Watchdog (Karachay-Cherkessia)

It is located at the confluence of the left tributary of Bijgon into the Käfar River (belongs to the Greater Zelenchuk Basin), at the border of the mountain forest zone, 7 km west of the regional center of the Zelenchukskaya stanitsa. Most of the settlement is located in the interfluve of Käfar and Bizhgon, the smaller one is on the right eastern bank of Käfar, several streets are on the left western bank of Bijgon. The relief within the settlement is mostly flat, lowland, in the floodplains of the rivers (primarily Kiafara) - numerous sandbanks. On the left bank of Bizhgon, there are beams and ravines interspersed with local elevations (for example, Mount Svinyachya, 982 m), along the bottom of which several of its left tributaries flow into the river. These are Shamayka, Batushikha, the Tower and others.

Peaks of the Rocky Range , with treeless southern slopes, on which many small rivers flow into Bijgon and Käfar within the boundaries of the village and in its environs, rise north of Storozheva, on the west coast of Käfar. On the southern slopes of the ridge several registered tracts were recorded (Platonovka, Kholodny Rodnik, Bashkirka). Through the crest of a ridge marked from the south by rocky cliffs, to the north-west of the village there are several passes - Vylazka Zakharovskaya and Vylazka Yakusheva. Mount Bolshe (1751.5 m) rises west of the passes - the largest peak of the Rocky Range in the area between the valleys of Bolshoi Zelenchuk and Urup .

North-east of Storozhevoy, at the confluence of Kiafar in Bolshaya Zelenchuk, is the village of Ilyich , also belonging to the Storozhevsky rural settlement . To the east of the village, in the interfluve of Käfar and Bolshoi Zelenchuk, there is an upland, turning to the plain to the north and gradually rising to the south. In its eastern part, closer to the village of Zelenchukskaya, it is cut through by the valleys of the Bolshoi and Maly Karabizhgon rivers (flow into Bolshaya Zelenchuk from the left bank below Zelenchukskaya) ^[6] . The largest peak of this highland closest to Storozhevoy is Mount Belous (1134.8 m). South of it and southwest of Storozheva, a more significant peak is already noted - Mount Dubovy Bugor (1229.7 m).

To the south of Storozhevoy, on the right bank of Käfar, is the Leso- Käfar farm belonging to the Zelenchuksky rural settlement . To the southern outskirts of the village are the northern slopes of the ridge, which stretches in the meridian direction between the valleys of Kafar and Bizhon - the Beket ridge. The peak closest to the village is 1049.4 m, further south, also within the northern spurs of the Beket ridge - peak 1074 m and Mount Bear Bear (1149 m).

To the west of the village of Storozhevoy there is a mountainous terrain marking the boundaries of the Bijgon and Urup basins. North-west of the sources of Shamaika, already in the upper reaches of the Teploya River, which subsequently flows into Urup, north of the nominal peaks of Bolshoi (1153 m) and Maly (1134.4 m) Kirtin, is the village of Kobu-Bashi , which is part of the Storozhevsky rural settlement. The mountains to the west, southwest, south and southeast of the village, in contrast to the floodplain plains in the river valleys and the southern slopes of the Rocky Range, are abundantly forested, alder, birch, aspen, and oak grow mainly ^[7] .

In the forested foothills in the upper reaches of the Bijgon River, there is the closed military town of Storozhevaya-2 (south-west direction from the central part of the village). It is located in several micro-districts on a wooded hill in the interfluve of Bizhgon and its left tributary of the Belikov River, in the Bizhgon valley at the mouth of its right tributaries of the Tuganka and Alyoshin rivers (a reservoir is also located here), on the right bank of the Bizhgon above the mouth of the Tuganka ^[8] .

In 1843, at the confluence of the Kefar and Bezhgon rivers , the Nadezhdinskoye (Nadezhinsky) fortification was built. According to some reports, in 1844 - 1845, the construction of the fortification was carried out by F. A. Krukovsky , the then commander of the Khopersky regiment ^[9] . In 1858, a village was formed at the fortification site. A watchtower was built on the left bank of Bizhon during this period (which probably gave the name to one of its left tributaries, the Tower Tower). In the vicinity there were a number of observation and guard posts: upstream of the Bihgon River, approximately in the area of ​​the southern outskirts of the modern village on the left bank of the river - the Bezhgonsky post, to the west, along the road to the Pregradnaya village - the Bygsky post (established in 1861), to the east, on the road to the village of Zelenchukskaya - Karabegonsky post, on the left bank of the Bolshoy Zelenchuk at the mouth of Käfar - the post of Kefarsky, on the left bank of the Bolshoy Zelenchuk approximately opposite the present farm of Novo-Ispravchensky - the post of Bolsherskaya ^[10] .

The stanitsa was founded by the Cossacks of the 3rd Urup team of the Caucasian linear Cossack army . Cossacks of hopers regiments took part in the formation of the Urup team, created in the same year 1858, thus they participated ^[11] in the base of the villages in the basins of Bolshoi Zelenchuk and Urup , founded in 1858 ^[10] - Watchdog, Serviceable , Advanced , Convenient , Podgorny and Calm (for example, the 2nd Urupsky Cossack cavalry regiment was specially formed from the Cossacks of one of the hopper regiments for the construction of the villages of the Front and Convenient) ^[12] . Initially, the Watchdog was assigned to the 2nd Urupsky Horse Regiment of the Urupsky Brigade ^[13] . Subsequently, the village in the military mobilization plan belonged to the Khopersky regimental district, in which the Khopersky 1st Cossack regiment was based ^[14] .

At the time of its foundation, it was proposed to set up 270 Cossack families with 3 officers in Storozheva. The Lithuanian Infantry Regiment , who arrived at the Nadezhdinskoye fortification on April 30, 1858, took an active part in the construction of the village. Since the arrival of the detachment of builders, clashes with the highlanders have repeatedly occurred around the village under construction. Especially large took place on May 22 and June 7. Since July 1, 1858, the Nadezhdinskoye fortification was abolished, the village formed near it was originally called Nadezhdinskaya, then Storozheva. A special team of plastunas was formed in it for the guard service around the settlement under construction and reconnaissance of the possible movements of the highlanders. The first clash of the plastuns with the enemy took place on June 23, then another on July 7, after which on July 8 the forces of the Lithuanian regiment and Cossacks undertook an enhanced reconnaissance of the area in the western direction from the village, which also ended in a shootout with the highlanders ^[15] .

The Lithuanian regiment’s formations were also built by the village of Peredpnoy and Peredovaya, and in 1859, the villages of Zelenchukskaya and Kardonikskaya , but the regiment’s headquarters remained in Storozheva. Different degrees of intensity of the collision with the highlanders took place on July 17, October 22. In November, the plastun team was disbanded, but the next year the attacks on the troops that occupied the Watchtower continued, and the team was assembled again. A significant attack on the village occurred on April 6, and another shootout with the highlanders on April 9. In July 1859, instead of the Lithuanian regiment, which departed to a new location in the Melitopol district , the village was occupied by units of the Stavropol Infantry Regiment ^[15] .

In 1871, a wooden Nikolaev church was built with a stone fence; the amount of construction amounted to 15 thousand rubles, of which 9 thousand - allowance from the Kuban Cossack army . The clergy included one priest and one psalm-reader . The church owned 99 acres of land. The priest had a house from the stanitsa society and a salary of 200 rubles 70 kopecks from the Cossack army. In total, the village disposed of 22883 tithes of public land, of which 9156 tithes - forests and shrubs. At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, there were 11 commercial and industrial establishments ^[16] in Storozhevoy, including a cheese factory. In the field of education, there were 2 ministerial schools (two-year and one-class women), a parish school . The teacher’s salary was 300 rubles from the college council ^[17] . To finance educational institutions, the village leased a land plot of 300 acres for 130 rubles ^[13] .

At the end of the XIX - beginning of the XX centuries in Storozhevoy there were about 3.5 thousand inhabitants ^[16] . According to information from the late 1900s and early 1910s, according to church figures, 3986 people lived in the village (as well as 625 people in the attributed village of Panteleimonovsky ^[18] , located 24 miles southwest, towards the headwaters of Urup, subsequently - Upper Panteleimonovka ^[7] ). According to civilian statisticians - 4698 people in 696 yards (excluding the village of Panteleimonovsky) ^[17] .

During the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878, the village of Storozhevaya became the final destination of the campaign formed in the Kardonikskaya village from parts of the Kuban Cossack army of the Marukh detachment, which, under the command of Lieutenant General P. D. Babich , passed through the Marukh Pass in August 1877 to Abkhazia, in order to facilitate its liberation from the Turkish troops that landed here in May, after the evacuation of the Turks from Sukhum in September, returned through the Sancharsky pass to Storozhevoy, where it was disbanded. During the war years, a song was dedicated to Colonel Y. D. Malam who fought at the Caucasian theater of war , which subsequently existed in the villages of Storozheva, Intact, Barrier and Batalpashinskaya ^[14] .

Before the outbreak of World War I , at the end of spring 1914, the Cossacks of the Watchtower and a number of other villages (serviceable, barrier, Otradnaya and others) took part in the unrest among the recruits in connection with the order on the urgent formation of the 2nd and 3rd Khopersky Cossack Regiments ^{[ 14]} . During the Civil War, in the summer of 1920 in the area of ​​Storozhevoy and neighboring villages, the White Rebel Army of the Renaissance of Russia operated by Major General M. A. Fostikov .

The village first entered the Batalpashinsky district (since 1869), then the Batalpashinsky department (since 1888) of the Kuban region ^{[16] [17]} , after the establishment of Soviet power in 1920, the Kuban-Black Sea region . Since 1922, the Batalpashinsky department was abolished, and Watchdog entered the Karachay-Cherkess Autonomous Region . Since 1926, it was registered in the Batalpashinsky district (created back in 1924 in the KChAO) of the Armavir District of the North Caucasus Region ^[19] . In 1931, after the liquidation of the Batalpashinsky district, the Watchdog Village Council was transferred to the Cherkess Autonomous Region . As part of the Circassian Autonomous Okrug, the village was first located in the Khabez region , since 1938 in the Kirov region .

National composition

According to the 1926 census ^[19] , 6094 people lived in the village in 1283 households, of which 2950 were men and 3144 were women. 5179 people ranked themselves as Cossacks . The national composition of the population was as follows:

• Ukrainians - 3 968 people. (65.1%),
• Russians - 1 961 people (32.2%),
• others - 165 people. (2.7%).

According to the 2002 All-Russian Population Census ^[23] :

According to the database of the 2010 All-Russian Population Census ^[24] :

• Russians - 5,353 people,
• Karachais - 2,787 people
• Ukrainians - 59 people
• others - 301 people,
• nationality is not indicated - 28 people.,
• data in the public database are not available - 1 424 people. ^[25]

The following institutions and organizations are located in the village:

• secondary school number 1,
• secondary school number 2 (in the military town of Watchdog-2),
• secondary school number 3,
• basic secondary school number 1,
• kindergarten "Brook"
• children's art school "Orpheus" ^[26] ,
• Museum of the History of the Village ^[27] ,
• 2 post offices in the village itself ^[26] and 1 in the town of Storozhevaya-2 ^[28] ,
• Urup Forestry,
• forest fire protection of the KCR ^[26] .

On June 30, 2006, the 34th Separate Mountain Motorized Rifle Brigade of the 49th Army was formed . The storozhevaya village was chosen as its location. For the motorized rifle brigade at a distance from the village, a complex of military facilities and residential neighborhoods was built, which became the military town of Storozhevaya-2. By May 2007, a village was built with residential buildings for 400 apartments, a culture palace with 250 beds, as well as a consumer services house, a clinic and a hospital with 50 beds, a fitness center, a kindergarten with an indoor pool ^[29] . By the end of 2007, the team was deployed at a permanent location. Its tasks include covering the passes of the Western Caucasus , in particular, Marukhsky and Klukhorsky .

Russian Orthodox Church

• Temple of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker . The first Orthodox church in the village appeared a few years after its formation. Subsequently, there was a prayer house in Storozhevoy (also in honor of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker) ^[30] , which at different times was assigned to the prayer houses of the villages of Zelenchukskaya and Kardonikskaya . In March-April 1943, the prayer house of the village of Storozheva, together with the prayer house of the village of OK , made more than 16 thousand rubles for the construction of the tank column "Stavropol collective farmer" ^[30] . In 1988, a church was built on the site of the house of worship. The temple also has a throne in honor of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God , arranged after the transfer to the church of the village of the Watchtower antimins from the burnt temple of the village of Marukha . At the Nicholas Church there is a house for the priest, a baptismal room and a prosphora ^[31] .
• Temple of the Holy Right Prince Dimitry of Donskoy in the military town of Storozhevaya-2 ^[32] .

• The complex of archaeological sites of the X - XII centuries - stone crosses with Greek inscriptions, statues, burial ground. A monument of local archeology (in accordance with the decision of the executive committee of the Council of People’s Deputies of the Stavropol Territory of 1981) is located on the lands of the former collective farm “The Banner of Communism” ^[34] .
• Stone tombs and ancient settlements of the 10th-12th centuries in the valley of the Bihgon River. A monument of local archeology is located on the lands of the former collective farm “The Banner of Communism” ^[34] .
• Ground stone tombs of the VIII - XII centuries. A monument of local archeology is located on the lands of the former collective farm “The Banner of Communism” ^[34] .
• To the south of the Leso-Käfar farm, which, in turn, is located south of the village of Storozheva, on the left bank of the Krivoy river, flowing along the bottom of the same-named beam on the right bank of Käfar , in a mountainous and wooded area (mainly birch, beech, alder grow) ^{[7 ]} , the settlement "Spire" of the X-XIII centuries and burial grounds of the VII-IX centuries and X-XII centuries are located ^[34] . The last burial site is called “Statues on the Spire” ^[35] . Previously, this territory belonged to the collective farm named after Lenin ^[34] . All objects have the status of monuments of archeology, ancient settlement and “Statues on the Spire” - monuments of federal significance (since 1974, according to the decision of the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR ) ^[35] . In the complex of objects, probably of the Alanian period, dolmens are especially distinguished ^[36] .

• Category: Born in Watchtower (Karachay-Cherkessia)