia into a new powerful Moscow state by the successors of the work of St. Prince Vladimir.

Many Oryol landlords and landowners were close to the Imperial family. Among them, one can especially highlight: Princess Ekaterina Romanovna Dashkova, the first president of the Academy of Sciences, friend and enemy of Empress Catherine II; prominent statesmen- Prince Alexei Borisovich Kurakin and Count Alexander Andreevich Bezborodko; favorite of Emperor Paul I, a native of the Livensky district, Count Fyodor Vasilyevich Rostopchin, in 1812, Governor General of Moscow; Chamber-maid of honor of the Empress Maria Feodorovna, wife of the assassinated Emperor Paul I, Anna Alekseevna Orlova-Chesmenskaya, daughter of the famous Adjutant General Count Alexei Grigorievich, former bride of Count General N.  M. Kamensky (son of Field Marshal M.  F. Kamensky), after the death of the groom, she rejected all marriage proposals and took tonsure in the world, and then monasticism.

A friend of Emperor Alexander II was the Jägermeister Vladimir Yakovlevich Skaryatin. The outstanding poet Fyodor Ivanovich Tyutchev had the rank of chamberlain, served as Chairman of the Foreign Censorship Committee.

The Orlovsky landowner was the younger brother of Emperor Alexander III, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, who owned the village of Dolbenkino, Dmitrovsky district, whose wife, Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna, was the chief of the 51st Chernigov Dragoon Regiment, stationed in Orel from the end of the 19th century until the First World War. After the death of her husband, the regimental priest Fr. Mitrofan Srebryansky.

The younger brother of Tsar Nicholas II, the beloved son of Emperor Alexander III, Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich was a landowner in Orel, and from 1909 to 1911 he lived in Orel, commanding the 17th Chernigov Hussar Regiment. His secret marriage with Natalia Wulfert did not receive the Tsar's blessing for a long time.Withfamily. In 1915, Tsar Nicholas II granted Natalya Sergeevna the title of Countess Brasova, after the name of the estate of Grand Duke Mikhail - Brasovo, Oryol province.

One of the few servants who followed the RoyalWithfamily in exile in 1917, was the sister of the latterORlovsky governor A.  V. Gendrikova maid of honor Anastasia Vasilievna, who died shortly after the execution of the Royal Martyrs. Two close friends, ladies-in-waiting of the court, Margarita Sergeevna Khitrovo, a native of the village of Petrushkovo, Oryol district, and Ekaterina Sergeevna Bekhteeva, daughter of the Yelets landowner from the village of Lipovka, Yelets district, tried to alleviate the plight of the prisoners, married Tolstaya, who were in constant contact and correspondence with the Empress. Her brother Sergei Sergeevich Bekhteev is a poet, officer, a prominent figure in the monarchist movement, who devoted his whole life and work to serving the RoyalWithfamily.

It is impossible in one article to list all the representatives of the Orel families close to the Throne: the Bekhteevs, the Khvostovs, the Kamenskys, the Komarovskys, the Sheremetevs, the Kushelevs, the Golitsyns, the Shenshins, the Lobanovs-Rostovskys, the Korfs, the Yermolovs, the Davydovs, the Yurasovskys, the Osten-Sakenovs, the Shcherbachevs, the Brusilovs, Rimsky-Korsakov and many others who have faithfully served God, the Tsars and the Fatherland for centuries. In the Oryol region, despite all the hard times, there are still many places and monuments associated with the TsarskayaWithfamily. This is discussed in more detail in V.  M. Nedelin Monarchical monuments of the Oryol region. Surprisingly, three temples, built directly at the royal expense, have survived. This is the already mentioned Trinity Cathedral of the Bolkhov Trinity Optina Monastery, built at the expense of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich and Tsaritsa Maria Ilyinichna.

The Church of the Icon of the Iberian Mother of God in the city of Orel and the Church of Michael the Archangel in the village of Ploskoye were built in memory of the accession to the throne and the coronation of Emperor Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna.

At the moment, all three temples are being restored, and on their domes, as before, the symbols of Imperial power - double-headed eagles - will shine with gold.

The location of the Oryol region in the center of the Central Russian Upland, in the watershed of three river basins and at a considerable distance from the centers of Russian statehood, influenced the historical development of our region.

The Vyatichi Slavs appeared in the Oryol region in the 8th-9th centuries and until the 11th century they lived apart from other Slavic tribes, did not obey the Russian princes, and retained their ancient customs. The Vyatichi settlements were located near the rivers. The basis of the Vyatichi economy was arable farming. They were also engaged in cattle breeding, hunting, fishing, beekeeping, trade. international trade contributed to the Oksky way passing through the territory of the region. In the upper reaches of the Oka there was a "drag", i.e. a place for dragging light boats from the Oka basin to the Snova and Svapa basins - tributaries of the Seim. Evidence of this are numerous hoards and individual finds of oriental coins in the Oka basin.

Since 858, the Vyatichi paid tribute to the Khazars. However, they were independent enough to take part in Oleg's campaign against Byzantium in 907. After the defeat of the Khazar Khaganate in 964 by Prince Svyatoslav in 965-966, they were conquered by him. Svyatoslav imposed Vyatichi tribute in his favor. However, they repeatedly rebelled and refused to pay tribute. In 981-982, Vladimir Svyatoslavich organized campaigns against the Vyatichi. In the second half of the 11th century, in 1078 and 1097, Vladimir Monomakh had to make two winter trips to their lands on Khodota near Kordno, but he could not finally annex the land of the Vyatichi to his possessions.

In the XII century, the territory of the present Oryol region fell under the rule of the Chernigov princes. Numerous fortified estates appear here. Mtsensk, Novosil, Kromy are mentioned for the first time in chronicles.

In 1237 and 1285 Mongol-Tatars under the leadership of Batu Khan destroyed the largest cities of the region. For several centuries, the Oryol land became the border region of Moscow and Lithuanian principalities, through which the Tatar detachments passed, raiding Russian lands.

Since the 15th century, the territory of the region has been under the rule of Moscow. Since the 16th century, the lands of the region have finally been part of the Russian centralized state (1503).

Orlovshchina continues to function as a border until the middle of the 17th century and becomes the scene of skirmishes between Russian and Tatar troops, having received the name "Wild Field". To protect against raids south of the Oka, at the behest of Tsar Ivan IV, a “notch” line was established - a series of fortresses on the southern outskirts of the Muscovite state. Then a number of fortress cities were founded, including Bolkhov (1556), Orel (1566), Livny (1586).

At the beginning of the 17th century, the Orel region was one of the centers of a popular uprising against the governments of Boris Godunov and Vasily Shuisky.

After the borders were moved to the southeast and the political situation in the region stabilized in the 16th - early 17th centuries, the Oryol region became the center of noble culture, a large number of "noble nests" appeared on its territory. Handicraft production is being established, commodity grain growing is being formed. In some years, up to 300,000 poods of grain were exported from Orel by water. The transport infrastructure of land roads and river piers is being developed.

By decree of Peter I of December 18, 1708, the current territory of the region was assigned to the Kiev province and named its Oryol province. Orel became the center of the province, which included the cities of Bolkhov, Mtsensk and Novosil. The city of Livny was assigned to the Yelets province of the Azov province.

In 1727, the Kiev province was disaggregated, as a result of which Orel gained the position of the provincial center of the Belgorod province. In the first half of the 18th century, manufactories of the metallurgical, textile, leather and glass industries developed. The leading crops were rye, buckwheat, millet, oats and hemp.

The increase in the administrative-territorial status of the Oryol region is associated with the formation of the Oryol viceroy on February 28, 1778, and since 1796 - the province. Initially, it included 13 counties: Arkhangelsk, Bolkhovsky, Bryansk, Deshkinsky, Yelets, Karachevsky, Kromsky, Livensky, Lugansky, Mtsensk, Orlovsky, Sevsky, Trubchevsky.

In 1798, the territory of Deshkinsky uyezd was divided between Bolkhovsky and Mtsensk uyezds, and in 1802 Dmitrovsky uyezd was created with the center in Dmitrovsk.

During the Patriotic War of 1812, Orel was one of the main rear bases of the Russian army.

In the 19th century, there was significant progress in the field of agriculture. Multi-field crop rotations were introduced, mechanization of production began on advanced farms. The cultivation of potatoes and sugar beet was added to the agricultural specialization. Brick factories were built in the province, large foundries were launched, and large capitalist enterprises arose.

The post-revolutionary period of development of the Oryol region was marked by numerous administrative-territorial transformations.

In July 1919, the Bryansk province was formed, into which the Bryansk, Karachevsky, Sevsky, Trubchevsky counties were allocated from the Oryol. On March 7, 1924, the administrative commission of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee liquidated the Kromsky district, and its territory became part of the Oryol and Maloarkhangelsky districts. On May 19, 1924, the Mtsensk district was included in the Oryol district. In 1925, the Novosilsky district was transferred from the Tula province to the Oryol.

By 1928, the Oryol province included 7 counties: Bolkhovsky, Yeletsky, Maloarkhangelsky, Dmitrovsky, Livensky, Orlovsky, Novosilsky.

As a result of a large-scale administrative-territorial reform, a transition was made to the regional, district and district division. By the decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR of July 16, 1928, the Central Black Earth Region (TsChO) was formed with the center in Voronezh. It included the Voronezh, Tambov, Kursk and Oryol provinces.

In 1930, the district division was abolished, and the districts of the Central Chernobyl region became directly subordinate to the regions. In 1934, the Central Black Earth region was divided into the Voronezh and Kursk regions, which included the territory of the Oryol region.

During the Great Patriotic War, the territory of the Oryol region was occupied Nazi German troops. The occupation caused significant damage to the economy of the city and the region. Most residential buildings, structures, agricultural and industrial enterprises and organizations were destroyed.

For each Orlovets, the days of the summer of 1943 are especially memorable, when an unprecedented battle in the history of mankind took place on the territory of the region - the Battle of Oryol-Kursk.

The Oryol offensive operation was carried out by the troops of the left wing of the Western Front, as well as the Bryansk and Central Fronts from July 12 to August 18, 1943. As a result of the operation, the Oryol region was liberated within its current borders, and the “dagger aimed at the heart of Russia”, as the Nazis called the Oryol ledge, was eliminated, considering it as a starting area for striking at Moscow.

The battle for the Eagle went down in the history of the Great Patriotic War as one of the biggest battles who knew no equal in the simultaneous concentration of huge masses of troops and military equipment on narrow sections front. Many military formations fought on the Oryol land, glorifying themselves in the battles near Moscow and Stalingrad. The military glory of other units was born here.

In the sky above Orel, the French pilots of the first Normandie-Niemen fighter regiment bravely fought the enemy. Thousands of soldiers showed examples of military prowess in the battles near Orel, among them Heroes of the Soviet Union, fighter pilot Alexei Maresyev, who increased the number of downed German aircraft here, and machine gunner Lieutenant Nikolai Marinchenko. By the summer of 1943, 166 partisan detachments numbering more than 60,000 people operated on the territory of the region before the war.

Victory at the Fiery Arc, of which Orlovskaya was a part offensive, and the exit of Soviet troops to the Dnieper ended in a radical change in the course of the war, prejudging the catastrophe of the Nazi army.

In honor of the liberation of Orel and Belgorod, the first artillery salute in the history of the Great Patriotic War was fired in Moscow with 12 volleys of 120 guns. The 5th, 129th, and 380th rifle divisions that distinguished themselves in the battles for Oryol, as well as other military formations, received the honorary title of Oryol.

The highest award of the Motherland - the title of Hero of the Soviet Union - during the war years was awarded to 167 natives of the Oryol region. The Order of Glory of three degrees was awarded to 29 of our countrymen.

The heroic struggle of the inhabitants of the Oryol region against the fascist invaders, their courage, fortitude, shown in the defense of the Motherland, were marked by state awards: in 1967, the Oryol region was awarded the Order of Lenin; in 1980, the city of Orel was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, I degree, and in 2007, the city of Orel was awarded the honorary title Russian Federation"City of Military Glory".

In the battles on the Oryol-Kursk Bulge, the military leadership talent of the military leaders G.K. Zhukov, A.M. Vasilevsky, K.K. Rokossovsky, I.S. Konev, A.V. Gorbatov was revealed. In this gigantic battle, victory came at the cost of heavy losses. According to state records provided by the military commissariat of the Oryol region, as of January 1, 2010, 758 military graves were registered in the Oryol region, in which more than 400,000 soldiers were buried.

Immediately after the liberation of the region, the Orlovites began to restore the economy destroyed by the war.

The period of 1947-1954 was characterized by the stability of the administrative-territorial structure of the Oryol region. At that time, the region included 40 districts.

In connection with the formation of the Lipetsk region in January 1954, 9 districts of the Oryol region were transferred to its subordination. The year 1963 was marked by the enlargement of the administrative-territorial division, as a result, 29 districts became part of 10 larger ones. In 1964, the Shablykinsky rural district was additionally formed. In 1965, 11 rural districts were transformed into 7 unified administrative districts: Verkhovsky, Glazunovskiy, Dmitrovsky, Dolzhansky, Novosilsky, Pokrovsky and Khotinetsky. Subsequent administrative-territorial changes are associated with the formation of the Maloarkhangelsky district (1966); Znamensky, Krasnozorensky, Soskovsky, Trosnyansky districts (1985); Korsakovskiy district (1989).