Gruzino (Novgorod region)

The village is located on the right bank of the Volkhov River , one and a half kilometers from the administrative center of the rural settlement located on the opposite bank - the village of Krasnofarforny . From the administrative center of the district - the city of Chudovo - the P36 highway passes through Gruzino, and here is the bridge across the Volkhov. Chudovo is located at a distance of 14 km west of the village.

Gruzino is located in the Priilmenskaya lowland , which was formed in the last ice age on the site of a lake-glacial reservoir, which broke up into two lakes: Ilmen and the so-called. Georgian lake. Confirmation of the existence of the Georgian lake remains a wide flood plain of the Volkhov River in the village area.

The first documentary evidence about Gruzino is considered to be the mention in the scribe book of the Vodskaya Pyatina in 1499-1500 of the St. Andrew's Georgian churchyard of Novgorod district.

In 1707, Gruzino was donated by Emperor Peter I to his closest associate, Prince A. D. Menshikov . In 1724, Peter the Great himself visited Peter I on his way to Staraya Russa .

Pavel I presented the Georgian volost to Arakcheev, who organized a military settlement here (which served as a model for others) and, in a short time, built one of the most remarkable architectural and park ensembles of the Classicism era in the Russian province, which included not only a palace with pavilions, but also a marina and a cathedral.

After the death of the owner (1834) due to the absence of direct heirs, by decree of Nicholas I, the Georgian volost with the estate was forever transferred to the Novgorod Cadet Corps (later renamed Arakcheevsky).

In the Novgorod province, Gruzino was the center of the Georgian volost of the Novgorod district. Steamboats were built in Gruzino; in 1819, 2 steamboats were built here; by the end of the 19th century, matches manufacturing enterprises were located in Georgia and its environs.

In 1898, Ivan Kuznetsov on the opposite bank in the village of Botanivka (now the village of Krasnofarforny ) built the “Georgian Porcelain Factory”. In the future, the buildings of the old estate were used to house the troops of the empire. So, until the outbreak of World War I, the 88th Infantry Regiment of Petrov was stationed on the estate ^[2] .

Almost immediately after the revolution, in 1918-1922, a pontoon bridge over the Volkhov was built here. In 1928, the villages of Khotitovo, Novaya and Bolshaya Lyubun were attached to Gruzino ^[3] . September 11, 1938 by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR, Georgian was transformed into a working village.

In the Great Patriotic War, October 16, 1941 , Georgian was occupied by German troops. According to the official version, it was during the fighting that all the buildings of the estate were destroyed. Now in their place are installed memorial plaques marking the former location of the objects, and on the hill, where, according to legend, St. Andrew the First-Called raised a cross, a memorial sign is installed.

• Denisov, Mikhail Fedorovich (1902-1973) - Soviet statesman, people's commissar of the chemical industry of the USSR
• Komlev, Stepan Petrovich (1919-1944) - Hero of the Soviet Union.

• F. Malinovsky. Historical description of the village of Gruzina. - Moscow, 1816.
• Arakcheev Manor. Park (Georgian). "Forests of Novgorod"
• to the 230th birthday of Count Alexei Arakcheev (inaccessible link)