Vladimirskoye opolie - a pearl of nature, a reserved land, a real granary of the country. Occupying one tenth of the territory, it produces about 70% of all agricultural products. The Vladimir opolye is a unique phenomenon. Situated close to major industrial centers, having a large number of ancient monuments of Russian architecture, museum cities and a high culture of agriculture that has been developing for centuries, which made this region the breadbasket first of Rostov-Suzdal, then of the whole of Muscovite Russia. The Vladimirskoye opolye deserves the status of the All-Russian Soil Reserve. Vladimir opolie is 200 thousand hectares of the most fertile soil. On the territory of the region national park"Meshchersky". Centuries-old tall pine forests, old birch, aspen and linden forests, small areas of spruce reign in the southern part of the region. Medium mineralized sulfate-chloride waters of complex cationic composition, strong bromine, chloride sodium brines. The Vladimirskoye opolye, where the city of Vladimir is located, is a unique phenomenon. On the territory of the region, the pearls of the "Golden Ring of Russia" - the Church of the Intercession on the Nerl, the white stone carved lace of the Dmitrievsky Cathedral and the majestic Assumption Cathedral have been admiring travelers with their splendor for eight centuries. The appearance of ancient cities is beautiful and original: Suzdal, Alexandrov, Murom, Yuryev-Polsky, Gorokhovets, numbering hundreds of years of existence and preserving the unforgettable warm color of ancient provincial Russian cities, striking with an abundance of monuments of ancient Russian architecture, the scope of monastic ensembles, museum treasures created by the hands of craftsmen . The region is part of the Central Federal District. The Vladimir region is located in the central strip of the European part of Russia, in the Volga basin, in the south of the Volga-Omsk interfluve, in the northeast - the Smolensk-Moscow Upland, in the interfluve of the Nerl and Kirzhach rivers - the Vladimir opole, in the south - the Meshcherskaya lowland. In Vladimir and its environs there is a sanatorium ",", Not far from Kovrov there is a sanatorium named after Abelman. The city has a tourist health complex. There is a sanatorium - a rehabilitation center located 80 km from the city of Vladimir and 19 km from the city of Pokrov, a rest house ", the hotel" Terek ". Vladimir region there is a children's sanatorium health camp, a sanatorium "
Opole, aka Zalesie, is a medieval geographical name of the territory where the famous Golden ring. It is called Zalesie relative to Kyiv, since this territory lay behind the Bryansk forests. Initially, Finno-Ugric tribes lived here, but since the 10th century there has been a migration of Slavs to these lands, mainly from Pskov and Novgorod lands, where the soils are not so fertile. The first city that arose in Opole was Rostov. Later Pereslavl-Zalessky, Yaroslavl, Vladimir, Suzdal appeared. They were strongholds in new lands for the Slavs. After that, the concept of Zalesye gradually disappears and is replaced by the concept of Rus.
Now Opole is a quiet place where time does not hurry at all. The fields here are planted with rye, oats and corn. It seemed to me that the density of churches here is the maximum for Russia.
On the way to Pereslavl-Zalessky, harvesting is going on in almost all fields, and in many it has already ended and straw pellets are everywhere 
There are a great many such destroyed churches along the way. They are very visible in the fields. But it is impossible not to notice that most of them are being restored. For example, this one can see a galvanized roof 
Pereslavsky district, Kabanskoye. Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Built in 1824 at the expense of the landowner Pavel Petrovich Svinin and parishioners 
Pereslavsky district, Ryazantsevo. Church of St. Michael the Archangel 
By the way, it should be noted that the roads in Yaroslavl region not a fountain. In any case, in the Pereslavl region. But as soon as you cross the sign "Vladimir region", immediately begins good road. Straight meter to meter from the plate 
Pereslavsky district, Elizarovo. Church of the Life-Giving Trinity. 
Pereslavsky district, Elizarovo. Ensemble of churches of Nikita the Martyr and the Life-Giving Trinity.
When I went out to take this photo, a man of about 50 came up to me and immediately asked fifty dollars for a bottle. Kind such. I didn’t have a fifty-kopeck piece, but a gold piece also arranged it. No matter how hackneyed it may sound, but all the same, our village completely becomes an inveterate drunkard ... 
Pavement in Sim 
And here, in Sima, the hero of the Patriotic War of 1812, Prince P.I., died. Bagration. During the Battle of Borodino, a fragment of the core crushed the general's tibia of the left leg. The prince refused the amputation proposed by the doctors. The next day, Bagration mentioned in his report to Tsar Alexander I about the injury:
« I am wounded rather lightly in the left leg by a shattering bullet; but I do not regret it in the least, being always ready to sacrifice the last drop of my blood to defend the fatherland and the august throne ...»
The commander was transferred to the estate of his friend, who also participated in the Battle of Borodino, Lieutenant General Prince B. A. Golitsyn, in the village of Simy, Vladimir province.
On September 25, 1812, Pyotr Ivanovich Bagration died of gangrene, 18 days after being wounded. According to the surviving inscription on the grave here, in Sim, he died on September 23.
Yuryev-Polsky district, with. Sim. Church of Demetrius of Thessalonica. Year of construction: 1775.
Landscapes of Opole 
To see this church, we specially drove an extra 50 kilometers from the main road to Vladimir. In fact, the church turned out to be very beautiful. And, fortunately, it is also recovering, and, as you can see, it will be incredibly bright.
Yuryev-Polsky district, with. Podolets. Church of the Life-Giving Trinity. Year of construction: 1659
Yuryev-Polsky district, with. Yurkovo. Church of Michael the Archangel. 1835 
Just before Vladimir, we were covered by a powerful downpour 
But then there was a rainbow. It’s just that no matter how much I tried to shoot it, it doesn’t work bright in the photo of this natural drying ... 
Along the Vladimir opol,
from east to west and from north to south
M.S. Drozdov
What is Vladimir Opole? This is a "natural (landscape) area, occupying most Suzdal and Yuryev-Polsky districts of the Vladimir region. and Gavrilovo-Posadsky district of the Ivanovo region, as well as small parts of the adjacent Kolchuginsky and Sobinsky districts of the Vladimir region. It is located in the basins of the Nerl and Koloksha rivers. It extends for about 30 km from south to north and for 70 km from west to east, has the character of a wavy-ridged plateau with absolute heights from 120 to 165 m above sea level. Area ancient agriculture"... Approximately so they write in encyclopedias, although, I think that it is necessary to add Pereslavl to Opol'.
What else do they write? The climate, they write, is more continental here than in Vladimir: in summer the temperature is higher, and there is less precipitation, dry winds are not uncommon. Moisture deficiency exacerbates ... a lot of ravines: water flows down them from high-rise buildings. The vegetation of Opole, if not steppe, then - forest-steppe appearance. Once upon a time, oak forests alternated "with areas of steppe meadows, turning in places into meadow steppes." Oak forests have long been cut down, and “steppe meadows” have been plowed up (but it looks like they will soon begin to grow again). Among the plants there are very southern species. People call local soils "Vladimir chernozems", in fact, according to science, these are "gray forest soils", but their powerful humus horizon reaches a thickness of 30 centimeters. Rye and oats, peas and buckwheat, flax and barley have long been grown on it. They harvested 25-30 centners of winter wheat per hectare, huge crops of grasses, potatoes, etc. And how well someone said: “On such an abundance of food, the horse breed “Soviet heavy truck” was nurtured - animals of unprecedented strength and immense endurance.” We were with Krivenka in Gavrposad and saw these beauties. But we will make an important addition that not only Soviet heavy trucks, not only the ancient Suzdal Vladimir principality fed on the fertile Opole, which was, in fact, economic basis Northeast Russia. It also played an important political (and not even domestic, but foreign) role. From him, from his bread, more precisely, to a large extent depended distant, it would seem, the richest and free, like, Veliky Novgorod. Have you ever wondered why the princes of Pereslavl, Suzdal, Vladimir origin often sat there? Of course, they were driven, changed, but ... often, often it was from here that they were delivered to Volny Novgorod. And all because bread for a rich democratic city came from Opole, especially during lean crops. Novgorod years. And just a little - it was possible to pinch not the respiratory, but the food tract of Novgorod and dictate (or try to dictate) conditions to him ...
3.1.12. Tue.
This is such a special place, a unique geographical, biological and historical object- our Opole, it is not without reason that an association of Vladimir and Ivanovo local historians with the same name - “Our Opole” has now arisen and is actively operating.
I remember the first time I drove over it. I think it was in the summer of 2002, we were on our way to Lukh with the Abramych. The goal was then different - the homeland of the Vtorovs, but even then the area from Yuryev-Polsky to Suzdal made a strong impression with its views, its distances. In the summer of 2009, with the same company that we are traveling today, we crossed Opole - from Pereslavl-Zalessky to Yuryev-Polsky, and from there - to Alepino and Stavrovo. And so, in the first days of the new year 2012, we again travel along this amazing land, we just start on the right, i.e. from the east of Vladimir Opol'e, from Vladimir itself.
At first there were our usual points: Chernogolovka, from where I left; Yamkino, where there were already four of us; Noginsk, through which we left for Gorky highway; Petushki, where the Alekseevs sat down and there were six of us, a complete set of attentive and grateful listeners ... Seryozha was driving again, Maslovs, Alekseevs and I were in the car again. We go and listen to Volodya, and listening to him, believe me, is much more interesting than reading guidebooks and encyclopedias. Nevertheless, out of some habit, I cite ( small print) and reference data (after all, I tried, selected) about the “objects” of our review, because I simply can’t undertake to convey the nuances of Volodya’s stories.
Yes, but we're on our way Vladimir, as if on the side of it. And when in the huge "Globe" on the outskirts we stock up and drink coffee, the old city center remains on the right and already behind. Dozens of thick and thin, all sorts of books have been written about Vladimir, and there are probably thousands of articles. And we are just passing it today, but for the sake of order we will say something briefly. Volodya spoke about local rivers, about Kyiv analogues, etc., but for the sake of completeness, I give a dry, though not quite brief, reference:
Vladimir, ancient capital North-Eastern Russia, stands on the left bank of the Klyazma, 176 km east of Moscow. Of the Slavs, they were the first to penetrate here in the 9th-10th centuries. Ilmen Slovenes, then others. The city was founded, most likely, by Vladimir Monomakh in 1108, but there is a version about its foundation in 990. Vladimir the Red Sun. The heyday of the city falls on the reign of the brothers Andrei Bogolyubsky (who transferred the capital of the Rostov-Suzdal Principality here in 1157) and Vsevolod the Big Nest. In 1238 and later, the city was subjected to Tatar ruin; nevertheless, it remained the nominal capital of the Russian lands, and from 1299 to 1325 - the residence of Russian metropolitans. Under Dmitry Donskoy, the Vladimir principality merged with Moscow. Since 1778 Vladimir - the center of the governorship, since 1796. - provinces. In 1929-44. the city was part of Ivanovo industrial area, large industrial enterprises. In 1944 Vladimir becomes the center of the region. It has been connected by railway with Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod since 1861-62, in the summer of 2010 the Sapsan was launched. In 1958 The Vladimir-Suzdal Museum-Reserve was created. The historical and architectural heritage is primarily represented by three white-stone monuments of pre-Mongolian architecture: the Assumption Cathedral (1158-60, 1185-89; fragments of frescoes by A. Rublev and D. Cherny); Dmitrievsky Cathedral (1194-97) with rich decorative carvings on the facades; fortress Golden Gate (1158-64). In total, there are 239 state-protected buildings of the 18th-19th centuries in the city. The population of the city from 30 thousand in 1899 increased to 350 thousand in 1989, decreased "under the wind of change" to 316 thousand, then rose again to 345 thousand people. (2010), apparently due to "pumping out" from the area where it becomes impossible to live.
The last Mayor (1905-17) was N.N. Somov, the most "long" chairman of the Vladimir city executive committee - R.K. Shop (1963-79). Vladimir is the birthplace of Admiral M.P. Lazarev, physicist A.G. Stoletov and his brother, the hero of Shipka, General N.G. Stoletov, composer S.I. Taneev, lawyer V.I. Taneyev, announcer Y. Levitan, actor A. Batalov, multiple Olympic champion Nikolai Andrianov. Speransky, Griboyedov, Herzen, Balmont, Shmelev, Venechka Erofeev studied or worked in the city. In 1945-56. was kept in the Vladimir Central, and in 1960-76. lived in Vladimir V.V. Shulgin. The famous Russian philanthropist Yu.S. Nechaev-Maltsov was an honorary citizen of the city.
At about 12 o'clock we leave the Globus. Our goal today is Suzdal, it is not far from Vladimir - 26 km to the north. They flashed quickly - and already this fabulous city shows its profile, but Alekseev turns us to the right, to where the prince lived - into Kidekshu(this is about the same as what Bogolyubovo was for Vladimir).
Kideksha is a village 4 km from Suzdal at the confluence of the Kamenka River (aka Kideksha) into the Nerl. The Meryan suffix "ksha" is typical for the names of rivers - Koloksha, Moksha, Iksha. A fortified settlement existed here even before Yuri Dolgoruky in 1152. built the church of Boris and Gleb. According to legend, this place once housed the encampment of the holy princes (“on the river on the Nerl in Kidekshi near the city of Suzhdali ... there was a joint holy martyr encampment, when Boris from Rostov, Gleb from Murom” always went to Kyiv). At the time of Dolgorukov, Kideksha was a separate (away from the boyars!) fortified princely town that controlled the river routes to Suzdal. It was along the Nerl that Suzdal traded with other lands. In the end of the 12th - n.13th centuries. the town was quite large: the total length of the ramparts was at least 1 km. The shafts were approximately the same length in Dmitrov, and slightly longer - about 1.4 km - in Suzdal. In 1238 Kideksha was ravaged by the Tatars.
In Kideksha we admire the earliest monument of Vladimir-Suzdal architecture, the first white-stone building in North-Eastern Russia - the Church of Boris and Gleb. True, although it was built in 1152, it was heavily rebuilt in the 18th century. But some of the frescoes have been preserved from the foundation. This cubic one-domed three-apse temple is simple, but it produces the impression of strength and power, “strength and glory”. Besides, I am pleased, according to my shtetl patriotism, that art historians and historians note: "the monumental fortress appearance of the temple is still close to the buildings of Novgorod and Pskov." Much later, the Holy Gates appeared (late 17th-early 18th centuries) leading down to the river, the warm church of St. Stephen (1780), and the hipped bell tower (18th century). This bell tower is decently inclined and can be considered ours. leaning tower of pisa. No, perhaps you still need to bend over more, then there will certainly be a lot of people here. But even so, we are satisfied, not because our bell tower is falling, but because it has not fallen and, God forbid, will not fall! Satisfied, we are already going to Suzdal.
Suzdal
Suzdal (Suzdal) is a city-reserve located on the Kamenka River. In the Novgorod code it is mentioned under 999, in the annals - under 1024. (in connection with the uprising of the Magi). In n. 12th c. under Yu. Dolgoruk it was the center of the Rostov-Suzdal principality, in 1157 A. Bogolyubsky transferred the capital to Vladimir, and the principality became known as Vladimir-Suzdal. From Ser. 13th c. - the capital of independent Suzdal, in n. 14th c. - Suzdal-Nizhny Novgorod principality, since 1392 as part of the Grand Duchy of Moscow. Since 1796 - the county town of the Vladimir province. By the 16th century 11 monasteries existed here (by the beginning of the 19th century, 5 were preserved). In 1967, the Master Plan for the development of Suzdal as a museum city was adopted, correctional institutions were taken out of it, on the outskirts, in Korovniki, the Main Tourist Complex was built, and museum expositions were launched. In the late 19th century 8 thousand people lived in the city, the maximum in Soviet times was 12,600, in recent years - a little less than 11 thousand. The city's economy is based on the reception and service of tourists: hotel business, catering, "Souvenir shop of the city of Suzdal", a plant for the production of mead. Big number architectural monuments: Suzdal Kremlin and 3 churches near the ramparts, Spaso-Evfimiev, Pokrovsky, Alexandrovsky, Rizopolozhensky, Vasilyevsky monasteries, the ensemble of the Torgovaya Square with the Trading Rows (1806-11) and 6 churches, the Museum of Wooden Architecture, churches on Posada, on Zarechnaya side, in the settlement of Skuchilikha, in the nearby villages of Korovniki, Mikhali, Ivanovskoye. Let's add more sculptural monuments Prince Pozharsky and poet Lebedev.
No tour guide will forget to call famous people associated with Suzdal, and this is Pozharsky, already mentioned and buried here, the royal wives Solomon Saburova and Evdokia Lopukhina, this is the father of Russian porcelain D.I. Vinogradov, statesman N.A. Maklakov (Ministry of Internal Affairs), revolutionary, poet and theorist of the scientific organization of labor A.K. Gastev, restorer and art historian A.D. Varganov. They will also list several popular films that were filmed in Suzdal, and there are more than 50 in total. Among them are Balzaminov's Marriage (1964), Snowstorm (1964), royal bride(1964), Andrei Rublev (parts "Raid", "Bell", 1966), Darling (1966), Yaroslav Dombrovsky (Poland, 1975), Autumn Bells (1977), My affectionate and gentle beast (1978), Theme (1979 ), Youth of Peter (1980), Young Russia (1981), Enchanters (1982), Silver Revue (1982), Dead Souls (1984), Peter the Great (USA, 1985), About businessman Thomas (1993), Magic portrait (1997 ), Classic (1998), Tsar (2008), Pelagia and the White Bulldog (2008), TV series School (2010).
Suzdal. At the cinema museum
This movie list is very incomplete, and I know now that Yuri Vasilyevich Belov, a Suzdal local historian, journalist, researcher, founder of a surprisingly attractive (yes, that’s what it should be called!) Museum of Cinema, has a complete one. We first visited this museum, and to say that it was interesting there is to say nothing. Yuri Vasilyevich, among other things, has been publishing for 22 years (!) the local history newspaper “ evening call, evening Bell”, and in any list of literature on the history of Suzdal, along with such names as Varganov, Voronin, Wagner, Yamshchikov, Dostoevsky (yes, great-nephew, art critic, years of life 1884-1937), you will definitely come across a detailed book by Belov 1986 year of publication. That's how lucky we were with "Cicerone", and again at the suggestion of V.N. Alekseev! I won’t say anything about a single film in order to kindle curiosity, but it is inevitable for Yu.V. and lead to his museum. He was familiar with almost all the directors, artists and main actors who were filming in the city. But let him tell it himself, and he knows how to do it, and here he and our Volodya can compete.
After the museum, he also showed us the city, and then we took him to some private hotel (there are a lot of them now in Suzdal, and all of them are packed with Muscovites during these holidays), where another delegation was waiting for him. And here is an interesting and piquant, so to speak, detail in connection with this. At the entrance to the hotel there is a sign like a road prohibition sign - in a circle, the dark profile of a girl, of clear behavior, is crossed out with an oblique stripe: they say, do not bring from the street, there are your own. Well, what can I say - probably right! ..
We are in the Spaso-Evfimiev monastery. We take tickets, and they demand a passport from me, they do not believe that I am a pensioner. I'm going to the cathedral. Wonderful murals, touching, amazingly sublime singing of a small choir (“Prayer for Russia”), we leave as if spellbound. And we listen to the Suzdal ringing (they call several times a day, for tourists, of course). Not bad, not bad at all. But with Trinity ringing, with TSL, with Fr. Anthony is incomparable! Yes, that's how it should be. Here - for tourists, and there they call for God!
Then we are in prison, in the former, of course, monastic prison. Well, how, you ask? Oh good! Not to sit, of course, but to watch. Liked. Rich exposition. One soothsayer Abel is worth what?! Old Believer lords. Red commanders. Academician-economist Kondratiev. German generals and officers led by Paulus (lived in the altar of a nearby church). Whoever was not here, the last was the girls' colony. Gagarin came to her. Yura did not refuse, did not disdain to meet with juvenile delinquents...
Houses of Yuri Vasilyevich Belov
Well, in the evening we have a friendly, no, not even like that - in the evening we have a family, consider that we have a feast. A most curious conversation with Belov. By the way, he also showed a book about Suzdal written by Mily Dostoevsky. Alekseev shows an interesting and lovingly made computer presentation. We have a special speech about Savva Yamshchikov. He loved Suzdal, visited here many times. And Yu.V. knew him intimately. And he was buried, one of the few, in the Pushkin Reserve...
4.1.12. cf.
In the morning we go to the Intercession Monastery, cross Kamenka, drive a little along Stromynka (starts from the Stromynka, 2 hotel) and turn onto Pokrovskaya Street. Everything in the monastery is covered in snow, white and clean. The red-bearded monk reprimands the woman that it would be nice to wear a skirt over her pants. But he speaks kindly, good-naturedly. We go to the temple, to Solomonia, we submit notes ...
We return to the city past the very beautiful gates of the Rizopolozhensky Monastery (there is also the highest bell tower in the city, something about 72 m or even more, it is necessary to add it to the register of Russian bell towers), turn off, go out to observation deck at the Trade Rows. Behind them Trading area, Slobodskaya picturesque street actually begins from it, just across the river it turns into Stromynka, which is dear to us. Behind us is the residence of Bishop Valentin, now not even a bishop, but the Metropolitan of Suzdal and Vladimir, head of the ROAC. Fr. Ardov also serves in this system. Michael, joker. Gleb Yakunin, the fighter, isn't he with them?
Moving on with E.N. to the Kremlin, where we meet the rest of our company. We look, we ask, we take pictures. In the guidebooks, in principle, everything is there, I will not go into details. Along Lebedev Street and along the Kremlin, horses harnessed to smart sledges run every now and then. They are smartly selling mead and something else. There are a lot of people in the city now, mostly Muscovites, of course. The rest of the "Russians", Russians, at least, hardly have money for such entertainment ...
I thought that we would leave for Yuryev-Polskaya along “our” street, along Stromynka, but now, it seems, there is no direct exit from it, but there is not quite a direct one. We left the center of Suzdal through Pushkarskaya Sloboda, Shchipachikha and Ivanovskoye, as a result, we rolled not through Gavrilovo - Obrashchikha, but through Turtino - Stary Dvor. On the way, in my opinion, no one, or almost no one, met. And no one overtook us.
Yes, today we have such a route: Suzdal - Ivanovskoye - Turtino - Tarbeevo - Malininsky - Stary Dvor - Obrashchikha - Andreevskoye - Nebyloye - Zventsovo - Fedorovskoye - Lednevo - Kalinovka - Yuryev-Polsky. Like so. The views are already familiar, and therefore after Suzdal it is somehow boring. But a little needs to be said about the Old Court, the Convert and the Unbelievable. Old Yard- on the road Vladimir - Yuryev - Polsky.
The village of Stary Dvor in the Opolsky camp (here, here it is - Opolye - in what century!), According to Ph.D. M. Rossiysky, first mentioned in charter Grand Duke Ivan III Vasilyevich Metropolitan Simon of Moscow dated 1504 "on the lack of jurisdiction of the metropolitan villages and villages of the Vladimir district to the governors of Vladimir and volosts." With the establishment of the patriarchate in Russia, the village became a patriarchal patrimony, in the Petrine era it passed into the department of the Holy Synod, after 1764 - College of economy. Most early description village "at the big Yuryev - Polish road"associated with the General Land Survey (between 1764 and 1782). It included 75 households with 277 men and 280 women, as well as the "wooden church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker." The land area of the Starodvorsky “economic” estate was 1,340 acres, and the general characteristics are as follows: “the earth is gray with sand, bread is available, mowing of lutchia, wood-burning forest, peasants on state dues.” All R. 19th century Flour-grinding flourished here, and seven windmills stood behind the outskirts of the “state-owned” village (which is “by the pond and wells”). There were already 91 households in it (285 residents + 320 residents). In n. 20th century - 143 yards and 874 residents, a zemstvo school, a postal station.
Converter- in the very center of Opol'ya on the Bolshaya Stromynskaya road. Not the first and not the second time I pass through it and every time I think about this name, and every time I think that it is connected with the conversion, the way back, the turn, perhaps, because on the map the road from Yuryev, as it were, descends to Obrashchikha, and then again rises to Suzdal, making a decent detour, which is not entirely clear to me. It will be necessary to ask the connoisseur of these places, Boris Alekseevich Volchenkov. He probably knows and understands why...
Obrashchikha is a village in the Suzdal region. If you go from Vladimir, then it is 28 km away. Here the road Vladimir - Yuryev-Polsky connects with the old Stromynka. In the village, the Church of John the Baptist, built in 1825, in the style of classicism, stood broken until very recently. Like so many in Russia, already, apparently, for the liquidation of the Russian peasantry as a class and simply as a people, doomed to complete destruction. But here, in the fall of 2010, restoration work began. Partially, on top of the church, there are scaffolding for access to the rotunda, and very sharply - based on the release of logs from the windows. And just recently a dome with a cross was erected on the temple. The cross was donated from the Archangel Michael Church on Studena Gora in Vladimir. Dean Vladimir and served here on this occasion.
The traffic is very weak, there is practically none, both when we left Suzdal and here, in the middle. Cyclists somehow also noted, and in summer, not in winter, that traffic congestion in Opole is generally low, and in the sections Obrashchikha - Suzdal and Suzdal - Stary Dvor - in fact, zero. This is the fate of the oldest Russian roads: even the surface is more or less suitable, so there is no one and nothing to ride now! By the way, the current Stromynsky tract here is of the most modest modern (or only Soviet?) standards for asphalt two-lane roads - a width of 7 m.
Unbelievable. Kozmin Monastery
pointer to Unbelievable no, or it is somehow very badly staged, but you can’t fool our Volodya. We turn right. A series of semi-detached collective-farm or state-farm houses. Then even two-story houses... On the outskirts, already on a decline, on a slope, a monastery is very picturesquely located, a small, compact, such a pretty monastery...
Unbelievable, among other things, is the birthplace of the ancestors of the artist Vitsin, as they say, very humble person and generally a very decent person. At the Belov Museum of Cinema, we saw Vitsin's autograph, where he just mentions this village. And judging by the beautiful building of the musical (!) school (formerly a hospital), a huge but burned down recreation center, this was not an ordinary village.
Nebyloye - a village in the Yuryev-Polsky district, the center of Nebylovsky rural settlement. It is located on the banks of the Yakhroma (a tributary of the Koloksha), 25 km southeast of Yuryev-Polsky. First mentioned in 1464. In the 15th century Kozmin (Kosmin) monastery was founded here. In the 17th century the village and the monastery were ravaged by the Poles. In 1935-63. - the center of the Nebylovsky district. Landmark - Holy Assumption Kosmin (Kosmo-Yakhroma) Monastery (1492) with St. Nicholas Gate (1694), Assumption (1675) and Spasskaya (1666-75) churches. Founded by Rev. Kosmay Yakhrovsky, a monk of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, at the place where the icon of the Assumption of the Mother of God appeared to him. In 1624, the monastery was granted a village, in the middle. 17th century the stone Assumption Cathedral was erected. From 1665, for 9 years, Hieromonk of the Zolotnikovskaya Hermitage Mitrofan, the future Bishop of Voronezh, was hegumen. In 1684, the Cosmin Monastery was transferred to the jurisdiction of the Patriarchal House. In 1923 the monastery was closed, in 1996 it was returned to the Church. 4 surrounding parish churches are assigned to the monastery.
We examined the monastery not only from the outside, but also from the inside. I also talked to the local people in the village. The monastery is treated well here, but they are asked to repair the House of Culture. In the "Cafeteria" men drink, behave quietly, eat sprats in tomato sauce, as in the good old days, remember them with a tear, already slightly drunk ...
We were given tea in the monastery. When we left the refectory, unexpectedly, after two cloudy days, the sun began to play on the golden domes of the monastery. Life is getting better!?
We are entering Yuriev-Polskoy. Almost instantly we find ourselves in the center of it, i.e. from the side of Suzdal, everything is close here. But compared to Suzdal, the city is simply empty...
Yuriev-Polskoy
Yuryev-Polsky (Yuryev-Polsky) - center Yuryev-Polsky district Vladimir region It is located on the Koloksha River (a tributary of the Klyazma), 68 km northwest of Vladimir and 180 km northeast of Moscow. The city was founded in 1152 by Yu. Dolgoruky. By his order, an almost round fortress was built, which was surrounded by the surviving earth ramparts up to 7 m high, with wooden walls. In the center of the fortress, in 1234, the St. George's Cathedral was erected. Since 1212 Yuryev-Polsky - the center of the specific principality, headed by the son of Vsevolod Big Nest Prince Svyatoslav Under him, the Archangel Michael Monastery was founded in the city fortress. In 1216, the Battle of Lipitsa took place in the vicinity. In 1238, 1382 and 1408 the city was ruined by the Mongol-Tatars. Since 1340 it is part of the Grand Moscow Principality. AT Time of Troubles Yuryev-Polsky was burned by the Poles. From Ser. 17th century the economic growth of the city began, which was facilitated by its location on the Bolshaya Stromynskaya road, which connected the Suzdal lands with Moscow. In the 17-18 centuries. the Mikhailo-Arkhangelsky Monastery was rebuilt (the gate Theological Church of 1670, a hipped bell tower, the Znamenskaya refectory church). Since 1796 - county town of Vladimir province. On July 11, 1919, local institutions were looted by a gang of staff captain Efim Skorodumov (Yushki). In 1920, the Yuryev-Polsky Historical and Architectural and Art Museum. Until 2010, Yuryev-Polsky had the status historic city, however, by order of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation of July 29, 2010, this status was deprived. Simple and fast. No, by the way, in the new list of historical cities and my native Staraya Russa ...
The industry of the city consisted of the Avangard weaving and finishing factory (and now produces terry fabrics, but very little), the Promsvyaz plant, the Yuryev-Polsky meat-packing plant, the Alcohol plant, and the Yuryev-Polsky skimmed milk powder plant. Horse breeding (Vladimir heavy trucks), meat and dairy cattle breeding are developed in the region (better to say - it was). The dynamics of the population of the city is as follows: at the end of the 19th century. - about 5800 people, in the 1980s - 22 s extra thousand., now - 19.4 thousand and continues to decrease. The branch of the Vladimir-Suzdal Museum-Reserve includes: the Mikhailo-Arkhangelsk Monastery with a cathedral (1792), the Znamenskaya Church (1625), the St. Films were also shot here, but only two, and not 50, as in Suzdal: in the spring of 1968 - the first series of the film "The Golden Calf", in 2008 - "St. George's Day".
In Yuryev, we leave our things at the Pokrovskaya Hotel and continue our exploration of Opole. St. George's Cathedral, monastery, museum leave for tomorrow. Now we are going to the northernmost part of the Vladimir region. Red, Opole, Fedosino - i.e. we drive exactly the same way as in May we with A.G. Krivenko made their way to Gavrilov Posad along one of the possible channels of the Stromynskaya road. She is in K. 18th - n. 19th century it no longer led to Suzdal (Vladimirka “intercepted” all traffic there long ago), but to the somewhat unexpectedly and strongly developed Ivanovo-Shuisky (or Shuya-Ivanovsky, after all, Shuya was the county center) industrial (textile) region ... To this We will return to the conversation more than once, but after a discussion with B.A. Volchenkov...
Fortress ramparts
And here on the left Settlement. The village is quite large, somewhere I found a figure - 423 people live. A tall, dilapidated bell tower sticks out above the surrounding space. There is a loud speech near the store, you won’t understand whether they are celebrating or swearing. Or all at once, at the same time. But the people, therefore, are, thank God. On the outskirts, almost, of the village, a high rampart (5-6 meters, Alekseev measured) and a moat, sometimes overflowing into a whole river, ringed a rather large space, the effective diameter, so to speak, is not less than 300 m. Inside, it seems that the school was recently , judging by the plantings typical for schools, now there are only a few houses. They say that in the 11-13 centuries. the city of Mstislavl was located behind these ramparts. Why he disappeared, not revived - remains a mystery. Well, the bell tower remained from the Church of the Resurrection of the Word, built in 1804. The temple was blown up or dismantled, for some reason the bell tower was not touched, even the remains of the murals can be seen there - “The Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem”, for example ...
The disappeared Mstislavl is, of course, extremely curious, but the Yuryev local historians associate one more event, of a considerable scale, in 1216 with these places.
At the end of April 1216, here (although others believe that near the Osanovets station, not far from Gavrilov Posad, there is already a memorial there, but not here), the most famous - Lipitskaya - battle of internal Russian civil strife took place. Novgorodians, Pskovians, Smolensk and Rostov fought against the Vladimir-Suzdal squads and the militia. How did it happen? In 1215, Prince Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, the future father of Alexander Nevsky, who worked for hire in Novgorod, quarreled with the Novgorodians and in Torzhok "took over the bread", i.e. did not allow further grain from Opole to Novgorod. In Novgorod, a famine began, Prince Mstislav Udatny was summoned there, as well as allies, and Yaroslav's older, offended brother, Konstantin Vsevolodovich, joined them. The enemy troops met near, they say, the suburban princely castle of Mstislavl. The warriors of Yaroslav Vsevolodovich ran first, then it was clear ...
As a result, Constantine occupied the throne of Vladimir, the blockade of Novgorod was eliminated, justice, it seems, triumphed, but we don’t know exactly where it triumphed - in the Yuryev-Polsky district or Gavrilov Posadsky district ... And now we are driving from Gorodischi past the “industrial” once a village with a cheerful name (so not suitable for our time) "Enthusiast", which remains on the right in traffic. We skip Yurkovo, Belyanitsyno. In May, Krivenka and I turned right in front of Belyanitsyno, to the east, to the Ivanovo region, to Skomovo and further to the GP, and now we are heading exactly north. Ahead Grigorovo, Svaino, Podolets...
Podolets is an ancient village, maybe even 11-12 centuries, once belonged to the princes Miloslavsky, they built a very elegant and original Trinity Church by the pond in the 17th century. The “Description of the Churches and Parishes of the Vladimir Diocese” (1893) says: “There are four thrones in it: on the top floor - in honor of the Holy Life-Giving Trinity (the main throne) and in the name of St. Apostle Andrew the First-Called, on the lower floor - in the name of St. Godfather of Joachim and Anna and in the name of St. Mary of Egypt. In the aisle of Mary of Egypt, Prince Sergei Mikhailovich Miloslavsky and two spouses of Prince Mikhail Vasilyevich were buried (“in the summer of 7127 (1619), July 11, in memory of the holy martyr Euthymia, the servant of God Sergei Mikhailovich Miloslavsky was killed” ... Land near the church ... only 33 tithes... The parish consists of one village Podolets, which has 70 households, 279 male souls, and 359 female souls.
Yes, there is the most beautiful church in Podolets (besides, it was recently decorated on the outside, maybe a little brightly). We talked to the girls riding on the frozen pond. About life here, studying at the Enthusiast, the temple being restored (there used to be a club in it, the “old one”), the collapsed “new” club. The grandmother of one of them turned out to be the head of the church, she showed us the temple and even let us into the bell tower, a pleasant woman, from Korolyov, she knows Chernogolovka ...
North of Podillets only a village Shordyga, 4 km from here. There is a dead end of the road, there is the end of Opol, there are almost no people left, but there is some very good warm lake where people go and go to swim from Podillets - the girls told us. There already solid forests begin, the few remaining men are trying to get something in them, and in the 20s the bandits from Yushka's gang took refuge, but when they did not hide, they slaughtered the communists, robbed shops. The classes were still class struggle was...
In the evening we are all at the hotel, again at the common table...
5.1.12. Thu.
The weather is getting worse, in the sense that it is getting warmer, the feeling of the Russian winter that was in Suzdal is disappearing. Gloomy, puddles everywhere, rain, even fog. In the morning after breakfast, which was brought directly to the room, we go to the monastery: to the temple, then to the museum. They have a very good section of the War of 1812. She was far away from here, but here, in Sim, in the estate of her friends and distant relatives Golitsyn, Bagration died. The museum has a famous carriage, on which the wounded general was carried, a very ingenious and high-quality vehicle. She alone can be admired and studied for a long time. And here there are many other materials, some of which concern the Bogorodsky district, our partisans, the Vladimir militia ...
Dozens of times, probably, I have already been to Yuryev, and every time I cannot pass indifferently past the amazing St. George's Cathedral (1234), past its incomparable flora-fauna and divine-human reliefs. The day before yesterday we saw the first, and today - one of the last, if not the last monument-masterpiece of the white-stone architecture of the Vladimir land of the pre-Mongolian period. Only 4 years remained before the invasion, when it was consecrated. Almost two and a half centuries later, the conqueror of Novgorod and the creator of truly Great Russia, Ivan III, orders the heavily damaged cathedral to be repaired. Then the carved stones will again be placed in the walls, but in a different, often arbitrary, order, and thus the temple will be turned into a huge stone, insoluble riddle ...
Walking with E.N. and V.N. along the ramparts. We look at the houses of the inhabitants from top to bottom. But temples and bell towers are still much higher than us. By the way, the tallest bell tower in the city is relatively new, built in 1902, in the Peter and Paul Monastery. According to Penezhko, its height is "only" 60 m, but it seems to us that it is hardly significantly less than the bell tower of the Rizopolozhensky Monastery in Suzdal...
With the blessing of the abbot, we have a snack in the monastery refectory (in the old round tower!), We pray, we sit down in our, albeit not quite travel, but true, familiar and tried minibus. Well, in Return trip! Commander Alekseev announces the route: Yuriev - Tursino - Ratislovo - Karandyshevo - Fetinino - Alepino. Further to Stavrovo and Lakinsk. Diagonally, but going down from the north of Opole to the south. So we, returning from Rybinsk, went in the summer of 2009, the summer when Savva died ...
We admire the open spaces of Opole from the car window. January, but it is clearly visible where the land has been plowed up, and where it has already been launched. We no longer stop on the territory of the Yuryev-Polsky district. I sigh that we still haven’t dealt with the Ganshins and Ovsyannikovs, local industrialists, their factories and their estates, again we leave it for the future. The estate of one of the Ganshins (but which ones?) Was in the village of Kosinsky. This is in front of Yuryev on the Stromynsky tract, but we are going in a completely different direction ...
Sobinsky district began. Looming ahead is Fetinino, the property of Suvorochka. Then it stays on the side, we don’t turn around, we’ve been there before.
The estate (late 18th century) belonged to Natalya Zubova, nee Prince. Suvorova. The park, the church, part of the manor house, outbuildings (stables, dairy kitchen) have been preserved. After the death of her father, the Generalissimo, the daughter moved her father's old wooden house from Undol here. He, of course, did not live up to our time. But the main, brick, temple-like house with a dome was once in a terrible state. Semicircular galleries-transitions connected it with the square of the horse and cattle yards. Natalya Alexandrovna had everything at hand. It was, but it has passed ... However, it is listed as a place among the 43 historical estates of the Vladimir region. And in the Novgorod region. Knock out the princes Vasilchikovs are listed. About the same, if not worse...
By tradition, be sure to look into Alepino, the native village of Vladimir Soloukhin and his resting place ... In winter, you don’t immediately recognize everything: the church is completely clogged, the ponds are frozen, the Soloukhins’ house looks lonely and poor. We drive straight to the cemetery. Judging by the absence of traces, in the new year we are the first to go to the Writer ...
We decided to go to Cherkutino- to the homeland of Speransky, our largest statesman, creator of the Complete Collection of Laws Russian Empire. For this, they turned away somewhere, I was already confused, but V.N. he knows the map very well, and at the same time he leads an interesting story, and the fact that it is in small print is only a pathetic reflection of his brilliant lecture.
Cherkutino is also a village in the Sobinsky district, 60 km northwest of the "region" (on the Vladimir-Kolchugino highway) and 27 km from the district center, the former village council (now everything is called differently). The word, some believe, means “Beautiful Corner”, others derive from “Cherkva”, which, they say, in the pronunciation of the Novgorodians evicted here under Ivan III meant the church. True, I did not notice such a reprimand for my fellow Novgorodians, even the Old Believers. But the church of Cosmas and Damian really was here - and right up to 1967. Now only the bell tower (1801) of round contours remains from it, they serve in it. Still here, but on the outskirts, is the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker (1736), the ensemble of the Saltykov estate (1730s), the Speransky house (late 18th century). And so that it immediately becomes clear: Field Marshal General, Count, and then His Serene Highness Prince, Nikolai Ivanovich Saltykov (1736-1816), President of the Military Collegium, Chairman of the State Council and the Committee of Ministers, had an estate in Cherkutino. Now there is something like a madhouse in it. And Count Mikhail Mikhailovich Speransky (1772-1839, he managed to stay as a count for only 41 days) was born here. The house of his father, a local priest, is dilapidated, but still standing. The count's father is Mikhail Vasilyevich, his mother is Praskovya Feodorovna, but his wife is nee Stevens and the count is a prominent and influential freemason. What can I say, if Metropolitan Platon himself ... Even in the village there was a good canteen and a good store, to which Soloukhin's friends went for vodka, if Alepino ran out ...
After count Cherkutin 18 km we go to the merchant-industrial Stavrov. Then Kurilovo with a well-known dairy company. Fish ponds behind it...
We stand in Lakinsk, the former Undole, Suvorov once owned. Respite. And thoughts flow, and some sad, not New Year's. Once upon a time, bread went from Opolye to Vladimir, to Novgorod, and then, mainly to Moscow, bread. Later - and milk, and meat, and even fish. Something is still going on now, until the WTO is “joined us”.
But after all, they have already “entered us”, the last peasants without asking! Well, here is the final solution to the Russian question! And my heart shrinks, just like at the sight of ruined temples, dead villages, drunken towns...
But I remembered again the Names that we heard during these three days in the Vladimir Opole. The bright and formidable names of Andrei Bogolyubsky, Sergius of Radonezh, Prince Pozharsky, Generalissimo Suvorov, Prince Bagration, unbroken Old Believers in Suzdal imprisonment, unbroken Savva Yamshchikov. And it got easier. We will, we will have our own Pozharskys! And then they raced quickly and easily: Petushki - Malaya Dubna - Noginsk - Yamkino - ChG. At 9-35 in the morning we left the "Pokrovskaya" hotel on the blurry streets of Yuryev-Polsky, and at 17 o'clock we were already at home.
If you look at soil map Russia, then in its European part you can see a number of one-color "islands" located in a chain stretched from the southwest to the northeast through the territory of the current Bryansk, Kaluga, Vladimir, Kirov and Perm regions. These "islands" are elevated areas of the Central Russian Plain, mostly treeless, which is why they have long and rightly been called opolies.
But treelessness is not the only distinguishing feature Russian opolies. Much in more they are not similar to adjacent territories with their soils. On the map they are called "gray forest", but this is not entirely correct. And the color of these soils is more black than gray, it depends on the weather and season. Therefore, since the 19th century, a more accurate name for opoly soils has been established in the scientific literature - “Yuryevsky chernozem”. True, a lot of time has passed since then, during which, it seems, everything was done to turn our northern chernozem into gray forest soils, but, nevertheless, it is still an order of magnitude higher in fertility than the surrounding soils. . So, for example, Vladimirskoye opolye, occupying a tenth of the region's territory, produces about 70 percent of all agricultural products. Opolya are the pearls of Nature, the real breadbaskets of our country.
In recent years, due to the intensification Agriculture in the central zone of Russia, attention to the study of opolies, as the most promising areas, has noticeably increased. But before talking about this, one should turn to the paleogeographic history of the European part of Russia, that is, to the ancient conditions that contributed to the emergence of opolies.
More from school course we are well aware that the center of European Russia has been subjected more than once to a powerful advance of glaciers from the north. The last of them ended relatively recently: 20-40 thousand years ago; it was called the Dnieper glaciation, since it almost reached the latitude of Kyiv. This glacier, moving from somewhere in the regions of Scandinavia, certainly met with the resistance of the solid rocks of the Central Russian Upland and bypassed it with two powerful streams - eastern and western. This, of course, does not mean that the elevation as a whole escaped the common fate; it was only the last to undergo glaciation, as happens when a certain area is flooded with water. But some areas, of course, remained untouched by ice, they later became known as "remnants". During the melting of ice, the remnants received the greatest amount of sediment in the form of loess-like (i.e., boulderless) loams. These sediments became the parent rock from which the fertile soils of the opolies were formed. True, they were still far away. It took many millennia, cataclysms and a long evolution in the post-glacial period before the lifeless sediments turned into a bio-productive soil, and even more so into the "Yurievsky black soil".
Glacial waters, rushing to the south, filled the hollow of the foothills of the young alpine folding in the place of the current Black and Caspian Seas and formed a huge cold freshwater basin, the northern mark of which reached the current Saratov and Zaporozhye. The water level in it was higher than the level of the World Ocean by several tens of meters. Approximately 10-12 thousand years ago, as a result of powerful tectonic movements (earthquakes), a gap in the mountain range formed at the junction of Europe and Asia Minor, and the waters of the freshwater basin rushed into the Mediterranean Sea, as well as the waters of the latter into the freshwater basin. Perhaps this catastrophe was biblical flood, as a result of which Noah and his family landed on Mount Ararat. And there is no doubt that it was a catastrophe, its consequences are such formidable phenomena as the necrosis of the depths of the Black Sea and the ever-increasing desiccation (aridization) of the Russian Plain. We are no longer talking about such “little things” as climate warming in the European part of our country, or such “trifles” as the existence of two opposite currents in the Bosporus Strait, which greatly affect the safety of maritime navigation.
But there is no evil without good. Nature is able to benefit even in catastrophes. It is to this circumstance that the opolye owe their landscape and soils. A powerful and rapid flow of water through the Bosporus led to a sharp drop in the water level in the Black Sea-Caspian basin from the 50-meter mark to zero at the Kronstadt trough. This fueled the immediate restructuring of the entire hydrographic network of the vast Russian Plain. The rivers that freely meandered (wandered) before that cut deeply into the rocks and took in the flow of fresh water. ground water, which began to be carried out into the World Ocean and the Caspian Sea. Such a discharge of the waters of the Russian Plain should very soon lead to the formation of completely dry landscapes, the vegetation cover of which would be completely dependent on atmospheric precipitation. If this did not happen relatively quickly, then only because in the territory freed from ice, due to warming and high humidity, vegetation formed quite quickly, which, although weakly, has been holding back surface erosion processes for many millennia and slowing down drying. The second and third and third limiting factors were the activity of beavers, then man in the construction of dams and mill dams. In the Vladimir province alone in 1784, there were 413 particular (private) and 117 state-owned water mills. Of these, more than half were in the opole. With the destruction of beavers and mill dams, nothing could and cannot stop the process of drying up the Russian Plain, and it's only a matter of time. Those gigantic reservoirs created by hydroelectric dams on large rivers are only an illusion of our well-being. Now not only large factories, but also most small agricultural enterprises receive water from deep wells, which after use is dumped into surface water bodies. Because of this, the decrease in water in the rivers is not so noticeable, but the concentration in them harmful substances reached such a level that it became dangerous for all living things. Meanwhile, small rivers and streams continue to disappear from the face of the earth. In the Sudogodsky district alone, 46 out of 78 small watercourses have disappeared in recent years. From such critical situation there is only one way out - this is the way back to the proven means. It is necessary to begin the construction of ponds and reservoirs, dams and dams on all small rivers and watercourses, backed up by energetic forest management measures. Without sufficient hydrological support for the surface layers of the opolye, it is impossible to slow down their progressive drying up, especially since its tectonic structures rise relative to the adjacent structures of the Vladimir woodland - Meshchera by 2-3 millimeters per year and, since the end of the last glaciation, have already constituted a difference in absolute heights of 50 - 100 meters.
Under such conditions, the “Yurievsky black soil” was formed and is maintained, the mention of which is already found in ancient acts of the 16th century. True, it is far from the same as it was at least in the 19th century. In his descriptions, lighter colors begin to prevail, and this alarming phenomenon makes us turn to the genesis (origin) of the soils of the “Yuryevsky chernozem” and trace its further evolution.
The question of what used to be on the territory of our opolye - a forest or a steppe - has worried many scientists for a long time. Therefore, it turned out to be the first and especially fertile object on which observations and conclusions about the genesis of opoly soils were made. Here is what, for example, N.Ya. wrote about this. Dubensky in the middle of the 19th century. He defined the soils of the Vladimir opolye as clayey and made a detailed description of them in relation to agriculture.
“From Vladimir to Suzdal, clayey gray soil stretches; in Suzdal uyezd, the soil is noticeably better, and in some places in Yuryevsky and Pereyaslavsky it turns into black earth; the best one is located between Yuryev Posad and Gavrilovsky (Posad).
When wet, this soil is bluish or blackish in color, when dry, near the surface it is brown or gray. It is viscous and very dense for the passage of rainwater into it. Therefore, in this soil there are almost no keys at all. The impermeability of the soil explains, among other things, why it is necessary to dig on such land deep wells to get to the water, and why it never has swamps from water seeping out of the ground; swamps, which are seen in some places on it, are formed only from atmospheric water and, moreover, in a valley, which is surrounded on all sides by elevations and therefore has no descent for her.
As you can see, already in the middle of the last century, the underground hydrological potential of the soils of the Vladimir opolye was basically exhausted, and water regime they were regulated by atmospheric precipitation. And this is with several hundred dams on small rivers, ponds and reservoirs in almost every village, fading, but still vigorous activity beavers. What can we say about our time, when the opole soils are essentially left to their own devices.
“The density and cohesion of this soil depend on the fine and small substances of which it is composed. It seems to consist chiefly of clay, and a small part of very fine, soft, mica and quartz sand, with acidic iron, and in some places with a small admixture of lime; only as a result of constant and prolonged fertilization does it contain a lot of black soil on the estates of some landowners.
Thus, N.Ya. Dubensky, by the way, a native of the Vladimir province, connected the formation of dark-colored soils of the opolye with a long-term human impact on them. This is not surprising, since the enlightened owners of that time intensively fertilized their land. There is a known case when the landowner of the Yuryevsky district L.I. Pushkevich was awarded a gold medal for the samples of clay soil he presented at an agricultural exhibition in the village of Bogolyubovo, which turned into fertile black soil through fertilizer, on which he bred many varieties of cereal plants, which were of particularly heavy quality. Almost simultaneously with the description of N.Ya. Dubensky in the Vladimir province, a cadastral (estimation) commission worked, which called the opol soils "chernozem loams". Actually, these conclusions did not contradict each other, since there was a fact that the opoly soils differed from the South Russian chernozem. However, following this, in 1866 Academician F.I. Ruprecht denied the origin of "Yuryevsky chernozem" as "the result of manipulating" from ancient times. In his work “Geobotanical research on chernozem”, he drew attention to the fact that “in some places that have never been cultivated by humans, there are dark-colored soils and, conversely, 12 kilometers northeast of Suzdal, despite cultivation for a long time , the soil is not dark-colored; in addition, these soils are found exclusively at heights.
Among the works of the 70s of the XIX century, the work of L. Maikov “Notes on Geography Ancient Russia”, in which he wrote that the ancient Slavic settlers of the region “behind the forest wilds of the sandy-marshy strip between the Klyazma and the Oka found a rather significant expanse of land, from ancient times treeless and open, which, perhaps, reminded the newcomers from the south of the steppes of their homeland ... Here, mainly on the left bank of the river. Koloksha, there are ancient names: Belehovo field, Yuryevskoye field, Yuryev-Polskaya. Until now, the local region, stretching from Yuryev almost to Vladimir, is known among the people under the name of the Opolshchina, and the undulating surface of this area, cut by steep ravines, has a very fertile black earth; this last circumstance makes the fact of the ancient treelessness of this region undoubted. It is easy to see that such a formulation of the question does not stand up to scrutiny. The fact is that the first Slavs who settled in the Vladimir opole were not from the south at all, which we will discuss in the next chapter, and even before the Slavs, numerous Finnish tribes who came from the depths of Asia lived here.
Highly swipe according to the representatives of the theory of the “original black soil of the Vladimir opolye”, the great Russian scientist V.V. Dokuchaev with his work "Russian Chernozem", published in 1884. In it, he wrote that “the numerous black earth islands shown on existing common cards in the provinces of Arkhangelsk, Olonets, Kostroma, Yaroslavl, Vladimir, seem ... very, very doubtful ... And indeed, with the available physical and geographical data, it would be very difficult to admit such a complex of soil conditions, age and relief, which could replace the relatively unfavorable nature of the vegetation and climate of the points under consideration. Soils of the Vladimir opolye V.V. Dokuchaev attributed them to the northern meadow-marsh formations, considering them to be marsh-terrestrial formations. This caused a loud discussion about the genesis of the soils of the Vladimir opolye.
Among Dokuchaev's opponents was even a student of the outstanding soil scientist P.A. Kostychev, who in the work “Soils of the chernozem region of Russia. Their origin, composition and properties” stubbornly defended the version of the chernozem nature of the soils of the Vladimir opolye, considering them to be the northern brothers of the southern Russian steppe chernozem. Professor G.I. had his own point of view on this question. Tanfiliev. In a polemic with the forester L.A. Ivanov on the pages of the journal Soil Science, and especially in the Proceedings of the Free Economic Society, he found reason to assume the existence in this area in prehistoric times of an island of the steppe, abandoned among the dense virgin forests of primeval northern nature. The scientist explained the absence of a forest here by a certain composition of the soil. L.A. Ivanov, on the contrary, proved the forested Suzdal land in the past, believing that even the name "opolshchyna" comes from the verb "pour". He argued that this area was cleared of the forest with the help of fire, that is, burned out. Such competent persons as S.N. Nikitin and N.M. Siberians, identifying them with the steppe chernozem. However, this view has been challenged by other authors and quite seriously. So, I.L. Shcheglov and A. Flerov, on the basis of their personal and careful observations, denied the possibility of the steppe ever existing here and assumed that these soils were of bog-terrestrial origin with the participation of herbaceous (sedge) and woody (alder, willow) swamp vegetation.
Thus, the discussion held by Russian scientists and late XIX- the beginning of the 20th century, did not put an end to the study of one of the extraordinary mysteries of nature, which is the emergence of opolies in Central Russia, but aroused great interest in scientific circles. This work continued in Soviet times. Simultaneously, studies of homologues (analogues) of opoly soils were carried out abroad. Summarizing all the data, Professor A.N. Tyuryukanov put forward another hypothesis of the origin of the landscapes of the opal fields and their dark-colored soils. The scientist believes that new landscapes and soils were formed in the process of drying up (aridization) of the territories of the paleoarctic, that is, post-glacial plains. First, landscapes and soils of cold paleo-floodplain, then forest-tundra and, finally, forest-meadow plains appeared; and the latter evolved into the remnant landscapes of the opalia that have come down to us. This is the point of view of modern scientists.
The situation is somewhat more complicated with the question of the origin of loess and loess-like (i.e., boulder-free) loams - this main soil-forming rock of the opolies and steppes of Russia. At present, besides Vladimir, Bryansk, Starodub, Smolensko-Pochinkovskoe, Meshchovskoe, Tarusskoe and other fields are widely known. All of them look on the map of soil-forming rocks as islands with loess-like loams among vast areas covered with moraine (boulder) and outwash (sand-gravel) sediments. This circumstance only confirms the opinion of scientists about the originality of opoly landscapes. They were real pearls of nature, which allowed the ancient farmers to quickly master their soils. Due to the absence of stones, tools did not break, and their fertility was reliable for obtaining sustainable crops.
Well, what about the genesis of dark-colored soils, how did they form? Professor A.N. Tyuryukanov writes: “...modern soils of opolies, reflecting the peculiarities of the origin of the territory, rocks and relief, are two independent genetic soil types that emerged simultaneously and conjugately evolving. Soils associated with microrelief elevations are classified into a genetic type - opolets. Soils confined to microrelief depressions are classified into a genetic type - opolitsa. Both types occupy a small area in opolia, their transitional varieties dominate mainly (hence there is a variety of shades of colors of opolia soils).
In the general classification of soils of the globe, the genetic types of opolets soils - opolets and opolica - are included in the genetic transitional class of soils, being in their genesis and geography the northern homologues (analogues, correspondences) of the smonites of the Balkan Peninsula, the grumosols of America, the thyrses of Morocco, the regurs of India and other soils paleohydromorphic origin.
As you can see, not only common features soils of Central Russia, but also what makes them related to similar soils all over the world. And they are related by nothing more than a common hydromorphic origin. In other words, the dark-colored fertile soils of opolies were formed by prolonged exposure of groundwater to the upper humus layer of the earth. Of course, in order to act in such a miraculous way, it is necessary for the waters to have a certain physical and chemical composition. What is he? “The soil and ground waters of the Vladimir opolye can be considered moderately hard,” writes A.N. Tyurukanov, - the alkaline reaction is apparently due to the high content of calcium bicarbonate in them. Among minerals dense residue is dominated by calcium. The alkaline reaction explains the absence of soluble forms of sesquioxides and organic substances in the analyzed samples.
Thus, the chemical composition of the opolye waters reflects the "carbonate" nature of its landscapes and soils. Under conditions of capillary flow of such waters to the humus horizons of soils, dark-colored meadow soils arise. The hydromorphic landscapes of the opolye (floodplains and lowlands) are influenced by these waters; therefore, dark-colored meadow and humus-gley soils are widespread in the floodplains and depressions. There are few marsh and especially peat soils in the opolye. In the floodplains of the rivers there are beautiful meadow lands.
The chemical composition of the soil and ground waters of the opolye has a significant impact on the processes of destruction of the white stone monuments of Vladimir-Suzdal Rus. One of the most common reasons for the destruction of churches is powdery weathering of the limestones that make up the walls and foundations of buildings. This type of weathering develops very rapidly and has become especially intense in recent years.
The surface of the collapsing stones in many places is covered with white salt efflorescences (the so-called yamchuga), sometimes of an acicular structure, sometimes forming thin, flaking crusts, slightly resembling "scale". Chemical analysis of the efflorescences shows that they are a layered mixture of variable composition, consisting mainly of sodium and magnesium sulfates in the soluble part and gypsum and calcium carbonate in the insoluble part. The soluble part strongly predominates. Various chlorides are of subordinate importance. An analysis of the causes of this phenomenon, carried out by scientists in 1952, showed that groundwater is the source of sulfates. Ancient buildings, churches are like a salt marsh, in which evaporation prevails over washing, as a result of which the surfaces of the walls located under the roof, protected from the effects of rain and melt water, are salinized. Thus, the soil-chemical features of the landscapes of the opal fields are unexpectedly reflected in the processes of destruction of the monuments of Ancient Russia.
Another disaster area? It is a pity for the people who, for lack of better housing, found themselves in the damp cellars of Suzdal, Yuryev-Polsky and other cities of the opolye. The authorities did not care about them before, so why wait now.
So, the Vladimir opole is one of the typical opoles of Central Russia. This conclusion was made by us on the basis of its comparison with the landscapes of other opoles. It is a "remnant of the paleo-floodplain landscape of the Late Dnieper Ice Age". But along with this, the Vladimir opolye is an exceptional, even unique phenomenon. Located near large industrial centers, possessing a large number of ancient monuments of Russian architecture, museum cities and, finally, a high culture of agriculture that has been developing for centuries, which made this suburban region the breadbasket of first Rostov-Suzdal, and then Muscovite Russia, the Vladimir opolye deserves the status of an All-Russian soil reserve.
Unfortunately, what is being done now with these unique lands cannot be called reasonable, scientists of the All-Russian Research Institute of Agriculture believe. Their alienation for summer cottages, production and technical needs reduces the potential for fertility, already undermined by the fall in groundwater levels, as well as inept management. All this must end. We are the owners of priceless wealth. 200 thousand hectares of the Vladimir opolye, under favorable conditions, are capable of yielding a crop 2-3 times higher than that currently achieved. Dark-colored soils can still successfully compete with southern chernozems in terms of productivity. Even the highest grain yields (50-60 c/ha) obtained in individual farms do not reflect the potential of the soils of the Vladimir opolye. The same can be said about other crop crops.
However, the problem of raising the level of agriculture in the opolye is extremely complex. Deforestation, destruction of small dams on rivers, non-compliance with agrotechnical and agrochemical rational methods, unloading of groundwater horizons, the occurrence of water erosion and other phenomena of a natural and anthropogenic nature have greatly changed the natural appearance of opal fields, directing the process of their evolution from the initial paleo-floodplain wet-meadow state to a forest-steppe state. And this means that the soil from the hydrogenous-meadow type is increasingly developing in the direction of "atmospheric", that is, soddy and forest soil formation dependent on precipitation. The soil really "grays" and loses its fertility.
To at least partially stop this undesirable process, much needs to be done. Dams on rivers, ponds and reservoirs in ravines and gullies, forest belts in fields, grassland crop rotations, seed production and selection, a fertilizer system, including manure rehabilitation, the introduction of biotechnology and alternative soil conservation agriculture, the development of livestock breeding - this is not a complete list of issues, the solution of which, anew or for the first time, is urgent.
It is useful on this path to look back - at more than a thousand years of history of agricultural labor - to take into account the experience of the Vladimir peasant. This worker was not like us, he did not have much of what we now have. And yet he had an undeniable advantage over us: he felt the earth with his hands - through a hoe, a ralo, a plow, a roe deer, a plow. But most importantly, he worked for himself. Even in the darkest years of serfdom, the so-called corvee, that peasant had 3-4 days a week to work for himself. And when the interests of the state or the landowner coincided with his self-interest, he showed remarkable abilities and worked miracles.
Geographical position, relief, climate and nature of the Vladimir region
Having filmed a couple of points in Suzdal before dawn and being a little upset that there was no planned frost at dawn, we andreevatonya went home to Moscow. The sky was overcast - the same continuous cloud hung overhead, which created the effect of a glow over the night Suzdal, which I already wrote about in a previous post.
However, approaching Vladimir, fog suddenly covered us. Well, since The temperature was sub-zero and frost formed on the trees!
Damn, just what I expected to shoot in Suzdal and what we didn’t wait for there.
But there was no time to get upset - we quickly orientated ourselves on the map and rushed to the first turn from the highway, which led to the reservoir. We decided that the fog near the water would be the strongest, but on the shore we would find something to shoot with fog and hoarfrost.
We arrived at a lake and a stream, but there was no hint of fog!
Okay, let's go look further. But, as soon as we left the lowland on the hill and the edge of the forest, we found ourselves again in the fog! It turned out that this was not fog at all, but a cloud that used to hang directly overhead. It sank even lower and caught the trees and tall bushes on the hills, but did not reach the lowlands!
Well, we did not waste time, and began to look for a more interesting place.
In the photo number 1 is our "warhorse";)
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Hoarfrost beautifully silvered the trees, and our foggy cloud hung just above the tops!
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It seems that the day was not in vain (judging by the satisfied expression on the face of andreevatonya ) ;)
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We ran through the fields and looked for interesting angles!
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Meanwhile, the sky gradually stretched, as predicted by the weather forecast. And by 11-12 o'clock the sun began to appear. I chose a couple of points for myself and waited for the sun to illuminate the area I needed, looking at the fields in the distance. It was already shining normally there, and, having wound a telephoto 70-200 on the camera, I went to look in the field along the arable land, which can be filmed with a long focus ...
All the same, a telephoto lens is a necessary thing for a landscape photographer, no matter what anyone says! Especially when there is space around and there are at least small hills!
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At least it’s not Tuscany or South Moravia here, but, in my opinion, it’s also very good! The TV is driving!
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The sun did come to us and the sky was not bad!
We ran through the fields for several hours. The frost on the grass quickly melted in the sun, but on the trees it lasted a long time.
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After running across the frozen arable land, we drove home. As a result, returning from the morning shooting, we met the sunset at the entrance to Moscow :).
PS: Added later.
As it turned out later, we ourselves, without knowing it, turned into Opole.
From Wikipedia:
Opole (Vladimir Opole, Yuryevo Opole) - a natural (landscape) region that occupies most of the Suzdal and Yuryev-Polsky administrative regions Vladimir region and Gavrilovo-Posad district Ivanovo region, as well as small parts of the adjacent Kolchuginsky and Sobinsky districts of the Vladimir region. It is located in the basins of the Nerl and Koloksha rivers. Opole stretches for about 30 km from south to north and 70 km from west to east, has the character of a wavy-ridged plateau with absolute heights from 120 to 165 m above sea level, with numerous ravines.
The main cities are Vladimir, Suzdal, Sudogda, Yuryev-Polsky, Gavrilov Posad. The area of ancient agriculture near the city of Pereslavl. Historically, Opole was one of the first and main directions Slavic colonization North-Eastern Russia, becoming the political core of the Rostov-Suzdal land.
