Knyazhevo (Voznesensky district)

It is located 50 km from the city of Sarov and 210 km from Nizhny Novgorod .

In ravines of ravines and in the river. Lead tools were found in stone and bone from the Neolithic era and the beginning of the Bronze Age (manual chopped stone, bone punctures). As well as the fossilized remains of some inhabitants of the sea, mammoth tusks and their teeth, as well as the skull of a hairy rhino. The place where the settlement was formed was very convenient in those days in terms of protection. This left bank of Vedyazhi with high (70-80 m) steep clay coasts, two deep ravines about 1.5 km long, could serve as reliable protection. And the river itself in those days was more deep and deep. The entire left bank of the Vedyazhi from Pochinok to Mordovia to this day has high banks. It looks very beautiful, and in those days, in all likelihood, it served as a reliable protection, since the border passed along Vedazh. Vedyazha (after all + snake) is a water border. She walked to the bend of the Moksha River through the Uzhov ravine, which is located near the village. Butakovo. Uzh means the boundary, the boundary. This border was between the Kazan kingdom and Russia.

At the end of 1930, a struggle was waged everywhere: priests were subjected to repression, temples, monasteries were ruined. The temple in the village did not escape this fate. The last priest G.L. Tarakanov was arrested on November 17, 1937 and sentenced by the troika to execution. Shot on January 3, 1938. This priest and his family are described in detail in the book of Tengushevsky local historian V.I. Lapshin, "Life was lived by conscience" and the book by N. A. Shemyakov "In the millstone of repression." Soon the temple was destroyed: all the icons, the library were burnt in a bonfire near the temple, valuable church utensils were taken to Ascension, the bell tower was destroyed, bells and crosses were dropped to the ground. Later, in the largest room (summer), they organized a club where they held concerts and staged plays. In 1950, all the premises were used as a collective farm grain warehouse. Now it is empty and is undergoing further destruction. The peaceful life of the village was violated by the war of 1941-1945. On the very first day of the war, the male population began to receive subpoenas and go to the front. A total of 75 men and one woman were called to the front. 10 young girls called for digging trenches. Maria Svoykina, who was called up in 1944 in the city of Murom to a military factory where shells were manufactured, was left without eyes. During the war years, the village found itself in difficult conditions: only old people, women and children remained in the village. From the collective farm they took the best horses for the front. The cultivation of collective farm fields and household plots was largely done manually, and harvesting was also done with the help of a scythe and sickle. In winter, the village dried potatoes, crackers, knitted scarves, three-fingered gloves, socks, sewed pouches for shag and sent them to the front with parcels. Half of those who went to the front remained there forever. Some families lost all their men. Five did not return in the Nazarov family, four died in the Romanovs, seven in the Churaevs. Reached Berlin and remained alive and the commander of the armored car, Sergeant Nikolay Maximovich Svoikin. For military merits, he was awarded the Order of Glory of the II and III degrees, the Order of the Patriotic War of the 1st degree and many medals. Zharkov Ulyan was seriously wounded (shell shock), who soon died after returning home, V.V. Romanov was twice wounded. As a result of the second severe wound in 1944, he was left without a leg by a disabled person. Officer V. Churaev was also wounded. In 1942, Mansurov Sof Yunusovich, who ended the war in 1945, was called up as an 18-year-old boy. In 1949, electricity came to the village from a hydroelectric power station built on Vedazh near Devletyakov. Livestock buildings were built, a water tower was installed, a brick store building was built. An asphalt road has been drawn. In the 60s, the collective farm in the village was liquidated, as there was an association with Novoselsky. The construction of livestock buildings ceased, and a cattle farm was removed. In the village there was only a sheep farm for 1,200-1,300 sheep. In 1990, it was eliminated. The village, like many other villages of our great country, was declared unpromising.

The village, in which more than 700 people once lived, has now been reduced by more than ten times. The village council, post office, and first-aid post were removed from the village. The building of the local club rotted and collapsed.

• Materials of the Tambov State Archive, as well as articles by local historians I. Enivatov and E. Kazakov.