One of the elements of understanding the past of a country is the history of the city. Kursk is quite interesting in this regard, since it was founded a very long time ago and can represent the events of the Russian state from princely times to the present day. In addition, the city is also interesting because it is located near the borders of our homeland. So, how did Kursk live throughout its existence? The history of the city, briefly outlined in this article, will help find the answer to this question.
Geographical location
Let's find out where this settlement is located before moving on to such an interesting topic as the history of the city. Kursk is located in the west of the European part of the Russian Federation, at a distance of 450 kilometers southwest of the capital of our homeland, Moscow. The city is located in a temperate climate zone with a temperate continental climate. It is the administrative center and largest city of the Kursk region.
The territory occupied by the settlement is about 190 square meters. km. The height of the center of Kursk above sea level is 250 m. The largest river in the city is the Seim. In addition, a number of tributaries of this water artery flow through Kursk.
Foundation of the city
Where does the history of the city begin? Kursk is one of the most ancient settlements in the Russian Federation. It was founded in the first half of the 10th century. There is no exact date of formation of this settlement, but the first mention of it is found in the biography of Theodosius of Pechersk. True, even there the exact date of the life of this saint is not indicated, with which the formation of Kursk could be compared. But this event should have happened no later than 1032. Even then it was a large settlement with developed trade, so its actual foundation should have occurred much earlier.
At the same time, archaeological data suggest that the first settlement on the site of modern Kursk arose no later than the 8th century. It is quite possible that from this date people lived here continuously.
Kursk region in ancient times
The origin of the Slavic peoples, including the eastern ones, has always interested scientists. Previously, there were attempts to declare the Slavs as immigrants from Asia, a people alien to the rest of the peoples of Europe. But already in the first half of the 19th century. these views have been refuted. At one time, the Danube theory was popular, according to which the Pannonian Lowland on the Danube was considered the ancestral home of the Slavs.
The main evidence was information from The Tale of Bygone Years. However, studies of archeology and anthropology, the study of historical facts have shown that the area of formation of the Slavic peoples was the lands north of the Carpathian Mountains: the Vistula, Pripyat, and Middle Dnieper basins.
The probable ancestors of the Slavs can be considered the tribes of the creators of the “culture” of burial fields” / late 1st millennium BC. - first half of 1 thousand AD The tribes that created the “culture” of burial fields lived in unfortified villages, built adobe dwellings with stoves, and were engaged in cattle breeding and agriculture. They burned the dead, and buried the ashes in pits or in clay vessels buried in the ground in common cemeteries. Hence the name of the culture, otherwise known as the “field of burial urns.” Among these cultures, the most widespread was the Zarubintsy culture, traces of which were found in the Dnieper region and along the Seim and Sozh rivers. It was to the time of its spread that the Roman historians Tacitus and Pliny Suetonius the Elder mentioned the Slavs under the name “Vendi”.
The Early Iron Age occupies the entire 1st millennium BC. During this period, the population of the eastern part of the Kursk Territory was engaged in cattle breeding, and in the western part - farming. Iron smelting begins from numerous deposits of marshy iron ores. In the 7th - 5th centuries. BC. Permanent settlements with fortified walls, ditches, ramparts, and palisades appear, which indicates an aggravation of relations between clans and the beginning of the decomposition of the primitive system.
In the VI - V centuries. BC. and the first settlement appears at the mouth of the Kur and Tuskar rivers - the first Kursk fortress. This is confirmed by clay shards dating back to this time found during excavations in the area of the Officers' House and the electrical equipment plant. The place for the first fortress - the city was chosen successfully by our ancestors: a steep cliff from the side of the present House of Officers with a palisade placed there, a deep ditch with a rampart and a palisade from the side of the local history museum and the Sign Cathedral reliably protected the inhabitants of Pervokursk from enemies. Obviously, about 2500 years ago the city bore the same name. According to linguistics, the name of the Kur River is of Iranian origin. Considering the agricultural and pastoral nature of the occupation of the population of the Kursk region at that time, scientists assumed that “special Scythians” lived here and were part of the Scythian kingdom. However, archaeologists have established that the Kursk people in the 1st millennium BC. Plow farming was developed, while the “special Scythians” used hoes to grow fodder crops. And plow farming was developed among those peoples who sowed rye and wheat, including for sale. The remoteness of the Kursk region from ancient trade routes suggests that plow farming was brought to us from outside. And the only place where it was developed was the Middle Dnieper region, the cradle of Russian statehood. Therefore, it can be assumed that the settlement was in the 6th -5th centuries. BC. It could well have been Slavic. Moreover, the moment of the founding of Pervokursk falls on the period of the last Scythian campaigns against the Slavic Middle Dnieper region and the reconciliation of these related Indo-European peoples. Scythia, turning into a large slave-holding state, was tired of endless wars with its neighbors. In turn, the Eastern Slavs also went far in the processes of class formation, and, back in the 6th century BC, 1500 years before the formation of Kievan Rus, our ancestors came close to creating a state. And after 512 BC, after a joint victory over King Darius, the Scythians and Slavs became so close that their contemporary Herodotus could hardly distinguish them in everyday life and in clothing.
origin of name
What is the history of the name of the city of Kursk? It is named after the Kur River. This is a small river, which is a tributary of the Tuskari River, which, in turn, flows into the Seim on the territory of the modern city. In ancient times, the core of the settlement was formed near the Kur River, from where Kursk received its name.
Linguists have not established the exact meaning of the name of the river, but there is an assumption that it came from the word “kurya”, which means backwater or river bay. True, there is another version among the people, which says that the name of the city comes from the name of partridge or chicken.
Some scientists are trying to derive the name from Turkic languages. In their opinion, Kursk translates as “security city.”
Legends that have become an adornment of the Kursk land
Articles
Despite the fact that on June 13, the Kursk region celebrates only its 83rd birthday, the region itself, even if not within its current borders, is much older. Over the centuries, the history of this land has become overgrown with dozens of myths. Someone believes that it is in the vastness of the Nightingale region that Mamai’s treasures are hidden. Someone is looking here for traces of the Nightingale the Robber or the legendary city of Rimov. On our birthday, we remember some of them.
Today the Kursk region is 28 districts: Belovsky, Bolshesoldatsky, Glushkovsky, Gorshechensky, Dmitrievsky, Zheleznogorsky, Zolotukhinsky, Kastorensky, Konyshevsky, Korenevsky, Kursky, Kurchatovsky, Lgovsky, Manturovsky, Medvensky, Oboyansky, Oktyabrsky, Ponyrovsky, Pristensky, Rylsky, Sovetsky, Solntsevsky, Sudzhansky, Timsky, Fatezhsky, Khomutovsky, Cheremisinovsky and Shchigrovsky.
Scientists often had to rack their brains over the names of the settlements that gave them their names. However, local residents have their own explanations for everything, and these legends will be happy to be told to you in local history museums.
Photo from “Guide to Kursk” by Anna Zhekova
Catherine's "godchildren"
Sloboda Belaya, for example, is proud that it received its name from Empress Catherine II. According to legend, the empress’s route to the south of Russia ran exactly through this village. At that time, the peasants were preparing for Trinity and diligently whitewashed their houses for the holiday. The unusually clean walls could not help but attract the attention of the distinguished guest. Catherine marveled at the whiteness of the village, after which the settlement was immediately renamed. By what name it was known before, the legends are already silent.
Medvenka, whose name was also born to please the empress, also received special attention from Empress Catherine II. At one of the wells with clear water, the retinue decided to take a short break. When the Empress tasted the water from the copper ladle, she was very pleased with its taste. She praised the water for its “honey taste,” and the settlement, either in memory of the copper ladle, as some locals believe, or in honor of the honey taste of the water, was soon renamed.
Even if the Ponyrs actually met on the empress’s way, they left, as the old-timers believe, very unpleasant memories for her. Catherine the Great had to return from Crimea through the village. Here, as legend says, she was caught in a severe thunderstorm. The empress's carriage was first abandoned on the uneven road, and then it got completely stuck. Catherine joked that in this place both she and her retinue had a good time diving, and she christened the village itself, near which everything happened, Ponyri.
Pagan roots
But one of the centers of Orthodox culture in the region, Rylsk, famous for its churches, received its name, according to one legend, not from Catherine the Great. Some scientists are inclined to believe that the city was named after the pagan god Yarila. Here was one of the largest temples in the Kursk region, dedicated to this deity. Later, Bulgarian clergy arrived in these regions. Even before Rus' finally adopted Christianity, they founded a monastery here in memory of St. John of Rila. Around the same time, Yarilsk turned into Rylsk. There are no traces of the ancient pagan temple left here.
The Lipinsky complex, which many supporters of occultism call “Kursk Arkaim,” has been preserved much better, despite the constant efforts of “black diggers” to find treasure here. The settlement near the Lipinsky settlement was founded about two thousand years ago. Moreover, the well found here by archaeologists is considered the oldest in Russia. When scientists assessed the size of this structure, the assumption arose that it was impossible to obtain water from such a well, especially water suitable for drinking. But whether it was because of forgotten ancient technologies or some natural feature of these places, the well was filling up. Moreover, those who tried the water from it claimed that it was quite tasty and clean.
According to some legends, a significant part of the inhabitants of the Lipinsky settlement were priests. Supposedly, seekers of secret knowledge came here from afar, and the place was considered one of the so-called “places of power.” Unfortunately, it was not possible to completely confirm or refute the legends. Just as science is unable to dispel the long-standing myth about golden carriages buried under an ancient mound. Every year, seekers of untold riches break through here. They failed to find anything valuable, but they interfere with the work of archaeologists quite noticeably.
Robber stories
Everyone in the region knows that those caught stealing or selling their own bodies were often exiled to Kursk and the region. And although they have tried to dispel this myth more than once, it lives on. As well as thousands of others associated with robbers.
A few years ago, the Novgorod, Bryansk and Kursk regions fought for the right to be considered the Homeland of the Nightingale the Robber. Our region managed to win. And how could you not win the argument: the land has been famous for Nightingales from time immemorial? Famous? So why not just songbirds, but also robbers? Today the exact address of residence of “Nightingale” is known - the village of Bereza, Dmitrievsky district. But if the homeland of Father Frost - Veliky Ustyug - makes good money from this title, there is no tourist pilgrimage to that very river Smorodina. Even despite the fact that those who have visited those parts claim: local logs are located in such a way that any sound uttered here is amplified significantly and spreads far throughout the surrounding area. What is not an explanation for the menacing robber whistle that made travelers tremble with fear?
No less famous is another robber who also hunted on the Kursk land - Kudeyar, the brother of Ivan the Terrible himself. Despite the dashing fame attached to this hero of ancient legends, Kursk legends speak of him as the local “Robin Hood”. They say that the ataman never offended the poor, and some, especially disadvantaged, even helped financially. According to some versions, there were several Kudeyars at once. Some scientists believe that this was the name of all the robbers who lived in these places. But there are those who adhere to the version that the name “Kudeyar” was given to the chief ataman at that time.
Among the places that are associated with “daredevils” there is another one, located in the regional center. The inconspicuous bridge at the exit from Nizhnyaya Lugovaya to the Line parking lot was nicknamed “devil’s” by local residents. It was believed that in the old days these places were inhabited by robbers who, in order not to be recognized, covered their faces with “masks” - masks, on which the faces of devils were often painted. We were never able to find official confirmation of the legend, but it has a right to exist.
Treasures of Ancient Times
It is clear that not a single region that has existed for at least several centuries can do without its own stories about countless treasures hidden somewhere underground. The Kursk region was no exception. We have already mentioned Mamai's golden calf. Whether it was a bull cast in gold, or just a figurative description of the Khan’s countless treasures, history is silent. However, residents of the Ponyrovsky district are confident that the ancient treasure is hidden in their land. According to the legend, which many here know, the khan’s servants built a huge mound over the treasure. Moreover, it is located, as some believe, near the Teplovsky Heights. Others claim that the Teplovsky Heights themselves are the place of the mysterious luggage. But it’s unlikely that it will be possible to conduct excavations here now. And this work is quite dangerous, primarily not because of the curse with which the treasures are sealed, but because of the huge amount of ammunition from the times of the Great Patriotic War, which search engines and rescuers are still getting from this land.
Residents of the Sudzhansky district believe that back in the time of Catherine the Great, the “reckless drivers” who were robbing these parts at that time intercepted a convoy of jewelry heading to the capital.
Among other things, he managed to take possession of a golden carriage, which, along with the rest of the loot, it was decided to bury in the local forest. But so far no traces of this mythical wealth have been found. Author: Maria Yakovleva
Princely times
Kursk became the center of an appanage principality until 1095, when Vladimir Monomakh, at that time the Prince of Chernigov, and later the Great of Kiev, appointed his son Izyaslav Vladimirovich to reign in this city. But already in 1095, Izyaslav, by order of his father, retired to rule in Murom. In 1096, the prince died in one of the internecine battles. Despite his short reign, Izyaslav managed to build a fortress in Kursk.
The history of the city of Kursk for children is most interesting when it comes to Prince Vsevolod Svyatoslavovich, nicknamed Bui-tur. He is one of the main characters in The Tale of Igor's Campaign. This prince became famous for his incredible strength and courage. Even before his reign, Kursk turned into one of the main fortress borders, designed to protect Rus' from raids by the Polovtsians and other nomads.
In 1180, Vsevolod became Prince of Kursk and Trubetskoy. During his reign, he became famous for his participation in numerous campaigns together with other princes against the Polovtsians. The most famous is the campaign of 1185, sung in the “Tale of Igor’s Campaign,” when he, together with his brother Igor Svyatoslavovich, Prince of Novgorod-Seversky, was captured by the Polovtsians. Vsevolod returned from captivity only in 1188. In 1196 he died.
Taking part in the infamous Battle of Kalka against the Mongols in 1223, the inhabitants of Kursk also sent their garrison to the Russian army. In 1238, during Batu's invasion, the city was destroyed by the Mongol-Tatars. After this, Kursk was rebuilt, but was again devastated in 1285.
In 1362, the Grand Duke of Lithuania Olgerd managed to wrest the city from under Tatar rule and annexed it to his lands.
Ancient Rome near Kursk
The Kursk region preserves a large amount of material heritage from the distant past: long-deserted sites and settlements, once fortified settlements, numerous burials, and coin treasures. Each such monument is interesting in its own way not only for archaeologists, but also for residents of the region, since its study opens new pages in the history of our state. Through the work of scientists, the plans of ancient settlements are being recreated, and we get the opportunity to understand how our distant ancestors lived.
Mysterious city For more than 100 years, the Gochev settlement, which is located in the Belovsky district, has been the object of close attention of historians. This complex is a unique place, known far beyond the region. For the first time, a professor and world-famous scientist Dmitry Yakovlevich Samokvasov began studying it in 1909, who discovered a large city here during the formation of Kievan Rus. For that time, this find turned out to be truly sensational. The results of the research were published in the Atlas of the Gochevsky settlement, on the pages of which everything that the expedition members managed to find is depicted in full size. After that, other archaeologists began to come here. They studied the complex until the revolution. Then came many years of calm. In the pre-war period, excavations were conducted by the famous archaeologist Boris Aleksandrovich Rybakov. Subsequently, regular reconnaissance studies were carried out in Gočevo. But no one has ever carried out full-scale excavations here. And only in 1994, employees of the Kursk Archaeological Museum again began studying the complex.
It is the largest in Eastern Europe, says museum director Gennady STARODUBTSEV, and consists of two ancient settlements: the Tsar’s Palace and the Steep Mound. In pre-revolutionary times, the burial ground consisted of more than 3,600 mounds.
Most likely, archaeologists believe, here was the city of Rimov, which received the name of the Second Rome, mention of which is found in the Ipatiev and Laurentian Chronicles and the teachings of Vladimir Monomakh. It was founded at the end of the 10th and beginning of the 11th centuries and was located on a busy trade route from Kyiv to Volga Bulgaria. Among the Gochev finds there is a lot of evidence of developed ties with many countries of the Middle Ages, objects from Byzantium, Western Europe, and Central Asia. The total area of the settlement exceeded 11 hectares by ancient Russian standards; it was a fairly large city.
Here archaeologists opened and explored the territory of the estate with a residential building, in which they discovered an adobe oven. Nine grain pits and two outbuildings were found near the house. For a long time it was believed that the settlement in Gocevo existed until the 12th century and was destroyed as a result of the Polovtsian invasion. The destruction of Rimov is mentioned in the Tale of Igor's Campaign.
Guarding the Borders Then artifacts from the 14th century appeared, and it became clear that the settlement survived not only the Cumans, but also the Mongols. This is evidenced by the finds of Horde bowls and coins. It is worth noting that people endured the Tatar invasion relatively calmly, since no traces of fires were recorded during the excavations. Later, when the Kursk lands were annexed to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, a new fortress appeared here. This medieval castle was designed to protect the southeastern borders of the state.
It was built around the 60-70s of the 14th century. By the way, there is a fortification similar in structure, appearance and size in Eastern Lithuania. Archaeologists have been studying the Royal Palace since 2004. At first, scientists did not have high hopes for these excavations, since a metal power line support was installed in the center of the site.
However, a significant part of the cultural layer was not damaged. Numerous defensive structures were discovered here, which were log wooden cages and earthen ramparts. The castle had two areas, internal and external. From the side of the Psel River, the cape of the fort was cut off and made vertical to further secure the fortress from attack. The uniqueness of this monument lies in the fact that the settlement existed for a fairly short period of time. Everything here has been preserved in the same condition as it was at the time of its destruction, and therefore it is of great interest to historians, says Gennady Starodubtsev.
There are several assumptions about who and when destroyed this fortress. Initially it was believed that this happened in 1399 after the Battle of Vorskla, when the combined Russian-Lithuanian troops were defeated by the Mongol-Tatars. The battle took place in mid-August. The fortress near Kursk also fell in the summer, since the furnaces discovered during the excavation were cleaned and oiled, that is, prepared for the heating season, but were no longer used for their intended purpose. However, further excavations showed that the settlement ceased to exist in the 30s of the 15th century as a result of internecine wars.
Based on the study of the burials, it can be judged that all the inhabitants of the fortress died a violent death, since traces of chopping blows are recorded on the bones. For example, in 2014, archaeologists discovered the burial of a man with an arrowhead stuck into his spine. Among those buried there are also women and children. By the way, they were all buried according to Christian custom after some time, most likely by the residents of the settlement who returned here for a short time.
Findings of recent years The settlement itself around the fortress existed until the end of the 15th century. This is indicated by artifacts found as a result of excavations in recent years. Two years ago, we first discovered burials that date back to a later time, since they preserved clothing details, notes Gennady Yuryevich. These are the remains of a man’s collar and purse, a woman’s head cape and collar, sewn with gold threads.
In addition, archaeologists found a half penny dating back to 1496, which was in circulation for a very short time. These status items indicate that they belonged to representatives of a noble family who may have ruled the territory.
At the beginning of the 16th century, life at the Gochev settlement, like at many monuments of that time, ceased. It was during this period, and not the Mongolian one, as previously thought, that the desolation of many Kursk lands occurred.
Last summer, archaeologists again conducted extensive research at the site. They managed to clear the impressive burnt building, approximately 6 by 7 meters. This is a very large two-story building for that time. There is a version that it could house a garrison of defenders of the fortress. Numerous wrought iron nails were also found here. Large ones probably served to construct partitions. Small ones could be used for upholstery of walls or furniture. These finds have raised new questions for archaeologists about the life of the settlement, the answers to which have yet to be given. Further work, scientists hope, will open another page of our past and will allow us to completely recreate and reconstruct the appearance of the fortress.
Daria Zaeva
As part of the Russian state
In 1508, the history of the city changed radically. Kursk was included in the Grand Duchy of Moscow under Vasily III. It became one of the links in the defense of the resurgent Rus' on its southwestern borders simultaneously against the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Crimean Khanate.
In the 15th and first half of the 16th centuries, Tatar raids became more frequent, which caused the desolation of Kursk. But the city was revived again in 1586. This date is considered to be the second founding of Kursk. Under Ivan the Terrible, rebels and unreliable people were exiled to this border city. In 1596, a new fortress was built, which became the key to the security of the city’s borders and population.
Throughout the first half of the 17th century, Kursk was repeatedly attacked by Poles, Nogais and Crimean Tatars, but they never managed to take this impregnable fortress.
Soon the residents of Orel were resettled to Kursk. By 1678, it already numbered about 2,800 people, which was not so small for a border fortress of that time. This was due to its rather favorable economic and geographical location. The road from Moscow to the Crimean Khanate passed through Kursk, and there was also a fork to Kyiv, which ensured developed trade.
Due to the fact that Kursk at that time had quite strong ties with Little Russia, in 1708 it was included in the Kyiv province.
author: G.A. Churilova
Chapter I Kursk land in ancient times and during the Middle Ages
§1. The first information about Slavic settlements and ancient cities of the Kursk land.
People have been living on Kursk land since ancient times. The very first traces of settlements of the Upper Paleolithic era (Old Stone Age) date back to the 15th - 20th millennium BC and were found within the city of Kursk in the area of Polevaya and Kotlyakova streets. This was the time of the great glacier in Europe, part of which also captured the Kursk land, which was covered with swampy tundra during this period. The first inhabitants lived in dugouts, dressed in animal skins, and their main occupation was hunting mammoths. During the Neolithic era / New Stone Age, V - III millennium BC / the ice in Europe melted, the climate changed in the Kursk region. The forest-steppe contributed to the development of hunting and fishing, and human settlements were located along the rivers. Neolithic sites were discovered near the Kirov tram bridge over the Tuskar River, in the village of Ryshkovo, on 1st Promyshlennaya Street. in the city of Kursk, near the village of Lebyazhye on the river. Seim, as well as in the vicinity of the oldest city in the region - Rylsk. During the excavations, stone axes, hammers, knives, arrowheads, and clay shards were found. In the Bronze Age /late 3rd - 1st millennium BC/ new human occupations appeared: cattle breeding and agriculture. The first settlements of this time were not yet fortified, people continued to move from place to place. Human sites were discovered along the Tuskar and Seim rivers: at the Kirov Bridge, at the yeast factory, at the tannery. Bronze Age burials were discovered during construction work in the center of Kursk: on Red Square near the Znamensky Cathedral and on the site of the Main Post Office building. The finds date back to the 2nd millennium BC. These were tribes of the Catacomb and then Timber cultures, apparently of Indo-Iranian origin. In addition, in the second half of the 2nd millennium BC. Tribes of the Sosnitsa culture penetrate into the territory of the Kursk region, in which archaeologists see the Proto-Slavs. This is quite likely, since in the Bronze Age Europe was a giant anthill in which many tribes and ethnic groups moved chaotically. And in our forest-steppe zone there were repeated movements, clashes and mergers of various tribal groups.
The origin of the Slavic peoples, including the eastern ones, has always interested scientists. Previously, there were attempts to declare the Slavs as immigrants from Asia, a people alien to the rest of the peoples of Europe. But already in the first half of the 19th century. these views have been refuted. At one time, the Danube theory was popular, according to which the Pannonian Lowland on the Danube was considered the ancestral home of the Slavs.
The main evidence was information from The Tale of Bygone Years. However, studies of archeology and anthropology, the study of historical facts have shown that the area of formation of the Slavic peoples was the lands north of the Carpathian Mountains: the Vistula, Pripyat, and Middle Dnieper basins.
The probable ancestors of the Slavs can be considered the tribes that created the “culture” of burial fields” / late 1st millennium BC - first half of 1st millennium AD / The tribes that created the “culture” of burial fields “lived in unfortified villages, built adobe dwellings with stoves, engaged in cattle breeding and agriculture. They burned the dead, and buried the ashes in pits or in clay vessels buried in the ground in common cemeteries. Hence the name of the culture, otherwise known as the “field of burial urns.” Among these cultures, the most widespread was the Zarubintsy culture, traces of which were found in the Dnieper region and along the Seim and Sozh rivers. It was to the time of its spread that the Roman historians Tacitus and Pliny Suetonius the Elder mentioned the Slavs under the name “Vendi”.
The Early Iron Age occupies the entire 1st millennium BC. During this period, the population of the eastern part of the Kursk Territory was engaged in cattle breeding, and in the western part - farming. Iron smelting begins from numerous deposits of marshy iron ores. In the 7th - 5th centuries. BC. Permanent settlements with fortified walls, ditches, ramparts, and palisades appear, which indicates an aggravation of relations between clans and the beginning of the decomposition of the primitive system.
In the VI - V centuries. BC. and the first settlement appears at the mouth of the Kur and Tuskar rivers - the first Kursk fortress. This is confirmed by clay shards dating back to this time found during excavations in the area of the Officers' House and the electrical equipment plant. The place for the first fortress - the city was chosen successfully by our ancestors: a steep cliff from the side of the present House of Officers with a palisade placed there, a deep ditch with a rampart and a palisade from the side of the local history museum and the Sign Cathedral reliably protected the inhabitants of Pervokursk from enemies. Obviously, about 2500 years ago the city bore the same name. According to linguistics, the name of the Kur River is of Iranian origin. Considering the agricultural and pastoral nature of the occupation of the population of the Kursk region at that time, scientists assumed that “special Scythians” lived here and were part of the Scythian kingdom. However, archaeologists have established that the Kursk people in the 1st millennium BC. Plow farming was developed, while the “special Scythians” used hoes to grow fodder crops. And plow farming was developed among those peoples who sowed rye and wheat, including for sale. The remoteness of the Kursk region from ancient trade routes suggests that plow farming was brought to us from outside. And the only place where it was developed was the Middle Dnieper region, the cradle of Russian statehood. Therefore, it can be assumed that the settlement was in the 6th -5th centuries. BC. It could well have been Slavic. Moreover, the moment of the founding of Pervokursk falls on the period of the last Scythian campaigns against the Slavic Middle Dnieper region and the reconciliation of these related Indo-European peoples. Scythia, turning into a large slave-holding state, was tired of endless wars with its neighbors. In turn, the Eastern Slavs also went far in the processes of class formation, and, back in the 6th century BC, 1500 years before the formation of Kievan Rus, our ancestors came close to creating a state. And after 512 BC, after a joint victory over King Darius, the Scythians and Slavs became so close that their contemporary Herodotus could hardly distinguish them in everyday life and in clothing.
However, the Pervokursk fortress did not last long, and, due to the Sarmatian invasion in the 2nd century BC, people left all the settlements. The Sarmatians destroyed the Skolot “kingdoms” - the oldest Russian early state associations, therefore the Slavs in the 3rd century. BC. - I century AD represented by the Zarubintsy culture, which is quite primitive and primitive. But already in the first half of the 1st millennium AD. in the west and in the middle part of the Kursk region lived tribes of a high culture at that time, called Chernyakhov by archaeologists. Traces of the Chernyakhov culture were discovered near the village of Mokva and the village of Lebyazhye near Kursk.
The Chernyakhov culture completely replaced the Zarubinets culture, leaving no trace of it. A number of historians of pre-revolutionary times explained this by the fact that the Chernyakhovites were a warlike people, that they were Goths, Dacians, Scythians, but not Slavs. But it seems possible to accept the point of view of other historians who consider the Chernyakhovites only Slavs. Kursk local historian Yu. A. Lipking proposed considering the Chernyakhovites a conglomerate of different peoples united under the influence of high Roman culture, which could contribute to the degeneration of the Zarubinets culture into the Chernyakhov culture. But by this time, according to the testimony of Pliny the Elder, the Sarmatian yoke no longer weighed on the Slavs. The Veneds themselves went on the offensive and drove the Sarmatians to the Balkans, where they were defeated and exterminated by the Romans. Some Sarmatians mixed with the Scythians and Slavs, so the Sarmatian element in the Chernyakhov culture is very low. But the Dacian element is high. After the conquest of Dacia in 106, part of the local population “emigrated” to the new Scythian-Slavic Rus', unable to withstand Roman oppression. This is evidenced by the rise of plow farming. Middle Dnieper region.
The Goths could not have been the creators of the Chernyakhov culture, since they appeared at the turn of the 3rd - 4th centuries. and had a low level of development. However, by force of arms they manage to create an alliance of tribes, under the leadership of Germanarich, who fell in 375 under the blows of the Huns. However, Attila, the leader of the Huns, was unable to destroy the Chernyakhov culture, although he led it to decline.
On the territory of the Kursk Territory, Chernyakhov settlements existed until the 5th-6th centuries. There are no monuments of them in the region, since they did not live in fortified settlements, but many rich treasures and Roman coins of this period are found throughout the Kursk region.
Numerous movements and assimilation of various tribes and peoples of the era of the “Great Migration of Peoples” at the turn of the 1st millennium BC. and the beginning of the I-II century. AD led to the deep penetration of tribes to the east along the Seversky Donets and south to the lower reaches of the Dnieper, to the formation of new tribal unions, the emergence of new peoples and states.
The last Chernyakhov settlers of the Kursk region subsequently merged with part of the Vyatichi and began to be called northerners. It is also possible for individual Finno-Ugric tribes with their own culture to penetrate into the Kursk region, the features of which are noted by Rylsk local historian O.N. Shchegolev in the anthology “The City of Rylsk” /Kursk, 1994/, calling the Kolochin culture the next culture after Chernyakhov’s.3 But, obviously, the Kolochin Finns were completely assimilated by the Slavic tribes by the 8th century, when the Kursk region was covered with a chain of Romny fortresses-fortifications, located in clear chains from the southeast along the river banks. There are five of these lines-fortresses in total, and between them there remains an almost empty space in which there are one or two fortifications. It is quite possible that the Romny settlements are a unified defense system for the eastern borders of Kievan Rus. This is a completely plausible assumption, although it diverges from the traditional countdown of Russian history from 862.
Over the long years of their reign, the Kieviches accumulated enormous wealth in their hands and, possessing strong power, were able to carry out such events as the storming of Constantinople in 630, and in 787 Kiev fought a war in the Crimea, where Slavic troops under the leadership of Prince Bravlin captured Sudak fortress. At the same time, a stone fortress was founded in Ladoga. Thus, the Grand Duke of Kiev could well have financed the construction of defensive lines in the east of the principality. Moreover, in the VI century. The Seversky lands were included in the Kyiv principality of the Polyan-Rusyns.
Part of the so-called Romny fortresses was the Kursk fortress, which re-emerged in the 8th century. at the mouth of the river Chicken It was a small settlement, protected and fortified by a ditch, rampart and palisade, which went from the cliff of the Tuskar River to the ravine running down to the Kur. There were three to four dozen half-dugout huts in the settlement. The time of the founding of the fortress is confirmed by finds of fragments of Slavic ceramics that existed in the 8th-10th centuries.
The formation of Kursk as a city coincided with the Khazar conquests of the Seversk land. According to historians V.O. Klyuchevsky and L.N. Gumilyov, the Khazar “occupation” of the Seversky region opened the way for many Russian merchants to the largest trading markets of the East. And in Kursk, trade has long been greatly developed. The city lay at the intersection of the most important river routes at that time. The first led to Kursk from Kyiv through the Dnieper, Desna, and Seim. The second path went along Tuskari and Snova to Lake Samodurovskoye, which disappeared over time. From here the path opened to the upper reaches of the Volga, to the Neva and the Baltic. The third path led to the upper reaches of the Seim and from there, through a small portage, to the Seversky Donets, and then to the Don, to the Azov and Black Seas.
Correlating these data with archaeological finds, we can assume that in the 9th century. Kursk can be considered a city in the modern sense, as a center of trade, pottery, crafts, metallurgy and other industries. At the end of the 10th century. Rylsk was founded as a fortress city of the Kyiv state on the site of an ancient settlement in the 8th century. Obviously, the city got its name from the Rylo River, at the confluence of which with the Seim the city stands. An ancient legend explains the name of the river this way: when a wild pig and piglets were digging a lair for themselves, they dug up a source, which was the beginning of the river. The same pig, the legend goes on, went to Sevsk, laying a flat road, which later received the name Pig Road. Apparently, under the influence of this legend, a boar’s head on a golden field was subsequently depicted on the ancient coat of arms of the city.
In the north-west of the Kursk region, in close proximity to the places where the famous Bryansk forests originate, on the right bank of the formerly deep Svapa River, not far from the city of Dmitriev, an ancient settlement of the 8th-9th centuries has been preserved. Ancient Dmitriev was located about two kilometers below the modern city, where the village of Old Town is now, located, as local residents say, “on five hills.” These “five hills” were subsequently placed at the bottom of the coat of arms of the city of Dmitriev. On one of these hills there was a fortified settlement, bordered by deep ravines and an earthen rampart. The area of the settlement is about two hectares. The perimeter is more than 550 meters. In the center of the fort there was a secret passage through which one could go down to Svapa and go outside the fortress.
On the territory of the present Belovskoso district of the Kursk region, located in the southern part of the region, archaeologists of the 19th-20th centuries. D.Ya. Samokvasov, B.A. Rybakov, local historians Yu.A. Lipking, L.N. Preobrazhenin 6 examined 26 mounds and settlements dating back to the early Slavic period. The largest and most interesting of them is the Gochev settlement, dating back to the 9th-10th centuries. Moreover, Yu.A. Lipking proved his argument based on research that it was here, on the site of the Gochev settlement, that the disappeared legendary Slavic city of Rimov, mentioned in “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign,” was located. The city was destroyed by the Polovtsians in 1185. “Behold, Rome is shouting under the Polovtsian sabers,” this is how the author of the Lay spoke of the terrible picture of the destruction of the city by the Polovtsians. During this period, many cities appeared in Kievan Rus. But the Kievichs were defeated in the fight against the Norman group led by Rurik, who seized power in the northern Russian lands. In 882, the Varangian king Oleg /Holger/ captured Kyiv and united Kievan and Novgorod Rus'. After Oleg’s successful campaigns against the Khazars in 884, the Seversky lands were included in the new state.
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Kursk during the Russian Empire
However, already in 1727 Kursk was included in the Belgorod province. But in 1779, under Catherine the Great, this province was disbanded, and the city became the center of the Kursk governorship. Its first head was the famous Field Marshal Rumyantsev. In 1781, there was a big fire in the city, after which it began to be rebuilt. In 1797, the viceroyalty was transformed into a province. From then on, Kursk became a provincial city.
With the expansion of the borders of the Russian Empire, Kursk loses its significance as a border city, but trade is intensively developing in it. The city grew and expanded, industry began to actively develop in it, and a gymnasium was opened in 1808. The history of Zarechnaya Street is connected with the expansion of Kursk across the river. The city of Kursk has become a fairly large regional center. In the second half of the 19th century, centralized water supply appeared and tram traffic was opened.
Soviet times
In the first quarter of the 20th century, the history of the city of Kursk changed dramatically. A brief summary of the events of those times is that at the end of 1917, Soviet power came to the city. However, this was only the beginning of the Civil War. In September 1919, Kursk was captured by the White Army of General Denikin, but in November it was recaptured by the Red Army. Since then, the city became part of Soviet Russia, and then the USSR.
In 1928, the Kursk province ceased to exist. Kursk became the administrative center of one of the three districts of the Central Black Earth Region, and since 1934 the central city of the Kursk Region.
During the Great Patriotic War, the city was occupied by Nazi troops in November 1941, although it was defended not only by the army, but also by the militia. The liberation of the city took place a year and a half later - in February 1943. In July and August, one of the largest battles of World War II took place near Kursk - the Battle of Kursk.
A year after the liberation, Kursk began to be restored, although the war was still ongoing. In 1953, trams began running along the city streets. Plants and factories were restored in the city.
Forgotten villages: secrets of the Kursk region
Exclusive
The places where Fet and Tchaikovsky walked, the settlements of Old Believers, a spring with miraculous healing powers... Just 40 km from Kursk, they became undeservedly forgotten and abandoned.
— Have you already been to Donskoy? - Alexey Lyamin, assistant rector of the local church, asks me.
- Not yet.
- Must go!
“We have to go,” I agree, mentally imagining snow drifts and off-road conditions. This summer is a good time to travel outside the city, enjoying the greenery outside the window. And in winter you never know in which snowdrift your car will get stuck.
It’s not far from Donskoy, a little less than 50 km towards Zolotukhino, passing the town of Svoboda. To get to the village, you need to turn left from the highway to the village of Solnechny. The road is dirty, KamAZ trucks are crawling towards you one after another. There is a sugar factory in Solnechny, the smoke from its chimneys is visible from afar. A village with apartment buildings grew around the plant. But work at the plant is seasonal, and within a few days there will be no smoke.
And the village is classic Soviet: gray panel houses, empty swings, a skimpy “Barbershop” sign on the outbuilding with gloomy metal doors. But there is a school, a kindergarten and even a hospital. Previously, there were a lot of people and a lot of work in Solnechny, the village flourished. Now it’s much less, production volumes have fallen, and the environment has deteriorated. In 2013, due to non-functioning treatment plants, there was a large-scale discharge into the river, and many fish died. Even visitors to Korennaya saw rotten fish.
From Solnechny to Donskoy - along the dirt road. But I’m not looking for easy ways, I make a wrong turn and drive past garages and snow-covered vegetable gardens, along an icy track. Locals carefully follow the car with non-Kursk license plates. Donskoye suddenly emerges from around the bend. There are no people around, and there is no one to even ask where the very temple is, which in 2013 caring people began to restore on their own. But when I turn around, I see the dome of the church and head there.
The houses in Donskoy are quite good and strong, but there are not many of them. Near the church there is ankle-deep snow, it’s clear that people don’t come here often. A shaggy dog greets me with a bark. Struggling hoarsely, she swears at the uninvited guest until I hide behind a wooden wreck. There, behind a rickety barn, an ancient well has been dug, and an alley with snow-white birch trees goes into the distance.
Despite the barking of the dog, no one comes out of the house next to the temple, and the church itself appears deserted. I pull the handle and it’s locked. This temple has a history of 122 years.
The Temple of the Conception of Righteous Anna was built here in 1896.
“The temple is unique in its location,” Alexey Lyamin, with whom we talk on the eve of my trip, tells me. — It is 40 km from Kursk, 12 km from Korennaya Hermitage. According to legend, a married couple lived here who could not have children. The couple made a vow to God and promised that if he would send them a child, they would build a temple. Soon a girl was born, who was named Maria in honor of the Virgin Mary. The couple kept their word and built a temple named in honor of the conception of the righteous Anna.
Before the revolution, the village of Donskoye was part of the Ukolovskaya volost of the Shchigrovsky district. The same volost included the famous 1st Vorobyovka, where Afanasy Fet lived and worked ("Evening Lights" was written here), Ukolovo - where the Tchaikovsky estate was located. The great composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky himself often visited his brother here; in Ukolovo, for example, Symphony No. 6 and “Iolanta” were written.
Here, in the Ukolovskaya volost, were located the Old Believer villages of 2nd Vorobyovka, Nikulino, Reutovo. The Old Believers, persecuted for their services, moved, among other things, to the Kursk region, where they were more loyal to the adherents of the old charter. According to legend, the village of Donskoye also bears its name for a reason. One of the Old Believers came from the Don Cossacks, and it was at his suggestion that the place received its name. The Cossacks took a fancy to the village.
During Soviet times, the domes and bell tower of the temple were destroyed.
— Another feature of the temple is two thrones: in honor of the conception of the righteous Anna and in honor of the Donskaya icon.
In 2013, Father Oleg was appointed rector of the temple. A team of like-minded people began to come here with him.
“First we installed the dome, then a new foundation, because the building was collapsing,” says Alexey Lyamin. — We went to different organizations and asked: who will give how much. Since 1992, the temple has not been painted, we painted it and put it in order. Locals rarely come here; they only come from the city on Parents’ Saturday. There are barely a hundred people here in the area. It’s amazing, of course, that 10 km away in Svoboda there are fairs going on with grandeur and pomp, but here a forgotten village is slowly dying and falling into disrepair. It's a show there, but here everything is very bad.
Alexey and other Cossacks, who are today restoring the temple in Donskoy, became interested in the history of these regions in 2004. It all started with a wooden church in Ukolovo. Afanasy Fet and his wife Maria Botkina and Nikolai Tchaikovsky once prayed here. Miraculously, this temple was not damaged during Soviet times. Apparently, due to the fact that there is no asphalt road to it, but only a dirt road. Alexey shows me photographs taken in Ukolovo in the summer.
Maria Botkina was a religious devotee and attended the Ukolovsky church, and was the godmother of peasant children (she never had her own). Afanasy Fet was friends with the prince-poet Konstantin Romanov. And Maria Petrovna’s nephew was martyred with the royal family.
This is what the ancient temple in Ukolovo looks like now
The temple in Ukolovo was restored for a long time and also by the efforts of caring people.
Donskoy has its own history, and, according to those who work in the church, its own destiny.
“We want to make Donskoye an old Russian settlement, where people will live according to ancient traditions. After all, throughout Russia there are a lot of people who are tired of urbanism and megacities; they can come here. Our country already has such corners, but not yet in the Kursk region. We want to revive the Old Believers here, because Seraphim of Sarov told the Old Believers that their faith is a boat on a rope near a large ship of Orthodoxy. Today, it is the Old Believers who are the bearers of the Russian cultural code.
- Today we are empty, we have lost our connection with traditions. The Russians were left without a home. And by reviving our culture, we return home. We will soon have no land of our own; all Kursk land has been sold to Muscovites.
In 2nd Vorobyovka, a school was made from an ancient wooden Old Believer church; there are no more than 15 students here. The village itself looks depressing - dilapidated houses, old people living out their lives here.
The Old Believer temple has been preserved only in drawings
There is a school here now
Alcoholism is a sure companion of unemployment in villages
— How to get to 2nd Vorobyovka? — I ask a resident in Donskoy. A woman washes clothes near a well.
- Why do you need to go there?
— I wanted to see the temple.
- Honey, the temple has been gone for a very long time. There is a school there now, before this there was a stable. We also have an ancient church in Donskoy.
A five-minute walk from the Church of the Conception of Righteous Anna there is a cross, I go down lower and see the source. A man is sitting near the water, and next to him are two bags with empty bottles.
— Are you from Donskoy?
— No, I’m from Solnechny. We used to go to Korennaya for water, but then my grandson found this source, tried it, and the water tastes better than in Korennaya. Now I walk here, it’s about three kilometers.
“This is a difficult source,” Alexey Lyamin tells me. — I’ve been here since 2013, and during this time there have been 15 cases of healing from infertility. When doctors shrug their shoulders, and women come to us, pray in the temple, drink water from the source and soon give birth. And children were brought here, and the children were healed. These are places with incredible energy.
I carefully go down to the source and take ice-cold water in my palms, it’s really tasty. There is ringing silence all around. Amazing places with their own stories, secrets and riddles.
Nadezhda SURGINA.
Modernity
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the severity of the transition period affected all Russian cities. Kursk was no exception either. In the 90s, many enterprises closed here, and there was a high level of unemployment.
In the 2000s, due to the general rise of the Russian economy, life gradually began to improve in this regional center. Industry, production, services and trade began to develop, which means new jobs appeared.
In 2012, the 980th anniversary of the city was solemnly celebrated. Currently, the head of Kursk is Olga Germanova. The city is divided into three districts: Seimsky, Zheleznodorozhny and Central. Today Kursk is a modern Russian regional center.
Up ▲ — Reader reviews (2) — Write a review ▼ — Print version
| e-mail, city: Krasnodar | |
Very interesting and informative. Thank you, I'll be happy to read the sequel.
| Klimkov Sergey Valentinovich | 4 June 2021, 16:07:29 |
| e-mail, city: Vladimir | |
settlements in the northern and central parts of European Russia appeared a very long time ago. This is evidenced by the Vladimir Sungir, which, by the way, has not been fully explored due to the development of the city in the area of the village. Kind. All the same, they were probably not yet Slavs in the form that most ordinary people now understand, but they were (I’m talking about the Kuryans) people who laid down the gene pool of the Slavs along with the tribes living on the territory of Novgorod and Pskov. Arkhangels, Suzdal.
The significance of the history of Kursk
To understand the modern inhabitants of a particular locality, you need to study its history. The past and the present constantly flow into each other, forming a continuous chain of events. Everything that happened today was built on the foundation laid yesterday. That is why the history of the city of Kursk is so important. A summary for children and adults of the historical events that took place in this city is outlined above. But, undoubtedly, this is not enough if you want to learn about Kursk in more detail. The article outlines only the main historical milestones. And for a closer study it is necessary to use mainly primary sources.
According to the educational program, the history of the city of Kursk for grade 2 is included in lessons on the surrounding world. Of course, this helps to familiarize children with the past of their hometown. But adults should not forget about the history of their region. Moreover, residents of other Russian cities should also be interested in events that occurred in various localities of the country in the past. After all, from such pieces of the mosaic the history of our entire homeland is formed into a single whole.
Archive number No. 21 (1336) dated May 26, 2021 - News
FROM THE DEPTH OF CENTURIES
When discussing the age of ancient Kursk and the time of its foundation, different versions are still put forward. The editors of DDD decided to go even further, or rather, deeper, into the abyss of centuries. An interesting and half-forgotten publication 45 years ago in the book “Kursk: Essays on the History of the City” helped us in this. It was published by the Central Black Earth Publishing House in 1975. The authors of the article “Kursk - an ancient Russian city” were senior researcher at the Kursk Museum of Local Lore Vladimir Samsonov and senior lecturer at the Kursk State Pedagogical Institute Yuri Aleksandrov-Lipking. Even though archaeologists have uncovered a little more mysteries since then, we nevertheless offer readers a brief version of what has happened in our region since time immemorial.
From tundra to taiga: the first people in Paleolithic times
In the lower reaches of Tuskari and Kura, where Kursk is located, people have been living for many thousands of years. The earliest traces of the ancient inhabitants of our area were discovered in the area of Polevaya and Kotlyakova streets, where an Upper Paleolithic - Old Stone Age site was discovered in the 1960s.
It dates back to the 18–15th millennium BC, that is, people lived here about 20 thousand years ago. The excavations were carried out by an expedition of the Kursk Pedagogical Institute and the regional museum of local lore under the leadership of Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor P. I. Boriskovsky.
At that time, ice covered the entire northern half of Eastern Europe, extending here and there into our region. The main part of its territory was then a harsh, frozen tundra, swampy and treeless. The first inhabitants of our region wore animal skins, lived in dugouts, their main occupation was hunting mammoths, and their main food was mammoth meat.
It is possible that in the territory where Kursk is located, people lived before, in the Lower Paleolithic, but traces of this have not yet been discovered.
Neolithic sites dating back to the 5th–3rd millennia BC are known in several places within the city: at the Kirovsky Bridge over the Tuskar River, at the Kievsky Railway Bridge, in Ryzhkov, in the area of First Industrial Street. A Neolithic site near Kursk is also known - near the Seim River opposite the village of Lebyazhye.
By the beginning of the Neolithic, the ice in Europe had melted, and a relatively warm climate had established. Most of the territory of the present Kursk region was covered with forests that interspersed “steppe” watersheds; they were rich in wild animals, birds and bees, and the rivers were rich in fish. The animal world was already similar to the modern one. Neolithic people also hunted. Fishing was also of great importance, so they settled exclusively along rivers.
Life continued in our places in the subsequent era - the Bronze Age (end of the 3rd - beginning of the 1st millennium BC), when the sites also clung to the rivers. Their traces were noted near the Kirovsky Bridge, near the yeast and tanneries. On the territory of the main, upper part of the city there were burial mounds of the Bronze Age. This is evidenced by numerous (over a dozen) cases of finds in the territory of Kursk of stone drilled and ground axes, typical of the Bronze Age. Particularly interesting is the ax found while digging a ditch on Red Square, not far from the Oktyabr cinema (now the Znamensky Cathedral): figured, artistically processed. It, like other finds, is kept in the local history museum.
Most of the Bronze Age axes were found near the leather factory, where there was probably a significant burial mound group, which was later destroyed by development: during burial, axes were usually placed next to the deceased. Before the war, on Red Square, on the site where the post office is located, an undisturbed Bronze Age burial was discovered during excavation work. At a depth of about two meters they found the skeletons of a man and a woman lying side by side. The bones were painted bright red. Near them were clay vessels with funeral food. According to eyewitness descriptions, the burial belonged to the so-called Timber-frame culture of the Bronze Age - the 2nd half of the 2nd millennium BC.
The main occupations of the Kurdish people remained hunting and fishing, but cattle breeding and primitive agriculture were already developing. Bronze Age settlements were short-lived and were often moved from place to place. There were no fortified settlements on the territory of Kursk yet.
Early Iron Age
The next archaeological epoch, the Early Iron Age, or Early Iron Age, occupies almost the entire 1st millennium BC. The main industry of the inhabitants of most of the forest-steppe became arable farming, the smelting of iron from swamp ores began, and many permanent fortified settlements appeared.
At this time, our places began to especially attract people. There are many forests with animals, open black soil areas, and swamp iron ore deposits. And also – steep capes near the mouth of the Kur River, intended by nature itself for the construction of fortifications.
In the 6th–5th centuries BC, a settlement appeared at the mouth of the Kur River - the first Kursk fortress. This is evidenced by shards of molded vessels from the 1st half of the 1st millennium BC, found in the area of the House of Officers and the electrical equipment plant. In 1967, fragments of molded ceramics from that time were collected on the slope near the “Electroapparat” by local historian A. A. Orlov.
The first pre-Slavic settlement at the mouth of the Kura did not last long. Already by the 2nd century BC, residents left all the ancient settlements of Poseimye and began to live lower, closer to the water, in places more convenient for settlement. However, they could continue to use the old fortifications as shelters in case of danger.
In the 1st half of the 1st millennium AD, the western and middle parts of the region were inhabited by tribes of a high culture at that time, known in archeology as the Chernyakhov culture. Who were they - Slavs or not? The question is not yet entirely clear. It is reliably known that their settlements and burial grounds of the Slavs were on the banks of the Seim near the village of Mokva and the village of Lebyazhye. Several Chernyakhov shards were found within the city, and Slavic jewelry from the 6th century was found near the Kirov Bridge.
In the 6th–7th centuries, the Slavs did not build fortifications and generally did not live in high places. Only in the 8th century, apparently due to the sharply increased danger of attack by steppe nomads, did our ancestors occupy and re-adapt for defense most of the old settlements. Again, a fortress appears on the cape at the mouth of the Kura, this time a Slavic, Russian one. A small settlement, protected by a ditch and a rampart, running at its north-eastern edge from the bank of the Tuskari River to the Kura valley, the banks of which at the mouth were much steeper at that time. The earthen fortifications were reinforced with a powerful wall of ancient oak trees.
There is reason to believe that simultaneously with the appearance of a settlement at the mouth of the Kura, another one arose - on a hillock near the current Dobrolyubov Square, where the Trinity Church is now.
At each of the settlements there were 30–40 semi-dugout huts. Small unfortified villages arose nearby. This is what all the settlements of our forest-steppe looked like in the 8th–10th centuries, which is confirmed by excavations of the Shuklin settlement closest to Kursk.
Northern Slavs on the Seim River
The Slavs, who inhabited the basins of the Desna and Seim rivers in the 2nd half of the 1st millennium, were part of a vast and populous union of northerners or “northern tribes”. Chroniclers sometimes briefly called them "north". However, the tribes received their name not from the geographic north, but from the Sev River (a tributary of the Nerussa, a tributary of the Desna), originating in the north-west of the region.
The Northerners and the Seversk land, together with the glades and the Polyanskaya land, were the main part of Ancient Rus' - an association of Eastern Slavs that existed in Eastern Europe in the middle of the 1st millennium. Located on the dangerous eastern outskirts of Rus', the “north” was systematically subject to raids by nomads. At the end of the 9th century, during the struggle between Kyiv and Novgorod, a significant part of the Seversk land, including, apparently, our Poseimye, was attacked by the Khazars, and the northerners for some time became Khazar tributaries.
In 884, Prince Oleg, already at the head of the Old Russian state, which united most of the East European Slavs, smashed the Khazars. Since that time, the Seversk land has again been part of the ancient Russian Kyiv state.
The importance of Kursk is growing. Standing at the confluence of the Tuskari and the Seim, it became an important link in the chain of fortified cities designed to protect Rus' from attacks by nomadic tribes. Its importance especially increased in connection with the appearance of warlike Pechenegs in the steppes near the borders of the Russian land. From the end of the 9th century, the concern for protecting Rus' from the steppe inhabitants became one of the main constant concerns of the Kyiv grand-ducal authorities, because without a strong system of such defense the Old Russian state simply could not exist. Nomads sometimes reached the Dnieper itself and the capital Kyiv.
The grand ducal government took part in the construction of new border fortresses and strengthening of old ones. The best people from all the lands under the hand of the Kyiv prince gather to build fortresses and serve on distant borders.
In 1036, the Pechenegs were defeated by Yaroslav the Wise, but soon an equally dangerous and powerful enemy, the Polovtsians, appeared in the steppes neighboring Russia. The role of defensive lines became even more important.
When was Kursk founded?
So, in the 10th century, Kursk was already a significant fortress at that time. The unfortified, or rather weakly fortified, settlement located near its walls has also grown noticeably.
We know of an attempt to accurately indicate the year the city of Kursk was founded. The author of one of the versions, based on the statement of a certain Stackelberg, who wrote “A Guide from Kursk to Moscow” in 1858, named the year 990. Stackelberg himself does not support this date with anything, except for an unfounded reference to unnamed Kursk “local historians and historians.” From a scientific point of view it sounds naive and completely unproven.
But that's not the point. Having set out to find out when Kursk appeared, we need to agree on what exactly we want to find out. When did the first pre-Slavic settlement appear here? The time of the emergence of the Slavic settlement - the city in the ancient meaning of the word? But all these events took place long before 990.
The following question is also possible: when did Kursk become a city in the modern sense, that is, from a village with a rural population it turned into a populated area where crafts and trade predominated and which had a certain administrative significance?
It is, of course, impossible to name one year. This happened gradually over a number of years. By the middle of the second half of the 10th century, Kursk was already a real city. When it became a significant link in the chain of Russian border fortress-fortifications, it naturally grew, as we would now say, the defense industry. Ferrous metallurgy arose, fortunately there were many deposits of swamp iron ore around, convenient for smelting metal in primitive cheese-blowing furnaces using the direct reduction of iron. Fuel was provided by oak forests, which then covered most of the region. Blacksmithing, primarily weapons craft, developed. Ancient metallurgy in our city is evidenced by random finds on its territory of pieces of metallurgical slag, typical for cheese smelting.
Excavations carried out before the Great Patriotic War by Academician B. A. Rybakov at a site near the village of Gocheva, Belovsky district, tell about crafts in the cities of the Slavic borderland and about many other aspects of life in pre-Mongol Kursk. On the site of this settlement in pre-Mongol times there was a significant Russian city of Rimov, in many ways similar to ancient Kursk. It also arose in the 8th–9th centuries and during the era of Kievan Rus it was one of the important outposts on the southeastern outskirts of the country. In the 12th century it was destroyed by nomads and was never reborn.
Excavations at the Gochevo settlement uncovered an entire metallurgical quarter at the edge of the ancient city with dozens of domnitsa and forges. This did not surprise archaeologists: the fortress city on the distant and dangerous borders of Rus' had to supply itself in abundance with metal for tools and especially for the production of weapons. There is no doubt that a similar developed ancient metallurgy existed in Kursk, which in those centuries was an even more important Russian fortress.
At the end of the 9th century, the Slavs acquired a potter's wheel. Before that, they made pots with their hands. Professional potters and artisans began to work, making them for sale. Slavic pottery made on a wheel has been in Kursk since that time. During excavation work in the historical part of the city, not only shards, but also entire vessels were repeatedly found. In particular, one of these, huge, multi-bucket, excavated on the territory of Pervomaisky Park, is on display in the regional museum of local lore.
Other crafts also developed. During reconnaissance near the Kirov Bridge, many shards of pre-Mongol pottery, spindle whorls, weights worn on the spindle during spinning, metallurgical sludge, iron products and blacksmith waste were collected. Some spindle whorls are made of pink slate. This is an imported material; it was mined only in one place near the city of Ovruch in Ukraine and only before the Mongol yoke. The discovery of such spindle whorls is proof that the ancient settlement existed even before Batu’s invasion. Such spindle whorls were also made only by professional craftsmen. Even more telling is the discovery near the bridge of many pieces of twisted glass bracelets - red, blue, green and others. Such bracelets existed in Rus' only before the Mongol-Tatars and only in cities. Village women did not wear such bracelets. This means that there is evidence that in Kursk there was not just a pre-Mongol settlement, but a city, and not a village.
Traces of the workshop where these bracelets were made, as well as the production of cylindrical iron locks characteristic of Kievan Rus, were also discovered there. For an archaeologist, this is proof of both complex specialized locksmith craft and the development of trade - shops, storage sheds, and barns with goods were locked with such locks. This means that there was already a stratification of property and people who had accumulated significant wealth.
Excerpt from the Paterikon of Pechersk about Kursk
The first written mention of Kursk is in the so-called Pechersk Patericon (a description of the lives of the holy monks of the famous Kiev Pechersk Lavra), or more precisely, in the “Life of Theodosius of Pechersk”. This mention dates back to the end of the 10th century. Various erroneous dates were given in the press. The actual date of the arrival of Theodosius of Pechersk in Kursk can be established from the following chronicle data. Theodosius died in 1074 at the age of 82. Feodosius, we read in his “Life,” was brought to Kursk by his father as a “preschooler” and here he began to learn to read and write. Literacy in Kievan Rus was taught from the age of 6–7 years. This means that Theodosius was born in 992, and arrived in Kursk no later than 998.
From the text of the “Life” it is clear that at the beginning of the 11th century Kursk was already a considerable city for those times. There were stone temples, markets, and bakeries where bread was baked and sold. There was a “lord” - a prince or governor of princes, feudal lords who used the labor of forced smerds for personal services and in agriculture.
It is no coincidence that trade has long been of great importance in Kursk. The city lay at the crossroads of important river routes of the time. The first led to Kursk from Kyiv through the Dnieper, Desna, and Seim rivers. The second walked along Tuskari and Snova to Lake Samodurovskoye. Now it’s gone: it’s completely overgrown with moss and turned into a peat bog. In the same lake in past centuries, the Oka River began, and, consequently, one of the routes opened through the upper reaches of the Volga and the portages mastered by our ancestors to the Neva and Baltic. The third route went to the upper reaches of the Seim and from there through a small portage to the Seversky Donets, further to the Don, then to the Azov and Black Seas.
The described routes, despite their very modest throughput by modern standards, were then of no small importance.
To be continued…
Based on materials from the publication “Kursk - an ancient Russian city” (1975). Authors: V. I. Samsonov, senior researcher at the local history museum, Yu. A. Aleksandrov-Lipking, senior lecturer at the Kursk State Pedagogical Institute
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Illustration from the website of the Kursk Museum of Archeology archeo-kursk.ru
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