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.
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.
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.
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.