(new)
Slobodskoy
Literary Slobodskoy
A.S.Grin (Grinevski)
Fur Company "Belka"
The History of Slobodskoy.
Slobodskoy is one of the oldest towns
of Kirov region. It appeared
after joining Vyatka to Moscow in 1489
For
the first time Slobodskoy was mentioned in the charter of Ivan
III
(Terrible) in
1505.
This year is considered to be the year of its foundation.
In Slobodskoy
there was the Kremlin castle, from
the south it was
defended
by a large
moat, from the
east by the
bank of the Vyatka and from the north by a
large ravine. In the Kremlin
there
were
3
churches made of
wood. At
that
time
there were
154
houses and nearly
600
people
lived
here.
The
place for building the
town was
chosen rather
well. It
was the
place It
was the place of the
forests and
endless grasslands. In
the forests there
were
a
lot of
animals and
the
rivers were
full
offish.
Russians
came here
in the
12th
century.
They
were peasants,
who
built
the
villages on the
bank of
the
Vyatka
River. They
were from
Novgorod,
Ustug and Susdal.
The peasants were
occupied with
agricultures, they fed
cattle, grew
vegetables,
liked fishing and hunting.
Slobodskoy province
was connected with other provinces by there
highways
and
a river
system. Our
natives
used those ways for
trading.
The highway on
which
Slobodskoy was situated was also the way of the
Russian sovereign
from Moscow
to far Siberia.
That
highway played
a great role in
the fate of our
town.
It had become an outpost
and a trade
centre in
the
north of
Vyatka by
the beginning of the
17th
century.
In
the
17th
century
Slobodskoy became a centre of the district
with
its own
government.
Among the prominent
people
of
our town is
Ksenofont Anfilatov.
He was
the first Russia who
began
to
trade with America. First of all he
wrote
the
letter
for
the
count
Rumyantsev and
asked
money for an
expedition to America.
Rumyantsev gave him
200 000
rubles
and
Anfilatov sent
2
ships
with
different goods
(fur,
honey,
wood
and
leather) lo America
in
1806.
The
expedition was
successful.
In a year
they returned
back with overseas
articles.
So the trade between
Russia
and
America
was begun.
Soon Anfilatov became a
very rich
man. In
1809
he founded the first national bank in Russia.
Since
1784
Slobodskoy began
to
be built according to
the plan
of
Katherine
II.
In the
1819
centuries brick houses
in
the
spirit
of
provincial
classic
appeared in the main street.
The house of
the
Yusevs (a town hospital
nowadays)
keeps
the
remembrance about the visil of Natalya Nicolaevna
Lanskaya,
Alexander Pushkin's widow.
Our town is rich in architectural
monuments.
Yekaterininskaya
church is situated
on
the bank
of the Vyatka River. Our citizens come
here on religions
holidays. The
church of
Michael
Archangel
is the
most
ancient
building in the
territory
of Kirov region and the earliest wooden
"
construction. It was
built in
1610
and
is called
now
"parizhanka"
as it
-
Was
shown at the exhibition in Paris near
Shan
de Lizer
in 1973.
Nowadays there
is
a
branch
of
Slobodskoy
local
museum.
Here we can
see the
collections of
wooden
sculptures of
the
17-18
centuries,
antique
books and ancient icons.
The
centre
of
an architectural ensemble in the town square is
a
clock-tower which is
66
meters high.
It
was built in
1823
by
a
serf
master F. Tyurin
and the clock made by a serf master V. Rysev was
assembled there in
1851.
You can learn the history of Slobodskoy in our museum
of
local lore.
Our local museum is situated in the former Blagovest
church. At
first there was only the exhibition of paintings which
consisted of 26
pictures. But what lovely pictures they were! They were
made by
famous Soviet painters
-
Vera Pestel, Olga Rosanova and Niconov. All these
pictures were sent
to
our museum by Lunacharski. They are still in
the
collection of paintings.
Nowadays
our
museum has
a
wonderful
collection of bells and
samovars, icons, domestic articles, national clothes.
Slobodskoy was always known for its masters.
The most
remarkable
articles
were bells.
The
ringing bells made by our great
countrymen Bakulev,
Sitnikov, Popov
and
Makushin were sold
in
all
parts of
our
country.
In the middle of the 18l!l century a number
of
factories
appeared in
our
district. They produced iron elaborate fancies,
balconies, shelves,
plates and boxes.
Some of them
are also
exhibited in the museum.
There is an icon in a gilded setting. The mother of Y.
Popov blessed
him with this icon to begin his own business
-
the production of
samovars.
Slobodskoy was also known for
its wooden articles. Y. Makarov
with his
son was the first master of this trade
in
our town.
They
were
the
first
masters
of this
trade
in our
town. They were awarded with
the
silver
medal diploma on the
first Russian exhibition of manufacture in St.
Petersburg
in
1829.
The
articles
made of
wood
were
very popular in
our
country and
abroad.
