Svyatogorsk and Bakhmut guards. “Holy Mountains” is the first permanent settlement in the Donetsk region.
Formation of a buffer zone on the southwestern borders of the Moscow kingdom. The Azov and Podontsovo regions are the territory of interethnic, interreligious, intercultural borderlands. After the capture of Ochakov by the Turks, it became difficult for the Cossacks to get into the Black Sea. We had to create workarounds. This is how the so-called The salt route that ran through our territory: Dnieper - Samara - Volchya - portage to Kalmius or Mius - Sea of Azov - Kerch Strait - Black Sea In 1500, a winter home for the Cossacks Domakha (Adomakha) appeared at the mouth of Kalmius. Other winter camps appeared along Bakhmutka. Some of the Cossacks entered the service of the Moscow Tsar and were engaged in protecting the borders of the state, for which they received certain privileges. One of these services took place along the Lugan River. Three roads (“sakmas”) led to the borders of Left-Bank Ukraine and Russia through the Donetsk steppes from Crimea: - Muravskaya - along the watershed of the Dnieper and Seversky Donets leading to Livny, Tula and Moscow. - From it, at the upper reaches of Sukhoi Torets, Izyumskaya departed, which went to Izyumsky ford on the Donets, and from there, along the right bank of Oskol, it went out to connect with Muravskaya at the same Liven. - Kalmiusskaya separated from Muravskaya at the headwaters of the Molochny Vody River, went east to Kalmius, its right bank went out into the interfluve of Bakhmut and Lugan, crossed the Donets between the Krasnaya and Aidar rivers and went to join Muravskaya near the city of Livny. From the beginning of the 16th century. along these roads, the hordes of the Crimean Khan, together with detachments of the Nogais, invaded the borders of Left Bank Ukraine and Russia. To prevent the suddenness of Tatar raids, the Moscow princes sent guard detachments to the steppe, which monitored the crossings on the Seversky Donets and informed the border governors about the location and number of Tatar detachments that had invaded the Russian state. Therefore, from the 16th century. The Seversky Donets becomes the unofficial border between the Crimean Khanate and the Moscow Principality. After the destruction of Moscow in May 1571 by the Crimean Khan Devlet-Girey, the government of Ivan IV the Terrible appointed new guards and villages. If the task of the watchmen located on the left bank of the Donets was to control the crossings of the river, then the villages, delving into the steppe to the headwaters of the Bakhmut, Torets, Samara and Oreli rivers, monitored the movements of the Tatars on the right side of the river. Of the seven Donetsk guardhouses, two (Svyatogorskaya - opposite the cave monastery) and Bakhmutovskaya (at the mouth of the Zherebets river) were located on the territory of the modern Donetsk region. The first mention of the Holy Mountains dates back to the first half of the 16th century. The Svyatogorsk Monastery was named in official documents in 1624. It was here that the 5th watchman (Svyatogorskaya) was stationed in 1571. The 6th watchman (Bakhmutovskaya) stood over the Aidar River (the left tributary of the Seversky Donets). In 1598 - 1600 it was commanded by the boyar Bogdan Belsky, who was also involved in the construction of one of the first fortresses on the southern borders of the Moscow kingdom. In the main directions of the Tatar invasion, at the direction of the tsarist government at the end of the 16th century. fortresses were built. The southernmost of them was Tsareborisovskaya. built in 1599 at the mouth of the river. Oskol. The organizers of the fortress were instructed to “invite the atamans and the best Cossacks from the Donets and Oskol and announce to them that the sovereign had granted them favor and ordered these rivers to be given to them...” Consequently, this territory since the middle of the 16th century. was mastered by the Cossacks, who waged an intense struggle against the aggression of the Crimean feudal lords and the Ottoman Empire in the Northern Black Sea region. One of the most striking episodes of this struggle was the capture of the city of Azov by the Don and Zaporozhye Cossacks in 1637. Since the tsarist government did not send troops to support the Cossacks, they were forced to leave Azov in 1642. Another road that ran through our region ran through Krasny Kut (a village between Krasny Luch and Debaltsevo) and was a secret route that connected Zaporozhye with the Don. Thus, in the XV - XVI centuries. The Azov and Podontsovo regions have, in fact, become the territory of interethnic, interreligious and intercultural borderlands. Here the interests of states collided - Russian, Lithuanian, Turkish, Crimean Khanate, fragments of the Golden Horde. Various peoples, ethnic groups, ethnic groups professing different religious beliefs mixed: Orthodoxy, Catholicism, Islam. Already at that time, due to historical circumstances, this territory became a zone of mixing of different cultures, traditions, customs; ethnic and cultural diversity became the norm for this region.
Russian cities and villages were separated from the areas of Tatar nomads by hundreds of kilometers of steppe and forest-steppe spaces. It begged to organize reconnaissance in the steppe.
Moved forward into the steppe, detachments of mounted Russian soldiers could find out in advance about the movement of the Tatars and warn the government and population about it. Well-organized reconnaissance made it possible to prepare in advance for a Tatar attack, gather troops, and strike back at the Tatars.
By the 16th century The guard service already had history and traditions. In the chronicles there are references to sending Russian guard detachments to the southern steppe back in the era of feudal fragmentation. In 1380, Moscow Prince Dmitry Donskoy sent watchmen to the steppe who closely monitored the movements of Khan Mamai and brought messages to the prince81. Watchmen were also known in the 15th century. But the organization of guard service in the southern steppe on a national scale became possible only in the 16th century, after the unification of all Russian lands around Moscow and the formation of the Russian centralized state.
The first and, perhaps, the only researcher of watchdog service in Russia was I. D. Belyaev; We examined his main work on this issue in a historiographical review. After the work of I.D. Belyaev, the development of the Russian watchdog service as a whole was not studied; only articles appeared on similar and specific issues. Using both sources introduced into scientific circulation by I. D. Belyaev, and some other documents of the 16th-17th centuries, we will try to show the guard service in the south of Russia in historical development, to find out its significance before the construction of the Belgorod Line.
What are watchmen and villages, what is their difference? The watchman was an observation post consisting of several horsemen who usually had to ride back and forth along a small, pre-designated area, for example across a Tatar road. The guard was changed depending on a number of reasons (distance from the city, the magnitude of the danger) after a few days, a week, even a month. The villages were patrol mobile detachments that traveled from the city to the steppe along a pre-established route and returned to the city. It was among the villagers in the 16th and 17th centuries. Another duty was setting fire to the steppes, which was often carried out over large areas. The steppe was burned, as one document says, “so that when the military people arrived there would be nothing to feed the horses with.”
In the middle of the 16th century. The guards and villages who traveled from the northern cities of Putivl and Rylsk to the southeast were of great importance. The geographical location of these cities allowed them to receive the earliest information about the performance of the Crimean Tatars. This information was transmitted to Moscow. For example, in 1552, the Putivl village resident Ivan Strelnik reported in Moscow that the Crimean Tatars were marching on Russian cities and “had already climbed over the Seversky Donets.”
In 1571, Prince M.I. Vorotynsky became the all-Russian head of the guard service. Experts on the steppe outskirts were summoned to Moscow from the southern cities - boyar children, village residents, watchmen, leaders (guides). It is from the questioning of these people, carried out in the Discharge Order and recorded in the “watch book,” that we learn about many of the details of the organization of guard service on the steppe outskirts before 1571. The very fact of convening such a representative military congress is of great interest. At the same time, a wonderful charter for the guard service was drawn up. M.I. Vorotynsky alone cannot be considered the author of the charter. This document was the fruit of the collective creativity of the congress participants, as evidenced by the text itself (“the boyar Prince Mikhail Ivanovich Vorotynsky sentenced the children of the boyars, with the heads of the villages and with the villagers”).
The charter defined the tasks of the guard service: so that “the Ukrainians would be more careful, so that military people would not come to the sovereign’s Ukrainian wars unknown.” The duties of watchmen were discussed in detail. One of the guards must always be on horseback; everyone had no right to dismount at the same time. It was forbidden to stop in the forests or light a fire for cooking twice in the same place. Each watchman was required to have two good horses. The charter explained what to do when Tatars were discovered. While one of the watchmen reported the appearance of the enemy in the nearest city, the others had to go behind the Tatars' rear and determine the number of enemies by the traces left behind. The charter established the terms of guard and stanitsa services: from April 1 until the “big snows”.
Fundamentally new in the guard service was the introduction in 1571 of all-Russian guard posts in the southern steppe, in addition to the villages and watchmen sent from individual cities. It was decided to organize 4 all-Russian guards of the post, each under the leadership of a standing head. The first (counting from the east) was located on the right bank of the Volga at the mouth of the Balykleya River, the second - “on the Don near Veshki” (the area of the modern village of Veshenskaya in the Rostov region), the third - on the river. Oskol at the confluence of the Ubli River, the fourth - on the river. Seima at the mouth of the Khona River. Later, the first watchman moved to the Tileorman forest (the area of the modern city of Borisoglebsk, Voronezh region), the second moved to the mouth of the river. Quiet Sosny, the third remained in its place - on the river. Oskol, the fourth moved to the river. Seversky Donets to the mouth of the river. Ud. This is how these all-Russian guard posts were located according to the paintings of 1577 and 1578.
They stood for most of the year - spring, summer and autumn. At the same time, there were about 400 people on four guards. Between all four watchmen, there were constant patrols of Cossack guards of 6 people along precisely established routes. The location of the all-Russian watchmen, the number of people in them, and the travel schedule were established annually at the end of winter in the Discharge Order, first under the leadership of M. I. Vorotynsky, and then N. R. Yuryev.
All-Russian watch posts existed before the emergence of the first cities “on the field”: Voronezh and Liven; the last time they were installed was in 1585. However, by this time, instead of four all-Russian watch posts, only two central ones remained. The guards at the Tileorman Forest turned out to be unnecessary - the Tatars did not go there in the 80s, but the Seversky Donets had enough guards from Putivl. It is possible that the economic crisis in the central regions of Russia in the 70s and early 80s of the 16th century. played a role in reducing the number of all-Russian watchmen.
During the reorganization of the guard service in 1571, much attention was paid to the Putivl and Rylsk villages. Previously, the villages apparently traveled to the steppe sporadically, but now a strict schedule was drawn up. From Putivl the villages had to leave in two directions, from Rylsk - in one; travel began on April 1st. Prince M. Tyufyakin and clerk M. Rzhevsky were sent to clarify the routes of the Putivl and Rylsk villages. After inspecting the area by M. Tyufyakin and M. Rzhevsky, the Putivl and Rylsk villages moved further south than before.
Historians have still paid attention to the military significance of the reorganization of the guard and village service in 1571. We want to emphasize the political significance of these events, in particular the trips of M. Tyufyakin and M. Rzhevsky to the southern steppes. At the extreme points of the village crossings, M. Tyufyakin and M. Rzhevsky erected special border signs in the spring of 1571. On a huge oak tree that grew at the source of the river. Mius, a cross was carved on an oak tree in the upper reaches of the river. The names of Tyufyakin and Rzhevsky, year, month and day are engraved in the eagle. This act seemed to confirm the official borders of the Russian state in the southern steppe, which extended right up to the river. Miusa. It was taken for granted that Russian villages traveled through their own land, through the territory of the Russian state. Now their path lay to the border.
Among the decisions on the reorganization of the guard and stanitsa service adopted in Moscow in February 1571, there was a special decree “on the Putivl sevryuks.” Local non-service residents of the Seversk land - “Sevryuks”, who previously went to work as Donetsk guards for hire, for money, were now removed from the business. From now on, only service people, but not mercenaries, could be sent to guards and villages. The Putivl voivode was ordered to compensate the new boyar children with local and monetary salaries. It was also allowed to recruit 100 mounted Cossacks into the Cossack service “and serve them with Polish parcels and guards from the land without money.”
Simultaneously with the fortified lines, a watchdog And village service, which was the third and very important defensive means. I will describe it as it was sent around 1571, when a special commission was formed to streamline it, chaired by the boyar Prince M.I. Vorotynsky, which drew up the charter for both services. From the forward cities, the second and part of the third defensive line advanced in different directions to well-known observation points watchmen and villages two, four or more mounted warriors, children of boyars and Cossacks, to observe the movements of the Nogai and Crimean Tatars in the steppe, “so that military people would not come to the sovereign’s Ukraine in unknown war.” Observation points were removed from the cities for four days or five days. Before 1571, there were 73 such watchmen and they formed 12 chains, a network stretching from the Sura River to the Seima River and from here turning onto the Vorskla and Northern Donets rivers. The guard posts were separated from each other by a day, more often by half a day's travel, so that constant communication between them was possible. There were watchmen near and far, named after the cities from which they came. Closer to the Oka, in the back row, stood the Dedilovsky, one Epifansky, Mtsensky and Novosilsky guards, to the left of them were the Meshchersky, Shatsky and Ryazhsky, to the right - the Oryol and Karachevsky, to the south, further into the steppe, the Sosensky (along the Bystraya Sosna River), from Yelets and Liven - Don, Rylsk, Putivl and, finally, Donetsk, the farthest. The watchmen had to stand motionless in their places, “without dismounting from their horses,” mainly protecting the river fords, climbs, where the Tatars climbed across rivers in their raids. At the same time, the villagers, two at a time, went around their tracts, the spaces entrusted to their care are six, ten and fifteen miles to the right and left of the observation point. Having noticed the movement of the Tatars, the villagers immediately let the nearby cities know about it, and they themselves, having let the Tatars through, were driving around They reconnoitered the sakmas that the enemy passed through in order to estimate their numbers based on the depth of the horse tracks. A whole system of transmitting steppe news by watchmen and village residents was developed. Captain Margeret says that the watchmen usually stood near large lonely steppe trees, one of them watched from the top of the tree, others fed the saddled horses. Noticing dust on the steppe sakma, the watchman mounted a ready horse and galloped to another guard tree, the watchman of which, barely seeing the galloping, galloped to the third, etc. Thus, the news of the enemy quickly reached the Ukrainian cities and Moscow itself.
”, dedicated to the entry of the Seversky and Slobozhansky lands into Russia, held on December 19 in Kharkov in the House of Scientists, its organizer Sergey Moiseev, chairman of the board of the Kharkov regional public organization “Triune Rus'”, announced the theses of his report “Organization of village and guard service on the lands of Slobozhanshchina in the 16th century." With his kind consent, we are publishing a review of the report.S. Moiseev refutes the opinion that the territory on which Slobozhanshchina is located, by the middle of the 17th century. remained uninhabited, was wild and had no permanent residents, and therefore did not belong to anyone, and assures that in reality the systematic development of these lands began a century earlier, by the Moscow State.
After the collapse of the Golden Horde, constant wars and clashes between individual Tatar hordes (Kazan, Crimean, Bolshoi, Nogai) and frequent devastating raids on the steppe population occurred in the 16th century. It is impossible for people to live in this territory. A huge, almost uninhabited territory from the Volga to the lower reaches of the Dnieper and from the upper reaches of the Seversky Donets to the Black and Azov Seas was called the “Wild Field”.
From the end of the 16th century. Lithuania has already significantly reduced its activity in the Wild Field, but the efforts of the Crimean Tatars and Turks have intensified significantly.
In this regard, to protect the southern borders after the Russian victory in 1480 on the Ugra and the final liberation from the Mongol-Tatar yoke, the Moscow state began active actions in this territory.
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If we take a panoramic look, we will see that in 1503, after the war between Muscovite Rus' and Lithuanian Rus', Lithuania recognized Ivan III’s rights to own Chernigov, Bryansk, Putivl, Gomel and most of the Smolensk and Vitebsk lands.
In the spring and summer of 1556, Tsar Ivan the Terrible organized a campaign of a Russian detachment under the command of clerk M.I. Rzhevsky into the Crimean-Turkish possessions to divert the forces of the Crimean Khan Devlet-Girey, who was preparing a new raid on Moscow. At the same time, John IV Vasilevich sent a campaign against the Astrakhan Khanate. Rzhevsky returned safely to Russia with great booty.
This first appearance of the Moscow army on the lower Dnieper made a strong impression on the Zaporozhye Cossacks, who henceforth saw in the Russian Tsar a powerful and real ally in the fight against Crimean-Turkish aggression.
And in the Wild Field, detachments of Russian riflemen and boyar children began to appear, who conducted reconnaissance in the steppe.
Researcher E.P. Savelyev mentions the fact of the pogrom of Cossack towns on the Donets by steppe inhabitants in 1569, which confirms: the Donets by that time was already the possession of the Don Cossacks.
Moscow's successes in the fight against the Tatar khanates began at the end of 1540.
For a number of years, Hetman Dmitry Vishnevetsky was also in the Moscow service, thanks to which people in the “royal name” were sitting on the island of Khortitsa at that time, and Putivtsy were part of Vishnevetsky’s detachment.
Devlet-Girey in 1552, 1555 and 1559. suffered one after another failure in his attempts at large raids on Russian borders.
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Back in 1546, the Putivl governor Troyekurov reported to Moscow: “At the present time, sir, there are many Cossacks on the Field: both Cherkashians, and Kievites, and yours, sovereigns, have come out, sir, to the Field from their Ukrainians.”
The increasing complexity of the tasks of protecting the southern borders of the state and the increase in the number of troops involved in this required more precise regulation of the entire guard and village service. The first step in this direction was the establishment of the position of chief commander of this service.
On January 21, 1571, Ivan the Terrible ordered “his boyar, Prince Mikhail Ivanovich Vorotynsky” to “in charge of the villages and guards and all his sovereign Polish services.”
To directly organize the guard and stanitsa service, M. Tyufyakin and M. Rzhevsky (in the Crimean direction), as well as Yu. Bulgakov and B. Khokhlov (in the Nogai direction) were appointed to help him.
Vorotynsky began by deciding to generalize some experience, namely, he ordered “to find out the previous lists of the villages” and called to Moscow the heads of the villages, their comrades, villagers, and watchmen, “who travel ... in the villages to the field to different tracts and who Previously, they traveled for ten and fifteen years.” Both the old and the crippled were summoned, as long as “they went to the villages and on guard duty first.” Vorotynsky was especially interested in the villagers and watchmen, who “were in full, but now have come out of the full.”
As a result of the great work carried out by them and some other clerks of the Rank Order, the service for the protection of the “sovereign Ukraine” in a short time received several governing documents, adopted in the form of Verdicts of the Moscow boyars and approved by the Tsar.
The first of them was the “Sentence on the village and guard service” adopted on February 16, 1571, which legally defined the goals, objectives and organizational structure of the guard and village service, the principles and methods of its performance, the rights and responsibilities of officials.
The next Judgment of the boyars marked the beginning of the transition from hired service to permanent public service. The verdict of February 27, 1571 “On the appointment of places where heads should stand in the field” introduced four new leadership positions into the staff of the guard and village service - heads in the field and more than 430 positions of village workers.
Over three seasonal shifts, the stanitsa service was additionally carried out by 12 heads in the field and more than 1,350 stanitsa residents from the children of boyars and Cossacks, who took under surveillance the entire space of the steppe and the Seversky Donets. The village service was also given the task of not only supervising, but also protecting the southern borders during the invasion of insignificant forces of nomads.
The verdict of the Boyar Duma of March 6, 1571 “On the payment of salaries and compensation for losses for guard, stanitsa and field service” confirmed the state’s obligations to pay guards and stanitsa workers a higher salary than archers and policemen, boyar children and Cossacks, as well as to compensate for losses incurred by them while performing their service.
Thanks to these documents, the guard and village service quickly became stronger and played an important role in ensuring the security of the southern borders of Rus'. As a result, in 1572, in several heavy battles near Serpukhov and Molodi, Vorotynsky intercepted and defeated the army of the Crimean Khan Devlet-Girey.
Locally, the voivodes (governors) of the Russian cities of the “first line” were responsible for organizing the service. All duties related to the direct organization of the watchman service and villages, their preparation, presentation to the voivode for inspection and direction towards the nomads were performed by the standing heads subordinate to the voivode.
From the spring of 1577, on the basis of the Boyar Verdict, specially introduced “siege heads” began to exercise immediate supervision over the proper performance of service by the watchmen. The places, directions and order of service, the number of forces allocated for this were determined by the corresponding letters, which were received monthly by the governors from the Rank Order, to which a strict reporting system was developed in the form of a “Listing” of the villages and a watchman.
The villages and guards were usually small groups of horsemen from Cossacks and boyar children. Stanitsa were cavalry detachments of 60-100 people, sent far into the steppe to perform patrol duty and provide prompt notification of the movements of Tatar troops.
Watchmen (guards) - mounted detachments, as well as pickets and guards of 4-10 people - “served” small territories.
In 1571 there were 73 such guards and villages, and they were part of 12 defensive lines from the river. Sura to the Seversky Donets. The guard posts were located at a distance of about one day's travel from each other, more often than half a day. The widely branched system of villages and watchmen, their deep echeloning, the intersection of the routes of the villages and guard patrols, the combination of mobile and stationary forms of reconnaissance and surveillance made it possible to create in the Russian state an effective system for protecting its southern and southeastern borders.
As a result, it was possible not only to prevent Tatar raids into the interior of the country, but also the rapid development of large areas of the “Wild Field” began, and a chain of cities appeared in the Donets and Don basins.
Russian governors began to actively use Cossacks for guard and village service, since the constant threat from the horde required the creation of defensive lines on the borders. The lines were created in dangerous directions of the borders of Russia and consisted of chains of forts, stockades, surrounded by a palisade or tyn with ditches and forest clearings.
The duty of the Cossack detachments also included escorting Russian and foreign ambassadors traveling from Rus' to Crimea and back.
In October 1558, a detachment of Cossacks led by Yu. Bulgakov defeated the Crimean Tatars; in February 1559, another detachment of Zaporozhye Cossacks and Russian troops led by Vishnevetsky inflicted a new defeat on the Tatars.
A detachment of Cossacks under Mikhail Cherkashenin defeated the Tatars on the Seversky Donets.
The Putivl voivode reported in 1591: “Tatars are in many places, the guards at the mouth of the Aidar have been destroyed,” that is, at the confluence with the Seversky Donets.
“Cherkasy” began actively entering guard service in 1586. And they, like those serving Muscovy, received estates and salaries.
Let us pay attention to the joint nature of the military service of the Dnieper Cossacks and the “Cherkasy” with the Don people. The inspecting boyar Afanasy Zinoviev noted “that the Cherkassy serve the sovereign faithfully” and mentioned the Zaporozhye ataman Matvey, who stood on the Donets with 620 Cossacks. On the Donets they suffered great need and hunger - “they eat grass, but the king sent them gifts - stocks of flour, oatmeal and money.”
In the 1570s, along the left bank of the Seversky Donets there were 7 guards of the first category, including Svyatogorskaya, Bakhmutskaya and Aidarskaya. In September 1565, the Crimean Khan Devlet-Girey with a large army began crossing the Donets, the Donetsk Cossacks discovered the enemy in time, notified the border towns that the khan was carrying heavy cannons on carts, and near Bolkhov the enemy was defeated and many were captured.
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The system of defensive measures in the south ultimately consisted of two components: the guard service and the abatis line.
In 1596, as evidenced by the entry in the “Rank Book of 1475-1598”, “... the sovereign Tsar Grand Duke Fedor Ivanovich of All Rus' sent to the field on the Donets on Severskaya Chuguev settlement and other urban places along the Donets and along other rivers should see where the sovereign should build cities.”
The Moscow government established a number of military cities in the southern steppes: Voronezh (1586), Belgorod, Yelets, Oskol, Valuiki (there are two dates - both 1596, according to the date of the decree, and 1593), Tsareborisov (1598-1600). Strong garrisons were stationed in the newly built cities.
But long before the construction of fortresses, “even from the years of Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich,” as the chronicler reports, there was a Russian population here, representing for the most part a conglomerate of all classes, including fugitive peasants and exiled criminals.
It should be noted that in this area the so-called “thieves’ Cossacks” also engaged in raids and robberies. Karamzin also wrote about them that “they sold themselves to the Poles and were in the service of Batory.”
In the order of Tsar Boris Godunov in 1600 to the governors B. Belsky and S. Alferov about the construction of the city of Tsareborisov, considered the first city on the territory of the modern Kharkov region, it was said: “When the expedition arrives at the place, send service people to the vicinity and order the atamans and atamans to arrive in the city the best Cossacks living in their lands along the Donets, Oskol and their tributaries, and tell them that the king granted those rivers Donets and Oskol, and with all the rivers that fell into the Donets and Oskol, ordered give them to the Donetsk and Oskol atamans and Cossacks, freely and without waste, the Donetsk and Oskol atamans would serve the sovereign and hear news.”
Documents of the 16th century testify to the existence at that time of the Izyum guardhouse, which monitored the fords across the Donets. Here, residents of Putivl, Rylsk and other cities performed guard duty in turn.
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The serif, “grown together over decades, if not centuries,” closed “into a coherent and continuous system” in the 1560s. Historians believe that the tour of “Ukrainian places” by Tsar Ivan the Terrible in 1566 was associated precisely with the completion of large-scale work on the formation of a continuous serif line.
The main structures of the abatis line were forest rubble. In the floodplains of the rivers, hollows were erected. Other engineering structures were also built, earthen ramparts and ditches, forts, as well as towers with gates, which were certainly placed in places where the road crossed the fence.
The notch line is not only a mechanical obstacle, overcoming which the equestrian Tatar detachment would certainly lose time, but also a line to which forces were concentrated for battle.
In 1555, after the unsuccessful battle of Sudbischi, 150 versts south of Ryazan, the battle with the Tatars took place in the second line at the abatis, where Voivode Basmanov “drove into Dubrovo with the ears of his regiments and ordered the alarm bell to be sounded and the surna to be played, and many came to him children of boyars and boyar people and archers, about 5, 6 thousand, and they were killed.”
The forests in which the fences were located were declared protected. It was forbidden to cut them down and lay roads through them, except for those that were registered with the governor and fenced with forts and towers.
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From 1636 to 1678, from Vorskla to the Don, the construction of the three-hundred-mile “Belgorod abatis line” took place, which was formed from 25 fortified cities, interconnected by an earthen rampart and a number of diverse fortifications, with a center in Belgorod, 5 cities to the west of it and 19 east.
The beginning of the mass settlement of the Wild Field was laid by the participants of the Cossack-peasant uprising against the Polish invaders of 1637-1638. under the leadership of Pavlyuk and Ostryanin. After the defeat, a large detachment of rebels in 865 sabers “under the wire” of Hetman Yakov Ostryanin (Yatska Ostryanitsa) moved to the territory of modern Kharkov region and established the city of Chuguev, which since then - under any historical state formations - has retained the glory of a military city.
The letter of the Discharge Order to the Tula voivode in August 1638 states that those who came with Ostryanin “...we order to build a settlement for everyone in one place on Chuguev, and according to your idea, to arrange them in one place, so that they will be close to Muravsk Sakma, and our business should be more profitable and more careful from the Tatar parish.”
To build a fortress in Chuguev, servicemen led by Maxim Ladyzhinsky were sent from Belgorod, Kursk, and Oskol.
In March 1638, the Putivl voivode reported to Moscow that “every day in the sovereign name” settlers from the Right Bank and Left Bank Ukraine were arriving in the Wild Field. The roads were crowded with settlers, whom the Polish government and the gentry tried in every possible way to prevent. The Poles were supported by hetmans and Cossack elders and also created all sorts of obstacles, not wanting to lose their subjects. The first inhabitants of Chuguev, whom the Poles considered their fugitive slaves, were demanded by the Polish side to be extradited and threatened to organize an attack on the city. Things did not go further than threats then.
Both Russian service people and peasants who fled from their landowners from the central districts of the state moved to the free lands of the Wild Field.
In the royal charter dated June 17, 1651, the governors of the border cities were ordered to accept settlers for eternal residence and provide them with all possible assistance.
In this regard, a tendency was revealed towards the advancement of the Don Cossacks to the west and settlement along the Seversky Donets and its tributaries.
For those who even today shout about “Moscow oppression”, it will be of interest to read the following document: “So that no taxes or losses are imposed on the arriving Cherkassy people from any people, and no one takes away or steals horses and all kinds of animals from Cherkasy, and the governor himself they show kindness and kind greetings to the Cherkassy people, so that the Cherkassy people are not led into doubt by cruelty.” (Emphasis by me. - P.M.)
Local governors were supposed to look after local governments. The Belgorod voivode had the status of senior among the surrounding voivodes, and therefore all the Slobodsk regiments were first assigned to the Belgorod voivode.
On the street of the Belgorod Regiment in Belgorod. Memorial sign to the 300th anniversary of the Battle of Poltava, in which the regiment played a significant role
A native of the famous Chuguev Malinovka, S. Moiseev, emphasizes that usually those who arrived wrote a petition about the settlement, as was the case, for example, when the village of Malinovka was founded in 1652: “Five people came to Chuguev in the State name from the Lithuanian side of the city of Gruna Cherkasy and asked permission, which we received."
If they settled without consent, as happened in the Balakleya region (this settlement also retained its professional military function to this day), where the Russian guard had been stationed since the 16th century, then approximately the following happened. The service people first reported to the tsar: “On the Balakleya river and near the wells, Cherkassy camps and builds apiaries and owns all sorts of crafts.”
To which the Tsar replied: “You should have sent horsemen to those Cherkassy people and ordered them to say that the Chuguev lands and all sorts of lands from the time immemorial of our Tsar’s Majesty the Moscow State...”
Thus, the spontaneous flow of a small branch of the Russian people, which poured under the protection of the Great Russian Sovereign in the 17th century, found protection in a clearly organized state military-administrative system.
Read on January 26 and February 23, 1846 at the “Imperial Society of Russian History and Antiquities” at Moscow University. Belyaev Ivan Dmitrievich. Presented in abbreviation.
The borders of Northeastern Rus', neighboring the Volga, Don and even Dnieper steppes, were called the Polish Ukrainian of the Moscow State in our ancient official papers. These borders, not protected by nature and subject to frequent and devastating raids of the Horde, required constant and active defense, and therefore the Moscow Sovereigns, back in the 14th century, found it necessary to establish a permanent guard here, which would monitor the movements of the Horde and notify the border governors about everything in a timely manner. even the Sovereigns themselves. The first news of such a guard that has reached us dates back to 1360 AD. or a little later: namely, Metropolitan Alexey, in his letter to Cherleny Yar around this time, mentions guards along the Khopr and Don. In all likelihood, the establishment of such a guard began shortly before this time; for in the charter of Metropolitan Theognost, written between 1334 and 1353 on the same Cherleny Yar, nothing is mentioned about the guards along the Khopr and Don; Moreover, the very state of the Moscow State, which until Demetrius Donskoy was completely dependent on the Horde Khans, of course, until now did not allow even thinking about establishing guards that would be offensive to the Tatars. And even under Donskoy, the idea of guards could only have been born, but by no means had room for full development; for the Moscow State, separated from the Tatars by the possessions of the Princes of Ryazan, Murom, Nizhny Novgorod and others, had neither the right nor the opportunity to build fortifications in foreign lands, often hostile.
There is no doubt that the guards mentioned by Metropolitan Alexei were nothing more than hidden dens of traveling guards and villagers, who had the duty of observing the movements of the Tatars and delivering news to Moscow. The dens were initially located along the Khopr, Don, Bystraya Quiet Sosna, and Voronezh, through which the Tatars mainly went to Rus'. From these dens, the patrols of guards and villagers went deeper into the steppes in all directions and sometimes reached the Tatar nomadic camps. So in 1380, Grand Duke Dimitri Ivanovich Donskoy, having received news of Mamai’s campaign, sent Rodion Rzhevsky, Andrei Volosaty, Vasily Tupik and many others to the fast and quiet Pine to observe the movements of the Tatars, and even go to the Horde itself to get a tongue. When the messengers slowed down, he sent other guards, Kliment Polunin, Ivan Svyatoslav and Grigory Sudok. On September 5, Pyotr Gorsky and Karp Oleksin came from the guards and brought one of the significant Mamaev nobles in tongues, who reported that Khan was already at Kuzmin Gati and in three days would be on the Don. On the seventh, seven watchmen came running to the Grand Duke, one after another, constantly notifying about Mamai’s movements.
With the expansion of the borders of the Moscow State to the south and east and with the subjugation of the principalities of Nizhny Novgorod, Murom, Ryazan and others, the guards against the Tatars began to increase, and little by little they took the form of a line of real fortifications along the entire southeastern borders of the State.
In the so-called Ukrainian or border cities on this side, a special class of military service people was established, known as city Cossacks, who were obliged to constantly be in service, travel in the steppe, watch the movements of the Tatars along the well-known steppe roads, called roads and sakmas, intercept languages, and deliver messages to the governors and the Sovereign, and in the event of an accidental raid by the Horde, protect Ukrainian cities. Free people from all classes were recruited into this service; for this service they received a certain amount of land according to the articles, who was fit for which, they were exempted, with their families, from all taxes, and sometimes they were awarded a cash salary, but they had to have weapons and horses at their own expense. City Cossacks are first encountered in our chronicles in 1444 when describing the battle with Prince Mustafa, but they probably existed before; however, we do not yet have evidence about the time of the establishment of this class of service people, but we can affirmatively say that city Cossacks should not be confused with either the Don or Volga Cossacks, nor, however, with the Kaisaks, known among the Tatars: for These were free people, voluntarily or by circumstance, who formed special communities, independent of anyone and with their own government; the city Cossacks, obviously, were established by the government and were completely dependent on it. During the reign of Ivan Vasilyevich IV, they came under the jurisdiction of the Streletsky Prikaz and, along with the Streltsy, constituted a special rank of the army, opposite to the nobles and boyar children, who were in the department of the Rank. The city Cossacks had special lists and books, as stated in the description of the Tsar’s Archives of 1575: “Box 38, and in it are books and lists of the Cossacks under Tsar Kasym, and the Tyumen ones under Ivan the Tsar.”
Then the Moscow Sovereigns began to oppose the Tatar raids on the borders of the Tatars themselves, settling Tatar princes and princes in Ukrainian cities, who went over with their hordes to Moscow service. So Grand Duke Vasily Vasilyevich the Dark gave Zvenigorod to Tsarevich Kaisym, son of Ulu-Akhmetov, from which this latter, in 1449, went against the Sedi-Akhmatov Tatars, who were going to plunder the Moscow regions, and in 1451, together with the governor Bezzubtsev, fought against steppe Tatars, led by Ulan Malberdey and other Murzas. Under Grand Duke John III, a new Tatar city, Kasimov, appeared, built to strengthen our borders from Horde raids; in 1474, John gave Tsarevich Murtaza a new town on the Oka River; in 1497, Kashira, Serpukhov and Khotun were given to Tsar Megmet-Amen, who was expelled from Kazan; and then Kashira was handed over to Khan Abdul-Letif.
Meanwhile, the Russian guard, consisting of children of boyars and Cossacks, still stood on the Don, Bystraya and Quiet Pine; moreover, not just for monitoring the Horde, but also for pursuing the robbers. So in 1492, June 10th, the Stanichniki, boyar children, Fyodor Koltovsky and Goryain Sidorov, a total of 64 people, caught up between Trudy and Bystraya Sosna, had a battle with Temesh, who was robbing the Oleksinsky volost at Voshan. And even earlier, in 1468, Grand Duke Ivan Vasilyevich sent outposts or guards to Murom Nizhiy, Kostroma and Galich to guard against Kazan raids. In 1472, Akhmat, while crossing the Oka, met Pyotr Fedorovich Chelyadnin and Simeon Biklemishev, who were defending the shore and who started a shootout with him, and until then they withstood the battle until the Moscow army approached with the Princes of Vereisky and Yuri Vasilyevich. In 1481, Akhmat, approaching the Oka, met ready-made Moscow regiments everywhere and, not daring to continue his journey, turned towards Lithuania. We also find standing troops on the banks of the Oka under the Grand Duke Vasily Ivanovich: so in 1528, the governor-princes, Vasily Semenovich Odoevsky, Ivan Ivanovich Shchetina, Fedor Vasilyevich Lopata and Ivan Fedorovich Ovchina, guarding the banks of the Oka, did not allow the Crimean Sultans, Islam , Yusup, son of Epancha, and two sons of Akhmat the Lame, with many Murzas and Tatars.
During the infancy of John IV, Temnikov was built and other cities in Ukraine were fortified, and the traveling guards and villagers penetrated far into the steppes: the Donets, Don, Volga and other steppe rivers closest to the Crimea, the Nogai Horde and Kazan were already cordoned off by the Moscow guards who were traveling in all directions, from Alatyr and Temnikov to Rylsk and Putivl. So the Crimeans, Nogais and Kazans, with every attack, met ready resistance. The governors and governors of Ukrainian cities quickly received news of the enemy invasion and rushed to help each other. So in 1540, the governor of Ryazan, Prince Mikulivsky, came to the aid of the Kashirs, who were attacked by the Crimean prince Amen. In 1541, the Voivodes of Vladimir and Shah - Alei Kasimovsky came to the aid of the defenders of Murom against Safa-Girey. In the same year, during the invasion of Sahib-Girey of Crimea, the Sovereign of Moscow constantly received news about his movements: on July 21, Prince Mikulinsky sent the first letter, on July 25, the village resident Gabriel arrived in Moscow from Rylsk, penetrating to the Holy Mountains (the tract at confluence of Oskol and Donets). The same stanitsa resident Gabriel traveled around the steppe and came across the sakmas, from which he concluded that the Crimean army extended to 100 thousand people or more. Then another village resident, Alexei Kutukov, came to the Sovereign, who spent the whole day watching the movements of the Crimeans on the Don and Sosva. In 1552, messenger after messenger also came to John with news about the movements of the Crimeans: around June 16, a messenger from the village resident Volzhin, who had reached Aidar, met the Emperor on the way from Kolomenskoye to Ostrov, and reported that the Crimeans had crossed the Northern Donets; then the village resident Vaska Alexandrov came running with the news that they were heading towards Ryazan; and on June 21, the Tula town came running with the news that a detachment of Crimeans had appeared near Tula; On June 23, two messengers came to the Emperor one after another with news of the attacks of Devlet - Girey to Tula; and on June 24th news was received about the flight of the Crimeans. From the report of the governor to the Emperor dated July 1, it is clear that the villagers pursued the Crimeans in the steppes themselves, making sure that the Khan did not return; According to the news of the villagers who overtook the Crimeans on all roads, it is clear that Khan ran 60 and 75 miles a day, abandoning horses and carts.
In 1555, Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich established a new guard on the Volga to monitor the Nogais, consisting of archers and Cossacks. This is how it is said in Artsibyshev’s narrative: “The sovereign sent Streletsky’s head, Grigory Kaftyrev, with the archers, and (ataman) Fyodor Pavlov (with the Cossacks) to the Volga; ordered those officials to guard the transports from the Yusupov children, to be sent with Dervish-Aliy, and, according to the news, go to the aid of Astrakhan. It was not at that time that the Cossack Khoper Regiment was founded, in which the remains of the banner granted by Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich are still kept? These new guards were located so that they could communicate with the guards along the Donets and the Don, and mutually notify each other. And therefore, when, according to the news about the movements of the Yusupov children, the Emperor sent boyar Sheremetev and his comrades against them, they were met on the campaign by the watchman Svyatogorsky and, sent by the village resident Lavrenty Koltovsky, a comrade, who informed the governor that Devlet “Girey has crossed the Donets and is heading towards the Ukrainians of Ryazan and Tula.”
According to news from 1556, it is clear that the Cossacks guarding Ukrainian cities had already begun to penetrate the steppes to attack the Crimeans. So this year, in the month of March, Ataman Mikhailo Groshev walked from Rylsk to the steppe and brought him to the Sovereign of Languages. Then, according to the Sovereign's decree, Dyak Rzhevsky walked from Putivl, also with the Cossacks along the Dnieper; at the same time, Daniil Chulkov and Ivan Maltsov walked down the Don. Chulkov reached Azov and defeated the Tatars he encountered, and Rzhevsky, uniting with Kanevsky Cherkasy, went to Islamkermen and took possession of the Ochakov fortress, fought off the Sainchaks of Tyaginsky and Ochakovsky and returned safely to Putivl with a lot of booty. Thus, all the steppes from our borders to the Crimean peninsula itself were crisscrossed with patrols of Moscow guards and villagers, who were already ravaging the very uluses of the Crimeans and returning to their cities with booty.
However, all this news is still far from complete and fragmentary; from them we can only conclude that from the second half of XI? centuries, there were already guards and sentry patrols in the steppes on the south-eastern borders of the Moscow State, and that these patrols sometimes penetrated to the Crimean uluses; but there are no hints here about the structure of the guard and stanitsa service, one can even doubt whether these mentioned government orders were not random, temporary, without any connection with each other, organized without a system, appearing as a result of circumstances, and then disappearing again, without development and without consequences? But, since 1571, all perplexity about this subject must disappear even in the eyes of the desperate skeptic; fate has preserved for us a number of official documents that shed bright light not only on the subsequent, but also on the previous existence of the guard and village service, its internal structure and gradual development.
In 1571, Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich, wanting to give more order to the guard and village service, by his order dated January 1, appointed the most famous warrior of his time, Boyarin Prince Mikhail Ivanovich Vorotynsky, as its chief commander and ordered to give it a better structure, giving him an assistant for examination and the appointment of guards on the spot, on the part of the Crimeans, Prince Mikhail Tyufyakin and clerk Rzhevsky, famous for the exploits of the steppe war and well acquainted with the Crimean steppes, and on the Nogai side, Yury Bulgakov, also an experienced steppe campaigner, but who once defeated the Crimeans and Nogais.
The intelligent executor of the Tsar's will, Vorotynsky, began the matter with detailed information and interrogations about the current state of this service and about everything in which it required changes, and that could be left in its original form, went through all the paintings and books about this service stored in the Discharge , called to Moscow and made detailed questions to the village residents and guards. From his research it is clear that under Tsar Iran Vasilyevich, 15 years before 1571, there was already a long chain of fortified cities throughout the steppe Ukraine, from Alatyr and Temnikov to Rylsk and Putivl, and that the guard service was under the jurisdiction of the Discharge Order to which deliveries were made. all the paintings of the villages and guards.
Ukrainian cities mentioned in digit paintings can be divided, according to their geographical location, into front and back. The first category included: Alatyr, Temnikov, Kadoma, Shatsk, Ryassk, Donkov, Elifan, Pronsk, Mikhailov, Dedilov, Novosil, Mtsensk, Orel, Novgorod-Seversky, Rylsk, and Putivl. This was the front line of fortresses of the Moscow State, looking straight into the steppe and sending out its traveling villages and guards in all directions. Ahead of this line, in the steppe itself, in places, ditches, abatis, slaughters on rivers and other field fortifications had already been made, forming a new chain of difficulties for Tatar raids; This chain in certain places, as well as cities, was guarded by guards.
The second line of fortified cities, so to speak internal, consisted of: Nizhny Novgorod, Murom, Meshchera, Kasimov, Ryazan, Kashira, Tula, Serpukhov and Zvenigorod, almost all located along the Oka River, which here formed the solid border of the State and, as we have seen before , was constantly guarded by significant troops. Inland cities, in case of need, sent their service people to the front line.
Each of these cities had its own governors and siege leaders with detachments of servicemen, boyar children, Cossacks and archers (from the time of Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich). The Streltsy were actually city warriors, very rarely sent to the steppes and abatis; Boyar children and Cossacks, along with stellate sturgeons and serving Tatars, were divided into policemen or regimental ones, and into stanitsa and guards. The former were used only to protect cities and to repel the enemy on the borders, while the latter were alternately sent to the steppe for travel and to guard the guardhouses, and were divided into village residents, leaders and watchmen; For guard service they received a special salary, higher than that of a regimental or city officer, and were satisfied from the treasury for all damages and losses that could happen while traveling; Horses, harnesses and weapons, when sent to the steppe, were assessed by the governors, who entered this price into special books, and according to these books they issued a reward in case of losses and damages. The government apparently attracted the best people to this important service.
All Ukrainian cities and, it seems, the guards of the Tsar had special drawings and lists, indicating the state of the fortifications, how many troops there were, and what type. So, the Moscow government could verify any report about enemy movements with plans and maps and, depending on the need, move border troops from one point to another, and reinforce places threatened by greater danger, which we will see later. Drawings and lists of Ukrainian cities are mentioned in the description of the Tsar’s Archives of 1575: “Box 144... and in it are drawings and lists of Ukrainian cities.” It seems that no original drawings have survived, or at least have not yet been found; The lists, although not from the 16th century, are available in exact copies.
From the front line of cities in different directions, four days and five days away from the city, and often closer, guards or dens were appointed in the steppe, separated from each other by a day, very rarely two, or more than half a day's journey and closer. These guards were in constant communication with each other and formed several unbroken lines that crossed all the steppe roads along which the Tatars walked to Rus'. They stretched in several groups from the upper reaches of the Sura to Semi, and then from Semi they turned to Vorskla and Donets. The first, easternmost group, walked in a convex line from Barysh, a tributary of the Sura, to Lomov, a tributary of the Tsna; the second from Tsna to Ryasi, a tributary of Voronezh; the third from Ryasi, along the fast Sosna and its tributaries, to the upper reaches of the Oka; fourth along the tributaries of the Semi; the fifth from Semi to Sula, Psl and Vorskl; the sixth along the tributaries of the Vorskla and Donets to the mouth of the Aydar, in the very depths of the Ukrainian steppes, almost in front of the Crimean nomads. Before 1571, there were 73 watchmen, and according to official lists they were divided into 12 categories.
We give an example of only one of them.
"Rank 9: Watchmen Orlovsky and Karachevsky; there are 13 of them. The first is on Semi opposite the Goroden settlement; the second to the top of Bobrok; the third on Molodovaya River; fourth to top Points; fifth on Ochka at the fast ford; the sixth on the same road to Ust-Krom; the seventh on Dubrovo behind the Vyisky forest; the eighth on Tsna on the Zhidomorsky settlement; the ninth on Tsna on the Zvenigorod road; tenth to the top Oleshan; the eleventh behind the Eye under the Ship; the twelfth on Voptukha in the Pristina settlement; and the thirteenth between Voptuh and Rybnitsa".
"Painting to the watchmen "after questioning Boyar Prince Mikhail Ivanovich Vorotynsky and his comrades in 79: watchmen Orlovsky and Karachevsky:"
"The 1st Watchman on Semi is opposite the Gorodenskoye fortification, and the Gorodenskoye fortification is on the left side of the Polish side at Semi; and the watchman on that guard was from Orel and from Karachev, three people from the city, and two people from Rylsk; and to move to the left up the Semi to the mouth of the Kuritsa to the Yuryev settlement, I travel about 20 or half a third versts, and to the right down the Semi about ten versts to the mouth of the Reut, and the Reut fell from the left to the Polish side".
"2nd Watchman at the top of Bobrok is old, between the road, which is the road to Karachev and to the Mestilovsky Gate; to another road that Bokai came from, and the journey is only about 15 versts to the mouth of Zhelenya; and the guards on it will be from Orel and from Karachev, three people each from the city".
"3rd Watchman on the Molodovaya River; guard without moving near the road where it was convenient to cross, and all the roads converged with Semi and from Rylsk to that place; and the guards on it were from two cities from Orel and from Karachev, two people from each city, and the old watchman was on the same road, in Galichya Dubrova, and that watchman was brought down "..."
After collecting detailed and correct information about the state of the guard and village service, Boyar Prince Mikhailo Ivanovich Vorotynsky began to draw up a general code or charter for this service, and on February 16, 1571, with the Tsar’s approval, he issued this charter.
""The painting attached to the above sentence: for the children of boyars with heads in the State service to be on the Donets on the Seversky Ust-Ude: from Severa, from Bryansk, from Pochap, from Starodub, from Novagorodok from Seversky; and in addition from Orel, from Karachev, and a Cossack from Novosil and Orel".
"And choose the heads according to their place for the Sovereign’s service on the field. To the Donets on the Severskaya Ust-Ude from the Seversk cities, from Bryansk, from Pochap, from Starodub, from Novagorodok Seversky".
"And the children of boyars with heads for the Sovereign's service are selected in February, asking the best people from those cities. And so that they know about who they really want to say who will join the Polish service in truth and not out of unfriendliness. And it would be unlikely that only two boyar children would suddenly be sent to the Polish service, for the sake of their needs, it would not be changed to them, or at their discretion."".
While Prince Vorotynsky was making orders in Moscow regarding the steppe Ukrainian service, at the same time, sent to inspect all the villages and guards on the spot, from the Crimean side, Prince Mikhailo Tyufyakin and clerk Rzhevsky, and from Nogai, Yuri Bulgakov and Boris Khokhlov, personally inspected them in the same year. And according to their watch, many of the former guards were replaced by new ones in accordance with the terrain and circumstances, all the routes were determined and marks were left for the riders where they should meet each other. The Donetsk, Rylsky and Putivlsky watchmen especially underwent great changes; their line moved far forward, so that it captured the entire course of the Vorskla to the Dnieper, the Dnieper reached Samara, and the Samara reached the upper reaches of the Tor and Mius, from where it reached the Don to the mouth of the Long Well and to Azov.
However, Prince Tyufyakin did not have time to finish his patrol of all the guards; for between Samara and Arel a watchman came running to him with the news of Devlet-Girey’s campaign against the Moscow Ukraine. And therefore, the order regarding the uninspected guards was made according to the tales of the atamans, Sava Sukhoruk and Stepan Sukovnin, and their comrades.
The orders of Princes Vorotynsky and Tyufyakin and clerk Rzhevsky, although they were not yet completely completed and could not protect Moscow from Devlet-Gireyev’s raid in 1571, nevertheless, the following year they brought the expected benefits and justified the Sovereign’s trust in Vorotynsky and his employees. The new campaign of the Crimean Khan did not hide from the vigilant guards, and the Russian governors managed to gather a sufficient number of troops and make trenches and other fortifications on the banks of the Oka. The Battle of Molodin, the fruit of Vorotynsky’s labors and considerations, which lasted from July 26 to August 1, covered the valiant leader of the Moscow forces with glory. Khan himself, in his letter to the Sovereign of Moscow dated August 23, 1571, testifies to the vigilance of the new guards of the Ukrainian steppe, who greatly contributed to the success of the battle. He writes: “Having visited our parish on the Oka River, they made a yard on the shore with brushwood, and dug a ditch near it.” This evidence proves that the Battle of Molodin was prepared in advance by the Moscow governors, who deliberately directed Khan to their field fortifications and gave battle where they found it more convenient for themselves.
In order to deprive the Crimeans as much as possible of the opportunity to hide their raids from our steppe guards, after the removal of Devlet-Girey, Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich, in October 1571, ordered the Boyar Prince Vorotynsky to burn out the steppe in different places, depending on where it was more convenient, so that in this way to deprive the Crimeans of the opportunity to hide their movements and deprive them of pasture, so necessary for long and fast raids across the steppes. And then a list was drawn up, in which the following nine cities were designated from where to send villages to light the steppe: Meshchera, Donkov, Dedilov, Kropivna, Novosil, Mtsensk, Orel, Rylsk and Putivl. According to this painting, the fire covered a huge expanse of steppe from the upper reaches of the Vorona to the Dnieper and Desna. We have no evidence of the success of such fires; but, in any case, they reveal great knowledge of military affairs in Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich, who perfectly understood which weapons to use against which enemy.
The following year, 1573, it was established as an indispensable rule when traveling around the villages according to the lists, that the villagers, meeting on the tracts, would change their signs, so that, thus, the commanders could see that the villages had reached certain tracts. This seems to have been Vorotynsky’s last order.
In 1574, in February, a new chief of the guard and village service, boyar Nikita Romanovich Yuryev, was appointed. This new appointment of the famous dignitary, close to the Sovereign by kinship and power of attorney, shows that Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich recognized the guard service as one of the most important departments of the State Administration and wanted to bring it to the possible degree of perfection. The new boss, for the first time, found it necessary to provide his subordinates with good local salaries and cash salaries, which was approved in the same year by the general verdict of the Boyar Duma. The Tsar's expectations in choosing a new chief were fully justified by the beneficial consequences for the service: border fortifications and guard patrols quickly began to move forward, crowd the steppe and crush the Nogais and Crimeans.
In 1575, the line of Ukrainian fortifications advanced to Sosna Ust-Liven, where that year the Emperor sent Mikhail Dolmatovich Karpov and Ivashkin as governors. And also in other places it stood out ahead: they entered it " Bryansk, Pochep, Starodub", Novosil, Bolkhov, Odoev, Plova, Solova, Venev, Serpeisk, Kaluga, Mokshansk and Oskol; some of them were built again, while others were strengthened and more suitable for border service. All this prompted Boyarin Nikita Romanovich Yuryev to make new ones in 1576 questions to village heads, village residents, leaders and watchmen regarding steppe guards and patrols.
It seems that at the same time a schedule was made of which cities from which service people should be on guard and what their salaries would be. According to this schedule, it is assigned, for example, to the Mtsensk and Karachevsk local and non-local guards for the Boyarsky children from Mtsensk and Karachev on local salaries and cash salaries, which they receive at the same salaries as people serving in the city.
""According to the petition of serving people of the Polish monthly watchmen".
"... And in Mtsensk and Karachev they were sentenced to guard the boyar children from those cities with small articles, from 50 to 70 and from 100; because in those cities the Cossacks are not written in the paintings. And in Shatsky, and in Novosil and on Orel, they were sentenced to be sent to guards and to Polish parcels in addition to the Cossacks, for which the Cossack parcels would not be enough, to send the children of boyars with small articles, because as in Mtsensk in Karachev, so that in those cities there are Cossacks according to the Sovereign's decree and according to the painting, they were not completely tidied up. Yes, those boyar children should therefore be reconsidered with their horses and all their service; and the names of those children of the boyars and Cossacks who will be chosen to be Polish watchmen in all cities, in which city the guards were ordered to have guards according to the list, are rewritten separately on the list; give lists and their local salaries and money to bring the children of the boyars and Cossacks to Moscow, and give them to the deacon in the Razryadnaya hut. And the children of the boyars receive a cash salary from the city at the same salary; and the guard service also serves them, changing every month, then their service; and the rank and file do not serve them, so that the guard service is complete; "Instead of the arrival of military people, but how can the arrival of military people expect that all the boyar and Cossack children should be with the governors in the regiment for the arrival of military people, and having come from a campaign to be at home"".
""... And the heads on the field were chosen, which stand as a poignant place to protect from the arrival of military people; on the Donets on the Seversky Ust-Ude, the head for the first article was Bryanchanin Fyodor Tolochanov; for another article, Fyodor was exchanged from Serpeisk Nikifor Stepanov, son of Davydov"".
The Crimeans, pursued everywhere by watchmen, paved new roads, but even here their successes were not long-lasting; watchmen found these new paths and reported to the Moscow government, which immediately took its own measures. So in 1579, our watchmen opened a new road for the Crimeans through Kalmiyus, which from Kalmiyus went through the Donets under the Grebennye Mountains half a day before Discord, and one and a half or two days from Azov between the rivers, of which the rivers on the right side of the road flowed into the Don, and on the left to Donets. To stop this road, the heads of the villages were gathered at the council, who, upon questioning, showed that for this it would be enough to strengthen the standing heads on Oskol Ust-Ubli and on the Don Ust-Bogaty Zaton. And for this reason, Boyarin Nikita Romanovich Yuriev so skillfully arranged the patrols of these two heads that they covered all the paths of the Crimeans and constantly communicated with each other.
This last order ends the government’s concerns about the guard and village service under Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich; at least no further orders have yet been encountered.
How far the severity of discipline in this service reached during the time of Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich can be seen from the fact that every year detailed lists were delivered to the Discharge to all guards and villages who were present during the year, in which the lists clearly showed all arrivals for service, indicating who how many days he was on the road and for how long he arrived at his appointed place, and who replaced him and when. Here is one excerpt from such a painting, which is excellent to speak in its favor: " "... In the 1st place there were heads in the field on the Donets in Seversky Ust-Uda: from the spring, Bryansk resident Ignatey Ondreev, son of Tyutchev; and he was ordered to go to the field from Rylsk. And Ignatey stood in Rylsk on a great day, on the 8th day of April; and from Rylsk he went to Radunitsa on the 15th day of April, on the Donets it became April on the 24th day, it was the 10th day; and the people with him were Starodubtsev, Novogorodka Seversky, Pochaptsov, Bolkhovichi, a total of 63 boyar children, yes Cossacks from Novosil and Orel 30 people, 15 people from the city; a total of 93 people".
"Ignatius was exchanged by Bryanchanin Ivan Semichev, who was sent to Rylsk on Thursday in another week of Petrov’s Lent, June on the 13th day; and on the Donets it became July on the 1st day; I lived in Rylsk and walked to the Donets for three weeks; and the people with him were the children of the boyars Bryanchan, Starodubtsy, Novogorodsk Seversky, Karachevtsy, Bolkhovichi - only 48 people; yes Cossacks from Novosil and from Orel 30 people, 15 people from the city, both 79 people".
"Ivan was exchanged by Bryanchanin Afonasy Panyutin, he was stationed for a term in Rilsk on the 1st Wednesday of Lady's Day, August on the 21st day, and on the Donets he stood on the 1st day of September, walked to the Donets to Seversky on the 10th day; and the people with him were the children of the boyars Bryanchan, Starodubtsy, Karachevtsy, Bolkhovichi, a total of 49 people, and Cossacks from Novosil and from Orel 30 people, 15 people from the city; both 69 people".
"And travel to the villages from those heads to the right along the bank to the top of Areli, and to the left along the Donets to Ust-Oskol and to the Holy Mountains, and to the Great Transport and to Ust-Aidar. And they sent heads of 6 people to each village, skipping between the villages for three days. And with the news, the village owner was ordered to run, who would drive Sakma military people on top of Berestovye through the Muravskaya Highway, three people on Ust-Uda to their heads, and the other three people would run with the news to Putivl, and they would arrive in Putivl about two horses in four days. And which villagers will move Sakmu military people down the Donets, going to Oskol and to Ust-Aidar, and that villager will run with news to the head to Ust-Uda, and the other three people to Novosil, and they will arrive in Novosil with news of two horses in seven days, before the big people, before the military people come to Ukraine ten days or more"".
During the first two years of the reign of Fyodor Ivanovich, the Ukrainian guard service did not undergo changes and was managed according to the previous schedules. But since 1586, by the verdict of Boyarin Nikita Romanovich Yuryev, the line of Ukrainian cities moved into the steppe to Sosna and the mouth of Voronezh. It was this year, on the 1st day of March, that the decision was made to build two new cities, Livny and Voronezh: the first on Sosna, two days before reaching Oskol, and the second on the Don and Voronezh, two days before Bogaty Zaton. The first was ordered to be delivered to the governor, Prince Volodimir Vasilyevich Koltsov-Mosalsky, and Lukyan Khrushchov; and the second to the governor Semyon Fedorovich Saburov, and Ivan Sudakov, and Vasily Birkin. These cities were built specifically for guard duty.
Around this time, Cherkasy or Little Russian Cossacks began to join the Ukrainian guard service of the Moscow State. They initially began to settle in Putivl district, as the closest to Little Russia. It is also mentioned here that the Little Russians received estates and salaries for guard and stanitsa service in the same way as the native service people of the Moscow State.
Around 1592, another new city, Yelets, was built along Bystraya Sosna, and on the 29th of July of this year, a painting of the Yelets watchmen was sent to Moscow to the Tsar from the Yelets governor, Prince Andrei Zvenigorodsky, and the head, Ivan Myasnov. In 1595, another new Ukrainian city, Kromy, was mentioned. This year, by order of the Sovereign, Prince Vladimir Koltsov-Mosalsky arranged new guards from Krom. At the end of the reign of Fyodor Ivanovich, Belgorod was built, extending far into the steppe beyond the line of other Ukrainian cities. This city subsequently became the center of the Ukrainian guard service and formed a special Belgorod category in the Moscow Administration. Thus, during the reign of Fyodor Ivanovich, the line of Ukrainian fortifications was replenished with five cities, which formed a rather acute angle, resting its base from the west on the upper reaches of the Oka, and from the east on the fast Pine, and penetrating deep into the steppes to the mouth of Voronezh and the upper reaches of the Donets, where, as Belgorod stood as the foremost guard. In addition, under Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich, mention is made of a new extension of patrol lines and guards along the Volga, from Nizhny Novgorod to Astrakhan and further, even to the Terek. This service was carried out mainly by free Volga and Yaitsky Cossacks, inhabitants of the steppes, it seems, predominantly of Tatar origin, dependent on their atamans and who knew no other authority.
During the reign of Boris Fedorovich Godunov, the guards, villages, abatis and other fortifications were in good condition.
News from the steppes was always brought in advance, Ukrainian cities were constantly guarded by strong troops; The tsar had drawings not only for border towns, but even for abatis.
"“On the 11th day of May, the Emperor looked at the serif drawings..."
"... In the same year there were boyars and governors and diyaks in the cities in annual: ... in Karachev Elizarei Bezobrazov, ... in Bryansk Pyotr Voeikov, in his place the governor Danilo Ondreev, son of Zamytskaya, ... in Starodub Seversky, the governor Prince Oleksey, Prince Mikhailo son of Lvov, and Grigory Ondreev son Olyabyov"".
In 1600, Boris Fedorovich ordered Bogdan Belsky to build a new Borisov fortress in the steppe on the right bank of Oskol, 14 versts from the Izyum Watchhouse. Other orders of this Sovereign regarding the Ukrainian guard service are not yet known.
After the death of Boris Fedorovich, under his son, during the impostor and interregnum, the Moscow Government had no time to think about Ukraine and its fortifications and, it seems, most of the Ukrainian troops were moved to Moscow. But with the accession of Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov to the throne, the guard and village service in the Ukrainian steppes little by little again received a better structure. Already in 1615, Ukrainian cities were quite fortified and equipped with troops, and in the rank lists of this year they were divided into 5 departments. Of these, the first consists of Ukrainian cities proper, belonging to the internal line; they were as follows: Kolomna, Serpukhov, Aleksin, Kaluga; 2nd department of the city of Ryazan: Pereslavl Ryazansky, Zaraysk, Mikhailov, Pronsk, Ryassk, Shatsk, Sapozhek, Gremyachey, Tarusa, Benev, Epifan, Dedilov, Donkov, Borovsk, Yaroslavets Maloy, Likhvin, Przemysl, Belev, Bolkhov, Orel, Karachev , Chern, Kozelsk, Meshchevsk; 3rd department Seversk cities: Bryansk, Novgorod Seversky, Starodub, Rylsk, Putivl; 4th department, the actual Steppe cities: Kursk, Livny, Voronezh, Yelets, Lebedyan, Volunki, Belgorod, Oskol; 5th department of the city of Nizovye: Terki, Astrakhan, Tsaritsyn, Samara, Kazan, Tetyushi, Kurmysh, Alator, Kasimov, Kadoma and Temnikov; only 53 cities.
And in the Discharge List of 1616, even the number of troops that formed the garrisons of all Ukrainian cities is calculated, which, however, gives a not entirely favorable idea of the then protection of the Ukrainian borders of the Moscow State.
""Discharge painting of 1616: In 1724, there were boyars and governors and clerks and heads from the Crimean Ukraine, and in the Seversky and Polish cities for an annual service".
"In Karachev, Ivan Yuryev is the son of Lovchikov, and with him: children of the boyar Karachevtsy (...), Karachevsky archers 35 people, Cossacks 70 people".
"In Bryansk, the steward and governor Prince Ivan Prince Ondreev, son of Dashkov, and Vasily Elizariev, son of Protopopov; and with him: nobles and boyar children, Bryanchan 108 people, Roslavtsov 96 people, Pocheptsov 36 people, gunners and strikers 70 people, collars 6 people, blacksmiths 4 people, archers 177 people. And only 497 people".
"There were 300 Bryansk Roslavsky archers in Bryansk with their heads and centurions, and in the current year in January 124, according to the tale of the Bryansk governor Peter Voeikov, there were 177 of those archers in Bryansk, and the rest were beaten from the Lisovsky parish; and others scattered from poverty".
"In Starodub in Seversky, the voivode is Prince Ivan, Prince Petrov, son of Zasekin, and Peter Matveev, son of Bezobrazov; and Prince Ivan and Peter were ordered to go to Moscow, and in Starodub the governor, Alexander Mikhailov, son of Nagovo and Prokofy Voeikov, was ordered to be there; and Prokofey was released, and Ivan Petrov’s son Kologrivov was ordered to take his place; and with them: children of the boyars Starodubtsy 170 people, gunners and fighters 26 people, collars 4 people, with a head of 200 archers, and 100 Cossacks; yes, they were ordered to be profitable military men in Starodub: from Lebedyan there are 150 people and a total of 650 people, a boyar’s child, and an ataman, and a Cossack.”".
All troops located in Ukrainian cities and stretched over more than a thousand miles extend no further than 24,350 people; namely, in the Ukrainian cities proper, numbering thirty-four, from Arzamas to Novosil, the city army was 12,844 people, in five cities of the Seversky category, from Bryansk to Putivl, 3,662 people; in the eight steppe cities, from Voronezh to Kursk, 7844 people; in the lower cities the number of troops is not indicated. However, it should be noted that this calculation does not seem to include the guard and village troops located in the villages and guard hangouts in the steppe along the Dnieper, Donets, Oskol, Tikhaya and Bystrya Sosna, Voronezh and Tsna. Even in the city troops, there is no mention of the brothers, nephews, subordinates and backbenchers of the service people, who were probably not much less than those placed in the rank list, and who also participated in the service. Moreover, one cannot lose sight of the fact that some cities, probably more dangerous from the Crimean raids, or lying in the middle of the roads, were supplied, judging by the circumstances in which the State was then located, with sufficient garrisons. So in Tula there were 640 city troops; in Ryazan (i.e., Pereslavl Ryazan) 829 people; in Kaluga 2109 people; in Mtsensk 781; in Novosili 806; in Starodub 650; in Novgorod Seversky 693; in Rylsk 773; in Putivl 1049; in Voronezh 971; in Livny 824; in Yelets 1969; in Oskol 856; in Voluyki 620; in Belgorod 813; in Kursk there are 1321 people.
In addition, according to the painting of the same year, in the Crimean Ukraine there were special corps of troops, which were supposed to appear everywhere, as needed, to protect the steppe borders. These corps were located like this: The large regiment stood in Tula, with Prince Fyodor Kurakin, 1649 people; advanced regiment in Mtsensk, with Prince Vasily Turenin, 884 people; guard regiment in Novosili, with Mikhail Dmitriev, 801 people. Moreover, detachments were scattered throughout the cities to communicate with the main regiments in the event of an enemy raid: in Ryazan with Voivode Koltovsky, 659 people; on Mikhailov, with governor Ivan Pushkin, 396 people; in Pronsk, with Grigory Chelyustin, 470 people; in Zaraysk, with Timofey Pavlov, 287 people; in Ryassk, with Lavrentiy Kologrivov, 468 people; in Donkovo, with Andrey Khotyaintsov, 425 people; in Shatsk, with Vladimir Veshnyakov, 240 people.
The number of troops stationed in regiments in Ukraine in 1624, 1625 and 1626, according to the rank lists, was as follows: in 1624 9464 people; in 1625 10,838 people; in addition, in the same year there were 16,677 troops stationed along the eastern border in the next 12 cities; in Terki, Astrakhan, Tsaritsyn, Saratov, Samara, Kazan, Tetyushi, Alator, Temnikov, Kadom, Kasimov and Ufa; in 1626 10,890 people. In 1630, the number of troops in the Ukrainian regiments decreased to 8898 people, probably due to preparations for the Polish War. Then, in the next three years, on the occasion of the war with the Poles, the decrease in Ukrainian regiments was even more significant; namely, in 1631 in the Ukraine there were only 4,842 people in the regiments, and in 1632 - 4,827 people, and, moreover, only with smaller commanders; the big ones were supposed to appear only in the event of news of the great campaign of the Crimeans; in 1633 and 1634 and with great voivodes there were only 4955 people. But after peace was concluded with Poland, Ukrainian troops increased again. In 1635, there were already 12,759 people on the regiments in Ukraine, and in 1636, 17,055 people. In addition, the number of Ukrainian siege troops increased significantly; since 1635 there were 13,991 people, located in the following 11 cities: Kursk, Oskol, Voluyki, Voronezh, Yelets, Livny, Bryansk, Rylsk, Putivl, Sevsk and Belgorod; Since 1636, the rank paintings of the Ukrainian regiments have been lost, and therefore there is nothing to say about this subject from this year.
Since 1636, Tsar Mikhail Feodorovich adopted the previous method of defense against the Crimeans, which consisted of building new fortresses, strengthening old ones, increasing abatis, ditches and faces along the rivers, building forts, and connecting fortresses with each other with continuous field fortifications. So in 1636, by his decree, Chernavsk, Kozlov, Tambov and Lomov were built, and Oryol was restored.
Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich, taking care of strengthening the Ukrainian borders, tried no less to take care of the population of this region. In addition to resettling from other regions of Moscow and placing service people in Ukrainian cities, this wise sovereign tried to attract the Little Russian Cossacks, or then the so-called Cherkasy, oppressed by the Polish government, to the Moscow Ukraine, gave them rich lands for settlement in Ukrainian cities and counties, and assigned a salary to the New Settlers for their initial home setup.
The constant concerns of the Moscow Government about strengthening and populating the borders along the Moscow steppe Ukraine were the result of extreme necessity. The restless Crimean riders, who were an instrument of either Polish or Turkish politics, constantly disturbed our steppe borders; residents of Ukrainian cities were in constant fear of their raids; City governors, with all the increasing news about the Crimeans and Nogais, gathered district residents under siege, forced them to leave fields and villages, drive cattle into dense forests, and bury bread in pits. Every year, in the summer months, from the beginning of May to September, and sometimes until October, every now and then, the Crimeans appeared, here and there, on our borders, and only the constant and vigilant guards and the steppe patrols of the villagers managed to protect the inhabitants from captivity or complete ruin.
There is nothing to talk about peace treaties with the restless Crimeans; After the death of Mengli Giray, they were constantly useless and led to nothing; this is already factually true; and Moscow could not think about the conquest of the Crimea even during the reign of John I, for the vast steppe expanse for nomadic riders, separating the Moscow State from the Crimea, was an insurmountable obstacle to our conquests on this side. Ivan the Terrible fully showed his deeply governmental mind, not agreeing to the conviction of advisers who, carried away by the successful raids of Prince Vishnevetsky and the clerk of Rzhevsky, insisted on the conquest of Crimea. Not to mention failure, which was very likely, even the happiest campaign did not promise much benefit. Crimea could only be conquered temporarily, and then with a huge loss of people on our part; ours could crush and burn the cities and villages of the Crimeans, but the wild nomadic hordes, scattered across the free steppe, remained elusive and, following the removal of our army, would again occupy their former homes and again begin to attack our borders. For the complete conquest of the Crimea there was only one sure means - the gradual settlement of the steppe and the constant maintenance of a guard army on the border; and the perspicacious John set to work on this idea with all the zeal of a man convinced of the correctness of the planned calculation. The long-standing line of fortifications along the Oka and the guardhouses in the steppe, even under the Donskoy, caused by the extreme need of the State, served as the main material for John to carry out his correctly conceived plan for populating the steppe. His successors diligently continued to follow the laid path: our Ukrainian cities, year after year, moved forward, and field fortifications and settlements of settlers imperceptibly pressed the steppe and pressed the Crimean freemen to the sea. The annual raids of the Crimeans and Nogais were mostly limited to private robbery and did almost no harm to the general cause of settling the steppe, and, despite them, the guard service, with its system of fortifications and settlement, moved forward with firm steps; Its successes, of course not brilliant, but nevertheless significant, finally reached the point that during the entire long reign of Mikhail Fedorovich, the Crimeans could not make a single significant attack on our Ukraine. This is the true goal of the Ukrainian watchdog service and it, obviously, achieved it and justified the Government’s care for this important department of the State Administration.