Translated by Nikiforova Svetlana Gennadievna +7(8482) 680-950
In 1850 Stavropol became a county town of the Samara province. Though its population was just 6 thousand people, the life in the town was not dull or without a gleam of hope.
Many famous persons of Russia visited the town itself and its outskirts: Emperors Peter I, Katherine II and Alexander I; scientists and travelers I. Lepyohin, P. Pallas, I. Falk; painters I. Repin, V. Surikov, writers G. Derzhavin, A.S. Pushkin, S.T. Axakov, A.N. Tolstoy. They all were enchanted by the beauty of Zhiguly, the poetry of Russian folklore and extraordinary history of Russian people.
The first time the representatives of the regnant house of the Romanovs visited our lands was at the end of the XVIIth century. Peter I was here twice. He made his first visit to the Stavropol district in 1695 on his way to Azov. In 1722 the first Russian emperor went to Persia and sailed along the Volga. Stavropol was not yet built, and then a small fort could hardly attract his attention. Peter I ascended the Bald Mountain that is near the present-day city of Zhigulyovsk. A lot of people noticed the traces of inscription that emperor had made. The Brothers Chernetsovs mentioned this fact in their road journals in 1838. Later a poet D.N. Sadovnikov and after him in 1870 – I. Repin saw the inscription, too. Peter I left not only his inscription. Information of findings of beds of sulphur and mineral springs that were discovered in the district took not less of emperor’s interest. And later, due to his edict there were started sulphur plants in Sergievsk and the Samara Bend.
In 1764 empress Katherine I sailed along the Volga. The final place of her voyage was Simbirsk, but on her way she visited the manor of the brothers Orlovs that was situated in the village of Golovkino of the Stavropol district. The Orlovs who were Katherine’s favourites acquired this property especially for empress’s reception. A large palace was promptly erected there, but unfortunately it has not been preserved till nowadays, because was taken to pieces at the end of the XIXth century. The Orlovs had given the empress the most solemn reception, and their expenses were recovered with usury. After they saw back lady sovereign, Gregory and Vladimir Orlovs went to the Samara Bend where they found splendid lands and forests opposite Stavropol. In 1768 Katherine issued an edict due to which there was executed an exchange of the Orlovs’ less valuable lands in other provinces for the estate in Usolie.
The visit of another monarch Alexander I, whom the people called Blessed, still long remained in peoples’ mind. Even 30 years after “The Samara provincial journal” wrote that “his visit made the inhabitants of Stavropol happy”. And it was true. In summer 1824 the news about monarch’s coming alarmed the citizens. On his way from Simbirsk to Orenburg emperor wished to look at the Zhiguly Mountains. He also visited the Orlovs’ domain: the villages of Zhiguly and Usolie. The manager of the estate and the peasants worked hard to bring in good order the roads and bridges. They also built a wharf in the village of Zhiguly to receive the ship of sovereign. From Usolie Alexander sailed in a cutter to the village of Zhiguly, and after he looked it round, emperor crossed the Volga and came to Stavropol.
All the citizens were so anxious about emperor’s visit, that they left their affairs unfinished and began to prepare for solemnity. All the authority of the town including the head of the town Timophey Panteleev met the crowned guest. Archpriest M.L. Voznesenskiy pompously attended the emperor to the church of Trinity that had built not long ago.
After that Alexander I inspected the Stavropol Kalmyk regiment. It was formed by the type of the irregular Cossack troop, and shew martial heroism including the war of 1812, not once. Majority of soldiers and officers, who were drawn up before the emperor, had battle rewards for campaigns of 1812- 1815.
A pompous banquet in honor of Alexander I organized at the expense of the town budget was given in the evening. The great guest spent the night in the most proper house of Stavropol – in the house of the widow E.F. Milkovich. Basil Sergeevich Milkovich had been the district head of the Stavropol Nobility for many years. The house of this respectable family was evidently the most proper and roomy in Stavropol. It was regarded the center of the cultural life of the town, for balls and parties were often arranged there. In the morning on the 8th September the emperor thanked the mistress of the house and gave her a ring with a brilliant as a gift. Alexander sailed to Samara in the cutter and his attendants got there in carriages.
In Samara Alexander recalled that the daughter of E.F. Milkovich, whose married name was Vtorova, lived there. In token of gratitude to the family of the Milkovichs Alexander I invited her to his place and “willed to grant a titled adviser Vtorova a ring with a brilliant, and a clasp to her daughter” – a necklace with a beautiful clasp. This fact was enlightened in “the Samara province journal” in 1854. In summer of 1825 the emperor visited Stavropol for the second time where he inspected the Kalmyk nomad tents. But the details of that visit are not well known so far.
Many famous scientists explored our lands and reflected the results in their research works.
Such celebrated scientists and travelers as Ivan Lepyohin, Peter Pallas and Johan Falk visited our district in 1768-1773. They were the heads of the expedition groups organized by the Academy of Sciences. The young researchers had made an outstanding contribution to the Russian science, and we are still using their works. A rare and rather strange astronomic phenomenon gave a cause to the expedition – in 1769 the Venus was expected to get through the disk of the sun. It was decided to watch this phenomenon from different places of the country. The astronomic expeditions became complex – on study the nature and riches of the district. True scientists could not but describing the life and farming of the local inhabitants. Three academic parties of the expedition were to study the land along the Volga, Ural, Siberia and North. The travelers gathered herbals, described the animals, some of which were brought stuffed. The party included drawers, taxidermists and shooters. Students and three pupils of a grammar school were assistants of the scientists.
The parties of the Academic expedition to the Land along the Volga were headed by Peter Pallas. In June of 1768 Pallas’s party left Saint-Petersburg. Its route lay through the Land along the Volga and Siberia. In autumn the party arrived in the Land along the Volga. This part of the route was mostly chosen due to the fact that the head of the Academy of Sciences was count Vladimir Orlov. As it was already mentioned above, he was one of the owners of the Samara Bend and, surely, was personally interested in the results of the expedition.
In autumn the parties worked in the northern districts of the Samara province. They studied the nature and the inhabitants of the Sok, Cheremshan, Kondurchy, also Sergievsk and Stavropol. That winter they spent in Simbirsk. The scientists were enraptured with the fish that were of large size and dwelled in the Volga at that time. White surgeon or beluga, for instance, weighed 30-45 poods (approximately 700 kg)! The cat-fish, judging by the words of P. Pallas, among the inhabitants of the district was considered the worst of the large fish. His skin was sold to the Tatars who put it in windows of their logged houses instead of glass.
In March 1769 Pallas left for Samara. In May all the parties joined and continued explorations of the Samara Bend together. Their route started in Perevoloky and caught all the villages of the Bend, including Beryozovka and Stavropol. Ivan Lepyohin was the first who described the remains of the middle-aged Murom Township on the Samara Bend.
In October 1773 Peter Pallas visited Stavropol again. He described the town and occupations of its inhabitants. In works of the scientist one can come across the valuable information of the Stavropol Kalmyks – their agriculture, customs and religion. For example, Peter Pallas was extremely struck with especial skill of the Kalmyk women in sewing sheepskin coats and noted this fact in his work. Besides, Pallas gave a description of the arming of the Kalmyks and peculiarities of their religious beliefs.
In six years of their traveling the scientists had collected a vast material. After that Peter Pallas had been arranging it for whole 20 years! From 1773 till 1788 “Traveling about the different provinces of Russian Empire” had been published. The books were accompanied by more than 700 tables. Collections made by the scientists got to Cabinet of Curiosities.
One can not ignore the explorations of Ivan Lepyohin. He was a herbalist and physician, and gave valuable for ethnographist descriptions of the local inhabitants. The scientist described in details the dwellings and the farming, dress and customs of the Mordvinians, Chuvashes, Tartars and Kalmyks. The drawer who was in the staff of the expedition took a sketch of household things and dress of the local inhabitants.
On October 5 1768 I. Lepyohin arrived at Stavropol. His notes are mostly valuable for the history of the city, for he described not only the geographical position and fortification of the town, but also its population and occupations of the people. The winter Lepyohin spent in Simbirsk where arranged numerous notes, and got them ready for printing. The first two parts of the book “Day notes of Ivan Lepyohin’s traveling” had come out still before the end of the traveling, the third one in 1780, and the fourth one – in 1802. The works contained 600 kinds of plants and more than 300 kinds of animals in general, and many kinds of insects were described by the scientists for the first time.
It is remarkable that nowadays biologists and ethnographists use Lepyohins’ works, because all that was described and drawn by the scientists fell out of people’s usage (dress, household things), that is why the only source of information about the life of the inhabitants of the district in bygone times we can find only in works of these scientists-naturalists.
The expeditions had been working for 6 years. More often the explorers walked, and transported the equipment in waggons. Later they sent everything in parcels to Saint-Petersburg.
Our district was also reflected in works of famous writers.
In 1833 A.S. Pushkin visited the Stavropol district. When he was working over “The history of Pugachyov’s rebellion” Pushkin was going to Orenburg, where the documents on the rebellion were kept, and the local inhabitants could recall the details of those events. The route Pushkin followed ran through Simbirsk. After he passed the night in this provincial town, Pushkin left it along the mountain high shore in the evening on the September 12. But when he reached the third post-office station he turned back. The reason was a hare that crossed the road and the poet who was extremely superstitious decided not to test the destiny and go the different way. On the September 15 he crossed the Volga and made his way through the villages of the Stavropol district – Nikolskoie-upon-Cheremshan, Musorka, Tashla, Eryomkino, Red Cliff and some others – to Orenburg. On his way he certainly made several stops to talk to the local inhabitants. Thus, following this route, Pushkin put down 6 poems of the folk song “In glorious Murom land” and peasants’ says of the Stavropol Kalmyks. In the archives of Orenburg A.S. Pushkin found out rather interesting documents connected with the events of the peasant war. Later, the poet published this information in his book “The history of Pugachyov’s rebellion”.
Another famous writer Sergey Timofeevich Aksakov had his childhood on the Land behind the Volga where his parents’ estate was situated. When he grew up he got 380 male souls in his possession in the Murom volost (a district including several villages) of the Stavropol district. His relatives had their domains in that place, too. Sergey Aksakov left a grammar school. Later he described his student years. Even when he lived in the capital, his child impressions made him visited these places not once. In his works “The childhood of Bagrov-grandson” and “The family chronicle” Aksakov reflected the life of nobles of different means on weekdays and holidays.
In his tales S.T. Aksakov gave striking and realistic description of our district’s nature. The writer liked to hunt in the Samara province, and in “The notes of a gun hunter” he poetically described all the four seasons, remarkably expressed birds’ and fishes’ customs. His sons inherited their father’s love to the Samara Land behind the Volga. “No other nature can be more beautiful like that of our district” – wrote later Aksakov’s son Ivan to the father.
Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy also visited our lands more than once. The writer’s mother – Aleksandra Leontievna – was a representative of the famous Russian noble family of the Turgenevs who were the Stavropol merchants. That was why the writer passed his childhood in the Samara province.
In his works A.N. Tolstoy described provincial towns, including dusty Stavropol, and their inhabitants. Visits to patrimonies of his mother put an impression on the writer’s creative power. In his works the writer expressed the alarm of the ruined estates, getting old houses and degenerated Nobility, condemned aimless existence and alcoholism. The reality of life in Samara he also described in “Nikita’s childhood” and in the novel “Suffering torments”.
Another celebrated writer Alexander Sergeevich Neverov (his real surname is Skobelev) is worth mentioning not less. He can be in full measure regarded our fellow countryman. He was born in the family of a peasant in the village of Novikovka in 1886. Already at 6 Neverov began to read. From 14 Sasha worked at the tea-shop, and later in the printing office. The seen in the office made a great influence on him and arose in Neverov a wish to write poems. At the age of 18 the youth left home and entered the school of the second class, for he wished to become a teacher of primary school. The first 30 years of his short-lasting life Neverov-Skobelev passed in the Samara province. About 10 years he worked as a teacher. But the wage of a provincial teacher was extremely poor and then the life itself among peasants was very hard.
Only literary activity saved the writer from melancholy. Later Alexander Neverov wrote: “You live in poverty, but feel yourself like a hundred of kings. If it had not been for literature I would go mad.” Alexander was lucky: his literary tutor was the writer V.G. Korolenko who told Neverov of his faults. The characters of Neverov’s tales became the people surrounding him – priests, teachers, and peasants. The book “Tashkent - a town of bread” gave the writer the greatest fame. It came out in 37 languages and was published 42 times. As the basis of its plot the writer took the real events of terrible hunger that the Land along the Volga suffered in 1921.
Museum of regional studies of Togliatti: Sergeeva Viktoria Mihaylovna phone: +7(8482) 481-070 e-mail:serjiov@rambler.ru
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