The place where Volgograd now stands has attracted people from the earliest times with its favorable geographical location. Great benefits were promised by the Volga-Don crossing, the one that will become a channel in the future. Stormy trade, the Volga trade route … In the Mongolian period, the interfluve of two waterways became the point of intersection of many other caravan routes. Three went from north to south - Don, Volga, Akhtuba; one - from east to west, the northernmost trail of the Great Silk Road passed here. It is not surprising that it was in these places that the capital of the Golden Horde arose - in 1260, 60 km from modern Volgograd, Saray-Berke was laid. By the way, on the site of Volgograd itself there was also a Horde settlement - its Mongolian name has not survived, but it is known that Russian settlers called it Mechetny - along the Sukhoi and Mokra Mechetki rivers (the name was formed, most likely, from the word "mosque"), between which it was located. They say that Golden Horde coins were found at this place, but they did not have time to really explore it. As soon as they began to build the Tsaritsyn fortress, the newly-made townspeople quickly stole the old houses for building materials. And when the hands of archaeologists got around much later, the expedition nevertheless gathered to explore these places, the Civil War began … Buildings of the 20th century finally ruined what remained of the Mongol settlement.
In the 1400s, the Golden Horde began to disintegrate into khanates; The Moscow principality, on the contrary, actively gathered around itself both the original Russian and new lands, conquering the khanates one after another. By the time Tsaritsyn was founded, only the Crimean Khanate was not subordinate to Moscow, due to the powerful support of the Ottoman Empire.
That was the era of active development of trade and, accordingly, the flourishing of the Volga trade route. For export, timber was rafted, there were ships loaded with grain, leather, cloth, honey, wax … The principality of Moscow also bought a lot: the main imported goods were salt, fabrics, metal, including non-ferrous metals, and incense. In addition, the Volga played the role of a transit route: just at that time England was preoccupied with finding an outlet to the Persian markets bypassing competitors - Spain and Portugal. After all, oriental fabrics and spices were famous all over the world! It is not surprising that the first mention of Tsaritsyn is found in a letter from the English merchant Christopher Burrow. He wrote:
“We came to the crossing … The word“crossing”in Russian means a narrow strip of land or a splash between two bodies of water, and this place is called so because here from the Volga River to the Don or Tanais River is considered 30 miles, that is, as many as people can easily walk in one day. 7 versts below, on an island called Tsaritsyn, the Russian tsar keeps a detachment of 50 archers in the summer to guard the road, called the Tatar word "guard"."
This letter dates from 1579, and indeed, by this time the governor Grigory Zasekin had founded several permanent fortresses with garrisons of up to one and a half hundred people. Among them - Tsaritsyn, Samara, Saratov … Tsaritsyn controlled the eastern side of the Volga-Don pass, which was the shortest route between the two rivers.
Russian sources of that time died in fires. In our letters, the first mentions of the fortress date back to 1589 (Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich's instructions on its arrangement), 11 years later they write about Tsaritsyn in a large drawing in the Book: “And below Balykleya, 80 versts on the Volga, the island of Tsaritsyn”. One of the rivers flowing into the Volga was called the queen. The name most likely has nothing to do with the monarchy. Probably, it is borrowed from the Turkic language: "sary-su", which could be translated as "yellow" or "beautiful". And the island is, accordingly, "beautiful". Over time, the city was moved from the island to the corner formed by the banks of the Volga and the Tsarina.
The city had a hard fate. Many times he was ruined and conquered. And they were not always enemies … It began with the fact that during the Time of Troubles the townspeople recognized the power of False Dmitry II, and then the tsar sent the governor Fyodor Sheremetev to restore order. Soon a report came to Moscow that “Tsaritsyn's city and prison were taken, and the sovereign traitors … they were caught, their wives and children were beaten and caught, while others ran into the steppe … and I, your servant, chased them to the river to Olshanka from cities seven miles and fought with them. Sheremetev spent some time in Tsaritsyn, and then his detachment was sent to Nizhny Novgorod to help the defeated tsarist troops. Leaving Tsaritsyn, the governor burned him, and did the same with Saratov, who stood in his way. Only seven years later, another voivode, Misyura Solovtsov, took up the restoration of both cities.
But only half a century passed, and the Lower Volga region and the Don were literally flooded with fugitive peasants and deserters. In those places, Stepan Razin gathered his robber army. The rebellious chieftain was heading to the mouth of the Don, but did not reach - the Turkish Azov stood in his way. Then, having dragged his ships to the Volga, Razin began to plunder river caravans. In their advance down the Volga, the robbers did not meet the slightest resistance. On the contrary, the Tsaritsyn fortress let the ships pass without a single shot; moreover, it supplied the robbers with the necessary equipment and everything they needed! Perhaps the voivode was simply frightened by the violent Cossacks, but his act had far-reaching consequences. The Razins captured the Yaitsky town, plundered Derbent and Baku. “From behind the island to the rod” is just about that “hike for zipuns”. As a result of negotiations with representatives of the official authorities, an agreement was reached: Razin surrenders his artillery, stops his predatory raids and disbands the army, and the authorities allow him to sail through Astrakhan and Tsaritsyn. There, in Tsaritsyn, Stenka released all the prisoners from prison, dined in a local tavern, found it prohibitively expensive, for which he took out his rage on the voivode and went back to the Don. Where, of course, he immediately began to gather a new army. In the spring of 1670 Razin returned to Tsaritsyn. Having withstood, rather, a symbolic siege, the cautious archers themselves decided to open the gates to the chieftain. Those who remained loyal to the king were executed. Over the summer, the robbers were in control of all the Volga city-fortresses. Luck turned away from Stenka only at the Simbirsk line, where the troops of Prince Yuri Baryatinsky defeated the ataman. He himself, "heroically" abandoning his dying soldiers, fled to the Don, where he fell into the hands of the Cossacks loyal to the tsar and was handed over to Moscow. The rebels left Tsaritsyn without a fight.
The next time the city was involved in hostilities during the uprising led by Kondraty Bulavin. This ataman led the entire Don army, uniting those who were dissatisfied with the demand of Peter I to hand over the fugitive peasants and the ban on independent extraction of salt, bypassing the state monopoly. The rebels were divided into several groups, and the Volga region was the most successful. In 1708 she took Tsaritsyn by storm. Astrakhan Governor Pyotr Apraksin described the events of those days as follows:
“At Tsaritsyn's day and night, they poured down the earth and filled up a ditch, and, having laid out firewood and every resinous forest and birch bark, they lit it, and with great force, by storm and with that fire, they took that siege town, and Athanasius Turchenin (to the governor. - Approx.author) killed, tortured with great malice, cut off the head, and with him a clerk and a gunner and two archers, and others, who were under siege, officers and soldiers sent from us and the Tsaritsinsky, disassembled for the guards, and took off the gun and dress, Swearing a lot, they left them free in their thieves' circles. According to the same, sir, from those thieves to the villainous anger of this July 20, my regiments sent by the help of God and your most gracious sovereign took the city of Tsaritsyn with prayers, and those villains of the thieves' Cossacks were beaten by many, and they took the living."
Added to this disaster was the raid of the Crimean Khan, who organized the so-called Kuban pogrom of 1717. Tsaritsyn was blocked, and everyone who lived outside the city walls was driven to the Kuban. Tens of thousands of people fell into slavery.
When he managed to cope with the misfortunes, Peter ordered to build the Tsaritsyn guard line, supplement the Don Cossacks with dragoon regiments, cancel the election of the ataman, and appoint him from Moscow. At the same time, since 1721, the Cossack regiments entered the Military Collegium (in the Ministry of Defense, in our opinion) and thus became a reliable stronghold of the tsar.
However, the tightening of serfdom and the ban on complaining about the master led to new discontent. Impostors began to appear, posing as monarchs. One of the most successful was Emelyan Pugachev. Calling himself Peter III, he gathered an army of fugitive peasants, Cossacks, Tatars and Bashkirs. After an unsuccessful siege of Orenburg, he retreated down the Volga. Many cities perceived him as a hero and surrendered to him without a fight, to the ringing of bells (as if welcoming a royal person). Tsaritsyn became the only city that did not submit to the impostor.
From ser. In the 18th century, changes began in the fate of the city. In connection with the advance of Russian troops in the Crimea, the Caucasus and Central Asia, Tsaritsyn remained in the rear. In 1775, the Tsaritsyn guard line (which had existed for half a century) was liquidated, and the Azov-Mozdok fortifications took over the role of the southern border. Soon the Tsaritsyn district appeared on the maps, the city began to grow into suburbs, received a new development plan - already without fortress walls and ramparts. In addition to Russian subjects, German colonists invited by Empress Catherine II began to settle in these places. Their colony - Sarepta - must be told separately.
… When it came to the development of the Lower Volga region by settlers from Germany, Catherine II published a manifesto in 1763, according to which the lands along the Volga above and below Saratov were declared free. One of the colonies - Sarepta - was formed near Tsaritsyn. Among the colonists were mainly the Hernguthers (followers of one of the branches of the Moravian Church) and the followers of Jan Hus expelled from Bohemia and Moravia. They were all given loans, given better land for use, and allowed self-government. They could build factories and plants, engage in hunting and distilling, not pay any taxes and not serve in the army. Understandably, the Tsaritsynians took a dislike to their privileged neighbors.
In Sarepta there were linen manufactories, a tannery, a factory for the production of semi-silk and manual production of pure silk shawls, a saw, and a grain cutter. Agriculture was developing very actively. In particular, it was in Sarepta for the first time in Russia that they began to breed … mustard, and not as a food product, but as a medicinal herb (and many are most likely sure that this is a Russian national seasoning!). In the beginning. In the 19th century, they began to produce mustard oil and powder. To instill the culture of growing mustard, the peasants were given seeds for free, and the harvest was then centrally bought.
Half a century has passed, and in the same way in these places they began to plant (in the literal sense of the word!) Potatoes - another product that has long been considered national in our country. By the way, it was a kind of "state order" of the Astrakhan governor. At first, the peasants resisted - they called the tubers "damn apples" and their cultivation was considered a great sin. But gradually (also through the free distribution of planting material) they fell in love with potatoes. Moreover, the local kids liked it - they baked it in ash and ate it with pleasure.
The complete self-sufficiency of little Sarepta was evidenced by the soap-making, candle and brick factories, a steam chemical laboratory for the production of vodka and a bakery, where the famous "Sarepta" gingerbread was prepared. Their main ingredient was nardek - watermelon honey.
And also on the territory of the community there was a well-known tobacco factory: raw materials were supplied there directly from American plantations, and this was the only enterprise in our country that produced tobacco of any kind - from the cheapest to the most expensive.
The local balm was especially popular: they started talking about it after the cholera epidemic that broke out in 1830. While the disease claimed hundreds of lives, not a single disease was recorded in Zarepta! We went here not only for gingerbread and balsam, but also for healing mineral water - springs gushed straight from the ground. So it is not surprising that the second floor. XIX century, the village with its wooden sidewalks and stone houses, many of which stand to this day, became one of the most progressive settlements of the Saratov and Astrakhan provinces.
And one more curious detail: due to the closed nature of the community, its population almost did not increase. Marriages were concluded solely by lot, no youth festivities were ever arranged (on the other hand, there were no rapes or extramarital affairs). By the end of the 19th century, only about a thousand people lived in Sarepta, but this did not prevent it from becoming the administrative center of the volost. In the 1920s, it turned into the largest workers' suburb of Tsaritsyn and began to be called in the Soviet tradition - the village of Krasnoarmeysk.
However, back to the history of the big city. With the departure "to the rear", with the establishment of a peaceful life, trade ties began to revive. The Volga and Don transit was restored; in 1846, a horse-drawn railway was opened, however, due to a combination of a number of circumstances (relief, orientation exclusively to horse-bull traction, design errors), it turned out to be unprofitable and soon ordered to live a long time. Tsaritsyn, 15 years later, received the Volga-Don railway. After the abolition of serfdom, industry began to develop rapidly. By the beginning. In the 20th century, metallurgical, gun and other factories were already functioning.
True, rebellion and extremism among local residents, apparently, remained in their blood since the peasant wars. For how else can one explain the fact that, shortly before the revolution, Tsaritsyn suddenly turns into the unofficial capital of the "Black Hundred" - an extremist movement of the Orthodox-monarchical persuasion? And after the October events, everything was not easy. Being a developed industrial city, Tsaritsyn proclaimed Soviet power on October 27, 1917 and became the "red" center of the Russian south - in contrast to the Novocherkassk "white" center under the leadership of the ataman of the Don army, Pyotr Krasnov. In 1918-1919 Krasnov unsuccessfully tried three times to conquer Tsaritsyn, but his defense was successfully led by the commander of the North Caucasus Military District, Joseph Stalin. The city fell only after the fourth assault - after the blow of the Caucasian army of General Pyotr Wrangel in the late spring of 1919. Although the whites got it only for six months - by the beginning of 1920 Tsaritsyn was repulsed by the troops of the Red Army. The city turned from a district into a provincial center, and in 1925 changed its name - it became Stalingrad, in recognition of the merits of the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks in the defense of 1918-1919.
The five-year plans of the 1930s restored and expanded what was destroyed by the Civil War. Stalingrad received a state district power station, a tractor plant (the famous STZ), a shipyard, all the "blessings of civilization" - from electricity to running water. It is worth considering that the shock workers of the “great construction projects” also had to overcome the consequences of the widespread famine of 1932-1933. Despite the difficulties, the city grew and changed. Until the war came.
In May 1942, the Germans cut off the Barvenkovsky ledge, and huge expanses from Kharkov to the banks of the Don opened up in front of them, not protected by almost anything. Having covered more than 400 kilometers, the Nazis took Rostov-on-Don. There, Army Group South split in two - Group A turned to the Caucasus, Group B, which included the 6th Army of Friedrich Paulus, rushed to Stalingrad. The capture of Stalin's city had not just propaganda, but also "purely practical" significance: Germany thus cut off the rich Russian south, seizing control over the Lower Volga. The Germans threw 270,000 men, 3,000 guns, more than 1,000 aircraft and up to 700 tanks into battle. The Stalingrad front could oppose the Germans with 500 thousand people, but the technical equipment was worse: the troops had 2200 artillery barrels, the lag in aviation and tanks was even more noticeable, 450 and 400 units, respectively.
The first chords of the grand battle thundered in July 1942 on the borders of the Chir River. Using superiority in technology, the Germans broke through the Soviet front within ten days, reached the Don in the Golubinsky area and created a threat of a deep breakthrough. But the stubborn resistance of our troops (fueled, among other things, by the order "Not a step back!") Thwarted the enemy's plans. Instead of a rapid throw, a methodical pushing through the defense was obtained; the enemy reached Stalingrad, though not as quickly as he wanted. The tanks reached the Volga and the tractor plant on 23 August. At the same time, the barbaric bombardment with high-explosive and incendiary bombs turned most of the city into ruins - 90 thousand people were killed … In September, the enemy began to tighten the ring, trying to take the city by storm and throw its defenders into the Volga.
And here everything went absolutely wrong for the Germans. It seems that the soldiers and the command had experience in conducting street battles, and the Volga was shot through from coast to coast, and the reinforcements of the besieged were already very shabby … There should have been no problems, but they did arise: our soldiers created them for the enemy. They did not want to surrender or retreat. The Germans were forced to slowly and painstakingly clean up block after block in order to, after clearing, the next day again to find there Soviet soldiers who had repulsed their positions with a counterattack, making their way through the ruins for the smoke that came through underground communications. Battles were fought for every house, many, like Pavlov's house, went down in history under the names of their defenders. At the STZ, which became the front line, tanks were being repaired under shelling; they went into battle directly from the factory gates.
The moment of truth came in late October - early November. The nightmare of the 1941 winter campaign was already looming before the Germans, they were in a hurry to finish the job, and the Soviet troops were literally holding themselves to their limit. On October 14, Paulus began the last spurt. It is unlikely that such a powerful force had ever attacked on such a tiny sector of the front - the tractor plant and the Barricades plant attacked as many as five divisions, including two tank divisions. The temperature dropped below minus fifteen, the defenders did not have enough ammunition, provisions and, most importantly, people. But what remained of the 62nd Army of Lieutenant General Vasily Chuikov literally gnawed its teeth into three microscopic bridgeheads - the only pieces of land on this right bank of the Volga.
There was no land for them beyond the Volga.
And what seemed incredible happened. K ser. November, the German onslaught crashed against the bayonets of the defenders. And already on the 19th, the Soviet counteroffensive began.
Having created absolute superiority in the sectors of the offensive, the Soviet troops attacked from the north and south, finding the weakest points in the enemy's defense. It is well known that the main blow was directed at the Romanian units, inferior to the Germans both in training and in technical equipment. Paulus's attempts to rectify the situation were unsuccessful; on November 23, red ticks closed in the Kalach area. Adolf Hitler demanded not to leave the city - this has already become a matter of prestige; Paulus was promised support from the outside, but attempts to break through the Soviet ring or to establish supply of the encircled people via an air bridge did not change the situation. We must pay tribute to the enemy - the soldiers of the 6th Army showed fanaticism and stamina close to inhuman. In severe frost, with unusable uniforms, virtually without food, the Germans held out for 23 days. However, by January 26, everything was over: Soviet troops cut through the cauldron, joining in the Mamayev Kurgan area. On January 30, Hitler conferred the rank of field marshal on Paulus, reminding him in a radiogram that not a single German field marshal had ever been taken prisoner … One can understand the feelings of a commander who is already holding on to the edge, who was actually offered to die heroically. The next day, he sent a request to the Soviet headquarters to accept the surrender. On February 2, German resistance ceased. More than 90 thousand soldiers and officers, 24 generals - and, of course, the field marshal were captured.
The disaster for the Wehrmacht was colossal. But the wounds inflicted on Stalingrad were also colossal. Only 10% of the housing stock survived … and less than 10% of the city's residents. The dead were buried until the summer of 1943, unexploded mines and bombs were removed until the summer of 1945 (and even then, more than once, terrible "treasures" were found) … Add to this the need to restore the "military" first of all - STZ again gave tanks by 1944 -mu; and the post-war famine that hit the Volga region again. It is hard to imagine that in these difficult conditions the superhuman is just another superhuman! - tension of forces and nerves during the war years alone, the city restored almost 40% of the housing stock! And since 1946, the restoration of Stalingrad has become a separate item in the republican budget. By the end of the post-war five-year plan, the industrial indicators of the city surpassed the pre-war level.
The 1950s gave the city a new face … and a new name. In the beginning. For decades, the “Stalinist Empire style” came here, transforming the city by almost 100%. It was at this time that the main city-forming accents arose - the solemn Embankment of the 62nd Army with stairs and propylae, the central city square of the Fallen Fighters and the Alley of Heroes connecting them, which appeared on the site of three streets of the former Tsaritsyn. There is a memorial place where the red flag was raised on January 31, 1943, which confirmed our victory in the Battle of Stalingrad. In the beginning. In the 1950s, the main street of the city was formed - Lenin Avenue, which is included in the top 10 longest streets in our country - 15 km! In 1952, the Volga-Don Canal with a 24-meter statue of Stalin at the entrance from the Volga side was put into operation … However, in 1956 Nikita Khrushchev began to fight both the dead Stalin and architectural excesses. The monument to Iosif Vissarionovich turned into a monument to Vladimir Ilyich (it still exists), changes in urban planning projects began to be made en masse in order to eradicate these very "excesses", towards simplifying and impoverishing the appearance of the city … And in 1961, they "eradicated" the word "Stalingrad", which has become international and understandable in different languages without translation. Old Tsaritsyn burned down in the fire of Stalingrad to be reborn as Volgograd …
In 1965 Volgograd was given the status of a hero city.
Now the main symbol of the city is undoubtedly the grandiose memorial on the Mamayev Kurgan. It began to be erected in 1959 and finished in 1967. Two hundred granite steps - like two hundred days of the Battle of Stalingrad - lead to its top. From the high relief "Memory of Generations" - to the Square of Those Who Fought to Death, where a soldier with a machine gun and a grenade has the face of Marshal Chuikov, who did not give the city to the Germans (the marshal died in 1982 and was buried on Mamayev Kurgan). From the square of those who stood to death, along the symbolic ruined walls, to the square of Heroes. And up again, past the Square of Sorrow and the Hall of Military Glory, to the very top, where the 87-meter Motherland rises, if you count with the raised sword. The symbol of the city, the symbol of that battle, the symbol of our Victory. This is, perhaps, the best work of the sculptor Yevgeny Vuchetich - almost 8 tons of reinforced concrete, cast at a time, so that when the concrete solidifies, it does not leave seams. Its continuous delivery was ensured by columns of concrete trucks, specially marked so that on the road they were provided with unimpeded movement. The huge 30-meter sword was first made of stainless steel sheathed with titanium sheets; however, the wind deformed the plates so much and rocked the entire structure that in 1972 the sword had to be replaced with an all-steel one with special holes that reduce windage … weight. So questions come up every now and then: how will it slip? Moreover, the soil of the Mamaev Kurgan itself is crawling - unstable Maikop clays. They started talking about it back in 1965. Then the first attempts were made to strengthen the soil around the monument. They were undertaken later, however, the horizontal displacement of the statue reached 75% of the calculated allowable. However, according to the management of the Battle of Stalingrad Museum-Reserve, in recent years, the “slide” has been slower. Nevertheless, in 2010 another series of works began to repair and ensure the safety of the grandiose sculpture. Experts say: no, it will not fall.
Volgograd itself has experienced no less problems in recent, post-Soviet times. Industry and utilities have entered a post-critical recession. The construction of new facilities was frozen almost everywhere. The transport infrastructure has fallen into disrepair. In terms of its deterioration, the city entered the top three in Russia … And a whole series of "anti-records" - from the size of salaries to the number of small businesses per capita. On the whole, the result is sad: Volgograd is now the poorest of the Russian million-plus cities. But it would seem that the climate is good, and the location is favorable, and there is something to attract tourists …
In recent years, some progress has begun in urban and road construction, and the schedule for industrial growth has moved upward. Another chance for the city is the 2018 FIFA World Cup. A new stadium is being built especially for him in Volgograd … But while the spoons of honey are drowning in the ointment. Positive shifts remain unnoticed in the pile of "newly acquired" problems left over from the 1990s, which are to be raked and raked …
However, the city is no stranger to being reborn from the ashes. If there was a determination of people - and the rest will follow.
