The most ancient settlements of the Kaluga region. Kaluga Oblast: Tourist Information

CHAPTER FOUR ANTI-SOVIET SPEECHES IN THE TOMSK PROVINCE TERRITORY Awake, my native land From the sleep of ignorance, from the delirium of humiliation, From age-old laziness; Rise and see: movement is boiling everywhere, It's already your turn! P.L. Lavrov. To the Russian people

Kaluga province during the times of Kievan Rus

Kaluga province in antiquity (IX century) was inhabited by Vyatichi. According to Protva and Ugra, the Lithuanian tribe Golyad lived among the Vyatichi; there were also Finnish settlements of the Merya tribe.
It was a wild and inhospitable land, unusually wooded and swampy, with a sparse population that hid in the forests. Earlier in the XII century. there were no cities here. The main occupation of the population was hunting for fur-bearing animals, with the furs of which it paid tribute. At the end of the XI or the beginning of the XII century. the Kiev church chaplain Kuksha, apparently a Vyatich native, enlightened the Kaluga region with the light of Christianity, capturing the sermon with a martyr's death.
As a separate volost, the land of the Vyatichi appears only under Svyatoslav Yaroslavich (the son of Yaroslav the Wise) Chernigov, from which time cities appear here. Under 1146 Kozelsk was mentioned for the first time: in 1155 Vorotynsk, in 1158 Gorodensk (now the village of Gorodnya, 12 o'clock from Kaluga), Mosalsk, etc. “These cities are made princely, and in the XIII century. the present Kaluga province is split into many small principalities, the most important of which were:
1) Mosalskoe with Serensk (now a village near Meshchovsk ",
2) Tarusa and Obolenskoe (now a village),
3) Kozelskoe,
4) Vorotynskoe, where the descendants of Mikhail Chernigovsky were,
5) Przemyshl with the same line of princes,
6) Mezetskoe, or Meshchovskoe.
Medyn belonged to Smolensk, and Borovsk, Maloyaroslavets and part of the Kaluga district belonged to Suzdal. Thus, the region began to revive and was of considerable interest to the princes, why princely clashes took place here. But this revival was dealt a strong blow by the Tatars, who devastated the region under the command of Batu in 1238 and destroyed Kozelsk. However, the remote position of the region from the Tatars made it possible for him to recover, and he soon began to live his old life again.

Kaluga province in the XV-XVII centuries.

In the XIV century, some of the Kaluga lands were already under the rule of Moscow; Kaluga was first mentioned in the same century. However, the clashes between the Moscow princes and Lithuania, which began with Simeon the Proud, gave almost the entire region to the Lithuanians. The sly and formidable Olgerd entered here three times under Dmitry Donskoy. And Vitovt already owned Medynsky, Mosalsky, Meshchovsky, Zhizdrinsky, Kozelsky, Peremyshl and Likhvinsky districts, so that the border between Moscow and Lithuania went along the Oka and Ugra. Even Vorotynsk, 15 versts from Kaluga, and Lyubutsk were under Lithuanian rule, while Kaluga and Borovsk were border towns. But with Basil I begins the return of the lost cities and the acquisition of others. In 1408, Vitovt ceded Kozelsk and Lyubutsk to him (At this time, the possessions of the Seversk estates were controversial, and therefore half of the uechd belonged to Moscow, and half to Lithuania, etc. ) that were given to. Prince to his uncle Vladimir Andreevich the Brave, and from him passed to his children. From them, these cities are gradually leaving at the disposal of c. prince. Vasily II took Medyn from Lithuania. And Ivan III in the world of 1494 finally got Przemysl, Tarusa, Obolensk. Vorotynsk, Serensk; Peace with Lithuania in 1503 returned Serpeisk, Mosalsk and Opakov to Moscow. Only an insignificant part in the west of the province remained with Lithuania.
In general, the reign of Ivan III is memorable and important in the history of the Kaluga region. Under him in the years 1480-1481. within the current Kaluga province, the liberation of the Russian land from the Tatar yoke and the transformation of Moscow from a khan's ulus into a sovereign state took place.
According to chronicles, Khan Akhmat, wishing to teach the proud Moscow vassal a lesson, in the summer of 1480, counting on difficulties on the Moscow western border (the Livonian Order threatened the recently annexed Novgorod and Pskov) and Ivan's quarrels with his brothers, entered the Moscow borders, but met a large army v. prince near Aleksin and Tarusa. The Tatars were repulsed when they tried to cross the Oka; widespread illness completed their frustration, and they quickly left. But the next year, 1481, the khan repeated his attempt to cross the Oka and get to Moscow. And this time he bumped into the Russian regiments. Then he turned to his ally Lithuania, to r. Ugra and moved along Likhvinsky, Peremyshl and Medynsky districts. The attempts of the Tatars to cross the Ugra near Opakov (not far from Yukhnov) ended in failure, and the Tatars waited for the river to freeze over. It was the end of a cold October, and the river was already covered with ice, opening in the near future for the khan ways anywhere. Then Ivan III took all his troops to an excellent position to Kremenets, hoping to give a general battle near Borovsk. The retreat of the Russian troops from the Ugra was made in a very hasty and disorderly manner, which is why the khan suspected military cunning in the actions of the Russians and, in turn, fled hastily.
However, in the subsequent time the Lithuanians did not cease to harass the Kaluga region; moreover, the Crimean Tatars also joined them, and life in the region was still anxious.
In 1508, under Vasily III, according to an agreement with Sigismund, the unincorporated part of the Kaluga province was seceded to Moscow, and the previously taken places were finally approved for it. The contractual charter says that Sigismund claims for the servants of Vasily Ivanovich - the princes of Przemyshl, Vorotynsky, Mosalsky and others, from the generation of St. Mikhail all their estates and that he is obliged not to intervene in Tarusa, Obolensk, Mosalsk, Vorotynsk and in the city of Lyubutsk (now a village down the Oka), and in the city of Kozelsk, and in Lyudimesk (the village of Peremysh. U.), And in Serensk and in all Kozelsk, and in the people, and in the Serena places. But this agreement did not guarantee the peaceful existence of the mentioned volosts. Border life was full of incessant quarrels and robberies of Muscovites and Lithuanians; everyone was constantly on guard, and the cities turned into heavily fortified points.
The Crimean Tatars began to harass the Kaluga region in 1512. Moscow's allies under Ivan III, they are now changing their tactics and opening a series of raids on the Moscow borders, including Kaluga and its districts. To protect against the Crimeans through the Kaluga province, a line was drawn, stretching along the southeastern and southern borders, almost to the town of Zhizdra, 193 c. Zaseka was called Likhvinskaya and Kozelskaya and was divided into sections named after the zasechnaya gate.
The military character of the Kaluga cities left its mark on the inhabitants, who had little inclination towards civil order and a quiet life. Kaluga residents, under the leadership of the principality of Dmitry Trubetskoy, took part in the liberation of Moscow from the Poles.
When MF Romanov ascended the throne, the Kaluga region was in a very sad situation. In 1614 In 1617, during the first Polish war, new calamities rained down on the Kaluga region. It was brutally devastated by the flying detachments of Chaplinsky and Opalinsky, and then completely ruined by Hetman Sagaidachny, who took possession of Kaluga itself.
The Deulinsky armistice ended the troubles, but gave Serpeisk back to Poland, which was returned back in 1634. The relatively calm time that began, when the Kaluga land began to recover, lasted until 1654, when the region was devastated by an epidemic. For five months of the epidemic in some places, up to two thirds of the population died out.

Kaluga province in the 18th-19th centuries

Before Peter the Great, the Kaluga land was fragmented between different regions. Initially, under Peter, when in 1708 the provinces were formed, and part of the Kaluga districts went to Moscow, and part to Smolensk. But the reform of 1719 established the Kaluga province, which was part of the Moscow province. All counties were assigned to Kaluga, with the exception of Borovsk, Maloyaroslavets, Tarusa and Obolensk, assigned to Moscow. Thus, Kaluga became an administrative center of secondary importance. The population grew steadily, some of the townspeople numbered 5924 people. In the 30s. XVIII century it had more than 60 streets and lanes, 2431 courtyards and 13 1/2 thousand inhabitants. Kaluga grew very quickly despite the fact that in 1719 and 1720. the government transferred about 20 families of townspeople with up to 80 male souls to the Gzhatskaya pier. The progressing growth of Kaluga is not stopped by social disasters, which still fell to its lot quite often.
In 1723 and 1733. Kaluga suffered from hunger, Kaluga suffered from another common companion of wooden Rus - fires. It burned strongly in 1742, 1754, 1758, 1760 and 1761. During the fires, there were also massive human casualties: in 1754, 177 people died.
But a particularly large number of people died in 1771, when Kaluga was seized by the plague that was then raging in Russia.
Of the successors of Peter the Great, Kaluga in the 18th century. saw in her walls only Catherine the Great. The Empress arrived on December 15, 1775, accompanied by M. Plato and a brilliant retinue. Catherine's trip to Kaluga resulted in the transformation of Kaluga from a province to a province by decree on August 24, 1776. This moment was the most important in the history of the city. The province included 12 counties (with Serpeysky), which now make up the province. There were 733 thousand inhabitants of both sexes in the governorship. In Kaluga at that time there were 17 thousand inhabitants.
There were 120 factories and plants in Kaluga, of which there were 1400 workers for 5 sailing. Of the factories, the sugar plant deserves mention, which produced up to 5 thousand poods of sugar, 3/4 of which was sold to Little Russia. Most of all there were oil factories - 34.
Every week there were three trades in Kaluga, to which peasants brought food supplies from nearby villages. Its inhabitants were rich, especially merchants.
On the eve of the 19th century, in 1799, Kaluga was singled out as an independent unit in a spiritual sense. A diocese was opened there. Thus, the new century began happily for her.
In 1812 Kaluga played an important role, and its name is closely connected with the history of this war. The critical part of the campaign, its turning point, took place in the Kaluga province, which became "the limit of the invasion of enemies." For several weeks, Kaluga itself was the main artery from which food and supplies to our army were supplied with everything necessary.

Kaluga region during the Civil War

In Kaluga, Soviet power was established on November 28, 1917 after the arrival of the revolutionary detachment of the Porechensky regiment from Minsk to the city.
In the course of implementing the policy of "war communism" by the spring of 1919, 101 enterprises of large and medium-sized industry were nationalized. After the end of the civil war, an economic crisis gripped the Kaluga province. Out of 130 enterprises, only 66 operated, mainly engaged in the processing of agricultural raw materials and timber. In agriculture, the old peasant way of life was destroyed, and the collective farms created as a result of universal collectivization could not provide the city with food.
During the years of the first Soviet five-year plan, industrial production increased eightfold, and the number of employees more than fivefold. The machine-building plant NKPS was the first in the USSR to begin production of railroad cars, motor vehicles and steam boilers, which were previously received from abroad. The Kaluga Electromechanical Plant mastered the production of the first Soviet direct-printing telegraph devices and payphones, the Duminichesky iron foundry launched the production of the first acid-resistant enamelled equipment, and the Pesochinsky iron foundry - gasoline dispensers for refueling cars. In 1935, the construction of the largest in Europe plant for synthetic fragrances was started in Kaluga.

Kaluga Region during the Great Patriotic War

In the very first months of the war, 25 thousand people went to the front from Kaluga. Plants and factories of the Kaluga Territory, which only yesterday produced peaceful products, began to produce weapons, ammunition, and uniforms. Tens of thousands of residents of Kaluga and districts in August - September 1941 built fortifications near Smolensk, Yelnya, Roslavl, Bryansk, Orel, Kaluga, Maloyaroslavets, Tula.
The situation on the fronts of the Patriotic War became more and more difficult, the front was approaching Kaluga. On October 4 and 7, Kaluga was heavily bombed from the air. On the night of October 11-12, Soviet troops left Kaluga. In the second half of October, the entire territory of the Kaluga Region was occupied.
After the capture of Kaluga, the Nazis began mass arrests and extermination of city residents.
In the annals of the Kaluga partisans, the explosion of the oil depot at Govardovo and Kondrovo, destroyed bridges over the Ressa River. Borovsk partisans took 5 thousand Soviet soldiers out of the encirclement. On the night of November 24, partisans under the command of Captain V.V. Jabot struck at the headquarters of the German army corps in the Ugodsky Zavod. During the raid, more than 600 German soldiers and officers, more than 130 vehicles, four tanks, and two fuel depots were destroyed. On December 30 Kaluga was cleared of the enemy.
After the defeat of the Nazi troops near Kursk and Orel in September 1943, the Kaluga region was finally liberated from the invaders.
In order to restore the national economy more quickly and better serve the working people, on July 5, 1944, the Kaluga region was formed by a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, which included, with a few exceptions, the territory of the Kaluga province that existed until 1929.

Kaluga region in the post-war years

Transfer of enterprises to new system production began here in 1966. Over the two years of the VIII Five-Year Plan, the average annual growth in labor productivity in mechanical engineering, the leading branch of the region's industry, increased by one and a half times, amounting to 6% against 4% in the previous five-year plan. However, already in these years, the inadequacy and half-heartedness of the measures taken began to affect.
The period of the 1960s-70s was characterized by the growing importance of the agrarian sector of the economy and the social development of the countryside. On the one hand, the backlog of agriculture from industry had reached a critical level by this time, on the other hand, the urgent tasks of raising the countryside had to be solved in conditions of a demographic situation that was unfavorable for the countryside. So, from 1959 to 1981, the rural population in the Kaluga region decreased from 588 thousand to 368 thousand. In the period from 1970 to 1979 alone, the number of rural settlements decreased from 4138 to 3649, with less than ten people living in 13% of them. In search of an optimal management structure and organization of the economy, the path was chosen to transform economically weak collective farms into state farms. But even after the completion of this process, there was no significant improvement in production indicators.

Kaluga has a thousand-year history, as evidenced by three ancient settlements with mounds located within the boundaries of the modern city. In total, there were about a dozen ancient settlements on the Kaluga land. Initially, they were inhabited by a patriarchal clan, but over time their population increased, and whole settlements appeared in their neighborhood. Their traces are the fortified settlements near the village of Kaluzhki, the Yachenka River, and the village of Gorodnya. The defensive system of the fortifications has been continuously developing over the centuries. The hills were carefully fortified. On the vulnerable sides of the field, large ramparts were erected, in front of which deep ditches filled with water burst out. A wooden picket fence was laid along their crest, encircling the settlement from all sides. Paved with wooden logs or cobblestones, the entrance led to the flat top of the fortress. Such was Kaluga in the first millennium of its long history. Who were the inhabitants of the Kaluga settlements? Archaeological research has shed light on the ethnographic identity of our ancestors in the earliest period of their history; they contain elements of the ancient Baltic and Finno-Ugric cultures. Later layers (X-XII centuries) belong to the chronicle Slavic tribes - Vyatichi. The history of the Vyatichi has preserved the names of the Slavic tribes known from the Old Russian "Tale of Bygone Years". She also calls our legendary ancestor Vyatko: "... And Vyatko is Sede with his kin along the Oka, from him she was called Vyatichi." It was they who made up the bulk of the first Kaluga residents. But when did Kaluga itself arise? For the first time in the chronicles, the Kaluga fortress was mentioned in 1371 in a letter from the Grand Duke of Lithuania Olgerdt to Patriarch Philotheus of Constantinople. The character of Kaluga in the first three centuries of its existence was explained by the strategic defensive significance of the frontier fortress on the Oka, which defended the Russian lands from the raids of the Lithuanians and Tatars. But ancient settlement settlements with mounds in its vicinity existed here long before its foundation.

In the distant past, the territory of Kaluga was not land: 300 million years ago, in the Paleozoic era, waves of the ancient sea raged in its place, as evidenced by the numerous fossilized remains of ancient organisms: corals, ammonites and belemnites, found in abundance in the Kaluga quarries. Hundreds of millions of years have changed the natural landscape of our area, the era changed the era, the land conquered new spaces from the sea, mountains and plains were formed, the climate changed, new species of animals died out and emerged, glaciers advanced and retreated, and only 15 thousand years ago, when it melted the last glacier, an event happened that changed the course of history: the first people began to inhabit the territory of the Russian Plain.

Favorable conditions for the settlement of the territory of the Russian Plain by the first people developed only after the end of the Great Glaciation - in the late Paleolithic era, about 15-10 thousand years ago. The last glaciation - Valdai did not reach our places. But after the next warming, the flows of water from melting ice and glaciers, eroding sedimentary rocks on their way, formed the valley of the Oka River. In subsequent geological periods the Oka riverbed has deepened more than once to a new level, as a result, natural above-floodplain terraces, convenient for the life of ancient people, were formed in the river valley. Only after the last warming that came 10-8 thousand years ago, a relatively dry and warm climate was established on the Russian Plain, the closest to the modern one. But then the winters were less severe than now, and therefore the snow cover was somewhat less. The hills at that time were covered with dense forests, and between them stretched swamps, overgrown with pine, alder and birch. In these swamps, there were pastures of giant mammoths covered with thick reddish-brown wool. According to paleozoological data, the fauna in that era was mixed: in our area there were glacial polar animals - mammoths, hairy rhinos, bison, musk oxen, and at the same time bison, red deer, and roe deer lived. The flora and fauna of the Russian plain was so diverse in that era. For example, in neighboring Moscow, over 50 finds of the bones of mammoths and other ancient animals have been recorded. They are also found on the Oka coast.

The Paleolithic era was marked by periodic cold snaps and advances of glaciers, which caused the migration of primitive people. With the final retreat of the last glacier, the natural situation changes and the Paleolithic tribes of the Svider and Arensburg cultures begin to penetrate into our territory from Western Europe, from which the Butovo and Ienevo Mesolithic cultures, first identified by L.V. Koltsov, are formed under local conditions. The genetic roots of these ancient cultures go back to the Paleolithic.

The era of the Paleolithic (Greek "palaios" ancient and "lithos" stone) (2 million years ago - III millennium BC) is sometimes called the "bone age", since it was during this period that the primitive technique of processing bones and horns was developed ... In that distant era, man led, in the main, a nomadic way of life and was completely dependent on nature, its seasonal cycles and climatic disasters. The main activity of primitive man was associated with hunting, gathering and fishing. Large glacial animals - mammoths - were also a hunt. But in order to kill such a giant, it was required to show special ingenuity and ingenuity. For this, a deep pit-trap was dug, at the bottom of which thick sharp stakes were placed. Dozens of ancient hunters drove the mammoth into a makeshift trap, and then finished off the wounded animal with stones. By storing meat for future use, a person could exist for a long time in this territory. Having exhausted the natural reserves of plant and animal food in one area, he was forced to develop new habitats, conquering new territories. Since the late Paleolithic, people began to settle not only in natural shelters, but also began to build the first earthen shelters. The skins of killed animals served as the first clothing of primitive people. Man mastered fire, learned how to make stone and bone tools, being on the verge of discovering pottery and weaving.

The oldest monument of the Lower Paleolithic era in the Kaluga region is the Acheulean site, located on the left bank of the Oka. The tools found there are represented by cores, scrapers and flakes. Material of a similar nature was collected near the villages of Puchkovo and Nekrasovo, on the right bank of the Oka.

Finds of the Middle Paleolithic are also few. In the materials collected near the village of Gordikovo, on the right bank of the Zhizdra, the left tributary of the Oka, an elongated Mousterian point was found similar to those found in the Crimea. In a quarry near the village of Shatrishchi, two points and tools with notches were found.

Remains of Upper Paleolithic sites were found near the village of Troitskoye, on the right bank of the Oka, near the Chertovo settlement, on the right bank of the Pesochenka River, the right tributary of the Zhizdra, near the village of Shatrishchi, in Kaluga, on the territory of the Annenki microdistrict. At the site near the village of Troitskoye, excavations have begun, which have yielded small material from flakes, fragments of tools and parts of cores.

Known in the Kaluga region and traces of the Mesolithic ("Middle Stone Age"), located in the Oka basin: Gremyachevo, Bragino, Resseta, Neruch, Ladyzhino 1-3 and Krasnoe 3. The earliest Mesolithic culture in the Kaluga region is the Ressetinskaya, associated with the Gagarin monument Khotylevo 2 and dating back to the 9th millennium BC. Butovo Mesolithic culture existed from VIII to the beginning. V millennium BC, Jena - from the VIII to the 1st half. VII millennium BC These Mesolithic cultures are characterized by a well-developed lamellar technique for processing stone tools, represented by arrowheads, petiole scrapers, knives, punches, drills, scrapers, various inserts and incisors.

The era of the "Early Stone Age" - the Neolithic (end of the 3rd millennium BC) is characterized by the Lyalovo archaeological culture from the name of the Neolithic settlements discovered by archaeologists near the village of Lyalovo on the Klyazma River. Ancient hunters and fishermen inhabiting this area made stone tools from a natural mineral - flint - a kind of silica. The Neolithic era is marked in the history of mankind with the creation of stone tools, the invention of clay ceramics and the discovery of weaving. It was then that people learned to build primitive wooden dwellings and make boats. The ancient technique of manual stone processing is characterized by a fairly high skill of its grinding, drilling and sawing. As follows from the finds of the Neolithic, not only the stone tools themselves, but the blanks and high-quality raw materials for their manufacture were of a certain value for primitive man. This is confirmed by similar finds from a Neolithic site on the Desna River. Basically, these are flints, flakes, arrowheads left by ancient hunters near the camp on the river bank.

By the time of the Neolithic, many millennia had passed since the retreat of the glacier; the climate was close to the modern one. But nature did not spoil people. The river and forest abounded in fish and game, but they could only be taken by hard work. Outside of the collective, a lone hunter or fisherman with his flint implements would inevitably die in the struggle with nature. Hunting and fishing were carried out collectively - nets were set up, special hedges were set up - "stabs" at the mouths of rivers. In that era, ancient people lived in dugouts, over which towered a hut with a stone hearth in the center.

In addition to the Lyalovo culture, several local cultures, different from the Lyalovians, were found on the territory of our region. So in the Neolithic in the Oka valley, the tribes of the Belyov Neolithic culture lived in the V-III thousand. BC. They made molded utensils decorated with imprints of rhombuses, large oval combs, and variously shaped pits. Massive stone flakes and blades served as labor tools. Monuments of this culture were found in Kaluga, near the villages: Nekrasovo, Kvan, Annenki, Nikolskoe, Timoshovka, Usadie, Peski, Voronino, Vislyaevo, Borshchovka, Kovrovo, Dugna, Troitskoe, Andreevskoe, Borovaya, Golodskoe, Przemysl.

On the tributaries of the Oka, in the Desnybird basin of the village of Krasnoe in IV-III thousand. BC. the Desna culture existed, the blade technique of processing silicon tools of which is characteristic of the previous Mesolithic cultures. The ceramics are ornamented with various pits, rhombuses, combs.

Starting from the Neolithic, primitive man widely explored our areas. From the old Bessonovskoye cemetery near Maloyaroslavets, a huge and very beautiful panorama of the Luga river valley opens. From here you can see limestone outcrops, reminiscent of those ancient times when the land here was the seabed. Hills of clay and sand, scattered huge boulders, the remains of a mammoth found here - all this reminds of the ice age. It is here in the floodplain of the Luga River that the site of a primitive man was discovered.

Another Neolithic site - "Voroninskaya", is located on the left low bank of the Oka in the Zharki-Karovo area not far from the former village of Voronino (Nikolaevka). The tools of Neolithic labor found here: well-processed tools made of stone: arrows, arrowheads, chisels, hammers, as well as molded thick-walled ceramics with dimple patterns, can now be seen in the Kaluga Museum of Local Lore. They give an idea of ​​the primitive economy and the occupations of our distant ancestors.

A little downstream of the Oka, in the area of ​​the village of Kovrovo, by local lore enthusiasts Ferzikovskaya high school in 1958 another New Stone Age site was opened. Neolithic stucco ceramics are still found in the bend of the right tributary of the Oka - the Peredut River, opposite the village of Bragino. Along with the objects of the Neolithic, a later cultural layer can also be found here, apparently the remains of a settlement with a settlement. Comparing the "Voroninskaya" and "Kovrovskaya" Neolithic sites, the Bragin settlement and the settlement, we can conclude that this area has been well inhabited since the Neolithic era.

At the end of the III millennium BC. e. - I millennium BC e. the Bronze Age has come to our area. It is characterized by the discovery of bronze tools made from copper alloys with non-ferrous metals - aluminum and nickel. The Bronze Age is represented in the archeology of the Kaluga Region by the Fatyanovo culture of the Volga-Oka interfluve, named after the village of Fatyanovo, near Yaroslavl, where people lived who knew not only stone, but also bronze tools. The Fatyanovites were mainly cattle breeders who came to our area from the southeastern steppes in the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. e. They themselves did not make bronze tools, perhaps the latter reached them from the territories of the Upper Volga region and the Urals abounding in copper deposits, but the Fatyanovites mastered the technique of making polished tools from stone, similar to metal ones. The main feature of the Fatyanovo culture is the polished stone tools found near the village of Detchino and the village of Mikheevo and characteristic clay ceramics with the so-called "cord" and "geometric" ornament, stone hammer-axes, flint arrowheads, darts, knives, scrapers. there is a sculptural image of a Fatyanovite reconstructed by Professor Gerasimov and now kept in the Moscow State Historical Museum.

At the end of the II - beginning of the I millennium BC. e. the bronze age was replaced by the "iron age", which lasts almost two thousand years in the Kaluga region. The main occupation of the people, apparently, remained cattle breeding. But they learned how to make iron from native ore, deposits of which are often found in the Kaluga region. True, the process of obtaining iron was very imperfect. Iron ore and burning charcoal were poured into a small forge made of stone and clay with holes in the walls, into which clay nozzles were passed. Through them, air was pumped into the forge, tightly closed on top, with the help of bellows. This is how the process of burning coals and the recovery of free iron from ore took place, which settled at the bottom of the hearth in the form of small layered ingots. Then they were reheated and carefully reforged into iron tools. The development of iron made it possible for people to cut down forests and shrubs, freeing up ever large areas for meadows and pastures, and also to build dwellings from logs instead of primitive huts.

In that era, people lived in small tribal communities, and for the settlement they chose the most favorable places where it would be easier to protect themselves from wild animals and rival neighbors. The settlement from the side of the open field, as a rule, was protected by deep ditches and earth embankments, and a palisade of large logs was erected on the top. The dwellings of people were small wooden houses with cone-shaped thatched roofs and a hearth located inside. At the same time, many settlements have existed continuously for hundreds and even more than a thousand years, as evidenced by the cultural layer accumulated on the site. The early monuments of this era belong to the closely related Yukhnov and Upper Oka cultures, which existed here in the 8-7 centuries. BC. before the first centuries. AD

Hills with remnants of earthen ramparts and ditches, covered with coal-black soil, a cultural layer, have survived in large numbers in the Kaluga region. Archaeologists call the remains of these ancient settlements with fortifications fortified settlements. The very name "settlement" is known among the people as an area assigned to a village or wasteland, which is confirmed by archaeological excavations.

The first hoards of the "Early Iron Age" (late II - early I millennium BC) were discovered in a settlement near the village of Dyakovo on the southern outskirts of Moscow (now it is within the boundaries of Moscow). This ancient monument, in the form of a pyramidal hill with the remains of a rampart and an ancient moat, received the popular name "Devil's Settlement". Picking up a stone in the talus of the hill, locals often met here the so-called "devil's fingers" - fossilized mollusks of belemnites, and often came across "thunder arrows" - stone tips of ancient arrows. In the 60s of the century before last, the Russian archaeologist D. Ya. Samokvasov during excavations found here a treasure of the most interesting metal jewelry from bronze of the 5th-6th centuries. n. BC: massive neck torch with wire winding and hollow beads, twisted torch, horseshoe buckle, bracelets, bells. It is curious that among the objects there were also bent and broken torcs and bracelets, apparently intended for remelting, as well as a stone casting mold. The latter testified that the decorations were made by ancient craftsmen at the site itself.

The excavations of D. Ya. Samokvasov and his followers showed that the settlement near the village of Dyakovo belongs to the "Early Iron Age" - an era when people began to mine and process iron, learned how to make iron tools, cast jewelry from metal, samples of which were preserved in the "Dyakovsky treasure. ". According to this monument, the entire archaeological culture of the "early iron" epoch in the interfluve of the Oka and the Volga began to be called Dyakovskaya. Archaeologists date this period in the Kaluga region to the 7th century. BC e. - VI-VII centuries. n. e. One of these striking monuments - "Pevkin Bugor" is located in the Oka valley near the village of Zhelokhov. Excavations carried out in it in 1936 showed that there was a settlement of people of "Dyakov's culture" here.

While the northern part of the Kaluga region was occupied by the Dyakovo culture, in the I-III centuries. AD in the center and in the south, the Pochep culture developed under the influence of the Zarubinets tribes who penetrated here from the Middle Dnieper region. Scientists believe that on its basis the Moshinskaya culture developed, which existed from the 4th to the 7th centuries. AD A striking feature of Shachinski materials is the presence of polished tableware. There are many items of iron and bronze. Chamfered multicolor enamel pendants and clasps.

About a dozen ancient settlements were located on the Kaluga land, for example, three settlements are known within the boundaries of Kaluga itself. And nearby there were burial grounds and mounds of ancient Slavic settlements passing nearby. These include mounds on the banks of the river. Kaluzhki (XII centuries), in the Kaluga pine forest (XI-XIII centuries), near the villages of Yakimovo (XI-XII centuries), Klimov plant (mid-I millennium AD), Grishovo (XII-XIII centuries), village. Sekiotovo (III-IV centuries AD), village. Turynino (not identified), on the banks of the Ugra River, the Neruch River, etc. How much they can tell the seeker of antiquities - the archaeologist.

The location of the ravine in the valley of the Mozhaiki River, near the village of Sekiotovo is familiar to many Kaluga residents, but only recently scientists have discovered the remains of an ancient settlement on this place. It was located at the very top of a huge hill called "Serpent Mountain". If you climb to the top of this hill and carefully examine the surrounding area, you can easily come to the conclusion that in ancient times the water flow did not flow from the western side of the hill, as now, but from the eastern one. Later, a large glacial landslide, advancing from the east, blocked the path of the stream and directed it to where the stream now flows - from the west of the "Snake Mountain". Thanks to this, a hill was formed, which is a typical outlier. In 1960, when inspecting TN Nikolskaya Hill and the surrounding area, layering of the cultural layer in the cliff and a number of hillocks with the remains of ancient ramparts and fortifications were discovered. Later, in 1985, A.S. Frolov collected at this place fragments of rough molded clay ceramics, iron sickles, ancient arrowheads, knives, clay spindle whorls, objects made of bones and horns, and many bones of domestic and wild animals. The latter indicates that the inhabitants of the ancient settlement were mainly cattle breeders. Research by archaeologists has shown that the settlement was inhabited by a small primitive community that lived here in the III-IV centuries. n. e. In the ravine, deposits of the Carboniferous and Ice Age with the remains of fossilized fossil molluscs-belemnites, corals and spirifer can be traced, the beginning of the formation of new ravines, traces of landslides and karst sinkholes. Today, a natural monument of local importance - the Mozhaisky ravine is a natural natural section through the Quaternary and Lower Carboniferous deposits. The outcrops in Mozhaika are a good visual aid for studying the geological structure of the earth, and the picturesque southern valley in the upper reaches of the ravine is called Kaluga Switzerland by nature lovers. It is not surprising, therefore, that this area has been inhabited since ancient times, preserving the generation of people for many generations.

The small village of Klimov zavod, which is located 25 km away, is of significant scientific interest for archeology. from the town of Yukhnov on the Rudyanka river. On its territory are the remains of "Yukhnovskaya" and "Verkhneokskaya" archaeological cultures, and on the outskirts of the village there is a Vyatichi burial mound of the middle of the 1st millennium AD. e.

Traces of another ancient settlement, where people lived at the beginning of the new era, is located on the high right bank of the Ugra River, near the village of Palatki, Yukhnovsky District, Kaluga Region. Presumably the name of the village comes from the tents of Khan Akhmat. Here the Mongol-Tatars tried to cross in October 1480 to the left bank of the Ugra River ("The Great Standing on the Ugra River"). However, the history of the village is more ancient. Tents - the location of the ancient Russian city of Opakov, from which a hill fort with steep slopes remains, dating back to the second half of the 1st millennium AD. e. It was a small fortified settlement on a protruding high terrace with steep slopes. And nearby is the Vyatichi burial mound, which the locals called the Kudeyarov Yar in memory of the legendary robber.

Another ancient settlement is located near the village of Prudki, Kirovsky district, on the right bank of the Neruch River. Here, along with the settlement of the early Middle Ages (XIV-XVI centuries), discovered in 1987 by A.S. Frolov, traces of an earlier Slavic culture with burial mounds of the XI-XIII centuries were discovered. At the same time, Neolithic and Mesolithic flint tools were also found on the territory of the settlement. The combination of such different archaeological sites indicates that this territory and the surrounding area have been inhabited since ancient times, periodically preserving and renewing human settlements in different historical eras.

Archaeological studies of Kaluga settlements shed light on the life and life of the ancient inhabitants of our area, made it possible to study their customs and culture. The settlements were originally inhabited by a patriarchal clan, but over time their population increased, and whole settlements appeared in the vicinity of the settlements. Their traces are a settlement near the village of Kaluzhki, the village of Gorodnya, Sekiotovo, and the Klimov plant. The architecture of ancient settlements is interesting. As a rule, the hills adjacent to the settlement were carefully fortified, and the fortification system of defense has been continuously developing over the centuries. On the vulnerable sides of the field, large ramparts were erected, in front of which deep ditches, sometimes filled with water, were dug out. A wooden palisade was laid along the crest of the ramparts, encircling the terraces on the steep slopes of the fortifications, built to enter and exit the territory, while an entrance paved with wooden logs or cobblestones led to the flat top of the fortress. On the territory of the settlement there were public buildings, dwelling houses, agricultural buildings, storage facilities, cellars. In each dwelling, one part was probably owned by men, and the other by women and children. In the center of the house was a hearth lined with homemade baked clay bricks. Individual families living in houses made up one community, a single large patriarchal family, inseparably leading a common household. What treasures were hidden behind its ramparts? First of all, it is livestock, since cattle breeding was the main occupation of the inhabitants of the settlements, the basis of their primitive economy. The development of cattle breeding and the development of metal largely contributed to the development of agriculture in the Kaluga Territory, as indicated by iron products found at the sites of ancient settlements. Among the archaeological finds are iron items: sickles, scythes, knives, arrowheads. Hunting and fishing also played an important role in the economy. Among the bones of animals found at the settlement, there were bones of wild and domestic animals of a bear, wild boar, elk, fox - the fauna of the territory of the future Kaluga was so diverse.

Ancient metallurgy was firmly part of the life of the inhabitants of Kaluga settlements: archaeologists discovered clay molds for melting metal - billets, forging, metal slags - production wastes, cast bronze and iron products. Skillfully made by an ancient master women's jewelry: temple rings, bronze pendants, metal rings, brooches, miniature bells. They adorned the festive costumes of women. Whole tassels of such bronze pendants hung from a woman's headdress. Beads and hryvnia were worn around the neck. All kinds of plaques were sewn on the chest and on the belt, even on the hem of the dress. A characteristic male adornment was a belt badge. Weaving and pottery were already developed on the Kaluga land at that time. Ancient rude molded utensils were found at the settlements.

Excavations of a settlement of the supposed ancient Kaluga at the mouth of the Kaluzhka River and a nearby settlement near the village of Gorodnya, where ancient Gorodensk could have stood, carried out in 1892 by Kaluga archaeologist I.D. were skillful bone carvers - the bone knife handles and amulets found here are distinguished by excellent finishing. They could do less laborious woodcarving, but time could not save their woodwork. Carved bone products were also found in the Mozhayka tract near the ravine near the village. Sekiotovo.

Who were the inhabitants of the Kaluga settlements? Archaeological research has shed light on the ethnographic identity of the inhabitants of Kaluga settlements in the earliest period of their history; they contain elements of the ancient Baltic and Finno-Ugric cultures. Later layers (X-XII centuries) belong to the chronicle Slavic tribes - Vyatichi. According to linguists, the name "vyatichi" comes from the ancient name of the Slavs known to the Romans "venta", from which "ventchi" (vyatichi) came from. This period includes the characteristic clay ceramics made on a potter's wheel and the Vyatichi seven-bladed temple rings. Among the Slavic finds of the Kaluga region, there are dozens of various objects and iron products: openers, plowshares, sickles and scythes, knives and axes. This could be observed during the excavations of the ancient Russian Serensk. Among the many metal objects found in the Serensky Detinets, household items were in the first place. The tools of labor and agriculture took the second place (5.7%), while the tools of artisans, used for processing metal, wood, leather, etc., took the third place (4.1%). In addition, in the excavated ancient Serensk, among dozens of objects of everyday life and economic activity, written culture and cult, a hollow cross-encolpion was found for storing relics. He is a witness of the ancient Christian culture of the pre-Mongol period, which came to our region from ancient Kiev. Archaeological finds testify to these cultural ties between the city of artisans of Serensk and Kiev, Chernigov and other cities of Ancient Rus.

The history of the Vyatichi has preserved the names of the Slavic tribes known from the Old Russian "Tale of Bygone Years". This is the first Russian chronicle of the 12th century. also calls the legendary ancestor Vyatko: "... And Vyatko is gray with his kin along the Oka, from him she was called Vyatichi." Archaeological materials confirm that the Slav-Vyatichi tribe occupied the basins of the Oka and the Moskva River, including the territory of the future Moscow itself. Their communities, united in a large tribal union which was headed by elders (princes) from the tribal nobility, did not quarrel with each other, so the settlements were usually surrounded only by a wooden fence to protect them from wild animals. Remains of such settlements, which do not have traces of earthen fortifications, are more difficult to locate on the ground. More often they are discovered by chance, thanks to the intense black cultural layer preserved in their place and the finds in it of earthenware, made on a potter's wheel, graceful in shape and decorated with wavy or jagged ornaments. This is how Slavic settlements were discovered on the Kaluzhka River (XII centuries), near the village of Zhdamirovo (XII-XV centuries), in the Kaluzhsky pine forest (XI-XIII centuries), a settlement at the Simeon settlement (XIV-XVI centuries). On the banks of the Ugra River, there were also the remains of settlements, on which life continued for several centuries, until the beginning of the 17th century.

Arab geographer of the beginning of the 10th century Ibn Rusta reported that "the land of the Vyatichi is a wooded plain, they live in the forests ... The bread they cultivate most is millet." The collection of wild fruits and berries, mushrooms and honey from wild bees has long played a significant role in the Vyatichi household. Written sources and archaeological sites testify that at the end of the 1st millennium AD. e. the Vyatichi still retained the patriarchal clan system. They lived in fortified settlements - fortified settlements and were engaged in slash farming. But then, later with the development of arable farming, the Vyatichi settled widely in unfortified settlements.

Archeology makes it possible to clarify not only the territories of the Vyatichi settlement, but also their main occupations. The main economic occupation of our ancestors was agriculture, so they often settled near rivers, among their field lands. During archaeological excavations in many places, seeds of cereals were found - rye, wheat, barley, millet. Since ancient times, man has identified life with arable land and bread, and therefore called grain crops "zhit". This name is still preserved in the Belarusian and Ukrainian languages.

Archaeological finds indicate that the southern lands of the Eastern Slavs were ahead of the northern ones in their development. This is due not so much to the proximity of the south of Ancient Rus to the then centers of the Black Sea civilization, but also to more fertile lands. At the same time, natural and climatic conditions had a significant impact on the main farming systems of the Eastern Slavs. If in the north, in the areas of taiga forests, the so-called slash-and-burn farming system prevailed (in the first year the forest was cut down, in the second year the dried trees were burned and sowed grain, using ash instead of fertilizer), then in the southern regions the fallow prevailed (with an excess of fertile lands for two or three years or more sowed the same plots, and then moved - "shifted" to new ones). The main tools of labor of the Eastern Slavs were an ax, a hoe, a knotted harrow and a spade, with which they loosened the soil. The harvest was harvested with a sickle, threshed with flails, and the grain was ground with stone graters and hand millstones. Cattle breeding was closely related to agriculture. The Eastern Slavs raised pigs, cows, and small ruminants. Oxen were used as draft animals in the southern regions, and horses were used in the forest belt. To get a more complete picture of the life of the Slavs in antiquity, fishing, hunting and beekeeping (collecting honey from wild bees) should be added to the main economic activities.

Among the exhibits of the Kaluga Regional Museum of Local Lore are widely presented jewelry made of bronze, copper, billon (an alloy of copper and silver), silver, which served as adornments to our distant ancestors who lived in the upper reaches of the Oka. They were found during excavations of the archaeological Verkhneokskaya expedition, which carried these finds to the XII-XIII centuries. The results of the excavations amazed specialists with a large number of Slavic and Old Russian ceramics and metal decorations found here. Particularly valuable are the individual finds collected during excavations: temple rings, bracelets, crosses, necklaces, pendants, rings, amulets, lunettes and beads, which gives grounds to date these finds to the 12th-13th centuries. Excavations of the mounds have yielded many interesting materials to characterize not only the funeral rites of the Vyatichi Slavs, but also their way of life, way of life and culture. In addition to rings, bracelets, carnelian and glass beads, almost every female burial contained characteristic temporal rings with graceful seven-bladed plates.

Based on these materials and comparing them with finds from other places, the outstanding archaeologist-specialist V.I.Sizov, as early as the century before last, determined the purpose of the temporal rings, which most likely served for tying hair with a ribbon. In the future, the seven-lobed temporal rings became the most important characteristic feature Vyatik burials, in contrast to other Slavic tribes that lived north to Moscow and beyond the Klyazma River. Thanks to this, it was possible to quite accurately determine the boundary of the settlement of the Slavs-Vyatichi who inhabited the territory of modern Kaluga and Moscow. And when the archaeologist A. A. Spitsyn at the end of the 19th century marked the finds of the rings on the map, the truth of the messages of the "Tale of Bygone Years" was confirmed. In the mounds on the Sozha River, women were buried in a headdress with seven-rayed rings, and in the basin of the upper Oka and on the Moskva River there were seven-bladed rings of Vyatichi. Other ancient Slavic necklaces found in the Vyatichi burial mounds consist of faceted scarlet carnelian and round crystal beads. The age of the necklaces is probably as old as the age of Kaluga itself, and the woman wearing the beads could be a contemporary of the legendary hero Ilya Muromets. There were also found breast pendants characterizing the cosmogonic representations of the Vyatichi: some of them are "lunar", in the shape of a crescent - symbolize the moon, others - round in the form of a disk with rays - the sun. The elegance of the form and the delicacy of the processing of pendants from the Kaluga burial mounds attracted the attention of artists; According to experts, modern women of fashion will not refuse such jewelry.

Much longer than among other Slavs, even centuries after the adoption of Christianity, the Vyatichi kept the pagan custom of burial in barrows. High earthen embankments, as a rule, located in prominent places, have attracted the attention of residents for a long time. Their true origin has long been forgotten and rumor linked the mounds with events of a later time: they were called "Lithuanian graves" in memory of the intervention of the early 17th century, and "French graves", "graves that hid the victims of the epidemic" and simply "henchies" ( legends about untold treasures, supposedly hidden in the mounds by the conquerors, were passed down from generation to generation. The Vyatichi believed in the afterlife, were convinced that in the next world things and tools that they used during their lifetime would be needed.

During the excavations of the Kaluga burial mounds, there are pendants characterizing the cosmogonic ideas of the Vyatichi and their pagan cult: some of them are "lunars", in the shape of a crescent - symbolize the moon, others are round, in the form of a disk with rays - the sun. In the male burials of the mounds, there were many tools of labor. These findings tell of the lesson agriculture, testify to the significant development of the craft. In addition to other items, many bones of wild and domestic animals were found in the Moscow region mounds - a bear, a fox, a hare, a wild boar and a horse. Moreover, almost all bones were heat treated. Apparently, the use of horses for food was common for Vyatichi of the 12th century. Perhaps this is precisely the fact that the Kiev chronicler had in mind when he said that the Vyatichi "eat everything unclean," since they did not eat horse meat in ancient Russia.

Old Russian chronicles of the XI century. Vyatichi are portrayed as a separate tribe, separated from other East Slavic tribes by deep forests (and the forests were so dense that in 1175, during a princely feud, two troops marching against each other - one from Moscow, the other from Vladimir, got lost in the thickets and "minustasia in the woods ", ie passed each other). Known for his military prowess, Prince Vladimir Monomakh tells in his "Teaching to Children" about a successful march across the land of the Vyatichi at the end of the 11th century. as a special feat. Equally important is another passage in the same "Teaching", where Monomakh reports about two winter campaigns "in Vyatichi" against Elder Khodota and his son in Kordna. Princes from the clan of Rurikovich Vyatichi in the XI century. did not obey, and Monomakh does not report either about the subjugation of them, or about the imposition of tribute. But where could the annalistic city of Kordna stand, which means a road in Old Finnish?

Academician B. A. Rybakov on the map of the ancient cities of the Vyatichi compiled by him, indicated the proposed location of the present village of Karnady, northeast of Novosil, Oryol region. According to the assumption of the famous explorer of our region V.M. Kashkarov (1868-1915), this city of Vyatichi was located near the village of Korna at the mouth of the Korinka stream, which flows into the Ressa. The fact that it was the land of the Vyatichi is evidenced by the neighboring village of Mosalsk, Vyatchino. A waterway from Kiev and Chernigov to the Rostov-Murom Territory passed by this village and through the famous Bryn forests. When the legendary Ilya Muromets asked about the direct road to the city of Kiev, the tsar told him: "We have a direct road to the city of Kiev to the forests on Brynskie." In the late 1980s - early 1990s, reclamation works were carried out in the area of ​​the Korna village of the Mosalsky district. And suddenly the workers stumbled upon something incomprehensible, having dug up the remains of a wooden structure from a charred log house in the ground. But the plan construction works did not allow them to go deeper and, laying a trench, laying pipes in it, they completed the object. Perhaps it was part of the fortress wall made of charred bog oak of the city of Kordno.

By the time the state was formed among the Eastern Slavs, a territorial (neighboring) community had replaced the clan. Each community owned a certain territory in which several families lived. All possessions of such a community were divided into public and personal. Personal property consisted of a house, household land, meadow, livestock, household equipment. Land, meadows, mows, reservoirs, forests and fishing grounds were in common use. Mowing and arable land were divided among families. When the princes began to transfer the rights to own land to the feudal lords, part of the communities fell under their rule. The same communities that did not fall under the rule of the feudal lord were obliged to pay state taxes. Peasant and feudal farms were natural in nature. Each of them sought to provide itself with internal resources, not working for the market. But with the appearance of surpluses, it became possible to exchange agricultural products for handicraft goods. So gradually cities began to take shape - centers of crafts, trade and at the same time - strongholds of feudal power and defensive fortresses from the encroachments of external enemies. The sites for the construction of cities were chosen with great care. Old Russian cities, as a rule, arose at the confluence of two rivers on the hills. The location of the city provided natural defenses against enemy attacks. The central part of the city was surrounded by an earthen rampart. A fortress wall (the Kremlin) was erected on it, behind which were the courtyards of princes and nobility, and later - churches and monasteries.

According to experts' estimates, about a dozen ancient Slavic cities of the Upper Poochye are located on the Kaluga land, on the territory of the present Kaluga region or near its borders. According to the "Chronology of Russian Chronicle" N. G. Berezhkov, from December 1146 to the first half of 1147, in the strife of the Chernigov princes Izyaslav and Vladimir Davydovich with the Novgorod-Seversky prince Svyatoslav Olgovich, the cities of Kerensk (Serensk), Kozelesk (Kozelsk) are mentioned in the Land of the Vyatichi. Dedoslavl, Devyagorsk, Lyubinets, Omosov, Lobynsk at the mouth of the Protva, Oblov, etc. According to the chronicles, Svyatoslav Olgovich, having become the prince of Chernigov, buys up a lot, including in 1155 the city of Vorotynsk (Vorotynsk-fortress at the mouth of the Ugra), Gorodensk, Bryn , Lyubutsk, Mezetsk (Meschevsk), Mosalsk, Obolensk, Yaroslavl (Maloyaroslavets). There is no exact data on who and when these cities were built. But the fact that in the first half of the XII century they belonged to the Slavic tribe Vyatichi cannot be doubted. And this testifies to the fact that the Vyatichi in the XII century owned crafts, erected settlements and cities, knew how to build fortifications, defending themselves from enemies.

This was confirmed by the excavations of ancient Serensk, burned in 1231 by the prince of Novgorod Yaroslav and the "sons of Konstantinov". The handicraft and cultural flourishing of this city is evidenced by the finds found during excavations carried out in the early 1980s, several dozen foundry molds, book clasps, writing, copper matrices and a spiral drill, an iron mask (mask) to protect the face of a warrior in battle, etc. In XII century, another ancient city of Ludimesk was founded, which was located on the Berezui River, 4 km from the village of Kurakino (now Grishovo). And nearby, on the bank of Berezui, there is a burial mound and an ancient settlement of the XII-XIII centuries.

In 1246, Tarusa was first mentioned as a fortress city on the Oka River, at the confluence of the river. Tarusa, the center of the specific possession of the Tarusa prince Yuri, the son of the Chernigov prince. Mikhail Vsevolodovich. DI Malinin calls Tarusa one of the most ancient cities of the Kaluga region, built by the Vyatichi in the 10th century. Existence here in the XI-XII centuries. the settlements of the Slavs-Vyatichi are also proved by archaeological data. Arose on the site of a Slavic pre-Mongol settlement and Przemysl (Polish. Przemysl, Premysl). During the examination by the archaeologist M.V. Fechner in 1953 of the Peremyshl settlement near the Assumption Cathedral, fragments of vessels of the 9th-10th centuries were found, pottery with wavy and linear ornament from the 13th-13th centuries was found. Przemysl has been known since 1328 as a small fortress, protected by the steep cliffs of the floodplain terraces of the Oka and Zhizdra rivers and a deep ravine. Later, the fortress occupied the opposite side of the ravine. A powerful earthen rampart simultaneously served as a dam for a defensive reservoir and a platform for the deployment of reserves inside the fortification. Vorotynsk, located on the Vyssa River, a tributary of the Oka, is just as ancient. The first chronicle mention of him dates back to 1155, when one of the Chernigov princes Svyatoslav Olgovich "exchanged cities" with his nephew, the son of the Grand Duke of Kiev (from 1139 to 1146) Vsevolod Olgovich ("taking from him Snov, Vorotynsk, Karachev and giving him others for them "). According to the hypothesis of AI Batalin, based on toponymic and archaeological materials, the emergence of Vorotynsk with the preaching of Christianity in the land of the Vyatichi. It was at that time that the legendary hermits Boris and Protas settled on the site of the future city. At the same time, according to researchers, a small secular settlement Voskresensk appeared - the core of the future city of Vorotynsk. The settlement on the southern outskirts of the city with the remains of a moat and ramparts also dates back to this time. Not far from this place, where r. Vysa makes a bizarre bend, an ancient Slavic settlement was located, the cultural layer on which reaches 3 meters. Here, along with the signs of culture of the first half of the 1st millennium AD. e. found many items of early Slavic culture and the Middle Ages, tools, jewelry, Tatar and Lithuanian copper coins, etc.

Foundry crucibles and furnaces, many items of household utensils, including metal hooks for fishing, a sickle-shaped knife, beads and earrings of rare beauty were also found during excavations of the ancient village of Benitsa, present-day Borovsk region, on the banks of the Protva River. In our history, this settlement has been known since 1150, together with the neighboring village of Bobrovnitsy, from the charter of the Grand Duke of Smolensk Rostislav Mstislavovich, to which he transferred the newly colonized villages of the Vyatichi under the jurisdiction of his bishopric: Drossenskoe and Yasenskoe, Benitsa and Bobrovnitsa. The villages of Benitsy and Bobrovniki, Borovsk region, have retained their names until our times. PV Golubovsky, the author of The History of the Smolensk Land, published in 1893, maps the villages of Benitsa and Bobrovnitsy to the map of the Smolensk principality as trading volost centers. It is known that the Novgorod-Seversky prince Svyatoslav Olgovich, together with his ally Yuri Dolgoruky, going to Smolensk, in the upper reaches of the Protva, took "the people of Golyad", enriching his squad with captivity. The modern scientist N. I. Smirnov in his article "On the Question of Outcasts" notes that the charter of the Smolensk episcopate of 1150 is "the fact of the conversion of communal lands into the land holdings of the Smolensk episcopate, which were not previously part of the feudal land property" ... So inside the free tribe of the Vyatichi, the first signs of tribal differentiation appear. As noted by the Kaluga researcher and art critic VG Putsko in "An Outline of the History of Orthodoxy in the Kaluga Land", "their Christianization is associated with the colonization movement that came from the Smolensk region of the Krivichi, and then from the southern Dnieper region."

However, not only the Vyatichi, but also their neighbors in the Upper Poochya Krivichi and, obviously, the indigenous population of the Goliad tribe had their own cities. Neither chronicles nor historical researchers have substantiated that the chronicled "golyads" migrated to the upper reaches of the Oka, Desna, or the Moskva River. V. M. Kashkarov in his article "On the question of the ancient population of the Kaluga province" writes: "In the Meshchovsky district, in the place formed by the confluence of the Ugra into the Oka, the memory of the goliad still lives on. According to legend ... on one of the mountains the robber Golyaga lived, according to others - Golyad ". The remarkable researcher of the 19th century, Z. Khodakovsky, did not share the "Western" theory of resettlement, arguing that "People or people" Golyad "are 14 of the Slavic regions, which are named after the rivers and streams that irrigate the villages of the same names .. This is a natural boundary - the Golyadyanka, which flows into the Moskva River, in the scribes of 1623 it is called Golyadya.

They say that our history is captured in the names of cities and villages, rivers and natural boundaries, the language of the earth is recorded in them. So in the name of the villages of the Kaluga region, the land tells its own historical language. The villages of Vyatchino or Vyatskoye say that Vyatichi lived here; Cretan - Krivichi, and Glyadovo (the old name of Golyadovo, Borovsk district) - Golyady. An echo of the old inhabitants of these places is also heard in the names of the villages Goltyaevo, Golenki, Golichevka, Golukhino, Golotskoe, Golchan. In the neighboring Moscow region, until the beginning of the 20th century, there was the Nachinsky Golets tract. A number of names are also known for the historical villages of the Kaluga and Tula provinces, belonging to another neighboring Vyatichi and Golyads of the Merya tribe. It is possible that both "golyad" and "merya", merging with the Vyatichi, also had their own cities. No wonder the ancient Scandinavians, the northern neighbors of the Eastern Slavs, called the multi-tribal Russia "Gardarik" - a country of cities. According to scientists, before the invasion of the Horde in Russia there were at least 24 major cities having fortifications.

The exact dates of the founding of many cities are unknown, and the year of foundation is considered the first mention in chronicles. Obviously, they existed not a single decade before the first Russian chronicler mentioned them. But can we trust the annals? For example, it is not known what authentic sources the famous scientist, the discoverer of the ancient list of "The Lay of Igor's Campaign" A.I. chronicle Lobynsk) and Koluga? Also doubtful is the map of the historical atlas of Poland, compiled in German and reflecting geographic boundaries Poland in 1370. The atlas has now been published in Minsk. However, it is not known from what original this map was published. If according to the ancient original, then the map is trustworthy. Among the cities bordering Lithuania, Mozhaisk, Koluga, Przemysl and others are included on the map. It turns out that the message of the Grand Duke of Lithuania Olgerd, dating back to 1371, in which he mentions Koluga as a city taken from him, had no legal basis. And according to the Resurrection list of the annals of Koluga was not listed among the "Lithuanian castles".

But the authentic ancient city of Lyubutsk is known on the right bank of the Oka River, 4 km below the confluence of the river. Dugna, which since the IV century belonged to the Lithuanian principality, being its foremost fortress. This is evidenced by an ancient settlement dating back to the 9th century. Before the Great Patriotic War, there was a church on it, in ancient times, apparently, from a Lithuanian watchtower. The settlement is bounded from the south by the steep bank of the Oka River, and from the east and north by the Lyubuchay stream flowing. on a spacious and deep beam. On the western side of the settlement, a rampart up to 30 m high and more than 100 m long has survived. In 1372, the Grand Duke of Moscow Dmitry Ivanovich (Donskoy) stopped here the Lithuanian prince Olgerd, who was marching with an army to Moscow. The Nikon Chronicle tells about it this way: “And walking around the town of Lyubugsk and most of all the Muscovites were driving their guards, a Lithuanian regiment and their bisha, and Prince Olgird himself ran into Protva’s stash and armed himself with both armies, and between them the enemy was steep and deep. days, and dying, and going in peace. " Some historians believe that the participants of the Battle of Kulikovo, Rodion Oslyabya and Alexander Peresvet, were Lubut boyars before their monastic tonsure. Lyubutsk remained a Lithuanian fortress until 1396. Then, around the world in 1406, he passed to Moscow and became the inheritance of Vladimir Andreevich the Brave. However, in 1473 he again found himself under the rule of Lithuania. In 1460, Lyubutsk is mentioned as a point that Khan Akhmat reached during his movement through the Lithuanian lands to Moscow. Finally, the city came under the rule of Moscow only in 1503. Ivan Sh bequeathed it to his son Andrey. In the 15th century, Lyubutsk ceased to be a fortress on the Oka River and became a posad.

As for other Slavic cities of the Upper Poochye, in the XII-XIII centuries their growth was caused by an increased ebb of the population, as the historian V.O. Klyuchevsky, "from central Dnieper Rus ... and this ebb tide marked the beginning of the second period of our history, just as the previous period began with the influx of Slavs in the Dnieper region." Indeed, with the reign of Yuri Dolgoruky, not only Moscow became known, but also Kostroma, Gorodets on the Volga, Starodub on the Klyazma, Galich and Zvenigorod, Vyshgorod on the lordship, etc. To the ancient Slavic cities of the upper reaches of the Oka Kozelsk (1146), Serensk (1147), Serpeysk, Meshchovsk, Mosalsk, Obolensk, Yaroslavl (Maloyaroslavets), Luzha, Borovsk, Medyn, Sukhodrovl, Kaluga are added to Vorotynsk (1155), Gorodensk (1158), Bryn and Lyubutsk.

Of course, Kaluga as a city took shape much later than other Slavic cities. Kaluga was first mentioned in sources in 1371 in a letter from the Grand Duke of Lithuania Olgerdt to Patriarch Philotheus of Constantinople to the Metropolitan of Kiev and Russia Alexy and the governor of the Grand Duke of Vladimir-Suzdal, the future Donskoy. The character of Kaluga in the first three centuries of its existence was explained by the strategic defensive significance of the border fortress. But ancient settlements in its vicinity existed here long before its foundation. In 1892, the chairman of the Kaluga Scientific Archaeological Commission, archaeologist D.I. e. Excavations of a settlement on the right bank of the Kaluzhka River near the former village of Kaluzhka (now the village of Zhdamirovo), presumably the original location of Kaluga, revealed fragments of clay ceramics, arrowheads, a slate spindle, a bone ring, iron keys that date back to the XII-XV centuries. Probably, initially the settlement belonged to the patriarchal community of the Eastern Baltic tribes, attributed by archaeologists to the so-called Moschinskaya culture (according to a similar settlement discovered for the first time near the village of Moshchiny, Mosalsky district). The area of ​​the settlement with the remains of earthen ramparts and ditches: southern, facing the r. Oka and western - to the Kaluzhka River is about 3 thousand square meters. m. The ditches on the other two sides are badly destroyed. The height of the artificial rampart reaches 6 m, and its depth is 3 m.From this place, our city, for unknown reasons, was later moved 6 versts lower, to the mouth of the Kaluzhka River, at its confluence with the Oka, where there is another settlement with traces earthen rampart and ditch.

As early as the beginning of the 17th century, in old scribes, the Kaluzhka estuary is called an "old settlement" belonging to the "Kaluga coachmen". According to the description of Academician V. Zuev, in the 18th century the place was surrounded by a deep moat, from which a high rampart rose almost like a straight wall, encircling the settlement from three sides, while from the side of the Oka River, the settlement was opened with a rage. At the corners of the main rampart, there were rolling hills, on which, most likely, there were wooden towers. In addition, from these artificial hillocks in the ditch, there were also slopes and, finally, above the ditch itself there were also the same hillocks, possibly for secondary towers. The shaft length from the Kaluzhka side was 100 steps, from the field side 230 steps. The settlement at the mouth of the Kaluzhka attracted the attention of researchers.

At the end of the 19th century, ID Chetyrkin excavated it, discovering traces of a fire, numerous animal bones and fragments of pottery. Having supported the assumption of V. Zuev that the first Kaluga stood here, collecting new historical and ethnographic evidence, he put forward a new version of the reason for its transition from the banks of Kaluzhka to Yachenka. In his opinion, the ancient outpost Kaluga, like the neighboring fortress Gorodensk, mentioned in Yuri Dolgoruky's Letter of 1158, stood on the border of fire, covering the road to Aleksin and Tula. In 1911, students of the Kaluga branch of the Archaeological Institute carried out new excavations, the result of which disappointed the researchers: the age of the objects found here dates back to the 16th century. Local historian D.I. Malinin suggested that some reason, the pestilence of 1386 and 1419, or the location near a high road and the raids of enemies, forced the residents under Vasily I or Vasily II to move again to a new place - half a mile further - to the bank of the Yachenka river , near the Myrrh-bearing Church. Namely, under the Kaluga appanage prince Simeon Ivanovich (1487-1518), the son of Grand Duke Ivan III, at the beginning of the 16th century Kaluga was located on the site of the former Simeon settlement, on which, according to legend, the palace of this prince stood. Later, the fortress from the bank of the river. Yachenki (moved) was moved to the banks of the Oka River on the territory of the city park. Before his death, Ivan III (1505) divided the volosts between five sons: Vasily, Dmitry, Simeon and Andrey. He bequeathed to Simeon Bezhetsky top, Kaluga, Kozelsk and Kozelsk volosts. From 1505-1518 Kaluga becomes the center of an appanage principality headed by Prince Simeon Ivanovich. In 1512, the Crimean Tatars (Agaryans) attacked Kaluga. Simeon fought the Tatars on the Oka and defeated them, according to legend, thanks to the help of the holy fool Lavrenty Kaluga. For this feat, Prince Simeon and righteous Lawrence became locally revered saints. However, local historians M.V. Fechner and N.M. Maslov believe that the fortress of Kaluga was laid on the Yachenka River by the Grand Duke of Moscow Simeon Ivanovich Proud (died 1353).

The ancient Pyatnitskoye cemetery, adjacent to the Simeon settlement, reminded of the antiquity of the settlement itself. According to the plans and maps of the general surveying of Kaluga in 1776, Academician Zuev found out that the second ancient cemetery in Kaluga was only the necropolis of the Lavrentiev Monastery, where priests and especially revered citizens of Kaluga were buried. The area of ​​the Simeon settlement, adjacent to the old cemetery, was called the "Old Settlement" according to boundary books and was four tithes according to the scribes of the 17th century. Around him were the towns of the coachmen.

The first studies of the Simeonov settlement were carried out in 1781 by Academician V. Zuev. The settlement was once surrounded by a high earthen rampart with a gate and a deep ditch on the east side: from the south, the settlement was defended by a deep Serebryakovsky ravine, from the north by Semyonovsky, from the west by a steep slope to the Yachenka river. The length and width of the settlement were 310 and 150 meters. The very location between two deep ravines and the still noticeable embankment rampart suggested that a small fortress with corner watchtowers and an entrance gate could have stood here. Only from the eastern side did the road lead to the settlement along a moat filled up at the outskirts. A bridge could have been thrown across this moat, which, if necessary, was raised or disassembled. In addition, in some places the remains of utility pits and cellars have been preserved. Having examined the entire area and its surroundings, V. Zuev came to the conclusion that it was here that Kaluga crossed from the bank of the Kaluzhka River, and that the founder of the fortress could be the appanage prince of Kaluga Simeon Ivanovich. Archaeological excavations in 1956 revealed a minor cultural layer. An archaeological expedition of the Institute for the History of Material Culture of the USSR Academy of Sciences in 1956 made a deep cut in the rampart least damaged by the destruction and established that there was an old fortification (outpost) here at the end of the 15th century.

Various data about the ancient inhabitants of our places have been collected by archaeologists. But the real historical image of that distant era is given by the original portraits of Vyatichi, recreated by the remarkable scientist-anthropologist M.M. Gerasimov on the basis of skulls from the Vyatichi burial mounds in the Moscow region. The sculptural reconstructions of Professor Gerasimov and his students have received wide international recognition. He was the first to establish a direct relationship between the shape of the bones of the skull and the soft facial integument; he found standards for marking the thickness of the integument in various parts of the head, with the help of which individual facial features of a person are recreated from the preserved skull. The method of plastic reconstruction is documented, and its accuracy has been repeatedly tested by practice, including forensic science.

Today, in the State Historical Museum in Moscow, you can see a reconstructed documentary accurate sculptural portrait of a young girl from the Vyatichi tribe. She, in the opinion of Academician A. G. Veksler, resembles women in the frescoes of Andrei Rublev, paintings by V. M. Vasnetsov and M. V. Nesterov: ... I can't describe it with a pen. A young face with delicate delicate features. The head is adorned with a tribal headdress - a bandage with laced silver rings with seven diverging lobes attached to the temples and at the same time woven into the hair. By tradition, every woman wore such rings among the Vyatichi. A twisted wire hoop - a torch and a necklace adorned the chest and neck. Metal jewelry in combination with stone beads and a shirt embroidered in different colors gave the girl an elegant look.

Another sculpture that has been restored is a 40-year-old peasant man. “According to the chronicles and epics, archaeological and ethnographic data, one can imagine the harsh life of this man,” writes A. G. Veksler, “... he worked with an ax and a plow on a small area that fed him. , with the same ax in his hands, he had to defend his native land from enemies ... He lived in a tiny log cabin "istba", drowned in black, as it is said about such a hut in the Old Russian manuscript "The Word of Daniel the Zatochnik": do not see ". During one of the cruel pestilences, the disease brought down this powerful and tall (and his height exceeded 190 cm) man. One involuntarily recalls the ancient Russian epic hero plowman Mikula Selyaninovich, who surpassed in strength and dexterity the entire prince's squad of 30 dashing fellows, and even Prince Volga himself "... The sculpture depicts the face of a courageous, handsome man. He has a straight-set head, a thinly outlined nose , an energetic, strongly protruding chin. A wide sloping forehead is cut with wrinkles - traces of deep thoughts, difficult experiences. The man is depicted in a "shirt" - a simple peasant shirt decorated with embroidery and buttoned with small bells. during the excavations of the Moscow region burial mounds. Hairstyle - hair "like a pot", mustache, flexible beard - all this is restored according to miniatures of ancient Russian chronicles. This is approximately how the peasant-smerd of the 12th century, a contemporary of Yuri Dolgoruky. about 3.5 thousand years ago Scientists agree that all portraits are as close to reality as possible, documentary and at the same time artistically expressive.

So gradually, step by step, the most ancient horizons of human history are opening and our territory is especially rich in these finds, which has become a treasury of the most diverse historical and archaeological monuments. A study of local attractions shows that the territory of Kaluga and the surrounding areas have been inhabited since the Neolithic period, periodically preserving and renewing human settlements over the next several millennia in various historical eras. Antiquities and art items found during the excavation of local monuments are of great importance for the study of the most ancient Kaluga settlements. The uniqueness of the historical and archaeological monuments of our region requires the most decisive measures to be taken to preserve them for posterity.

The territory of the Kaluga region in ancient times was inhabited by the Slavic tribes of the Vyatichi.

In ancient times, the territory of the Kaluga region was inhabited by the Slavic tribes of the Vyatichi. The fact that the region was inhabited by one of the East Slavic tribes is known from archaeological finds and from the ancient Russian chronicle "The Tale of Bygone Years". It says that "Vyatko is gray with his kin according to Otse, from him I was nicknamed Vyatichi."

The land of the Vyatichi was wooded and swampy. In the southwest, there were dense Bryn forests, which were considered impassable. They separated the Suzdal land from Kiev. In this Zalesye, the people of Kiev did not travel along a straight road, through the land of the Vyatichi, but on a circular road along the upper reaches of the Dnieper and Volga. It is not surprising that one of the epics considers the feat of Ilya Muromets to be that he was the first to get from Murom to Kiev as a "straight road".

Vyatichi settlements were usually located on capes. On one side they went to the river, on the other two they were limited by lowlands, ravines or streams, the fourth side was crossed by a rampart or ditch. An example of such a settlement was found during excavations near the village of Spas on the left bank of the Oka. The settlement towered 15-18 meters above the floodplain. It is a rectangular headland with steep slopes and a slightly sloping surface. The central part of the settlement - "Detinets" - with a size of 3 thousand square meters, is surrounded by a moat three meters deep and a rampart 6 meters high. The Vyatichi built their dwellings at first rounded, and in the second half of the first millennium A.D. - in the form of rectangular dugouts. They had stoves - heaters. The walls of the dugouts were lined with wood.

The main occupation of the population was agriculture, at first slashing, later plowing. The tools of slash farming were an iron ax, a hoe and a large knife - "mower". To embed seeds in the ground, a harrow was used - a knotted harrow. Harvested with an iron sickle. Of cereals, millet yielded high yields, and turnip from root crops. In the second half of the first millennium A.D. e. slash farming was replaced by plowed farming. The plow, first a wooden plow, and then with an iron opener, becomes the main tool of labor. Compared to other East Slavic tribes, the development of the economy among the Vyatichi is slow. This is due to the marginal position of their lands. There were no cities here until the twelfth century.

In the ninth century, the Vyatichi, together with other Slavic tribes, paid tribute to the Khazars. In the second half of the tenth century, as a result of the campaigns of the Kiev prince Svyatoslav in 964 and 966 against the Volga Bulgarians and Khazars, the Vyatichi were liberated from the Khazar yoke and became part of Kievan Rus. In the eleventh century, feudal relations began to develop between them. Although the Vyatichi paid tribute to the Kiev princes, they retained their isolation for a long time and more than once tried to get out of the power of Kiev.

During the fragmentation of Russia, the Kaluga lands became part of the Chernigov principality. In 1146, the oldest city in the Kaluga land, Kozelsk, was first mentioned in the chronicles. Further in the annals there is Serensk - 1147, Vorotynsk - 1155, Mosalsk - 1231.

Like other East Slavic tribes, the Vyatichi were pagans until the end of the eleventh century. They had polygamy. The dead Vyatichi were burned. The adoption of Christianity among the Vyatichi is associated with the preaching activity of the Kiev-Pechersk hieromonk Kuksha, who died as a martyr in 1141.

With the development of feudal relations and the spread of Christianity, the tribal characteristics of the Vyatichi smoothed out, and in the thirteenth century the name "Vyatichi" disappeared.

Tatar-Mongol invasion

A difficult year came in 1237. The Tatar-Mongol hordes of Khan Baty moved to the Russian lands. Ryazan, Vladimir, Suzdal, Rostov, Moscow, Kolomna and dozens of other cities were destroyed. The next target of attack was to be Novgorod. But the weakened and thinning army of Batu suddenly turned south - for rest and replenishment in the Polovtsian steppes. The path of the conquerors lay through the territory of the present Kaluga region. Many cities of the region were subjected to destruction. In the spring of 1238, the Tatar-Mongols approached the walls of Kozelsk. Kozelsk was located on a small territory and was surrounded on three sides by ravines, and on the fourth by a deep moat. In addition, it was surrounded by high earthen ramparts with fortified walls built on them.

The Nikon Chronicle of the 16th century reports that the inhabitants of the city, at a council, decided not to surrender the city: "Do not go into the Batyevs, but lay down their heads for the Christian faith." The bloody siege lasted for seven weeks. The chronicle reports that the Tatars, having smashed the walls with battering guns, went on an attack. Four thousand invaders were killed at the walls and in the streets of the city, three sons of the "temniks", i.e. commanders of tens of thousands of Tatar detachments, paid with their lives for the capture of Kozelsk. Furious with large losses, the Tatars did not spare anyone - all the inhabitants of Kozelsk were destroyed. According to the Nikon Chronicle, the young prince of the city drowned in blood.

In memory of those killed in the defense of Kozelsk, a memorial cross was later erected. Batu also ordered to call Kozelsk "an evil city". Since 1240, Russia fell under the cruel Tatar-Mongol yoke, which lasted almost two and a half centuries.

The first mention of Kaluga

The unification of north-eastern Russia took place in an atmosphere of struggle not only with the Tatar-Mongols, but also with the Polish-Lithuanian feudal lords. In the fourteenth century, almost all of the Kaluga land was under the rule of Lithuania. At that time, Lithuania captured Medyn, Mosalskoe, Zhizdrinskoe, Kozelskoe and other principalities. The border between Moscow and Lithuania ran along the Oka and Ugra. Even Vorotynsk, 15 kilometers from Kaluga, was under Lithuanian rule. The first mention of Kaluga dates back to 1371, when the Grand Duke of Lithuania Olgerd Gedeminovich, in a letter to Patriarch Philotheus of Constantinople, complains about the seizure of a number of cities by Grand Duke Dmitry Ivanovich.

In 1380, the united Russian troops under the leadership of the Grand Duke Dmitry Ivanovich set out on a campaign against the impending invasion from the direction of the Golden Horde. Despite the opposition of the Lithuanians, detachments from many cities under the rule of Lithuania arrived to help Moscow. The ranks of the Russian army were joined by detachments of the militia and squads, led by their princes from Tarusa, Obolensk, Borovsk. In the battle on the Kulikovo field, the Tarusa and Obolensk squads perished together with their princes Fyodor and Mstislav.

After the victory at the Kulikovo field, Dmitry Ivanovich no longer recognized the Horde's right to dispose of the Grand Duchy of Vladimir. He transfers it into hereditary possession to his son Vasily the First. In the spiritual charter of Dmitry Donskoy from 1389, where the possessions were distributed among the heirs, for the first time in Russian sources there is a mention of Kaluga. This document says: "... and Kaluga and the Grove to my son, Prince Andrei."

Other fortified points on the Kaluga land - Maloyaroslavets and Borovsk - from the second half of the fourteenth century belonged to the hero of the Battle of Kulikovo, an associate of Dmitry Donskoy, Vladimir Andreevich the Brave, Prince Serpukhovsky.

Standing on the Eel

In 1472, the Horde Khan Akhmat with a large army moved to the Russian borders. But at Tarusa, the invaders met a large Russian army. All attempts by the Mongols to cross the Oka were repulsed. The campaign ended in failure.

In 1476, the Grand Duke Ivan the Third stopped paying tribute to the Khan of the Great Horde, and in 1480 he refused to recognize the dependence of Russia on it. A new attempt to enslave the Moscow state in the khan's ulus was made in 1480. Khan Akhmat, having concluded an alliance with the Polish-Lithuanian king Casimir the Fourth, moved his troops to Moscow in the fall. The invaders pinned great hopes on the quarrels between Ivan III and his brothers. Ivan the Third, in turn, entered into an alliance with the Crimean Khan Mengli - Gerey, a rival of Akhmat - Khan, and agreed with him on a joint action against Casimir the Fourth. Russian troops moved towards the enemy. Not daring to engage in a decisive battle, Akhmat turned up the Oka to the Ugra in order to cross it into a ford. But they failed to cross: all the routes were occupied by Russian troops, who promptly occupied the fords and transports.

In the battle of October 8-12, using artillery, the Russians repelled the attempts of the Mongol-Tatars cavalry to cross the Ugra. Akhmat Khan waited for the approach of Casimir the Fourth. To gain time, Ivan the Third entered into negotiations with the enemy, which lasted until October 20. During this time, he made peace with the brothers, strengthened the positions of the troops and brought up fresh forces, after which he interrupted the negotiations. The Horde tried several more times to overcome the fords, but all their attempts were repulsed.

Meanwhile, Mengli - Gerey attacked the southern Polish-Lithuanian lands, which disrupted the performance of Casimir the Fourth. Diseases began in the Tatar-Mongol troops, and there was a lack of provisions. On November 11, Khan Akhmat began to withdraw his troops to the south, and then from the borders of Russia. On January 6, 1481, he was killed. The internecine struggle within the Great Horde intensified, and in 1502 the Horde lost its independence.

Standing on the Ugra marked the end of the 240-year-old Mongol-Tatar yoke.

Time of Troubles

In 1601 - 1603 Russia suffered a disaster - a crop failure. A terrible famine began, thousands of people died. The famine sharply exacerbated social contradictions in the country. Spontaneous peasant uprisings broke out in different places, including in the Kaluga region. The rebels smashed the estates of the boyars and landowners. In 1603, the rebels killed the brother of the king, Semyon Godunov, in Maloyaroslavets, one of whose estates was not far from the city.

Taking advantage of the difficult situation, the Polish king Sigismund III, together with the Vatican, attempted to dismember and deprive the Russian state of independence. To this end, they nominated their protege - the impostor False Dmitry the First, named after the son of Tsar Ivan the Terrible - Tsarevich Dmitry. In exchange for help in the struggle for the throne, False Dmitry the First promised to transfer the Seversk and Smolensk lands, the cities of Novgorod and Pskov to Poland, establish Catholicism in Russia.

In October 1604, an impostor led by 4 thousand Poles invaded Russia. The naive belief of the people that Tsar Dmitry would be better than Tsar Boris Godunov made it possible for the impostor to attract the rebellious peasants to his side. The residents of the Kaluga Territory also became victims of this deception. During the campaign of False Dmitry the First on Moscow, Kaluga and other cities of the region came over to his side.

In June 1605, after the sudden death of Boris Godunov and going over to the side of the impostor of the Russian army, False Dmitry the First entered Moscow and took the royal throne. But he did not last long in Moscow. As a result of a conspiracy of the nobility led by Prince Vasily Shuisky and an uprising of the townspeople in May 1606, the impostor was killed.

Vasily Shuisky, who ascended the royal throne, took measures to suppress the peasant uprising. Since September 1606, the center of the uprising was the Kaluga Territory, where the rebel army of Ivan Bolotnikov entered, moving to Moscow. On the Ugra River near Kaluga, the rebels defeated government troops trying to block the road to the capital. From that moment on, Kaluga, Kozelsk, Medyn, Maloyaroslavets, Borovsk, Przemysl, Serpeysk and other cities went over to the side of Bolotnikov. But the siege of Moscow ended unsuccessfully for the rebels, and in December 1606 Bolotnikov retreated with the remnants of his army to Kaluga, where he met the support of the population.

From December 1606 to May 1607 the Kaluga period of the peasant war lasted. During these months, Ivan Bolotnikov's military leadership talent manifested itself with exceptional force. Repeated attempts by government forces to take Kaluga by storm or starvation failed. Having suffered a series of defeats in May 1607, the tsarist army lifted the siege of Kaluga and retreated to Serpukhov, and a significant part of it joined the rebels. Leaving Kaluga, the rebels headed for Tula, where they joined forces with the Terek and Zaporozhye Cossacks of "Tsarevich Peter" - Ilya Gorchakov, who pretended to be the son of Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich. Realizing the danger of the situation and taking emergency measures, Shuisky increased the number of his troops to 160 thousand people and, defeating the rebels on the Voronya River, on June 14 besieged Bolotnikov and "Tsarevich Peter" in Tula. On October 10, 1607, believing the tsar's promise to keep them alive, the rebels surrendered. But Shuisky broke his promise and subjected the captives to a cruel execution.

Throwing all my strength into suppression popular uprising in the country, the government of Vasily Shuisky did not take the necessary measures to repel the incessant Polish - Lithuanian invasion. In place of the killed False Dmitry the First, a new impostor was put forward - False Dmitry II, who in September 1607, at the head of a Polish - Lithuanian detachment, moved to the upper reaches of the Oka. The remnants of Bolotnikov's army and the Cossacks, who did not understand the true goals of the impostor, joined him. Some western Kaluga cities, including Kaluga, went over to the side of False Dmitry II.

In the spring of 1608, the impostor's troops camped near Moscow in the village of Tushino. Contrary to his promises, False Dmitry II continued the policy of strengthening serfdom, distributed land to his adherents, brutally dealt with the local population, mercilessly plundered the central regions of Russia, subjected them to requisitions in favor of the Poles.

The boyar government of Shuisky, in order to fight the impostor, turned to Sweden, which was at war with Poland, for military assistance. Using this as an excuse, Poland opened direct military action against Russia, after which it stopped supporting False Dmitry II. The Tushino camp of the impostor, abandoned by the Poles, disintegrated under the blows of the Russian troops, and the "Tushino thief" himself fled to Kaluga in December 1609.

Taking advantage of the defeat of the tsarist troops at Klushino, in July 1610 False Dmitry II undertook a new campaign against Moscow at the head of the Polish - Lithuanian detachments. Reaching Borovsk, he met strong resistance from the defenders of Pafnutiy of the Borovsk monastery-fortress. As a result of treason, the monastery was captured. However, a small detachment of defenders of the monastery under the leadership of Prince Volkonsky continued to fight until he was hacked to the last man. The monastery and the city of Borovsk were severely destroyed. More than 12 thousand people were killed.

Having reached the village of Kolomenskoye, the impostor learned that Tsar Vasily Shuisky had been overthrown and the Polish prince Vladislav was proclaimed tsar. The Polish - Lithuanian troops left him and upon returning to Kaluga in December 1610 False Dmitry II was killed by his accomplice.

Polish intervention

After the death of False Dmitry II in 1610, the Polish intervention against Russia became open. An attempt to swear allegiance to the Polish prince Vladislav Kaluzhan failed. The residents of Kozelsk also refused to take the oath. For disobedience to the Poles in September 1610, Kozelsk was plundered and burned. About 7 thousand citizens were killed. The capture of Moscow by the Poles in the fall of 1610 and their arbitrariness aroused hatred of the invaders. The documents of that time indicate that in March 1611, among the militia of Russian cities, which moved to liberate Moscow, there was also a Kaluga detachment. Many residents of other cities of the region also joined the ranks of the militia. The militias stood for several months near Moscow, but did not achieve success. In connection with the aggravated contradictions, the militia units began to disintegrate. However, the detachment of Prince D.T. Trubetskoy, consisting of Cossacks and Kaluga residents, remained until the arrival in 1612 of the militia led by Kozma Minin and Dmitry Pozharsky. In October 1612, China, a city, was taken by storm, and at the end of November the Kremlin was liberated.

During the election of a new tsar in 1612, the electors from Kaluga spoke in favor of Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov, the grandfather of Peter the Great.

With the liberation of Moscow from the invaders, the war with Poland did not end. Fighting continued until 1618. To a large extent, they took place on the territory of the Kaluga Territory. In 1617, Polish troops under the command of Prince Vladislav launched an unsuccessful attack on Moscow. Two detachments under the command of Chaplinsky and Opalinsky were sent to capture Kaluga, which again found itself at the main crossroads of military roads. The leadership of the defense of Kaluga was carried out by Prince Pozharsky, who defeated the invaders in 1617 and 1618 near Przemysl and Vorotynsk. In the spring of 1618, due to illness, Prince Pozharsky was recalled to Moscow.

A new disaster struck the city when, after the departure of Pozharsky, Kaluga was captured by the Cossacks of Hetman Sagaidachny. At the end of 1618, Russian troops liberated the city. After the signing of the Deulinsky armistice on December 1, 1618, the war between Russia and Poland ended, but Kaluga again became a border city.

Kaluga in the 17th-18th centuries

The end of the Time of Troubles found the Kaluga region in ruin and decline. In what position Kaluga found itself can be judged by the diploma of tsar Mikhail Fedorovich of January 4, 1620. It says that "the houses and all the estates of the townspeople were plundered; the inhabitants were brought to such extreme poverty" that they asked the king to release them from paying taxes for a while. The king agreed and gave them a privilege for 3 years.

In the subsequent peacetime, Kaluga begins to recover and grow. In 1634, it already ranks 12th in terms of economic power among the cities of the state. The reunification of Ukraine with Russia and the subsequent movement of the border to the south had a beneficial effect on the further development of the entire Kaluga region. By 1681, there were already 1,045 households in Kaluga. By this time, a good fortress was built. A contemporary reports that the length of the walls was about 735 meters, the moat was the same length, there were 12 towers. Trade was developing well. In the trading area of ​​that time, one could meet not only Russians, but also foreign merchants. The main export items were grain, timber, hemp. In addition, wooden products and dishes, tiles were famous, felt was made, from which saddles and cloaks were sewn. Industry developed. In 1715, a large iron foundry was built in Dugna by E. Demidov, and in 1720 a Linen Factory appeared near Kaluga.

In 1719, the Kaluga province was established, which was part of the Moscow province. By 1720, the province had 19 thousand households and 158 thousand males. For fifty years the population of Kaluga more than doubled and reached almost 14 thousand inhabitants.

Empress Catherine II visited Kaluga on December 15, 1775. Kaluga residents prepared in advance for the meeting. The beautiful Triumphal Gate was built. In the evening of the same day, the empress went to the Linen Factory. In memory of Catherine II's visit to Kaluga, two medals were cast, on one of which she is depicted in a Kaluga outfit, and the inscription reads: "se kako loves yu". This trip had important consequences for the region. On August 24, 1776, by an imperial decree, the Kaluga province was transformed into a province. The province included 12 counties with a population of 733 thousand people. In Kaluga itself at that time there were 17 thousand inhabitants.

The first governor in the new province was Lieutenant General Mikhail Nikolaevich Krechetnikov. Many useful transformations are associated with his name. During his governorship, a huge two-storey building of "public places" was built, a three-storey building of "public charity" was erected with donations from the noblemen of the province, a beautiful Gothic-style seating yard was built instead of old wooden benches. In 1777 the city received its first theater. The activities of Mikhail Nikolaevich Krechetnikov put Kaluga among the most comfortable cities in Russia by the end of the 18th century.

Patriotic War of 1812

Autumn 1812. The Battle of Borodino ended, Moscow was abandoned. But Napoleon's hopes for a victorious end to the war are dwindling. Numerous peace proposals sent to the Russian Tsar remained unanswered. Emperor Alexander I said significant words that "he would sooner leave with his people deep into the Asian steppes, grow a beard and eat only potatoes, than conclude peace as long as at least one armed enemy remains on Russian soil."

The robbery of burning Moscow introduced a strong demoralization to the French troops, the partisan movement made foraging and contentment impossible. The multi-tribal army was noticeably decomposing in the Moscow conflagration ..

Having left the field of the Battle of Borodino, the Russian army lost more than half of its strength. Many hero commanders were killed. But the fighting spirit did not weaken. With a brilliant maneuver, Kutuzov led his troops to the area of ​​the village of Tarutino, as a result of which the roads to Tula, which supplied the army with weapons, and to Kaluga, which was its main food warehouse, were closed. On September 20, troops occupied the Tarutino camp. Their ranks numbered 52 thousand people, not counting the militia. In the next two weeks, it almost doubled its membership. Reinforcements flowed from all over Russia to Tarutino: trained reinforcements arrived - the second battalions of infantry regiments, separated for this in the spring, 15 thousand Cossacks came from the Don. All the materiel was in good order, and the army, preparing for new battles, got rest for the first time. ...

Mid-September is a turning point in this war. Here the "company of 1812" - the combat of the Russian and French armies - ends, and the Patriotic War begins - the war of the entire Russian people, who rose up against the conqueror. In less than two months, 300 thousand militias were deployed and 100 million rubles were collected. The position of the Russian army at Tarutino was strongly fortified: the steep and high banks of the Nara River served as a good defense, defensive structures were erected along the front, rubble and notches were made in the forest. Main apartment Kutuzova is located in the village of Letashevka, four versts from Tarutino on the way to Kaluga ..

Napoleon's position in Moscow became critical. 6 (18) October 107 thousand French, with artillery, with a huge baggage train, leaving the conflagration of Moscow, set off on their way back. "I'm going to Kaluga. And woe to those who stand in my way!" - said Napoleon. On the same day, at dawn, Russian troops attacked the vanguard of the French Marshal Murat at Tarutino. In the ensuing battle, the enemy, having lost 600 people killed, 1700 prisoners and 38 guns, was thrown back ..

Thus ended the glorious Tarutino period of the Patriotic War of 1812. At this place in 1834, a 20-meter monument was erected with the inscription:

"In this place, the Russian army under the leadership of Field Marshal Kutuzov, having strengthened, saved Russia and Europe."

Kaluga in the 19th century

The Patriotic War of 1812 dealt a strong blow to the welfare of the city. The critical phase of the war, its turning point, took place in the Kaluga province, which became, according to Kutuzov, "the limit of the invasion of enemies." At the same time, the province was the main supplier of food for the army. Due to the hardships of military life, the presence of a large number of troops, wounded and prisoners, the townspeople found themselves in a difficult situation.

In 1813, a typhus epidemic broke out in the city. To support the townspeople, the government distributed among the population 280 thousand rubles of food and 145 thousand rubles in cash benefits. With difficulty, after six months of anxiously - tense life, the city enters the rut, with such tension established in the 18th century.

The population gradually began to increase, and by 1857 it reached 32 thousand people. But trade and industrial production did not develop. The turnover of goods decreased, the merchant capital of the merchants decreased by almost half.

On December 15, 1874, the Syzran - Vyazemskaya section was opened railroad, which connected Kaluga with Tula and Vyazma. But this did not bring a noticeable revival to the economic life of the province - on the contrary, the shallowing of the Oka and the appearance of the railway led to a decrease in river traffic. By the end of the century, a number of old and traditional crafts have completely disappeared. Only matting, bristles and leather remain the subject of export. The main occupation of Kaluga residents is now retail trade, handicrafts, and truck farming.

Comparatively large enterprises were the Lyudinovskiy machine-building plant, which employed more than 2 thousand people. The three paper mills of Medynsk district employed 2,300 people. Large industrial enterprise were the Main Kaluga railway workshops of the Syzran - Vyazemskaya railway with about 1000 employees.

Most of the population of the province was made up of peasants. There were 191,259 peasant households in total. The average size of land per household was 9.2 dessiatines (about 10 hectares).

The everyday and smooth course of the city's life made it a convenient place of exile for Russia's political opponents. So in 1786 the last Crimean khan Shagin-Girey lived in Kaluga. The most notable figure of those exiled to live in Kaluga was the imam of Dagestan Shamil, who was captured by Russian troops on August 26, 1859. On October 10, 1859, he was taken to Kaluga, and in January 1860 his family arrived. On August 26, in the building of the noble assembly, in a solemn atmosphere, Shamil took the oath of allegiance and loyalty to the emperor. Later, in 1868, Shamil left Kaluga and moved to Kiev, and in 1870 he went to Mecca, where he died in 1871.

At the beginning of the 20th century, 55 thousand inhabitants lived in Kaluga, there were 20 factories and plants, which employed 665 people. Three printed periodicals were published in the city. Seven city and several private educational institutions were involved in education.

The Great Patriotic War

On June 22, 1941, fascist Germany treacherously, without declaring war, attacked the Soviet Union. The Great Patriotic War began. In the very first months of the war, 25 thousand of our fellow countrymen went to the front from Kaluga. Plants and factories of the Kaluga Territory, which only yesterday produced peaceful products, began to produce weapons, ammunition, and uniforms. Tens of thousands of residents of Kaluga and districts in August - September 1941 built fortifications near Smolensk, Yelnya, Roslavl, Bryansk, Orel, Kaluga, Maloyaroslavets, Tula.

The situation on the fronts of the Patriotic War became more and more difficult, the front was approaching Kaluga. On October 4 and 7, Kaluga was heavily bombed from the air. On the night of October 11-12, Soviet troops left Kaluga. In the second half of October, the entire territory of the Kaluga Region was occupied.

On the Kaluga land, the enemy met stubborn resistance. The cadets of the infantry and artillery schools of the city of Podolsk, paratroopers of the 214th airborne brigade, detachments of the Yukhnovsky, Medynsky and Maloyaroslavets districts fought with unparalleled courage in the Ugra region.

After the capture of Kaluga, the Nazis began mass arrests and extermination of city residents. They turned many buildings, including the Tsentralny cinema, into dungeons. A concentration camp was set up in the cooperative village near the Oka. On Lenin Square, the Nazis erected a gallows on which patriots were hanged. In Khvastovichi, they gave each inhabitant a bandage to wear on the sleeve - for appearing without a bandage, they threatened to be shot. A gallows was installed in the center of the village, on which in different time 150 people were hanged. In the village of Kudinovo, the Nazis burned 380 prisoners of the Red Army. In total, in the regions of the region during the occupation, the Nazis tortured 20 thousand of our compatriots.

The atrocities of the fascist monsters caused Soviet people anger and hatred. The people rose to fight the enemy. The workers of the Duminichi plant hid and disabled the equipment, the workers of the Sukhinichi MTS, in response to an attempt by the Nazis to organize workshops for the repair of tanks, dismantled the machines. An attempt by the invaders to restore the Kondrovskaya, Troitskaya and Polotnyano-Zavodskaya paper factories, the thermal power station of the Kaluga machine-building plant was also thwarted. Under the leadership of the party regional committees of the Smolensk, Moscow and Tula regions, a partisan detachment was created in each district. In the annals of the Kaluga partisans, the explosion of the oil depot at Govardovo and Kondrovo, destroyed bridges over the Ressa River. Borovsk partisans took 5 thousand Soviet soldiers out of the encirclement. On the night of November 24, partisans under the command of Captain V.V. Jabot struck at the headquarters of the German army corps in the Ugodsky Zavod. During the raid, more than 600 German soldiers and officers, more than 130 vehicles, four tanks, and two fuel depots were destroyed.

On November 28, 1941, in order to organize and strengthen the partisan struggle from the territory of Belarus, the reconnaissance and sabotage station No. 4/70 of the Special Group under the NKVD - the "Mitya" detachment, moved to Kaluga land. The detachment was commanded by the famous scout Dmitry Nikolaevich Medvedev. As part of the detachment, the legendary hero Nikolai Ivanovich Kuznetsov fought. Together with Lyudinov's underground fighters and partisans, Medvedev's detachment dealt an effective blow to the Nazis during the well-known Operation Night Before Christmas.

On December 6, the defeat of the German fascist invaders near Moscow began. The Soviet troops of the Western Front were commanded by G.K. Zhukov. With the aim of the quickest liberation of Kaluga, the commander of the 50th Army, General I.V. Boldin created a mobile group consisting of rifle, cavalry and tank divisions headed by General V.S. Popov. On December 21, Soviet troops broke into Kaluga. Fierce fighting ensued. And only on December 30 Kaluga was cleared of the enemy.

In early January, Przemysl, Meshchovsk, Kozelsk were liberated. From 7 to 29 January Mosalsk, Medyn, Kondrovo, Sukhinichi, Ulyanovo, Myatlevo were liberated. The Yukhnovsky, Kuibyshevsky, Khvastovichsky, Lyudinovsky, Zhizdrinsky, Baryatinsky and Spas-Demensky districts remained in the occupation. The partisan war continued in them. Partisans of the Khvastovichi region performed remarkable feats. For 22 months of hostilities, they destroyed 9 thousand Nazis, derailed 36 military echelons. The underground heroes operating under the command of A. Shumavtsov in Lyudinovo conducted reconnaissance on the instructions of the partisans and the front headquarters. Taking advantage of the reports of brave scouts, Soviet aviation struck German targets in Lyudinovo. On the denunciation of a traitor, the group was captured and shot by the Nazis.

After the defeat of the Nazi troops near Kursk and Orel in September 1943, the region was finally liberated from the invaders.

More than 140 thousand Kaluga soldiers gave their lives for their Motherland during the Great Patriotic War. More than 250 thousand Soviet soldiers found their last refuge on the Kaluga land.

In order to restore the national economy more quickly and better serve the working people, on July 5, 1944, the Kaluga region was formed by a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, which included, with a few exceptions, the territory of the Kaluga province that existed until 1929.

Important work under the motto "Nobody is forgotten, nothing is forgotten" is being carried out by the Kaluga Regional Patriotic Association of Search Detachments "Memory" - the reburial of the remains of fallen soldiers and officers on the Kaluga land, identification and search for surviving relatives, deceased, numbers of units and formations those who fought in our area, the military-patriotic education of young people, the disposal of grenades and mines left over from the war, and much more.

Russian Civilization