Yelabuga, Russia

Yelabuga

 

Yelabuga (Tat. Alabuga, Alabuğa) is a city (since 1780) in the Republic of Tatarstan of Russia. The administrative center of the Yelabuga region, forms an urban settlement, the city of Yelabuga.

 

History

Middle Ages

A whole epoch in archeology got its name from the discovery of the Ananyinsky burial ground near Yelabuga, dating from the 8th-5th centuries. BC On the basis of complex archaeological and historical data, taking into account the frequency of coincidence of expert assessments of the chronology of dating finds from the oldest layer of the Yelabuga settlement and the adjacent posad, taking into account the conclusions of the leading scientific centers of the Russian Federation, the Academic Council of the Institute of History of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tatarstan determined that Yelabuga arose at the turn of the X— XI centuries and formed as an urban-type settlement by the years 1005-1010.

Since ancient times, there was a summer-winter crossing over the Kama. In the Bulgarian period, it became an integral part of the trade and caravan road from the central regions of the Volga Bulgaria to the Middle and Upper Kama regions (to the Vis) and further to the Arctic Ocean. In the XII century. a white-stone mosque (Ak-mosque) with eight towers and semi-towers was built, structurally similar to the cathedral mosques in Bilyar - Bolgar (IX-XX centuries) and Bolgar (XIII-XIV centuries) and having the closest analogs in mosques-fortresses in Sousse (Tunisia) and Baghdad (Iraq). Currently, the remains of this mosque-castle are the only partially preserved Bulgarian ground-based structure of the pre-Mongol era. Archaeological excavations of recent years have yielded interesting results that allow us to consider the ancient Alabuga among the Bulgar cities that existed in the pre-Mongol period of our history. In the IX-X centuries AD. e. the Bulgar state was formed, the most valuable monument of which is the "Elabuga settlement" - the remains of the ancient Bulgarian city. One of the towers of the ancient fortress, restored in the 1860s, is a place of pilgrimage for believers, guests of the city, and tourists.

The village of Tryokhsvyatskoe
In the notes of the famous prince Kurbsky, it is mentioned about the campaign on the Kama, made by the Russians shortly after the conquest of Kazan by Tsar Ivan IV Vasilyevich the Terrible. In the book of the Big Drawing, compiled in the first quarter of the 17th century, Tryokhsvyatskoye is mentioned as follows: "and below the Ika River 40 miles on the Kama River, the city of Devil's - Elabuga is the same." There is an assumption that after the founding of the village of Tryokhsvyatsky and the first Church of the Intercession by Tsar Ivan IV Vasilyevich, by whose order the Church of the Intercession was founded, the image of the Three Saints was granted to the Church of the Intercession, which is why Elabuga became known as the village of Tryokhsvyatsky. The image of the Three Saints is still kept in the Church of the Intercession of the city, his painting has not suffered at all and belongs to the most ancient Greek style. From the time the icon of the Three Saints was awarded by Tsar John IV to the Church of the Intercession, the village of Tryokhsvyatskoye was called "Tryokhsvyatskoye, Elabuga identity".

After the fall of the Kazan kingdom on the site of the Elabuga settlement, a monastic monastery was built in 1614. In 1616, the construction of the Trinity Monastery and its churches was completed on this site, but it did not last long and was abolished in 1764.

 

Formation of the city

In 1780, a decree of Empress Catherine II was promulgated, according to which Elabuga received the status of a district town in the Vyatka province. Lived in Elabuga at that time about 1000 residents and there were less than 400 houses.

The second half of the 19th century was the period of formation and prosperity of the Ushkovs' dynasty of merchant-industrialists. It was the Ushkovs who were the founders of chemical plants in the Kama region. The first chemical plant was built by K. Ya. Ushkov in Kokshan in 1850. Both in the variety and size of its production, and in the exemplary organization of the case, in the 1890s, it took almost the first place among all Russian chemical plants.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the city had 10,000 inhabitants, of which more than 600 merchants, including 12 millionaires. The most famous dynasty of merchants Stakheevs (the largest trading houses "I. G. Stakheev and sons", "G. I. Stakheev and heirs" had an annual turnover of up to 150 million rubles) supplied bread to various regions of Russia, as well as to England, Germany, France, Holland, Belgium. The entire bread market of the Kama region was in their hands. Their powerful family relied on huge capital - they had gold mines in Western Siberia, oil fields, their own shipping companies, plants and factories.

The merchants Girbasovs also organized trade and purchasing activities well. Trading house "F. P. Girbasov with his sons ”annually bought 510 thousand poods of bread. The Girbasovs also had their own exchanges. The bread was sold in Rybinsk, Nizhny Novgorod and St. Petersburg.

 

In the documents of the census of the population of Russia, a tsarist official in 1904 wrote: “The citizens of the city are famous for their charity. It is difficult to point out another county town where charity was manifested on such a wide scale as in Yelabuga. The Yelabuga merchants, who have been notable for their charity since ancient times, built churches both in the city and in other places of the empire at their own expense ... "In the city from the 1870s to 1917 there was a special" Charity Citizens I. I. and D. I. Stakheevs Committee ", huge funds of which were directed exclusively to helping people. In addition to the Stakheevsky charitable committee, on whose accounts in 1904 there were more than 2 million rubles, there was also a committee of the merchant Chernov, created by analogy, which also owned significant capital, on the interest of which churches were built in various parishes.

Revolution and Civil War
On March 6, 1917, after the February Revolution, the 230th reserve infantry regiment stationed in Elabuga elected a new commander. At the request of the soldiers of the regiment commander, Lieutenant Colonel Lukashevich was replaced by Captain Drozdin.

During the October Revolution, a widespread change of power began in the country. In Yelabuga, this process was carried out by the workers of the Bondyuzhsky chemical plant. The Elabuga merchants, primarily the Stakheevs, relying on the conservative-minded officers of the 230th Infantry Reserve Regiment, put up stubborn resistance. On November 16, 1917, the county congress of peasant deputies made a decision on the transfer of power to the Soviets. The Bolsheviks elected the Yelabuga Uyezd Council, of which S.N. Gassar became its chairman. Under his leadership, the nationalization of property began, often turning into robberies. On February 27, 1918, in Yelabuga, on charges of organizing a counter-revolutionary rebellion, Archpriest of the Spassky Cathedral P.A.Dernov and his three sons were shot. In May 1918, the executive committee of the Yelabuga Council adopted a resolution, which said: "... consider the Syuginsky glass factory nationalized, for which to ask for the approval of the Supreme Council of the National Economy."

On May 17, 1918, an uprising of the Czechoslovak Corps began in Chelyabinsk against the Bolsheviks, which soon grew into large-scale hostilities. In July-August, units of the People's Army of KOMUCH under the leadership of V.O. Kappel occupied: 5 July - Ufa, 7 July - Bugulma, 6 August - Kazan. On August 17, the fighting for Menzelinsk began. In the summer of 1918, a detachment of peasant self-defense was formed near Elabuga, also acting against the Bolsheviks. It was headed by a participant in World War I, Lieutenant Colonel Viktorin Mikhailovich Molchanov. The success of the detachment led to the fact that it grew to 9 thousand people, and Molchanov became the head of all the armed formations of the district. With varying success, battles were fought in the area of ​​the villages of Baysarovo, Poisevo, Matveyevka. On September 7, 1918, the Whites broke through to Yelabuga on three armed steamers and occupied the city. However, in October, due to the general offensive of the Red Army, they were forced to retreat. Molchanov's detachment, which had already joined the People's Army, numbering already 4 thousand people, was ordered to withdraw to Ufa.

In the fall of 1918, in Yelabuga, with the rank of second lieutenant, the future Hero of the Soviet Union Marshal Govorov was enlisted in the battery of the 8th Kama Rifle Division of the 2nd Ufa Army Corps.

On April 25, 1919, in the battle at the Kokshan plant near Yelabuga, as part of the Spring Offensive of Admiral Kolchak, the 58th Akmola Rifle Regiment of the Russian Army was opposed with red. On May 2, 1919, Yelabuga was occupied, the previous administration was restored in the city.

In May-June 1919, the river fleet fought on the Kama. On May 24, 1919, in the area of ​​Cape Svyatoy Klyuch, the largest clash between the flotillas of the opposing sides took place. The commander of the red flotilla, independently, without taking into account the operational situation and the organization of interaction with the advancing 28th division of the 2nd army, decided to shell Yelabuga. The 2nd and 4th divisions of the Volga military flotilla entered the shelling of the city and the nearby highway. Meanwhile, the ships of the 1st and 3rd divisions of the River Battle Flotilla were concentrated in Yelabuga even at dawn. Despite this victory, fearing encirclement, the Whites left the city on May 25. On May 26-27, units of the 2nd Red Army entered Yelabuga.

In July 1919, NK Krupskaya visited Yelabuga during a cruise. She carried out a mission of revolutionary agitation among the inhabitants of recently abandoned white settlements.

 

USSR

In 1921, in connection with the formation of national autonomies, the Yelabuga district was divided into two parts: the southern one, the Yelabuga canton, was transferred to the Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, and the northern one, the Mozhginsky district, to the Votskaya Autonomous Okrug.

From 1921 to 1928 Yelabuga was the center of the Yelabuga canton, from August 10, 1930 - the center of the Yelabuga region of the Tatar ASSR.

 

During the Great Patriotic War, a branch of the Leningrad State University under the leadership of Academician V.A.Ambartsumyan was located in the city in evacuation (from 1941 to 1944). Among the employees of the branch were V.I.Smirnov, V.A.Fok, V.V.Sobolev (later academicians). At the same time, a part of the cotton factory evacuated from the city of Vyshny Volochek was located in Elabuga. Poetess Marina Tsvetaeva lived here and committed suicide on August 31, 1941.

In the post-war period, large oil fields were discovered near the city - Pervomayskoye, Yelabuzhskoye, Krasnoborskoye and others. In 1961, the Prikamneft oil and gas production department was organized in Yelabuga.

In 1985, the leadership of the USSR decided to create a dual-purpose tractor plant near the city of Elabuga and the Kama River for the production of tractors and (if necessary) tanks. In view of the decreased economic and military-strategic need for them and the presence of more unsatisfied urgent needs of the country's population, the plant being created in 1988 was converted into the Yelabuga passenger car plant (ElAZ). Equal in scale to AvtoVAZ, ElAZ was supposed to produce 900 thousand a year of mini-cars ElAZ-1121 "Kama" (the next generation of the VAZ-1111 "Oka" car), as well as subsequently promising cars ElAZ-1125 (joint development of VAZ and "Fiat" , which received the code designation A-93). The workers of the plant and their families were to dramatically increase the population of the city to 300-400 thousand people (making it the third largest city in the republic), and a high-speed tram was to be launched from the new residential quarters of Yelabuga to the industrial site of the plant and to Naberezhnye Chelny. In view of the collapse of the planned socialist economy and then the collapse of the USSR, ElAZ was later realized not in its intended form, but in small-scale licensed production of foreign cars (the project of the ElAZ-1121 car was postponed, and then completely "buried"; the concept of A-93 [ElAZ-1125 ] was also not implemented at AvtoVAZ, but at Fiat it was eventually embodied in the Fiat Punto model; VAZ-1111 cars were produced on a smaller scale at other car factories, including ZMA in neighboring Naberezhnye Chelny).

Post soviet time
In 2005, at the suggestion of the leadership of Tatarstan, the Government of Russia, in order to organize the most favorable conditions for the implementation of large investment projects by Russian and foreign companies on the large-scale site of ElAZ, a special economic zone "Alabuga" was founded, one of the first such zones of an industrial-production type in the country with a developing production of cars and components, various equipment and instruments, processing of chemical and agricultural raw materials, etc.

On August 24-26, 2007, the millennium of Yelabuga, the second settlement in Tatarstan after its capital, was widely celebrated on a Russian scale. For the anniversary, several important objects were built and reconstructed in the city.