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Founding
Founding of Ardatov
human settlement in Ardatovsky District, Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, Russia
- 1552
- Europe
Founding
human settlement in Ardatovsky District, Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, Russia
Fetching the article from Wikipedia…
Ardatov (Russian: Ардатов; Russian pronunciation: [ɐr'datəf]; before 1779 and between 1925 and 1959 Ardatovo, Russian: Ардатово) is an urban locality (a work settlement) in the Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, Russia. It is the administrative center of the Ardatov District. It is located 165 kilometres (103 mi) southwest of Nizhny Novgorod and 430 kilometers east of Moscow. The nearest railway station, Mukhtolovo, is about 28.5 kilometres (17.7 mi) to the north.
Ardatov stands on the site of a presumed Bulgar camp settlement that existed since the 13th century, and later a Golden Horde fortified settlement. After the territory was annexed to Russia in 1552, it became a yasak village (first mentioned in 1578). The population was initially mixed Russian-Mordovian, and by the end of the 17th to the beginning of the 18th century, it became completely Russian. From 1779 to 1923, it was a uyezd town, from 1925 it became a village, from 1929 it served as a district center, and since 1959 it has been a town. As of 2022, the population of Ardatov was 9,768 people.
Until the mid-20th century, agriculture formed the basis of the economy, and later there was a trend towards a greater role for industry. The town has two technical schools, two secondary schools, four kindergartens, a cultural centre, two libraries, a local history museum, a children's art school, and a hospital, as well as a sport and recreation center. Since 1930, a district newspaper has been published.
Until the early 20th century, Ardatov had significant religious importance, housing the Pokrovsky Nunnery, three churches, and several chapels. All of them were closed during the Soviet era. Since 1990, the restoration of some churches and the construction of new ones began, and since 2012, the town has is of the Ardatov Deanery of the Vyksa Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church. However, as of 2024, the territory of the former monastery is occupied by a women's correctional colony. Ardatov does not have significant tourist potential, but over 20 sites are regional architectural monuments, and its central part has been officially recognised as a protected area.
There are several hypotheses of the etymology of the toponym "Ardatov":
According to the most widespread one, the name is connected with the legend about the Mordovian guide Ardatka, who led Ivan the Terrible's troops through the deep forests of this area and was granted land for his assistance. No reliable information about Ardatka has been found, but a Mordovian pre-Christian name "Ardat" or "Ordat" indeed existed. According to local historian Alexander Bazayev, the story about Ardatka appeared only in the 19th century, as there is a similar story about the founder of the Mordovian town of Ardatov. Bazayev suggested that the tale about the legendary guide was brought from one Ardatov to the other by Temnikov merchants.
Another hypothesis was expressed by the local historian N. Artyomov. In his opinion, the word consists of two Erzyan roots: orta — "gate", and tov — "there", hence the name could be roughly translated as "gate beyond the border", i. e. "to the Russian state". A similar version was held by the local historian Leonid Kapterev, who believed that the toponym comes from the Mordovian words arda — "go" and tov — "there".
Another version was proposed by historian A. Orlov, who suggested the existence of a Tatar settlement at this place, the name of which could be translated as "the mountain of the Horde" or "the middle mountain". The local historian Alexander Bazayev supplemented this hypothesis — in his opinion, the village on the site of the present day Ardatov could have been the first settlement after crossing the border between Russian and the Golden Horde, which passed in the 16th century along the course of the Tyosha River — accordingly, for the Russians it was an "Ordatova" (i. e., "Horde") village.
Researchers Nikolay Morokhin and Alexey Arzamasov cite another version of the toponym origin from the Indo-European root ard - "to flow", "to make way towards". However, in their opinion, this version looks unconvincing, because in this case there should have been a hydronym with this name in the neighbourhood, which is not the case.
According to archaeological data, 5—6 thousand years ago the Ardatov region was inhabited by Neolithic tribes belonging to the Lyalovo culture. In the Ardatov Municipal District have been discovered a total of 61 archaeological sites of the Neolithic era — most of them are located in the course of the Tyosha River. The biggest number of such sites a located around the present-day villages of Lichadeyevo (9) and Sakony (7) and near the settlement of Krasnaya Rechka (9). These primitive inhabitants were hunters and gatherers, well favoured by the local natural conditions — a large number of forests with animals, birds and various natural gifts and a large number of rivers with fish. In 1929, scientific excavations were carried out near Sakony, revealing stone arrowheads, scrapers, cleavers, chisels and a large number of animal and fish bones. In the 3rd—2nd millennia B. C. the ancient inhabitants of the Ardatov region learnt to produce metals — first bronze and then iron. This allowed them to pass gradually to sedentary lifestyle, engaging in cattle breeding and farming.
From the 2nd century A. D. Finno-Ugric people reached the zone – primarily Mordovian tribes, among which the most numerous were the Erzya, as well as the Moksha, Burtas and Teryukhans. The Finno-Ugrians were able to smelt metals, first of all bronze, from which they made numerous jewellery and household items, which are now found during archaeological excavations. They also travelled along rivers on ships, so most of their settlements (some of which have survived) are located in river valleys. Among local toponyms there are a large number of names of Finno-Ugric origin. Nomadic peoples, such as the Kipchaks and Khazars, joined from south-west to the territory of present-day Ardatov too. Traces of their presence are still visible, i. e. 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) away from Ardatov, on the bank of the Pashin ravine the rests of a Kipchak burial mound, the grave of a noble herdsman is still visible. The mound has impressive dimensions, it is 17 metres (56 ft) in length, 7 metres (23 ft) in width and 3 metres (9.8 ft) in height. The first permanent settlement on the site of Ardatov, Imimshikelle, was founded at the same time by the Kipchaks or Majars; later this site transformed to the Russian village of Totorshevo, now part of Ardatov.
From the 9th or 10th century, the region came under the influence of the Turkics people, which inhabited the Volga Bulgaria. Under this people, trade flourished in the Ardatov area, a trade route connecting their country to Russia was laid, this route existed at least until the 13th century. A Bulgar customs house was established in the neighbourhood of the present-day village of Sakony.
In the 12th century, Slavic settlers appeared in the lower reaches of the Oka River, gradually assimilating some local tribes (for example, the Muromia tribe, which adopted the language and culture of the newcomers). Other tribes retained their language and culture, continued to engage in hunting and beekeeping, but learned agriculture from the Slavs, adopting agronomic technologies which could be considered relatively progressive for that time. The Mordvins learned to produce or acquired some tools and ornaments from the Slavs — for instance, in the Second Kuzhendeyevo burial site (a couple of kilometers/miles south of Ardatov), dating from the late 12th to early 13th centuries, a socketed broad-bladed axe, ornaments with a grain-like pattern, and carnelian beads of evidently Slavic production were found. Colonization mainly occurred peacefully, although there are known instances of resistance from the Mordvins against the newcomers — for example, in the early 13th century, a bloody war broke out between the Erzya ruler Purgaz and Russian princes who invaded his lands. Purgaz even besieged the Russian city of Nizhny Novgorod, founded in 1221, burning posad, but was forced to retreat "across the Char River" (modern-day Chara).
In 1236–1237, Nizhny Novgorod and Volga Bulgaria were destroyed by new conquerors — the Mongols, who included these lands in their state, the Golden Horde. Gradually, Nizhny Novgorod was rebuilt, and in 1341 it became the center of a principality, which became for several centuries the eastern outpost of the Russian lands. However, the present-day Ardatov district and the future town itself, continued to be part of the Golden Horde. The border between the two states ran about 17 kilometres (11 mi) north-ward from the present-day Ardatov, along the course of the Tyosha River. Around the mid-13th century, a Bulgar camp ground was founded on the left bank of the Lemet River (northern part of present-day Ardatov). By the end of the 13th century the Golden Horde authorities built a fortified settlement on its place, which became the centre for collecting yasak from the surrounding Mordovian tribes.
At that time, the area of modern Ardatov was sparsely populated due to constant border conflicts between the strengthening Moscow principality and the weakening Golden Horde. The peak of these confrontations came with several military campaigns undertaken in the mid-16th century by Tsar Ivan the Terrible against the Golden Horde. After two failures, his third campaign in 1552 ended in victory over the weakened Tatar state and the annexation of its lands to Russia.
Ivan the Terrible's campaign is connected with an undocumented legend about the Mordovian guide Ardatka and his brothers, who helped the tsar's army to find the way to the Golden Horde's capital city of Kazan in the dense forests around nowadays Ardatov. According to the legend, for his faithful service Ardatka was rewarded with lands, on which he founded a settlement. There are no documentary confirmations of Ardatka's receipt of lands, but the story generally fits into the picture of that time, as Ivan the Terrible actively distributed the conquered lands in fiefdoms to servants. Thus, property in these regions was given to the princes Golitsyns, Odoyevskys, Volkonskys, Romodanovskys, Bludovs, boyars Morozovs, Tatar murzas Moksheyevs and Tarbedeyevs. At the same time, unlike most of the neighbouring villages, which were estates and fiefdoms of Russian service class people, there are no such facts about Ardatov, which always remained a governmental property.
The legend is widely spread in the area, and this is why local historians prefer to consider the date of Ardatov's foundation as 1552 — the year of Ivan the Terrible's campaign against Kazan. However, first document mentioning Ardatov under the name "Ordatova village" is not far from that date, as it can be found in the Arzamas estate deeds for 1578. The document says that village was a mixed Russian-Mordovian one, while the Tatars mostly left these lands after their annexation by Russia.
The hostilities of the Time of Troubles in the early 17th century seem to have had little impact on the Ardatov area — although there were clashes in the neighbouring cities of Murom and Arzamas, there are no records of battles near the village of Ardatovo. At the same time, Ardatovo was among those Russian lands that refused to swear an oath to Tsar Vasily Shuisky. Historian and politician Nikolay Mikhaylovich Karamzin (1766—1826), an estate owner in the Ardatov uyezd himself, cited in his book History of the Russian State (1816—1826) a document of the epoch:
... Orzamas and Olatyr... and with the districts were in treason, from Tsar Vasily laid aside...
In two decisive battles, held on 11 January [O.S. 1] and 20 March [O.S. 10 March] 1610, the rebels were defeated by the tsar's troops. A year later, the Nizhny Novgorod headman Kuzma Minin appealed to the people of Ardatovo to join the national militia — that is, the villagers were not perceived by him as rebels.
Later on Ardatovo is often mentioned in various documents: in 1628 it is listed as a yasak village Znamenskoye (this name indicates that the first Znamenskaya church had already been built). In the same document it is noted that there were 21 households in the village, where lived 13 bortniks and 23 Mordva people. Gradually, both the total number of inhabitants and the percentage of Russians in Ardatovo village grew. This was due both to the arrival of new settlers (mainly ethnical Russians) and to the Christianisation and subsequent russification of many Mordovian families. By 1721 there were 143 bortniks and 144 newly baptised living in the village, which indicates that the population was fully Christianised by that date.
Two major peasant uprisings of the 17th and 18th centuries — led by Stenka Razin and Yemelyan Pugachev — directly affected the inhabitants of Ardatovo village. One of the last and decisive battles of Razin's uprising (1667—1671) took place near nearby Arzamas. After the defeat of the rebel troops, up to 11,000 people were executed. Despite the lack of precise data, local historian Alexander Bazayev suggests that among the dead could have been inhabitants of Ardatovo. The main battles of Pugachev's uprising (1773—1775) took place thousands of kilometres away from Ardatovo, but the result of the rebellion was a reform that directly affected the settlement and its inhabitants.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Ardatov, Nizhny Novgorod Oblast”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.