KALININSK
Home,
sweet home.
Our
project is about our native town. We decided to call it “The Brief Historical
Outlook of Kalininsk”. We are interested in the history of our town, therefore
we choose this theme. The main idea of the project was to get as much
information as we could. We wanted to get the best out of the Past.
Looking
forward to the nearest future we want to make friends with English-speaking
pupils, who would be interested in the history of our town. We put the
information about our town into the site of our school for those people who
will show the interest to this theme. We worked on the project during two
months.
At
our first meeting we distributed our duties. Some of us went to the local museum;
the others were busy at the city library. When the information was complete we
started to make the project’s presentation.
It
is not yet finished, because we got a lot of new information the last few
weeks. We found the people who still remember the Past very well as they were
born at the beginning of the 20th century. We decided to continue our project,
but it will be a little different to this one. May be we will call it “The Past
in the old postcards”.
Kalininsk
(the first name was Balanda) is situated in Nizhniy Povolzhie, in 121 km to the
West from Saratov. It is located on the western part of Privolzhskaya Highland,
on the banks of Balanda River. It is a focal point on the highway from Balashov
to Saratov. The area of Kalininsk district is 3.200 sq.km, the population is
nearly 41.500 people.
In
1662, it was first mentioned as Balandinskiy Yurt (it means “the place full of
wild honey, berries, mushrooms, fish and furry animals”). There lived
Turkic-Iranians and Turkic-Kipchaks. From their languages “Balanda” means “The
Fish River”. The first Russian settlers were Cossacks, fugitive convicts and
the peasants from the Central part of Russia. They settled along the river
banks. Chebotarevs, Sukhovs, Kuznetcovs, Sheshnevs were among them. The
settlement Balanda was founded in 1680.
There
were some deep lakes, among them are: Bobrovoje, Trostovoje, Podgornoje and
Lebiyazhie. There were a lot of animals, fish and birds at that time. The
valley along the river was covered with trees and bushes; the steppe was wide
and wild.
In
the 18th century, Balanda (38.185 sq.km) together with the peasants was gifted
to Count Sheremetev B.P. by Ekatherina II. He replaced his own peasants
(Ukrainians) from his homesteads in Mallorossiya (Kharkov, Chernigov and
Cherson). From this time Balanda developed itself very quick.
At
the foot of the hill (“Popova Shishka” by name) the Sheremetev’s homestead was
situated. In the past it had a small wine factory, stables, kennels (there were
more than 2000 hunting dogs) and small farmhouses. Such farmhouses as Zhuravka,
Tabunniy, Plaksyn, Nizniy and many others also belonged to Count Sheremetev
B.P. On the wide pastures there were a lot of horses, cattle and sheep. This
homestead is the historical and architectural memorial of the past.
In
September 1774, the army under the rule of Emeliyan Pugachjev went through
Balanda to Voronezh. The population of the settlement supported his movement;
some of the peasants took part in it.
In
1780, when Saratov region was formed, Balanda became the part of Atkarsk
district. The population was over 7.000 people. The settlement was divided by
“tenth». There were 8 Russian “tenths” on the eastern side, at the western side
there were 23 Ukrainian ones. The houses were covered mostly by the straw. By
the middle of the 19th century there were some streets, such as Gorodok,
Repyahovka, Kiselievka, Krasavka, Bolshaya and Yarmarochnaya. In 1858 the
population of Balanda was 6663 people, there were 4391 Ukrainians and 2272
Russians.
The
population mostly worked in agriculture. Agriculture was the most important
sector of economy. The peasants had horses and oxen to prepare the fertile
land. They used wooden harrows and coulters, iron sickles and threshing chains.
The boot makers, saddlers, coopers and some other crafts appeared at this time.
In
1853 the first State School for boys was opened, there were 222 pupils. In 1872
the Elementary School for girls was opened too (there were 51 pupils). In 1897
the first Ministry Vocational School began to work (now it is the Secondary
School №2).
The
mortality was very high, especially children, so it was necessary to build a
hospital. It was opened in 1878.
There
were no fire-brigades that time, so the fires happened very often. Thus, in
1878, the whole street Gorodok and a part of Repyahovka were burnt completely.
In 1907 more than 60 houses in the western part of the settlement were burnt
too. The fire-brigade was formed in 1907.
In
1885, the rail-road by Ryazano-Ural’s society helped a lot to the development
of the town. The rail-road goes through Kalininsk from Rtishevo, Atkarsk to
Saratov.
Balanda
became the biggest trading centre. Bread and cattle trades brought the most
fame to the settlement around Saratov region. During spring and autumn time
Balanda was crowded by the peasants from Don, Astrakhan, and Samara. They
brought their cattle to the fairs for sale. That time there were a lot of
merchants who made their business during the fairs. Krasylnicov’s, Chepenkov’s,
Kuznetcov’s, Gannenkov’s, Krukov’s, Kalimin’s, Shishkov’s and Tolmachev’s were
the most well-known families of merchants.
The
manufacture developed very quickly. There were 14 windmills, 1 watermill and 4
steam-engine mills, the agricultural workshop, churns and 20 forges. The
ware-houses and granaries (to keep the wheat), several manufacturing stores,
food, ironware and haberdashery shops were built in a very short time.
In
1900 the population of Balanda was over 10.000 people. There were 80
manufactures and trading companies, 3 public-houses, 28 shops, 1889 private
farms. Annually more than 2.000 tons of flour went to the other regions. By
this point, Balanda took over the importance from Atkarsk.
The
merchants brought big contributions to the architecture of the town. Some
beautiful buildings were designed and built at the end of the 18th and at the
beginning of the 19th century. They are still decorated our town. The houses
were built in the classical Russian style of that time. Each of them is a small
masterpiece of the past. Among them are:
1.The bank (which is on
Chapaeva Street). During the Great Patriotic War there was the hospital №
3288. In 1945–1946 the Secondary School № 1 got the first pupils there.
2.The Secondary School № 2.
In 1897 there was a Ministry Vocational School. From 1946 it is the Secondary
School № 2.
3. The Primary School № 2 (at
the Market Square). At the beginning of the XXth century there was
Bulduchenko’s Public – house.
4. The Sport School. At the
early 20-s of the XXth century – it was «People”s House». In 1919 Mikhail
Kalinin visited Balanda on the agitating – train («The October Revolution» by
name) twice. It is written on the memory board, which is fixed on the front
wall of the building.
5. The Pensioners’ Fund. In
April 1921, Balanda was attacked by the Popov’s band. In the courtyard of this
building, on 6th of April in 1921, 32 communists were shot by this band. Later,
their relics were buried in another place. Nowadays there is a monument «The
Oath».
6. The book – keeping house
of Communal Service. It was the house of merchant Shishkov.
7. Merchant Ganenkov had his
Grocery, Haberdashery and food shop at the Market Square.
8. The Culinary shop. It was
the merchant Sklemenov’s house.
9. The Chemist’s shop. It was
the merchant Gromov’s house.
10.The Church. It was opened
in 1988. It was the merchant Ganenkov’s house.
11. The Post – office. It was
the merchant Kuzhetcov’s house.
12. The Hunter’s house. It
was the merchant Nevolin’s house.
At
the beginning of the 20th century the cinema was built there too. The films
were brought from Atkarsk once a week.
It
was that time when the local newspaper was published too.
At
the turn of the XIX – XXth century three churches were built in Balanda.
The Chrestovozdvizhenskaya
church was built in 1829. The Church of the Virgin Mary was built in 1892. The
Church of God the Son (Jesus) was built in 1902. They had parochial schools.
Before
the Great October Revolution the population of Balanda was 35621 people. There
were 37110 square meters of fertile lands; 14 churches, 1 hospital and 1
hospital-orderly and a midwifery house.
In
1928 the Balanda’s district was formed.
In
1919 Mikhail Kalinin visited Balanda on the agitating – train («The October
Revolution» by name) twice. In 1962 Balanda was renamed after him.
The
final product of our project is the e-mail letter at the site of our school. We
shared the information about our town and wanted to know about the history of
some small towns. We will continue the historical research of our town. We
think that by this communication we will get a lot of interesting, useful
information, to know new things and make progress in learning English.
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