Open Library - an open library of educational information. Theme XIV. Culture of the Kursk region: sources and traditions in the field of cultural and educational activities

"Enlightenment of the XVIII century" - Century. Founded in 1755?. Education. Peter I the Great. Empress Elizabeth. "The Enlightenment of the 18th Century". Municipal educational institution Secondary school No. 20. Catherine II the Great. Crossword: University. Moscow State. Catherine II Great Empress Elizabeth Peter I Mikhail Lomonosov.

"Kursk region" - The three largest rivers - Seim, Svapa, Tuskar. Fauna of the Kursk land. The Kursk region has a fairly dense river network. City of Kursk. Battle of Kursk The nature of the Kursk region is rich. 902 rivers flow through its territory, the total length of which reaches 7600 km. Geographical reference of the Kursk region. Rivers of the Kursk region.

"Russian culture of the XVIII century" - Natural and mathematical sciences: M.V. Lomonosov is one of the founders of physical chemistry. In 1738, the first Russian ballet school was opened in St. Petersburg. The Serbian teacher F.I. Jankovic de Mirievo. Opening of the Smolny Institute for Noble Maidens in St. Petersburg (1764).

"Fashion of the 18th century" - Women's costume under Elizabeth Petrovna (1741-1761). A. Vishnyakov Portrait of Sarah Eleonora Fermor. D. Levitsky V. Borovikovsky Portrait of A.P. Lapshina Portrait of A.S. Vasilyeva. F.Rokotov I.Argunov Portrait of Markina L.A. Portrait of Sheremetyeva V.P. Changes in women's fashion under Peter I (1682-1725). Changes in the women's costume were fixed by decrees and were immediately reflected in painting.

"Russian portrait of the XVIII century 1" - Portrait of E. Arsenyeva. N. Argunov "Portrait of Countess Sheremeteva". The artist depicts girls in theatrical and festive elation. V. Borovikovsky "Portrait of Catherine II". Gavriil Ivanovich Golovkin is light, graceful, quite self-confident. Unhealthy fullness, noticed by the artist, betrays a physical ailment.

"Architecture XVIII" - Peter I invites experienced architects from Western countries. Naval Cadet Corps, arch. The all-Russian market was formed. Conclusion. The decorative baroque, which reached its apogee, gave way to classicism. I.E. Starov. Moscow. St. Petersburg. Trinity-Sergius Lavra, arch. The proportionality of the relationship between a person and a building is clearly traced.

1. Prehistory of the Kursk diocese. The expansion of the boundaries of the Russian state, which took place in the 17th century, strongly dictated the need to open new dioceses. By decision of the great Moscow Cathedral in 1667, it was supposed to open 9 new dioceses, but only one was opened - the Belgorod Metropolis. The formation of a metropolia, and not a bishopric, was made for the following reasons: the Kyiv Metropolitanate had a very great influence on the Orthodox faith in the southern part of the Russian state, which in those years largely diverged from the Moscow Patriarchate, sometimes focusing on the west, on Catholicism. In order to balance the influence and attract the flock to the Moscow branch of Russian Orthodoxy, a metropolia was established in Belgorod, which became on a par with Kyiv.

The borders of the Belgorod-Slobodskaya (that was its original name) metropolis covered a significant part of the south of Russia. It included 37 fairly populated Ukrainian cities and 542 churches. And almost the entire territory of the modern Kursk region was included in the newly formed metropolis.

Theodosius of Serbia (Vershatsky) became the first metropolitan of Belgorod. He took up his duties on May 17, 1667. This day is the starting historical date for the establishment in the Kursk region of the episcopal department of the Russian Orthodox Church.

The years of Metropolitan Theodosius' government came at a troubled time. Hetman I. Bryukhovetsky left the power of the Russian sovereign and began to clear Little Russia of Russians: many of them were sold into captivity to the Tatars, some of the service people were killed. In the Belgorod district, the governor, Prince G.G. Romodanovsky was able to take the local population under protection, but all Russian people had to live in tension, waiting for the attack of the Cossacks and Tatars. Therefore, the Belgorod Metropolis was for a long time, in the literal sense, in a state of war.

Metropolitan Theodosius cared for the oppressed, strove to preserve peace in his land, in the metropolis. Therefore, the bishop himself and other pastors performed many prayers for the granting of victory to the Russian army in the event of hostilities.

Metropolitan Theodosius died on August 19, 1671. His successor was Metropolitan Misail, appointed by the sovereign decree to Belgorod on February 17, 1672 from the Kolomna diocese.

It is noteworthy that in 1682, at the Moscow Council, the issue of opening the Kursk diocese was decided, but such an institution did not take place.

At the end of the 17th century, the Kursk region lived in a struggle with the Crimean Khanate, which did not leave the borders of our state alone, attacking its villages and cities. Therefore, the shepherds of the Kursk region blessed the soldiers in the Crimean campaigns of 1687, 1689. Russian troops in military campaigns were accompanied by a list of the miraculous icon of the Kursk-Root "Sign" of the Most Holy Theotokos.

At the same time, the Russian sovereigns did not disregard the care of the church of the Kursk region. So, in 1688, Tsars Peter Alekseevich and John Alekseevich presented a bell weighing more than 50 pounds for the Church of the Sign in Kursk.

2. The development of Orthodoxy in the Kursk region in the XVIII century. The 18th century in the history of the Russian Orthodox Church was a period of development and, at the same time, the most difficult trials. The common fate of the Russian Church was also shared by the Church of the Kursk Territory.

At the beginning of the 18th century, the territory of the Belgorod-Oboyansk Metropolitanate was in the war zone with the Swedes. The local population supported our soldiers. Everyone was preparing for the war. Priests and believers served prayers, collected the necessary materials for medical care, as well as provisions. In Kursk in 1709 a hospital was set up for the wounded in the battle of Poltava. The priests of the diocese also participated in its work. They provided material assistance, strengthened the wounded spiritually.

After the victory over the Swedes near Poltava, a long-awaited calm came in the Kursk region. The borders of the Russian state expanded significantly, all this had a beneficial effect on the life of the flock and pastors, who are now engaged only in peaceful work.

In 1712–1715 By decree of Emperor Peter I, provinces were established in Russia. Among them is the Belgorod province, which was later transformed into a province. In 1721, the Holy Synod decided to transform the Belgorod Metropolis into a bishopric. On January 3, 1722, the Synod issued a decree on the consecration of the Belgorod bishop. They appointed Bishop Epiphanius (Tikhorsky). With the arrival of the new Bishop in Belgorod, the life of the bishopric began to change.

First of all, spiritual education and enlightenment were developed. Parish schools began to open in cities and districts at churches and monasteries: Belgorod for children of the clergy, Kursk, Starooskolskoe, Oboyanskoe, Rylskoe at the Rylsky Nikolaev Monastery, Putivlskoe.

In 1726, under the leadership of Bishop Epiphanius, a collegium was opened in Kharkov, in which children from the clergy and other classes studied. The collegium's program was rather complicated. Educational work was excellent here. This is evidenced by the fact that capable students were often sent to study in Germany.

In 1786, the Main Public School was opened, which was transformed into a gymnasium at the beginning of the 19th century. In 1787, a theological seminary was founded on the basis of the theological school at the Belgorod Bishop's House.

In 1787 another memorable event took place. On the way from Novorossia to Moscow, Empress Catherine II passed through the territory of the bishopric. She visited Belgorod, Oboyan, Kursk. On June 13, 1787, the Empress attended a prayer service at the Znamensky Monastery in Kursk. The Empress liked the city, and especially the Kursk temples.

3. Saint Joasaph of Belgorod. The Kursk land is the land that was nourished by the great saint of the Russian Orthodox Church, Joasaph of Belgorod. The saint was consecrated at the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg in the presence of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna. And he arrived in Belgorod on the morning of August 6 (August 19, according to a new style), 1748, on the feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord.

In the very first year of his archpastoral service, Saint Joasaph traveled around part of his diocese. Subsequently, such revisions became constant until the very end of the saint's life. This allowed the manager to successfully lead the flock entrusted to him.

The most important concern of Saint Joasaph was the spiritual and moral education of the priests. In 1749, he ordered from Moscow a book on the sacraments of the Church and then sent it to all the churches for "teaching to priests." Also, Saint Joasaph tried to elevate the spiritual level of the priesthood, to make them educated and strong in spirit. He showed special concern for the splendor of temples, for church utensils. In 1752, the foundation stone of the Sergiev-Kazan Cathedral was consecrated in Kursk.

Shortly before his death, St. Joasaph went to his hometown of Priluki to visit his parents. Saying goodbye to his Belgorod flock, Bishop Joasaph said that they would no longer see him alive, asked everyone for forgiveness, and in turn he himself forgave and blessed everyone.

Visiting parents, St. Joasaph in mid-September 1754 went back to Belgorod. But according to the prediction of the saint, Belgorod was not destined to see its archpastor alive again.

4. Secularization in the Kursk region. The development of Orthodoxy in our region in the 18th century was negatively affected by the secularization that began in Russia at the beginning of this century. The Orthodox clergy were actually reduced to impoverishment.

The reign of Anna Ivanovna was very difficult for the Kursk Territory, when not only the priesthood suffered, in the 1730s many priests were taken to recruit service, even Bishop Dosifey suffered.

Secularization caused the greatest damage to Orthodox monasteries. If in the first half of the 18th century almost all monasteries were preserved in the Kursk region, then in the second, their mass closure began. According to the decree of Empress Catherine II on the closure of Russian monasteries in the Kursk diocese in 1764 and later, 14 monasteries were abolished. Remained behind the state and Root deserts. Subsequently, A.S. Pushkin pointed out that this decree of Catherine hit on public education, and was deeply right in his assessment.

5. Construction of temples. However, secularization could not destroy the Orthodox faith, which has always been an "influx of manpower", supported the full existence of Russian society, determined its spiritual and moral values. The faith of people was expressed in various deeds, including the construction of Orthodox churches, which were built on voluntary donations from parishioners. From the end of the 17th century, the aging wooden tent churches gradually began to be replaced by brick and stone buildings. Church construction was especially active in Kursk. In 1695, the brick Upper Trinity Cathedral of the city women's monastery was consecrated - the only stone building of that time, although in a modified form, but preserved to this day. By 1742, the two-storey one-domed Nizhne-Trinity Church was rebuilt, which in its new appearance showed features of the local wooden religious architecture of the second half of the 17th century. In the second half of the 18th century, stone churches were built in Kursk: the cathedral church in the name of the Resurrection of Christ, the Sergiev-Kazan Cathedral, the St. -Trinity, the Transfiguration of the Lord, the Intercession of the Virgin, the Ascension of the Lord, the Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God, the cemetery, St. George. Churches of the Wonderworker Nicholas, the Assumption of the Mother of God, the Church of the Savior beyond the Kur, the Cemetery outside the city behind Kherson Street remained wooden. Churches were also built in the counties. For example, in 1764 there were 51 churches in the Rylsky district.

Some of the churches built at the end of the 18th century have survived to this day. One of the oldest churches in our region is the Church of the Archangel Michael, located in the village of Staroe Rogovoe, Gorshechensky district. Its first building is dated 1783. The temple was wooden, with a bell tower.

Five rural brick churches have survived to our time: the Church of the Holy Trinity in the village of Glushkovo (1785), the Church of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God in the village of Klyuch in the Gorshechensky district (1799–1803), the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin in the village of Kastornoye (1779), the Holy Trinity in the village of Orekhovo Kastorensky district (1791), Intercession Church in the village of Orlyanka, Solntsevo District (1794). In addition, several dilapidated or rebuilt temple buildings have been preserved in other parts of the region.

According to documents, by 1800 in the Kursk province there were 416 stone Orthodox cathedrals, churches and chapels, and 656 wooden ones.

In rural areas, a church parish, or territory under the jurisdiction of the church, included one or more settlements. In pre-revolutionary public life, the parish church occupied a significant place. In addition to church services, she kept records of births and deaths, gatherings, bazaars and fairs gathered on her square. Temple estates with an orchard, lilac alleys with neat paths and shady trees were a favorite resting place for parishioners and were distinguished by skillful planning and meticulous care.

In the 18th century, one of the most famous churches in Russia was built - Sergiev-Kazan Cathedral. According to local legends, it was designed by the famous architect Rastrelli or one of his students, but there is no information about this.

The history of this cathedral begins with a small wooden church in the name of St. Sergius of Radonezh. In this temple there was one of the revered lists of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God. In 1751, during a fire, the St. Sergius Church burned down. The parishioners, clearing the ashes, found the Kazan Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos completely untouched by the fire. The inhabitants saw in this a special foreknowledge of the Queen of Heaven and decided to build a stone church on the same place in honor of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God and in the name of St. Sergius.

Funds for the construction of the temple were collected among the parishioners, a Kursk merchant Karp Pervyshev made a big contribution. The contract for the construction of the cathedral was taken by the Kursk merchant Isidor Moshnin, who owned several small brick factories not far from Kursk. Dying, he left the construction of the church of St. Sergius, which he had begun, in the care of his wife Agathia, under whose supervision the construction was completed in 1778.

But the cathedral gained worldwide fame thanks to their son Prokhor, the future saint of the Monk Seraphim of Sarov. According to legend, it is known that he left for Diveyevo Hermitage only when the construction of the temple was completed and its consecration took place.

6. Veneration of icons. The faith of the Kuryans was traditionally expressed in the veneration of Orthodox shrines. Several miraculous icons were also found on the territory of the Kursk Territory: the Kursk-Root icon of the Mother of God "The Sign"; in the temple of Belgorod, as well as the cross and holy relics in the Novooskolsky Assumption Cathedral.

In the Kursk region was also acquired Pryazhev Icon of the Mother of God. No information has been preserved about the place of the appearance of the Pryazhev Icon of the Mother of God. Written monuments do not speak about this either, but records in old church books from c. Pryazhev (therefore the icon is called Pryazhevskaya), located near the city of Zhytomyr. The legend about the icon has been preserved. The appearance and glorification of the Pryazhevskaya Icon of the Mother of God dates back to the end of the 17th and beginning of the 18th centuries.

According to legend, the Pryazhevskaya icon was found at the suggestion of the icon painter Ivan Bely, to whom it was revealed from above that behind the iconostasis of the Nicholas Church there is an icon of the Mother of God painted on canvas. He must get it and renew it, but without touching the faces of the Ever-Virgin and the Child. The discovery and renewal of the icon took place in 1792.

In the 18th century, the temple with the miraculous icon belonged to the Uniates and only on October 28, 1794 was returned to the Orthodox. Before the abolition of the union, a certain Catholic priest came to the village. Pryazhev, not far from Zhytomyr, and wanted to take the miraculous icon with him. But as soon as he traveled 4 miles, the horses stopped and no efforts of people could move them from their place. Accidentally looking at the icon, which he held in his hands, the Catholic priest noticed on the face of the Most Holy Theotokos, as it were, moisture from tears. Then he realized that his plans were contrary to God and immediately ordered the coachman to go back to Pryazhev. He put the holy icon in its original place in the church.

The Pryazhev Icon of the Mother of God was especially revered in the Belogorsk Nikolaev Hermitage, founded at the end of the 17th century. On the day of the Ascension of the Lord, the holy icon, kept in the Belogorsk Monastery, was transferred by procession to the city of Miropolye, where it remained until the second day of the feast of the Most Holy Trinity.

The location of the icon of the Mother of God of Pryazhevskaya after the destruction of the monastery by the Bolsheviks is unknown. Its second acquisition took place in 1996. During the inventory in the Holy Trinity Church in the city of Sudzha, on the icon, listed in the inventory as "Smolensk", a discrepancy between the face and the riza covering the image was noticed. When referring to archival data, it was confirmed that the image under the robe is the icon of the Mother of God of Pryazhevskaya. In 2001, through the prayers of the faithful, the Nikolaevsky Belogorsky Monastery was returned to the Orthodox Church, and she began to dwell in it.

7. The famous Kursk religious processions. One of the ancient spiritual traditions of the Kursk land is holding religious processions. They started in the first third of the 17th century.

In 1618, on the occasion of the consecration of the first wooden church of the Nativity of the Virgin in the Root Hermitage on the ninth Friday after Easter, the icon of the Sign was first transferred from Kursk to the Root Hermitage. From 1618 to 1726 the icon remained in the Root Hermitage for three days. Since 1765, the stay of the icon in the monastery has increased to 1 week. But in 1767, by the Decree of the Holy Synod, the Kursk procession was banned. In subsequent years, the Kuryans sought its revival. And in 1791 it was renewed. At the same time, the icon began to stay in the Root Monastery for two weeks. In 1805, thanks to the intercession of Abbot Macarius, the period of stay of the icon at the place of its appearance was set from the ninth Friday after Easter until September 12th.

The Znamensky Cathedral of Kursk became the winter place of residence of the shrine, and the Root Hermitage became the summer place. Every year on September 12 (25) the icon is transferred from the monastery to the Cathedral of the Sign. Over time, a certain order of the procession was developed. Majestic and solemn religious processions gathered up to one hundred thousand people. The love for the miraculous icon remains just as great. To this day, a legend has been preserved that when the first pilgrims entered Korennaya, the last were still in Kursk. So great was the number of pilgrims coming under the canopy of the icon.

During the years of Soviet power, religious processions in the territory of the region were prohibited. The ancient tradition of holding religious processions with the holy icon of the Mother of God "The Sign" of Kursk-Root was revived in 1990. Modern religious processions involve a list of icons - an exact copy of the miraculous image, written in the Znamensky Monastery in 1902. And in recent years, the procession a genuine icon also comes from abroad. The holy springs on the territory of the monastery have not dried up either. As before, their holy water gives strength and strengthens Orthodox people in the faith.

Today, traditional religious processions with the miraculous Pryazhevsky Icon of the Mother of God have been resumed. One is made to the Ukrainian Miropolye - this is the only religious procession made outside the borders of Russia; the other to the city of Suju.

In addition to the regular ones, which enjoyed all-Russian fame, other religious processions were also held with local church shrines. They were both regular and on the occasion of certain disasters: lack of rain, wars, fires, famine, diseases. Many religious processions with prayers for the granting of victory to the Russian army took place on the territory of the diocese during the war years of 1914-1917.

7. Kursk Korenskaya fair. A significant role in the development of the Kursk Territory, the Root Hermitage and the procession was played by the Korenskaya Fair, which owes its origin to the Root Hermitage. The first officially attested mention of it dates back to 1708. In 1787, by decree of Empress Catherine II, the Korenskaya Fair received an all-Russian status, and since 1824 it became international. In governmental acts of the Russian Empire for 1824, the Kursk Korenskaya Fair was named among the three main fairs in Russia, along with the Nizhny Novgorod (Makarievskaya) and Ural (Irbitskaya) fairs. A huge number of merchants and townspeople, peasants, artisans and artisans who came to the fair, the abundance and variety of goods, multimillion-dollar turnover made the Korenskaya Fair famous not only throughout the Russian Empire, but also far beyond its borders. It was the Korenskaya Fair that glorified ancient Kursk in those distant times as the “Southern Trade Gates of Russia”. In some years of the second half of the 19th century, the turnover of the fair reached 7 million rubles. On an area of ​​64 acres, there were more than 600 commercial premises, 58 hotels, a hippodrome, a theater house, and circus booths. The Gostiny Dvor of the fair was built according to the design of the famous architect Giacomo Quarenghi and at that time was one of the most beautiful courtyards in Russia.

For more than two centuries, a few days before the official opening of the fair, the City Duma, as well as merchants from all over our country, usually came to Korennaya to organize and manage it in full force.

At the beginning of the 21st century, the idea of ​​reviving the Kursk Korensky fair arose. In the autumn of 2001, the fair found a second life as an annual inter-regional universal wholesale and retail trade.

The Korenskaya fair has always coincided with the famous throughout the country religious procession with the miraculous icon of the Mother of God "The Sign" of Kursk-Root. This tradition continues to this day. Over the years, the fair has become a permanent and desirable venue for multilateral fruitful business meetings and negotiations, as a result of which long-term cooperation is established. And today it is difficult to imagine the life of the region without this noisy, bright event with the participation of many guests. Moreover, each fair has its own characteristics.

8. Kursk is the center of the Kursk-Belgorod diocese. In 1781, a great fire broke out in Kursk, which destroyed almost the entire old city center. On February 26, 1782, Empress Catherine II approved the General Plan of Kursk. In its implementation, the provincial surveyor F.I. Bashilov, who managed to replan the city in such a way that he left each of the churches of Kursk in its place, although some of them had to be destroyed as they did not fit into the plan (Florovskaya, Pokrovskaya, Mikhailovskaya churches).

After the transfer of Sloboda Ukraine to the jurisdiction of the Kharkiv diocese, as well as in connection with the establishment of the Kursk province by decree of the Senate of May 23, 1799, Kursk became the diocesan and provincial center. Therefore, the Belgorod-Sloboda diocese began to be called in a new way - Kursk-Belgorod. To resolve various issues related to the daily life of the diocese, on October 16, 1799, the Kursk Spiritual Consistory was established - the main body of spiritual administration. Initially, the consistory was located in Belgorod, and since 1833 - in Kursk.

9. General overview. The XVIII century in the history of our region is notable for the fact that the territorial registration of the Kursk-Belgorod diocese took place. An important event was the approval of Kursk as a diocesan center and the establishment of a consistory as the main governing body. Despite secularization, the Church actively developed in our region, which testifies to the high level of faith in the society of that time. Faith was manifested in the preservation of the Orthodox way of life of the people, in the veneration of Orthodox shrines, in the extensive construction of churches on the donations of parishioners, in the development of education and enlightenment of children and youth.

Thus, despite all the persecutions that fell upon our Church in the 18th century, Orthodoxy was able not only to survive, but to remain the main spiritual force of our region.

Think: What, in your opinion, are the most important events in the life of the Church in the Kursk Territory in the 18th century?

LECTURE 7-8

1. Peter's reforms and their consequences for the Kursk region.

2. Socio-economic development of Kurshchina in the era of Catherine.

3. Kuryans in the history of Russian culture in the 18th century.

1. By the middle of the XVIII century. The Kursk Territory is losing its military and border significance and is becoming one of the many Russian centers of trade and economic development. The forms of feudal landownership are also changing, and the rights of landowners are expanding. If, according to the Council Code of 1649, landlords were forbidden to punish peasants for serious crimes on their own, then the Decree of Elizabeth Petrovna allowed serfs to be exiled to Siberia. In 1762, Peter III allowed the landowners to transfer peasants from one estate to another without the consent of the Chamber Collegium, as was established by Peter I.

Catherine II, who was sympathetic to the ideas of the liberal age of the French Enlightenment, thought about the most painless way for the state to free the serfs and wrote that "it is contrary to the Christian religion and justice to enslave people who are all born free", could not carry out these transformations. Having received the throne illegally, with the support of guard officers, she thought more about how not to lose the love of landowners than about carrying out a peasant reform, although her moral sense and arguments forced her to return to this issue, including in the work of the Legislative Commission of 1766 Out of 565 people. about 1/3 of the deputies were representatives of the local nobility. However, the commission also included deputies from government agencies, from cities and the Cossacks, rural residents - single-palace dwellers (personally free, paying taxes, plowmen, mostly descendants of archers and other service people, as well as black-haired peasants). From the Belgorod province of the three provinces that now make up the Kursk region (Kursk, Oboyan, Sudzha, Rylsk and Sevsk), our fellow countrymen were on the commission 37 people: from the nobility of the Kursk district, Major Pyotr Stromilov, from Oboyan uyezd. - retired guard ensign Mikhail Glazov, from Rylsky district. - retired guard sergeant Luka Shirkov, lieutenant Alexander Shirkov. From the citizenship of the cities Kursk was represented by the merchant Ivan Skornyakov, Oboyan - by the merchant Sidor Utkin, Rylsk - by the merchant Fedot Filimonov. Odnodvortsev was represented by Andrey Maslov, who spoke on May 27, 1768 at a meeting of the commission with a radical diatribe in defense of the serfs, against the arbitrariness of the landowners, the cruelty of punishments and the persecution of fugitives. * 11 The scandalous speech of M. Glazov with objections on 23 pages and insults addressed to the speaker from Yelets. The retired warrant officer was reprimanded for misbehavior and fined 5 rubles. The merchants of the Kursk Territory were also active, seeking the right for all merchants to trade in all cities without restrictions, including Moscow and St. Petersburg.

The movement of the landlord peasants became more active due to the fact that rumors reached the village about the work of the Legislative Commission, about the discussion of peasant issues there. They expected the Manifesto on the liberation of the peasants. However, the Decrees of Catherine I continued the serf traditions of Russia. Thus, the Decree of 1763 ordered the creation of military teams to pacify peasant riots. By another decree, a serf was threatened with exile in the Nerchinsk mines for complaining about his master. By a decree of January 17, 1765, the landowner received the right to send the peasants to hard labor, as well as determine the length of their stay and the right to return the peasants back. After a short break, the public sale of peasants by auction was also resumed. In response to these actions of the government, only in the Kursk region for 1764-1771. there were at least 10 peasant unrest. At the height of the Pugachev war, decrees from the voivodeship offices were sent to all large villages in the counties on the need to take emergency measures in case Pugachev’s detachments or people appeared in the villages. It was ordered to look after the suspicious, arrest and deliver to the voivodeship offices.

The freedom-loving outskirts of Russia actively resisted the promotion of serfdom, especially the inhabitants of Sloboda Ukraine, the Cherkasy, as they were called in Russia, who fled from the Polish-gentry oppression and involuntarily became serfs of Russian landowners. In September-December 1776, the peasants of the Pena settlement of the Sumy province of Sloboda Ukraine rebelled. A military team led by Lieutenant Colonel Tevyashov was sent to pacify. During the "exhortations" 17 peasants were killed and 15 people were wounded.

Great concern was also caused by the uprising of the peasants in the village. Stakanovo, Livensky district, in the autumn of 1776, where the "rebellious" moods of the peasants intertwined with the moods of the schismatics. An echo of the Pugachev war, the era of impostors, was the appearance in the village. Stakanovo Ivan Sergeev, spreading rumors that Emperor Peter Fedorovich (Peter III) was not killed, is alive and will soon appear. The schismatics Afimya Alenikova, who called herself the Mother of God, and Anton Alenikov, who took the name of Christ, blessed Ivan Sergeyev to fight the landowners, calling him Ivan the Warrior, Metelka, who, according to folk tales, should come after E. Pugachev and complete his work. A terrible and senseless popular revolt swept the surrounding villages. More than a hundred people, armed with axes and jagged spears, smashed the landlord estates of Brusentsov, Olovyannikov, robbed, chopped furniture, set fire to, drove the landowner Khanykova out of the house, giving this house to Afimya Alenikova, rolled out barrels of wine from the cellars, got drunk, started fights. A few days later, his own people, with whom Ivan the Warrior went to burn and rob the landowners, tied him up and took him to the district in Shchigry. The landowner Brusentsov, who returned to Stakanovo, severely beat the residents of the same palace, took away cattle and bread, and threatened to drive them out of their homes. Following the landowner, more than 2 thousand peasants from the surrounding villages, who had gathered in Stakanovo on carts, plundered the entire economy of Ivan Sergeev. On suspicion, 208 people were involved in the investigation. Cruel punishment awaited Ivan Sergeev: beating with a whip, tearing out his nostrils, branding a criminal on his face and body, and exile in chains to Nerchinsk. The same punishment went to Afimka Alenikova with exile in Livonia to a hard labor prison. A total of 86 people were punished.

A new wave of peasant uprisings rises at the end of 1796. In December, 182 peasants revolted. Novosergievka of the Lgovsky district against her master General-in-Chief Kamensky, known for his cruel treatment of serfs. Governor Burnashev himself was engaged in pacifying the peasants. At the same time, the peasants of the village of Androsov also rose up against the landowner M. Andreev, who, buying them with land from the former owners of the Danilovs, promised to keep the quitrent, but then began to use the peasants in work, forbade cutting down the forest. The peasants, in response, burned down the manor house and did not allow the landowner to settle in their village. After pacifying the uprising, the provincial government reported to the Senate that 5 people. the instigators were beaten with a whip, one of them died from beatings, 4 were shackled and sent into exile, another 85 people. have been under arrest for a long time.

The struggle of bonded peasants and working people in light industry manufactories was distinguished by particular persistence. Workers of cloth manufactories were more active than others. This was explained by the fact that the treasury accepted cloth at prices of 20-30 years, and during this time the prices for wool and paint increased significantly. Employees were either delayed or not paid at all. The workers, protesting, did not go to work, fled from the manufactories, or even raised real riots, as happened at the Glushkovo cloth factory in the summer of 1797/98. During the time of Elizabeth Petrovna, the factory was granted to c. P.S. Potemkin. Since that time, people began to be attracted not only to factory work, but also to the master's, and besides, you have to pay 2 rubles 7 kopecks from each soul, and even pay a tax in bread. The salaries of the working people were stopped. The interests of the factory workers before the factory manager were defended by the serf clerk Pyotr Slyusarev. On behalf of the factory workers, he filed complaints to all instances, from the Kursk provincial government to Emperor Paul I. After the factory workers received neither an answer nor money, the factory revolted. It was the most massive uprising in the Kursk province of the 18th century. The total number of participants reached 10 thousand people. After the suppression, 1.5 thousand people were arrested. The Chernigov cuirassier regiment and two Cossack regiments were withdrawn from Glushkov only a few months later, since the authorities feared a repetition of the uprising, especially since out of 25 thousand rubles sent to the factory. in order to settle accounts with the workers, the landowner Potemkina paid the workers only one thousand rubles. According to the verdict, P. Slyusarev received 200 blows, cutting out his nostrils, stamping /branding/ and exile to Nerchinsk, 6 more active participants - the same punishment, but without stamping, 18 people. - Punishment with a whip and exile in the Irkutsk state-owned manufactory. The rest of the participants were beaten with a whip and left at the factory.

Peasant riots revealed the weakness of local authorities, influenced the implementation of the regional management reform. Instead of dividing Russia into provinces, provinces and counties, provinces and counties were introduced /according to the number of taxable population/. 300-400 thousand souls - the province, 20-30 thousand souls - the county. Instead of 23, 50 provinces were created. In 1708-1719. Kursk was part of the Kyiv province, in 1719-1727. - in the Belgorod province of the Kyiv province., from 1727 to 1749. in the composition of the Belgorod governorate, from 1780 to 1797 the Kursk governorship was organized, and from 1797 - the Kursk province. "From 1727 to 1779, Kursk was part of the Belgorod province. As a county center, the county numbered 178 thousand inhabitants according to the third revision, most of them were peasants-odnodvortsy and economic peasants / former monasteries, more than 50 thousand people /, about 3.3 thousand were privately owned or landlord peasants. In the Kursk district lived 720 landowners. The main institution was the voivodship office, engaged in the search for fugitives, the fight against peasant unrest. The township population was in charge of the city magistrate, an elected institution that elected the mayor and ratmans, mostly from the merchant class. According to the "Institution of the provinces" in 1775, Kursk was transformed into a provincial city, which received its coat of arms in 1780: a blue stripe on a silver field and three flying partridges on it. In January 1780 Provincial institutions were opened in Kursk in the presence of the "sovereign governor" PA Rumyantsev-Zadunaisky.

The Kursk province included 15 counties: Kursk, Belgorod, Dmitrievsky, Oboyansky, Sudzhansky, Rylsky and others. According to the law of 1785 "Charter to Cities", new self-government bodies were created: a general and six-vowel Duma.

The economic development of the Kursk region and its cities was determined by the development of handicraft production and trade. Already at the beginning of the century, 100 artisans worked in the city of Kursk, there were 14 tanneries "factories" /obviously, small workshops/ that produced low-quality leather. It is known that in 1735 Kursk merchants asked for permission to set up a cloth factory on the bank of the river. Tuskar near Krivets. True, it is not known whether this factory worked. 19 In the second half and by the end of the century, there were 68 forges, 38 tanneries, 15 brick factories, 7 lime factories, 1 lard factory, 1 wax slaughterhouse, 1 pottery factory and several breweries in Kursk. 20 In the 90s, the number of artisans grew to 685 people. The city had 44 tanneries, 21 brick factories, 5 wax mills, 5 breweries, 5 soap factories and 5 butter churns. Among the Sudzhan artisans, tailors were distinguished by special skill; "blood craft".

Of particular importance for the development of the economy of the Kursk region was trade, primarily Russian-Ukrainian. Through Kursk from Ukraine there was a run of cattle, sheep, delivery of agricultural products to the center of the country. Until 1753, there was one of the border customs in Kursk, which charged a fee for the transport of goods. Bread was the main item of trade. This type of trade was engaged not only by merchants, but also by wealthy Kuryans, nobles, and single-palace residents.

In 1769, 90 people from the Kursk merchants. were engaged in foreign trade ("trading to the ports"), 712 people traded in the city, 1321 people traded in the domestic markets of Russia. merchants. Local and all-Russian fairs played a significant role in the development of trade. So, the Kursk Root Fair by the end of the 80s had a trade turnover of up to 3 million rubles. Merchants from many cities of Russia came here, foreign goods also arrived here.

In Kursk itself, in the 1990s, the construction of stone shopping arcades was completed. The First, or Bolshoy Gostiny Dvor, the Second Gostiny Dvor, or "Malaya Melochnaya", and the Third, or Upper Gostiny Dvor were located in the city center towards the Znamensky Cathedral on the right and left sides of the main Moscow Street. In the shops on other streets of the city there was also trade, often the peasants were also engaged in it. There were 5 stone taverns, 2 wooden taverns, 10 taverns and 22 drinking houses in the city.

In the last two decades of the eighteenth century in the Kursk region there was a shipping company, which was headed by the governor himself A. Zubov. The governor reported to Catherine II on the opening of a navigable route from Kursk to Kyiv in a report dated May 6, 1787.25 Even earlier, navigation along the river was developed. Diet for the transportation of cloth from the Glushkovo manufactory, as well as timber and firewood. The northern direction was mainly used: Tuskar - Seim - Svapa - overload at the spruce. Mikhailovka (now Zheleznogorsk district), then they were taken by sledge to Orel on the Okskaya pier, and from there the goods reached the Volga itself. "Zubov's company" used the events of the Russian-Turkish war, the army needed supplies of provisions, uniforms. The company successfully transported cargo along the rivers Svapa, Seim, Desna and Dnieper to Kherson and Ochakov. Two piers were created: near the city of Dmitriev on the river. Svapa and near Oboyan on the river. Psel. The successful activity of the company was noted by the general city meeting, which decided to place a portrait of A. Zubov in the building of the city meeting. The governor was also presented with a golden snuffbox with an engraved sailing ship.*26 However, with the end of hostilities, the navigable route from Kursk to the Black Sea lost its economic significance.

The description of the Kursk governorate and the provincial city of Kursk was preserved in the work of the Kursk surveyor and local historian I. Bashilov from 1785. The main population of Kursk and county towns were merchants, petty bourgeois, single-palace peasants who moved to urban settlements, as well as the nobility, officials and clergy. In 1795, 5663 people lived in Kursk. male, and in the Kursk district - 68876 people.28 Most of the population were merchants and petty bourgeois. Odnodvortsy, together with the peasants, settled in the city settlements: Soldier, Rassylnaya, Podyacheskaya, Gorodovaya and Cherkasy. In the suburban settlements: Streletskaya, Pushkarnaya and Cossack one-palaces, placed on government land, were engaged in arable farming and handicrafts.

In 1784, there were 6,000 acres of convenient land in Streltsy Sloboda, for 613 souls. The inhabitants were engaged in gardening and kept inns. Sloboda Pushkarnaya at that time had 940 acres of convenient land for 190 men's souls. A special group of state peasants lived in the Yamskaya Sloboda, who did not pay the poll tax, but served the state postal stations - pits and were divided into vyti (groups of yards - 4 yards, 28 souls - were required to keep 3 horses "for chasing"). For this service, they received land and money for each trip. The legend about the foundation of the Yamskaya Sloboda has been preserved. In the summer of 1787, Empress Catherine II, while traveling, passed through Kursk. When Catherine II left Kursk, the coachmen unharnessed their horses from her carriage, harnessed themselves and drove her carriage for several miles, for which they were granted this piece of land for perpetual use.

The nobility in the city of Kursk was represented by 136 men and 184 women, small-scale and rather poor. By the end of the century, there were only 12 stone noble houses in the city, while among the 600 merchant houses there were also stone ones. 165 clergy and 345 officials lived in the city. Paul I, seeking to strengthen his influence among the top of the nobility, who fell into disgrace under Elizabeth Petrovna and Catherine II, distributed more than 200 thousand acres of land, including in the Kursk province, more than 15 thousand acres from the palace possessions in the north-west of the province . So, by the decree of Paul I, the grandson of the favorite of Anna Ioannovna of the Guards Ensign Biron - the villages of Sokolovka and Khomutovka and about 2 thousand peasants, his other grandson, the cornet of the cavalry guard corps, was also granted more than a thousand souls of serfs and land.

Biron's daughters were granted the villages of Dubovitskoe and Obzhi and 639 souls of serfs. In 1797 Count Munnich was granted with. Selino of the Rylsky district and 600 souls in eternal and hereditary possession.

Great administrative and socio-economic changes in the 18th century also affected the life of county towns. Since 1708, by decree of Peter I, Belgorod, Sudzha Miropolye, Khotmyzhsk, Oboyan, Putivl, Rylsk, Kursk, Stary Oskol were included in the Kyiv province, and Novy Oskol - in the Azov province. Since 1719, the entire Kursk province belonged to the Kyiv province, and two provinces were created - Sevskaya, which included Rylsk and Putivl, and Belgorod, to which all other areas were assigned.

With the access of Russia to the Black Sea and the expansion of the borders of the Russian Empire in the second half of the XVIII century. The Belgorod defensive line has ceased to play its former role, its strongholds are losing their military significance. So, in 1779, the Sudzha fortress became a county town of the Kursk province. By decree of Empress Catherine II of January 8, 1780, a new coat of arms of Sudzha was established: three wild ducks on an oblique strip, a wild goose in the reeds below, an inscription at the top - Sudzha. By the end of the XVIII century. in the city there were 53 streets and lanes, 33 houses, 8 churches, 9 shops, 1 tavern, 4 almshouses, 2 drinking establishments, 25 forges. All these buildings were wooden. Since 1784, Sudzha began to rebuild anew. Its layout has been almost completely preserved to this day. The city center began to be built up mainly with stone buildings. Houses, shops, warehouses belonged to merchants, noble landowners or royal officials. However, the city still suffered from frequent floods, especially in spring and after heavy rains and impassable mud.

In 1779, by decree of Catherine II, the provinces were disaggregated. There were Kursk and Oryol governorships. Since that time, the economic village of Dmitrievskoye was reorganized into the county town of Dmitriev. On January 21, 1780, the Decree of the Senate "On the Emblems of the Cities of the Kursk Viceroyalty" was issued. The upper part of the coat of arms of the city of Dmitriev repeated the drawing of the old coat of arms of Kursk: a blue stripe in a silver field and three flying partridges on it. In the second, lower part, Dmitriev was instructed to have "five hills filled with hills in a green field, with which nature distinguished this town from aliens." The prefix "on Svapa" was added to the name of the city in 1785 to distinguish it from another city the same name in the Oryol vicegerency.

In 1797, during the revision of the states of the Kursk province, counties were enlarged, the city of Dmitriev was not included in the new state. It turned out to be an out-of-state city. But on May 7, 1803, a decision was made to restore the provincial cities of various provinces, including the city of Dmitriev. According to the description of 1779 in the Geographical Dictionary of the Russian State, published in 1804, the city of Dmitriev, standing on a high mountain, had a stone church, other houses were wooden. There were two noble houses, the rest - 39. There were two drinking yards, a tavern, a smithy. 8 clergymen, 16 merchants, 2 tradesmen, 5 Little Russians, 69 economic peasants, up to 200 people lived in the city. every different rank. The river Svapa flowing in the city was 10 sazhens wide and up to 3 sazhens deep. Breams, perches, catfish, pikes were found in it. In addition to ordinary animals (wolves, foxes), beavers, otters, and moose were found in the forests.

Dmitriev was reborn according to the drawings "made" in St. Petersburg. The new city was distinguished by straight streets and rectangular quarters. Initially, an earth embankment was erected around the city, but later, as unnecessary, it was demolished.

Back in the second half of the 17th century. at the source of the Tim River, a settlement of service guard people arose. On May 23, 1779, by the highest order of Catherine II, the village of Verkhnee Vygornoye, in which the single-palace residents lived, was transformed into the county town of Tim of the Kursk viceroy. Apparently, the city got its name from the river Tim. The banks of the river are dark, the bottom is muddy, muddy. The name is rooted in the old Russian word "timen", although local legend ascribes the name of the city to the name of the robber Timka. The emblem of the city of Tim, approved in January 1780, contained in the upper part the coat of arms of the provincial city of Kursk, and in the lower part on the red field - a gun, in the green - a golden braid. The city plan was approved in January 1784. The population numbered 2901 people. and consisted of nobles, philistines, officials, soldiers. Catherine II passed through Tim, returning from her trip to the Crimea. It was then that the villages of Stanovoe, Pogozhee, Kuskino were founded. With her, a path was laid from Kursk through Tim to Voronezh.

When the Kursk province was formed, Tim was not included in the number of regular cities. Tim was restored as the county town of the Kursk province on April 24, 1802.

The excellent black soil of the Kursk Territory contributed to the development of agriculture, but the remoteness from large seaports, the lack of proper demand for agricultural products, in many respects hindered the profitability of agriculture. The landowners increased taxes on the peasants, took away land, transferring the peasants to the position of courtyards. Most of all, such actions of the landlords were manifested in the Timsky district. If the percentage of courtyard people in Russia did not exceed 7%, then in the Kursk province it was 9.6%, and in the Timsky district - out of 14389 people. serfs 5970 people. were in the position of courtyard people, which is 41%. In the peasant unrest of the XVIII century. up to half of the Tim peasants participated.

In 1781, the Gorshechnoye settlement was founded from exiled single-palace peasants. In the directory of settlements at that time, it listed 38 households and 579 souls of peasants. The settlers sowed rye, oats, buckwheat, millet, hemp, and planted potatoes. Of the crafts, pottery, fur coats and sheepskin coats, shoe and felting, spinning and weaving were developed. Subsequently, Gorshechnoye developed into a lively trading village. Even earlier, in 1730-1760, such settlements as Soldatskoye, Starorogovoye, Boloto, Berezovo arose. The settlers of the village of Soldatskoye were retired soldiers from the Stary Oskol fortress of the Belgorod line. After serving the prescribed term, the soldiers were allowed, at their request, to build their settlements on free lands.

A few kilometers from Gorshechny is the village of Bykovo. In the XVIII century. in this place there was a continuous forest through which the Stary Oskol - Volovo - Yelets route ran. Local legend tells that Empress Catherine II passed through here. For lodging and rest, a house with stables was built, where a hired man by the name of Bykov settled. Over time, several households of runaway peasants appeared there. Later, landowners also appeared on the lands granted by Tsar Paul I. Fugitives seeking freedom often fell into a new bondage. So, the settlers brothers Gur, Avil and Samuil, who fled from the landowner Kuragin of the Malo-Arkhangelsk district of the Oryol province, settled in the village of Kamenka, Znamenka volost. However, the landowner Cheremisin, who lived in the village of Znamenskoye, decided to enslave them. The brothers desperately resisted this, for which the most recalcitrant of them - the Guru - the corrupt people of the landowner burned out their eyes. The landowner did not suffer any punishment for this terrible crime, although the brothers took the blind Gur 60 miles to Kursk with a complaint to the governor.

In the 17th century In Russia, not only domestic, but also foreign trade has noticeably intensified. Rylsk occupied an advantageous geographical position, being on important trade routes. Even in ancient times, the Seim connected the Dnieper trade artery "from the Varangians to the Greeks" with the Don waterway. Already in the XVII century. Rylsky trading people made significant purchases of metal imported from abroad in Moscow. Rila merchants traded in silk and cloth fabrics, bread, honey, wool, agricultural implements brought from Austria, primarily scythes. From ancient times, the legend of the "Devil's Mound", the place where the Rylo River flows into the Seim, has been preserved from ancient times about the quickness, sharpness, cunning of the Rylyans. The fisherman Ivan Zhigalka lived on the banks of the Seim, the devil - on a mound rising among the river Seim, and the desert knight - in a cave, not far from the river Snout. The devil offended Zhigalka, interfered with fishing, confused and tore his nets. Ivan complained to the knight, who in those days in Rylsk was administering court and reprisals. At the trial, Ivan accused the devil, and the devil blamed Ivan. The knight became angry and cut off both heads. But in the knight's dream, someone's voice pointed to the wrong court and demanded to put their heads on the bodies of the executed. The knight complied with this requirement, but in a hurry he mixed up the heads and put the devil's head to Ivan's body. Since then, it has been said that the Rylyak will lead the devil, and that there is no one in the world more cunning than the Rylak peasant.

The Rylsk merchants maintained business trade relations with the merchants of Siberia. The field of their activity was very wide - from Austria and other countries of Western Europe to the shores of the Pacific Ocean. An outstanding Russian traveler of the second half of the 18th century emerged from the environment of the Rylsk merchant class. Grigory Ivanovich Shelikhov.

Significant profits were given to the Rylyans by the trade in caviar and fish, sent through Rylsk abroad, as well as to the cities of Ukraine and Russia.

At the beginning of the XVIII century. the city buildings of Rylsk were almost entirely made of wood. In appearance, the city differed little from the village of the countryside. The city stretched 2 km long and 1.5 km wide. In the second half of the XVIII century. There were about 840 houses in the city. In terms of class, the city was inhabited by merchants, philistines and clergymen. In the second half of the century, Rylsk did not yet have factories and factories. The craft was also poorly developed, there were 92 artisans in the city. There were 26 forges and one water mill.

By the end of the XVIII century. Not a trace remains of the once strong fortress. Having lost its significance, it was not repaired and was gradually destroyed, and during the fire of 1720 it completely burned down. At the end of the century, the restructuring of Rylsk began according to the plan approved in 1784, new streets were created in the city in the direction from north to south and from west to east. The quarters formed strict rectangles. They were settled by nobles and wealthy merchants, whose houses were not inferior to those of the nobility.

3. The cultural life of the Kursk region was largely determined by the level of development of the culture of the provincial city. Kursk, located in a picturesque place, surrounded by gardens and hilly surroundings, seemed to contemporaries a beautiful city. On the site of the old fortress was the Znamensky Monastery, surrounded by a steep cliff and a rampart with a suspension bridge. The main street - the Moscow road - rested against it. Urban settlements were located around churches. After a big fire in August 1781, a new city plan was drawn up, which in 1782 was approved by Catherine II herself. The plan provided for the central place to give under the trading rows and merchant shops, the urban poor had to move to the outskirts. The city was divided into four parts: City /city center/, Zakurnaya /between Kur and Tuskar/, Streletskaya and Pushkarnaya settlements. In the city quarters there was a division: into "stone" or "wooden". Two main streets Moscow and Kherson / now st. Lenin and Dzerzhinsky / passed through the city to the Belgorod road. The central square was called Red Square, there were living shopping arcades here. The streets often bore the names of merchants /Slyadnevskaya, Chikinskaya, Zolotarevskaya, Pervyshevskaya/ and rested on the church, which was in the city.

In the process of redevelopment of the city, the appearance of the Znamensky Monastery also changed. In 1788, the Resurrection Cathedral was demolished, in 1792 - the Pyatnitskaya Church. In the Holy Trinity Convent, during the Azov campaigns of Peter I, the Church of the Life-Giving Trinity appeared / now the corner of the street. Bebel and Volodarsky /. In 1770-1780. the church is decorated with stucco. The Trinity Monastery also belonged to the Trinity / lower / church / now st. Gaidar, 13/. Built in 1734, it had two floors, a large dome, a bell tower, windows with beautiful architraves were cut into the semicircle of the domed drum.

In 1778, one of the most beautiful cathedrals in the city was built - the Kazan Cathedral on Sergievskaya Street / now st. Gorky/. The cathedral was built according to the design of the famous architect Rastrelli or his students through the efforts of the merchant Pervyshev in honor of St. Sergius of Radonezh and the Mother of God of Kazan. Tradition says that long before the middle of the XVIII century. on Posadskaya street there was a wooden temple in the name of St. Sergius of Radonezh, the ideological inspirer of the unity and gathering of Russian lands in the XIV centuries. In the church there was also a list of the icon of the Kazan Mother of God, revered in Russia, considered the protector of Russia from enemies from the east. During a fire in 1751, the Sergius Church burned down. The parishioners, clearing the ashes, found the icon of the Kazan Mother of God completely untouched by the fire. The inhabitants saw in this a special foreknowledge of the Most Holy Theotokos and decided to build a stone church in her honor. Funds for the construction were collected among the parishioners, the Kursk merchant Karp Pervyshev made a particularly large contribution.

The contract for the construction was taken by another Kursk merchant Mashnin, in whose family a boy was born, who later became one of the most revered saints in Russia - Seraphim of Sarov. And he gave his blessing for the construction of the temple and personally consecrated the place of the Bishop of Belgorod and Oboyansky, in the future, the Belgorod wonderworker St. Iosaph known throughout Russia. According to the will of Isidor Mashnin, the construction of the cathedral after his death was completed by the wife of the merchant Agafya.

For more than a quarter of a century /1752-1778/ the Trinity-Sergius Cathedral was being built. The lower / everyday / temple was consecrated in 1762 in honor of St. Sergius of Radonezh. The top floor was consecrated in 1778 in honor of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God. In terms of richness of decoration, the Trinity-Sergius Cathedral has no equal in the Kursk diocese.

On the site of the Bozhedomsky Monastery in 1768, the Ilyinsky Church was erected, famous for the beauty of its decoration and a wonderful choir of singers. By 1752, the construction of the Vvedensky Church belongs / is located on the street. Dubrovinsky, next to the railway. hospital/. In 1767, the Mikhailovsky Church was erected / st. K. Liebknecht /.

The oldest monument of urban architecture is the building located on the street. Pionerov, 6. It is known in Kursk as "Romodanovsky's voivode's chambers", although the latest studies of local historians attribute this building to the middle of the 18th century, naming its first owner, the merchant Semyon Khloponin. The building draws attention to itself with a peculiarly designed porch in the form of a quadrangular turret - a tower, adjoining the main facade. The two lower floors of the turret are open terraces with octagonal figured pillars at the corners. The house gives the impression of a kind of fortress. During the period of Soviet power, this building belonged to various organizations; a warehouse was arranged in it. The architectural monument needs serious restoration.*37

Secular architecture of the XVIII century. It is also represented by the building of the city hospital No. 1, the so-called "house with columns" or "Denisiev's house", located on the corner of st. Sadovaya and Semenovskaya. The building was intended for a noble school, then it was converted into a hospital, and then in the 60s of the XIX century. given over to the zemstvo hospital. Local historians claim that the landowner Denisiev owned a neighboring house / on the street. Dimitrova, b /, having two floors and 15 windows on the facade. Currently, a skin dispensary is located here.

The passage of Catherine II through Kursk was marked by the construction in 1787 of the Kherson triumphal gates, which were stone pillars painted like marble, with figures of angels at the top. Four sazhens further, 4 stone pyramids were built with gilded balls on top. Even further, in the field, there were 2 high pyramids and stone booths. The entire structure cost the city treasury more than 2,000 rubles.

In the ancient village of Ivanovskoye, Rylsky District, an architectural monument of the 18th century has been preserved. - Chambers of Hetman Mazepa. In close proximity to them there is also a palace and park ensemble of the 19th century. "Maryino". The construction of the chambers of Hetman Mazepa is associated with the reunification of Ukraine with Russia in 1654 and the mass resettlement of Ukrainians in the empty lands of southern Russia in the Rylsky, Lgovsky and Putivlsky districts of the Kursk province. For many years, Mazepa sought to acquire land in these parts. Only on December 13, 1703, they were granted to Mazepa by Peter. I. In those days, the villages of Ivanovskoye, Stepanovka and Mazepovka were founded, named after the name, patronymic and surname of the hetman. At the same time, Amon, Obukhovka, Krupets, Gaponovo, Korenevo and other villages arose. The largest of them was Ivanovskoye.

Mazepa built his estate there. The construction of the estate is associated with the name of the architect Osip Startsev, whom Peter I sent to Mazepa to build the Fraternal and Nicholas Cathedrals in Kyiv.

Mazepa's chambers towered in the central part of the village, in the middle of a large courtyard surrounded by a brick wall and lined with trees. The manor's yard was built up with stone and wooden buildings and service premises. In front of the estate there was a large square, to which rural streets converged. There was a church on the square. Behind the manor yard there was a small regular park and an orchard with excavated ponds.

Greater expressiveness of the building was given by paired columns protruding three-quarters from the plane of the walls, as well as platbands framing all the windows of the building. The building has a peculiar expressive sculptural appearance.

The fate of this remarkable monument of civil architecture is closely connected with the history of Russia in the 18th century. After the Russian troops defeated the Swedes near Poltava in 1709, the traitor Mazepa fled abroad. Peter I confiscated all the estates that belonged to the hetman, and granted them to his closest associate, His Serene Highness Prince Alexander Danilovich Menshikov. After the death of Peter I, Menshikov fell into disgrace, his lands in the Kursk province were confiscated and assigned to the estates of the first wife of Peter I, Evdokia Lopukhina. After her death, the lands fell into the state treasury, and then Empress Anna Ioannovna granted them to Vice-Admiral of the Fleet M.F. Golovin. His granddaughter Ekaterina married Prince Ivan Sergeevich Baryatinsky, to whom she brought Kursk estates as a dowry.

The Kursk estates of Hetman Mazepa thus passed into the possession of the ancient family of the princes Baryatinsky. Ivan Sergeevich Baryatinsky participated in the palace coup of 1762, when, together with Count Alexei Orlov and a group of guards officers, he helped Catherine II ascend the throne. Subsequently, he was appointed Russian ambassador to England. The revival of Mazepa's estate will be associated with the name of his son I.I. Baryatinsky and will begin in the 19th century.

On the Kursk land since ancient times there was a strong craving for spiritual culture, for education. In 1782, among the Kursk merchants, 48% were literate, among the townspeople - 26%, among the townspeople - 37%. 41 In 1783, a school was opened for the noble youth of the Kursk and Orel provinces, which, in the course of the school reform in 1786, was transformed into the Main Public School. A new building was built for it /now - the buildings of the electrical apparatus plant /. On Khersonskaya Street there was a 2-class Small Public School.

In the district of Rylsk, in addition to two parochial schools, there was also an elementary school of a higher type. This one of the oldest educational institutions of the Kursk region was founded in 1787. It had a two-year course of study and was called the Small Public School. In addition, in Rylsk there was a religious school attached to the monastery. Later, the religious school was transferred to the city.

In 1792, a printing house was founded by the Kursk order of public charity. A characteristic feature of the Kursk book printing of this period was the publication of books of fiction, including those written by Kursk authors. The inexhaustible element of folklore often served as a source of inspiration for Kursk writers. This fact is also reflected in the "Topographic Description of the Kursk Viceroyalty", made in 1785 by the Kursk land surveyor and local historian I. Bashilov, where it was noted that the inhabitants of the region "contain fables and fairy tales in an excellent remark." Kursk teachers and educated officials formed the core of the Kursk writers of the late 18th century.

Theater also instilled an interest in literature. A number of Kursk landowners had their own serf theatres. In one of them, which belonged to Count Volkenstein, the future great Russian actor Mikhail Semenovich Shchepkin began to perform. In 1792, the professional theater of the Barsov brothers began to work.

At the very end of the 90s of the XVIII century. Kursk became a haven for the recognized and well-known in Russia Belarusian poet Ippolit Fedorovich Bogdanovich /1723 - 1803/, who moved to Kursk in 1798. He is the author of the famous poem "Darling" / a free adaptation of the novel by J. La Fontaine "The Love of Psyche and Cupid", stylized as folk tales /. Caressed at the court of Catherine II, full member of the Russian Academy, I.F. Bogdanovich retired under Paul I and settled in Kursk, on the outskirts, in the house of an impoverished noble family at the corner of Troitskaya and Pastukhovskaya streets / now - st. Pioneers and Belinsky, the house has not been preserved /. Highly educated and sociable, Bogdanovich enjoyed respect among the townspeople, supplied lovers with books from his library, and took part in the fate of 15-year-old actor Mikhail Shchepkin.

In the XVIII century. The Kursk land gives Russia one more saint - Reverend Seraphim of Sarov, one of the most revered saints in Russia, a miracle worker and a prophet. Serafim Sarovsky, in the world Prokhor Isidorovich Mashnin /1758-1838/ came from a wealthy merchant family that lived on the street. Mozhaevskaya, 13, next to the Trinity-Sergius Cathedral. At the age of 17, Prokhor Mashnin decided to become a monk, served in the Sarov Hermitage, and then retired to a deserted cell in a pine forest, where he stayed for many years. The Monk Seraphim had an appearance of the Most Pure Theotokos, who commanded him to receive all people without exception for the healing and salvation of their souls.

Saint Seraphim became a source of healing, consolation and guidance for all of Russia. The words with which he greeted each visitor are surprising: "My joy! My treasure! Christ is Risen!", although hundreds of people came to him every day. The prophecies of Seraphim of Sarov about the future of Russia are also coming true. In 1903, the Monk Seraphim of Sarov was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church as a saint. In the 1920s, the relics of St. Seraphim of Sarov were confiscated by representatives of the Soviet government, and their trace was lost. Only in 1990 were the relics of the saint discovered in the vaults of one of the Leningrad museums. In 1991, the relics were solemnly transferred to the Trinity Cathedral of the Serafimo-Diveevo Convent. In the Kursk Cathedral of the Trinity-Sergius Cathedral, one of the aisles of the temple is dedicated to St. Seraphim of Sarov.

Bishop of Belgorod and Oboyan St. Iosaph, in the world Ioakim Gorlenko, a native of the Poltava province /1705 -1755 / left his mark on the history of the culture of the Kursk region. Heading since 1748 the Belgorod and Oboyan diocese, the outskirts of the Russian state, inhabited by both Russians and Ukrainians, St. Iosaph did much for the spiritual, moral education of the inhabitants of this region, for strengthening the firm foundations of the Orthodox faith here. Leading an ascetic way of life himself, St. Iosaph severely punished both negligent priests and obstinate parishioners who neglected the fasts, the sacraments of Holy Communion, and other church rites. He managed to make settled and many gypsies who roamed the Sloboda Ukraine. He also fought against all kinds of fortune-telling, slander, love spells, which were widely used in the diocese of that time. He ordered the priests on Sundays at the end of the liturgy to teach the parishioners the most important prayers. He cared in every possible way about strengthening the Christian family, he helped the poor and the destitute a lot. After the death of the saint, his body turned out to be incorruptible. It is known that his body was interred /buried in a crypt in the southwestern part of the Belgorod Trinity Cathedral/ three months after his death. Church documents testify to the many healings of the sick from touching the cancer of St. Iosaph. Belgorod residents consider that place on the mountain above the city to be holy, where in May 1754 St. Iosaph stood for the last time and made the sign of the cross over the city. In 1915, with the permission of Archbishop Tikhon of Kursk, a cross-monument in honor of St. Iosaph was erected on Kharkovskaya Mountain, in this holy place.

The spiritual exploits of Saints Seraphim of Sarov and Saint Iosaph are also consonant with the civil feat of the Kursk merchant Ivan Ivanovich Golikov /1735-1801/, who devoted his whole life to studying and describing the deeds of Peter the Great.

He compiled 30 volumes of "The Acts of Peter the Great, the wise reformer of Russia, collected from reliable sources and arranged by years." Golikov used for this work more than 2 thousand letters of Peter I, as well as numerous documents. Catherine II allowed him to work with documents from state archives. In addition, I.I. Golikov also compiled biographies of Peter I's favorites - F. Lefort and P. Gordon. He collected many anecdotes /i.e. historical facts / about Peter the Great.

The 18th century marked the beginning of historical local history. Kursk provincial land surveyor and local historian I. Bashilov in "Description of the Kursk governorate" in 1785 gave a detailed description of the administrative structure of the provincial city of Kursk and county towns, a description of fairs and trade, the development of the economy of the Kursk Territory, described the customs and mores of the population of the Kursk Territory.

The name of our fellow countryman, the brave sailor Grigory Ivanovich Shelikhov /1747 - 1795/ was glorified by research and discoveries in the Pacific Ocean. G.I. Shelikhov comes from an old family of Rylsky merchants, mentioned as early as 1621, under Tsar Mikhail Romanovich. From the age of 11, the boy was already involved in the trading business.

In the middle of the XVIII century. Russia was full of rumors about the innumerable fur wealth of the distant Aleutian Islands, where, after the famous voyage of V. Bering and V. Chirikov, Russian industrialists and merchants rushed. Siberian merchants received huge profits. In 1773, young Shelikhov went to Far Irkutsk with a letter of recommendation to the merchant Ivan Larionovich Golikov, who kept a drinking farm there. In his service, G. Shelikhov acquired commercial experience, visited many cities in Siberia. From 1776, Shelikhov launched a vigorous activity in the ports of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk and made many useful contacts. So, together with the rich Okhotsk merchant Lebedev-Lastochkin, they decided to send an expedition to the Kuril and Japanese islands.

Local authorities have pledged their support. The expedition was also supposed to explore the bowels of the islands, determine places convenient for building fortresses, and establish trade relations with Japan through local residents. The expedition was successful, and soon, in 1778, a new expedition was equipped, but a strong earthquake prevented further work. Shelikhov, leaving the campaign, decided to engage in fur trade in the Aleutian Islands. The expeditions were successful, but G. Shelikhov was the first Russian industrialist to understand that it was time to create powerful companies with large capital capable of not only making a profit, but also protecting the economic and state interests of Russia in the Far East.

At his own shipyard in Okhotsk, Shelikhov built three ships: "Three Saints", "Simeon and Anna" and "St. Michael" and he himself went to the shores of distant America. With great difficulty, Russian sailors approached Kodiak Island and landed there. This expedition marked the beginning of the settlement of Alaska and California by Russians. Shelikhov holds the world championship in describing the flora, fauna and population of Alaska. Shelikhov saw the purpose of his stay in Russian America in the development of these lands and their annexation to Russia. Fortresses were cut down there, settlements of Russian people were created. In 1789, Shelikhov was graciously received by Catherine II, awarded a sword studded with diamonds and a diploma. However, the Empress rejected his grandiose plans for the development of the coast of the Arctic Ocean and circumnavigation. In 1794, G. Shelikhov, out of many of his scattered companies, established one powerful company, which later became the Russian-American Company, which pursued the policy of the Russian state in this region.

Death prevented a talented entrepreneur and navigator from accomplishing much of what he had planned. Having lived for 48 years, he was buried in Irkutsk. A monument with poems by G. Derzhavin and I. Dmitriev was erected on his grave. Before his death, Shelikhov bequeathed 30 thousand rubles to the city of Rylsk for the construction of the Resurrection Church and the construction of a hospital. The name of G. Shelikhov is immortalized on the geographical map of the world. A bay in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, a strait between Kodiak Island and Alaska, one of the largest lakes in Alaska, is named after him. Not far from Irkutsk, the city of Shelikhov grew up. The descendants also left a book written by G. Shelikhov himself about his travels.

In the homeland of G. Shelikhov in Rylsk, a monument was opened in 1903, a street and school No. 1 bear his name.