Samara province

Geographical position

The area of ​​the province was 151,040 km² in 1905 ^[2] , 105,531 km² in 1926 ^[3] .

The area of ​​the province is irregular, stretched from north to south. The province bordered in the north with the Spassky and Chistopol districts of the Kazan province and the Menzelinsky district of Ufa , in the east with the districts of Belebeyevsky and Orenburg Orenburg province and the lands of the Ural Cossack army , in the south with the Tsarevsky district of the Astrakhan province , Kamensky in the west and Kamensky in the west Saratov province . In the west, the province was limited by the Volga River , the rest of the borders are very arbitrary. The largest width of the province from west to east was 362.7 km, and the longest, from north to south was 938.8 km.

Relief

The surface of the province consists of two different parts: the northern districts - Bugulminsky , Buguruslansky , Stavropolsky and the northern parts of Samara and Buzuluksky represent a more elevated hilly space, correctly described by Semenov as a precursor; the southern parts of Samara and Buzuluk counties and Nikolaev and Novouzensky counties represent the steppe space. The most elevated part of the province is the highlands, erroneously sometimes called spurs of the Ural Mountains, occupying the Bugulminsky and part of the Buguruslan counties, the area of ​​which rises to an average of 320 m above sea level. The southern part of the province, the districts of Nikolaev and Novouzensky, on the contrary, represent a uniform steppe , very little raised above sea level and even so flat that in many places, especially along the rivers (in Novouzensky district), it is almost completely close to the horizontal plane, so that arrow sensitive aneroid throughout15-20 versts do not move 1 millimeter, which corresponds to an excess or fall of terrain 4 fathoms . Accordingly, the geological, soil, hydrographic, and climatic conditions of both halves of the province were of a different nature.

Hydrography

According to the orographic character of the province described, all its rivers belonged to two basins: in the northern part of Kamsky, in the central and southern - Volzhsky, except, however, two southern rivers - the Big and Small Uzeni , which belong to the inner basin. The northern, most mountainous and wooded part of the province is the most abundant in waters, the central (between the Samara and Irgiz rivers) is irrigated less than the first, but in any case more significant than the two southern districts. 11 rivers flow into the Volga within the province; other rivers connect with the Volga mainly through the Kama. From the lakes are wonderful Swan, having 9 miles long and 200 fathoms of width; Lobazy 16 versts in a circle; Sulfur Lake near the village of Ishtulkina (in the Buguruslan district), in which sulfur was mined annually even under Peter the Great from 40 to 70 pounds . By the abundance of rivers and lakes, counties are arranged in the following order:

Geology

Studies by Murchison , Pander , Eremeev , Stukenberg , Zaitsev and Nikitin showed that the following formations are developed in the Samara province: deposits of the Paleozoic era - Carboniferous ( limestones ) and deposits of the Permian , Mesozoic era - Triassic (tier of the Cretaceous , Marigold and Marl) periods, tertiary and quaternary, together with modern river and land formations. The oldest of the formations of the Samara province is the one whose strata comprise the Tsarev Kurgan and the left-bank mountains of the lower reaches of the Sok River. These strata belong to the marine deposits of the Carboniferous period , to the formation of mountain limestone. Freshwater-overland and marine deposits are found in them: in the first there are sandstones , conglomerates and clay shales , in the last - pure limestones with an admixture of clays or marls and are recognized by the remains of marine animals: rootflies (Fusulin), corals (Cyaltho p hyllum, Harmodites, Lonsdalia, etc.), sea lilies and hedgehogs, brachiopods (Productus and Spirifer); they are known in geology under the name of mountain limestone. The presence of brachopod specimens in the limestone strata serves as evidence that these strata are deposits of the deep sea. Deposits of the Permian system appear in the upper reaches of the Sok River and its tributaries and along the Samara River near the city of Samara; Permian strata also belong to marine sediments. Their main rocks are all kinds of limestones , marls , sandstones , gypsum and sometimes clay shales . Layers of oil sandstone are found near the Buguruslan County, beneath them are layers of sulfur with a purple hue, layers of limestone with corals Cyathodhyllum profundum. The reddish sandstones of the upper tributaries of the Sok River belong to the land formations of the Permian period and contain traces of copper ore. The elevations of the northern part consist of rocky hard layers of an ancient formation, covered with the latest sediment of various variegated rocks and a thick layer of clay. Selenites , agate , rock crystal , various pyrites , quartz, copper ores, slate coal are found in the coastal ridges of the Bugulma and Dymka rivers. Rock salt , fossils, and glandular springs come in places. The Ik River Valley consists of the sandstone of General Syrt with gypsum nests. Limestones and sandstones are utilized by the population. Near the Busovka River (Buguruslan County) are found in outcrops of a quarry above 30 fathoms of heights, where peasants have long mined soft white limestones, straw-yellow marls; sandstone is used for the foundations of houses, for the construction of huts, baths, sheds. In almost the entire territory of the northern counties, instead of a motley group and purely Caspian sediments, a freshwater stratum is found consisting of loess- like clay , thin-layer clay and sand; in all these strata, freshwater tertiary shells are commonly found: Planorbis marginatus, Pl. spirarbis, several small species: Paludina, little Cyclas, etc. Marl sprouts, similar to typical loess splices, crystals and gypsum splices, also occur in the depths. All rivers and ravines of this area expose exclusively freshwater strata, and only in one place, according to Professor Dokuchaev , can they be seen laying on saline clay (near the Kushum River, the village of Yeluzan). The remains of the Upper Cretaceous and Lower Tertiary rocks (the Eocene geological layer) were discovered in the eastern part of the Novouzensk district (Osinovogai volost), which remained the only witnesses of the once continuous cover of marine sediments of these eras, covering without interruption the whole country between the Volga and Ural rivers. Tatars of Osinovogai volost used chalk for bleaching furnaces.

In almost the entire territory of the province, the soil is loamy or sandy loam chernozem , gradually turning from black to brown and gray in the southern districts. The thickness of the soil layer is deeper in the central counties (up to 30-40 points) , rather than in the extreme - northern and southern. In two steppe counties (Nikolaev and Novouzensky) and northern Bugulminsky soil layer (from 3 to 12 rubles.) . On the hills, the soil is often red-clay. Salt flats are found everywhere in the province, except for the north of the Bugulma district.

Climate

Samara province occupied a large space from north to south and therefore had a very different temperature; Moreover, the north of the province, especially in the warmer months of the year, was colder than the south also because it was much higher above sea level. Compared with the provinces on the right bank of the Volga, in the Samara province it was colder in winter and autumn, and warmer in summer. In the north-eastern part of the Samara province, winter was colder than in Arkhangelsk , and even in the extreme south it was much colder than St. Petersburg . Precipitation (rain and snow) in the Samara province fell less than on the right bank of the Volga, and the amount is very reduced from north to south. Since the south of the province also has hotter summers, the rainfall is often not enough for a good wheat crop and especially forage grasses.

Average temperature

Precipitation in mm

Early History

All the space now occupied by the Samara province, at the beginning of the XVI century. it was occupied by nomadic foreigners: to the north, in the territory of the future Stavropol Uyezd , by the Nogai Tatars ( Nogais ) who, with the onset of spring heat, wandered with their herds along the meadow side of the Volga to the Kama River; in the territory of future Buguruslansky, Bugulminsky and Buzuluksky districts - by nomadic Bashkirs and Kalmyks , to the south, in the territories of future Nikolaev and Novouzensky districts - by Kyrgyz and Tatars .

Beginning of Russian Entry

Russian settlers began to penetrate here from the second half of the 16th century , after the conquest of the Kazan Khanate . At first, crowds of runaway schismatics, landowner peasants who fled from landlord oppression, etc., came here. After the construction of the city of Samara, the government began sending here whole detachments of service foreigners who were granted fishing, onboard lands, beaver rutting, and so on for their service. Among the Bashkirs, after the conquest of the Kazan kingdom, the Chuvash , Mordovians , Cheremis , who came here from the territory of the future provinces of Penza , Ufa , Kazan and Simbir , voluntarily settled.

Relocation of Kalmyks

At the beginning of the XVII century, Kalmyks appeared from the banks of the Urals to the Samara Territory due to the rumor spread between them that the Volga River is larger than the Urals and more free for nomadic herds. In the spring of 1634, the Kalmyks set off with their wagons and accidentally stumbled upon Nogai , stretching 40,000 wagons along the northern shores of the Samara bow, all the way to Simbirsk. A battle took place between both tribes, ending in the complete defeat of the Nogais. Kalmyks took possession of the entire Volga meadow space.

As the Russian colonization wave spread and expanded here, skirmishes between Russians and nomadic foreigners began. The Russians constantly complained to the government about their oppression by the Kalmyks and Bashkirs, the latter against the Russians. In 1644, the government sent troops to the Kalmyks to the Samara Territory, led by the governor Pleshcheyev . Pleshcheyev defeated them and subjugated "under the tsar’s high hand, so that they, Kalmyks, should be given all-out bargaining in the sovereign cities, but don’t come to the sovereign cities and districts with war."

Building Fortress Lines

For the safety of Russian peasants and trading people who settled in the Samara Territory, the government decided to build fortress lines along the rivers. In 1652, they began to build the Simbirsk line (within the future Stavropol district ), along the left bank of the Volga River and along the right bank of the Cheremshan River, for which it was ordered to send "raised people - Cheremis, Chuvash and Votyakov." First, a fortress of “pine logs” was built in the city of White Yar, where 100 equestrian cossacks and 9 exiled people were sent to live forever from the Kazan province for settlement. The next fortress was built in the city of Eryklinsk, with 6 towers and a bell bell. Here, 150 arable peasants from the village of Chalnov (near the city of Elabuga , on the banks of the Kama River), settled in the Cossack service, are settled. "If there are service people ," the order said, "the archers and peasants would not want to go from the village of Chalnov, then they would send those from the villages and beat the gods and put them in jail for disobedience." From Eryklinsk the line stretched among a continuous forest to the city of Tiinsk, on the river Tii, where a prison was also built. In 1653, 50 horse archers with families from the Akhtachinsky prison and 100 Chalninsky arable peasants were transferred here. When Smolensk was taken from the Poles in 1654, from there and from Polotsk, 141 people of the Polish petty gentry were expelled to Tiinsk together with the Cossacks, who had previously been "serfs of the Polish kings served serfdom." Another party of the Polish gentry is settled in the settlement of Old Kuwak and Old Pismyanka of the future Bugulma district. Due to complaints from the gentry and peasants to the government that they were “afraid of living from military people on the Zakamsky line”, in 1670 the construction of a “city with a tyn” on the Main river (now the village of Staraya Maina ) was started. Peasants from the provinces of Nizhny Novgorod , Kazan and Simbirsk moved here. Until 1830, the Polish gentry were considered arable soldiers or youngsters. Another line of fortresses (Zakamskaya) began construction in 1727 from the suburbs of Alekseevsk to the suburbs of Sergievsk, along the Soka River. Work on the construction of the line was scheduled from all over the Kazan lips. 15,000 people who were endowed with land (on foot for 18 acres , equestrian for 55 acres) . In three years, the fortresses of Kundukcha, Cheremshan , Kichui , Sheshminsk were built.

Under Anna Ioannovna , in 1736, the line of fortresses continued along the Samara River from the city of Samara to Orenburg : the fortresses Krasnosamarskaya, Borskaya, Buzulukskaya, Totskaya, Sorochinskaya, Olshanskaya (the village of Eminka ), Novoserpovskaya. All the fortresses were surrounded by ramparts, moats and wooden walls, with slingshots, wooden towers and tours in the corners; cast-iron cannons are placed on the towers. Between the fortresses there were still redoubts occupied by the Cossacks. Cossacks were settled in five fortresses, including 1078 people, and, in addition, 12 Kalmyks, 41 non-residents, 19 Nogais and 6 exiled people.

Bashkir unrest and Pugachevism

The Bashkirs, believing that the fortresses could serve as a bulwark against their raids on Russian settlers, rebelled, including more than 20,000 people, and despite government assurances that the fortresses were built against the Kyrgyz and Nogai, they continued to burn and ruin the villages, and beat and take people in full. In 1740, the government sent troops to pacify the Bashkirs, which destroyed more than 700 Bashkir auls; 16,000 Bashkirs fell in the battle.

However, the Bashkirs did not soon calm down and for a long time served as a thunderstorm for Russian settlers.When P. Pallas visited the fortresses of the Samara Territory in 1769 , he found them in very poor condition. The Pugachev movement found significant support in the Kalmyks and Bashkirs. It was suppressed here in 1774 by General A. I. Bibikov . In the districts of Buzuluksky, Buguruslansky, Bugulminsky and Nikolaev Bashkirs, and now there are 40 628.

С 1738 года правительство старалось заселять левый берег реки Волги (в Ставропольском уезде) русскими крестьянами с целью приучения кочевавших ещё здесь калмыков к земледелию, но безуспешно; поэтому в 1842 году оно выселило их в Оренбургскую губернию.

Усиленная колонизация

Усиленная колонизация нынешней Самарской губернии началась только со второй половины XVIII столетия, особенно на юге, где в XVII веке только небольшими группами поселились беглые гулящие люди , постоянно враждовавшие с бродячими киргиз-кайсаками и татарами .

Для заселения нынешнего Николаевского уезда были призваны из-за границы раскольники , бежавшие туда от преследований в России . Им предоставлялось в пользование 70 тыс. дес. земли, даровалась шестилетняя льгота от податей и повинностей и обеспечивалось беспрепятственное исповедание их веры. Они расселились целыми селениями по берегам реки Большой Иргиз . В то же время сюда прибыли и молокане , основавшие с 1792 году несколько селений, и немецкие колонисты из Вюртемберга, Бадена, Пруссии , Баварии , Касселя, Гессен-Дармштадта, Саксонии , Мекленбурга, Швейцарии и т. д. В большинстве случаев первые немецкие колонисты были вовсе неспособны к земледелию. Немецкие колонисты расселились по левому берегу реки Волги в числе 25000 человек и заняли уже заранее построенные им за счёт государства домики. Каждая немецкая семья получала на свою долю 2 лошади, 1 корову , семена для посева и земледельческие орудия. С 1766 по 1788 год немецкие колонисты основали на берегу Волги 36 колоний. С 1778 по 1858 год их поселилось здесь 43017 душ.

Последними немецкими поселенцами были меннониты , явившиеся сюда в течение 1858 — 1865 годов в числе 1662 душ.

В нынешнем Новоузенском уезде первыми русскими поселенцами по берегу Волги были малороссы , вызванные указом 1741 года для вывозки соли из Эльтонского озера .

Русскими поселенцами во второй половине XVIII века были основаны 64 селения, в XIX столетии до 1885 года — 753 селения. В Самарском уезде с 1847 по 1850 год правительством было поселено 120 семей «малоимущих дворян», которым было отведено по 60 десятин майоратных участков. Колонизация губернии активно продолжалась на рубеже XIX — XX веков ; масса поселенцев из других губерний жила на арендованных казённых землях. После 12-летней аренды они получали арендованную землю в надел, по 6—8 десятин на душу.

Губерния

Самарская губерния образована 1 января 1851 года в соответствии с указом от 6 декабря 1850 года . В состав губернии вошли 3 уезда Оренбургской губернии , 2 заволжских уезда Симбирской губернии и 2 заволжских уезда Саратовской губернии .

Осенью 1891 года — летом 1892 года территория Самарской губернии стала частью основной зоны неурожая, вызванного засухой (см. Голод в России (1891—1892) ).

Послереволюционный период

В 1918 году часть территорий Новоузенского и Николаевского уездов, населённых немцами, передана в состав вновь образованной Автономной области немцев Поволжья . В 1919 году оставшаяся часть Новоузенского уезда вошла в состав Саратовской губернии .

В 1920 году Бугульминский уезд вошёл в состав вновь образованной Татарской АССР .

14 мая 1928 года Постановлением ВЦИК и Совнаркома РСФСР Самарская губерния была ликвидирована, её территория вошла в состав Средне-Волжской области .

С момента образования до 1918 года в состав губернии входило 7 уездов :

Всего в губернии было 305 волостей, 4 пригорода, 14 слобод, 5 крепостей, 634 сёл, 1376 деревень, 29 селец , 498 хуторов, 141 немецкая колония. Селений, имевших более 500 дворов, — 76.

В 1918 году Николаевский уезд переименован в Пугачёвский.

В 1919 году из части Ставропольского уезда был образован Мелекесский уезд . В том же году Новоузенский уезд был передан в Саратовскую губернию .

В 1920 году большая часть Бугульминского уезда отошла к Татарской АССР, а меньшая — присоединена к Бугурусланскому уезду.

В 1921 году в результате разукрупнения Пугачёвского уезда был образован Балаковский уезд с центром в городе Балаково в составе 20-ти волостей.

В 1924 году был упразднён Ставропольский уезд, его территория разделена между соседними уездами. В этом же году ликвидирован Балаковский уезд с передачей его волостей Пугачёвскому уезду.