Meshchera (region)

The region occupied vast spaces along the Oka , Moksha and Tsne within the later formed Ryazan , Tambov and Penza provinces, from Kasimov , sometimes called Gorodets Meshcherskago to Kadom and Temnikov ^[1] .

According to the information contained in the Family Book , in 1298 the Meshchera region was conquered by the Mongol-Tatars : “in 6706, Prince Shirinsky Bakhmet, Usinov’s son, came from the Great Horde to Meshchera, and Meshchera fought and settled it.” In the annals, as a linguistic group, the Meshcher was first mentioned in the 15th century: “but according to Otsѣporѣts, where you can go to the Volga to Vlaga, you must bring Murom your tongue, Meshchera your, Mordva your tongue” ^[2] .

The Tatars built fortified settlements of Narovchat , Temnikov , Elatma and others in a new place. In the XIV century , Prince Sekizbey appeared in the region of the Piany River, Prince Tagay and others appeared in Narovchat. In their possessions, they acted as in real specific principalities: they allocated estates to their murzes and servants, “judged” local residents and established their orders among the dependent population ^[3] .

Moscow’s attention to the Meshchera is explained by its special geographical position. For a long time, Meschera was a foreign land, located in close proximity to the Russian principalities. It provided direct access to the Mordovian and Tatar lands ^[4] . Historians A.V. Belyakov and G.A. Engalycheva suggest that the penetration of the Moscow principality into Meschera began in the first quarter of the XIV century ^[5] .

The Meshchersky land became part of the Moscow state on the basis of a deed granted by the khan of the Golden Horde Tokhtamysh Vasily Dmitrievich in 1392. Meshchersky region at that time adjoined the Ryazan principality. Initially, the local Meshchersky (Tatar) princes possessed a sufficient degree of autonomy. During the period of internal turmoil in the Moscow Grand Duchy in the first half of the 15th century, the princely power apparently did not appear (in the spiritual letters of Basil I and Basil II the geographical term “Meshchera” is not mentioned) ^[3] . Russian domination was finally established in the region only in the second half of the 15th century ^[5] .

After the region joined the Moscow state, its authorities, who needed military forces on the outskirts of the state, as early as the 16th century, invited the Horde feudal lords to serve in Meschera. So, in 1552, the Moscow tsar turned to the Nogai Tatars as follows: “And now you are leaving your yurts without a shelter. And lust for your salary; and you would go to us with all your people who are now with you. And we will give you all and your people a place in Ukraine in the Meshchera, where you will come to a nomad's worth ” ^[3] .

By the end of the 16th century, as Russian colonization developed, the borders of the Meshchera expanded due to the annexation of the southern lands along Tsne and Moksha. In 1553, the center of the Meshchera moved to Shatsk, it becomes the administrative center of the entire Meshchera, with the exception of the insignificant district of the city of Kasimov. Later, Elatomsky, Shatsky and Kadomsky are distinguished from the Meshchera, then Temnikovsky, Krasnoslobodsky, Troitsky, Spassky districts of the Tambov province , Kerensky, Chembarsky, Penza province . The Meschera also included part of the Narovchatsky district . Meshchera land does not coincide with the borders of the Meshchera plain . Meshchera as it moves south. Then, already in the first third of the 17th century, in connection with the massive resettlement of the Tatars to the territory of the Nizhny Novgorod Territory, Arzamas, Alatyr, and Kurmysh became known as Meshchersky cities ^[4] .

A feature of the Meshchera land was the presence of a large number of Tatar landowners, in the serfdom of which were Tatar, Mordovian, Russian peasants. In Temnikovsky County, for example, in 1612 there were only 451 landowners, most of the Tatars. Even at the end of the XVII century, in the same county of 647 landlords, more than 500 were Tatar murzes and princes ^[3] .

A study of the scribe books of 1590-1615 in the northeastern part of Meshchera shows that there was nothing in common between the serving Russian population after the Kasimovskoye uyezd and the nobles of the Meshcherskys in the period from 1590 to 1615, and that the Russian service tenure in Kasimovskoye uyezd was the result of a new , more than the distribution of palace lands ravaged by the nobles in 1612-1620. At this time, the region is inhabited by an advanced Russian service population, which in the second half of the 16th century crossed the traditional boundaries between the Oka and the upper Volga and settled in wild fields and forests in the Moksha and Tsna basin. At this time, the cave and Mordvinians gradually undergone Russification ^[1] .

The Vladimir district of the Zamoskovsky Territory adjoined in the south to the part of the region inhabited by ancient Murom, and reached the Meshchera near Yelatma and Kasimov, not far from the confluence of the Oka Tsna , a natural road into the depths of the Meshchera. A strip of solid forests on the right bank of the Oka River separated Mescher from the city of Murom with its county. Thus, it turned out that the rare Russian population living in Meshchera in the second half of the 16th century interacted with Ryazan on the one hand and not with Murom on the other, but with farther Vladimir , who was probably communicated through Kasimov and Elatma, who served transfer administrative centers ^[1] .

The historian Yu. V. Gauthier believed that according to the scribe book of the Shatsky district , the first quarter of the 17th century, the Shatsky district was called Meshchera in the administrative language of the 16th and early 17th centuries ^[1] .

The Shatsky district in 1590-1615 was divided into 3 camps ^[1] :

• Podlesny, including Shatsky counties later formed on this territory, part of Elatemsky on the left bank of Tsna and the northeast corner of Sapozhkovsky on the Tyrnitsa river ^[1] . According to another source: from the lands of the Cherneevsky monastery in the south, to the river Tarnitsa in the northeast ^[6] .
• Borisoglebsky, located, as was often found in the administrative geography of the Moscow kingdom , in two places: a) on the right bank of the Oka from the Ryazan border, within the later formed in this territory Kasimovsky , Sapozhkovsky and Spasskago ( Ryazan province ) counties and b) on the left the banks of the Oka River around the town of Elatma , in the northwestern corner of the later formed Tambov province ; between both parts of the wedge Kasimov County crashed;
• Zamokoshsky, the most extensive of the three, stretching along the Moksha river from its mouth almost to the city of Krasnoslobodsk , included later formed territories: Temnikovsky and parts of Elatem and Krasnoslobodsk counties.

Among the settlements of the county are often those that are named after their founders. For example: the village of Barsuki, the village of Lyubovnikovo, the village of Ardabyevo (Borisoglebsky camp) the village of Aleevo (Podlesnago camp), the village of Vedenyapino (Zamokoshskago camp) ^[1] .

Historians A.V. Belyakov and G.A. Yengalychevs who studied the Eastern Meschera (the territory of the Temnikovsky and Kadomsky counties), believe that in the 17th century, other counties began to stand out from the original territory of the Temnikovsky district, which apparently had more than conditional borders in the east for the convenience of managing the region. So, in particular, Insarsky, Saransky, Kerensky and, possibly, Nizhnelomovsky districts appeared. Other researchers believe that for the XVI – XVII centuries. (possibly in an earlier period) the concepts of Meshchera and Shatsky district were synonymous. At the same time, the Shatsky district was divided into Kasimovsky, Elatomsky, actually the Shatsky districts, as well as the cities of Kadom and Temnikov. Thus, the Kadomsky and Temnikovsky counties were not completely independent, at least in the 16th century ^[5] .

Initially, the economy of the region was based on flight support and, in part, hunting . The Eastern Meschera supplied large quantities of honey and the best kuni fur. Cattle breeding was in second place in development, at least in the 15th - early 17th centuries. It was supposed to provide the needs of serving Tatars, both in meat and in horses for cavalry. Hay mowing is noted along river banks and in forest glades along among the side mansions. Arable farming initially did not really matter. The development of grain farming was possible only due to the plowing of part of the botanical garages. The gradual development of agriculture has led to a reduction in flight control. A change in the prevailing form of management was outlined at the beginning of the 17th century and established itself in the 18th century ^[5] .

• Lecture. Some questions of the early history of the Tatars of the Meschera