The history of the settlement of the Kuban

HISTORY OF SETTLEMENT and founding of Cuba goes far into hoary antiquity. Tens of thousands of years ago, a brave primitive hunter in the forest-steppe part of the foothills of the Caucasus collected wild fruits and hunted bison, mammoths and deer. Changed social relations, the area of ​​​​settlement of people, their ethnic composition. Whoever did not trample on the feather-grass carpet of the Kuban, who only did not give shelter to the shady crowns of its forests.

Wars and epidemics, inter-tribal feuds and raids by nomads drove more and more waves of multilingual tribes and peoples to the Kuban. Cimmerians and Scythians, Goths and Huns, Alans and Pechenegs, Khazars, Cumans... Numerous Meotian tribes, the indigenous inhabitants of the North-Western Caucasus, lived along the eastern shore of the Sea of ​​Azov (the Greeks called it Meotida) long before our era. They were engaged in agriculture and cattle breeding, fishing and handicrafts.

In the 6th century BC, the Greeks appeared on Taman, who founded a number of trading posts and settlements here. The largest of them, Phanagoria, according to the famous ancient Greek historian and geographer Strabo, was in fact the capital of the Asian part of the powerful Bosporan kingdom, which existed about the 4th century BC. ad.

But not only the sons of ancient Hellas, they saw the Kuban steppes. Already in the tenth century AD, Slavs-Russians appeared here. Obviously, this was connected with the campaign of the Kyiv prince Igor against Byzantium in 944. In the 60s of the 10th century, under the rays of the sultry Ku6an sun, the armor of the militant squad of Prince Svyatoslav shone. The Tmutarakan Principality appears on Taman, which became for decades the outlying patrimony of Russian princes.

In the first half of the thirteenth century The Kuban, and first of all the local Adyghe tribes, was devastated by the numerous hordes of Batu Khan. Somewhat later, in the northeastern part of the Black Sea region, the Genoese colonies Matrega (Taman), Kopa (Slavyansk-on-Kuban) appeared. Mapa (Anapa) and others. Enterprising Italians for two years are engaged in a lively trade with the Circassians, penetrating far into their territory.

In 1395, the hordes of the Central Asian conqueror Timur swept across the Kuban like a black whirlwind, smashing the Gold Horde and its subordinate peoples.

At the end of the XV century. Turks appeared on the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus, gradually subordinating to their policy Crimean Khanate. The fortresses Temryuk, Taman, Anapa are being built. Greedy Turkish merchants in the coastal fortresses of Sujuk-Kale (near Novorossiysk), Gelendzhik, Sukhum-Kale open the slave trade. There was a special demand for young people and mountain women. The busiest trade in slaves took place in the area of ​​present-day Gelendzhik.

Fighting the Turkish-Crimean aggression, the highlanders turn their eyes to the Moscow kingdom, which in 1557 took them under its protection. At this time, the bulk of the highlanders live in the foothills, in the Trans-Kuban region. First of all, these are heterogeneous tribes of the Adyghe ethnic group: Shapsugs, Abadzekhs, Natukhaevs, Temirgoevs, Besleneevs and others. A separate group was made up of the Abazins and Karachais, who lived in the foothills of the northern slope of the Caucasus Range. And in the steppes of the Kuban, on its right bank, the steppe silence is broken by numerous wagons of nomadic Nogais - descendants of the Turkic-Mongolian tribes, who were once part of the ulus of the Golden Horde temnik Nogai. For almost two and a half centuries, starting from the 16th century, they have been in the Kuban, subject to the all-powerful power of the Turkish Caliph, being subjects of the Crimean Khan.

At the end of the 17th century, Russian settlers appeared in the Kuban. They were schismatics. fled from feudal oppression under the religious banner of the old faith. The Kuban attracts not only Old Believers, but also disadvantaged people, including the Don Cossacks. They settled at the mouth of the Laba River. At the beginning of the XVIII century. apparently, there were already quite a lot of them, if K. Bulavin himself turned to them for help during the siege of Azov by the rebels. In 1708, several thousand rebels led by Bulavin colonel Ignat Nekrasov made their way to the Kuban, the field of suppressing the uprising of Bulavin. Soon, two more rebellious chieftains Ivan Drany and Gavrila Chernets arrived in the lower reaches of the Kuban River. Those who fled from tsarist reprisals and serfdom go to the Kuban in secret ways. Here, in the Kuban floodplains - between Kopyl (Slavyansk-on-Kuban) and Temryuk, they tried to find a free life by building three fortified years.

In the last quarter of the eighteenth century comes The final stage in the long struggle between Russia and the Ottoman Porte for the possession of the Crimea and Kuban. Russian fortifications are being built in the Kuban: Vsesvyatskoye (in the area of ​​present-day Armavir), Tsaritsynskoye (on the site of the current village of Kavkazskaya) and others. The Nekrasovites, whose villages were destroyed by the troops of the tsarist General Brink, left the Kuban and left Turkey. In January 1778, A. V. Suvorov began to command the Russian troops in the Kuban, who began the construction of the Kuban defensive line along the right bank of the river. Kuban.

At the end of the XVIII-beginning of the XIX centuries. the military-Cossack development of the deserted region begins. July 30, 1792 was followed by a royal decree on the resettlement of the Black Sea army to the Kuban, the backbone of which was the former Cossacks of the Zaporizhzhya Sich, defeated by the troops of Catherine II in 1775. The Black Sea army was charged with the duty to develop and protect the annexed lands of Taman and the right bank of the Kuban from behind the Bug, the first batch of Cossacks, led by Colonel Savva Belm, arrived by sea, and in October the second group, led by ataman Zakhary Chepiga, approached the Yeysk fortification.

The Black Sea Cossack army was located in forty settlements, called in Zaporozhye kurens, on the right bank of the Kuban from Taman to the mouth of the Laba River. To the east of them, the Caucasian linear Cossacks settled. Unlike the Black Sea people, who came mainly from the southeastern lands of Ukraine, among the linear Cossacks, the majority were Russians from the Don and the central black earth provinces.

According to the Adrianople peace treaty with Turkey in 1829, the lands of the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus were transferred to Russia. On the coast from Anapa to Sukhumi, seventeen Russian military fortifications are being built under the general name "Black Sea coastline"

The military-Cossack development of the region ended with the creation in 1860 of the Kuban Cossack army. It included the Black Sea and six brigades of the right flank of the Caucasian line. With the accession to them of the territory of Zakubanya, the Kuban region was formed.

Primitive eras in the Kuban

Conventionally, three periods are distinguished in the history of mankind: the Stone Age, the Bronze Age and the Iron Age (according to the material that was mainly used in the manufacture of grud tools).

The specificity of the Stone Age is reflected in the name - various types of stone were the main material for the manufacture of tools. With the help of a stone, a person could influence other objects, changing their shape, and could get food for himself. An important feature that characterizes the process of improving human labor skills and the level of his thinking was that for almost the entire Stone Age, man was not able to change the properties of the raw materials used, he took what nature gave him.

The Stone Age is the longest period in human history. The oldest stone tools were made more than two million years ago, and metal has been used for only 8-9 thousand years. The stone was used even in the Bronze Age. Only iron completely ousted it from the sphere of production of tools.

The Stone Age is the time of the formation of the physical type of a person. The beginning of the separation of man from the animal world, modern science dates back to five million years ago. In order to come up with the idea of ​​making tools, the emerging man needed about three million. The modern physical appearance of a person (homo sapiens - a reasonable person) was formed 40 - 35 thousand years ago.

The Stone Age is an important period in the formation of human society, the path from the primitive herd of relatives through the maternal and paternal tribal system to the first civilizations and states. During this era, human settlement occurs throughout the Earth.

TO stone age includes a number of discoveries and achievements in the field of material culture: the "development" of fire and the construction of dwellings, the invention of the spear, and then the bow and arrows, the transition to a productive economy - agriculture and cattle breeding, the development of weaving and pottery. And all this against the background of continuous improvement of stone processing technology.

By the same time, the formation of the main types of art, many elements of future world religions - everything that we call the spiritual culture of man.

The Stone Age is divided into three major periods: the Paleolithic (Old Stone Age), the Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age), and the Neolithic (New Stone Age). In turn, the Paleolithic is divided into two parts: the early (lower) Paleolithic and the late (upper) Paleolithic. Sometimes scientists also distinguish the Middle Paleolithic. Finally, the early Paleolithic includes epochs (sequence - from ancient to late): pre-Shellian (or Olduvai), ancient Acheulean, middle and late Acheulean, Mousterian era (the so-called middle paleolith). Olduvai era - 2700 thousand years ago, Acheulian (in general) - 700-120 thousand years, Mousterian (Middle Paleolithic) - 150-35 thousand years. The Late Paleolithic is a time period of 40-10 thousand years ago. The chronological framework of the Mesolithic and Neolithic fluctuates even more: the law of uneven historical development comes into play. These two periods in relation to the territory of the Kuban region are the least studied. If we proceed from the general characteristics of the Caucasian antiquities, then the Mesolithic fits into the framework of 10-8 thousand years ago, and the Neolithic - 8-6 thousand years ago.

The problem of human settlement and the development of various regions by him is complex and far from being fully resolved. The ancestral home of mankind is considered to be Northeast Africa, where Australopithecus lived and where the most ancient tools attributed to the Olduvai culture were discovered. Some scholars do not rule out that South Asia also included in the area of ​​"humanization".

The most difficult question is about the time of the appearance of an ancient person within the Krasnodar Territory. There is no doubt that he moved from the south, from Transcaucasia, along the coast of the Black Sea and through passes not blocked by ice. Most experts agree that Transcaucasia was mastered by man already in the early Acheulean. At the same time, long-term studies of the Azikh cave in Azerbaijan, which is very interesting for scientists, led to the emergence of a new version: a person lived in the cave already in the Olduvai era - more than 700 thousand years ago. It is important that a fragment of a human jaw was found in the early Acheulean layer of Azykh. True, an attempt to attribute it to the remains of an archanthropus (Pithecanthropus) is doubtful. According to anthropologists, this jaw belonged to an early paleoanthrope (Neanderthal), which makes it possible to include Transcaucasia in the area of ​​so-called sapientation, i.e., the formation of a modern human.

As indirect evidence, this fact can also be considered in connection with the problem of human settlement of the current territory of the Kuban. Here, in the river sediments of the Tsimbal quarry on Taman (near the village of Sennoy), two stone tools and artificially split animal bones were found. Presumably (taking into account the technique of working tools and the species composition of animals), scientists attributed these finds to the Pre-Schel (Olduvian) era. Unfortunately, the circumstances under which they were discovered (found on the surface) do not allow us to reliably determine the age. The dating of the new Lower Paleolithic Bogatyri site recently discovered on the Taman Peninsula (in the area of ​​Sinya Balka) is also controversial - 1.1 - 0.8 million years.

And at present, reliable evidence of human habitation in the North Caucasus in the early Acheulean was found only at one site - in the Triangular Cave (Karachay-Cherkessia). Its age is about 600 thousand years.

The Acheulian era is represented by several dozen monuments, most of them are the so-called localities. Stone tools were not found in cultural layer, and in a redeposited state, often far from the places where they were made and used. Quite often, for example, they are found in riverbeds. They are cut off from paleontological material, which would allow one to determine the habitat, and hence (approximately) chronology, from the composition of animals. Therefore, archaeologists are forced to limit their analysis to the types of tools and their sets, stone processing techniques.

In the Acheulian era, the most characteristic tool was a hand ax, or biface. A rough ancient Acheulean hand ax was made by hammering with 10-30 strokes. The Middle Acheulean bifaces - of a more regular, sometimes even elegant form - required three operations: chipping off the workpiece, upholstering it and retouching (this was achieved with 50-80 strokes).

A feature of the Acheulean sites of the Kuban is the small number of faces among other finds. They also find cores - cores left after obtaining flakes from large pieces of stone. Flakes, after additional processing or without it, served as certain tools, such as scrapers. Flakes are the most numerous finds among Paleolithic sites.

Researchers identify several territorial groups of Early Paleolithic sites: Sochi, Kuban, Labinsk, Belorechensk (Maikop), Psekup, Pshekh-Pshish, Ilsk-Abinsk.

One of the areas where Acheulian tools were found is the valley of the Psekups River near the villages of Baku and Saratov. In particular, the location of Ignatenkov Kutok, which some researchers consider the most ancient of the Acheulean sites in the Kuban region. A group of localities is known on the Belaya River, among them such as Fortepyanka. The collection includes more than 500 tools, including a hand axe, cores, scrapers, flakes, etc. The estimated time is Middle Acheulean.

Description of work

HISTORY OF SETTLEMENT and founding of Cuba goes far into hoary antiquity. Tens of thousands of years ago, a brave primitive hunter in the forest-steppe part of the foothills of the Caucasus collected wild fruits and hunted bison, mammoths and deer. Changed social relations, the area of ​​human settlement, their ethnic composition. Whoever did not trample on the feather-grass carpet of the Kuban, who only did not give shelter to the shady crowns of its forests.

The area of ​​the Kuban Territory before its capture by the Bolsheviks was 94,904 km 2 (83,401 sq. versts, or 8,687,170 forests). In terms of its territory, therefore, it surpassed Denmark, Belgium, Switzerland, Holland and Portugal from the old European states, and in terms of population - Denmark and Norway.

In 1914, there were 3,122,905 souls in the region.

From North Kuban region bordered on the land of the Great Don Army, from the northeast - with the Stavropol province, from the east - with the Terek region, from the south - with the Kutai province and the Sukhumi district, from the southwest - with the Black Sea province, from the west it was washed by the Black and Azov seas .

So territorially took shape and populated by the specified number of inhabitants of the Kuban region for one hundred and twenty-five years from the date of arrival there of the Cossacks of the Black Sea army, part of the former Zaporizhzhya army. 17,021 men and about 8,000 women moved from their former temporary residence (between the Bug and the Dniester), led by their Kosh government, cavalry and goblin regiments, with their flotilla, armed not only with guns, but also with cannons (small caliber).

The military judge A. A. Golovaty, who led a special delegation from the army, received from the government of Empress Catherine II a “charter” for “eternal possession, use and disposal of land and all land on the granted land of all kinds, on the waters and fishing” . At the same time, the service was assigned to the Black Sea army: "vigilance and guards of the border from the raids of the peoples of the Trans-Kuban." The annual budget was determined from the state treasury: “20,000 rubles. for a year ... "We provide," the letter said, "the use of free internal trade and the free sale of wine on military lands." At the same time, the succession of the Black Sea army from the Zaporizhzhya army was established: “the military banner and timpani of the Zaporizhzhya Sich were “returned” to it, confirming the right of the Black Sea Army to use them, respectively, as well as other banners, mace, pernach and military seal”.

When an army or parts of it and individual Cossacks went on official business outside the military territory further than a hundred miles from its border, additional monetary and material allowances were established, for horses - fodder, for serving people - reimbursement of grub and other expenses.

Border cordons along the Kuban River were arranged in two lines in the amount of up to 26 cordons. To maintain constant combat readiness on this cordon line, up to two thousand foremen and ordinary Cossacks were constantly engaged in service.

Duc de Richelieu, a foreigner in the Russian service in the position of the Kherson military governor, who visited the location of the Black Sea, noted: “All along the cordon line there were floodplains and swamps covered with impenetrable reeds and other marsh plants that contaminated the air with rot and gave rise to inevitable diseases and mortality. In such and such a murderous area, filled with myriads of mosquitoes and midges, mercilessly stinging everything Living being, the Black Sea people spent cordon life ... "

But the service on the cordon line did not exhaust the duties of the Black Sea. Before they had time to finish their arrangement in a new place, an order came to the ataman 3. A. Chepiga to go With two five-hundred regiments to Poland. Suvorov, who owned the command of the Russian forces there, was well acquainted with the fighting qualities of the Black Sea people and personally with Ataman Chepiga as their commander, even during the second Turkish war, so he did not fail to call him with the Cossacks to Poland.

After a short time, a new order came to the other two five-hundred regiments of the Black Sea men to go to the city of Baku, at that time - to "Persia". The regiments were led by military judge A. A. Golovaty. In this "Persian war" the main command of the army belonged to the incompetent Count V. Zubov. First of all, the food and sanitary and medical part was badly organized in the army. Many people died from hunger strikes and diseases - malaria, etc. No more than half of the Cossacks returned from the campaign. On the way back to this "Persian" campaign, the head of the detachment, A. A. Golovaty, also died. It so happened that even before the death of A. A. Golovaty in Yekaterinodar, died on January 27, 1797, the ataman 3 A. Chepiga, who returned from the Polish campaign, and the Cossacks who had gathered in Yekaterinodar, hastened to elect A. A. Golovaty as the ataman in his place, whose death was not yet known in Yekaterinodar ... A complex and acute crisis of military power turned out: Chepiga left the stage at a difficult moment in military life, a celibate faithful to the old traditions of Zaporozhye, a good warrior "without fear and reproach", and Golovaty - a wise organizer of military affairs. True, there remained a third member of the elected Kosh government - T. Kotlyarevsky, a military clerk, but he turned out to be much lower than the first two in his spiritual growth, in loyalty to the old Zaporizhzhya traditions and a sense of "comradeship". First of all, he should be blamed for belittling the importance of the military (kosh) government.

Summoned to St. Petersburg for the coronation of Paul I, he accepted from the latter an “appointment” to the elective post of military ataman and, upon returning to the army, not only did not resign this title in front of the entire army, which, it seemed, he should have done, but, on the contrary stubbornly held onto it. Meanwhile, the Cossacks returned from the "Persian" campaign, already irritated for the hardships they had endured and unjustified losses and hardships on the campaign. A riot was perpetrated, the Cossacks of the "Persian" campaign took to the square with weapons in their hands, and other Cossacks joined them. Kotlyarevsky turned for help to a nearby all-imperial detachment of great strength. The rebellion was crushed. As a result, many Black Sea residents were subjected to public corporal punishment and exiled to Siberia. Whoever had time, fled ... "thrown drunks" ... to the Cossacks across the Danube ...

Emperor Paul I issued to the Black Sea people, following the example of Catherine II, a special "commended letter", in content, however, significantly different from Catherine's two "letters"; in the title of the ataman, its main feature was issued: the name of the ataman in the letter was given without his main honorary title of “koshevoi”, “military”, that is, the title itself was deprived of a combined military unifying meaning. The main feature was the placement in the charter of paragraph five: “... we deign that the administration of affairs to this (troop) pertains to best image...”, “we order to establish a military office”, that is, instead of the previous “military government”, it was the “office” that was established, and it was ordered to be present from the army

Chernomorsky ataman, two members, and moreover, "persons", "whom we please to appoint" ... "for criminal, civil and litigious cases" ... "detective authorities" ... "These expeditions, carrying out cases, should make their sentences on them the approval of the military office and the trusted person appointed by Us in this, and until they are approved, they must not fulfill their positions ... "" Trusted "this" person "became, in value, higher than the ataman, had great powers, and at the same time her relationship with chieftain were not clearly demarcated. From the very first steps, friction began between them, which led to the fact that in July of the same year (the Letter was given on February 16, 1801), an authorized general (Dashkov) was sent from St. Petersburg to Yekaterinodar to investigate cases and restore order in the Black Sea army and As a result of the investigation, the “trusted person” was removed from office, and in February 1802, the position itself was abolished.

In the "charter" of Emperor Alexander I, there was no mention of any "person" controlling the army. It confirmed the rights of the Black Sea army to "eternal and inalienable possession" of the lands granted to it with all the land on the ground, "on the waters with fishing", as well as other rights of the material order of the army, but no hint of autonomous rights in the military command not in the charter, it simply says: “The Black Sea Army receives orders from us through the military authorities, both about its arrangement and about the outfits for the service, which it is obliged to replenish with accuracy and haste ...”, “it (the army) should depend on military affairs from the inspector of the Crimean inspection, and as regards the civil one, to be in the department of the Taurida provincial authorities.

In the future, the entire first half of the 19th century for the Cossacks of the Black Sea army passed in great military tension. Already by decree of November 13, 1802, they were to field 10 cavalry and 10 foot regiments. The cordon combat service also required a lot of stress. Mortality from disease and military losses catastrophically reduced the total number of military population. Its natural growth did not give the necessary replenishment. It became customary for the military government to ask for replenishment in the order of resettlement from the Ukrainian provinces. In the period 1809–1811, 41,534 people were resettled to Chernomoria from the Poltava and Chernigov provinces, of which 22,205 were men. In 1821–1825, another 48,627 people were resettled from the same provinces, of which 25,627 were men. But in the Turkish war of 1828-1829, even the elderly Cossacks were mobilized. As a result, only women and children remained in the smoking villages. In 1848-1849, to replenish the Black Sea army, a new resettlement was carried out, insufficient in terms of time, only 14,227 souls, of which 7,767 were men, also from Ukraine, from the provinces of Kharkov. Chernihiv and Poltava.

During the Crimean campaign, two Plastun battalions took part in the Sevastopol defense from the Black Sea, who covered themselves with glory in battles on the 4th bastion, and another combined cavalry regiment.

Thus, always in military tension to the limit, with great losses in people, in the absence of time to improve family and economic life, years have passed for the Black Sea late XVIII and first half of XIX centuries.

While the Black Sea, starting from 1793–1794, began to “keep the cordon line” along the lower reaches of the Kuban River to the mouth of the Laba River, they were intended to protect the border up the Kuban by order of Catherine II, according to the project of the Main Caucasian Command (Count Gudovich) , six Don regiments, which, however, did not immediately comply with the order to resettle. But already in 1794, 1000 families were sent from the Don army to the upper reaches of the Kuban, and another 125 families from the former Volga Cossack army were added to them. The writer of that time, General V. Gr. Tolstoy tells about this beginning of the formation of the old line:

“Having reached the Kalala River ... the Cossacks cast lots - who and where to go, - and then groups went to the designated places and settled in the villages: Vorovskolesskaya, near the Kursavka River, - Temnolesskaya, 25 miles from Stavropol to the south, - Prochnookopskaya, on the right bank R. Kuban, - Grigoripolis, 26 versts down the Kuban, - in the Caucasus, also down the Kuban, 38 versts from the previous one, and in Ust-Labinskaya, near the fortress of the same name, 80 versts from the Caucasus, - in total for about 300 versts along the border…” At the same time, the settlers were given an allowance “20 rubles each. silver for each yard and an annual metering of provisions (flour and cereals) for each member of the family. In addition, 500 rubles were issued for each village. for the construction of churches. At the same time, the Cossacks of the line were also assigned a land allotment for each of 30 acres, and for the foremen, 60 acres. The regimental land stretched like a ribbon along the border, up to 20 versts wide, with all the land, water and forest lands on it ... By winter, these settlers finally settled down, and with the beginning of 1795, the Kuban cavalry regiment was formed from them, including 18 foremen and 550 people Pentecostals (sergeants) and Cossacks. This five-hundred regiment already on March 5, as the Caucasian authorities reported to the Military Collegium, entered the field service to protect the Kuban border, linking guard sites: from the west with the Black Sea army and in the east with the site of the Khopersky regiment, settled near Stavropol in 1777.

The wide gaps between the Kuban villages, however, could not contribute to a solid cover of the border, and therefore when the “Ekaterinoslav Cossacks” came to the Kuban in 1802, they were settled in the indicated gaps and formed the villages of Temizhbekskaya, Kazanskaya, Tiflisskaya and Ladoga - all together they constituted Caucasian regiment. (For the convenience of command and border service, the village of Ust-Labinskaya was transferred from the Kuban regiment to the Caucasian one, and the village of Temizhbekskaya was transferred to the Kuban regiment.)

In 1833, 31 villages were expelled from the Stavropol province. The villages of Novo-Aleksandrovskoye, Rasshevatskoye, Uspenskoye, Novo-Pokrovskoye, Novotroitskoye, Kamennobrodskoye and Dmitrievskoye departed from here to the Kuban regiment. These villages were formed in the period 1785-1825 from immigrants from Russia, from among state peasants and retired soldiers of the Caucasian army and various "free people" who settled in the rear of the Cossack villages, in the zone of Circassian raids, and long ago learned the Cossack order, and therefore their transfer to the Cossack linear army seemed natural.

In 1825–1827, the Khopersky regiment was resettled in the Kuban, which got its start from people from Zaporozhye and the Don, who settled on the Khoper River, but were dispersed from there for participating in the Bulavinsky rebellion, and reassembled after 6 years. In 1778–1779, they were resettled to the Caucasian line in the Stavropol region, and from there they moved to the Kuban and formed the villages of Batalpashinskaya, Belochechegskaya, Nevinnomysskaya, Barsukovskaya, and on the Kuma River - the villages of Bekeshchevskaya and Suvorovskaya.

On the Caucasian line, the Cossacks first lived in separate regiments, which were directly subordinate to the general command of these lines. Their villages settled near the fortifications. The life of these villages was more disturbing, “but on the other hand,” the old chronicle notes, “being in the service, the Cossack could take care of his household, it improved faster among the linemen, and usually the lineman lived more prosperously than the Black Sea.” In general, life in these regiments proceeded, as on the Black Sea coast, in a continuous struggle with the highlanders. But the Black Sea people in this respect always had their advantage: they acted as a separate Cossack army, having their own cavalry, infantry and artillery, and were under the command of their chieftains.

Having settled in the Kuban, the Cossacks (both the Black Sea and Linets) from the very first days became directly face to face with the warlike highlanders of the Kuban.

“Of these, the Abadzekhs, Beslinei, Temirgoi, Makhoshi were the most numerous and militant opponents for the Cossacks in their indomitable desire for robbery, robbery, all atrocities and violence. In their courageous continuous raids on the Line, the Circassians, in large and small parties, or even alone, penetrated deep into the border villages and villages, set fire to dwellings, robbed property, stole cattle and horses and took the inhabitants captive to sell them into slavery. or enslave yourself into eternal slavery. (Ibid.)

V. Gr., already mentioned above. Tolstoy testifies that “in their mountainous regions and on the forest plains, the Circassians were engaged in cattle breeding and horse breeding, plowed a little and sowed corn and millet, but all this on such a scale that it did not provide for their vital needs.” The Circassians said: "War and booty is our craft, like the Russians arable farming and trade, and if we stop this craft, we will have to die from want and hunger." (Ibid.)

Life was created on the Line, when “day and night the Cossacks vigilantly and vigilantly carried out guard duty either at posts, then in reserves, then on patrols and secrets, then in bloody battles, then in defense under the onslaught of the enemy ...” According to the proverb, “to live with wolves , like a wolf howl", the Kuban already in the 20s of the XIX century, having looked closely at the rights and customs of their warlike neighbors, adopted clothes, weapons and some fighting techniques from the highlanders and already, in turn, "asked bloody lessons to the Abazekhs." And not only the male half of the population of the Line and the Black Sea region was drawn into the difficult frontier life of the Cossacks, but also the Cossack woman; she had a very hard lot. “She gave rest to the elderly, raised and raised children, plowed and sowed, led the field and housekeeping, having the only helpers in the work and the only consolation in teenagers ...” and worries."

“Sometimes, and then not for long, the Cossack himself managed to break out on a visit home to see his household, caress the children, and consult with his wife. When a bloody war separated a husband and wife forever, a Cossack woman with a vengeance had to enter her household and keep her family until her sons grew up, the subject of anxiety of the mother’s heart ... And at the age of 20, they, young Cossacks, got off their horses and went to service." (Ibid. pp. 10–11.)

And here is a sample of a flirting song of that time, it was preserved according to the recording of the late F. A. Shcherbina, a respected historian of the Kuban and the Kuban army:

How well done the girl spoofed,

He lied, he talked:

You go girl

Live on the line with us!

We are on the line

What is Kurdzhup and the river

The wine flowed

And the river Laba

Honey flowed.

Over the mountains with us, over the mountains

Precious stones lie

Precious, unappreciated.

<…>

You, well done, do not lure the girl,

I myself was there

And I saw it myself

I heard about everything.

What is Kurdzhup and the river

The blood flowed

And the Laba river -

Burning tear...

Over the mountains, over the mountains

Heads are lying

All Cossack, well done ...

Some Caucasian authors in their works about the past time of the development of the Caucasus by the Russians seek to exaggerate the colors in order to show the cruelty of the Russian "conquerors". There were different things and different things happened. Those mountain tribes, those inhabitants of mountain villages and other Caucasian settlements, who showed a tendency to go over to a peaceful position, they got the opportunity to settle in a flat open area, but in relation to those mountaineers who considered, as noted above, “war and military booty as their own handicraft”, in relation to those retaliatory measures could not but be severe enough. In the struggle of Russia and Turkey for the assertion of each of their power in the Caucasus (and at the same time for Russia there was a struggle for the possession of "warm seas"), a significant part of the Circassian peoples, the most warlike, took the side of Turkey, and about 500,000 of their souls emigrated to Turkey.

In 1860, the Kuban army was formed. It included the Black Sea army and with it six brigades of the Caucasian linear army entered. (From the remaining 4 brigades of the Caucasian line troops, the Terek army was formed.) At the same time, a civil reorganization of the Cossack troops was also carried out. Since before that the organization of the Black Sea army retained an element of peculiarity, a certain kind of autonomy, now a certain amount of leveling of the “civilian” life of the Cossacks was made in civil terms. The Kuban and Terek regions were formed, administratively rapprochement with the provincial regime usual for that time was carried out.

The number of the Kuban army in that 1860 after the unification did not exceed 160,000 souls. But, despite the comparative insignificance of this number, the army supplied to the service (always military for that time) 22 cavalry regiments, 13 foot battalions, 5 batteries and another guard division. In the "Kuban Collection" it is noted: "The first four years of the existence of the Kuban army were spent in a tense struggle with the highlanders and in the settlement of the Trans-Kuban region and the Black Sea coast."

By a rescript addressed to Evdokimov, Emperor Alexander II on June 24, 1861, ordered to inform the Kuban army that for his constant valiant service, he was “provided for use with lands in the foothills of the Western Caucasus Range ...” It is noteworthy here that the rescript itself was given three years before that time, when these lands turned out to be free from the mountain tribes who had gone to Turkey. In total, 3 million acres of land were added to the use of the Kuban army, in addition to the lands previously occupied by them. It was supposed to settle on it for 6 years 17,000 families from the army of the Kuban, Azov and Don, as well as state peasants and lower ranks

Caucasian army. Immigrants from the Terek, Novorossiysk and Ural troops were allowed. These new settlers formed 96 new villages in Trans-Kuban. Of the new settlers of these villages, 7 cavalry regiments and one (Shapsug) battalion were formed. But then there was a change: “in 1869, the Black Sea coast was withdrawn from the Kuban region. The Cossacks who settled here were offered either to switch to a peasant position, or, if they disagreed, to move to the Kuban region, ”and“ 12 villages organized there were turned into villages, the Shapsug battalion was disbanded. (Ibid. S. 15.) The historical temptation was revealed here in the fact that mainly Kuban Cossacks and parts of other Cossack troops fought with the Turks and mountain tribes, and when it came to the formation of a “riviera” here, the Cossacks were asked to leave ... They began to build dachas and villas on the Black Sea coast or representatives of the money bourgeoisie, or people from the so-called "high society".

Prior to this, military service was sent mainly. In the same place where the Cossacks lived, and with the pacification of the "Western Caucasus", the priority units (military) of the Kuban army were sent to the Transcaucasus and the Transcaspian region in order to protect the borders of the Russian State there. In the event of a European war, "preferential" units could be sent there, and for the speed of their readiness ... cadres of secondary regiments were established ... beating the military by 18 ... "" Speaking in general about the military service of the Kuban army, it should be noted that it took part in all the wars of Russia, in both expeditions in the Transcaspian region, in the Turkish war of 1877-1878, in the Russo-Japanese war and in The First World War, when the Kuban army gave maximum tension and, as can be seen from the reports of the headquarters of the Marching Ataman of all Cossack troops, all the manpower reserves of the Kuban army were exhausted. (Ibid. S. 15.)

Serving military service for the first-priority Kuban units in the slums of the Transcaucasus bordering with Turkey and Persia or in the deserts of the Transcaspia was a great test for young Cossacks and young officers. Exit of the latter to the officers General Staff and for other service of advanced qualification in percentage terms in comparison with other troops (even with such relatively small ones as Terek and Orenburg) was significantly lower. Why this harsh share was predetermined for the Kuban, and not divided among other fraternal troops, is difficult to judge.

Oh, our God, God of mercy

We were born in the unfortunate retinue ...

Served vipno in poli and on mopi

Yes, the miserable, bare and naked were caught ...

This quatrain from the song of the old A. A. Golovaty brings together the share of ancestors with their descendants - from the glorious Zaporozhye to the present day.

In 1860, the Kuban army was formed, and in relation to the civilian - the Kuban region. The first appointed ataman was General Ivanov 13th, who was appointed in August 1861. Prior to this, the duties of the ataman were performed by Kusakov 1st ... Names, by the way, as if for selection, pseudo-Cossacks ...

After a short period of time, a habit will be established on the part of the central government to appoint a general as the Kuban ataman without fail, not a Kuban Cossack ... An exception was made only for the last ataman - M.P. Babych.

With 11 high-priority cavalry regiments, with seven battalions of plastuns and with 4 batteries, the Kuban did not wait until 1917 for the opening of a normal military school, even more than that - the Stavropol cadet school, in which they received military education almost exclusively Kuban Cossacks, was closed. Kuban residents had to go to Orenburg, Elisavetgrad, Tiflis, Chuguev and other places to enter military school. Donets had their own cadet corps. For Kuban children, mainly with Kuban money, a corps was opened in Vladikavkaz, and even with this peculiarity: the selection of cadets for Kuban scholarships depended on the discretion of the governor in the Caucasus.

Before the revolution, the agricultural Kuban did not even have its own secondary agricultural school.

The same tendency of the central state power was observed in other areas of social organization, even in the church, in the organization of the court, etc. Russian provinces with an Orthodox population of one to one and a half million, an independent diocese was established, and the Kuban, with its over two million Orthodox people, only shortly before the revolution received a "vicar" bishop. On the Don, the court was organized with the legal establishment that half of the judges were from the Don Cossacks, this order did not apply to the Kuban. Don magistrates took office at the choice of the district population, in the Kuban they were simply appointed ... In the Kuban there was no Control Chamber. Kuban had to report to the Stavropol Chamber of Control.

Representatives of the highest central government they did not want to forget some of the freedom-loving movements of the old Zaporozhye, and in relation to its successors - the Kuban Cossacks - they could not get rid of the old methods of establishing state unity: "keep and not let go." commander in chief Caucasian army Prince Baryatinsky wrote to the Minister of War in 1861: “In the former Black Sea army, which keeps the traditions of the Zaporizhzhya Sich ... separateness takes the form of nationality ... The merger of the former Black Sea army with the Caucasian one can act against this especially harmful beginning at the present time, but it is necessary that the merger of the ego is not only administrative, but penetrated into the very life of the Cossacks.

The introduction into the life of the Kuban Cossacks of the association "without concessions" was considered, apparently, the most effective means of taming them to the all-Russian beginning. (In my present book of memoirs, along with its main theme, I tell how this incomplete degree of the Black Sea-linear unity in the judgment years of the existence of the Kuban affected.)

From 1860 to the crash old Russia 57 years have passed - a short period for the destinies of peoples.

HISTORY OF KUBAN

4.1. The main events of the history of the Kuban

About 500 thousand years ago.

The settlement of the Kuban by ancient people

About 100 thousand years ago.

Ilskaya camp.

About 3-2 thousand years BC

Bronze Age in the Kuban.

End of IX-VIII centuries. BC.

The beginning of the use of iron in the Kuban.

5th century BC. - IV century. AD

Bosporan kingdom.

7th-10th centuries

Khazar Khaganate.

X-XI centuries

Tmutarakan principality.

1552

Adyghe embassy to Ivan IV.

1708-1778

Cossacks - Nekrasovites in the Kuban.

1778

Construction by Suvorov of the Kuban fortified line.

1783

Accession of the Right Bank of the Kuban to Russia.

1792-1793

The resettlement of the Black Sea Cossacks to the Kuban.

1793

Foundation of the city of Ekaterinodar (renamed Krasnodar in 1920)

1794

Base of the first pages.

1812-1814

Participation of the Black Sea Cossacks in the war with France.

Early nineteenth century – 1864

Caucasian war.

1860

Formation of the Kuban region and the creation of the Kuban Cossack army.

1875

First Railway in the Kuban.

1918-1920s

Civil War.

1929-1933

Creation of collective farms.

Education of the Krasnodar Territory.

The beginning of the battle for the Caucasus.

Fights on Malaya Zemlya.

Liberation of Krasnodar from fascist invaders.

Complete liberation of the Kuban from the German invaders.

Novorossiysk was awarded the title of Hero City.

A law on the symbols of the Krasnodar Territory was adopted.

4.2. The first settlements in the Kuban

The Krasnodar Territory is an area of ​​ancient human habitation. Primitive man appeared in our region 700-600 thousand years ago. A chance find helped establish this.

A weapon was found on the bank of the Psekups River primitive man- hand axe. The climate of our region was relatively warm. Its lands were distinguished by fertility and rich vegetation. Abounded in a variety of animals of grief and forest. There were deer and roe deer, bison, bears and leopards. The waters of the region and the seas washing it abounded with fish. Man collected edible plants, roots, fruits and hunted animals.

With the gradual cooling of the climate, associated with the advance of the glacier from the north, human life changed. Hunting for large animals becomes one of the main activities. As dwellings, a person uses caves, and where there were none, he settles under rocky sheds, builds simple dwellings, covering them with animal skins. Many cave sites are known. These are the Big Vorontsovskaya Cave, the Khostinsky Caves, and others. Hordes of primitive hunters at that time lived not only along the Black Sea coast, but also along the northern slope of the Caucasus Range. Herds of mammoths, bison, deer, wild horses and words grazed in the vast steppe expanses of the Kuban region. All of them became the prey of man.

4.2.1. Mounds and dolmens.

About 4.2 thousand years ago, in the era of copper and bronze, people had already begun to cultivate the land with hoes, but cattle breeding played the main role. About 3 thousand years ago, they learned how to extract iron and make tools from it, including a plow for cultivating the land.

In the mountainous regions of our region and on the Black Sea coast in the second half of the III and II millennia BC. there lived tribes that left the most interesting funerary monuments - dolmens. Usually dolmens were built from five huge slabs, four of which made up the walls, and the fifth - the roof. In the front slab, as a rule, there was a hole closed with a stone plug. Sometimes dolmens were carved in whole blocks and only covered with a slab from above. Dolmens served for burials and represented, as it were, ground-based crypts.

There were many dolmens in the upper reaches of the Belaya River (a tributary of the Kuban). there were 360 ​​dolmens - a whole city with straight streets. The Cossacks called these burials "heroic huts", and the Adyghe - "syrp-up" ("houses of dwarfs").

At the beginning of the twentieth century. most of the Caucasian dolmens were broken up in order to use stone for the construction of roads and houses, despite the fact that the burial structures erected more than 4 thousand years ago were revered by the local population.

During excavations in dolmens, copper axes, adzes, spearheads, and earthenware vessels were found. They built, these huge tombs were engaged in hunting, hoe farming and lived settled.

In the steppes of the Kuban region at the same time lived tribes of pastoralists. They raised cows, sheep, a horse was already tamed. Tools of labor were made in bronze, although stone ones also continued to exist. The burial mounds that are found throughout the Kuban steppe remained monuments of those times.

Scythian mounds first appeared in the steppe about 5 thousand years ago. Some of them are over 7 m high and 20 m in diameter. The mounds are visible from afar on the flat steppe expanses, along which their creators roamed in ancient times. Researchers believe that the stone woman at the top of the barrow is a statue of a person buried in the barrow.

Questions and tasks

1. How did people learn about the ancient settlements and their way of life?
2. What are dolmens? Why were they built by the ancient inhabitants of the region? Where are they kept?
3. What did people do in ancient times?

4.3. The peoples of the Kuban region in the 1st millennium BC

4.3.1. Scythians and Meotians

The Scythians lived in the steppes of the Northern Black Sea region. The Kuban region and the eastern coast of the Sea of ​​Azov were inhabited by Meot tribes. Just like the Scythians, part of the Meotian tribes living in the steppe regions of the Kuban region led a nomadic lifestyle, breeding huge herds of horses, flocks of sheep, herds of cattle, moving from place to place in search of new pastures. But the bulk of the population were farmers. They lived settled in small villages located near rivers and estuaries. The coast of the Kuban River was especially densely populated. The river with its steep banks provided reliable protection from enemy attacks. From the floor side, the settlements were surrounded by earthen ramparts and ditches. Fortifications were sometimes erected along the shaft, built of two rows of wattle fence with earth poured between them. Behind the walls, small adobe houses, covered with straw and reeds, huddled closely together. Life in the settlement began when the first rays of the sun illuminated the east and the darkness of the night left the steppe. Ploughmen went out into the field, shepherds drove herds of cows and sheep, fishermen went down to the river to cast large nets. Plowing was done with a wooden plow to which several pairs of oxen were harnessed. They sowed wheat, barley, and millet. Millet was stored not in barns, but in pits - granaries. There were stone hand mills in the yards. They consisted of a wooden table with a vertical stand and two rectangular stone slabs of millstones. Flour and various cereals were made from grains.

Craftsmen also lived in the villages. From time to time, thick columns of smoke rose on the outskirts of the village - it was the potters who began to heat the furnaces in which the dishes were fired. And what kind of vessels were not made by the ancient masters! There were jugs various shapes and sizes, bowls, glasses, bowls, mugs, vases, etc. Some jugs were painted with white and pink paints. Every house had a loom on which women spun yarn.

Sometimes large rowboats loaded with various goods sailed to the village. The entire population hurried to the place of the marketplace. Bosporan merchants unloaded expensive multi-colored fabrics, gold jewelry and beads, copper helmets sparkling in the sun, armor and other products of masters of the Bosporan cities. The inhabitants of the village offered in exchange leather and furs, grain bread, dried fish and "live" goods - slaves. These were prisoners of war who were sold as slaves to the Greeks. The former equality in the clan, the tribe disappears, rich and noble families stand out. They bury their leaders in large burial mounds with a magnificent burial rite. Just like the Scythians, the Meots killed the servants of the leader, his slaves and slaves, horses and buried them in the grave along with their master.

The ordinary population buried their dead in simple shallow pits in common cemeteries. According to the Meotian rite, vessels with food and drink and personal belongings of the deceased were placed in the grave: for warriors - weapons, for women - jewelry.

Questions and tasks

1. What tribes lived in the Northern Black Sea region?
2. What areas were inhabited by the Meots?
3. Compare the occupations of the population at that time with modern types of economic activity. What common features can be identified?

4.4. Bosporan kingdom

On the northern coast of the Black Sea in the 5th-4th centuries. BC. a large slave-owning state was formed - Bosporus. The city became the capital of the state panticapaeum, present-day Kerch. Second major city was Phanagoria (on the southeastern shore of the Taman Bay.) The city was surrounded by a powerful stone wall and properly planned. Its streets were located perpendicular to each other. The whole territory was divided into the upper and lower city. At present, due to the partial lowering of the coast and the advance of the sea, part of the city is under water. The center is located on the lower plateau. There were large public buildings, temples, statues of the ancient Greek gods Apollo, Aphrodite. The streets of the city were paved, under the pavement drains were arranged to drain rainwater. There were numerous wells with stone lining. In the western part there was a large public building intended for physical culture. In the houses of wealthy slave owners, the rooms were plastered and covered with paintings. On the southeastern outskirts of Phanagoria, there was a quarter of potters. The inhabitants of Phanagoria and nearby villages were engaged in agriculture. They plowed with a heavy wooden plow in a team of bulls. There were iron hoes and sickles. They sown mainly wheat, but also barley and millet. Gardens were cultivated around the city, in which pears, apples, plums were grown. Cherry plum. There were vineyards on the hills surrounding Phanagoria. A large number of fish were caught in the strait and the seas, sturgeons were especially famous, which were exported to Greece, where they were highly valued.

Phanagoria had two harbors - one sea harbor, where ships arrived from Greece moored, and the second - a river one on one of the branches of the Kuban. From here, ships loaded with goods sailed up the Kuban to the Meotian lands. In the 4th century AD, Phanagoria experienced a catastrophe - a significant part of the city was destroyed and burned. The city was destroyed during the invasion of nomads - the Huns.

Questions and tasks

1. Where was the Bosporan kingdom located?
2. Name the capital and second largest city.
3. What was Phanagoria?

4.5. Tmutarakan Principality

In the 10th century, according to chroniclers, Prince Vladimir of Kiev founded on the Taman PeninsulaTmutarakan principality.The city was the center Tmutarakan. In the city there was a princely house, many beautiful buildings, some of them were decorated with marble, a church built of stone towered. Most of the Tmutarakans lived in mud-brick houses covered with sea grass. Some streets were paved with stone. The city was protected by defensive walls. Behind them were craftsmen's quarters. The inhabitants of Tmutarakan were engaged in crafts, trade, agriculture and fishing. The city itself was located on the shores of a good sea harbor, connecting water and land routes from the east and west. Kievan Rus used them for lively trade with the peoples of the North Caucasus. Merchant boats brought furs, leather and bread here, and returned back along the Black Sea and the Dnieper, loaded with fabrics, jewelry, glassware and weapons prepared in the workshops of oriental artisans.

As the feudal fragmentation and weakening of the ancient Russian state, the position of the principality in the Kuban also changed. It became the subject of a struggle between pretenders to the throne of Kiev. So, the envoy of the Byzantine emperor, taking advantage of the gullibility of the Tmutarakan prince, entered his house and poisoned him. Another prince was captured by the Byzantines, he was kept for two years on the island of Rhodes in the Mediterranean Sea. However, the insidious neighbor of Rus' managed to capture Tmutarakan only in the middle of the 12th century, when Kievan Rus was fragmented into warring principalities. Subsequently, the Polovtsians took over the principality.

Questions and tasks

1. Visit the local history museum. Get acquainted with the material on the history of our region, relating to the X - XII centuries.
2. Where was the Tmutarakan principality located? What is the relationship between the history of Tmutarakan and the history of the Kievan state?

Legends and were the Black Sea

Pearl of Gorgippia

Gorgippia in ancient times was called Anapa. The greatest of the commanders of antiquity, Iskander (Iskander was called Alexander the Great in the Caucasus), had a military leader who combined courage, high military leadership and nobility. Iskander sent him on the most difficult campaigns, and they always ended in victory. So it was in last battle. But here Iskander's favorite was seriously wounded and soon died, leaving his wife and son. Iskander did everything so that the wife of the deceased did not need anything, and he adopted the young Konstantin and personally took care of his upbringing.

Young Konstantin could not be reproached for his lack of courage. But to a greater extent, he inherited nobility from his own father, intelligence from his adoptive father, and tenderness from his mother. Iskander saw in his adopted son not a warrior, but a politician and picked up the appropriate case for him. He sent him to the northern shores of the Black Sea in Gorgippia in order to get in touch with the northern peoples, establish trade with them and ensure a wide flow of necessary goods from there. Constantine arrived in Gorgippia surrounded by a retinue of magnificent servants, accompanied by a detachment of brilliant warriors. This made a strong impression in Gorgippia. The leaders of both the nearest and the most distant tribes sought to see the messenger of the great Iskander. Constantine generously showered everyone with gifts and won universal respect. From the northern shores of the Black Sea, bread, honey, timber, furs, wool, and leather went to Iskander's empire.

Konstantin received a lot of reciprocal signs of attention from the local nobility. One of the leaders of the Dzih tribe presented him with five young slaves as a gift. They were more beautiful than one another. According to Konstantin himself, the young Russian princess Elena was distinguished by divine beauty.

Having accepted the gift, Konstantin secretly granted freedom to the four captives and helped them return to their homes. He left Elena with him, creating for her conditions worthy not of a slave, but of a mistress. The girl reacted to this more than indifferently. Yearning for her home, she did not notice the favorable attitude of the new owner towards her. The beauty of Konstantin himself, who was admired by others, did not touch her either.

You, as before, are dissatisfied, Konstantin once told her.

Tell me, Elena, what do you miss? Everything will be for you!

Frowning, not raising her eyes, Elena remained silent.

I am not a slave trader. I do not and will not have a harem. Four of your girlfriends are already at large,” Konstantin continued. “You are here with me because I don’t want, I can’t lose you.

Elena's face expressed despair, tears rolled from her eyes.

Forgive me, Elena. It's not my fault that we met like this. But I love you and I'm ready to prove ...

Love? - interrupted Elena. Are you ready to prove? Then do with me the same as with your friends. Let go home. Come visit and talk about love there. And now I am a slave, and you are a master who can do anything. I don't believe…

I love you, repeated Konstantin. “I can’t imagine love without reciprocity. I can't imagine life without you. What can I do to make you believe my love? Order...

For the first time, Elena glanced furtively at Konstantin. Yes, he is handsome. However, she responded:

I already said...

Sighing, Konstantin bowed and left.

Then a messenger arrived from Alexandria brought him Iskander's challenge. Konstantin left. The father greeted him with a smile.

I am pleased with your success and intend to encourage you, - he said to his son, - Ask for whatever you want, Konstantin.

Thank you, father, - answered Konstantin. - Such a high assessment of what I have done, your truly divine generosity is the highest reward for me. I don't need another.

But I would not refuse your advice ...

And Konstantin told Iskander about his feelings for the Russian slave Elena and his desire to achieve reciprocity from her. After listening to a frank story, Iskander thought about it, then said:

Build for her at the place of the first meeting a palace of such beauty that, upon entering it, your Elena will answer "I love you."

Constantine returned to Gorgippia with a caravan of ships loaded with precious building materials for the palace of love.

Arriving in Gorgippia, Constantine found Elena even more beautiful. The construction of the palace began without delay.

When Constantine brought the one in whose honor it was erected into the pentagonal palace, built of marble and trimmed with yahont, emerald and turquoise, a miracle happened. As soon as she crossed the threshold, Elena was transformed. Sadness and detachment disappeared, the face lit up with a smile, eyes flashed with delight. She mechanically held out her hand to Konstantin and said, as if the mutual love between them was not a beginning, but a continuation:

You love... Oh, how you love me!...

Konstantin and Elena did not live long where they met. They ended their journey in Alexandria. The pentagonal palace became the pearl of Gorgoppia, later renamed Anapa. They say that when, many centuries later, Timur the Iron Leg, having completely destroyed seven hundred cities of the Caucasus, went to the sea and captured Anapa, the beauty of the palace struck him. For the first time, Timur's hand that did not know pity did not rise to the building, overshadowed by high love and nobility. He bowed to him and left him untouched. The palace disappeared later, in the year of the fiercest battles for Anapa. But the legend of the palace, which is a hymn to the beauty of the Russian girl Elena, is still alive today.

4.6. Who are the Cossacks

Most of the modern cities and villages of the region were founded by Cossack settlers. Places for the first 40 villages were determined by lot, and the Cossacks brought the names of most of them from Ukraine, where they were made from the names of famous Cossacks (Titarovskaya, Vasyurinskaya, Myshastovskaya) or from the names of cities: Poltava (Poltava), Korsunskaya (city . Korsun).

One of the first villages was named Ekaterininsky. He was destined to become the capital of the Cossack region. According to legend, the military ataman Zakhary Chepega, pointing with his hand at the thorny thickets near the Karasun Kut, exclaimed: “To be here hail!”

Among some peoples, the armed protection of borders is entrusted to special groups of the population. In Russia they are called Cossacks. Scientists believe that the very word "Cossack" is borrowed from the Turkic languages, where "Cossack" means "free man". In the Middle Ages, this was the name given to free people who served as scouts or guarded the borders in Rus'. The earliest group of Russian Cossacks formed in the 16th century on the Don from runaway Russian and Ukrainian peasants. In the future, the Cossack communities developed in different ways. On the one hand, they fled to the outskirts of the state from serfdom, on the other hand, they arose by royal decree to protect the borders of the empire. By 1917, there were 11 Cossack troops in Russia: Amur, Astrakhan, Don, Transbaikal, Kuban, Orenburg, Semirechensk, Siberian, Tersk, Ural and Ussuri.

Groups of the Cossacks as a result of contacts with the local non-Russian population differed from each other in the peculiarities of the language, way of life, and form of farming. At the same time, all the Cossacks had something in common that set them apart from other Russians. This allows us to speak of the Cossacks as one of the Russian sub-ethnic groups ("sub-peoples").

Cossack settlers in the XVIII century. began to build the first villages in the Kuban. Usually the construction was carried out according to plan. In the center of the village there was a square with a church, a school, and the village administration.

4.6.1. Cossack dwellings

Cossacks built dwellings-huts from local natural materials: straw, reeds, brushwood, clay. The hut was a frame made of twigs, plastered on both sides with clay. The floor is adobe. Roof made of straw or reeds. The outside of the house was whitewashed. It was divided into two living quarters: a great hut with a Russian stove in the back corner and a small hut.

Kuban, due to features historical development, is a unique region where for two centuries interacted, interpenetrated and formed into one whole elements of cultures of different peoples.

House building is an important element of traditional folk culture. This is a great event in the life of every Cossack family, a collective matter. It was usually attended by, if not all, then most of the inhabitants of the "krai", "kutka", village.

Here is how the turluch houses were built: “Along the perimeter of the house, the Cossacks dug large and small pillars into the ground -“ plows ”and“ plows ”, which were intertwined with a vine. When the frame was ready, relatives and neighbors were called for the first smear "under the fists" - clay mixed with straw was hammered into the wattle fence with fists. A week later, they made a second smear “under the fingers”, when the clay mixed with sexual clay was pressed in and smoothed out with fingers. For the third "smooth strokes, chaff and dung (dung thoroughly mixed with straw cutting) were added to the clay"

Public buildings - Ataman rule, schools were built of brick, with iron roofs. They still adorn the Kuban villages.

Rituals in the construction of housing

“Stubbles of domestic animal hair and feathers were thrown at the construction site, “so that everything would run”. The uterus - swine (wooden beams on which the ceiling was laid) was raised on towels or chains, "so that the house was not empty." In the front corner, a wooden cross was built into the wall, thus invoking God's blessing on the inhabitants of the house.

After the completion of construction work, the owners arranged refreshments instead of payment (it was not supposed to be taken for help). Most of the participants were also invited to the housewarming party.

The interior of the Cossack hut

The interior of the Kuban dwelling was basically the same for all regions of the Kuban. The house usually had two rooms: a large and a small hut. In a small hut there was a stove, long village benches, a table. In the great hut there was custom-made furniture: a cupboard for dishes: (“slide” or “square”), chest of drawers for linen, chests, etc. The central place in the house was the "red corner" - "deity". The "God" was made in the form of a large kiot, consisting of one or more icons, decorated with towels, and a square table. Often icons and towels were decorated with paper flowers. Items of sacred or ceremonial significance were kept in the “goddess”: wedding candles, “pasques,” as they are called in the Kuban, Easter eggs, prosvirka, prayer records, memorial books.

Towels are a traditional decoration element of the Kuban dwelling. They were made from home-made fabrics, sheathed with lace at both ends and embroidered with a cross and satin stitch. Embroidery most often took place along the edge of the towel with a predominance of floral ornaments, a flowerpot with flowers, geometric shapes, and a paired image of birds.

One very common detail of the interior of the Cossack hut - photographs on the wall - traditional family heirlooms. Small photo studios appeared in the Kuban villages already in the 70s. 19th century Photographed on special occasions: farewell to the army, weddings, funerals.

Especially often photographed during the First World War. In each Cossack family, they tried to take a picture as a keepsake or get a photo from the front.

4.6.2. Cossack costume

Men's suit

Ancient Cossack clothes are very ancient. The costume of the Cossacks took shape over the centuries, long before the steppes began to be called Cossacks. First of all, this refers to the invention of the Scythians - pants, without which the life of a nomad horseman is impossible. Over the centuries, their cut has not changed: these are wide trousers - you can’t sit on a horse in tight pants, but your legs will wash, and the rider’s movements were fettered. So those bloomers that walked in ancient mounds were the same as those worn by the Cossacks in both the 18th and 18th centuries.

19th century shirts were of two typesRussian and Beshmet.The Russian was tucked into bloomers, beshmet was worn loose. They were sewn from canvas or silk. The steppe dwellers generally preferred silk to other fabrics - the louse does not live on silk. From above - cloth, and on the body - silk! In winter, they wore naked short fur coats, which were worn with wool over a naked body - this is how the peoples of the North wear kukhlyanka.

From the friction of the wool on the body, an electric field arises - it is warmer, and if a person sweats, the sweat will wipe off the wool, it is not absorbed into clothes and does not turn into ice.

From outerwear, the Cossacks have long preferred archaluk - "Spinogray" is a cross between a quilted Tatar robe and a caftan. In addition, over the sheepskin coat in winter and in bad weather, he wore hoodie - felted cloak with a hood made of sheep's wool. Water rolled down on it, in severe frosts it did not burst like leather things. In the Caucasus, the hoodie was replaced by a cloak, and the hood has long existed as an independent headdress - hood.

There were a great many boots - without boots, riding is impossible, and you can’t walk barefoot on the dry steppe. Special love enjoyed soft boots without heels - ichigi and chiriki - galoshes, which were worn either over the ichig, or over thick combed socks, into which trousers were tucked. Worn and shoes - leather shoes with straps, so named because they were made of calfskin (Turkic shoe - calf).

Cossack stripes were of particular importance. It was believed that they were introduced by Platov, but the stripes are found on the old Cossack clothes, and even on the clothes of the Polovtsy, and even earlier - the Scythians. So under Platov, the wearing of stripes was only legalized, but they existed before, marking the belonging of their owner to the free army.

But the Cossack valued clothing most of all not for its cost and not even for its convenience, which the Cossack “right” was famous for, but for the inner spiritual meaning that every stitch, every detail of the Cossack costume was filled with.

The male costume consisted of military uniform and everyday clothes. The uniform suit has gone through a difficult path of development, and it was most affected by the influence of the culture of the Caucasian peoples. Slavs and highlanders lived next door. They were not always at enmity, more often they sought mutual understanding, trade and exchange, including cultural and household. The Cossack form was established by the middle of the 19th century: a black cloth Circassian coat, dark trousers, a beshmet, a hood, a winter cloak, a hat, boots or leggings.

Uniforms, horses, weapons were an integral part of the Cossack "right", i.e. equipment at your own expense. The Cossack was "celebrated" long before he went to serve. This was connected not only with the material costs of ammunition and weapons, but also with the entry of the Cossack into a new world of objects for him, surrounding the male warrior. Usually his father said to him: “Well, son, I married you and made you happy. Now live with your mind - I am no longer responsible for you before God.

Bloody wars at the beginning of the 20th century. showed the inconvenience and impracticality of the traditional Cossack uniform on the battlefield, but put up with them while the Cossack was on guard duty. Already in 1915, during the First World War, which sharply revealed this problem, the Cossacks were allowed to replace the Circassian and beshmet with an infantry tunic, a cloak with an overcoat, and replace the hat with a cap. The traditional Cossack uniform was left as a dress uniform.

Woman suit

The traditional women's costume has been formed since the middle of the 19th century. It consisted of a skirt and blouse (blouse) called"couple" . The blouse could be fitted or with a peplum, but always with long sleeves, trimmed with elegant buttons, braid, home-made lace, garus, beads.

Skirts were sewn from chintz or wool, wide, in five or six panels (shelves) on an upturned cord - uchkur, gathered at the waist for splendor. At the bottom, the skirt was decorated with lace, frills, small folds. Canvas skirts in the Kuban were worn, as a rule, as underskirts, and they were called in Russian - "hem", in Ukrainian - "spidnitsa". Petticoats were worn under chintz, satin and other skirts, sometimes even two or three, one on top of the other. The bottom one was necessarily white.

Festive clothes were sewn from silk or velvet.

The value of clothing in the system material assets the Cossack family was very large, beautiful clothes raised prestige, emphasized wealth, and distinguished them from non-residents. Clothing, even festive, in the past cost the family relatively cheaply: every woman knew how to spin, weave, cut, sew, embroider, weave lace.

Women's costume is the whole world. Not only every army, every village, and even every Cossack clan had a special outfit that differed from others, if not completely, then in details. A married woman or a girl, a widow or bride, what kind she was, and even how many children a woman had - this was determined by her clothes.

A feature of the Cossack women's costume was head capes. Women are not supposed to go to the temple with their heads uncovered. Cossack women wore lace scarves, and in the 19th century. -caps, hoodiesfrom the German word "fine" - beautiful, pins and currents. They were worn in accordance with marital status- a married woman was never shown without a fashion or a tattoo. The girl covered her head and always braided a braid with a ribbon. Everyone wore lace handkerchiefs. Without it, the appearance of a woman in public was as unthinkable as the appearance of a military Cossack without a cap or hat.

It should be noted age differences in clothing. The most colorful and the best quality of the material was the costume of brides and young women. The sleeves of their shirts were richly decorated with floral and geometric ornaments. The wedding costume was supposed to be carefully stored in a chest: very often it was used as a funeral costume (“clothing for death”), and, if necessary, as a means of healing magic. In the Kuban, there is a belief that if you wrap a sick child in it, he will recover.

By the age of 35, women preferred to dress in darker, plain clothes with a simplified cut.

Children received a minimum of clothes, often wearing old ones. The shirt was considered home clothing. In poor families, a shirt with a skirt could also be a wedding suit. It was sewn from homespun hemp canvas. The main material for the manufacture of homespun cloth was hemp, less often wool. The fabric was bleached in special dug-out beech barrels with sunflower or wood ash. In the Kuban villages, home furnishings were made from hemp linen. Products from homespun linen were part of the girl's dowry, which were decorated with embroidery. Thisshirts, valances, skirts - spinners.According to legend, embroidery had a magical ability to preserve and protect from the evil eye, diseases, contributed to well-being, happiness and wealth.

Questions and tasks

1. Collect photographs of your relatives and friends in period clothing. Find out and write down the names of those elements of their clothing that are not in the wardrobe of a modern person.
2. Tell us about fashion, fabrics, jewelry at different times in the Kuban. Make your drawings.

Legends and were the Black Sea.

How a son carried a sick father over the mountains

The old Cossack Taras Tverdokhlib was famous and respected throughout the Black Sea coast. He fought in the Kuban with the Turks under the command of Prince Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov himself. And not only fought - Suvorov twice personally presented him with military awards and talked with him for a long time, because Taras Tverdokhlib was known as a brave warrior and a wise interlocutor.

The eminent Cossack also succeeded in peaceful affairs. He believed that a Cossack, if he deeply takes root in the ground, which he protects from adversaries, stands firmer in battle. And Taras Tverdohlib had a good house, a glorious woman, three sons, who, in addition to many enviable virtues, were endowed with the most important thing - respect for their parents. Dobre lived on the banks of the fleeting beauty of the Kuban Taras Tverdokhlib. But here's the problem: happy days run fast. The Cossack did not notice how old age crept up, bringing with it debilitating ailments. Over the years, the scarred body of Taras Tverdokhlib turned into a real nest of diseases. And it saddened everyone in the family. The sons were ready to do anything to alleviate the suffering of a sick father.

Tell me, dad, do not be shy, how can I help you? - inquired the eldest of the sons - Grytsko.

At first, the father only waved his hand in response. And when Grytsko asked for the twelfth time, the old man said:

Help me, son, only one fire-water can. But she is far away: on the other side of the high mountains, in a foreign land, by the blue sea. There are no roads there. I won't walk. You don't have the strength to carry me on your shoulders over the mountains.

And I'll try. I am the strongest in the village. Get ready for the road, father, - the eldest son answered this.

He really looked like a hero. Only a silent man was born and raised, he did not know how to talk about himself and his strength.

The preparations were short-lived, and at dawn the next day, the father and eldest son set off. We agreed: the father would slowly go to his native place, and his son would carry him on his shoulders over the mountains. On the way, Grytsko was silent - he thought about how best to deal with the matter. Time passed slowly in silence. And although it seemed that the mountains were within easy reach, the sick father was mortally tired in the first versts.

At the very mountains, after a short respite, Grytsko put his father on his shoulders and carried him on. But the top of the mountain went into the very sky, the climb became steeper with each sazhen. Grytsko somehow overcame half of the climb, and in the second half he was completely exhausted. And ahead is a new, even higher mountain. From annoyance, Grytsko burst into tears like a small child, but his father reassured him, and they returned home.

After some time, the middle son Nikola volunteered to carry the sick father through the mountains. Although he was inferior to Grytsk in strength, he was more agile and cunning than his older brother.

But no matter what tricks Nikola rushed to, no matter what tricks he embarked on the road, he failed to cross the mountains with his father on his shoulders ...

What are you, - the youngest of the Ivane brothers reproached Nikola and Grytsk. - So I have to carry my father through the mountains?

Where are you, scumbag! - shouted at him older brothers. “Don’t torture your father in vain. He will die on the road from one of your chatter.

Ivane was the youngest of them, he was ill a lot in childhood, looked like a frail and weak young man and could only sing songs and tell all sorts of tales incessantly ...

However, Ivane stood on his own.

And I’m not with you, I’ll ask my mother for permission and carry my father through the mountains, ”he answered the brothers.

Not only Grytsko and Nikola, Taras Tverdokhlib himself was quite surprised that his old wife blessed Ivane for the job.

And don't be shy, father, - Ivane himself began to reassure his father. - You better listen to what big and difficult things are sometimes done by small and weak-looking people.

And Ivana told first one, then another amazing legends, who carried Taras Tverdohlib into another, magical world, imperceptibly lifted him out of bed, gathered him on the road, gave him strength.

Thus passed the first day.

Dear father, - interrupting another story, he said to Ivan, - the sun disappeared behind the mountains. It's time for us to have dinner and rest. You untie the knapsack with food, and I run for water.

The next day, after a sound sleep, the travelers woke up at sunrise. Already at breakfast, Ivane began to tell new legends. Taras Tverdokhlib did not notice when and how he set off, how a new day passed. The same thing happened on the third and fourth mornings, and on the fifth Ivane said:

Here, father, is the valley of happy springs. Three more versts down, and you will be at the fire - water.

How down? - the father was surprised. - Where are the mountains?

They're long gone, dad.

I do not believe my eyes: you, son, carried me over the mountains so easily that I did not notice. It turns out that you have the greatest power with us ...

4.6.3. Cossack food

The basis of the diet of the Kuban family was wheat bread, meat, fish, vegetables and fruits. The most popular is borscht, which was boiled with sauerkraut, beans, meat, lard, and on fasting days - with vegetable oil. Each hostess had her own unique taste of borscht. Cossacks loved dumplings, dumplings. They knew a lot about fish: they salted it, dried it, boiled it. They salted and dried fruits for the winter, cooked compotes (uzvars), jam, prepared watermelon honey, made fruit marshmallows; honey was widely used, wine was made from grapes.

In the Kuban they ate more meat and meat dishes (especially poultry, pork and lamb) than in other parts of Russia. However, lard and fat were also highly valued here, since often meat products were used as a seasoning for dishes.

Food was cooked, as a rule, in the oven (in the winter in the house, in the kitchen, in the summer - in the summer kitchen or in the summer oven in the yard). Each family had the necessary simple utensils: cast iron, bowls, bowls, pans, tongs, stags, cups, pokers.

4.6.4. family life

Families in the Kuban were large, which was explained by the constant need for workers and the difficult situation of wartime. The main duty of the Cossack was military service. Each Cossack who reached the age of 18 took a military oath and was obliged to attend drill classes in the village (one month each in autumn and winter), to be trained in military camps. Upon reaching the age of 21, he entered a 4-year military service, after which he was assigned to the regiment, and until the age of 38 he had to participate in three-week camp training, have a horse and a full set of uniforms, and appear at regular military training camps. All this required a lot of time, so in the Cossack families an important role was played by a woman who ran the household, took care of the elderly, and raised the younger generation. The birth of 5-7 children in a Cossack family was common. The Cossacks loved children and were happy to have both a boy and a girl. But the boy was more happy: in addition to the traditional interest in the birth of a son, the successor of the family, purely practical interests were mixed in here - for the future Cossack, the warrior, the community gave out allotments of land. Children were early involved in labor, from the age of 5-7 they performed feasible work. Father and grandfather taught their sons and grandsons labor skills, survival in dangerous conditions, stamina and endurance. Mothers and grandmothers taught their daughters and granddaughters the ability to love and take care of the family, prudent housekeeping.

Peasant-Cossack pedagogy has always followed worldly precepts, based on centuries of ideals of strict kindness and obedience, exacting dignity and diligence to work.

The elderly were especially respected in the family. They acted as guardians of customs, played a big role in public opinion and Cossack self-government.

In Cossack families they worked tirelessly. Field work was especially difficult during the hard time - harvesting. They worked from dawn to dusk, the whole family moved to live in the field. The mother-in-law or the younger daughter-in-law was engaged in household chores.

In winter, from early morning until late at night, women spun, weaved, sewed. Men in the winter were engaged in all kinds of repairs and repair of buildings, tools, Vehicle, their duty was to care for horses and cattle.

The Cossacks knew how not only to work, but also to have a good rest. It was considered a sin to work on Sundays and public holidays. In the morning the whole family went to church, a kind of place of spiritual communication.

The traditional form of communication was "conversations", "streets", "gatherings". Married and elderly people whiled away the time at the "conversations". Here they discussed current affairs, shared memories, and sang songs.

Young people preferred the "street" in summer or "gatherings" in winter. On the "street" acquaintances were made, songs were learned and performed: songs and dances were combined with games. "Gatherings" were arranged with the onset of cold weather in the homes of girls or young spouses. The same "street" companies gathered here. At the "gatherings" the girls crumpled and combed hemp, spun, knitted, embroidered. The work was accompanied by songs. With the arrival of the guys, dancing and games began.

4.6.5. Rites and holidays

There were various ceremonies in the Kuban: wedding, maternity, naming, christening, seeing off for service, and funerals.

A wedding is a complex and lengthy ceremony, with its own strict rules. The ban on weddings during fasting was strictly observed. The most preferred time of the year for weddings was considered autumn and winter, when there was no field work and, moreover, this is the time of economic prosperity after harvesting. The age of 18-20 years was considered favorable for marriage. The community and the military administration could intervene in the procedure for concluding marriages. So, for example, it was not allowed to extradite girls to other villages if there were many bachelors and widowers in their own. But even within the village, young people were deprived of the right to choose. The decisive word in the choice of the bride and groom remained with the parents.

A towel (towel) was of great importance in the wedding ceremony of the Slavic population of the Kuban. Holding on to a towel, the bride and groom went to get married in the church. A wedding loaf was placed on the towel. The towel served as a footstool, which was spread in the church under the feet of the young. Various wedding ranks (matchmakers, friend, friend) were tied with towels. Almost all wedding towels were richly decorated with hand-woven lace.

There are several periods in the development of a wedding: pre-wedding, which included matchmaking, handshaking, arches, parties in the house of the bride and groom; wedding and post-wedding ritual. At the end of the wedding, the main role was assigned to the groom's parents: they were rolled around the village in a trough, locked in a mountain, from where they had to pay off with the help of a "quarter".

As throughout Russia, calendar holidays were honored and widely celebrated in the Kuban: Christmas, New Year, Maslenitsa, Easter, Trinity.

A special event and celebration among the people was considered Easter - Bright Sunday.

It is necessary to begin the story about this holiday with Great Lent. After all, it is he who is preparing for Easter, a period of spiritual and physical purification.

Great Lent lasted seven weeks, and each week had its own name. The last two were especially important: Palm and Passion. After them followed Easter - a bright and solemn holiday of renewal. On this day, they tried to put on everything new. Even the sun, they noticed, rejoices, changes, plays with new colors. The table was also updated, ritual food was prepared in advance: eggs were dyed, Easter cakes (paskas) were baked, and a pig was fried. The eggs were dyed different colors: red - blood, fire, sun; blue - sky, water; green - grass, vegetation. In some villages, a geometric pattern was applied to the eggs - "pisanki". Ritual bread - paska, was a real work of art. They tried to make it tall, the “head” was decorated with cones, flowers, figurines of birds, crosses, smeared with egg white, sprinkled with colored millet.

The Easter "still life" is a wonderful illustration of the mythological ideas of our ancestors: paska is the tree of life, the piglet is a symbol of fertility, the egg is the beginning of life, vital energy.

Returning from the church after the consecration of the ceremonial food, they washed themselves with water, in which there was a red "krashenka" in order to be beautiful and healthy. They broke the fast with eggs and Easter. They were also presented to the poor, exchanged with relatives and neighbors.

The playful, entertaining side of the holiday was very rich: driving round dances, playing with eggs, swings and carousels were arranged in each village. By the way, swinging had a ritual meaning - it was supposed to stimulate the growth of all living things. Easter ended with Krasnaya Gorka, or Seeing Off, a week after Easter Sunday. This is "parents' day", commemoration of the dead.

Attitude towards ancestors is an indicator of the moral state of society, the conscience of people. In the Kuban, ancestors have always been treated with deep respect. On this day, the whole village went to the cemetery, knitted scarves and towels on crosses, arranged a funeral feast, distributed food and sweets “for a memorial”.

4.6.6. Folk crafts and crafts

It is an important part of traditional folk culture. The Kuban land was famous for its craftsmen, gifted people. When making any thing, the folk craftsman thought not only about its practical purpose, but also about beauty. Their simple materials - wood, metal, stone, clay - created true works of art.

Pottery is a typical small-scale peasant craft. Every Kuban family had the necessary pottery: makitras, rags, bowls, bowls, etc. In the work of the potter, a special place was occupied by the manufacture of a jug. The creation of this beautiful form was not available to everyone; skill and skill were required to make it. If the vessel breathes, keeping the water cool and even in extreme heat, then the master has put a piece of his soul into simple dishes.

Blacksmithing has been practiced in the Kuban since ancient times. Every sixth Cossack was a professional blacksmith. The ability to forge one's horses, carts, weapons, and, above all, all household utensils, was considered as natural as cultivating the land. By the end of the XIX century. Blacksmithing centers were formed. In the village of Staroshcherbinovskaya, for example, blacksmiths made plows, winnowers and harrows, which were in great demand in the Stavropol and Don regions. In the village of Imeretinskaya, agricultural tools were also made, and in small village forges they forged what they could: axes, horseshoes, pitchforks, shovels. The mastery of artistic forging also deserves mention. In the Kuban, it was called “forging”. This fine highly artistic metal processing was used in the forging of gratings, peaks, fences, gates. Flowers, leaves, figurines of animals were forged for decoration. Masterpieces of the blacksmith craft of that time are found on the buildings of the 19th century - early 20th century. In the villages and cities of the Kuban.

Eyewitnesses and chroniclers singled out weaving from all folk crafts. Weaving provided material for clothing and home decoration. From the age of 7-9, in a Cossack family, girls were accustomed to weaving and spinning. Before reaching adulthood, they had time to prepare for themselves a dowry of several tens of meters of linen: towels, tablecloths, shirts. The raw materials for weaving were mainly hemp and sheep's wool. The inability to weave was considered a great disadvantage in women.

Weaving looms, spinning wheels, combs for making threads, beeches - barrels for bleaching canvas were integral items of the Kuban dwelling. In a number of villages, canvas was woven not only for their families, but also specifically for sale.

Our ancestors knew how to make household utensils of openwork weaving in the Slavic style. Cradles, tables and chairs, baskets, baskets, and wattle were woven from reeds, willows, and reeds. In the village of Maryanskaya, this craft has survived to this day. In the markets of Krasnodar, you can buy products for every taste - bread bins, whatnots, furniture sets, decorative wall panels.

4.6.7. Traditions and customs of the Cossacks

A Cossack cannot consider himself a Cossack if he does not know and observe the traditions and customs of the Cossacks. The basis in the formation of the moral foundations of the Cossack societies was the 1st commandments of Christ. Teaching children to observe the commandments of the Lord, the parents, according to the people's perception, taught them: do not kill, do not steal. Do not fornicate, work according to your conscience, do not envy another and forgive offenders, take care of your children and parents, value girlish chastity and female honor, help the poor, do not offend orphans and widows, protect the Fatherland from enemies. But first of all, strengthen the Orthodox faith: go to church, observe fasts, cleanse your soul from sins through repentance, pray to the one God Jesus Christ and added: if someone can do something, but we can’t, WE ARE COSSACKS!

Extremely strictly in the Cossack environment, along with the commandments of the Lord, traditions, customs, beliefs were observed, which were the vital necessity of every Cossack family, non-observance or violation of them was condemned by all residents of a farm or village, village. There are many customs and traditions: some appear, others disappear. There remain those that most fully reflect the everyday and cultural characteristics of the Cossacks, which are preserved in the memory of the people from ancient times. If we briefly formulate them, we get a kind of unwritten Cossack household laws:

1. Respectful attitude towards elders.
2. Respect for a woman (mother, sister, wife).
3. Honoring the guest.

4.6.8. Cossack and parents

Honoring parents, godfather and godmother was not just a custom, but

the inner need to take care of their son and daughter. The filial and child debt to the parents was considered fulfilled after the commemoration of the fortieth day was celebrated, after they left for another world.

The godmother helped her parents to prepare a Cossack girl for a future married life, taught her to housekeeping, needlework, thrift, and work.

The main duty was assigned to the godfather - the preparation of the Cossack for service, and for the military training of the Cossack, the demand from the godfather was greater than from his own father.

Care for the upbringing of the younger generation was shown not only by parents, but also by the entire adult population of the farm, village. For the obscene behavior of a teenager, an adult could not only make a remark, but also easily “kick his ears”, or even “treat” with a slight slap in the face, inform his parents about what had happened, who would immediately “add”.

The authority of the father and mother was not only indisputable, but so revered that without the blessing of the parents they did not start any work, did not make decisions on the most important matters. It is characteristic that this custom is preserved in the Cossack patriarchal families to this day.

Disrespect for the father and mother was considered a great sin. Without the consent of parents and relatives, as a rule, the issues of creating a family were not resolved: parents took a direct part in its creation. Divorce among the Cossacks in the past was a rare occurrence.

Restraint, courtesy and respect were observed in dealing with parents and elders in general. In the Kuban, they turned to their father, mother only to “You” - “You, mother”, you, tattoo.

Seniority was the way of life of the Cossack family and the natural necessity of everyday life, which strengthened family and family ties and helped in the formation of character, which was required by the conditions of Cossack life.

4.6.9. Attitude towards elders

Respect for the elder is one of the main customs of the Cossacks. Paying tribute to the years lived, the hardships endured, the Cossack's share, the coming infirmity and inability to stand up for themselves, the Cossacks always remembered the words of the Holy Scriptures: "Rise before the face of a gray-haired man, honor the face of an old man and fear your God - I am the Lord your God."

The custom of respect and reverence for the elder in age obliges the younger, first of all, to show care, restraint and readiness to help and requires some etiquette (when the old man appeared, everyone had to stand up - the Cossacks in uniform put their hand on the headdress, and without uniform - take off hat and bow).

In the presence of an elder, it was not allowed to sit, smoke, talk (to enter into a conversation without permission), and even more so - to speak obscenely.

It was considered obscene to overtake an old man (older in age), it was required to ask permission to pass. When entering somewhere, the elder was the first to be let through.

It was considered indecent for the younger to enter into conversations in the presence of the elder.

To the old man (senior) the younger is obliged to give way.

The younger must show patience and restraint, in any case not to argue.

The words of the elder were obligatory for the younger.

In general (joint) events, when making decisions, the opinion of the elder was necessarily sought.

At conflict situations, disputes, strife, fights, the word of the old man (senior) was decisive and his immediate execution was required.

In general, among the Cossacks, and especially among the Kuban, respect for the elder was an internal need. In the Kuban, even in circulation, one can rarely hear - "grandfather", "old" and so on, but "father" is affectionately pronounced.

Respect for the elder was instilled in the family with early years. The children knew which of them was older in relation to whom. The elder sister was especially revered, whom younger brothers and sisters called nanny, nanny, to gray hair, as she replaced their mother busy with housework.

Children under the age of majority were not allowed to be at the table during festivities, receiving guests, and generally in the presence of strangers. It was forbidden not only to sit at the table, but also to be in the room where the feast or the conversation of the elders was taking place.

4.6.10 Birth of a Cossack

The Cossacks valued family life and treated the married with great respect, and only constant military campaigns forced them to be single. The unmarried Cossacks (who had taken a vow of celibacy) nursed the newborn baby, and when he had his first tooth, they would certainly come to watch, and there was no end to the enthusiasm of these battle-hardened warriors.

The Cossack was born a warrior, and with the birth of a baby, his military school began. To the newborn, all the relatives and friends of the father brought a gun, cartridges, gunpowder, bullets, bow and arrows as a gift. These gifts were hung on the wall where the parent with the baby lay. After forty days after the mother, having taken a cleansing prayer, returned home, the father put on the child a sword belt, holding the sword in his hand, put him on a horse and then returned the mother's son, congratulated her on the Cossack. When the newborn teeth erupted, the father and mother put him back on the horse and took him to the church to serve a prayer service to Ivan the Warrior. The first words of the baby were "but" and "pu" - goad the horse and shoot. Military games outside the city and target shooting were the favorite pastimes of young people in their spare time. These exercises developed accuracy in shooting. Many of the Cossacks could knock out a coin between their fingers with a bullet at a considerable distance.

Three-year-old children already freely rode a horse around the yard, and at the age of five they galloped across the steppe.

4.6.11. Woman - Cossack

Cossack girls enjoyed complete freedom and grew up with their future husbands. The purity of morals, followed by the entire Cossack community, was worthy of the best times of Rome, where special censors were elected from the most trustworthy citizens for this. Until the first half of the XVI century. The trend of the East still remained - the husband's power over his wife was unlimited. At the end of the XVII century. housewives, especially the elderly, had already begun to acquire great influence in domestic life and often inspired the conversations of the old knights with their presence, and when they got carried away in a conversation, with their influence.

For the most part, Cossack women are a type of beauties that have developed over centuries in the course of natural selection from captive Circassian women, Turkish women and Persian women. In his story "Cossacks" already in the first half of the XIX century. L.N. Tolstoy wrote:

“The beauty of the Grebenskaya Cossack woman is especially striking by the combination of the purest type of the Circassian face with the mighty build of a northern woman. Cossack women wear Circassian clothes - a Tatar shirt, a shoe, dudes, but they tie scarves in Russian. Panache, cleanliness and elegance in clothes and decoration of huts are a habit and a necessity of life.

The honor of a Cossack woman should include care and cleanliness of the home and neatness of clothes.

The Cossack woman considered it a great sin and shame to appear in public with an uncovered head, wear a male type of clothing and cut her hair.

Respect for a woman - mother, wife, sister - determined the concept of the honor of a Cossack, the honor of a daughter, sister, wife. By the honor and behavior of a woman, the dignity of a man was measured.

In family life, the relationship between husband and wife was determined according to Christian teaching ( holy scripture). “Not a husband for a wife, but a wife for a husband.” “Let the wife of her husband be afraid.” At the same time, they adhered to age-old foundations - a man should not interfere in women's affairs, a woman in men's.

The custom did not allow a woman to be present at the gathering (circle) even to resolve issues of her personal nature. Her father, elder brother, godfather or ataman spoke for her with a petition or submitted a petition or complaint.

Whoever the woman was, she had to be treated with respect and protected.

In Cossack society, women enjoyed such reverence and respect that there was no need to give her the rights of a man. In the past, housekeeping lay practically with the Cossack mother.

4.6.12. Cossack at home

The Cossack spent most of his life in the service, in battles, campaigns, on the cordon and his stay in the family, the village was short-lived. However, the leading role both in the family and in the Cossack society belonged to the man, who was responsible for the material support of the family and maintaining the strict order of the Cossack life in the family. The word of the owner of the family was indisputable for all its members, and an example of this was the wife of a Cossack - the mother of his children.

The Cossack perceived clothes as a second skin, kept them clean and tidy and never allowed himself to wear someone else's clothes.

The Cossacks loved the feast, communication, they also loved to drink, but not to get drunk, but to sing songs, have fun, dance. At the table at the Cossacks, they didn’t pour vodka, but brought it on a rack (tray) and, if someone intercepted the “surplus”, they simply carried it around, or even sent it to sleep.

It was not customary to captivate: if you want - drink, if you don’t want - don’t drink, but you must raise a glass and sip, the saying said: “You can serve, you can’t captivate.” The drinking song reminded: "Drink, but do not drink away the mind."

The Cossacks were in the habit of both men's conversations (walking separately from women), and women's without men. And when they got together (weddings, christenings, name days), the women sat on the bottom side of the table, and the men on the other, because under the influence of a drunken Cossack, in relation to someone else's wife, he could take some liberties, and the Cossacks, quick to reprisal, fired weapons.

In the past, among the Cossacks, only married people could participate in wedding celebrations. For unmarried youth, parties were held separately in the groom's house and separately in the bride's house - this was a concern for the moral principles of youth.

There was a cult of gifts and gifts. The Cossack never returned after a long absence from home without gifts, and they did not go on a visit without a gift.

4.6.13. Sea trips

Sea campaigns of the Cossacks amaze with their courage and ability to use all sorts of circumstances. Storms and thunderstorms, darkness and sea fogs were commonplace for them and did not stop them from achieving their intended goal. In light plows, accommodating 30-80 people, with reed-lined sides, without a compass, they descended into the Azov, Black, Caspian Seas, smashed the coastal cities up to Farabad and Istanbul, freeing their captive Cossack brothers, boldly and boldly entered into battle with well armed Turkish ships and almost always came out victorious. Scattered by a storm over the waves of the open sea, they never lost their way and, when there was a lull, they united in formidable flying fleets and rushed to the shores of Colchis or Romania, terrifying the formidable and invincible, for that time, Turkish sultans in their own capital, Istanbul.

4.6.14. Cossack honor

The Cossacks in their hostel were tied to each other like brothers, they abhorred theft among themselves, but robbery on the side, especially from the enemy, was an ordinary thing with them. They did not tolerate cowards and considered chastity and courage to be the first virtues. They did not recognize rhetoric, remembering: “Whoever untied his tongue put his saber in its sheath”, “Hands weaken from superfluous words” - and most of all they revered the will.

The good fame of the Cossacks spread throughout the world, they sought to be invited to serve by both the French kings and the German electors, but especially the neighboring Orthodox peoples.

A characteristic feature of the Cossack soul was the need to show kindness and service in general, and especially to an outsider (serve dropped, help pick up, bring something along the way, help when getting up or leaving, give way to a seat, serve something to a neighbor or near at a general feast Before he himself could eat something or quench his thirst, he had to offer it to someone standing next to him (sitting).

It was considered a sin to refuse the request of the one who asks and to give alms to the beggar

(it was believed - it is better to give all your life than to ask). They were wary of making a request to a greedy person, and if greed was manifested at the moment of fulfilling the request, they refused the service, remembering that this would not serve good.

As a rule, the Cossacks preferred to do with what they have, and not with what they would like, but not to be in debt. Debt, they said, is worse than bondage, and they tried to get rid of it immediately. The kindness shown to you, disinterested help, respect was also considered a duty. For this, the Cossack had to pay the same.

Drunkards, as in any nation, were not tolerated and despised. The deceased from drinking (alcohol) was buried in a separate cemetery along with suicides, and instead of a cross, an aspen stake was forgotten on the grave.

Deception was considered the most disgusting vice in a person, not only in deed, but also in word. A Cossack who did not fulfill his word or forgot about it, deprived himself of confidence. There was a saying:

“A man has distrusted himself in a ruble, they will not believe even in a needle.”

Some historians, not understanding the spirit of the Cossacks - the ideological fighters for faith and freedom of the individual, reproach them for self-interest, greed and a tendency to gain - this is out of ignorance.

One day, the Turkish sultan, driven to the extreme by the terrible raids of the Cossacks, decided to buy their friendship by issuing an annual salary, or rather an annual tribute. Sultan's ambassador in 1627-1637 years, he made every effort to do this, but the Cossacks remained adamant and only laughed at this idea, even considered these proposals an insult to the Cossack honor and responded with new raids on Turkish possessions. After that, in order to persuade the Cossacks to peacefulness, the Sultan sent with the same ambassador four golden coats as a gift to the army, but the Cossacks indignantly rejected this gift, saying that they did not need the Sultan's gifts.

4.6.15. Cossack's horse

Among the Kuban people, before leaving the house for war, the wife brought the horse to the Cossack, holding the bridle in the hem of her dress. According to the old custom, she passed the occasion, saying: “On this horse you are leaving, Cossack, on this horse you will return home with a victory.” Having accepted the occasion, the Cossack hugged and kissed his wife, children, and often grandchildren, sat in the saddle, took off his hat, crossed himself with the banner of the cross, stood up on the stirrups, looking at the clean and comfortable white hut, at the front garden in front of the windows, at the cherry orchard. Then he put a hat on his head, beat the horse with a whip and went to the gathering place in a quarry.

In general, among the Cossacks, the cult of the horse prevailed in many respects over other traditions and beliefs.

Before the Cossack left for the war, when the horse was already under the marching pack, the wife first bowed at the horse's feet to save the rider, and then to her parents, so that prayers for the salvation of the warrior were constantly read. The same was repeated after the return of the Cossack from the war (from the battle).

When the Cossack was seen off on his last journey behind the coffin, his war horse under a black saddle and a Cossack weapon strapped to the saddle followed the horse, and his relatives followed.

4.6.16. Dagger at the Cossack

It was considered a disgrace for linear (Caucasian) Cossacks and Kubans to buy a dagger. The dagger, according to custom, is either inherited, or as a gift, or, oddly enough, stolen or obtained in battle.

4.6.17. Etiquette of the Cossacks

Parents refrained from clarifying their relationship in the presence of children. The address of the wife to her husband, as a sign of honoring his parents, was only by name and patronymic. As the father and mother of the husband (mother-in-law and father-in-law) for the wife, so the mother and father of the wife (father-in-law and mother-in-law) for the husband were God-given parents.

A Cossack addressed an unfamiliar Cossack woman, as a rule, to the eldest in age - “mother”, and equal - “sister”, to the youngest - “daughter” (granddaughter). To the wife - "Nadya", "Dusya", "Oksana", etc., to older women - "mother" or by name and patronymic.

As a greeting to each other, the Cossacks slightly raised their headdress and with a handshake inquired about the state of health of the family, about the state of affairs. The Cossack women bowed to the man and to his greeting, and hugged each other with a kiss and a conversation.

When approaching a group of standing and sitting Cossacks took off their hats, bowed and inquired about their health - “Great, Cossacks!”, “It was great, Cossacks!” or “Hey bulls, Cossacks!”. The Cossacks answered - "Thank God." In the ranks, at reviews, parades of regimental and hundreds formations, the Cossacks answered greetings according to the military regulations: “I wish you good health, sir ...”

During the performance of the Anthem of Russia, the Anthem of the Region, the troops, in accordance with the charter, took off their hats.

At a meeting, after a long separation, as well as at parting, the Cossacks hugged and kissed their cheeks. They greeted each other with a kiss on the Great Feast of the Resurrection of Christ, on Easter, and kissing was allowed only among men and separately among women.

Among the Cossack children, and among adults, it was customary to welcome even stranger that appeared in a farm or village.

Children and younger Cossacks addressed both relatives, acquaintances, and strangers: “uncle”, “aunt”, “aunt”, “uncle” and, if they knew, they called the name. An elderly Cossack (Cossack) was addressed: “father”, “father”, “dida”, “woman”, “grandmother”, “grandmother”, adding, if they knew, a name.

At the entrance to the hut (kuren) they were baptized on the image, the men first took off their hats, they did the same when they left.

Apologies for the mistake made were pronounced with the words: “Forgive me, please”, “Forgive me, for God's sake”, “forgive me, for Christ's sake”. They thanked for something: “Thank you!”, “God bless you”, “Christ save”. To thanksgiving they answered: “To your health”, “Not at all”, “Please”.

Without prayer, they did not start or finish a single business or meal - even in the field.

Immeasurable respect for the guest was due to the fact that the guest was considered a messenger of God. The most dear and welcome guest was considered to be an unfamiliar from distant places, in need of shelter, rest and care. Regardless of the age of the guest, he was assigned the best place for a meal and rest. It was considered indecent to ask a guest for three days where he came from and what was the purpose of his arrival. Even the old man gave way, although the guest was younger than him.

It was considered a rule among the Cossacks: wherever he went on business, to visit, he never took food either for himself or for his horse. In any farm, village, village, he always had a distant or close relative, godfather, matchmaker, brother-in-law or just a colleague, or even just a resident who would welcome him as a guest, feed both him and the horse. Cossacks stopped at inns on rare occasions when visiting fairs in cities. To the credit of the Cossacks, this custom has not changed much in our time.

4.6.18. Kuban speech

Oral colloquial Kuban speech is a valuable and interesting element of traditional folk culture.

It is interesting in that it is a mixture of the languages ​​of two kindred peoples - Russian and Ukrainian, plus borrowed words from the languages ​​​​of the highlanders, a juicy, colorful reference, corresponding to the temperament and spirit of the people.

The entire population of the Kuban villages, who spoke two closely related Slavic languages– Russian and Ukrainian, easily learned language features both languages, and many Kubans easily switched from one language to another in conversation, taking into account the situation. Chernomorians in conversation with Russians, especially with urban ones, began to use the Russian language. In communication with villagers, acquaintances, neighbors, relatives, they “balakali”, i.e. spoke the local Kuban dialect. At the same time, the language of the Lineians was full of Ukrainian words and expressions. When asked what language the Kuban Cossacks speak, Russian or Ukrainian, many answered: “In our Cossack! in Cuban.

The speech of the Kuban Cossacks was sprinkled with sayings, proverbs, phraseological units.

In phraseological units - stable phrases - the rich historical experience of the people is captured, ideas related to labor activity, life and culture of people are reflected. The correct, appropriate use of phraseological units gives speech a unique originality, special expressiveness and accuracy.

4.6.19. Folk poetry

Songs were the most widespread and favorite genre. The addiction of the Kuban to songs can be explained by the tradition of their ancestors, the Cossacks and the Don Cossacks, which found favorable conditions in the Kuban, consolidated and developed. The joint life of the Cossacks on campaigns and at the training camps contributed to the widespread existence of songs. The song helped to express various feelings - the reckless prowess of the Cossack, longing for the family, for the homeland. The song repertoire of the population of the Kuban was distinguished by unusual richness and diversity. Some of the Russian and Ukrainian songs were part of the general Kuban repertoire. Poor development of calendar and ritual poetry in the eastern villages of the Kuban is probably due to the fact that the Cossacks did not engage in agriculture until a certain time. Carols were more common. Shchedrivkas were adopted from Ukrainians and sung in Ukrainian or translated. A goat was usually taken to Shrove Tuesday, that is, someone was dressed up as a goat and taken home with various songs. On Ivan Kupala - they jumped over the fire. Wedding songs were very popular, laudatory - praising the groom, the boyars. The basis of the song repertoire of the Black Sea Cossacks was historical and geographical songs that reflected the heroic past of their ancestors. Numerous Cossack songs not related to historical events, reflect the life of the Cossacks and their moods. Ukrainian love songs or family songs were also popular; some of them were included in the repertoire of the official choirs.

4.6.20 Cossack proverbs

1. Atamanov bulk is strong.
2. Without an ataman, a Cossack is an orphan.
3. Not all Cossacks should be atamans.
4. Good Cossack bache, where is the chieftain galloping.
5. He does not boast of the ataman, but he holds fast to him.
6. And the chieftain does not have two heads on his shoulders.
7. He left his post - missed the enemy.
8. Be patient, Cossack, - you will be an ataman.
9. Puffs for chieftains, bumps for Cossacks.
10. Ataman from a bad Cossack will not work.
11. The Cossacks are all naked chieftains.
12. There are few Cossacks.
13. The Cossack is silent, but knows everything.
14. You can see the Cossack under the matting.
15. On the Cossack and matting is pretty.
16. I took the bast mat from the devil, I will have to give the skin as well.
17. He is not a Cossack who is afraid of dogs.
18. For truth and freedom, eat plenty.
19. A good Cossack does not disdain, - whatever it is, it cracks.
20. What is great for a Cossack is death for a German.
21. What a Cossack: if you give a lot, he will eat everything, and if you give a little, he will be full.
22. A Cossack will get drunk from a handful, dine from the palm of his hand.
23. Dancing is not work, and who does not know how, shame.
24. Do not boast before, but pray to God.
25. Bread and water - Cossack food.
26. The Cossack lives not by what is, but by what will be.
27. The Cossack is hungry, and his horse is full.
28. God is not without mercy, the Cossack is not without happiness.
29. Do not scold, Cossack, let your enemy cry.
30. Wherever the share of the Cossack throws - everything will be a Cossack.
31. The Cossack amuses himself.
32. A Cossack does not cry even in trouble.
33. What is in the threshing floor, such is in the war.
34. Cossack zhurba not May.
35. Not the Cossack that swims in the water, but the one against the water.
36. What is cold there, if the Cossack is young.
37. I don’t dare to cry, they don’t order me to grieve.
38. Stand up for the truth with a mountain, then people will follow you.
39. Truth and power.
40. If the whole mass dies, then panyatko will die.
41. We'll fight the devil with the cathedral.
42. Whoever lags behind comradeship, let the skin lag behind from whom.
43. Where the Cossack, there is glory.
44. Walk straight, look bold.
45. Truth and the bullet is afraid.
46. Believe in God, beat the enemy, yell the earth, pori the zhinka.
47. Once gave birth to a Cossack mother, once and die.
48. The Cossack is not afraid of death, our God needs him.
49. Better to die in poly, lower in a woman's hem.
50. There is no translation for the Cossack family.
51. Where there is an enemy, there is a Cossack.
52. The peasant is waiting for the enemy, the Cossack is looking for the enemy.
53. If you want peace, get ready for battle.
54. And there will be a war about a single Cossack.
55. God saves the safe, but the saber of the Cossack.
56. Save, God, eh rabid louse.
57. A broad Cossack does not attack from behind.
58. Whoever took pity on the enemy, his wife is a widow.
59. Whoever unleashed his tongue, he put the saber in the scabbard.
60. Hands get weak from extra words.
61. What will be, then will be, but the Cossack of the panshchina will not be robiti!
62. I will not sign a Cossack.
63. The life of a dog, but the glory of a Cossack.
64. If a Cossack is in poly, then wine is free.
65. A Cossack is like a dove: wherever he flies, he will land there.
66. The Cossack custom is as follows: where it is spacious, lie down to sleep here.
67. Not the Cossack that overcame, but the one that wriggled out.
68. The Cossack is good, that one is dumb.
69. To get - or not to be at home.
70. Horse and night - Cossack comrades.
71. Without a horse, a Cossack is an orphan all around.
72. The Cossack mounts a horse, and his bride will be born.
73. Cossacks are the eyes and ears of the army (Suvorov).
74. A Cossack without service is not a Cossack.
75. The Cossack burns in the service, but goes out without service.

History of the Kuban land

The beginning of the history of the Kuban

The Kuban began its development at the moment when people first learned about bronze, and over time it became one of the centers that was of particular importance for world history.

Taman settlement - located on the site of the modern station Taman. It has a history of over 2600 years. Originally on this site in the VI century BC. The colony of the ancient Greek city of Mytelene was founded. This city was named Hermonassa, in honor of the wife of the founder of the metropolis Semandra.

In 480, the Bosporan kingdom arose on the territory of the Kuban, formed as a result of the unification of Greek cities.

In the eighth century AD, the Khazars gained enormous power and formed the Khazar Khaganate, which had a semi-nomadic lifestyle.

After the defeat of the Khazars, Prince Svyatoslav the Brave in 988 formed the Tmutarakan principality on the Taman Peninsula, and then Prince Vladimir, who converted to Christianity, forced all of Rus' to accept it, planted his son Mstislav as prince there. Various tribes, Slavic merchants and artisans lived in the Tmutarakan principality.

In the 17th and 18th centuries, Russian and Don Cossacks began to appear on the territory of the Kuban, whom Ignat Nekrasov brought in to calm the uprising, and they united with the Old Believer Cossacks who already lived here and formed the Cossack Republic.

At the end of the eighteenth century, Russian and Ottoman states. Russia built the Azov-Mozdok fortified line, and in 1778 A. V. Suvorov moved the western line to the right bank of the Kuban.

But in 1783, only the Kuban River began to separate Russia and the Ottoman Empire. All this became possible thanks to Catherine II, who annexed the Crimea, Taman and the right bank of the Kuban to Russia.

Manifesto of the Great Empress Catherine II on the annexation of the Crimean Peninsula

In 1792, an order came from St. Petersburg to send deputies to the capital to receive the royal Charter for the "newly granted" lands. The Cossack delegation was headed by military judge A.A. Golovaty.

But the donation of the Kuban lands was not just a gift, but a well-thought-out move, because people from the shores of the Black Sea moved to the Kuban, where they began to reclaim the territory, while these same people provided reliable protection from the encroachments of the Ottoman Empire.

In 1828-1829, a peace treaty was signed between the Ottoman Empire and Russia, under the terms of which the left part of the Kuban was also ceded to Russia. Here some omissions began between the Cossacks who lived in the Kuban, the highlanders who lived on the left bank of the Kuban. The consequence of this was changes regarding the protection of the border, the construction of a coastline in order to unite all the northeastern shores of the Black Sea.

During the war between Russia and Ottoman Empire for the Crimea, Russia also fought with the Circassian tribes, which clearly complicated her life.

• In the early 60s of the nineteenth century, Russia went far into the territory beyond the Kuban, thereby forcing some Circassian tribes to serve Russia, but those who did not want to recognize the power of Russia were sent to Turkey. May 21, 1864 can be considered the final end of the centuries-old war between Turkey and Russia for the Caucasus.

At the beginning of the 19th century, free entry was allowed for people from other cities. This led to the fact that the Kuban region was not only a border region, but already had the opportunity to develop economically, which at the beginning of the twentieth century allowed the Kuban to reach one of the leading positions among the regions in the field of agriculture.

October Revolution served as an impetus for internecine war. In 1920, Soviet power finally took power here.

OCCUPATION OF KUBAN (1942 - 1943) ON JULY 24, 1942, ROSTOV-ON-DON FALLED AND THE OCCUPATION OF THE KRASNODAR TERRITORY STARTED TIMASHEVSK (1942 - FEBRUARY 11, 1943) KRASNODAR (AUGUST 9, 1942 - FEBRUARY 12, 1943) NOVOROSSIYSK (AUTUMN 1942 - SEPTEMBER 16, 1943) BELORECHENSK (AUGUST 1942 - JANUARY 31, 1943) G. ANAPA (31 AUGUST 1942 - 18 SEPTEMBER 1943)