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Cities of 5-th National Rally “Russian route 2009”

MUROM 862

The ancient Russian city Murom is situated on the high and hilly bank of the river Oka, in 137 km south-east from Vladimir.
The name Murom comes from the name of the Finno-Ugric murom tribe and is most likely to mean “people on earth”. The Story of the Passing Years contains the first written mentioning of this city. However, the results of the archeological excavations indicate that these lands were occupied long before 862 – during the Lithic Age. The territory of the modern city was occupied by the so called Nikolo-Naberezhnoe settlement, which also had the military asylum – the Kremlin at the Kremlin Mountain.
In spite of the fact that as a result of some natural disasters, intestine strives, enemies’ attacks the buildings of IX-XV centuries are irretrievably lost, such architectural monuments as The Old Kozmodemyanskaya Church (XVI century), the Spaso-Preobrazhenskiy Cathedral (XVI century), the Troitskiy, Blagovetzhenskiy and Spasskiy Monateries (XVII century), the Vvedenskaya and Voskresenskaya Churches (XVII century), as well as the wonderful buildings of the XVII-XIX centuries made Murom one of the most beautiful cities in Russia. Maxim Gorky wrote: “Those, who haven’t seen Murom from the Oka, haven’t seen the Russian beauty”.

DIVEEVO 1559

The settlement was founded in 1559.
It got its name from the name of the first owner – the Tatar murza Divey, the son of Mokshev Butakov. After the victory over the Tatars Ivan the Terrible gave Divey the prince title and presented him the arable lands at the river Vitchkinza.
In the second half of the XVIII century Diveevo is a small settlement with a wooden church in honor of St. Nicolas the Miracle-Worker and Archdeacon Stephan. The church was situated at the road crossing, which lead to Sarov. The pilgrims going to the Sarov Monastery stayed by the church to rest. It’s here where Agafia Melgunova, the founder of the St.Seraphim-Diveevo Monastery, decided to rest. In the XIX century the settlement was owned by many proprietors, among them are the Motovilovs, Tolstaya, Tsitsianov, the Batashovs, the Zhdanovs, the Shakhaevs. Diveevo is known as the forth and the last appanage of the Holy Mother. The Holy Trinity St.Seraphim-Diveevo Women’s Monastery is situated on this land. The Diveevo Monastery was being erected within 150 years.
“This is the place, which I told you to search for in the north of Russia”, - said the Holy Mother. “Here is the bound, which is set to be appropriate for you by the Holy Providence. You must live here and please the God till the end of your days. And I will always be with you; I will always visit this place. Within the boundaries of your living place I will found such an abode of mine, which has had and will have no equal in the whole world. This is Mine Fourth Lot in the universe”. The first three abodes of the Holy Mother are Iberia, the Holy Mount Athos, the Kiev-Petcherskiy Monastery, but Diveevo is thought to be the only place, where she appears every day. Diveevo became famous for the actions and homilies of the orthodox Russian saint Seraphim of Sarov, as well as for his prophesies about the fortunes of Russia.

ARZAMAS 1552

Arzamas is the city situated in 60 km from Diveevo.
Arzamas was founded by the decree of the Tsar Ivan the Terrible in 1552 and became a large orthodox and cultural center of the region. St. Seraphim of Sarov pointed out the significant importance of Arzamas in its prophesies: “Diveevo will become a Lavra, Vertyanovo – a city, and Arzamas – the province!” By the end of the XIX century Arzamas had 5 working monasteries and 25 parish churches. Arzamas was famous for special types of Arzamas geese and Arzamas onion. It was also widely known as the industrial and merchant city, through which the important trade roads from the south and west of Russia lay. The Academician Stupin opened here the first provincial school of painting.

CHEBOKSARY 1469

Cheboksary is mentioned in the written sources from 1469, when the Russian warriors stayed here on their way to the Kazan khanate.
However, it was founded as a center of population long before that.
According to the archeological excavations the Bulgarian-Chuvash settlement was on its place from the boundary of the XIII-XIV centuries.

KAZAN 1177

Kazan is the city, which history contains the influences, trends and hidden mysteries of the Eastern and Western civilizations from time immemorial.
Alike the eternal Rome, Kazan also stands on the seven hills. It’s the capital of the ancient people and the ancient country. Fate placed it almost the very heart of the modern Russia; it’s only in 800 km to the east from Moscow. Kazan is the capital of totally original people and the multinational republic existing today between the Volga and the Ural. These people have their own language, culture, their own habits of centuries and holidays, their own religion. In spite of this their past and present closely interwoven with the Russian history and future in the most dramatic and sometimes fatal way. These people are the Kazan Tatars, this country is Tatarstan. Any history is full of vicissitudes, mirages and prejudices, but there few people in the world, who have suffered so many historical misunderstandings and the annalistic mirages as the Kazan Tatars. The name “tata” or ”tatar” came to us from the far away China at the beginning of the medieval centuries. In China this word was used for calling one of the Mongolian tribes. No matter it is true or not that these tatas were in the vanguard of the horrifying victorious tumens of the great conqueror Tchingiskhan, but after the conquest of the Muslim world all the defeated Turkic tribes to the east of Russia, who formed the state of the Golden Horde, began to be called the Tatars. After the defeat from these tribes of the Great Prairie the Golden Horde also began to be called the Tatarland in the western chronicles. However, the truth of the history is that the people, who now bear the name the Kazan Tatars, had lived in their land between the Volga and the Kama much earlier than the Tchingiskhan invasion broke through. These people are not strangers at all. The magic of History is an amazing thing! With its help Kazan was turning from a small frontier Bulgarian town into a powerful stronghold of the khanate and the world-known trading capital at the Volga. Its magic precipitated Kazan, which became a powerless prisoner, its magic raised it again, but now in the form of the capital of a huge province… Then a new history sharp turn came, and in 1922 Kazan became the capital of an autonomous republic and passed the whole Soviet bed of thorns. Now Kazan has a new status or is it just the magical return of the ancient, saint, wonderful and amazing image of many faces? The new time has come and brought the new anxieties, the new holidays. The Republic’s Day (August, 30) became the main of them. On this very day, in August, 1990, Tatarstan adopted the Declaration of the National Sovereignty in the name of all the people living in this country. Kazan became a capital of the independent Presidential Republic.
The Kazan Kremlin is a united architectural monument, which preserves the characters of all the past centuries. It’s surrounded by high white-stone walls with the typical loopholes and 13 hipped towers. The most important sight of the Kremlin is the seven-tier passage Syuyumbeki Tower, situated inside it. Its height is 58 meters, and its typical shape is seen from any place of the city. The composition of the Tower is countervailed by the contour of the passage Spasskaya Tower situated in the opposite corner of the Kremlin. Many years ago the Kazan Kremlin was surrounded by water from three sides. The northern boundary of the fortress was the river Kazanka, the eastern one was the three lakes, and the western hand-made boundary of the city-fortress was the canal Bulak soughed by the ancient Tatar builders. This canal joint the Kazanka with Lake Kaban. It was used both for the defensive and navigable purposes: the products from the Volga and the Kazanka were delivered via it by the very walls of the city. During the medieval centuries the walls of the Kremlin were artificial and made of oak, but the buildings inside it were both wooden (made of oak and pine) and stone. By the middle of the XVI century, i.e. by the time the city was conquered, its population came up to 30 000 people. The ancient Kazan Kremlin also made the most majestic impression. While speaking about the capture of Kazan, the Russian chronicler says about the fact that Ivan the Terrible got deeply amazed at the “magnificent beauty of the walls of the city fortress”. In 1558 the English traveler Janckinson wrote in his memoirs: “Kazan is a wonderful city built according to the Russian and Tatar style with a strong fortress situated on a high hill”. But the brightest architectural feature standing out the whole Kremlin monument is the wonderful Syuyumbeki Tower, the city’s spiritual symbol and historical pride. Many legends, guesses and hypotheses are related to the Syuyumbeki Tower or the Khanskaya Mosque, which architecture has an obvious eastern color. The name of this Tower is related to the name of the last Kazan tsarina, who as per a heroic legend dived from its top after Kazan was conquered by the Moscow warriors.

NIZHNIY NOVGOROD 1221

Nizhniy Novgorod was founded by the Prince Juriy (Georgiy) Vsevolodovitch in 1221 at the confluence of two great rivers – the Volga (it sounds as Idel in Tatar) and the Oka. It was planned to be the base defeating the Russian borders from the Mordvin, Cheremys and Tatar tribes.
In 1341 the city became the capital of the independent principality of Suzdal and Nizhniy Novgorod, which occupied a vast territory. Its eastern boundary was passing by the river Sura. In the middle of the XV century in the course of the Moscow state consolidation the principality of Suzdal and Nizhniy Novgorod was attached to the Moscow lands. During the reign of Ivan III and Vasiliy III the city performed a watch part; it had a stable army and was a place of the warriors’ gathering during the campaigns against the Kazan khanate. In spite of the fact that the whole country was seized by the disturbances during the Time of Trouble, only Nizhniy Novgorod along with the Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius continued to support Moscow. After all the volunteer corps under the command of Kuzma Minin and the prince Dmitry Pozharskiy, the citizens of Nizhniy Novgorod, played the main part in the liberation from the Polish invaders. In the XIX century the largest Russian fair developed at the opposite bank of the Oka, which started the fast economical development of the city and the surrounding settlements.

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