Upper grain

It is located on the regional highway Orenburg - Orsk - the border with the Chelyabinsk region , on the right bank of the Ural River . The village is located at the base of Mayachnaya Mountain. The distance to the regional center, the village of Belyaevka - 25 km.

The village arose on the site of the Upper Ozernaya (Upper Ozernaya) fortress, founded in 1743 ^[2] . At the time of the fortress, Mayachnaya Mount was a patrol tower. From it opened a multi-ported overview of the Ural River and the surrounding land, which allowed the Cossack post to produce round-the-clock patrols.

In October 1773, the Cossacks of the Vozdvizhensky fortress were transferred here, which significantly strengthened the fortress garrison during the Pugachev region , when it became one of the strongholds of resistance to the detachments of Emelyan Pugachev and Afanasy Sokolov-Khlopushi in the second half of November 1773 ^[3] .

On November 20, 1773, E. I. Pugachev sent A.T. Sokolov-Khlopush to the Verkhnyaya Ozernaya Fortress with a regiment of factory peasants and chieftain Andrei Borodin-Sharu with a horse regiment. This consolidated detachment (up to 1000 people) attacked the Verkhne-Ozernoy fortress on November 23, but the assault was repulsed by the garrison of the fortress, led by commandant Colonel O. X. Demarin ^[4] .

Pugachev’s decree is known, which mentions the Lake Fortress:

October 6, 1773 - A personal decree to the Cossack chieftain of the Verkhne-Ozernoy fortress I.V. Nemerov, elders, Cossacks and the population of the fortress

The autocratic emperor Peter Feodorovich of the All-Russian and other, and other, and other.

This is my imperial decree of the Lake Fortress to Ataman Ivan Vasilyevich Nemerov and all other foremen and all ranks of people, my imperial command.

Just as your grandfathers and fathers served my ancestors, so you will serve me, the great sovereign, faithfully and invariably to the drop of your blood. When you fulfill my imperial command, and for that you will be granted a cross and a beard, a river and land, grasses and seas, and a monetary salary and bread provisions, lead and gunpowder, and eternal liberty. And fulfill my command, with zeal come to me, then you can completely get me for it monastic mercy.

And if you awake my decree of the counter-kid, then soon you will feel my righteous anger. The authorities of our supreme creator and my anger cannot be avoided, no one can protect you from the strong of our hand.

The Great Sovereign Peter the Third All-Russian.

- TsGADA, f. 6, d. 415, l. 23 and ob. — Copy.

Over 20 times mentioned by A.S. Pushkin in works devoted to the Pugachev uprising. ^[5]