Zelenchukskaya (Abaz. Zelenchukv, Zelenchukskaya, Karach.-Balk.
Zelenchuk, Dzhalandzhuk, feet. Zelenchuksky) is a village, the
administrative center of the Zelenchuk region of Karachay-Cherkessia
(Russia). It is also the center of the Zelenchuksky rural
settlement.
Geography
The village of Zelenchukskaya is
located at the confluence of the Khusa-Kardonikskaya river into
Bolshoy Zelenchuk, approximately 60 km south-west of Cherkessk. 9 km
to the west is the village of Storozhevaya, 6 km to the east -
Kardonikskaya (road distances). The main part of residential
development is concentrated in the interfluve of Bolshoy Zelenchuk
and Khusa-Kardonikskaya, on the right bank of Bolshoy Zelenchuk, a
smaller part on the left bank of the river. Several streets are
located on the right bank of the Khusa-Kardonikskaya, on the eastern
and northern outskirts of the village of Zelenchukskaya.
The
settlement is located in a low-lying basin, bounded from the north
by the treeless southern slopes of the Rocky Range. Directly to the
north of Zelenchukskaya in the ridge there rises a peak 1609.9 m
high, with a steep western slope called the "Jissa rock" (Shissa).
Closer to the village, between the valleys of Bolshoy Zelenchuk and
Marukha, there are several lower peaks (within 1000-1300 m), which
make up the southern spurs of the ridge. Several streams flow from
the western slope of the mountain along the Borodin gully, which
then flow into Bolshoi Zelenchuk. Downstream of the village, in a
wide river gorge between two sections of the Rocky Range, is the
village of Ilyich.
East of Zelenchukskaya, in the direction
of the village of Kardonikskaya, a slight rise in the relief,
continuing the southern spurs of the Rocky Range, then passes into
moderately wooded, mainly birch-alder foothills (Bashlyk tract,
peaks 1089.5 m and 1100.5 m, further to the south of the height only
grow). To the west of the village, in the direction of Storozheva,
the low-lying plain in the interfluve of Bolshoy Zelenchuk and
Kyafar (the closest to the settlement area of this plain
north-west of Zelenchukskaya is the Mogilka tract) also gradually
passes into the foothills overgrown with rare forest. Two streams
flow from it to Bolshoi Zelenchuk - Maly Karabizhgon (closer to the
village) and Bolshoi Karabizhgon (further to the west). A low ridge
on the right bank of the Small Karabizhgon is called the Smaglin
tract.
To the south, upstream of Bolshoy Zelenchuk, is the
village of Dausuz, upstream of the river Khusa-Kardonikskaya - the
village of Khusa-Kardonik. To the southeast, in the valley of
Marukhi, is the village of the same name. In this area there are
hydraulic structures of the Zelenchukskaya HPP-PSPP, through which
the waters of Bolshoy Zelenchuk and Marukha are transferred to the
Kuban. These are the hydroelectric complex on Bolshoy Zelenchuk in
Dausuz (with a reservoir bounded by a fill dam), a canal to
Khusa-Kardonikskaya, a tunnel to Marukha, a hydrosystem on Marukh
(also with a reservoir and a dam).
On the southern outskirts
of the village of Zelenchukskaya, on the plain between Bolshoy
Zelenchuk and Khusa-Kardonikskaya, the RATAN-600 radio telescope of
the Special Astrophysical Observatory of the Russian Academy of
Sciences is located. 4-4.5 km south of it, between Dausuz and the
village of Khusa-Kardonik, already in the foothills, is the
Zelenchukskaya Radio Astronomy Observatory. On the eastern outskirts
of the village, at the entrance to Zelenchukskaya, a geoglyph (more
precisely, an inscription made of trees) "65 YEARS OF VICTORY" was
created in honor of the anniversary of victory in the Great
Patriotic War.
Early history
The area of the modern village of
Zelenchukskaya was inhabited, at least already in the Mousterian era
- a flint flake of the corresponding period was found in the
Kusa-Kardonikskaya valley. Finds that indicate a person's stay in
these places in later eras are represented, in particular, by
artifacts of the 6th-7th centuries. These are things found in a
stone tomb in the area of Bogotobagde in the vicinity of the
village, and clay vessels of the Alan type, discovered during
construction work in Zelenchukskaya itself in the fall of 1974.
Remains of stone fortresses (with stone ramparts) were
discovered in the area of the village. According to some reports,
from the mouth of Bolshoy Zelenchuk to the modern Zelenchuk there
were 6 such fortresses. Found stone slabs, crosses, pillars,
statues, including a male statue without a head, arms and legs, with
a belt and a hatchet on it. On the left bank of Bolshoy Zelenchuk,
on the Batareya hill, opposite the village, there was an early
medieval settlement.
At Zelenchukskaya, small mounds of the
Kabardino-Circassian type were recorded. 3-4 km north of the
village, on the left bank of Zelenchuk, at the mouth of the Bolshoi
Karabizhgon River, there is a burial mound of the Adyghe type of the
XIV-XVI centuries.
Base of the village
The village of
Zelenchukskaya was founded on April 19, 1859, on the same day as the
village of Kardonikskaya, the 2nd battalion of the Lithuanian
infantry regiment, which was part of the Zelenchuksk detachment,
created to build two new and cover the previously built villages
(the cover troops were in the Watchtower). The sites for the
construction of Zelenchukskaya and Kardonikskaya were chosen by the
head of the Urupskaya cordon line, Lieutenant Colonel EF Semyonkin.
The vicinity of the future settlements was a mountainous area
covered with forests. Ramparts were immediately set up around the
stanitsas under construction, and a forest was cut down along the
banks of Bolshoy Zelenchuk.
3 officer families, 61 families
of line Cossacks, 54 - Don, Little Russian families - 78, lower
ranks of the regular army - 108 families were sent to Zelenchukskaya
to settle the village. In addition to the battalion of the
Lithuanian regiment, there were two hundred of the 1st Volga
regiment of the Caucasian linear Cossack army and an artillery
platoon in the village.
Of the two villages founded in 1859,
it was Zelenchukskaya that became the target of attacks by the
mountaineers. Already on May 9, a detachment of 600 mountaineers had
a clash with a hundred Cossacks, who were sent for reconnaissance.
On May 20, an enemy party of up to 1,000 people attacked the camp
where the units that were building the village were stationed. The
garrison of Zelenchukskaya during the battle lost 21 people killed,
drowned (while trying to cross to the left bank of Zelenchuk, to the
rear of a detachment of mountaineers), wounded and captured. The
main target of the attack was the stealing of livestock: a total of
259 horses and heads of cattle were stolen. At the end of May 1859,
a battalion of the Crimean Infantry Regiment arrived in
Zelenchukskaya, replacing in July the Lithuanians who had departed
to a new location in the Melitopol district.
The village in
the XIX - early XX century
In the vicinity of Zelenchukskaya
there were several guard and observation posts: to the south of the
village - the Zelenchuksky post, to the north-west, on the road to
the village Storozhevaya - Karabezhgonsky, to the east, towards the
village of Kardonikskaya, there was a watchtower.
Militarily,
the village was first assigned to the 2nd Urupsky Cossack regiment,
formed in 1858 and part of the 3rd Urupsky brigade, in 1870 it
became part of the Khopersky regimental district, in which the
Khopersky 1st Cossack regiment was based. Since 1869, it was part of
the Batalpashinsky district, since 1888 - the Batalpashinsky
department of the Kuban region.
According to data from
1873-1874, the population of Zelenchukskaya was 2033 people. In
1882, 2,530 people lived (379 households, Orthodox, mainly Little
Russians and Great Russians). In 1915 there were 7695 inhabitants in
1213 households.
The historical center of the village,
according to some sources, was located in the area of the current
secondary school No. 1. In terms of the settlement, it was a
quadrangle, which was typical for Cossack villages at that time. One
corner of the quadrangle, according to unconfirmed reports, is the
intersection of the current Shkolnaya and Sovetskaya streets
(northeastern corner), the other corner is the intersection of
Sovetskaya and Gagarin streets (southeastern corner).
The
villages, as a rule, were surrounded by an earthen rampart and a
deep ditch in front of it. Along the rampart was a fence lined with
thorny bushes. Zelenchukskaya also had a moat 2.5 m deep and 3 m
wide at the top and 1.5 m at the bottom. A thorny shrub to
strengthen the earthen fence was sea buckthorn or tree tree. The
moat started from the river and surrounded the mound on the northern
border of the settlement (now there is a regional hospital on the
mound), then walked along the modern Sovetskaya Street, which had
previously been called "Kanava" in this connection.
The gate with an observation tower (another characteristic
feature of the stanitsa fortifications in the middle of the 19th
century) in the north of the stanitsa was located, according to some
sources, in the alignment of the present Pobeda Street. Some
villages had cannons. The aforementioned mound (in the alignment of
modern Internatsionalnaya Street) had a watchtower with a cannon. In
Zelenchukskaya, according to unconfirmed reports, there were 4 guns
installed at the corners of the settlement, where there were towers
and sheds for guns. On the side of the river there was a gate and a
descent to the water, but there were no fortifications.
The
traditional Cossack dwelling in the village at that time was an
almost square adobe house, covered with thatch or shit. In
Zelenchukskaya and Kardonikskaya houses, as a rule, they whitewashed
with lime. From the side of the entrance - an open veranda, then a
vestibule, from where you can get into the living room - the "hut"
itself, with low ceilings and three protruding beams. A Russian
stove with a stove bench was placed on the side of the entrance in
the corner.
Zelenchukskaya was originally supplied from the
village of Correct. In the first years of the settlement's
existence, the schedule of economic activities of the inhabitants
was determined by the military authorities, taking into account the
military situation. Farms and settlements of the stanitsa, settled
surrounded by non-peaceful mountain tribes, initially did not have.
At night, residents gathered in the village behind closed gates and
with increased security. During the day, in the absence of a threat
from the mountaineers, it was allowed to go to work in the field,
often with military cover. The men worked with weapons. Later, it
became a practice to spend the night in the field, but in
exceptionally large camps, and not alone. The purpose of the attacks
of the highlanders, among other things, was to take prisoners for
the subsequent ransom.
As of 1882, Zelenchukskaya already had
4 farms in its vicinity (the Cossacks Borodin, Zinchenko, Fisun and
Yaroshenko). In total, the Cossack society of the village owned
23,918 acres of land. In the village there was a church, a school
for boys, 2 shops, 3 drinking establishments, 8 water flour mills.
According to information for 1915, Zelenchukskaya had a village
administration, an emergency room for 6 beds with one doctor, a
paramedic and a midwife, an elementary school, a post office, a
church, a forestry, a mill, a cheese factory and a sawmill. There
were fairs in the village: Nikolaevskaya in May and Pokrovskaya in
October.
Village in the XX century
During the Civil War in
1918, rebel detachments of A.G. Shkuro operated in the area of
Zelenchukskaya and the surrounding villages. Having finally
established himself in the Batalpashinsky department, Shkuro,
according to some sources, organized the construction of a sawmill
in Zelenchuk to restore the destroyed villages.
During the
Great Patriotic War in August 1942, Zelenchukskaya was occupied by
German troops, the headquarters of mountain riflemen was located in
the village. Further south, in the upper reaches of Bolshoy
Zelenchuk, a partisan detachment, formed in the city of Cherkessk,
operated.
During the years of Soviet power, active housing
and social construction was carried out in the village. A number of
multi-apartment houses were built, a hospital, a department store, a
post office, buildings for educational institutions (including a
music school appeared in Zelenchukskaya) and the placement of
regional authorities were built, a wide-screen cinema was opened.
During the collapse of the USSR, within the framework of the
so-called parade of sovereignty (within the borders of the RSFSR),
on August 19, 1991, in some territories of the Karachay-Cherkess
Autonomous Region, the Zelenchuksko-Urupskaya Cossack Soviet
Socialist Republic was proclaimed with its capital in the village of
Zelenchukskaya. On November 30, 1991, the Upper Kuban Cossack
Republic was proclaimed, also with the capital in Zelenchukskaya,
resulting from the unification of the Zelenchuksko-Urupskaya Cossack
SSR and the Batalpashinsky Cossack Republic proclaimed on August 10,
with the capital in Cherkessk. The Upper Kuban Republic united the
territories with the Russian Cossack population within the
historical region of the Upper Kuban and was to, through joining the
Union of Cossack Republics of the South of Russia, become part of
the Union of Sovereign States. These statements did not entail any
real political consequences; at the referendum in March 1992,
according to official data, the majority of the population of
Karachay-Cherkessia spoke out against the division into several
national republics.
In 1992-1994, the 56th separate guards
airborne assault brigade was temporarily based in Zelenchukskaya,
redeployed from the city of Iolotan of the Turkmen SSR (later
departed to the city of Volgodonsk, Rostov region).
In 1999,
during the political crisis in the KChR, provoked by the election of
the head of the republic, Zelenchukskaya became one of the venues
for rallies in support of the so-called "Circassian" candidate S. E.
Derev.
In the post-Soviet period, as part of the revival of
the Cossacks, Zelenchukskaya became the location of the headquarters
of the Zelenchuksky regional Cossack society of the Batalpashinsky
department of the Kuban military Cossack society.