Belev fortress

Fortress

“... In that 1731, on June 23, when General Earl of Bohemia, von Weisbach was at the time, with prayer and cannon fire, the first fortress was founded on the Berestovaya river, above the mouth of the Berestovenka river according to the Vauban system ...

... Empress Anna Ioannovna indicated the newly-founded first fortress to be called the fortress of St. John, in the name of the blessed memory of the Great Sovereign Tsar and Grand Duke John Alekseevich ... ” ^[1]

The tenth fortress of the Ukrainian defense line, laid down on August 11, 1731 by General Tarakanov, was the first construction of the future city. The construction of the fortress was completed on October 20 of the same year. Here in 1733 one of the 20 Landmilica regiments was located, which was formed in the city of Belev, Tula province, by the Belgorod military table. From the name of the city Beleva received the name of the regiment, and the fortress in which he settled began to be called Belev.

To the east of the fortress settled families of soldiers (land police officers) and officers. So arose near the fortress Soldier’s settlement. Landmilitia guarded the Belev fortress and adjacent sections of the line, took part in campaigns of the Russian army, and periodically participated in military exercises. For service they were exempted from duties, received land and a small fee, in their free hours they were engaged in agriculture. The population of the settlement was growing at the expense of sub-assistants, who were seconded by the government, one to each land policeman. The assistant was obliged to help the land-policeman in the field work and, in general, in the establishment of an economy.

At the end of the Russo-Turkish war of 1735-1739, there was an intensified settlement of the Ukrainian line and the development of tillage. Reducing the danger of Tatar attacks led to a surge of voluntary settlers who settled in vacant land. They did not join the ranks of the land militia regiments and were exclusively engaged in agriculture. In the middle of the 18th century, south of the Ukrainian line , Ukrainian settlements began to appear, founded for the most part by left-bank settlers. ^[2]

From 1736 to 1764, the Chancellery of the Ukrainian Landmilitsky Corps, the Landmilitsky Commission and the General Landmilitsky Court were located in the Belevsky fortress.

Under the protection of the fortress, merchants and artisans settled. They built a block west of the village center. Under the shops, rooms of residential buildings were opened, the doors of which looked out onto the street. Between the fortress and the inhabited quarters, the first forge was built, which served the inhabitants of the town and visiting merchants. To the east of the Belevsky fortress, 33 tithes and 1000 square fathoms of the garden were planted. It was the so-called Treasury Garden. He was seated and taken care of by land police officers. Silk "factories" were built in this garden. Such a "plant" was a long barn, in which there were tables, and on the tables arranged boxes with silkworms.

The Russian government made an attempt to introduce sericulture in the Slobozhanshchina . In 1757, the Senate issued a decree explaining that demand for silk and brocade products is growing in Russia, while silk is almost never produced in the country, it will have to be imported from Persia at a high price. The Senate ordered the local authorities to inform the villagers of the “Ukrainian Line” so that they planted mulberry trees, planted silkworms and mined silk.

Silk farmers from merchants are promised exemption from service and collection of duties for the sale of silk for 10 years. They were supposed to sell silk to Russian silk manufactories. Everyone who was interested in sericulture was invited to visit the Belevsky fortress and get acquainted with the practice of breeding mulberries. ^[3]

In 1745, the first fairs were organized in the town of Belevsky fortress, special premises for shops were built at the expense of the treasury. In the second half of the XVIII century. city ​​residents are divided into artisans, bourgeois, merchants. Gradually, the prosperous part of which formed the local government. At the head of the administrative authority in the town was a commandant whose authority extended to all aspects of life. The rich top of the city every year intensified exploitation, seized and appropriated public lands. So, for example, the merchant Grigory Skoly appropriated the tract Khomutovka and built there in 1776 the first brick factory in the town. Since that time, wealthy people began to build houses of brick. One of the first brick houses was the house of the Generalist of the Ukrainian line. The merchant Bocharov appropriated 30 acres of urban land and also built a brick factory. The rich Khripunov captured a section of the city forest along the Berestovoy River. Behind her, at the moment, the name "Khripunov Forest" is preserved. The Chancellery of the Ukrainian line and the commandant of the city indulged this, because they themselves benefited from that.

With the settlement of landmilitsky regiments on the Ukrainian line, the emergence of the villages of Peschanka and Berestovenki is connected: the first near the Belevsky fortress, the second near the fortress "St. John". The remains of the Ivanovo fortress are well preserved to this day. The life of people in these villages was difficult and hopeless. In addition to working in the field and serving various duties, people did not see anything. Only in 1752 on the Ukrainian line, including in the Belev fortress, elementary schools were opened for the children of land police officers, in which, in addition to reading, writing and arithmetic, "engineering art" and artillery science were taught. Children of soldiers were prepared for military service.

The tsarist government generously distributed fertile lands to Russian nobles, foreigners who were in military service and at the royal court, the Ukrainian Cossack foreman.

In the second half of the XVIII century. there are a number of villages beyond the Ukrainian line: Tsiglerovka, Beryozovka, Popovka, Natalino and others. In 1764, the Catherine’s provincial chancellery, which was kept at the Belev fortress, assigned free land to Lieutenant Colonel of the Kursk Regiment, German von Ziegler and Colonel of the Donetsk Pikinersky Regiment, a native of Crimean Tatars Alimov. The lands cut by these officers were located south of the Ukrainian line. The new landowners were obliged to establish villages of 48 estates each, and to populate them with free people. The village in which von Ziegler's estate was located was named Zieglerka, the second village is Berezovka. According to legend, Alimov won Zieglerka in cards and passed it on to his son. The daughter of Alimov Ziegler's became the wife of officer J. O. Lambert. (The brothers Moritz, Karl and Jacob Lambert are French nobles. During the French bourgeois-democratic revolution of 1789-1794 they emigrated to Russia and entered the military service in the tsarist army). (N. Arandarenko "Notes on the Poltava province").

The Ukrainian line lost strategic importance during the Russo-Turkish war of 1768-74, when, in connection with the transfer of Russian state borders to the South, the Dnieper line was built for the defense of Ukraine, which ran from the mouth of the Moskovka River to the lower reaches of the Berdy River. Belev fortress from this time turns into a forwarding center and place of detention for peasants who opposed feudal exploitation. On the city plan of 1782, a prison and a church are indicated.

After the Russo-Turkish war (in 1768-74), the Azov province was created in 1775. It included 12 counties, the territory of which extended up to the Sea of ​​Azov. The main administration of the province was in the Belevsky fortress. To the Governor General Chertkov, the Russian government allocated 3,000 acres of land on the left bank of the Berestovaya River to private ownership. The settlement he founded in honor of his wife is named Natalino. The same name passed to the county. In October 1778, the Departments of the Azov Province were transferred to the city of Yekaterinoslav, and the Belev Fortress became the county center of the Azov Province. Decrees of March 30, 1783 and January 22, 1784 from the Azov and Novorossiysk provinces created the Yekaterinoslav governorate, which included the Natalinsky district.

For half a century (in 1731 - 1784 ) a place grew around Belevsky fortress, in which 617 people lived, there were 130 houses, 3 forges, about 20 shops, several shreds, 3 fairs were held every year. In 1784, by the decree of Empress Catherine II, the Belevsky fortress was renamed the city of Konstantinograd . The name was given in honor of the grandson of Empress Constantine .

In 1787, Empress Catherine II , traveling through the Russian Empire, on June 8, watched the maneuvers of troops in the territory of the Konstantinograd district under the command of Potemkin and Suvorov . This battle of Suvorov went down in history as a model. On September 16, 1817, it was repeated on this territory by the corps of troops under the command of General Saxe in the presence of Emperor Alexander I.

As a result of Russia's access to the Black Sea , economic and political ties are developing with Turkey and other countries of the South. It is known that in 1793 50 carts of the Turkish embassy drove through Konstantinograd. In 1796, the city of Konstantinograd was transferred to the position of a freelance city in the Little Russian province .

D. T. Marinenko., "Krasnograd District (Historical and Local Lore Essay)", Krasnograd., 1992

• Ukrainian line