The Kemerovo region was formed by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of 01/26/43 "On the formation of the Kemerovo region as part of the RSFSR". However, the development of the natural resources of the Kuznetsk land began much earlier - at the beginning of the 17th century, when the cities of Tomsk (1604) and Kuznetsk (1618) were founded.

The industrial development of the Kuznetsk land began at the end of the 18th century. The first interest in the development of Kuznetsk coal was shown by the Ural industrialist A.N. Demidov. Later, Demidov's Kolyvan-Voskresensky factories with the adjacent mineral resources became the property of the imperial family. Since that time, most of the Kuzbass, included in the Altai mining district, was under the jurisdiction of the Cabinet of His Imperial Majesty. There are industrial enterprises: Tomsk iron-making, Gavrilovsky and Guryev silver-smelting plants, Sukharinsky and Salairsky mountain mines. But since for a long time the industry of Russia developed mainly in the European part of the country, Kuzbass did not have a decent development and development. Only a century later, the Trans-Siberian Railway was built and Kuzbass received an impetus in the industrial use of iron ores, non-ferrous metals, coal and wood.

After the October Revolution, Kuzbass became part of the West Siberian Territory, then - the Novosibirsk Region. At this time, an autonomous industrial colony of Kuzbass (AIK) was organized, headed by the Dutch engineer Rutgers. During these years, the construction of the coking plant was completed, the mines were equipped with advanced technology.

The revolution in the economy was marked by the transition to a planned economy. In the first plan of GOELRO, an important place is given to the creation of the Ural-Kuzbass industrial complex. Kuzbass is turning into a huge construction site. The coal industry continues to develop, the foundations of the metallurgical and chemical industries have been laid. Energy is developing. Industrialization is changing the face of the region. Working settlements grow up around the objects under construction, which very soon received the status of cities. On the eve of the Great Patriotic War, already half of the Kuzbass residents lived in the city.

During the war years, Kuzbass became the main supplier of coal and metal. From the steel smelted by the Kuznetsk metallurgists, 50,000 tanks and 45,000 aircraft were manufactured. This includes the production of toluene for explosives, gunpowder and other products necessary for the front. In 1941, the equipment of 71 enterprises was evacuated to Kuzbass from the occupied regions, most of which remained in Kuzbass. The war doubled the power of Kuzbass. In 1943, in an atmosphere of a radical change at the front, in order to increase coal mining, the production of metals and military products for the needs of the front at the enterprises of Kuzbass, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, by decree of January 26, decided to separate Kuzbass from the Novosibirsk Region and create territory of the Kemerovo region. The new region included 17.5% of the territory of the Novosibirsk region, 9 out of 12 cities of regional subordination, 17 out of 20 workers' settlements, 23 out of 75 districts. The population of the Kemerovo region amounted to 42% of the total population of the Novosibirsk region. The regional center was the city of Kemerovo. Since the formation of the Kemerovo region, many changes have taken place. New technologies are being introduced in industry, social facilities are being built, and the cultural level of the working people is growing. Kuzbass becomes the most inhabited and densely populated region of Western Siberia. The labor successes of the Kuzbass workers were twice awarded the Order of Lenin.

Currently, Kuzbass is one of the most dynamically developing regions of the Russian Federation.

Chronology of events

D. V. Katsyuba

(From the book: D. V. Katsyuba. History of Kuzbass. Kemerovo, 1983)

1618 The Kuznetsk prison was built.

1721 Mikhailo Volkov discovered coal deposits in our basin.

1771 The Tomsk Iron Works began to operate.

1795 The Gavrilovsky silver-smelting plant was put into operation.

1816 The Guryev plant was put into operation.

1851 The first coal mine in Kuzbass began to work- Batatskaya.

1857 The village of Kiyskoye was transformed into the district town of Mariinsk.

1891 Start of construction of the Siberian railway.

1905 Under direction. S. M. Kirov, a Bolshevik organization was created at the Taiga station.

1905, August. S. M. Kirov and I. V. Pisarev set up a strike committee at the Taiga station.

1905 October. The strike of the railway workers of the Taiga station, Mariinsk and the miners of the Anzhersk mines.

1905 November The first congress of railwaymen of Siberia took place in Taiga.

1905 V. V. Kuibyshev lived in the city of Kuznetsk.

1908-1919 One of the organizers of the "Northern Union of Russian Workers" VP Obnorsky lived in Kuznetsk.

1912 Kopikuz is formed.

1914 In Mariinsk, Kuznetsk and in a number of villages of Kuzbass, spontaneous unrest of the mobilized broke out.

1914 Strike at the Mariinsky gold mines.

1915; Start of construction of the Kemerovo coke-chemical plant.

1917 December. The Third Congress of Soviets of Western Siberia took place in Omsk.

1917, November-1918, January. The transfer of power into the hands of the Soviets in the main working areas of Kuzbass.

May 25, 1918 The beginning of the counter-revolutionary rebellion of the Czechoslovak corps.

1918 May 28 - August 10 The legendary campaign of the Red Guard detachment of P.F. Sukhov.

1919, from 1 to 2 December. Armed uprising of the Kuznetsk garrison.

1921 The Kolchuginsky railway was put into operation.

1922 AIK "Kuzbass" was founded.

1924 Angers craftsmen F. E. Polonyankin and F. K. Tsyplyaev made a wreath of coal for the coffin of V. I. Lenin.

March 1924 The Kemerovo Coke and Chemical Plant was put into operation. 1927, September. Beginning of socialist competition between Donbass and Kuzbass.

March 1929 The first shock brigade in Kuzbass was created in Prokopievsk. Its organizer- Komsomol miner Z. Begansky.

1929 Start of construction of KMK. A competition agreement was signed between the builders of the Kuznetsk and Magnitogorsk plants.

1931 The Belovsky Zinc Plant was put into operation.

1932 The Siberian Metallurgical Institute was opened in Novokuznetsk.

1932 KMK entered into operation operating enterprises. The first coke, cast iron, steel, and rolled products were obtained.

1933 The first tram line in Siberia was commissioned in Novokuznetsk.

1934 The Kemerovo State District Power Plant was put into operation.

1937 The first electrified section of the railway Belovo - Novokuznetsk in Siberia was put into operation.

1938 The Kemerovo nitrogen-fertilizer plant was launched.

January 29, 1942 Kuzbass residents I. S. Gerasimenko, L. L. Cheremnov, L. S. Krasilov accomplished an immortal feat.

January 26, 1943 By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the Kemerovo Region was formed.

1943 Aluminum and ferroalloy plants were put into operation in Novokuznetsk.

1948 The first Krasnobrodsky coal mine in Kuzbass was put into operation.

1949 Construction of the Novokemerovsk chemical plant began.

1951 Yuzhno-Kuzbasskaya GRES gave the first current.

1955 Ya. Ya. Gumennik, a mechanic at the Baydaevskaya mine, created a tunneling machine.

1956 Novokemerovo chemical plant produced the first products.

1958 The first block of the Tomusinskaya GRES was put into operation.

1958 The brigades of V. Rezvantsev, B. Shushpannikov, V. Markov, A. Shuvarikov were awarded the honorary title of the collective of communist labor.

1960 Mine "Polysaevskaya-2"- the first enterprise of communist labor in Kuzbass.

1966 The Biryulinskaya-1 mine of the Severo-Baidaevskaya and Gramoteinskaya-3-4 hydraulic mines was put into operation.

1966 The first products were produced by the Topkinsky Cement Plant.

February 1, 1967 The Kemerovo Region was awarded the Order of Lenin.

April 22, 1967 In Kemerovo, on the square of the Soviets, a solemn laying of a monument to V.I. Lenin took place.

1968 A monument to Mikhail Volkov was unveiled in the regional center- the discoverer of Kuznetsk coal.

1968 On the eve of the 50th anniversary of the Komsomol, the Novokuznetsk Komsomol organization was awarded the Order of Lenin.

1968 December For the first time in Siberia, converter steel was obtained at Zapsib.

December 31, 1970 The Kemerovo Region was awarded the second Order of Lenin.

1973 The 2nd BOF complex at Zapsib was put into operation.

1974 The first stage of the Raspadskaya giant mine was put into operation.

1975 The second stage of the Raspadskaya giant mine was put into operation.

March 1977 Tomusinskaya GRES was awarded the honorary title of the collective of communist labor.

April 1977 An honorary member of the club named after Pasha Angelina was the tractor driver of the May 1 collective farm of the Leninsk-Kuznetsk district V.V. Mordakina.

1977, October. Chemical product of the Kemerovo association "Azot"- caprolactam was awarded the Quality Mark.

November 21, 1977 Came to Kemerovo natural gas Samotlor. The 950-kilometer route of the gas pipeline Nizhnevartovsk - Kuzbass was put into operation.

December 29, 1977 The third stage of the Raspadskaya mine was put into operation.

February 10, 1978 The miners of Kuzbass produced the three billionth ton of coal during the years of Soviet power.

1979, January. The Kemerovo production association "Azot" launched the operation of the country's first automated air pollution control system.

July 9, 1979 KMK steelmakers have smelted the 200 millionth ton of steel since the plant was launched in 1932.

1979, August. Three millionth vacuum cleaner "Buran"- came off the assembly line of the Prokopyevsk Electromashina plant.

1979 October 1st The fifth coke oven battery of the Kemerovo Coke and Chemical Plant produced its first products. Its capacity is 1 million tons of coke per year.

November 1979 Belovskaya GRES was awarded the high title of an enterprise of communist labor.

1979 December. In the city of Yurga, a monument to the memory of the fallen heroes of the civil war was opened.

December 17, 1980 From the face of the Nagornaya mine, where the team of the Hero of Socialist Labor E. I. Drozdetsky works, 5580 tons of coal were issued. This is a new record for daily slaughter performance.

February 1980 In the village of Kuzedeevo, Novokuznetsk district, a folk museum of arts and local history has been opened.

March 1980 The team of V. S. Kostin from the mine "Ziminka" of the Prokopevsky mine produced 33,116 tons of coal in 31 working days. This is a new all-Union record for shield face productivity.

June 26, 1980 The Nagornaya mine of the Hydrougol production association was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor.

July 1980 In the city of Mezhdurechensk, a museum of local lore was opened. 1980, August. The steel wire workshop of Zapsib was put into operation, capable of producing 400 thousand tons of wire products per year.

December 30, 1980 KMK electric arc furnace shop No. 2 was put into operation.

January 1, 1981 The first issue of the newspaper "Railwayman of Kuzbass" was published.

June 26, 1981 The city of Prokopyevsk in honor of its 50th anniversary was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor.

1981 July 1 The city of Novokuznetsk on the day of its 50th anniversary was awarded the Order of the October Revolution.

July 1981 At the Kemerovo chemical fiber plant, the first pilot batch of a new cord fabric, necessary for the manufacture of tires, was received.

November 1981 The second stage of one of the country's largest pig-breeding complexes was put into operation at the Chistogorsky state farm in the Novokuznetsk region.

December 20, 1981 The team of P. I. Frolov from the Raspadskaya mine has extracted 1 million tons of coal since the beginning of the year. The team of the Hero of Socialist Labor M. N. Reshetnikov from the Zyryanovskaya mine achieved the same success.

April 1982 50 years have passed since the first smelting at the Kuznetsk Iron and Steel Works.

For half a century, the country's national economy has received 141 million tons of pig iron, 165 million tons of steel and 122 million tons of rolled products. The team of metallurgists brought up 25 Heroes of Socialist Labor and 42 laureates of the State Prize. The glorious labor banner of the KMK named after V.I. Lenin is decorated with four orders.

In connection with the anniversary of the plant, 377 metallurgists and miners of the Sibrud production association were awarded orders and medals.

June 12, 1982 The staff of the Yashkinsky cement and slate plant celebrated the 70th anniversary of the enterprise.

June 1982 The 150th anniversary of the oldest gold mine in Kuzbass "Berikulsky".

1982, August. The staff of the Anzherskaya mine celebrated the 75th anniversary of their enterprise.

January 26, 1983 40 years have passed since the formation of the Kemerovo region.

March 21, 1983 Hero of Socialist Labor Egor Ivanovich Drozdetsky, the foreman of the mining slaughter of the Nagornaya mine (Hydrougol production association), was awarded the Order of Lenin and the second gold medal "Hammer and Sickle". He became the first twice Hero of Socialist Labor in Kuzbass.

Luchnikov A.A.

The name - "Kuzbass" - was proposed in 1842 by the famous Russian geographer and geologist Pyotr Alexandrovich Chikhachev, who, on the recommendation of the headquarters of the corps of mining engineers and the order of Emperor Nicholas I, in the position of an official for special assignments under the Minister of Finance, visited the gold mines of the Mariinsky taiga, Gornaya Shoria , Tomsk ironworks and its ore developments. He systematized data on coal deposits and concluded that there is the world's largest coal basin in the Kuznetsk Basin. P. A. Chikhachev noted that coal-bearing deposits are developed in the space between the Alatau mountain range and the Chulym, Kondoma, Mrassu and Usa rivers. “I will name,” he writes, “the area thus limited by the Kuznetsk basin after the city located in its southern part ... The presence of coal is confirmed in several places, starting from the vicinity of the city of Kuznetsk to the area adjacent to the river. Ine, i.e., in a space covering parts of the main region, which I tried to conclude under the general name of the “Kuznetsk coal basin” ... Northern Altai is one of the largest coal reservoirs in the world, which is still only known, occupying an average a space 250 kilometers long and 100 kilometers wide.” The above quote is given by me according to the book by P.A. Chikhachev “Journey to the Eastern Altai”, published in Paris in French in 1845 and which became a remarkable result of the expedition.

Until that time, our region was called the Kuznetsk land. This is directly related to the tribe of the Shors-Abins, who, long before the arrival of the Russians, smelted iron ore and forged items necessary for everyday life. Therefore, he received a new prison, in the lands of the "Shors-blacksmiths", the name - Kuznetsk, and the adjacent lands began to be called Kuznetsk.

Kuzbass in ancient times

The climate in the pre-glacial period was significantly different from the modern one for the better. Broad-leaved forests grew everywhere on the territory of our region, in which beech, hornbeam, oak, elm, linden, and chestnut prevailed. This is confirmed by the vegetation of the "linden island" 8 kilometers from the Kuzedeevo station. "Lime Island" is the oldest monument of the pre-glacial period in Siberia.

In those distant times, the fauna of the Kuznetsk land was different. Rhinos, bison, red deer lived here, huge herds of wild horses grazed.

With the onset of the ice age, the appearance of the flora and fauna of the Kemerovo region has changed. And although the glacier did not reach the territory of Kuzbass, its influence was enormous. The mountains of the Kuznetsk Alatau were covered with ice, and the rest of the territory turned into a swampy tundra. Heat-loving animals died out or migrated far to the south. They were replaced by predators well adapted to the cold: cave bears, lions, saber-toothed tigers. The largest animal of this time was the mammoth. The remains of mammoths were found in the Prokopevsky, Belovsky and Guryev regions. But the complete skeleton of a mammoth is only in the museum of local lore in Prokopyevsk.

In accordance with archaeological data, the settlement of our lands occurred in the Upper Paleolithic (40-12 thousand years ago) from the territory of modern Altai, when, after the retreat of the glacier, the great Siberian expanses opened up.

Cro-Magnon hunter tribes were the first to come to the territory of our region, constantly moving behind nomadic herds of wild animals. Physiologically, Cro-Magnons were no different from modern people. By this time, they already knew how to make fire and build semi-dugouts for housing, sew clothes from skins and make tools from stone. They made their camps near steep cliffs, which served as natural traps for wild animals during driven hunting. But people were united not only by the interests of collective hunting, but also by close family ties. In each settlement lived relatives related by origin from common ancestors.

The first finds of the Upper Paleolithic date back to the middle of the 20th century. In 1950, a layer of bones, a layer of charcoal, flint and granite tools were discovered during hydraulic washing operations at the construction site of the Kuznetsk Metallurgical Plant. In the early 60s of the XX century, the famous Siberian archaeologist, academician P. A. Okladnikov, found new objects of the Upper Paleolithic era near Starokuznetsk and the village of Kuzedeevo. At present, many Upper Paleolithic sites are known in Kuzbass. These are the so-called "workshops" for the manufacture of stone tools near the village of Shumikha in the Kemerovo region, the village of Lachinovo in the Krapivinsky region, and short-term settlements of Paleolithic hunters near the villages of Bedarevo, Shorokhovo, Sarbala. The most ancient settlements of the Upper Paleolithic era in Kuzbass are Voronino-Yaya, which appeared about 30 thousand years ago, and Shestakovo on the Kiya River. The Shestakovskaya site appeared around the 25th millennium BC. e., intermittently continued to exist until the 18th millennium BC. e. The Mesolithic era (12-8 thousand years ago) has not been studied enough in Kuzbass, but the existing monuments have been discovered in different parts of the region. The Berchikul-1 site is located in the north of Kuzbass; The great similarity of the tools found at these sites allows us to conclude that already in the Mesolithic era, the territory of our region was sufficiently developed.

The epoch following the Mesolithic is most clearly represented in Kuzbass - the Neolithic (8-5 thousand years ago). This is the time of the most important discoveries in the ancient history of mankind. People invented ceramic dishes, which means they first tried boiled liquid food. For the first time, humans had tissue. For its manufacture, nettle and hemp were used. Stone processing has risen to a new level. People have learned to saw, drill and grind it. This made it possible to use different types of stone for the manufacture of tools. The tribal system in the Neolithic era reached its highest development. The main occupations of the inhabitants of Kuzbass during this period were hunting, fishing and gathering. People lived in dugouts along the banks of numerous rivers and lakes.

More than 30 Neolithic sites are known in the Kemerovo region. These are parking lots, and burial grounds, and petroglyphs.

Back in 1939-1940. under the leadership of the geologist A.P. Dubka, the Kuznetsk burial ground was opened in the Starokuznetsk region, in which there were 5 burials (2 pairs and 3 singles). The skeletons lay on their backs in an extended position, with their feet towards the river. Anthropologists have concluded that the buried people belonged to Caucasian tribes. Many stone and bone tools were found in the graves.

In 1955, V. I. Matyushchenko discovered two Neolithic graves near the regional center of Yaya. They found stone tools, bone figurines of birds. The shoes of the buried were decorated with the teeth of various animals.

Among other monuments of the Neolithic era, one should single out the site near the village of Degtyarevo in the Guryev district, near the village of Shkolny in the Prokopyevsk district, and the village of Chumai in the Chebulinsky district.

The late Neolithic period includes the emergence of natural sanctuaries. In Kuzbass, these include the Tomskaya Novoromanovskaya and Tutalskaya petroglyphs. The rock carvings are engraved on a smooth surface, drawn and drawn with red ocher. The drawings depict hunting scenes, birds, solar disks, and boats.

In the era of the Bronze Age (5-1 millennium BC), the first major division of labor took place. Farming and animal husbandry became independent activities. In the Bronze Age, in the II millennium BC. e., cultural and economic communities are formed known in science as archaeological cultures. The most important social event of this time was the birth of metallurgy. In Kuzbass, this phenomenon is associated with the tribes of the Afanasiev culture. Initially, native metals were mined: copper, silver, gold. Then they began to add tin to copper and eventually got bronze. Metallurgy was further developed among the tribes of the Okunev and Andronovo cultures. Andronovites lived in the Kuznetsk basin and in the north of the Kemerovo region. They were engaged in cattle breeding and agriculture. Andronovtsy belonged to the Caucasoid anthropological type of people and came to the territory of Kuzbass from the Urals in the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. e. In the XII-VIII centuries BC. e. on the basis of the Afanasiev and Andronovo cultures, the Karasuk culture was formed. Its representatives belonged to semi-nomadic pastoral and agricultural tribes.

The Bronze Age prepared the transition to the Iron Age. At this time, a single cultural and economic type of semi-nomadic and nomadic pastoralists, the so-called Scythian-Siberian world, was formed on a vast territory from the Danube to Baikal. The Iron Age in Kuzbass is represented by two archaeological cultures: Tagar and Tashtyk. The creators of the Tagar culture were Caucasoid tribes who lived in the 7th-2nd centuries. BC e. in the forest-steppe part of the current Mariinsky district. They left numerous and varied monuments: burial mounds, settlements, petroglyphs. The most numerous monuments are barrows. Tagar mounds were found in the Tisulsky, Tyazhinsky, Mariinsky and Chebulinsky districts. The Tagars lived sedentary, engaged in pasture cattle breeding and agriculture. They created settlements surrounded by huge ramparts. The settlement consisted of log houses somewhat recessed into the ground. The floor was earthen. There was a hearth in the center of the house. Bronze metallurgy reached a high level of development. The Tagars lived at the stage of disintegration of tribal relations and the formation of military democracy.

In the III-II centuries. BC e. the Tagars left their former habitats and went down the Yenisei, to the Ob and to Kazakhstan. This is due to the invasion of nomadic Hunnic tribes from the east.

Turkic-speaking and Mongoloid tribes from the territory of present-day Mongolia and Transbaikalia brought a new type of economy - nomadic cattle breeding. A new anthropological type and a new culture are being formed.

In the I-V centuries. n. e. in Siberia, a new culture of the Iron Age, the Tashtyk, is being formed. In Kuzbass, this culture is represented by the Mikhailovsky burial ground, the settlement of Mikhailovskoye and Utinskoye in the Tisulsky district.

The main occupation of the Tashtyks was cattle breeding. Iron tools were widespread. The dishes were made on the potter's wheel, which was not the case until then. Society in the Tashtyk era was on the verge of the collapse of primitive communal relations.

This natural process of social and economic development accelerated significantly with the advent of the Huns.

Ancient Turkic period in the history of Kuzbass

From the 2nd century BC e. until the middle of the 1st century AD. e. Kuznetsk land was part of a powerful military union of the nomadic Huns. The steppes of Mongolia and Transbaikalia were the homeland of the Huns. But these very warlike nomads collected tribute from many tribes of Siberia. The traditional occupation of the Huns was cattle breeding, which was dominated by horse breeding. The Huns also mastered the processing of bronze, iron and pottery.

During the political domination of the Huns, there was a significant shift of the steppe population to the Altai, to the Minusinsk and Kuznetsk basins, as well as to the western Baikal region. The reasons for such large movements of the steppe peoples were natural disasters. At the end of the first millennium BC. e., according to climatologists, the Asian steppes were drying up. This process reached its highest point in the 3rd century AD. e. This phenomenon led to the massive movement of pastoralists to the forest-steppe agricultural regions. An example is the resettlement of the Mongoloid Turkic-speaking Kyrgyz from Northern Mongolia to the Yenisei. Here they came into contact with the Caucasoid people - the Dinlins. On the basis of the mixed tribes of the Kyrgyz and Dinlins, the state of the Yenisei Kyrgyz (Khakass) was formed. The mixed type of the Kyrgyz population is confirmed in the annals of the Chinese Tang dynasty, where the state of the Kyrgyz is called Khagas. As the chronicle explains, this term is a distortion of the name of the Kyrgyz by the Uighurs. They called the Kyrgyz so for their red hair, rosy cheeks and blue eyes. At the head of the Khagas state was a khan (azho), who relied on the tribal aristocracy (begs and tarkhans). Those, in turn, relied on the military squad (oglans). This entire upper layer of society called itself the “blue people” (“kok el”) and opposed itself to the common population - “kara-budun” or black people. This division among the Khakases was preserved in later times, and its remnants still exist.

In the 6th century A.D. e. the tribes living on the territory of modern Kuzbass became part of the Turkic Khaganate. In 460, one of the Hunnic tribes, called "ashina", fell under the rule of the Juan and was resettled from Turkestan to the Altai. It was here that the union of local tribes under the common name "Turk" was formed. In the middle of the 6th century they defeated the Uighurs, and then the Juan. The leader of the Turks, Bumyn, in 552 proclaimed himself a kagan.

All the peoples of Central Asia, including the Yenisei Kyrgyz, were under the influence of the Khaganate. Excavations of ancient Turkic mounds in Altai give a vivid picture of property inequality. In some burial mounds, along with the buried, there are gold and silver items, remnants of silk clothing, weapons and numerous household items. Even the harness of the buried horses is richly decorated. In other burial mounds of this time, the buried are provided with one horse and a very modest set of household items. Economic inequality in the Turkic Khaganate was accompanied by social inequality. The society consisted of feudal aristocrats, ordinary community members and slaves. The main source of slaves were prisoners of war captured in the course of continuous wars and raids. But the prisoners were captured not only to work in the farms of the conquerors, but also in order to obtain a ransom for them. There are cases when the Turkic Khagans gave a huge number of prisoners for ransom. So, in 631, the Chinese emperor bought 80,000 Chinese from the kagan for gold and silk. Despite the use of slave labor, it did not form the basis of the economy of the Turkic state. The main producers of wealth were ordinary nomadic pastoralists of various levels of wealth, owners of their own herds of cattle. They were dependent on the aristocratic military elite. All pastoral nomads were assigned to certain owners and rulers who controlled their destinies, administered judgment and punishment, and taxed them. In the Turkic Khaganate, patriarchal-feudal relations developed, but this process was not completed, since internal contradictions and attacks by aggressive neighbors led the state of the Turks to death in 745.

The Turkic Khaganate played a big role in the consolidation of the Turkic tribes, contributed to the development of ethnic groups, which later formed the basis of the modern Turkic-speaking peoples of Southern Siberia.

After the death of the Turkic Khaganate, Uighur domination was established on the territory of Kuzbass. In ancient times, these nomadic tribes lived in Transbaikalia along the Selenga and Orkhon rivers. In the middle of the 7th century they formed an early feudal state. The ruler of the state, just like the Turks, was called a kagan. The first kagan, who led the struggle for the creation of the Uyghur state, was Peilo from the strongest clan of Yaglakar. Under Khagan Peilo, the possessions of the Uighurs stretched from the Altai Mountains to Manchuria. After the death of Peilo in 746, his son Moyun-chur, a brave and talented commander, became kagan. He waged a stubborn struggle with strong northern neighbors - the ancient Khakass. This struggle continued with varying success until 840, when the fall of the Uyghur Khaganate took place in Central Asia. The Yenisei Kyrgyz (Khakas) defeated the remnants of the Uyghur Khaganate and occupied a dominant position in southern Siberia. The years 840-924 were the time of the highest power of the ancient Khakassian state.

In the middle of the XII century, the Yenisei Kyrgyz were conquered by the Khitan, who in the X century created the early feudal state of Liao. At the end of the 12th century, the dominance of the Khitans was undermined by the Mongol-speaking Naimans.

They created a powerful union of tribes living in the Altai mountains. The Naimans extended their power from Transbaikalia in the east to the Irtysh in the west. Until the invasion of the Mongol-Tatars led by Genghis Khan, the Naiman rulers took tribute from the conquered tribes of the Kuznetsk land.

At the beginning of the 13th century, the Kuznetsk lands became dependent on the Mongol-Tatars and submitted to the temnik of Genghis Khan, whose name was Khorchi.

In the 15th century, the Kuznetsk lands became dependent on the Oirot princes.

In the 17th century, as a result of the unification of the Oirot principalities, the Dzungar Khanate emerged, headed by Kontaishi Khara-Khula.

The Teleuts, who roamed the territory of the current Kemerovo region, became part of the Dzungar Khanate as a separate clan - seok. The Kyrgyz in the 17th century also became dependent on the Dzungarian kontaishi. The princes of the Kyrgyz and Teleuts collected tribute from the taiga tribes of the south of Kuzbass, most of which was necessarily transferred to the Dzungarian rulers. At this time, patriarchal-feudal relations developed in Dzungaria. Nomadic feudal lords owned huge herds of cattle, which were looked after by hundreds of shepherd slaves.

By the time the Russians arrived in the Kuznetsk lands at the beginning of the 17th century, the entire population of these places became ethnically more homogeneous. Probably, the tribes spoke very close dialects of the Uighur group of Turkic languages. At the same time, they did not constitute a single whole politically. The tribal groups were very loosely connected with each other.

In the 7th century, among the various ethnic groups united by the common name "Siberian Tatars", Tomsk Tatars lived on the territory of our region. At present, they live in Kuzbass in several villages in the Yurginsky and Yashkinsky districts. The current Tomsk Tatars are the descendants of three Turkic-speaking tribes: Eushta, Chats and Kalmaks.

Other representatives of the Turkic-speaking population of Kuzbass are the Teleuts. At present, this small nationality lives in the Novokuznetsk and Belovsky districts of our region.

In ancient times, the Teleuts were part of numerous tribes united by a common name - "tele", roaming in the steppes of Central Asia. Before the Russians came to Siberia, the Teleuts occupied a vast territory from the Altai Mountains to the Baraba steppes.

Throughout the 17th century, the Teleuts not only did not pay any taxes to Russia, but were in open opposition to the Russian presence in the Kuznetsk lands. Between the Teleut princes and the royal governors there was a constant struggle for tribute collected from other peoples of the Kuznetsk land. Continuous wars and intra-clan hostilities led to the fact that some Teleut families voluntarily began to accept Russian citizenship. These Teleuts were called "travelers", that is, those who left their tribal associations in the name of the Russian Tsar. In the second half of the 17th century, this process was further developed. During 1658-1665. a significant part of the Teleuts voluntarily “left”, moved to the region of Kuznetsk and Tomsk, creating two nomadic colonies. Despite the repeated demands of the Teleut princes for the forced return of "outgoing Teleuts" to their former pastures, the Russian governors always refused to extradite the "defectors". The “departure” of a part of the Teleuts “in the name of the sovereign” is an example of the fact that one of the ways for the development of the Siberian peoples was to familiarize them with the higher culture of the Russian people.

On the slopes of the Kuznetsk Alatau, in the valleys of the Kondoma and Mrassu rivers, as well as along the middle reaches of the Tom, there is a small Turkic-speaking people - the Shors. Separate groups of Shors live in the Askiz and Tashtyk regions of Khakassia.

The Shors originated from a mixture of Yenisei-speaking, Samoyed-speaking and Ugrian-speaking tribes with the Turks. The Altai Turks, Yenisei Kyrgyz and Teleuts had the greatest influence on the formation of the Shors. Shors are sedentary forest tribes who usually lived in isolation from each other along the valleys of numerous mountain rivers and streams. The Shors never had their own state. There was never a written language. Due to their fragmentation and small number, the Shors could not offer serious resistance to the more numerous and powerful conquering nomads. Good neighborly relations did not develop between the settled Shors and nomadic Teleuts in the 17th century. This happened because in terms of their economic development, the Teleuts were somewhat higher than the Shors. The social organization of the Teleuts was also stronger. The nomadic Teleuts also outnumbered the Shors militarily. They were horsemen and outnumbered. The proximity of the language, culture and religion with the Shors was used by the Teleut nobility to subdue their neighbors.

The entire Shor population was divided into seoks: Aba, Shor, Kobyi, Kalar, Sary, Cheley, Karga, Chettiber. Each clan - seok - owned a tribal taiga, that is, a certain fishing territory.

With the arrival of the Russians in Siberia, for the convenience of collecting tribute, Shoria was divided into volosts. The volost consisted of representatives of one seok.

At the head of the volost was a pashtyk - a tribal elder.

The term "Shors" became a generally accepted ethnonym at the beginning of the 20th century. It covers all Turkic-speaking groups of the population living in the middle reaches of the Tom and its tributaries. Academician VV Radlov was the first to propose this ethnonym. As a basis, he took the name of a large seok - Shor, who lived in the upper reaches of the Kondoma River.

Thus, the entire history of the Siberian peoples confirms that the aboriginal population of our region has gone through a long and difficult path of development. Even in the Old Stone Age, Kuzbass and the adjacent territories of Western Siberia were inhabited by representatives of two large races - Mongoloids from the southeast and Caucasians from the west. Since then, for many centuries, these two races have been in constant contact here, as a result of which transitional mixed types of nationalities have arisen, the descendants of which are the modern Turkic peoples of the Kuznetsk land.

Development of the territory of Kuzbass by Russians

The first acquaintance of Russians with Siberia took place as early as the 11th century, when enterprising Novgorodians began to penetrate beyond the Ural Range into the Yugra land by land, as well as by the Northern Sea Route. The earliest message about Novgorodians going to Ugra dates back to 1032. In the 12th century, the Yugra land already paid tribute to Novgorod with animal skins, “fish tooth” (walrus fangs) and “patterned” (decorations).

Russian literary monuments, such as "Tales of the Unknown People in the Eastern Country" and Russian chronicles mention "midnight countries" in the Northern Trans-Urals, as well as Yugra with the Ugric population. In the 15th century, information appeared about the “Siberian land” along the lower reaches of the Tobol and Irtysh rivers, the inhabitants of which were Turkicized “sipyrs”. By the middle of the 16th century, through the seas of the Arctic Ocean, the Russians reached the Yenisei.

But not only Russians were attracted by Siberia with its riches. Very soon, competitors appeared, in the person of the British and the Dutch, who, under the pretext of searching for the "northern route to India," made expeditions in the waters of the Arctic Ocean. Russia absolutely did not want the emergence of English or Dutch trading posts in the northern part of Asia.

The conquest of the Kazan Khanate in 1552 and the voluntary annexation of the peoples of the Volga and Cis-Urals to the Muscovite state opened a free road to Siberia for the Russian people. In the middle of the 16th century, ties were established with the rulers of the Siberian Khanate, Yediger and Bekbulat. At this time, the son of the Uzbek ruler Murtaza, Kuchum, began to threaten them with conquest. Ediger and Bekbulat hoped to receive support in Moscow and therefore were ready to accept vassalage from the Russian tsar.

In January 1555, the ambassadors of the Siberian rulers Tyagrul and Panyady arrived in Moscow. They “struck the brow of the sovereign from Prince Ediger and from all the land, so that the sovereign of their prince and the whole Siberian land would take in his name, and from the sides from all intercede, and impose his tribute on them, and send his way (representative) to whom the tribute gather".

The acceptance of this proposal meant the inclusion of the territory of the Siberian Khanate in the number of lands dependent on Russia. This dependence was reinforced by the obligation of Yediger and Bekbulat to pay tribute to the royal treasury from the inhabitants of the khanate. The amount of tribute was originally set at 1,000 sables per year. Ivan the Terrible appointed Dmitriy Kurov Nepeytsin as tsar's "expensive" at the headquarters of the Siberian rulers, who swore in Yediger and Bekbulat and their inner circle.

Ivan IV hoped for a constant influx of furs into the treasury from Siberia. But in 1563, having destroyed not only Ediger and Bekbulat, but also all their closest relatives, the Siberian Khanate was captured by Chingizid Kuchum. Only the son of Bekbulat, whose name was Seydyak, managed to escape.

Khan Kuchum destroyed the former vassal relations of the Siberian rulers with Russia. All subsequent years, Ivan IV hoped to establish peaceful relations with Kuchum, since Russia was at that time in unfavorable conditions. This is the Livonian War, which began in January 1558 and required huge human and material costs, and the Oprichnina, introduced in January 1564, split the country and led to unimaginable innocent victims of the established terror, as well as to the complete impoverishment of the surviving inhabitants of the Muscovite state. In addition, in the spring of 1571, the Crimean Khan Devlet-Girey learned from scouts that there were few inhabitants in the central regions of Russia (who fled from the repressions of the guardsmen, and who died of starvation and disease) and there was no one to defend Moscow, and Tsar Ivan the Terrible was sitting in Alexander Sloboda only with his close associates, whom everyone hates, he went on a campaign against Moscow. On May 24, 1571, he ordered Moscow to be burned, and three hours later only charred ruins remained of the white-stone capital. Most of the inhabitants were either burned in the fire or suffocated in the smoke. Those who tried to escape in the Moscow River, the Tatars caught and took in full. Having robbed everything on his way, Devlet-Giray went to the Crimea. Having fled to the north, at the approach of the Tatars, Ivan the Terrible, happily returned to the plundered and burned Moscow.

Under these conditions, the defense of the eastern borders of Russia was provided to the wealthiest entrepreneurs, the Stroganovs, who had huge estates in the Cis-Urals.

Negotiations began with Kuchum, and in 1571 he agreed to restore the former vassal dependence on Moscow. At his headquarters, in Kashlyk, he received the tsar's representative Tretyak Chubukov, pledging to pay tribute to the tsar's treasury and sign a sworn letter. By these actions, Kuchum sought to strengthen his position among the Siberian peoples, for whom he was an ordinary conqueror. And also to gain time and gather forces to fight the Russians.

Already in 1572, together with the Nogai Murzas, he was secretly preparing to invade Russia. Open hostilities began in July 1573, when the Siberian Tatars, led by Kuchum's nephew Mametkul, invaded the Stroganov estates. At the same time, at the khan's headquarters, on the orders of Kuchum, the tsarist ambassador Tretiak Chubukov was killed.

Not having his own forces to fight Kuchum, Ivan IV sent a letter of commendation to the Stroganovs, securing the lands beyond the Urals for them. The borders of these lands reached the Tobol and the Irtysh. The royal charter allowed the construction of fortresses on the banks of the Irtysh and the Ob. The inhabitants of these fortresses were allowed to hunt and fish without dues. The Stroganovs were allowed to gather campaigns against the Siberian Khan, using hired Cossacks and detachments recruited from local residents for this. Thus, Ivan the Terrible shifted his own problem of defending the eastern borders of the state to the Stroganovs, giving them something that he no longer owned.

The raids of the Siberian Tatars on the possessions of the Stroganovs continued. In 1580, the Mansi prince Bekbeley Agtaev plundered and burned the Russian settlements on the Chusovaya River. In 1581 Prince Kihek burned the town of Solikamsk.

To pacify the Siberian princelings, the Stroganovs invited a Cossack gang, whose chieftain was Ermak Timofeevich. Information about the biography of Yermak himself is rather contradictory. Some historians consider him a Don Cossack who came with his gang from the Volga, others - a resident of the Urals, a townsman Vasily Timofeevich Alenin (Olenin)-Povolsky.

In 1581, Yermak and his retinue went up the Chusovaya River, passed through the Urals and inflicted several defeats on the troops of Khan Kuchum. By December 1582, the Cossacks had captured vast territories in Western Siberia. But in order to keep the conquered lands, people, ammunition and food were needed. Therefore, the Cossacks sent an embassy to Moscow, headed by ataman Ivan Koltso. The ambassadors bowed to Ivan IV of Siberia, asking for mercy for past sins. The tsar graciously forgave the Cossacks. A detachment of 300 archers was sent to Siberia, led by the boyar Semyon Bolkhovsky and the head of the archery Ivan Glukhov, as well as a convoy with the necessary supplies. But the archers were clearly in no hurry to the unknown Siberian lands. Having reached the possessions of the Stroganovs by the autumn of 1583, Semyon Bolkhovskoy, with the permission of the tsar, wintered. Finally, in the spring of 1584, the detachment set out from the Stroganov estates on a long journey and only by the fall arrived at Yermak, having eaten all the food supplies on the way. In the winter of 1584/1585. severe hunger began. The chroniclers report: “Much from the smoothness of the Muscovy, howls and Cossacks; and the voivode Prince Semyon Bolkhovskoy also died. The number of Cossacks and servicemen in the former capital of the Siberian Khanate decreased sharply. Only in the spring the situation improved somewhat. As the Stroganov Chronicle says: “Multiple tongues around the living Tatars and Ostyaks and Vogulichi bring many reserves to them and from catching their own from animals and from birds and from fish with all contentment is abundant.”

On August 5, 1585, Yermak's detachment stopped for the night on the banks of the Irtysh. At night, during a thunderstorm, the Tatars of Murza Karachi attacked the sleeping people. Ermak died in this battle. But the Russian offensive in Siberia continued.

In 1585, the archery detachment of Ivan Mansurov successfully operated in Siberia. He was sent to help Yermak and, not finding him alive, settled for the winter at the mouth of the Irtysh, building there the town of Ob, the first of those founded by Russian people in Siberia. The rebuff that the Ostyak princelings who tried to capture this town received made a strong impression on the surrounding Khanty-Mansiysk tribes. Some of them soon brought yasak to I. Mansurov, and the princelings of six towns along the lower reaches of the Ob and Sosva went to Moscow the following year with a request for Russian citizenship.

Realizing perfectly well that Siberia cannot be captured with one blow, Moscow is switching to tactics already tested in the development of other outskirts. Its meaning was to gain a foothold in the new territory, building cities there, and, relying on them, gradually move further, building, as necessary, new strongholds.

In 1586, 300 archers, led by governors Vasily Sukin and Ivan Myasny, upon arrival in Siberia, built a fortress on the Tura River, which gave rise to the oldest existing Siberian city - Tyumen. In 1587, a detachment of 500 archers led by Dmitry Chulkov built a new fortress near the former headquarters of Kuchum - Kashlyk - the future city of Tobolsk, which would become the main city of Siberia for a long time.

Kuchum, despite a series of defeats: in 1591 from the archers under the command of the governor V. Koltsov-Mosalsky, in 1595 from the detachment of the written head B. Domozhirov, continued to resist. Only in 1598, the detachment of Andrei Voeikov managed to overtake Kuchum in the Baraba steppes and completely defeat him.

This debacle echoed throughout Western Siberia. The prince of the Tomsk Tatars-Eushta Toyan arrived in Moscow, to the government of Boris Godunov, with a request to build a Russian city in his lands. By this he hoped to protect the Eushta people from the raids of the Yenisei Kyrgyz.

In 1604, a detachment was formed in Surgut under the command of G. I. Pisemsky and V. F. Tyrkov, which included service people from Tobolsk and Tyumen, Pelym archers, Tobolsk Tatars and Konda Khanty. They climbed up the Ob to the mouth of the Tom and further to the lands of the Tomsk Tatars of Prince Toyan. A high cape on the right bank of the Tom at the confluence of the river Ushaika, opposite the Toyanov camp located on the left bank of the Tom, was chosen as a place for the construction of the prison. By the end of September 1604, the construction of the Tomsk city was basically completed. One part of the people was sent to the former place of service, the other was left in the new fortress for permanent residence. Soon after the servicemen, Russian peasants and artisans appeared in Tomsk. The first information about sending detachments to collect tribute from the Kuznetsk Tatars dates back to 1607-1608. So, on November 20, 1608, a detachment of Cossacks led by Bazhen Konstantinov. Levkoy Olpatov and Ivashka Shokurov went to the upper reaches of the Tom to collect tribute and exchange for fur "Kazan goods", that is, belonging to the Kazan order, which then obeyed all Siberian cities. Since that time, the Russians found support from the prince of the Shors-Abins Bazayak. But after 1611, the Yenisei Kyrgyz-Altysars forced the Abans to refuse to support the Russians. The Kyrgyz of the Altysar clan considered the Shors-Abins as their tributaries, who gave not only furs and iron products, but also slaves. They were not going to yield their tributaries to Russian strangers.

The Russian settlers of the Tomsk district were constantly attacked by the Yenisei Kyrgyz and Teleuts. In 1614, the Kyrgyz princelings undertook another campaign against Tomsk. To participate in it, they also attracted the Shors-Abins. The nomads could not take the city, but in the district they beat many service people and plowed peasants, who were caught outside the city, and also defeated the uluses of the Tomsk Tatars-Eushta. The Kyrgyz burned houses and crops, stole horses and cows. The captives "they cut their noses and ears ... cut off their hands and flogged their belly, cut their throats, dug out their eyes ..."

The reasons that pushed the nomads to constant raids are laid down in the peculiarities of their economic structure. The period of the highest military activity, which for all peoples, as a rule, at the initial stage of the formation of a feudal society, was greatly delayed by the nomads due to the extreme stagnation of their entire social and economic life. The weak productive forces of the nomadic society could not provide the feudal elite with luxury items and weapons. The loss of livestock and the progressive shortage of pastures, along with the constant growth of the population, pushed the rest of the mass of nomads to raids. Robbery of neighbors was the most accessible way to solve food and material problems. Therefore, war was a natural state of nomadic life.

The Yenisei Kyrgyz, throughout the entire 17th century, turned out to be the most ferocious opponents of the Russians, seeing them as competitors in collecting tribute from the small Turkic-speaking tribes in the south of Western Siberia.

Considering the entire military-political situation in Central Asia, it can be noted that behind the backs of the Kyrgyz and Teleut princelings were first the powerful Mongol khans, and later the Dzungarian kontaishi. With the raids of the Kyrgyz and Teleuts, they created constant military tension on the borders with Russia and thus delayed the advance of the Russians into the forest-steppe and steppe regions of southern Siberia for a whole century. Being part of the strong nomadic states of Central Asia as vassals, the Kyrgyz and Teleuts had constant and strong support from their lords. Therefore, the struggle of Russia with the Yenisei Kyrgyz was in essence a hidden struggle with the Mongolian and Dzhungar feudal lords for the population of the taiga regions of Siberia.

It was incredibly difficult to fight the nomadic raids. On the borders of the forest-steppes, the Russians had to deal with a very mobile, numerous, well-armed and treacherous enemy. The main blow was inflicted on the civilian population, and most often during the main work in the fields, i.e., haymaking and harvesting. The nomads tried to avoid clashes with large Russian military detachments and most often managed to safely leave with the booty. Peace with them was never lasting. Agreements were constantly violated, if not by large, then by small princelings, who sought not to miss any opportunity for robbery. In addition, having made peace with the governor of one city, the nomads, in accordance with the norms accepted in their environment, considered themselves free from any obligations in relation to other Russian settlements. The struggle, therefore, was exhausting and virtually continuous. The construction of fortresses on the borders of the forest-steppes pursued not so much economic as purely defensive goals - to fetter the actions of the nomads, to prevent them from destroying the Russian territories located to the north with impunity. The main way to fight the nomadic feudal lords was the campaigns in the steppe of the united military forces of one or several cities.

In response to the raid of the Yenisei Kyrgyz in 1614, the Tomsk governors organized a response campaign in 1615. Rifleman Ivan Pushchin and Cossack ataman Bazhen Konstantinov went up the Tom, and with them two hundred archers and Cossacks. They took the Shors-"blacksmiths" to the oath and took the hostages-Amanats as guarantors from subsequent attacks. At the same time, the Tomsk governors raised the question of building a new prison before the Siberian order, which would divert the forces of aggressive nomads from Tomsk and strengthen the influence of Russians in the lands of the Shor “blacksmiths”. But at that time Moscow still had neither the strength nor the means for such a difficult task. Too many problems of the Moscow kingdom required an immediate solution after the end of the Great Troubles of the early 17th century.

Only in 1617 was the decree of Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich delivered to Tomsk, according to which a new prison was to be built in the lands of the Kuznetsk Tatar-Abins. Implementation of the order began immediately. In September 1617, the Tomsk governors Fedor Boborykin and Gavrila Khripunov sent to the mouth of the river. Condoms of 45 Cossacks led by the boyar son Ostafi Kharlamov Mikhailevsky. Early frosts forced the Cossacks to stop half way for the winter. On February 18, 1618, the Tatar head Osip Kokarev and the Cossack head Molchan Lavrov were sent from Tomsk to Ostafy Mikhalevsky, with their detachments. They went on skis with an order for an immediate march to the construction site of the prison in the lands of the Abins. In the autumn of 1618, they reported to Tomsk that a new fortress had been built and a small detachment led by Ostafiy Kharlamov Mikhalevsky had been left in it. At the same time, in 1618, a reply was sent from the Tomsk voivodes F. Boborykin and G. Khripunov to the Tobolsk voivode Ivan Semenovich Kurakin with the following content: and the people of Kuznetsk volosts were brought under the sovereign's high royal hand. This prison in the lands of the Shors-Abins was called Kuznetsk.

The Kuznetsk prison was built hastily. Later it turned out that the fortress was not only built on hayfields, but also flooded with spring floods. In 1620 the prison was moved to a new location. As it was reported in the already well-known reply to the Tobolsk governor I. Kurakin: “From Tomsk to the Kuznetsk prison ten days by land, six weeks upstream along the river.” In 1621, as indicated in the charter kept in the Kuznetsk Transfiguration Cathedral, with the blessing of Patriarch Filaret (father of the first tsar from the Romanov dynasty, Mikhail Fedorovich), the first, still wooden, temple was erected in Kuznetsk in the name of the Transfiguration of the Lord. This church, as the papers and letters kept in the church archive say, eventually fell into disrepair and in its place in 1763 a stone Transfiguration Cathedral was built. In 1622, the Kuznetsk prison was significantly expanded and given the status of a city. In 1636 he was granted the first coat of arms depicting a wolf. The local population, the Shors, called Kuznetsk in their own way, Aba-Tura, which means Abinsk city.

The first residents of Kuznetsk were Tomsk service people who were in the position of "anniversaries" - that is, seconded for a certain time. But already in 1620 plowed peasants appeared in Kuznetsk. Among them were Poluyanko Stepanov, Stenka Polomoshnoy, Ivashko Yakovlev, Pyatko Kitaev, Bezsonenko Yuryev, Ivashko Ortemiev, Pronka Shlyashinsky, Fomka Matveev. They arrived voluntarily, "according to the device", having received financial support of 13-16 rubles for the establishment of a household. In 1624, 74 men lived in Kuznetsk. There were almost no women, since the city was the extreme point of Russian development of the south of Western Siberia, and the population was dominated by lonely service people ready to fight at any moment. In 1652, the Kuznetsk governor Fyodor Baskakov, in his formal reply to Tobolsk, even asked to send “wives and girls” to Kuznetsk in order to “marry” lonely peasants who do not start farms, but wander “between the yards”.

Initially, communication with Tomsk was maintained by the river, and then a road was laid overland, which later turned into the Tomsk-Kuznetsk postal route. To protect this road, small prisons were built - Sosnovsky, Verkhotomsky and Mungatsky. Under the protection of the prisons, the estates of Russian peasant settlers arise, from which villages and villages later grew.

In 1648, near Kuznetsk, the Monastery of the Nativity of Christ was founded, which existed until 1764. Peasant settlers, having spent money for a long journey, took loans in money, grain, and cattle from the monastery. Apparently, it was precisely such debtor peasants who in 1650 on the Aba River, rich in fish and distinguished by the purity of water, founded the village of Monastyrskaya, later renamed the village of Prokopyevskoye.

The first Russian settlers constantly suffered from the raids of the Kyrgyz, Teleuts, Altaians. So, in 1622 the Kyrgyz, and in 1624 the Kalmaks attacked Kuznetsk. For a long time, the Kyrgyz prince Irenak Imeev (Isheev) ruined the Russian settlements. Mrassky yasak volosts were robbed by prince Talai.

In 1648, the Teleuts under the leadership of Prince Koki approached Kuznetsk. He did not attack the city, but entered into an agreement with Prince Madzhik, who, under the guise of barter with the Russians, “appeared in Kuznetsk and when the inhabitants, considering this an ordinary matter, went out to trade at the camp, he, without any hesitation, ordered a sudden attack on the Russians , and killed them as much as he could, and at the same time, having robbed the goods they had taken out, he went into the steppe along the Ob River. Until the death of Prince Galdantseren in 1745, the Teleuts did not allow Russian settlers to live in Kuznetsk in peace.

At the beginning of the 18th century, raids on the Kuznetsk land by Altai zaisans and Kyrgyz princelings, who were completely dependent on the will of the ruler of Dzungaria, increased sharply. Kontaishi of Dzungaria Tsevan-Raptan sought to regain complete dominance over the southern regions of Western Siberia. He again began to send tribute collectors to territories that had long been considered subject to Russia - to the Baraba steppes and to the Northern Altai, which then included the Kuznetsk lands. In the spring of 1700, a detachment of the Kyrgyz prince Tangustay approached Kuznetsk, plundered and burned the Nativity Monastery, burned 20 courtyards in nearby Russian settlements, ruined to the ground the uluses of “traveling yasak white Kalmyks” (i.e., Teleuts who left their camps for Kuznetsk and accepted Russian citizenship), took with him 97 Teleuts - the owners of families, 832 horses and 1.5 thousand cows.

In September, the same year, 1700, the Kyrgyz prince Korchin Yerenyakov burned 6 households and killed 7 peasants in the village of Verkhotomskaya. In 1709, the prince Badai (Baidai) burned the villages of Bungurskaya, Kalacheva, Sharapskaya, took away the peasants who were caught in the field during the harvest of bread, burned both bread and hay prepared for the winter. In 1710, the Altai zaisan Duhar with four thousand black and white Kalmyks attacked the villages of Mitina, Bedareva, Luchsheva, Ilinskaya and others. He burned 94 yards and all the grain in the fields, stole 266 horses and several hundred cows. Many people were killed and taken into captivity.

In 1757, the Kuznetsk resident Nikifor Bragin recognized among the serfs that the Altai zaisan Burut, who had arrived in Biysk, was his brother, who in 1710 as a boy was driven into captivity and was now called Ashir. Here, under the name Daulat, was the niece of Nikifor Bragin. Since Burut did not have a written document for the possession of these serfs, by decision of the officers of the Biysk fortress, Ashir and Daulat were given to Bragin. Tales of heroic deeds in repulsing nomadic raids have long been preserved in the memory of the inhabitants of Kuznetsk. The Konyukhov chronicle of the city of Kuznetsk says that during the attack of the "Tatars" on the village of Ilinskoye, the clerk of the local church fought with the Tatar prince and killed him with a "steg". The old peasant Ivan Serebryannikov from the village of Ashmarina told I. S. Konyukhov that his great-grandfather “being dressed in chain mail, attacked the Kalmyks, hitting them. They tried to catch or kill him, for which they threw lassoes to catch him with a horse. Finally, he locked himself in the watchtower. The Kalmyks sent a captive Russian named Andrey, an acquaintance of Serebryannikov, with a bunch of torches to set fire to the tower. For protection, Andrei was given to carry a board in the form of a shield in front of him. Approaching the tower, Andrey shouted to Serebryannikov: "Don't be angry with me, I was involuntarily sent to burn you." To this, Serebryannikov replied: “And you, Andrei, do not be angry with me. But what are you now, show me, even if I look at you once. Andrei looked out from behind the board and Serebryannikov shot him. So he sat in the tower until the Kalmyks retreated.

In 1714, the Kontaishi of Dzungaria, Tsevan-Raptan, reiterated his claims to the territory and the indigenous population of the Krasnoyarsk, Kuznetsk, Tomsk districts and the Baraba steppe. Peter the Great, busy with the Northern War with Sweden, sought to peacefully resolve disputes with Dzungaria, sending his representatives for negotiations and receiving Dzungarian ambassadors in St. Petersburg and Moscow. At the same time, instructions were given to the Kuznetsk commandant B. Sinyavin to build and strengthen small prisons, negotiate with the Teleut nobility and Altai zaisans about the “exchange” of captives and about strengthening trade ties.

The situation in the south of Western Siberia changed significantly only after the Irtysh fortified line was created, consisting of newly built fortresses. In 1709, the Bikatun fortress was built (it was burned down by the Oirot zaisans in 1710, but restored in 1718). In 1716, a detachment of Lieutenant Colonel I. D. Bukholts built the Omsk fortress. In 1718, Colonel Stupin, who replaced I. Buholts, built the Semipalatinsk fortress, and in 1721, Major Likharev built the Ust-Kamenogorsk fortress. The Russian embassy of 1722 by Captain I. Unkovsky to Dzungaria and the Dzungarian embassy of Dorzhi in 1724 to St. Petersburg contributed to the improvement of Russian-Dzungarian relations. At this time, Kontaishi Tsewang-Raptan feared an attack by the Chinese Qin Empire and therefore sought support from Russia. However, fearing to lose the Teleuts and Kyrgyz as his tributaries and auxiliary military force, he forced them to go south to the region of the main Dzungar nomad camps. But part of the Teleuts managed to get rid of the forced resettlement. They arbitrarily went to the Russians and accepted Russian citizenship.

In 1764, the creation of the first military line from Ust-Kamenogorsk, through Biysk (Bikatun fortress), to Kuznetsk and further to Krasnoyarsk was completed. Part of this line to the west of Biysk was called Biyskaya or Kolyvanskaya. The other part, to the east of Biysk, was called Kuznetskaya. In Kuznetsk itself there was a detachment of 160 people with seven guns. The military line consisted of redoubts, outposts and lighthouses... The Kuzedeevsky outpost closest to Kuznetsk was 55 versts away. The military line was defended by the Olonets and Lutsk dragoon regiments. This military line lasted until 1848 and was liquidated as unnecessary.

Kuznetsk was the second center of settlement in the eastern part of Western Siberia after Tomsk. It turned out to be the southernmost stronghold of the Russians, which in the 17th century protruded far beyond the common border of settlement. In terms of the level of development of crafts, Kuznetsk differed little from the villages in the district. If at the initial stage of settlement, the raids of aggressive nomads and economic dependence on Tomsk prevented it from developing into a real city, then in the first half of the 18th century, the position of Kuznetsk away from the Moscow-Siberian tract consolidated this state.

The Moscow-Siberian tract, the construction of which began in 1733 and was completed in 1735, went from Moscow through Kazan, Yekaterinburg, Tyumen, the Omsk fortress, Kainsky and Chaussky (later Kolyvan) prisons, Tomsk, Kiyskaya Sloboda (later Mariinsk), Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk , Verkhneudinsk to Nerchinsk. The road was used to transport mail, various cargoes and passengers. Settlers and exiles went to Siberia along it.

Just as the merchants of large Siberian cities traveled around the villages with industrial goods, and they bought furs or agricultural products, so Tomsk merchants sometimes came to Kuznetsk with consumer goods. The emergence of a complex of Kolyvano-Voskresensky mines and factories with their huge administrative rights deprived Kuznetsk of the last difference from the surrounding villages, that is, the role of a real center of a large Siberian district. Except for the Cossacks, office workers and the clergy, all the other residents of Kuznetsk in the 70s of the 18th century were peasants who combined farming with petty trade and handicrafts. By the 90s of the 18th century, Kuznetsk came to be a small village, which, only due to tradition, continues to be called a city.

The arrival of Russians to the Kuznetsk land changed the life of the natives in all respects: in everyday life, employment and culture.

The life of the local population under the tsarist regime became more calm and secure than during the continuous raids and internecine wars of nomadic feudal lords, which did not stop until the Kuznetsk land was annexed to Russia.

The aborigines began to get closer to the more economically advanced Russian people, began to adopt the skills of arable farming instead of traditional hoeing, haymaking and stall cattle breeding, and began to use firearms for hunting.

The accession of the Kuznetsk land to the Russian state, despite certain shortcomings, had an unconditionally positive value for its inhabitants.

The origin of industry in Kuzbass in the 17th-18th centuries.

Even in the III millennium BC. e. the tribes living along the Yaya and Kiya rivers learned how to make tools from copper. In the 5th century BC. e. tribes living on the river. Tom, they learned iron, and in the 3-2 centuries. BC e. iron tools completely replaced bronze ones. By the time the Russians arrived in the Kuznetsk lands, metallurgy among the aboriginal tribes was of an archaic nature.

In 1622, the Kazan order recorded the story of the Cossack Ivashka Volodimerets and his comrades: they sow finely and crushed with a sieve, and after sifting, they pour a little into the furnace, and iron merges into it, and in that iron they make shells, bekhtertsy, helmets, spears, horns and sabers and all kinds of iron, besides squeakers, and those pansyrs and bekhtertsy sell Kolmat people on horses and cows and sheep, while others give yasak to Kolmat people with iron.” This entry reflects the technology of iron production by the Shors-blacksmiths. The temperature required for melting the metal was achieved with the help of bellows. This method of obtaining iron is known as "cheese blowing" or "scream". In the second half of the 17th century, blacksmithing among the Shors ceased. There were the following reasons for this: firstly, the metal products brought by the Russians were stronger and cheaper; secondly, the royal decree of 1649 forbade the Shors from exchanging metal weapons for other goods, since these weapons were turned against Russian settlers.

In 1624, the Tomsk governors Ivan Shekhovskoy and Maxim Radilov sent the explorer Fyodor Yeremeev to the mountains to look for iron ore. The Russian explorer was accompanied by the Tomsk Cossack Kyzyl Pyatunka. Eremeev found the ore, delivered it to Tomsk and smelted it in the presence of the voivode, and, according to the voivodship’s reply, “good iron” was obtained from the ore. Eremeev and Pyatunka were sent to Moscow together with the smelted iron. There he smelted iron in the presence of Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich. “That iron is good and steel will be made of it,” the king praised the blacksmith. By royal decree, Fedor Eremeev and Kyzyl Pyatunka were given a salary in money, flour and oatmeal. From himself, the tsar granted them “good cloth” and sent them back to Tomsk with a message to the Tobolsk governors Khovansky and Velyanimov. At that time, the affairs of Siberia were handled by the Kazan order, which was headed by Prince Dmitry Cherkassky. In the Kazan order, Eremeev was questioned in detail about the ores found. From the words of Fyodor Eremeev, the following was recorded: “If we will indicate in the Tomsk city to make an iron outfit, and in Tomsk iron can be made, one-and-a-half and regimental, and quick-firing ones squeaked, and iron cannonballs for those squeakers, only de need such blacksmiths, who would that was the custom." From the Kazan Order, weapons smiths Ivashko Barshin, Vikhorko Ivanov and the Tobolsk Cossack Trenka Gornostaev were sent to live in Tomsk. The blacksmiths received in Tobolsk the appointed monetary and grain salary and they were ordered to forge squeaks "one and a half, regimental and quick-firing" and cores for them. By order of the tsar, the Tobolsk voivode Khovansky sent a “written head” to Eremeev to those places where Eremeev “breaks stones” and where “cooks them” - to check “what kind of ore and stone the parent will learn iron, a lot or a little”. The royal decree obliged Eremeev to forge not only weapons, but also “to our plowed peasants in the Siberian cities forge coulters, and scythes, and sickles, and axes, so that from now on from iron Russia, along with plowed peasants of iron, not to send scythes, and sickles, and coulters , and don’t buy axes, and don’t trust the peasants to help with money from our treasury. The "written head" was a kind of auditor who followed the work of Yeremeev. The tsar ordered Khovansky, in the event that “iron learns to be born a little”, to write about this matter to Moscow, and to prohibit Eremeev from leaving Tomsk without a royal decree. This royal charter, signed on October 3, 1626, completes everything that we know about the fate of the explorer Fyodor Yeremeev and his assistants.

Moving to the south of Kuzbass, Russian servicemen asked the natives of the Kuznetsk land about certain minerals. The Russians were especially interested in gold and silver deposits, since until the 18th century Russia imported precious metals from abroad.

In 1696 Stepan Tupalsky received from the prince of the Shuya volost Myshan Kogodaida about a pound (409.512 g) of silver ore. She was transferred to the Tomsk governor Vasily Rzhevsky. Stepan Tupalsky was again sent to Myshan so that he would indicate the place where the ore was taken. After much persuasion and the promise of Russian citizenship, the prince showed the outputs of silver ore on the Kashtak River. Having collected eight poods of ore, Stepan Tupalsky and Myshan arrived in Tomsk, where the prince beat with his forehead, “so that he, Myshan, with all the ulus people, migrate from the Kirghiz people to Tomsk and be under your great sovereigns by the great-power hand in eternal servility and give yasak against the former." According to the petition of the governor Vasily Rzhevsky from 1696, Myshan was sworn in (sherti), "drank gold and honey" in confirmation that he would serve the Russian sovereigns "true without any treason."

On December 18, 1696, Peter the Great issued a decree on sending the Greek ore-smelting master Alexander Levandian and his comrades to Tomsk. A prison was built on the Kashtak River and silver was smelted. But the mine did not last long. It was abandoned due to the constant attacks of the Yenisei Kyrgyz and technical difficulties that Levandian could not cope with. Firstly, the workings were flooded with water that could not be pumped out by hand pumps. Secondly, the ore went "hard, stony, with kalchedan", which they did not know how to smelt. As a result, Levandian went to Transbaikalia to the newly discovered mines. Around the same time, the Cossack son Ivashko Velikoselsky, together with Prince Ichachel, brought to Tomsk samples of silver ore found in the mountain along the Bolshoy Kitat River, a tributary of the Yaya River. But further searches for silver ores along the Yaya and Kiya rivers were abandoned after the discovery in the early 20s of the 18th century in the northwestern foothills of the Altai of rich deposits of silver and copper ores by a group of ore miners, which included Stepan Kostylev, Mikhaila Volkov and Fedor Komarov (Komar) . In the archives of the Ural Mining Administration, the Tale of the Miners Volkov, Komarov and Kostylev about the discovery of copper and silver ores, placed in file No. 35 for 1721 and 1722, has been preserved. The documents say that in May 1720, the Siberian governor, Prince Alexei Mikhailovich Cherkassky, handed over to Bergmeister I. Blier in Moscow two pieces of copper ores found near Tomsk by Stepan Kostylev and Fedor Komarov. I. Blier informed the head of the Ural and Siberian plants, Vasily Nikitich Tatishchev, that there was more than a third of copper in those ores. Interested in this discovery, V.N. Tatishchev sent Pavel Brovtsyn and Nikita Petrov, experienced Ural miners, to Siberia in 1721. They were ordered to go to Tomsk with a reporter about the ores, Mikhail Volkov, and when they arrived, together with Kostylev and Komarov, to inspect the ore places, compose a “fairy tale” and bring samples of the ore with them. As a result of this exploration, copper-rich ore samples from the Upper Ob were delivered to the Berg Collegium.

In 1721, the Tobolsk Cossack son Mikhailo Volkov discovered coal 7 versts (1verst = 1080m) from the Verkhotomsk prison in a terrace on the banks of the Tom. A sample of this coal from the “burnt mountain” was registered in the Ural Office of the Berg Collegium under No. 1 and sent to Moscow to the Main Office of the Berg Collegium. In 1722, Mikhailo Volkov discovered iron ore in the Tomsk district. But his discoveries, then in the 20s of the XVIII century, did not find practical application. Volkov himself was sent to the Ural Podvoloshny mine and his fate is unknown.

The largest Ural industrialist Akinfiy Nikitich Demidov (1678-1745), having learned about the discoveries of the group of miners S. Kostylev, sent his miners to Altai: Dmitry Semenov, Matvey Kudryavtsev, Nikifor Kleopin, the brothers Leonty and Andrey Kabanov, who had a great influence on the exploration of minerals Salair and Altai. It was they who, in the vicinity of Lake Kolyvan, on the old workings of people of the Bronze Age - "chuds", found the richest deposits of copper ore. In 1725, the Resurrection copper mine was opened here.

In 1726, Akinfiy Demidov received permission from the Berg Collegium to mine copper ores and build factories in the Kuznetsk and Tomsk districts. And already in 1727, the first in Altai (and in Western Siberia) Kolyvansky copper-smelting plant was built on the banks of the Belaya River not far from Kolyvansky Lake. Judging by the dates listed, Akinfiy Demidov immediately began to develop the discovered deposit. Knowing full well how slow the Russian bureaucratic machine is, which requires constant “lubrication” and “pushing”, he is building a copper smelter at the same time as the construction of the mine. In the 30s of the 18th century, A. Demidov's clerks built the Barnaul and Shulbinsk copper smelters, as well as a number of mines.

Vasily Nikitich Tatishchev, the head of the Mining Plants of the Urals and Siberia, established that A. Demidov captured the richest deposits containing not only copper, but also silver and gold. Since the extraction of precious metals by private individuals was prohibited in Russia under pain of death, in 1735 the Altai factories of A. Demidov were taken to the treasury. But already in 1736, A. Demidov, with the "disinterested help" of the favorite of the Empress Anna Ioannovna, Ernst Johann Biron, of bad memory, regained all the taken factories. In 1739, he provided the Berg Directorate, which replaced the Berg Collegium, with samples of coal, and asked for a decree to develop coal “near the Tom River near the city of Kuznetsk” and permission to search “in the announced and other places of Tomsk, Kuznetsk and Yenisei departments of this coal and other metals and minerals. A. Demidov received such a decree on April 7, 1739. During the period from 1725 to 1745, A. Demidov's miners discovered more than 90 deposits of various ores in Altai and Kuzbass.

In 1742, for the careful production and reproduction of iron and copper factories, the state adviser (military rank - brigadier) Akinfiy Demidov was granted a real state councilor (rank 4 class according to the Table of Ranks, equal to military, major general).

Using the discovery in 1735 by the miner Fedor Emelyanovich Lelesnov of the Zmeinogorsk silver ore deposit, A. Demidov builds a mine here and in 1742 reequips the Barnaul copper smelter into a silver smelter. A. Demidov took the risk of illegally expanding the smelting of silver in Altai. In 1744, the Kolyvano-Voskresensky silver-smelting plant began to smelt silver.

There were no enterprises of A. Demidov directly in Kuzbass, but back in August 1727, the Berg Collegium allowed A. Demidov to assign 400-500 households of peasants of the Kuznetsk district to the Altai factories. In 1743, the Kuznetsk Voivodship Office reported that 1,702 revision souls were already assigned to the Demidov factories, and by the revision of 1747, 4,286 peasants of the Kuznetsk district were assigned to the Altai factories. 569 peasants lived directly at the factories - Barnaul, Shulbinsk and Kolyvansky, and the rest came and came to the factories for the duration of working off. Thus, the Kuznetsk lands were included in the district of the Kolyvano-Voskresensky factories.

But the secret smelting of silver did not last long. The foreman F. Treger, who worked for A. Demidov, fled, seizing samples of ore, and at the beginning of 1744 handed them over to Empress Elizaveta Petrovna. During sampling, both silver and gold were found in the ores. Almost simultaneously with F. Treger, A. Demidov also rushed to St. Petersburg. He presented the empress with a silver bar weighing 27 pounds as a gift and asked for a new privilege - the withdrawal of his enterprises from the subordination of all local and central authorities, "to ... be with all factories, with children, artisans and working people ... under the authority of the highest office" . The corresponding gracious decree was issued on July 24, 1744. But he did not cancel the decree of May 17, 1744 on the revision of the Altai Demidov factories, which, in fact, A. Demidov was trying to achieve. He failed to outwit Elizaveta Petrovna. In accordance with the decree of May 17, 1744, a commission was sent to Altai, headed by the manager of the Tula arms factories, brigadier (military rank of the 5th class between colonel and major general, which existed in the Table of Ranks until 1799) Andrey V. Beer. The commission worked in Altai for two years, checking the presence of silver ores on the spot. In Zmeinogorsk, she founded a special, "commissary" mine, from the ore of which 44 pounds of silver were smelted. In 1745, the commission removed the Demidov clerks from managing the mines and factories and began to manage the enterprises themselves. From all the shocks he endured, A. Demidov dies in the same year, 1745.

On behalf of the Senate, Brigadier A.V. Beer instructed the former ore receiver of the Demidov factories, Pyotr Shelegin, to search for local ore miners and organize search expeditions in Altai and Kuzbass. Pyotr Shelegin traveled around the surrounding settlements and recruited 96 people from among those who wanted to. Among them were Russians, and Altaians, and Shors. In 1745, these search expeditions explored the region of the northeastern Altai from Biysk to Lake Teletskoye, the upper reaches of the Tom, the Kondoma and Mrassu rivers, as well as sections of the future Biysk-Kuznetsk military fortified line. The result of the work of the expeditions was the compilation of several geographical maps and the discovery of many new deposits of iron, copper, silver. During 1746-1747, the Demidov factories and mines were managed by hired specialists I. S. Khristian and I. G. Ulikh. By decree of May 12, 1747, the Altai mines and factories were taken from the heirs of A. N. Demidov into the possession of the Cabinet of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna with payment at the rate of 50 thousand rubles in silver . The Cabinet of Her Imperial Majesty appeared by Decree of December 12, 1741, as the personal office of Elizabeth Petrovna. In the future, the Cabinet turned into a court institution that managed the personal possessions of the Russian emperors.

The official reason for the withdrawal was the exclusive right of the treasury and the imperial court to develop deposits containing precious metals, which was in effect until 1782. At the end of 1747, a local administrative institution was formed - the Office of the Kolyvano-Voskresensky mining authorities, which in February 1748 was headed by A. V. Beer, who received the rank of major general from Elizabeth Petrovna and the position of chief commander of cabinet factories.

The transfer of the lands of Altai and Kuzbass under the control of the Cabinet of Her Imperial Majesty ensured the monopoly use of ore deposits and the attraction of tens of thousands of peasants living on these lands as cheap labor. In 1759, due to the growth in the number of mines and the expansion of factories, by the decree of Elizabeth Petrovna, the entire population of the Tomsk and Kuznetsk districts was included in the ascribed peasants of the Kolyvano-Voskresensky factories.

In the late 60s of the XVIII century in the upper reaches of the river. Chumysh was sent by a graduate of Moscow University in 1761, an expert in mineralogy Vasily Sergeevich Chulkov. He is ordered to find an iron ore deposit and prepare a site for the construction of a plant. With the help of the Kuznetsk Tatars (Shors), this task was completed. He chose a place for the construction of the plant on the river. Tom-Chumysh, 50 km from Kuznetsk. Thus, the expedition of a young mountain officer (bergeschvoren) gave rise to the development of the riches of the Kuznetsk land. On September 10, 1769, the office of the Pavlovsk Plant received from Barnaul an order with the following content: “By decree of the Imperial Cabinet and by definition of the Chancellery (Kolyvano-Voskresensky Plants), instead of the Irbinsk Plant, it was ordered to build again an ironworks plant in a convenient place in the Kuznetsk district along the Tom-Chumysh River, and to prepare at that place forest supplies and other things, send the berggeshvoren Golovin and the dam master Ryabinov with his students from the Novopavlovsk plant.

The plant was built in 1770-1771 according to the project and under the direction of Dorofei Fedorovich Golovin. Despite many difficulties, already in December 1771. Tomsk ironworks produced the first products. Until 1773, D. F. Golovin remained the manager of the Tomsk plant. According to academician I. Falk, who visited this enterprise in 1771, the plant had one blast furnace, three large hammers, three small five-pound hammers, one furnace and a hammer for the “table”, a wire factory, a flour mill and a saw mill. According to the academician, the plant and residential buildings were built very well from Siberian cedar. Ore was brought to the plant from the Telbes, Temirtau and Artybash iron ore deposits. Coal was brought from an adit, which was located near the mouth of the Kinerka River, which flows into the Kondoma. In 1789, engineer Pastukhov launched a blower furnace at the plant. They began to use coal for it, discovered by the carpenter's apprentice Yakov Rebrov near the village of Atamanova back in 1782.

Both the builders and the main labor force at the Tomsk plant were ascribed peasants. So, in 1787, 130 horse peasants worked on the transportation of coal, 1,440 on logging and burning charcoal.

In 1781 exiled ore miner Dmitry Popov and yasash Tatar Naryshev discovered the Salair deposit of silver ores, which immediately began to be developed. The construction of the Salair mine began in the spring of 1782. between the two rivers Bolshaya and Malaya Tolmova not far from their confluence with the Bachat River. The necessary equipment and iron were delivered from the Tomsk plant. In the summer of the same 1782. Kharitonovskaya mine was founded. In 1787, the Salair Mining Office was established, which included a huge region, called the Salair Territory in a number of documents. In the same year, 1787, the outstanding mineralogist and miner Pyotr Ivanovich Shangin was appointed the first administrator of the Salair region. Initially, silver ore was sent to the Barnaul and Pavlovsk silver smelters. Salair raw materials were also used by the Suzun copper smelter. Then the mining authorities considered it more profitable to build a plant at the site of ore mining. In 1793, the construction of a new plant was started, and in 1795. The Gavrilovsky plant, named after the head of the Altai mining district, Gavrila Simonovich Kachka, produced the first products. Work on the construction of the plant was carried out by ascribed peasants of the Sosnovsky, Verkhotomsky, Bachatsky, Kuznetsk and Mungatsky departments. Assigned were the main labor force in the mines and factories. Here they performed their duties. These duties were of two types: horse and foot. Raw materials were transported on horseback. On foot, they chopped firewood, burned charcoal, and were engaged in mining. The peasant was obliged to work out the capitation salary levied on all male peasants. The amount of salary was 1 rub. 10 kopecks. from the soul. Mounted peasants worked it out in 29 days a year, on foot - in 50 days. Difficult working and living conditions provoked protests of the ascribed. These protests were expressed in escapes from work and self-immolation of the Old Believers. According to 1745. out of 4801 people assigned to the Kuznetsk department, 173 escaped, 124 burned themselves. Among them were not only ascribed, but also townspeople. In 1756 in the village of Maltseva, 172 people set themselves on fire. At the same time, 175 people set themselves on fire in the village of Mamurova. In connection with these events, in 1765, Empress Catherine II issued a decree ordering that Siberian residents not be allowed to self-immolate. Escapes of peasants to Eastern Siberia, Gorny Altai and Dzungaria also became more frequent.

Decree of the Senate of 1759. the peasants of the Tomsk and Kuznetsk districts were assigned to the Kolyvan factories. Since 1761 recruitment duty was announced to work in factories. These people became career craftsmen. Since 1770 the head tax increased. The processing of taxes took a long time, because the peasant had to work not only for himself, but also for his young sons, as well as for the elderly. Some peasants who had the means. hired fellow villagers and migrants. So in the Siberian village began stratification on the basis of property. And although according to the Manifesto of 1779. peasants were exempted from mining and factory work, there was no improvement in their situation, since the volume of transportation during mining was increased.

The uprising of Yemelyan Pugachev forced the government to adopt a decree limiting the duties of bonded peasants. And yet in 1781-1782. turmoil began among the Siberian ascribed peasantry. The peasants refused to go to work.

Of the 142 Kuznetsk peasants sent to the Tomsk plant, three arrived on the spot. According to the information of the Pavlovsk factory office dated January 25, 1782, 2080 peasants were supposed to come from the Sosnovsky department to the Salairsky mine for the carriage of goods. Only 20 people came to work. The administration of the Pavlovsky plant was forced to stop all 24 silver-smelting furnaces.

In 1798 Pavel I ordered to pacify the ascribed peasants of the Pachin volost by force. From the order of the office of the mountain authorities dated May 19, 1798, it follows that the Tomsk Infantry Regiment in early May carried out "all sorts of military actions" in the Pachinskaya Sloboda and the villages assigned to it.

All these and many other actions of the peasantry shook the foundations of the feudal system in Russia.

Literature

1. History of Siberia from ancient times to the present day. In 5 volumes. L.: Academy of Sciences of the USSR.
2. History of Kuzbass., Parts 1, 2. Kemerovo book publishing house. - Kemerovo., - 1967.
3. History of Kuzbass., Part 3. Kemerovo book publishing house. - Kemerovo., - 1970.
4. History of Siberia. Tomsk University Publishing House., - 1987.
5. Aleksandrov V.A., Russian population of Siberia in the 17th-early 18th centuries. - M., 1964.
6. Alekseev M.P., Siberia in the news of Western European travelers and writers of the XIII-XVII centuries. M.1941.
7. Vilkov O.N., Craft and trade in Western Siberia in the 17th century. - M., 1967.
8. Vitkovsky S.N., Workers of industrial Kuzbass. Historical and economic essay. - Kemerovo., 1970.
9. Dolgikh B.O., Tribal and tribal composition of the peoples of Siberia in the XVII century. - M .: Nauka., - 1960.
10. The story of the land of Kuznetsk. Ed. Toguleva V.V. - Kemerovo., 1992.
11. Rekhlov V.S., The Tale of Mikhail Volkov. - Kemerovo., 1972.
12. Shabalin V.M., Secrets of the names of the Kuznetsk Land. - Kemerovo., 1994.

• Russian local history

When implementing the project, state support funds were used, allocated as a grant in accordance with the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation No. 11-rp dated January 17, 2014 and on the basis of a competition held by the All-Russian Public Organization "Russian Union of Youth"

The oldest site discovered by archaeologists in Siberia is located near Kuzbass in the Altai Mountains. It belongs to the Paleolithic period. Her age is 500 thousand years. It was the habitat of the oldest group of people, who are usually called archanthropes (pithecanthropus is one of their species). The time of their existence coincided with the great glaciation, which Europe and Siberia experienced to the greatest extent. The Kuznetsk-Salair landscape region, as well as other mountainous regions, was under the influence of glaciers.

The most ancient human sites on the territory of the Kuznetsk Territory were discovered in 1989 on the territory of the Mokhovsky coal mine (Leninsk-Kuznetsky district). One of them was covered with cover deposits about 40 meters thick. At this depth, several stones chiseled by human hands and a large number of animal bones were found. A significant part of the species of these animals does not currently exist. In ancient times, they were the main hunting prey of man. The appearance of the first people within the southern regions of Siberia, including the territory of the Kuznetsk-Salair landscape region, coincided with the interglacial period. Climate warming and geographical conditions were favorable for life. Monuments of the Middle Paleolithic (300-40 thousand years ago) on the territory of the Kuznetsk-Salair landscape region are still unknown. But the discoveries and studies carried out in the Altai Mountains, in the south of the Krasnoyarsk Territory and Khakassia, suggest that it was part of the habitat of paleoanthropes. At this stage, significant changes in a person's life did not occur. The former way of life, the main types of economic activity and the form of association of people were preserved. But relations within the fore-community became more complex, subordinated to the interests of the collective. The methods of production of tools have not changed, but the range of these tools has somewhat expanded. All this testifies to the progressive trend in the development of man and his society.

Late Paleolithic time(40-12 thousand years ago) is associated with the last phase of the Ice Age. The cooling caused the activation of mountain glaciers, beyond which the tundra extended. So, the mountains of the Kuznetsk Alatau were covered with glaciers, and the Kuznetsk basin and the surrounding areas were tundra. Simultaneously with the formation of the Late Paleolithic, the formation of a person of a modern physical appearance, as well as a society, the basis of which was the tribal organization, took place. Many sites of the late Paleolithic are known on the territory of the Kuznetsk-Salair landscape region. This is a treasure trove of stone tools near the village. Kuzedeevo, workshops for processing stone and making tools (Shumikha-I), short-term camps of Paleolithic hunters (Bedarevo-P, Shorokhovo-I, Ilyinka-II, Sarbala), finally, a stationary settlement on the Kiya River, near the village of Shestakovo. Their research resulted in a significant collection of stone objects. Side-scrapers and scrapers predominate among them. These tools are designed to process the inner surface of the animal's skin, as a result of which it becomes softer. Such a skin could already be used for making clothes. The most ancient Late Paleolithic sites on the territory of the Kuznetsk Territory are Voronino-Yaya (about 30 thousand years old) and Shestakovo, on the right bank of the river. cues. The Shestakovskaya site, which first arose 25 thousand years ago, continued to exist with significant interruptions until 18 thousand years ago. The remaining sites, that is, most of the Late Paleolithic sites, date back to 12-15 thousand years. This is the time of the final phase not only of the Late Paleolithic period, but also of the Pleistocene epoch.

In the middle stone period - the Mesolithic(12-8 thousand years ago) on the vast territory of Europe and North Asia from 12 thousand to 10 thousand years ago there was a process of transition from the Pleistocene to a new geological epoch - the Holocene. It consisted in the gradual disappearance of glaciers, in the formation of landscapes that are currently familiar to us, in the replacement of animals of the glacial world with animals adapted to new climatic conditions. Global natural changes have affected people's lives. Active development of territories previously occupied by glaciers began, new hunting tools were invented, such means of transport as skis and boats, new ways of fishing appeared. Of particular note is the invention of the bow and arrow, which for many millennia became the most important and widespread weapon and which continued to exist for a long time with the advent of firearms. Stone was still the main material for the production of tools. On the territory of the modern Kemerovo region, the Mesolithic has not been studied enough, but monuments were discovered in its various regions: in the north of Kuzbass, this is the Bolshoy Berchikul-1 site, in the middle reaches of the river. Tomi site Bychka-1 and in Mountain Shoria - Pe-chergol-1. The materials of these monuments are characteristic of the Mesolithic. Their main features are the small, miniature size of the tools and the manufacture of a significant part of the tools on small knife-like plates.

The coming Neolithic(8-5 thousand years ago) or the New Stone Age - the final period of the Stone Age. This is the time of the most important discoveries and achievements in the ancient history of mankind. In the Neolithic, ceramic dishes were invented, which allowed a person to cook and consume hot liquid food for the first time, fabric was invented, for the production of which specially processed plant fibers (nettle, hemp) were used. New techniques appeared in stone processing: sawing, drilling, and grinding reached its peak. This made it possible for man to use new types of stone for the manufacture of tools. Almost all of these achievements can be traced back to the Neolithic materials of the Kuznetsk-Salair landscape region. Settlements of the New Stone Age were discovered by archaeologists in the foothills of the Kuznetsk Alatau (Big Berchikul-4, the Tambar reservoir, on the Dudet River, Smirnovsky Creek-1, on the Kiya River), in the mountains of Mountain Shoria (Pechergol-2), on the banks of the Tom River (Bychka-1 , late layer). Burials (burial grounds) of this time were found and excavated in the region of Novokuznetsk (Kuznetsk burial ground), on the Ina River near the villages of Trekino, Lebedi, Vaskovo, on the Yaya River not far from the village of the same name. The world of things of the Neolithic population that lived within the Kuznetsk Territory is quite diverse. But what is most striking is that absolutely symmetrical and proportional objects are made of stone using primitive techniques. Stone remained the main raw material for the production of tools, however, bone and horn began to occupy a prominent place. Almost all stone tools are associated with hunting and the corresponding way of life. Having mastered the entire territory of the Kuznetsk Territory, the Neolithic population was engaged in hunting and fishing. Ancient people hunted bear, elk, deer, roe deer, wolf, beaver. From fur-bearing animals they hunted hare, marmot, squirrel, sable, fox. By the end of the Neolithic is the emergence of a natural sanctuary on the Tom, now widely known as the Tomskaya petroglyph.

In the transitional period from the Stone Age to the Bronze Age (Eneolithic). At the end of the 4th - beginning of the 3rd millennium BC, tribes appeared on the territory of the southern regions of Siberia that knew and used copper. These were the first cattle breeders on Siberian soil. But during this historical period, no particularly noticeable changes occurred within the Kuznetsk-Salair landscape region. As before, stone and bone remained the main material for the manufacture of tools and household items. The technique of their production has not changed either. But the number of tools that were made on a knife-like plate noticeably decreased. Finally, the chronology of the monuments (the middle of the 3rd millennium BC) indicates that they belong to the transitional time, when tribes using copper lived in the adjacent territories - in the Altai mountains and the steppes of modern Khakassia. At present, the largest settlement of this people has been explored on the territory of the Kuznetsk Territory. It was located on the shores of Lake Tanai. Villages on the shore of the lake were created by hunters and fishermen. In the taiga they caught bear, elk, deer, and in the forest-steppe - roe deer. Fishing occupied a significant place in the life of the people of these villages. We caught a lot of carp. Here, on the territory of the villages, dishes were made. Sand was added to the carefully mixed clay. Then again mixed, achieving a homogeneous mass. Ribbons were made from it, connecting them, they formed a vessel.

The second half of the III - the beginning of the II millennium BC. e. were the Early Bronze Age. The ancient societies of Siberia made a noticeable step forward in mastering the early metal. They switched to the production of tools from bronze, their manufacture by casting in special forms. Unfortunately, this historical period in most of Siberia, including the Kuznetsk Territory, is still poorly understood. Excavations carried out by archaeologists in Gornaya Shoria on the Mrassu River, near the village of Mundybash, on the Tom River in the vicinity of Novokuznetsk, in the north of Kuzbass and in the Kuznetsk Basin, suggest that almost the entire landscape area was developed during this period. Probably, representatives of two peoples lived here, who actively but peacefully contacted in the central regions of the region (Kuznetskaya Hollow). One of them occupied mainly Mountain Shoria, and the other - most of the territory from the northern foothills of the Kuznetsk Alatau to the basin. The history of these tribes can be reconstructed only from the materials of the sites. And they had a temporary or seasonal nature, which indicates a mobile lifestyle of people.

first half of the 2nd millennium BC. e. was the period of developed (middle) bronze. Most of the Kuznetsk Territory, mainly its forest-steppe, was occupied by the tribes of the new population. Groups of the Caucasoid population of Western Asia took part in its formation. But the basis was formed by the peoples of the previous time, who lived in the forest-steppe of the Upper Ob and in adjacent territories. It is well known that the new population occupied not only the Kuznetsk Basin, but also the coastal regions of the Ob up to the confluence of the Tom River. They were herdsmen, hunters, fishermen and gatherers. They raised horses and cattle. But this type of economic activity did not satisfy the needs of society for meat food. Therefore, the diet was supplemented by hunted game, fish and gathering products. Some experts suggest that this people knew agriculture. More definitely, we can say that they were excellent metallurgists and foundry workers.

In the middle of the II millennium BC. e. vast expanses of steppe and forest-steppe from the Southern Urals to the Middle Yenisei occupied shepherds-cattle breeders of the Andronovo culture. Andronovites destroyed quite developed cultures in this area. Experts believe that these people belonged to the Indo-Iranian language group. The main occupation of the Andronovo tribes was cattle breeding. The time of existence of Andronovites is connected with the decomposition of primitive communal relations. Their social organization was complex. To occupy a vast territory and destroy sufficiently developed associations, it was necessary to have a powerful organization. In Andronov society, social inequality has noticeably increased. Heads of a large family, elders of tribal communities and tribal leaders began to have special significance. These posts were in the hands of men.

AT Late Bronze Age(in the XII-X centuries BC) on the territory of the Kuznetsk basin, the Andronovites were replaced by a new population, which was formed with their participation. They were herdsmen and hunters. It is no coincidence that their settlements were located in places rich in game, but at the same time near lands that could be used for grazing. There is reason to believe that they were also engaged in agriculture and fishing. Such a diversified economy, combining appropriating and producing forms in equal shares, was possible only with a settled way of life. Their history is associated with population growth and a significant pace of development, which was not in the previous time. Farming dictated a settled way of life for people. Therefore, they created settlements consisting of several houses (from 4 to 15).

At the final stage (X--7th century BC BC) Late Bronze Age throughout the territory of the modern Kemerovo region, a culture appears, the creators of which were new tribes. This people occupied vast areas from the Middle Irtysh to the Kuznetsk Alatau. The main archeological monuments: settlement on the Lyuskus river, Ust-Kamenka settlement, burial grounds Zhuravlevo-4, Pyanovo, Titovo. The new population built settlements along the banks of rivers with a vast floodplain valley, rich in succulent herbage and fertile soils, on high and steep places they built fortifications (fortifications) from military raids. They were farmers and pastoralists. Archaeologists conditionally call them Irmenians. With the Late Bronze Age, one of the fascinating pages of ancient history ends. It is being replaced by a new era associated with the advent and widespread use of iron.

AT early iron age(VIII-VII centuries BC) on the vast expanses of the steppes of Eurasia, large associations of tribes are formed. In the north of the modern Kemerovo region, where a narrow belt of forest-steppe stretches, in the VI-V centuries BC. e. Significant groups of a new population appeared, which are conditionally called Tagars. of which have been excavated by archaeologists. These are large barrow necropolises near the villages of Nekrasovo, Serebryakovo, Kondrashka in the Tisulsky district, near the settlement on the shore of Lake Utinka and near the village of Tisul, etc. The excavation materials allow us to restore many aspects of the life of the Tagar population. The Tagars were herdsmen and farmers. Unlike the steppe peoples of Eurasia, who had nomadic pastoralism, they lived in stationary settlements. Such a settlement could have up to 20 houses located in rows, forming a street. The houses were logged, square or rectangular in shape, with a gable roof. Men plowed the land, harvested crops, grazed cattle, and teenagers helped them in this. Women were engaged in housework, preparing products for long-term storage, weaving, and sculpting dishes. The children helped them. But this is all peaceful life. It was violated by frequent military clashes. In winter and summer, between plowing and harvesting, the men went out on the “military path”. The armament of the Tagarian consisted of a dagger, a bow and arrows, which were in a quiver, and a coinage. The coinage was the most formidable weapon of the Tagars. The need for metal weapons was very significant. This caused the further development of specialization in the field of mining, metallurgy and metalworking. The Tagars had to cast a lot of objects from bronze. But bronze cauldrons are striking, in some cases quite large (up to 20 liters).

2nd century BC e. -- 5th century AD appeared period of the Great Migration. By the end of the first millennium BC. e. on the territory of Kuzbass, the processes of historical development have become complex. This was due to the migration of some population groups from the northern taiga regions of Western Siberia and from the territory of the Middle Yenisei. So, in the Middle Yenisei region, a new population arose, which received the conditional name "Tashtyk". Their appearance on the historical "arena" was directly related to the ancient history of the Kuznetsk-Salair landscape region. In the north of the Kemerovo region, where the Kiya River emerged from the gorges of the Kuznetsk Alatau mountains, archaeologists found and explored a huge settlement of the Tashtyks or their kindred population. It consisted of a large number of polygonal houses with narrow and long entrances. It was a settlement of the population, the main occupation of which was cattle breeding and agriculture.

At the same time, when warlike Tashtyks lived in the north of Kuzbass, groups of tribes mastered the rest of the territory. Archaeologists call them "Kulais". The Kulay people created an amazing material and spiritual culture. The Kulay people created an amazing material and spiritual culture.

History of Kuzbass

ancient period

The appearance of ancient people in the Kuznetsk-Salair basin coincided with the warming of the interglacial period, during the Pleistocene period. The oldest sites of archanthropes on the territory of Kuzbass are about 400 thousand years old. They were found on the territory of the Mokhovsky coal mine (Leninsk-Kuznetsky district). Archaeological finds testify to the ability of archanthropes to make fire, make stone tools, and organize driven hunting. During the late Paleolithic period (40-12 thousand years ago), tundra was located on this territory. Numerous herds of mammoths, giant reindeer, bison lived in it. The most ancient sites of this period are located in Voronino, near the settlement of Yaya and in the village of Shestakovo, on the right bank of the river. Kiya. In the middle stone period - the Mesolithic (12-8 thousand years ago), geological and climatic changes took place. During the Holocene, the glaciers left, and the plant and animal world close to the modern one was formed. The ancient population mastered the manufacture of boats and skis, used bows and arrows, was engaged in fishing and gathering. Many elements of the economic structure of the local population took shape then, and lasted until the industrial era. Mesolithic sites were discovered on Bolshoi Berchikul, in the middle reaches of the Tom (Bychka-1) and in Gornaya Shoria (Pechergol-1). They correspond to the cultural circle of the Mesolithic culture of Western Siberia, the Middle Urals and Northern Kazakhstan. Typical tools of that time were made of flint, quartzite, jasper-like rock. These are the tips of spears and arrows, daggers, knives, drills, piercings. During the Neolithic period (8-5 thousand years ago), the population of Western Siberia developed a variety of economic activities and a rich material culture. At this time, primitive forms of religion are developing: animism, totemism, fetishism, magic, shamanism. By the end of the Neolithic is the emergence of a natural sanctuary on the banks of the Tom, now known as the Tomskaya Pisanitsa. The rocky walls of the petroglyphs are decorated with numerous petroglyphs. In the Neolithic time, the ancient inhabitants of Kuzbass mastered new technologies - weaving from plant fibers, making ceramics, fine processing of stone, bone, horn, wood. Archaeologists have discovered settlements and burial grounds in the Novokuznetsk region, in Mountain Shoria (Pechergol-2), in the foothills of the Kuznetsk Alatau (Bolshoy Berchikul-4), on the river. Ine and R. Yaya.

Bronze Age

In the Bronze Age (III - II millennium BC), pastoral tribes in the Kuznetsk Territory began to use copper tools. Their anthropology and material culture were in many respects close to the population of Altai and Khakassia. A large settlement of this type was located on the shore of about. Tanay. It is characterized by round dwellings with a conical roof made of poles covered with bark and animal skins. In the north, in the foothills of the Kuznetsk Alatau, other taiga hunting tribes lived. It was culturally close to the population of the taiga zones of the Ob, Irtysh, Yenisei. In the first half of the II millennium BC. a new population comes to the forest-steppe of the Kuznetsk Territory. It was formed under the significant influence of Caucasoid groups from Western Asia. These were tribes of pastoralists, hunters and fishermen, who were at the stage of tribal system. A significant number of found bronze weapons speaks of the emergence of a military society and complex processes of social differentiation. The finds testify to the high skill of blacksmiths, casters and ancient miners. Only at the Samus IV settlement, which is located in the lower reaches of the Tom River, more than 400 of them were found. Copper came from the deposits of Rudny Altai and Gornaya Shoria, and tin from the basins of the Kiya, Yaya, and Zolotoi Kitat rivers.

In the middle of the millennium, the Andronovo culture developed in the space between the Southern Urals and the middle reaches of the Yenisei. "Andronov" belonged to the Indo-Iranian language group. They left a noticeable mark in the history of all Western Siberia. The military expansion of these tribes significantly pressed the autochthonous population and influenced the transformation of their traditional way of life. The Andronovo culture was reflected in characteristic burial grounds and funeral rites. These are mounds over a wooden building, with a fence made of stone slabs. Weapons, tools, jewelry, remains of sacrificial animals were found inside the burial grounds. The funeral rites of the Andronovites were identical to the ancient Iranian ones, reflected in the Rig Veda and Avesta. The time of existence of Andronovites is connected with the decomposition of primitive communal relations. Leaders, military nobility, heads of large families, elders of clans stand out in their society. During the period
Late Bronze Age (in the XII-X centuries BC) Andronovites were replaced by a new population, which was formed with their participation. They were herdsmen and hunters. It is no coincidence that their settlements were located in places rich in game, but at the same time near lands that could be used for grazing. There is reason to believe that they were also engaged in agriculture and fishing. Such a diversified economy, combining appropriating and producing forms in equal shares, was possible only with a settled way of life. One of these settlements, Tanai-4, was fully explored by archaeologists on the territory of the Kuznetsk Basin. At the final stage (X-VII centuries BC) of the Late Bronze Age, the Irmen culture appeared throughout the territory of the modern Kemerovo region. Its creators were new tribes. This people occupied vast areas from the Middle Irtysh to the Kuznetsk Alatau. The main archeological monuments: settlement on the Lyuskus river, Ust-Kamenka settlement, burial grounds Zhuravlevo-4, Pyanovo, Titovo. This agricultural culture built large, populated settlements in the floodplains. Archaeological monuments of this people include a variety of weapons, rich ceramics, grain grinders, men's and women's jewelry. The Irmen culture also left behind many barrows and funerary obelisks.

Iron age. Early Middle Ages

In the history of Siberia, the early Iron Age is sometimes called the "Scythian time", and the peoples who had similarities, the Scythian or Scythian-Siberian world. In the north of the modern Kemerovo region, in the forest-steppe zone, in the VI-V centuries BC. e. Significant groups of a new population appeared, which are conditionally called Tagars. They were moving from Khakassia. The main reason for migration seems to have been demographic pressure in Eastern Siberia. The Tagars were herdsmen and farmers. They lived in stationary settlements. A significant role in the life of the Tagars was played by war, raids, the capture of booty and slaves. War becomes a constant occupation of the peoples of the Scythian-Siberian world. Among the archaeological finds, a prominent place belongs to the armament of the Tagars - combat coinage-bits, daggers, a bow and arrows in a quiver. Many figurines of deer remained from the Tagar era in a resting or flying pose, i.e. with legs bent under the body. These bas-relief images of deer have become a symbol of the Scythian time. By the end of the first millennium BC. e. on the territory of Kuzbass, the processes of historical development have become complex. Period II century BC. e. - 5th century AD marked by the Great Migration of Nations. As a result of this process, a new agricultural and pastoral population arose in the Middle Yenisei region, which received the conditional name "Tashtyks". The Tashtyks were well versed in the technologies for the production and processing of iron, built wooden settlements with the help of iron axes and adzes. In the graves of the nobility, plaster casts from the faces of the dead have been preserved. They allow us to judge the anthropology of this people. These tribes existed on the territory of the Mariinsky forest-steppe until the 5th-6th centuries. Their further historical fate is still unknown. In the space from the middle reaches of the Tom to Gornaya Shoria, another warlike people, the "Kulais", lived in this era. The petroglyphs of the Tomsk petroglyphs testify that the Kulais were rather skilled warriors, armed with bows and arrows, battle axes and protected by armor made of iron or bone plates. The Kulay people created an amazing material and spiritual culture. Characteristic monuments are finely crafted ceramic bowls, non-ferrous metal items. The bronze casting art of the late Kulais presents images of a rider, a bear and deer.

Middle Ages, Turkic and Mongolian periods.

In the period of the early Middle Ages (VI-XI centuries), the historical development of ancient societies was closely connected with the events in the steppes of Central Asia. During the existence of the First (552-630) and Second (679-742) Turkic Khaganates, the traditional culture created by the Kulays continued to develop on the territory of the Kuznetsk Territory. Changes within it were associated with an increase in the share of cattle breeding in the economic activity of the population, with further social stratification of society. The history of this people is recreated based on materials from excavations of burial grounds near the villages of Saratovka, Shabanovo, Vaganovo, treasures found in the vicinity of Yelykaev, Terekhin, Egozov, and Lebedei. Among the archaeological finds of that era, a number of items appear, especially in weapons and horse equipment, which are characteristic of the Central Asian Turks. Through the Turks, the Kuznetsk population maintained contacts with China and the states of Western Asia. In particular, Chinese coins were found in the burials. One of the features of the historical development at that time was that the local population was constantly influenced by the nomads of the Central Asian steppes. Ultimately, this will lead to the complete adoption of their culture and language. In the 9th-10th centuries, the situation on the territory of the Kuznetsk-Salair region changed significantly. In 840, the Kyrgyz created a huge power. This was preceded by long wars with the Uighurs, which were finally defeated. Around the same time, in the upper reaches of the Irtysh River, the early state of the Kimaks arose. The border between them and the Kyrgyz ran along the ridges of the Kuznetsk Alatau.

According to experts, tribes lived on the territory of the Kuznetsk Territory, which are known in written sources as the Kipchaks. At the beginning of the 11th century, a significant part of the Kipchaks were forced to leave their lands and go far to the west to the Eastern European steppes. A little later, in the Russian chronicle, they are first mentioned as Polovtsian tribes. The Mongolian period (XIII-XIV centuries) on the territory of the Kuznetsk-Salair landscape region has been studied very poorly. The main historical events of this time took place in the steppe and were associated with the formation of the Chingizid empire. The dominion of the Mongols over the population of the region was formal, so it could hardly cause any significant changes in the material and spiritual culture. This is evidenced by archaeological sources of monuments near the villages of Ur-Bedari, Musokhranovo, Toropovo. According to anthropologists, the population of the Mongolian time in appearance combined Caucasoid and Mongoloid racial features. This once again allows us to assert that the local line of historical development and the external one, connected with the Turkic world, were in interaction for a long time. There was no major breakdown. But in the end, the process of Turkization of the local population was completed. When the Kuznetsk land was included in the Russian state, the Russians were met here by the indigenous peoples who spoke the Turkic language.

Russian Empire (XVII - early XX centuries)

The new history of the Kuznetsk land is inextricably linked with the epic of Russian exploration of Siberia. Already at the beginning of the 17th century, the first Russian settlers appeared here: peasants, hunters, Cossacks, missionaries. It is characteristic that in the language of the indigenous inhabitants - the Shors, the word "Cossack" often means "Russian". Siberia did not know serfdom; Russian settlers were actively engaged in taiga crafts, traded, founded villages. Novokuznetsk is the oldest city in Kuzbass. In the reign of Mikhail Fedorovich, in 1618, the Cossacks founded the Kuznetsk prison at the confluence of the rivers Kondoma and Tom. In 1620, the prison was moved to a high terrace on the right bank of the river. Tomy. Now there is the Kuznetsk fortress. Until the middle of the 19th century, it covered the Russian population of the Tom valley from the raids of nomads - the Kirghiz and Dzungars, and potential threats from Qing China. Mariinsk is considered the second oldest city in the Kemerovo region. The Russian village of Kiyskoye appeared on the Moscow highway in 1698. Gradually, it was filled with immigrants from Central Russia, Ukraine and Transbaikalia, and by the middle of the 19th century it consisted of 3.6 thousand inhabitants. In 1856, the settlement received the status of a city, and was named after Empress Maria Alexandrovna, wife of Alexander II. The city, located on the way from Russia to the Far East, was considered an important transport and trade hub. Gold was mined on the banks of the Kiya, leather, brick, pottery, and soap industries were located.

In 1698, Peter I, having learned about the silver ores found near the Kitat River, instructed the Tomsk governor "to assist with all diligence and zealous ore prospecting and ore-smelting business on the tributaries of the Kiya River." So the silver ores of Salair, iron ores in Mountain Shoria were discovered. During the expeditions, gold was found in the Kuznetsk Alatau. In 1721, the Cossack son Mikhailo Volkov discovered a “burnt mountain” on the banks of the Tom River, becoming the discoverer of Kuznetsk coals. The first mention of a small settlement on the river. Tom with the name Komarovo / Kemi (e) rov refers to the diaries of the famous Siberian explorer D.G. Messerschmidt, in 1721.

The toponym "Kemerovo", according to Kuzbass scientists, goes back to the Turkic word "kemer", meaning "belt", "mountain slope". Here, near the villages of Krasnaya and Kemerovo, deposits of coal were found. The industrial development of the Kuznetsk land began at the end of the 18th century. The first interest in the development of Kuznetsk coal was shown by the Ural industrialist A. N. Demidov. Later, Demidov's Kolyvan-Voskresensky factories with the adjacent mineral resources became the property of the imperial family. Since that time, most of the Kuzbass, which was included in the Altai mining district, was under the jurisdiction of the Cabinet of His Imperial Majesty. In the 18th century, industrial enterprises appeared: Tomsk iron-working, Gavrilovsky and Guryev silver-smelting plants, Sukharinsky and Salairsky mountain mines. Long distances from the central regions of the Russian Empire remained a serious obstacle to the development of the region. The situation changed during the period of early Russian industrialization.

In the last third of the 19th century, the orientation towards the use of the resources of the eastern regions increased in the economic strategy of Russia. When the Trans-Siberian Railway was built (1898), Western Siberia was actively involved in the economic life of the country. Kuzbass received an impetus in the industrial use of iron ores, non-ferrous metals, coal and wood. The flow of migrants from the central regions of Russia increased many times over.

Kuzbass in the latest period of national history (1918 - 1991). USSR.

The dynamic development of the territories of the future Kuzbass was interrupted by dramatic military and revolutionary events. The most famous event of the civil war was the Kolchugin uprising of the workers. In the early twenties, the territory of the Kemerovo region was administratively part of the West Siberian Territory, and then - the Novosibirsk region. One of the brightest pages in the history of the region is associated with the activities of the "autonomous industrial colony", AIC. The head of the colony was the Dutch engineer Rutgers. American and European specialists helped restore and develop the mining industry. From the beginning of the 1920s. restoration processes begin in the region. During this period, cultural institutions and cultural and educational organizations were created in Kuzbass: people's houses, clubs, libraries, museums, reading rooms. The industrial significance of Kuzbass is revealed during the years of industrialization. At this time, urbanization processes are developing: rural settlements are transformed into cities. In 1925, a mountain was formed from the closely located villages of Kemerovo and Shcheglov. Shcheglovsk, which in 1932 was renamed Kemerovo after the name of the mine. Anzhero-Sudzhensk (1931), Novokuznetsk (1931), Prokopievsk (1931), Topki (1933), Kiselevsk (1936), Belovo (1938), Guryevsk (1938), Osinniki (1938) became the new cities. Progress is being made in the areas of urban improvement, social security, and culture. In 1933, the first Zenkovsky park of culture and recreation in the region was opened in the city of Prokopyevsk, in the same year the first tram passed through the streets of Stalinsk (Novokuznetsk), in 1934 the Kemerovo City Drama Theater was created, in 1937 in the city of Kemerovo, the first cinema in the region, Moskva, was launched. Technical schools are opening in the cities: industrial, chemical, pedagogical, construction in the city of Shcheglovsk (Kemerovo), metallurgical in Novokuznetsk, mining in Prokopyevsk, agricultural in Mariinsk. By 1940, 125 hospitals operated on the territory of Kuzbass.

In the pre-war years, the actual capital of Kuzbass was Novokuznetsk. The modern industrial city appeared thanks to the Kuznetsk Iron and Steel Works. In 1931, the name of Novokuznetsk was given to the Sad-Gorod settlement at the metallurgical plant under construction. And in 1932 the cities of Kuznetsk and Novokuznetsk of the West Siberian Territory were merged into one city with the name "Novokuznetsk". From May 1932 to November 1961 the city was called Stalinsk. An important milestone in the history of our region was the Great Patriotic War. About 330 thousand inhabitants of Kuzbass went to the front; 120 thousand did not return home. Others worked hard and selflessly in the rear. In the first months of the war, 71 enterprises from the European part of the country were evacuated to the region. New enterprises radically changed the appearance of cities, settlements, formed the industrial topography of the region. About 50 thousand tanks and almost the same number of aircraft were made for the front from Kuzbass metal; after the loss of Donbass, the coal mined in the region acquired great strategic importance. During the war years, 246 Kuzbass residents received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Among them, the names of Vera Voloshina, Gennady Krasilnikov, Panfilov's hero Illarion Vasilyev are more famous ... The inhabitants of Kuzbass know that the prototype for the bronze monument in Beryl's Treptow Park to the victorious Soviet warrior with a girl in his arms was the feat of a warrior from the Kemerovo region. Evgeny Vuchetich, People's Artist of the USSR, immortalized the feat of our fellow countryman from the Tyazhinsky district of the Kemerovo region, the standard-bearer of the 220th Guards Regiment, Guards Senior Sergeant Nikolai Masalov. During the Great Patriotic War, in fact, a new military-industrial base of the USSR was created in the region. The significantly increased role of the region accelerated its separation into an independent administrative-territorial unit from the Novosibirsk region. On January 26, 1943, the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR "On the formation of the Kemerovo region as part of the RSFSR" was signed.

With the end of the war, the government took a course towards the accelerated development of the eastern regions of the country, Kuzbass in particular.

During the late 1940s - early 70s. a system of higher professional education of the region was formed: in the northern capital of Kuzbass, a teacher's institute (since 1974 - Kemerovo State University), a medical institute (since 1995 - Kemerovo State Medical Academy), Kemerovo Mining Institute, later transformed into a polytechnic ( now Kemerovo State Technical University), Kemerovo Technological Institute of Food Industry; Kemerovo Higher Military Command School of Communications; Kemerovo State Institute of Culture. Science was developed, as a result, in 1990, the Kemerovo Scientific Center was formed on the basis of the scientific institutions of the region. In the 1950s The Kemerovo Regional Philharmonic Society was formed, the Kemerovo Regional Children's Library was opened, branches of the Union of Journalists and the Union of Artists of the RSFSR were created, the Kemerovo Television Center was put into operation (the first broadcast took place on April 22, 1958). The buildings of drama theaters were built in the years. Prokopievsk (1956), Kemerovo (1960), Novokuznetsk (1963) and the operetta theater in Kemerovo. Since 1962, a puppet theater began to work in the regional center. In 1973, the buildings of two circuses were built (in the cities of Kemerovo and Novokuznetsk). By the end of the 1980s. in Kuzbass there were 6 theaters, 954 club institutions, 24 museums, more than 1200 libraries.

Russian Federation

Russian Federation 1990-2015. In the early 1990s, the social sphere and the economy of Kuzbass underwent significant changes. As a result of privatization, up to two thirds of the region's enterprises turned out to be in the sphere of private capital. The crisis phenomena of the second half of the 1980s and the first half of the 1990s set difficult tasks for the regional authorities: the preservation of the foundations of production, the social protection of the population, and the search for economic alternatives. Overcoming the crisis in the industry of Kuzbass began at the initiative of the new head of administration Aman Tuleyev. Primary attention was paid to the work of the coal industry, which plays a major role in the economy of the region. Attention was paid to the development of coal mining in a more efficient and safe open way. Already in 1999, 15 coal mining enterprises were put into operation. At the same time, concern for the social protection of the population has become an important part of regional policy. In total, 11 new mines and 16 coal mines have been put into operation in recent years. At present, economic diversification in the Kemerovo Region is proceeding in several directions. Since 2001, OAO Gazprom has been implementing a pilot program called Pilot Production of Coal Bed Methane in the Kuznetsk Basin. A new industry for the Kemerovo region is oil refining: in 2003, the creation of oil refineries began. Considerable attention and resources are given to the development of farms and cluster agro-industrial cooperation. There is a constant renewal of the fleet of agricultural machinery, programs are being implemented to support small and medium-sized businesses. In April 2010, a new KuzbassAvto plant was put into operation in the Leninsk-Kuznetsk region together with a South Korean company. This is the first car assembly plant beyond the Urals, which uses the most modern technical developments. An important direction in the life of Kuzbass is science and education. The system of higher professional education of the Kemerovo region currently includes 10 independent higher educational institutions with 16 branches in the cities of Kuzbass, a number of non-state universities, and many branches of universities from other regions. Today in Kuzbass there are more than 560 doctors of sciences, more than 2725 candidates of sciences. Among the Kuzbass scientists there are more than 200 academicians, 28 honored scientists. There are many grant programs to support education and research in the region, gubernatorial scholarships and regional nominal scholarships are paid, and social support is provided to students. The Kemerovo region today is not only an industrial region. Over the decades of development, a great cultural and social potential has been accumulated and developed in it. Construction is one of the dynamically developing sectors of the economy. The implementation of projects of complex low-rise buildings, and first of all, the satellite town of Kemerovo Lesnaya Polyana, has received great development. In December 2010, a regional perinatal center was opened in Kemerovo. This is a unique specialized high-tech medical institution, which is equipped at the level of world standards. Tourism is becoming an important and promising area of ​​economic and social development of the Kemerovo region. The Kemerovo region has a unique natural, cultural and historical heritage. It has a stimulating effect on the development of related industries, such as transport, communications, catering, agriculture, handicrafts, food industry, entertainment and recreation services, trade, personal services, etc. The development of tourism in Kuzbass contributes to the development of international and interregional cooperation, raises the cultural level of the population, the level of patriotism and self-identification of the inhabitants of the Kemerovo region. At present, the program “Strategy for the Development of Tourism in the Kemerovo Region until 2025” has been adopted for implementation, and the Tourist and Recreational Cluster of Kuzbass has been created.”

Photos provided by the Museum of Archeology and Ethnography of the KemSU