Osuga (village)

The village is located on the railway line Rzhev - Vyazma , 25 kilometers south of Rzhev and 20 kilometers north of Sychevka . 2 kilometers south, west and east of the village, the Osuga River flows, forming in this place the border between the Tver and Smolensk regions.

The city of Rogachev was located in the southern part of the Osugsky rural district; Osug volost was located just north of Zamyatino and covered the territories of modern Osug (partially), Kuryanovsky and Medvedev (southern part) rural districts. The settlement of Khvostovo, located in the early Iron Age, was located on the ugsk land, northeast of the modern village of the same name, occupying the cape of the left bank of the Osuga river, when entering the ravine river valley, on its left bank, to the southeast of the cemetery. The territories of the modern surroundings of Osugi were inhabited thousands of years BC with the formation of settlements on the sites of the existing settlements.

Before the settlement of the territories by Slavs who came from the east, Finno-Ugric tribes (Meria) lived here. This is clearly evidenced by the clearly non-Slavic name Osuga River, which has two translation options found in historical literature: Osu Yoga, which translates as “willow river”, and Yissu, which means “mouth” from Old Finnish. These tribes were engaged in hunting and fishing, which was facilitated by the abundance of animals in the forests and fish of various species in the river. With the arrival of the Slavic tribes - Krivichs in the Upper Volga region, the Finno-Ugrian population was partially crowded out and partially assimilated. With the arrival of the Slavs, along the Volga , Zapadnaya Dvina , Vazuza and Osuga rivers, one of the routes to the south of the Kiev principality passed, that is, one of the branches of the route from the Baltic Sea to the Black and Caspian and “ from the Varangians to the Greeks ”. There were corresponding so-called transitions between large aquatic arteries. One of the significant transitions between the Volga and Western Dvina basins can be considered the dragging between the upper reaches of Osuga and Birch. Archaeologists believe that the path down Osug in the early Middle Ages was one of the most important along which the Krivichi advanced to the Rzhevsky Volga from the Upper Dvina. This is indicated by numerous strengths and burial mounds of the 10th-12th centuries. in the middle course of Osugi. That is, according to one opinion, the Krivichi came from the northwest to the Ossugian land, however, ND Kvashnin-Samarin wrote in his work "Research on the history of the principalities of Rzhevsky and Fominsky" about the arrival of Slavic tribes from the south: "Slavs came to the upper Volga eat south. It seems that they belonged to the Krivichi tribe. It is known that the Rzhevsky Territory subsequently pulled Smolensk, and even in the very speech of the Privazuz and Priozuzh residents, Belorussisms were only recently noticed, nowadays more and more disappearing. ”

About specific territorial units and settlements in the Priosugsky territories, it becomes known from the border agreement concluded between the Moscow principality and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (hereinafter ON) in 1381-1382. It says that the ON was inferior to Rzhev and most of its volosts in Moscow, but one volost, Osuga, nevertheless remained behind the ON. This Moscow-Lithuanian treaty was not preserved, however, the conclusion about its existence and the position fixed in it regarding the lands lying on the Osuga River can be made thanks to the analysis of the agreement on “eternal peace” dated August 31, 1449 between Vasily II and Casimir IV . This agreement clearly states that the Osug parish remained in the reign of the volostels of the Grand Duke of Lithuania Keistut .

Having preserved the Lithuanian administration, the parish compensated the ON for a rather tangible territorial loss. Occupying the middle course of the Osuga River, it covered the southern part of the Rzhev land, part of the modern Osug and Kuryanovsky rural districts, and, thus, left the possibility of some control over the Rzhev territory as a whole. In addition, at the end of the XIV century. the district of Osuga volost remained the only place of contact between the ON territories and Tver lands, serving as a kind of bridge between the two states. Thus, by a short rule in the Grand Duchy of Grand Duke Keistut, the beginning of the formation of a stable section of the Lithuanian-Tver border, which lasted for almost a century and a quarter, can be attributed. Other sections of the common border appeared between the two states, but they either existed for a short period of time or did not have significant significance.

After joining the Grand Duchy of Vyazemsky Principality in 1403, the line of contact between the Lithuanian and Tver lands on the stretch of the Osuga and Vazuza rivers was formed almost a century before the accession of the Vyazemsky lands to the Moscow principality. However, there was one inconsistent site - this is the Fomin-Berezuy principality , which at that time included the city of Rogachev. At the end of the XIV century, Prince Evstafy Fedorovich, son of Fedor Yuryevich Rzhevsky owned the Rogachev lands.

The existence of close contact between the Lithuanian and Tver possessions is evidenced by a number of treaty letters. In the Lithuanian-Tver treaty of 1427, the boundary between the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (Smolensk) and the Grand Duchy of Tver is mentioned and the conditions for the possession of foreign places are stipulated. However, it is possible that this article of treaty letters could also apply to another section of the Lithuanian-Tver border (in the vicinity of the Osugi parish). The border line along the Osuga River was sandwiched between the Rzhev and Mozhaisk (possibly Volotsk) lands belonging to Moscow. In addition, this section of the Lithuanian-Tver border was interrupted in the middle by an array of lands of the city of Rogachev and other cities of the Fominsk-Berezuy Principality, which the Moscow Grand Dukes have long had claims against and whose owners since 1449 have been recognized subject to the Grand Duke of Moscow.

In reality, Rogachev remained part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the Vyazemsky principality, and was even surrendered to the Vyazemsky landowner pan Ivan (Yan) Khodkevich. It can be assumed that the endowment of frontier lands loyal to the Grand Duke of Lithuania was carried out purposefully with the expectation of ensuring the defense of the extreme eastern borders of the state. In 1494, these lands (except for Osug volost) became part of the Grand Duchy of Moscow. Rogachev was located just south of the current village of Rogachevo, on the high bank of the Osuga River. At that time, he played an important role as a fortified point. About Rogachev, valuable material was collected by a native of these places, the former director of the Rzhev Museum of Local Lore, N. R. Boykov. During the Great Patriotic War, everything collected by him perished. The collector himself died at the front. But back again in the XV century.

In May 1492, Moscow Tsar Ivan III Vasilyevich sent an embassy led by Ivan Nikitich Bersen-Beklemishevk to the Grand Duchy of Kazimir, ON, demanding the return of the cities of Rogachev and Khlepen, otherwise threatening “undead” (war). This embassy did not reach Lithuania due to the fact that King Casimir died, and the demands of the Moscow Tsar were not voiced.

In November of the same year, the son of Casimir Alexander sent an embassy to Ivan III Vasilyevich complaining that in August-September 1492 a detachment of the Moscow Grand Duke Voivode Vasily Lapin and Andrei Istoma had invaded the domain of the princes subject to the Grand Duke of Lithuania and Russia and seized the city Horseradish and Rogachev. “... And they also chose the townships of Chisinau and Rogachev, they burned the villages, horses and cows and ina each animal, dresses and all the remains they took; and they took a total of one and a half hundred horses and one and a half hundred cows; and dresses and other remains for sixty Russian rubles. ” As regards the Osug volost, as of 1494 it is obvious that it continued to remain a strategically important area of ​​the borderland as part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, though it lost a little of its territory from the north-west.

After the war, 1500-1503. between the Principality of Moscow and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, in March 1503 a ceasefire was concluded for six years, according to which the Principality of Bielsk and the neighboring volosts, including the Osug volost, which is not mentioned anywhere else as a separate territorial unit, went to Moscow.

In his spiritual letter written in 1504, Grand Duke Ivan III Vasilievich Rogachev bequeathed the city to his third son Dmitry (Dmitry Ivanovich Zhilka) as an inheritance. “Yes, I bless my son Dmitri, I give him the city of Ugleche a field with volosts, and with roads, and from the village, and with all duties, and with Ustyuzhny, and with Rozhalov, and with Veletov, and with Kistma, and with everything that the city of Mologu and the Glebov’s fiefdom, and from Yez on Volze and Moloz, with everything, according to how it was with me, sank to Uglich and to those volosts. And that esmi brought the bargain from the Kholoty town to Mologa, and that bargain was being traded on Moloz gathering, as was with me, and my son Dmitri eased duties, as was with me, and nothing added taxes, and my son Vasily and my children they don’t reduce the bargaining to their lands, nor the commandments in their lands repair the bargain. Yes, I give him the cities of Khlepen, and Rogachev, and Negomir, with volosts, and with putmi, and from the village, and with all duties. ”Thus, at the end of the XV, the beginning of the XVI century, the Osugskaya land began to belong to the Moscow principality and was included in the land Zubtsov, which consisted of volosts adjacent to the city and volosts of the former principality of Fominsky with the towns of Khlepen, Rogachev, Negomir, lying on the rivers Osug and Vazuz. At this time, serfs of the boyars, estates of nobles, and patrimonies of monasteries formed and took shape. The population was engaged in tillage and cattle breeding, various crafts, trade began to develop, and a new specialty appeared - skipping. Rogachev for the upcoming peaceful century adds to the population and grows in suburban villages. Ivan IV Vasilievich Grozny showed interest in Rogachev. The king mentions him in his spiritual letter. This is the only spiritual letter of Ivan the Terrible was written in 1572, long before his death. But she came to us only in a later list. “And God will give me a daughter with Anna and his wife, and I bless her, I give the city of Zubtsov with volosts, and ways, and from the village, and with all duties. Yes, I give her Opoki, and Khlepen, and Rogachev, with volosts, and villages, and with Putmi, and with all duties. Yes, I give it to the villages near Moscow, the village of Mitropolichi, which was Mikhail Tuchkov, the village of Eldegino, which was Yurya Sheina, the village of Simonovskoye Vasilyevskoye Sheina, the village of Klenki Uslyumovskoye, Danilovo village Ivanovskoye, Bryukhovo village Suponevo, Safaryevskoye Ivana Davavyeva Davyava Davavyeva Davyava Davavyeva Davyava Davavyeva Davyava Davavyeva Davyava Davavyeva Davavyeva Davyava Davavyeva Davavyeva Davavyeva Davavyeva Davyava Davavyeva Davyava Davavyeva Davavyeva Davyavyeva Davyavyeva Davyavyeva Davavyeva Davyavyeva Davavyeva Davyavyeva Davavyeva Davavyeva , with all the villages and from the Ugody. " The information contained in the spiritual letter indicates that Rogachev and the surrounding lands at that moment belonged to the closest relatives of the great ruler.

During the Livonian War, the troops of the Polish king Stephen Batory went on the offensive. In 1581, a large detachment led by Radziwill reached Rogachev and destroyed it. After the defeat, it is not mentioned in the annals as a town, but continues to exist in the form of a camp uniting a group of volosts.

In the Time of Troubles in the Russian state, Rogachev continues to play an important strategic role for both supporters of the Shuisky and popular militia, as well as for Poles and Tushins, who have been operating in these places for a long time. During the uprising under the command of Bolotnikov (1606-1607), the inhabitants of Rogachev and the surrounding area took his side. But sent by Tsar Vasily Shuisky, the tsar’s general, Kolychev, who arrived from Volokolamsk with his punitive detachment, suppressed the local excitement with weapons.

In the fall of 1611, detachments of Polish interventionists stood in Rogachev under the command of the hetman Khodasevich, who moved here from Moscow under the pressure of the Russian militia. From Rogachev, the Poles tried to supply food to the Polish garrison remaining in the Moscow Kremlin, but Russian patriots took food from the Poles and took them prisoner. From Rogachev Khodasevich again went to Moscow, but was defeated by the Russians.

In 1613, Rogachev was besieged by the troops of Pan Lisovsky, whose gangs tormented Russian soil for three years. The townspeople, together with the surrounding residents, heroically defended and defended their city, although it was completely burned out. Pan Lisovsky was forced to retreat. ND Kvashnin-Samarin wrote in 1887: “Until now, they show a ravine east of Rogachev, in which, according to legend, Lithuania was once located. From there she went to the Zubtsov and Rzhev. She took the teeth, and the Mother of God defended Rzhev. In general, the memory of Lithuania is very alive in this region and there is no end to the stories about Lithuanian treasures. ” In the book "A large drawing, or an ancient map of the Moscow state," Rogachev says: "And below the city of Rzhev, on the Volga is the city of Staritsa, and between those cities, Rzhev and Staritsa, the Vazuza River. And the Puga (Osuga) river fell into the Vazuzu river from the west, and the Rogachev Monastery, between the Puti River and the Volga River from Rzhev, 20 versts ”. This is proof that the Rogachevsky Monastery was located in the 17th century on the site of the Mother of God Church, which existed until the mid-20th century. It apparently ceased to exist with the withering of the city, turning into an ordinary church. ^{[2] [3]}