Penza Province

Previously, these territories (Surskii Territory) did not have a permanent population for a long time, representing forests , forest-steppes and the wild steppe along which the Polovtsy , then the Kalmyks , the Azov and Crimean Tatars wandered. To the east, more or less settled, they lived in forestry and agriculture, Mordovians and Meshchera . Ivan the Terrible and his successors, in Ukraine , to protect the Russian state from attacks by enemies and other thieves, they arranged Kerenskaya, Verkhnelomovskaya, Nizhnelomovskaya, Insaro-Potizh. The Saransk-Arteman and Penza watch lines (a notch ), for this they resettled the inhabitants of Russia nobles, ordinary odnodvorets ( archers , city ​​Cossacks , notch guards, gunners and others) and arranged watch fortifications with fortresses , a little later fortresses were interconnected by artificial ramparts , blockages , ditches and grooves . One of the ramparts went from Penza to Ramsay , Mokshan (had a wooden fortress with four towers, built in 1535), Lomov (founded as a prison in 1636, guarding the crossing across the Kozlyatsky ford, located at the crossroads from the Wild Field to Narovchat and Idovskaya the road) and Kerensk ^[2] (1636), and the other from the suburb of Atemar to Saransk (1641) and Sheshkeev . In the XVII century, Narovchat, Krasnoslobodsk , Sheshkeev, Insar (1647) and other settlements (fortified towns) were also built on the line.

According to the decree of Tsar Peter I “On the device of provinces and on the determination of new rulers”, in 1709 Penza was assigned to the Kazan province, and in 1719 the Penza province was formed from the Penza voivodship. The province included the cities of Penza (with the Ramzaevsky suburb ), Mokshan and Saransk, and others. According to the audit of 1710, there were 3.4 thousand peasant households and 6.9 yasak yards in the province ^[3] . According to the data of 1733, there were 129,653 residents in the Penza province who were “put on a salary ” ^[4] .

In November 1775, the division of provinces into provinces was canceled ^[5] . On December 31, 1780, the Penza province ceased to exist in connection with the creation of the Penza governorship , consisting of Verkhne Lomovsky , Gorodishchensky , Insarsky , Kerensky , Krasnoslobodsky , Mokshansky , Narovchatsky , Nizhne Lomovsky , Penza , Saransky , Troitsky , Chembarsky and Shishkev .

At the head of the province was the governor , reporting to the governor . The governors of the Penza province: F. S. Skobeltsin, N. A. Obolduev ^[6] , N. A. Khvostov, G. M. Bartenev, A. P. Zhukov, A. A. Vsevolozhsky , and E. P. Chemesov . The provincial chancellery was the supreme governing body of the province, consisting of: secretary, three clerks, 6 copyists, two watchmen. There were also customs , a chamberlain's office , a serfdom (registration of various written acts ( fortresses ) - merchants, on the sale and purchase of estates, mortgages, spiritual wills, debt obligations), horse hut .

• Order of the Kazan Palace

• Khariton Chebotarev , “A geographical methodological description of the Russian Empire with a proper introduction to a thorough knowledge of the globe and Europe in general, for the instruction of a student from the best newest and most reliable writers at the Imperial Moscow University” / comp. H. Chebotarev. - M .: Univ. Type., 1776. - 540 s.
• Inventory to the Highest decrees and orders stored in the Senate Archive, Volume II, St. Petersburg. . 1875, p. 295, No. 4488;
• Province // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
• Petrov S. P. , “Memorable places of the Penza region”, Penza, 1958.
• T. A. Evnevich , Penza Province, Kazan Province / Penza Encyclopedia. M .: Scientific publishing house "Big Russian Encyclopedia", 2001.

• The administrative structure of the Penza region // "Penza Province of the Kazan province"
• Website of the Presidential Library, Khariton Chebotarev , “Geographical methodological description of the Russian Empire ....” / Comp. H. Chebotarev. - M .: Univ. Type., 1776. - 540 s.