History of the Chelyabinsk region

The Bogdanovskaya site near the village of Bogdanovskoye ^[1] , the Troitskaya I site on the Uy River near Troitsk ^[2] , traces of short-term parking in the Buranovskaya caves (north of the city of Ust-Katav ) and Klyuchevskaya on the Yuryuzan River belong to the Middle Paleolithic era in the Chelyabinsk region . Parking in the cave Smelovskaya II refers to the very beginning of the Late Paleolithic ^[3] .

The cave paintings in the Ignatiev cave date back 6–8 thousand years ago ( Late Paleolithic ) ^{[4] [5]} . The “ Elk ” geoglyph located in the Zyuratkul National Park has an estimated image age of 8 to 3 thousand years.

In the Buranovskaya cave, a female burial was opened in the upper layers, in which the skeleton of a woman lay on her back in an elongated position with her head to the south, and the skull was placed in a specially dug fossa 10 centimeters deep, filled with red ocher. In the area of ​​the pelvis and legs there were 35 pendants in the form of flat plates of a green oval-shaped coil with one polished side. The second burial of this kind was discovered in a Neolithic site in a rocky canopy of the Starichny ridge, 1.5 km down the Yuryuzan River from the Buranovskaya Cave. These burials are similar in nature to burials on the South Oleny Island of Lake Onega , in the burial ground in the tract Karavaikha on the right bank of the Eloma River in the Vologda Region , in the Neolithic burial grounds of Siberia on the Angara River. In all burials, red ocher powder was used and even with pendants on the lower part of the skeleton ^[6] .

The cave paintings of the “ Araslanovskaya Pisanitsa ” date from the 9th-7th centuries BC. e. ^[7] Monuments of Turgoyak and Sungul lakes, monuments of Sintashta culture : Sintashta and Arkaim related to the so-called. " Country of cities ."

To the south of Magnitogorsk , in the area of Orsk and Chkalov, along with the mounds there are barrowless graves of Andronovo culture ^[6] . Alexey Nechvaloda made anthropological reconstruction of the skulls of a man and woman of Saka culture from the Kumkul burial ground. Cherkaskul culture of the Bronze Age, received its name from Lake Cherkaskul , located in the Kasli district .

On the territory of the Chelyabinsk region, a number of burial grounds and individual burials of the Late Bronze carcass culture (Kamenny Dol I, Narovchatovsky I, the Leningrad Mountains single menshire, Kirs III) also have Alakul features , therefore, such monuments are often called Srub-Alakul monuments ^[8] .

According to the materials of Itkul I (Dautovsky I) settlement ( Verkhneufaleysky district ), Itkul culture of the early Iron Age (8/7 - 3 centuries BC) was distinguished ^[9] .

Before the Russian colonization of the Urals and its active industrial development, the Bashkirs lived in the territory of modern Chelyabinsk region, there were also Cheremis , Kazakhs . Administratively, the territories were part of the Nogai Horde , Kazan and Siberian Khanates.

The first Russian settlement in the territory of modern Chelyabinsk region was Novo-Uralsky Ostrozhek, created in 1672 in the area of ​​the current Taganay National Park ^[10] . It was founded as part of a large-scale geological expedition, looking for gold and silver. However, geological surveys ended in complete failure, as stated in the annals in such terms: “Nothing was found, and the sovereign treasury committed great vanity and death” ^[11] . After the failure of the prison, it was abandoned for a long time. In 1741, a new expedition arrived at the destroyed prison, who discovered iron ore there and chose a place for the construction of the Zlatoust plant ^[12] . In 1692, the Beloyarskaya (Techen) settlement was founded. The first factories in the territory of the present Chelyabinsk region are the Kaslinsky and Nyazepetrovsky iron-smelting and iron-smelting plants founded in 1747.

The administrative formation of the territory within the Russian Empire began in the XVIII century as part of the Kazan province . Prior to this, most of the territory after the fall of the khanates belonged to the Kazan kingdom .

In September 1736, on the right bank of the Miass River, Colonel A.I. Tevkelev laid the Chelyabinsk fortress. In 1737, the Iset Province was formed, the center of which since 1743 was Chelyabinsk .

In March 1744, the Orenburg province was formed, which included the Iset and Ufa provinces . After the abolition of the Iset province in 1782, part of its territory became part of the Orenburg province, and part of the Ufa province. The first cities in the territory of the current region were Chelyabinsk, Verkhneuralsk (1781) and Troitsk (1784).

In 1903, a rally of striking workers at the Zlatoust state-owned factory was shot in Zlatoust , as a result of which 69 people were killed and more than 250 were injured.

In 1917, most of the territory (southern) of the modern Chelyabinsk region was part of the Orenburg province ( Verkhneuralsky , Troitsky and Chelyabinsk counties). The northern and mining part of the modern territory of the region was part of the Perm province (as part of the Krasnoufim , Yekaterinburg , Shadrinsky districts, including the Kyshtym district of mining plants ^[13] ), a small western part - in the Ufa province ( Zlatoust county , including including the Zlatoust district of mining plants). The population of the city of Chelyabinsk by this time was approaching 70,000 inhabitants, while the national and social composition of the population was very diverse. The diversity of city residents predetermined the complexity of the relationship between the inhabitants of the region. Meanwhile, the February Revolution had little impact on the life of a simple layman in the southern Urals counties; metallurgical plants also worked and trains traveled.

The February Revolution is often called the “telegraph” because news of the events in Petrograd came to the provincial cities via telegraph. Many tsarist officials, without resistance, surrendered to the new authorities, the commissars of the Provisional Government, hoping for leniency. Only in Chelyabinsk, the head of the garrison, General Koreyev, refused to recognize the new government and declared a state of emergency in the city. However, the general was immediately arrested by his own soldiers. The new local authorities were the Zemstvo authorities, which replaced the old apparatus. However, from the very first days of the revolution, other bodies began to arise: Soviets, Public Safety Committees, factory committees, trade unions, and so on. The Soviets and KOBA also claimed power. Provincial commissars relied on the support of public safety committees created in the first days of March from representatives of municipal authorities, leaders of liberal and socialist parties, as well as Soviets - elected class-class organizations. In counties, as a rule, the commissars of the Provisional Government appointed the chairmen of the county councils.

Unlike most regions of Russia in the South Urals counties there was practically no diarchy. The exception was the regions where the Cossacks were significant, there was a trio power. The commissars of the Provisional Government, the Soviets, and the actual Cossack governing bodies fiercely competed among themselves, trying to attract more Cossacks to their side and accordingly incite them to competing structures. As for the third power - the Cossack governing bodies, in the spring of 1917 they were reorganized. For the first time in 200 years, the chieftain of the army was not appointed, but was elected at a meeting of the military circle. At the same time, the powers of the commissioners of the Provisional Government were not clearly defined by law. The commissars did not have their own administrative apparatus, which weakened the position of representatives of the Provisional Government.

Already in the first month, elections were held for the posts of governors and counties in which the majority were defeated by moderate socialists - the Socialist Revolutionaries and Mensheviks. Representatives of these parties also dominated the Soviets, so the Soviets most often acted in full agreement with the official authorities. The revolution brought political freedom. The Black Sotin Monarchist Party and groups disappeared, the political spectrum shifted to the left, the influence of moderate socialists became dominant in the region. The Ural Social Revolutionaries, taking in their ranks wholesale whole companies, battalions, villages, factories, became the most popular party in the Urals. Their number reached 150 thousand people. The cadet party of people's freedom was much smaller in number, but most politically active. Also not numerous, but from month to month increasing its influence, was the party of Bolsheviks. In early March, shortly after leaving the underground, there were only 500 Lenin supporters in the Urals, but by mid-April, when the Bolsheviks held their first Ural Conference, there were at least 12 thousand people, and by the autumn of 1917, 35 thousand people. The Bolsheviks launched a stubborn struggle for influence on the masses, primarily by criticizing all the activities of the Provisional Government. Playing on the deterioration of the financial situation of the people, they continuously increased their rating. Particularly rapidly growing influence of the Bolsheviks in the Soviets. If in April 1917 the Ural Bolsheviks headed only 20% of the Soviets in the region, then in October - 61%. Representatives of the Social Revolutionaries and Mensheviks gradually sided with the Bolsheviks. Stubborn resistance to the Bolsheviks was provided by the cadets supported by the entrepreneurs of the Urals. The financial assistance to the anti-Bolshevik organizations was provided by the Council of Congresses of mining companies of the Urals, which concentrated in their hands the largest Ural miners. The Council was chaired by Nikolai Kutler , a Russian economist and member of the cadet party.

By mid-March 1917, power structures in the Urals were also formed at the county level. The district commissars were the chairmen of zemstvo administrations or their deputies. All commissioners were approved by the Provisional Government. The city commissars were the former chairmen of city councils or the former mayors. County and city commissars played a less independent role than provincial ones, being forced to maneuver between the demands of provincial commissars and local party organizations; Councils and public safety committees. At the same time, the powers of the county commissioners were spelled out in more detail than the powers of the provincial commissioner. The police obeyed them. A significant problem was the rapid change of leaders of the county level local government. If in March all district commissars were chairmen or deputies of district zemstvo administrations with certain management experience, then by May-June the situation radically changed. During the elections initiated by the socialist parties, representatives of left parties were appointed to the posts of county commissars. The democratization of local government also affected the volost level. For the first time, the structure of zemstvos receives a grassroots link - volost zemstvos instead of volost gatherings and volost administrations, although the law on volost zemstvos was adopted by the Provisional Government only on May 21, 1917.

By the fall of 1917, popular discontent reached a peak. The main problems — the war and the agrarian question — were not resolved.

The decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of August 27, 1919 created the Chelyabinsk regional administration as a provincial body , subordinate to the Siberian Revolutionary Committee, and from April 21, 1920, on the basis of the decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, the revolutionary council of the 1st Labor Army .

The borders of the Chelyabinsk province have repeatedly changed: in 1920, the Kustanai district was transferred to the Orenburg-Turgai province, and the Verkhneuralsk district was annexed to the Chelyabinsk province; in 1922, the Zlatoust district was attached to it.

By the decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee on November 3, 1923, the Chelyabinsk province was liquidated, and the Zlatoust , Kurgan , Troitsky and Chelyabinsk districts that are part of the Ural region were created on its territory. By the decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR of July 23, 1930, districts were abolished from October 1, 1930. The districts of the abolished districts remained part of the Ural region.

On January 17, 1934, by the Decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, the Ural region was divided into three regions: Sverdlovsk with a center in Sverdlovsk , Chelyabinsk region with a center in Chelyabinsk and the Ob-Irtysh region with a center in Tyumen . The boundaries between the Sverdlovsk and Chelyabinsk regions are defined by the following regions: Nyaze-Petrovsky , Ufaleysky , Kamensky , Troitsky , Kamyshlovsky , Talitsky , Tugulymsky , Yalutorovsky , Omutinsky , Aromashevsky and Vikulovsky with their inclusion in the Chelyabinsk region. In addition, all other southern regions of the former Ural region (a total of 57 regions and 4 cities of regional subordination: Chelyabinsk, Zlatoust , Karabash , Kyshtym ), as well as the Argayash canton of the Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic , with its transformation into the national district of the Chelyabinsk region, are assigned to the Chelyabinsk region ^{[ 14]} . In May 1934, the Bagaryaksky district was transferred from the Sverdlovsk region to the Chelyabinsk region, while the Sukholozhsky district was transferred from the Chelyabinsk to Sverdlovsk region .

In the future, the territory of the region repeatedly decreased. So, 11 eastern regions were transferred to the Omsk Region , newly formed in December 1934. In 1938, Butkinsky , Kamyshlovsky, Pyshminsky, Talitsky, Tugulymsky, in 1942 Kamensky, Pokrovsky districts were transferred from the Chelyabinsk region to the Sverdlovsk region . After the transfer on February 6, 1943, another 32 districts to the newly formed Kurgan region, the borders of the Chelyabinsk region practically did not change ^{[15] [16]} . But, there have been repeated changes in the internal administrative division, in particular, disaggregation, association, liquidation, renaming of some areas, changes in the status of a number of settlements in the region.

By a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of October 23, 1956, the Chelyabinsk Region was awarded the Order of Lenin for outstanding success in developing virgin and fallow lands, increasing yields and successfully fulfilling obligations to deliver 90 million pounds of bread to the state, including 76 million pounds of wheat. The total amount of developed land amounted to more than 1 million hectares.

On September 29, 1957, at the Mayak plant, located in the closed city of Chelyabinsk-40 (now Ozersk ), the Kyshtym accident occurred - the first radiation emergency in the USSR of a man-made nature, as a result of which a mixture of radionuclides with a total activity of 20 million Ci was thrown from the storage into the environment . About 200 people died from radiation exposure only during the first 10 days, the total number of victims is estimated at 250 thousand people, the accident was rated at 6 points on an international seven-point scale ^[17] .

By a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of December 4, 1970, the Chelyabinsk region was awarded the second Order of Lenin for the great achievements made by the working people of the region in fulfilling the tasks of the VIII five-year plan (completed ahead of schedule on November 24, 1970) on the development of the national economy and especially heavy industries. Over the years of the five-year plan, 170 large objects of the national economy came into operation. The enterprises of the region mastered the production of 348 new products. The region’s ferrous metallurgy has advanced to the leading position in the country in terms of metal production. Labor productivity increased by 28.3%, the volume of sales increased by 43.5%. At a ceremonial meeting of workers on February 3, 1971, A. Ya. Pelshe, member of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee, Chairman of the Party Control Committee under the CPSU Central Committee, presented the Order of Lenin to representatives of collectives in the Chelyabinsk Region.

• History of Bashkortostan

• Joint State Archive of the Chelyabinsk Region: a guide. Volume 2 / Ed. Finadeeva A.P. // Chelyabinsk: Press House. - 2005 .-- 630 s. ISBN 0-123-45678-9 .
• Demidova N.F. Ed. Ustyugova N.V. Materials on the history of Bashkortostan / Volume VI. Orenburg expedition and Bashkir revolts of the 30s of the 18th century (Institute of History, Language and Literature of the Ufa Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts) // Ufa: Kitap. - 2002. - 768 p.: Ill. ISBN 5-295-03107-1 .