Belozersk (Old Russian name Beloozero - Slavic tracing paper from the Veps city name - Valged jär'v '- letters. "White lake") - one of the oldest cities in Russia . First mentioned under the year 862 . Since 1238, the capital of the independent Belozersky principality . Later it became part of the Russian state . From the end of the 14th century , the heyday of the city began. In 1612, Polish-Lithuanian forces ravaged the city. In the XVIII century , under Catherine II , it was renamed from Beloozero to Belozersk .
Content
Location
There were suggestions that until the X century the city was located on the northern shore of the White Lake near the village of Kisnema , but recent archaeological research refutes this version. According to these studies, the city arose in the middle of the 10th century on the southern shore of the lake at the source of the Sheksna River , 17 km east of the modern city of Belozersk (later on this place Belozero's written records dating back to the 14th century do not contain information allowing to determine the exact location However, there is more recent evidence of the mouth of the Kisnema River in the north of the White Lake as the place of the princely capital of the 9th-10th centuries.The Kishnem Volost mentioned in the monuments of the 15th century was, according to the 16th century chronicler K of the rylo-Belozersky monastery, the site of the original settlement of Sineus: “Sineus side we have on Kisnem.” The message is also connected with this, as if there was a “Varangian town” on Kisnem. Architect S. A. Sharov and archaeologist S. 3. Chernov in 1983 —1985 a large settlement of the 9th-10th centuries with the remains of urban stone and earth fortifications and a fairly powerful cultural layer of this period was really discovered in the Kisnema area on the shore of the White Lake. the village of Krokhino was located ) [1] . Beloozero of the X century had an area of not less than 1.4 ha [2] . By the end of the 10th century, Beloozero occupied about 1.5 hectares, being the largest settlement in the region [1] .
The right-bank part of the city eventually stretched along the river bank for almost 2 km, while its area reached 41 hectares. The construction of the left bank of the Sheksna began no later than the first half of the 11th century.
During its heyday (second half of the XII - beginning of the XIII century), the left-bank part of the city occupied at least 13 hectares. The total area of the city on both sides of Sheksna was then at least 65 hectares [3] , which makes Beloozero one of the largest urban centers of North-Eastern Russia [1] . In the XIV century , after the plague epidemic in 1352 [4] , the city was once again moved 17 km to the west, already to the place where it is now.
History
Belozersk is one of the most ancient cities of Ancient Russia . The first mention of this city in the annals dates back to 862 . According to the " Tale of Bygone Years ", the city of Beloozero (Veps. Valged jär'v ') was the capital of the entire Chudian (Finnish) tribe (self-named. Vepsä) - the ancient Veps . According to legend, when the Slavic ( Slovenian Novgorod and Krivichi ) and Chud tribes (chud, all and Meria ) jointly called Rurik , the founder of the dynasty of Russian princes Rurikovich , to reign in Novgorod, one of his brothers, Prince Sineus sat on the throne in Beloozero. However, due to the fact that no archaeological evidence has yet been found of the existence of the city at that time, the plausibility of this legend regarding Beloozero is in doubt. According to archaeological data, the active settlement of the territory around White Lake begins in the middle of the 10th century. At the end of the X century - the first half of the XI century, a significant increase in the number and size of settlements was recorded in the region. A. A. Shakhmatov believed that the "Legend of the Calling of the Varangians " got to the pages of the annals only in the middle of the XI century. Together with archaeological data, the presence of Beloozero in “The Tale” reflects the significant role that Beloozero began to play in the XI century, by the time the “Tale of the Calling of the Vikings” was included in the annals [5] [6] .
It has been suggested that the city at that time could be on the northern shore of White Lake . But this version was not confirmed [1] :
A thorough examination of the northern shore of the White Lake proved that there are no finds related to the Varangian vocation in Kisnem. The origin of this bush of settlements, which became one of the largest in the region in the 12th – 13th centuries, occurred only at the end of the 10th century, when two miniature villages appeared on the site of the future agglomeration .... It cannot claim the role of the city of Sineus and the Krutik settlement, despite the synchronism of its existence to the events set forth in the "Tale of the Calling of the Vikings". The extremely modest size of this monument, occupying only about 0.6 hectares, the absence of artificial fortifications, the almost complete absence of weapons in the clothing collection and its location in a relatively inaccessible place do not allow Krutik to be considered the center of the early city type and even just a large settlement ....
Confirmed at present is the emergence in the middle of the 10th century of a city on the south bank at the source of the Sheksna River, where it lasted until 1352 .
During the excavation of Beloozero, 86 Slavic biconical spindles of the 11th – 13th centuries were found, marked by various unencrypted graffiti signs [7] [8] .
In 1238, Belozersk became the center of the independent Belozersky principality (before that it was part of the Rostov-Suzdal principality , which had existed for almost 150 years). By the number of lead commercial fillings found (19), Beloozero ranks sixth after Drogichin , Veliky Novgorod , Ratminsky settlement in Dubna , Borkovsky island in Ryazan and Pskov [9] .
In 1352, an epidemic of " pestilence " broke out in Beloozero, which exterminated almost all the inhabitants. Since the city had an important position on the waterway, along which the northern lands communicated with the Volga region , as well as with the cities of Sukhon and the Northern Dvina , the city was reborn for the third time. In 1363 - 1364, Belozersk "moved" 17 kilometers west and took its current place. From this moment begins the heyday of the city. He quickly gets rich, becomes famous throughout Russia and is already part of the Moscow state.
In 1612, the Polish-Lithuanian troops occupied and devastated Beloozero without a fight, which was facilitated by the obsolescence of the fortifications. Governor Stefan Chepchugov fled to Kirillov. The earthen rampart and wooden walls of the city could no longer withstand the artillery and firearms of the enemy, while the neighboring city of Kirillov , surrounded by a new stone wall, managed to defend its independence. Since then, Belozersk is a quiet provincial city, preserving a leisurely lifestyle.
See also
- Belozersky Kremlin
- Belozersky regiment
- Borisov-Sudskoye
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 Zakharov S. D. “Investigations of the medieval Beloozero” (Archeological discoveries. 1991-2004. European Russia - Edited by N. A. Makarov: Institute of Archeology RAS, 2009. - 476 p. Fig. - ISBN 978-5-94375-071-7 .)
- ↑ Denis Dook . An ordinary town lurking in river bends? A new concept of the place and role of Polotsk in early Old Russian history . Homeland, No. 6 2013.
- ↑ Zakharov S. D. “ Beloozero at the initial stages of the formation of the Old Russian state ” (From the collection of materials of the International scientific conference “Northern Russia and the problems of the formation of the Old Russian state”, held in the cities of Vologda, Kirillov and Belozersk June 6-8, 2012)
- ↑ Zakharov S.D. City of Beloozero // Belozerye: Historical and Literary Almanac. - Vologda: Russia, 1994. - Vol. 1 .
- ↑ Zakharov S. D. Investigations of medieval Beloozero // Archaeological discoveries. 1991-2004 European Russia / Res. ed. Makarov N.A.
- ↑ Zakharov S. D. Belozero at the initial stages of the formation of the Old Russian state (From the collection of materials of the International Scientific Conference “Northern Russia and the Problems of the Formation of the Old Russian State”, held in the cities of Vologda, Kirillov and Belozersk June 6-8, 2012)
- ↑ Forging and jewelry workshop of the floodplain of the Gnezdovsky settlement , 2007
- ↑ Golubeva L.A. Graffiti and signs of spindles from Beloozero. From the collection "Culture of Medieval Russia". L .: 1974, p. 21, Fig. 4-7.
- ↑ Krymov E. Yu. , Beletsky S. V. “Customs of pre-Mongol time in the Upper Volga Region”
Literature
- Zakharov S.D. Medieval Beloozero. The formation and development of the urban center on the northern periphery of Ancient Russia. The dissertation ... candidate of historical sciences. M., 2003.916 s.
- Zakharov S.D. The ancient Russian city of Beloozero. M .: Indrik , 2004.592 s. ISBN 5-85759-271-2
- Zakharov S.D. Belozero // Russia in the 9th-10th centuries. Archaeological panorama. M.-Vologda: Antiquities of the North, 2012.S. 213-239.