Spirituality: from settlement to city

Spirituality

(Smolensk region)

OKATO code:
66216501
Founded:
16th century.
City since:
1777 City of district subordination (Dukhovshchinsky district, Smolensk region)
Center:
Dukhovshchinsky district
Telephone code (reference phone)

Deviation from Moscow time, hours:
0
Geographic latitude:
55°12′
Geographic longitude:
32°25′
Altitude above sea level, meters:
220 Sunrise and sunset times in the city of Dukhovshchina

Map

Dukhovshchina: photo from space (Google Maps) Dukhovshchina: photo from space (Microsoft Virtual Earth)

a brief description of

The city is located in the west of the Smolensk-Moscow Upland, on the river. Vostitsa (Dnieper basin), 12 km from the railway. Eryshi station, 57 km northeast of Smolensk.

Territory (sq. km): 11

Information about the city of Dukhovshchina on the Russian Wikipedia site

Historical sketch

On the site of the modern city in the 13th - early 14th centuries. There was a monastery of the Spirits (consecrated in the name of the Holy Spirit), at which already in the 15th century. There was Dukhovskaya Sloboda.

Known since the 2nd half of the 17th century. like a palace village. Later - the center of the camp, then the volost.

In 1777, the center of the Kasplyansky district of the Smolensk governorship was transferred to the village of Dukhovshchina, which was transformed into the city of Dukhovshchina, the district was renamed Dukhovshchinsky. Since 1796 - in the Smolensk province.

In the name, the suffix -shchina indicates that it arose as a designation of lands that belonged to the monastery, the center of which was Dukhovskaya Sloboda.

During the Patriotic War of 1812 it was burned. On August 28-29, 1812, a battle between the Russian and French armies took place near Dukhovshchina.

In 1856, in the district town of Dukhovshchina, Smolensk province, there were 4 churches, 417 houses, 22 shops.

In 1925, Dukhovshchinsky district was transformed into Yartsevsky district. Since 1929 in the Western region.

During the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45, it was occupied by Nazi troops on July 15, 1941. It was liberated on September 19, 1943 by troops of the Kalinin Front during the Dukhovshchina-Demidov operation. It was badly destroyed.

Economy

JSC "Ruslan" (dairy products), "Dukhovshchinalen" (production of flax fiber), brick factory, bakery, branch of the Smolensk Radio Components Plant.

Timber point, inter-forestry enterprise "Dukhovshchinsky" (timber harvesting, lumber production).

In the Dukhovshchinsky district, in the village of Prechistoye, there is JSC Smolensky Knitwear, a forestry enterprise; in the village of Ozerny there is a peat enterprise. Smolensk State District Power Plant.

They grow rye, wheat, barley, oats, potatoes, and flax. They raise cattle and pigs.

Deposits of peat, sand and gravel mixtures.

Culture, science, education

Dukhovshchina is the birthplace of Central Asian researcher Academician P.K. Kozlova.

Museums, galleries, exhibition halls

Dukhovshchinsky District History and Art Museum 216200, Smolensk region, Dukhovshchinsky district, Dukhovshchina, st. Bugaeva, 47/52 Phone(s): (48166) 41-931

Architecture, sights

The city is located in a hilly area crossed by wide valleys. The Vostrets stream flowing through one of them divides the city into two parts.

Until the end of the 18th century. had a radial-ring layout. In 1780, a regular plan was approved, according to which the blocks received the same rectangular shape. After the destruction during the Patriotic War of 1812, it was restored according to the gene. plan of 1817.

At the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries. stone and brick public and residential buildings were built.

In the post-war period, it developed according to the general plan of 1965, updated in 1981-82. They maintained the existing regular layout.

Church of the Holy Spirit (1995).

In the Dukhovshchinsky district, in the village of Basino - the Church of the Annunciation (1814), in the village of Velisto - the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary (1828), in the village of Zagusinye - the Church of the Assumption (1785).

The secret of Potemkin tea

History
History

November 2, 2022 at 3:18 pm

Smolensk local historians visited memorable places in the Dukhovshchinsky district.

The next on-site workshop of the School of Professional Hospitality, formed by the regional Society of Local Lore within the framework of the “Hospitable Smolensk Region” project, called us on the road again. This time to the Dukhovshchinsky district - to the homeland of His Serene Highness Prince Grigory Potemkin and to the Potemkin Fun festival...

The smallest city

The journey from Smolensk to Dukhovshchina is not long. However, local historian Igor SHKURLOV manages to tell in detail about the area and its main attractions. Later, his information was supplemented by employees of the local history museum. And we, inspired by the “legends of deep antiquity,” find ourselves emotionally involved in a certain historical excursion.

“Dukhovshchina cannot be called inaccessible - only 57 kilometers from Smolensk,” says Igor Shkurlov. – But, as it turned out, she is quite little known outside the area. This is one of the smallest cities not only in the Smolensk region, but also in Russia. Its population is only about four thousand people.

The Dukhovshchinsky district today can hardly be called densely populated. Only about 15 thousand inhabitants live here. Moreover, a third of them (more than 6.5 thousand) are in the largest settlement of the region, the village of Ozyorny, which is even twice the size of the regional center.

It is interesting that, according to the 1897 census, 124 thousand people lived in Dukhovshchinsky district at that time. Although the city itself was small even then - only 3 thousand inhabitants.

“Once there were many noble estates here - the region was fertile for this,” continues Igor Shkurlov. “However, most of the construction was wooden, so nothing was preserved even in the form of remains. In the code of cultural heritage, estates are listed, but mainly as the remains of landscape parks.

Warrior commanders

Our first stop in the region is in the village of Tretyakovo, at the memorial sign dedicated to the Lebedev brothers. They both led the people's militia during the War of 1812: retired Lieutenant General Nikolai Lebedev - Smolensky, and Lieutenant Colonel Alexei Lebedev - Dukhovshchinsky.

The Lebedev family, whose estate was once in these places, had ten children, seven of whom were boys. True, only four survived to adulthood, and all became military men.

The most famous of the brothers is Nikolai. He was born approximately in 1750 - discrepancies in sources do not yet allow us to establish the exact date. He was enlisted for military service in 1756 as a corporal in the Roslavl Dragoon Squadron. Two years later he received the rank of sergeant and transfer to the St. Petersburg Musketeer Regiment. True, he was able to arrive in service only in 1765 - already with the rank of ensign, assigned to him two years earlier.

Nikolai Lebedev's first combat experience was a campaign against the Polish Confederates in 1766–68. A serious head wound was not a reason for resignation. After treatment, Nikolai Petrovich is back in action. He has two Russian-Turkish, Caucasian and Russian-Persian wars, Turkestan campaigns and the Patriotic War of 1812, in which he took part in retirement.

“At one time Nikolai Lebedev was the head of the garrison and regiment in Orenburg,” says Nadezhda DEVERILINA, expert adviser to the regional department of culture. – For protecting the city from the attack of the Kyrgyz-Kaisar hordes, he received 5 thousand rubles and a golden snuff-box from the emperor. And being not a very rich man, he nevertheless directed all this money to charity: the creation of a school for soldiers’ children, a weapons repair workshop, renovation of a hospital, and so on.

Lebedev's last place of service was Irkutsk, where in 1802 he was transferred to the post of military and civil governor. From here, five years later, he retired and went to his estate in the Smolensk region.

Interesting fact: when Nikolai Petrovich came to visit his parents on leave, he did not stay in the house, but in the cherry orchard, where he pitched a tent. Apparently, the long-term habit of camp life was taking its toll.

When, after the invasion of Napoleonic troops into Russia, Emperor Alexander I issues a manifesto on the convocation of an internal militia, Lebedev forms a huntsman company from his serfs. Then, as the leader of the warriors of the Smolensk province, he participates in the Battle of Smolensk, the Battle of Borodino and the Battle of Maloyaroslavets. During the latter, numerous old wounds make themselves felt, and Nikolai Petrovich ends up in a hospital in Kaluga, where he dies in December 1812.

“For a long time it was believed that Nikolai Lebedev was buried in the Laurentian Monastery in the Kaluga region,” continues Nadezhda Deverilina. “However, I found documents confirming that Alexey Petrovich, who at that time led the Dukhovshchina warriors, brought his brother’s body to his homeland. And on December 31, 1812, his funeral service was held in the church in Tretyakovo. This is where he was buried.

Unfortunately, during the Great Patriotic War the temple was completely destroyed. And nothing remains of the Lebedevs’ burials. So the stone installed here in 2016 is perhaps the only reminder of a family where two brothers distinguished themselves while defending their native land from the French.

Revenge for defeat

“In general, the history of the Smolensk region is replete with military actions,” notes Igor Shkurlov. “But the Dukhovshchina lands always seemed to be on the sidelines from the main events. And the war of 1812 mainly affected only the territories adjacent to the Old Smolensk Road.

Perhaps the biggest battle on the territory of the district was the clash between the Cossack troops of Ataman Platov and the fourth Italian corps under the command of the Viceroy of Italy Eugene Beauharnais. On October 28, 1812, the Viceroy's soldiers tried to cross the Vop River, but were attacked by the Cossacks. To avoid being captured, the Italians abandoned the looted convoys and almost all of their own artillery. However, this did not help everyone. The corps lost 2 thousand killed, another 3.5 thousand were captured. And this despite the fact that by the beginning of the battle the Italians had about 10 thousand people, and Platov had a little more than 3 thousand.

Having crossed the river, the Cossacks continued to pursue the enemy, killing several hundred more and capturing about a thousand. The remnants of the corps were forced to retreat to Smolensk, but at the same time avenged their own defeat by setting fire to Dukhovshchina. The wooden city burned out almost completely.

“I would like to note that stone construction in the Dukhovshchinsky district was very rare,” explains Igor Shkurlov. – And in the city itself there were almost no stone buildings. Basically, everything was built from wood - fortunately there were enough forests around... Only at the beginning of the 20th century in Dukhovshchina there were already about thirty stone buildings, including a hospital complex, a library, a church, a printing house, a seminary, a real school and merchant estates.

Heraldic spirit

Our next stop is Dukhovshchina, where, of course, nothing reminds us of the fire of 1812.

The first mention of Dukhovshchina dates back to 1675. Although, according to legend, a convent was founded here at the end of the 13th – beginning of the 14th centuries, consecrated in the name of the Holy Spirit. In the 15th–16th centuries, artisans and traders settled around the monastery - this is how the Dukhovskaya Sloboda arose, and then the village of Dukhovshchina. By the way, according to one version, the city owes its name to the Monastery of the Holy Spirit.

“Dukhovshchina was considered a palace village for a long time,” says Igor Shkurlov. – And the center of the Rutskaya volost, on the lands of which, after their liberation from Polish rule in 1654, intensive development of swamp ores was carried out to obtain iron from them.

In 1777, at the request of the Smolensk governor Dmitry Volkov, Catherine II signed a decree transferring the district center from the city of Kaspli to Dukhovshchina, which has since been given the status of a city.

By the way, another legend is associated with the name of Catherine about the origin of the name Dukhovshchina. When the Empress, at the invitation of His Serene Highness Prince Grigory Potemkin, came to these places in June 1780, she was greeted by a huge number of blooming rose bushes. And the townspeople presented Catherine II herself with a basket of flowers. “It’s so breezy here!” - the empress allegedly remarked with emotion then and for this rosy spirit she called the city Dukhovshchina. But this is just a beautiful legend, nothing more, and the decree signed three years earlier essentially refutes it.

However, the story with roses continued. In October of the same 1780, Catherine II approved the coats of arms of the Smolensk governorship, including Dukhovshchina. “In a white field there is a rose bush producing a pleasant perfume,” the description says. Since then, roses have been an obligatory part of the city coat of arms, although it itself has changed more than once over time.

“Catherine’s decree granting Dukhovshchina city status was dated February 18,” explains the local history museum. – According to the new style, this is March 4. But we celebrate the city holiday on September 19 - like in most other regional centers of the Smolensk region, it is dedicated to the day of liberation from the fascist invaders.

Operation Children

The Dukhovshchinsky Museum was also once created as a museum of the Great Patriotic War. Even its opening in May 1985 was timed to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the Great Victory.

The founder of the museum was Viktor Ivanovich Gerasimov. Major of the medical service, during the war he liberated Dukhovshchina. Returning here in peacetime, he first worked as a doctor at the central regional hospital, and then as a museum director.

In 1991, the museum, which had previously worked on a voluntary basis, was given state status. And in 2000, a unified system was created, which included the Dukhovshchinsky Museum, the Prechistenskaya Art Gallery and eight school museums in the region.

The modern exhibition presents almost all areas of historical and cultural heritage - from ancient archaeological finds to personal belongings of famous fellow countrymen. But as before, the central place is occupied by exhibits related to the Great Patriotic War: the partisan movement, the tragedy of burned villages, the liberation operation, the feat of heroes native to the region.

“The Dukhovshchinsky district was occupied on July 16, 1941 and was in the power of the enemy for 2 years, 2 months and 2 days,” they say in the museum. – The atrocities of the Nazis against civilians are described in great detail in the book “The Spiritual Sisters of Khatyn,” written by local historian Viktor Shunkov. Here is one such story. Titovo farm. On May 28, residents went out into the fields to plant potatoes. But a punitive detachment came, they drove everyone to the ravine, shot them, threw grenades at them, and set the farmstead on fire. When partisans appeared at the scene of the tragedy, a living girl was found under the corpses. Wounded in several places, she survived only because her mother covered her with her body...

Eleven natives of the region were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Among them is one woman – Matryona Volskaya. She has 3,240 saved children to her credit. The operation in which she was directly involved was called “Children.”

23-year-old Matryona received an order to gather children from the occupied villages and take them across the front line to the Toropets station in the Kalinin region. The transition was scary. The journey took ten days. We walked mostly at night. 200 kilometers through forests and swamps. Along the way, the column of children almost tripled in size, and 3,240 children, saved from executions and deportation to Germany, went to the rear...

From the Glinka family

Many famous people were born on Dukhshchina land. Among them are His Serene Highness Prince Grigory Potemkin, comrade-in-arms of Nikolai Przhevalsky, traveler Pyotr Kozlov, soil scientist Konstantin Glinka, writers Sergei and Fyodor Glinka, Vasily Ardamatsky, teacher Stanislav Shatsky, comrade-in-arms of Sergei Korolev, academician Boris Petrov...

Several interesting stories are associated with the name of Grigory Glinka, a writer and scientist. In 1811, Empress Maria Feodorovna invited him to the position of teacher of the Grand Dukes Nicholas and Mikhail Pavlovich. Glinka taught the future monarch Russian literature and accompanied him on his travels throughout Russia and abroad. And when the mentor died suddenly in February 1818, the grand dukes were the first to lift the coffin with the body to carry it along the narrow steep stairs from the third floor and put it on the ditch.

After the death of Grigory Glinka, his estate in the Smolensk region was managed by the widow of Justina, née Kuchelbecker. And her younger brother, the Decembrist and friend of Pushkin, Wilhelm Kuchelbecker, came to her village Zakup and lived for a long time. Here he worked a lot and fruitfully. And the last time he came secretly - after the Decembrist uprising, to say goodbye to his relatives.

“The former village of Koptevo is the birthplace of the first academician-soil scientist Konstantin Glinka,” says Igor Shkurlov. – The successor of Dokuchaev’s work, he compiled a soil map of the globe. He also wrote a soil science textbook, initiated the creation of the Dokuchaev Soil Institute and became its first director.

In Dukhovshchina, Vladimir Lozina-Lozinsky was born into a family of zemstvo doctors, who was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church in 2000.

“The Lozin-Lozinsky family lived in Dukhovshchina at the end of the 19th century,” they say in the museum. – The future priest’s mother was one of the first women to graduate from higher medical courses. She was a doctor here, fell ill with typhus and died. After this, the father and little Volodya leave for St. Petersburg...

Empress Ring

But, perhaps, the most striking in the host of these great names can still be considered the name of His Serene Highness Prince Grigory Alexandrovich Potemkin. “The most zealous son of the Fatherland, who annexed Crimea, Taman and Kuban to the Russian Empire, the founder and builder of many cities, the patron of sciences, arts, and trade” - this is how Catherine the Great once characterized her favorite.

The Potemkins descend from a certain Polish nobleman who converted to Orthodoxy and received the name Tarasy at baptism. One of his descendants, a participant in the Battle of Poltava and a former governor of the Alatyr province, having retired, received three thousand acres of land with the villages of Chizhevo, Novoselki and Zaluzhye. He chose a beautiful place among birch copses and built a manor house with buildings on the banks of the Chizhevka River. The future His Serene Highness Prince Potemkin-Tavrichesky was born in this house. And here, in Chizhevo, is the end point of our route.

At the entrance to Chizhevo there is a memorial stone installed in 1999. Of the old buildings, only the ruins of a stone temple have been preserved, which was erected by His Serene Highness’s nephew Vasily Engelhardt in place of a wooden one. Once upon a time, here, under the altar, there was a tomb where Potemkin’s parents were buried. And the heart of Grigory Alexandrovich himself, according to legend, was also here. However, the family tomb was plundered back in the 19th century, and in the 20th, after the revolution, the temple was generally used as a barnyard. So today nothing reminds us of its former beauty.

Next to the ruins is a huge linden tree. An almost living, albeit silent, witness to a history that is almost three centuries old. They say that if you hug her and make a wish, it will certainly come true. And the story is this. Alexander Potemkin, whose legal wife was childless, looked for a twenty-year-old widow among his neighbors. The blood of the brave military man leapt, the feelings turned out to be mutual, and the young widow is expecting a child. Having quickly got married, Potemkin brought his new wife to Chizhevo, thereby forcing the previous one to go to a monastery.

The newlyweds were the first to have a girl. Second child too. The long-awaited boy was born only the third, in 1739. According to legend, on the eve of giving birth, the mother had a dream in which a bright sun descended from heaven to earth. She took this as a sign that she was carrying a son.

In 1746, after the death of Alexander Potemkin, the family moved to Moscow. Later, His Serene Highness visited his homeland infrequently, but, as they said, he never forgot these places. And in 1780, during Catherine II’s visit to Dukhovshchina, he invited her to come to Chizhevo. Since that memorable visit of the Empress, the royal well has remained here.

According to legend, the empress saw a spring and ordered a well to be dug in its place. So that everyone who drinks the water will remember it. They say that later she even threw her ring into this well.

The water in that well is really tasty. Local residents use it to prepare a special tea, popularly nicknamed “Potemkin”, since the herbs for it are collected in the Potemkin meadows near Chizhevo...

Photo: Elena BELYKH

Olga Surkova