Southern Urals. The beginning of Verkhneuralsk Visiting the mountain near the village

(56°00" - 51º00" N)

The Southern Urals include part of the Ural mountainous country between the latitudinal section of the upper reaches of the Ufa River and the latitudinal section of the Ural River between Orsk and Orenburg. The total length of the ridges of the Southern Urals is more than 550 km. In the latitudinal direction, the Southern Urals between Ishimbay and Magnitogorsk reaches 200 km. This is a vast mountainous country, the ridges of which in its northern part between Ufa and Inzer run in a general direction from NE to SW, and in the southern part between Inzer and Vela - in the meridional direction. To the south of the valley of the White Mountains of the Southern Urals they become significantly lower and pass between the Bolshoi Ik and Sakmara rivers into the vast Zilair plateau, named after the right tributaries of the Sakmara, the Yalan Zilair and Urman Zilair rivers, crossing the plateau from north to south. However, in this part of the Southern Urals there are ridges with peaks over 600 m, for example, Dzyau-Tyube - “Battle Peak”, a meridional ridge adjacent to the Zilair plateau from the south. The Southern Urals end with the low Guberlinsky Mountains, which connect the Urals proper with Mugodzhary. They received their name from the Guberlya River, a right tributary of the Urals. The mountains of the Southern Urals are quite high, the most significant being Yaman-Tau (1640 m).

The orographic system of the Southern Urals is very complex. In order to present the oronymic material more or less consistently, it had to be divided into six regions, which only partially take into account the orographic division.

On the territory of the Southern Urals are the eastern part of the Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, the western regions of the Chelyabinsk region and the mountainous part of the Orenburg region.

The oronymy of the Southern Urals is mainly of Turkic origin: these are primarily Bashkir names, among which there are inclusions of Tatar oronymy, especially noticeable in the Zlatoust region. In the extreme south and southeast, Bashkir names are replaced by Kazakh ones. In many cases, the Bashkir names of ridges and mountains appear in written sources and on maps in Tatarized form, since in the old days they were usually written down from the lips of literati - elders and clergy, among whom there were many Tatars.

There are many Russian mountain names in the Chelyabinsk region, where in some places they are more common than Turkic names.

The western part of the Southern Urals from the latitudinal section of the upper reaches of the Ufa to the latitudinal section of the lower reaches of the Inzer, including the foothills

Kalyan, a ridge stretching from NNE to SSW about 20 km long between Ufa and its left tributary the Suroyam River (103 from the city of Nizhny Ufaley).

Exactly corresponds to the Bashkir hookah - “a special bag for arrows”, a type of quiver that was once used by Bashkir warriors. Perhaps the name of this domed peak represents a powerful metaphor (cf. Mashak).

The Tatar hookah - “a type of smoking pipe” - is much less suitable.

Tura-Tash, mountain (828 m) in the upper reaches of the Bolshaya Arsha River, 20 km south of the Kalyan ridge. There are many rocks at the top of this steep mountain. The Bashkir and Tatar word toratash means “idol”, “image”, and the collector of Bashkir folklore A.G. Bessonov provides interesting ethnographic data: “This is the name of stones that are similar in shape to a person or some animal. There are legends among the Bashkirs, Tatars and Meshcheryaks about how God turned people (namely Russians) into stones for their sins (for blasphemy over the graves of Mohammedan saints).

In Bashkiria there are several mountains with the name Tora-Tash (Tura-Tash). Mount Tora-Tash on the Irendyk ridge is also remarkable for its bizarre rocks.

Thus, the Bashkir Tora-Tash is, in essence, identical to the Mansi Pupyg-Ner - “Stone of Idols” and is an indirect reflection of ancient pagan beliefs.

Maskarali, a ridge on the left bank of the Arsha River to the southwest of Mount Tura-Tash. According to A.G. Bessonov, the Bashkir name of this mountain Maskyaryale goes back to maskar, maskyalya - “disgraced” (Bashkir mәskhәrә - “shame”, “disgrace”, mәskhәrәle - “shameful”). N.I. Shuvalov associates it with the name of the Bashkir clan group maskara. P.S. Pallas calls this ridge Maskeryal-arkasse and mentions the Maskeryal stream, which flows into Ai. For the term arcasse, see Bakal Mountains.

Azyam, a meridional ridge in the upper reaches of the Bolshoi Ik River, the right tributary of the Aya, 20 km west of the southern end of the Kalyan ridge. In the southern part of the ridge, the Azyam River, the right tributary of the Bolshaya Arsha (Aya basin), originates.

Since the adjacent names of mountains (Kalyan, Tura-Tash, etc.), as well as rivers (Allaelga, Vaselga) are clearly of Turkic origin, it is hardly advisable to associate the oronym with the Russian obsolete Azyam (“men’s outerwear with long sleeves”), although this word and borrowed from Turkic languages (Azerbaijani Ajam - “Persia”, adopted in turn from Arabic). Rather, here is the Bashkir әзәm, Tatar adәm, әдәm - “man”, “Adam”.

If the hydronym is primary, then perhaps we have before us an ancient pre-Turkic name, adopted by the Turks and reworked in the spirit of folk etymology.

Saryyak, ridge between the upper reaches of the Bolshoy Ik River and the Ay River to the southwest of the Azyam Ridge.

The most likely comparison is with the Tatar sary - “yellow”, yak - “side”, “edge”, “terrain”, that is, “Yellow side”, “Yellow area”. The reason for the name, however, is unclear. It is necessary to record the Tatar or Bashkir form of the name, especially since there is also the Bashkir narayak, Tatar sarayak - “calf of a first-calf cow.”

Ak-Kashka, a mountain on the right bank of the Bolshaya Arsha River, adjacent from the E to the Saryyak ridge. Translated from the Bashkir and Tatar languages “White spot”, “White bald spot”.

Karaul-Tau, a mountain in the western foothills 30 km west of the Saryyak ridge.

It is one of the numerous “Guard Mountains”, of which there are many in both Russian and Turkic oronymy. The identical sound is explained by the fact that the Russian word karaul is borrowed from Turkic languages (in Bashkir - karaul). In the Southern Urals there are other Karaul-Tau, as well as Mount Karaul-Tyube - “Guard Hill”, Mount Soleiman-Karaul - “Suleiman Guard”, etc.

Not all of these names, however, are associated with guard posts. Observation of the terrain, forest fires and much more was the reason for the widespread use of “guard” toponymy.

Shishimskie Mountains, a mountain range on the left bank of the Ai River to the west of Zlatoust.

As geologist I.V. Mushketov explains, these mountains received “the name “Shishi” for their general appearance, which appears to be a separate ridge, on the crest of which cone-shaped, sharp peaks are drawn in relief.” Thus, the oronym is purely Russian, which is not surprising for the long-developed mining hub of Zlatoust - Kusa. However, the question arises about the origin of the element im in the suffix. It, obviously, can be considered as euphonic, that is, inserted for euphony, since the adjective Shishsky is inconvenient to pronounce (cf. from Ufa - Ufimsky, not Ufa).

Zhuka-Tau, a narrow but rather long ridge running along the left bank of the Ai River from NE to SW between the Ai and Bolshaya Satka rivers (from the city of Kusa to the working village of Berdyaush). Bashkir yoka, Tatar yuka - “thin”, “thin”, tau - “mountain”, that is, “Thin Mountain”, “Thin Mountain”. The initial z is explained by the alternation y - zh in the Bashkir and Tatar dialects. Wed. also Bashkir-Tatar yukә - “linden” (“Linden Mountain”).

Kazan-Salgan, a ridge on the left bank of the Ai River, adjacent to the Zhuka-Tau ridge from the northwest.

Translated from the Tatar language “They put the cauldron” (kazan - “cauldron”, salgan - past participle of the verb salu - “put”, “put”). In Turkic toponymy, verbal constructions of this type are found very often. As for the meaning, there are many “boiler” names in the toponymy of various peoples (Kotelny Island in the Arctic, Put-Tump - “Kotelnaya Mountain” in Mansi oronymy in the Northern Urals, etc.).

Tui-Tyube (Tui-Tyubya), mountains on the right bank of the Ai River, 30 km west of the Zhuka-Tau ridge. Bashkir tui - “wedding”, “feast”, tubә - “peak”, “hill”, that is, “Wedding (feast) peak”.

Suleya, a ridge between the Aya and Yuryuzan rivers between the Zhuka-Tau ridge and the city of Yuryuzan. Length - about 50 km.

The name is difficult to explain. By way of hypothesis, it may be related to the Tatar sul, the Bashkir khul - “left”, the Tatar sulyak - “wrong side”, “left side”. If you raft down the Ayu, Suleya will be on the left.

P. S. Pallas mentions the Silias-Arcasse ridge near the Ai River (for the geographical term arkasse, see Bakal Mountains). Obviously, he means Suleya. The German traveler geologist G. Rose, who visited these places in 1829, writes about the Siliya ridge, through which the big road from Ufa to Zlatoust goes. If the forms Silias and Silia are primary, then to explain the name of the ridge one can use the Bashkir oronym һileiә (Siliya) in the Salavat region of the Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, which the authors of the “Dictionary of Toponyms of the Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic” translate as “Quiet Valley” (һul - “quiet”, “calm”, uya - “valley”). In addition, we must also keep in mind that the Silga River originates in the southern part of Suleja. This name may also be related to the name of the ridge.

Kukshik, a small ridge on the left bank of the Ai River, adjacent to the Suleya ridge from the northwest.

Local historian V. Chernetsov believes that Kukshik is the “Blue Mountain” (“Satkinsky Rabochiy” for October 9, 1979). Wed. Bashkir words kuk- “blue”, “blue”, shәke- “peak”.

Bakal Mountains, a group of mountains south of the Suleya ridge in the immediate vicinity of the city of Bakal, containing a rich deposit of iron ore, which was discovered and began to be developed in the middle of the 18th century. P. S. Pallas calls these mountains Bacalarkasse. He immediately explains the Bashkir word arkasse as “a rocky long and steep mountain mane” (cf. modern Bashkir arka - “back”, “mountain range”). Since the name of the city of Bakal was transferred from the name of the Bakal River, which originates southwest of the city and then flows into Malaya Satka, there is every reason to believe that Bakalarkasse in translation simply means “Bakal Range”, “Bakal Mountains”. These currently include the Bulandikha Mountains (q.v.), Irkuskan (q.v.) and the Shuyda Ridge (q.v.).

Bulandikha, one of the Bakal mountains, on the slopes of which iron mines are located. Located on the southern outskirts of the city of Bakal. Between Bulandikha and Mount Irkuskan, located to the southeast of it, flows the Bulanka River, a tributary of the Yuryuzan. Geographer M.I. Albrut connects the oronym Bulandikha with the Turkic bulan - “elk”, bulandy - “elk” (cf. Bashkir bolan - “deer”), but it is difficult to say what comes first - the river or the mountain.

P.S. Pallas and I.I. Lepekhin call this river Bulan and Bulanka, emphasizing that “Bulan is the Tatar name for elk, of which there are a great many in the local... forests.” Pallas calls the mines near the Bulan River Bulansky.

Irkuskan, one of the Bakal mountains, rich in iron deposits. It is located southeast of the city of Bakal between Mount Bulandikha and the northeastern end of the Suka ridge.

A.G. Bessonov, and then M.I. Albrut translate “The Earth has vomited” (the mountains, according to Albrut’s explanation, seem to have reared up). Since, in addition to er koskan - “The earth vomited up”, in the Bashkir language there is also the combination ir koskan - “The man vomited”, it would seem that both interpretations are quite possible. But Pallas wrote down this name in the forms Dzhirkuskan, Dzhirkuskan, which allows us to see in the first part of the oronym the Bashkir er, the Tatar fat - “earth”, and associate the participial form not with the Bashkir verb kosou - “vomit”, “vomit”, but with kuseu - “move”, “move over”, “move over”, etc. And indeed, in Bashkir toponymy we find the name Erguskan (from er kusan), which is cited by V. Sh. Psyanchin with the translation “The land crossed.” Taking into account all that has been said, the oronym Irkuskan must be restored in the form

Irkuskan and translate “The Earth moved”, “The Earth moved”, obviously in the sense of “The Earth moved (collapsed)”. This translation is convincingly confirmed by the existence in the Bashkir language of the word kusken - “avalanche”.

Shuida, a latitudinal ridge belonging to the Bakal Mountains group and located WSW from Bakal (between Bakal and the city of Yuryuzan). The exact Bashkir (Tatar) correspondence to the Russian name has not yet been recorded, and the possibilities of interpretation are varied. However, I.I. Lepekhin in the 18th century attested to the Shiid form. If it is closer to the Turkic source, then the name can presumably be associated with the Bashkir shyiza - “pole”.

Bash-Tash, a ridge between the Ai and Yuryuzan rivers to the west of the Suleya ridge (20 km to the north from Vyazovaya station). Translated from Bashkir - “Main Stone” or “Head Stone” (Bashkir bash - “head”, “main”, “head”, tash - “stone”).

In the Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic there are several more mountains with the name Bash-Tash.

Yangan-Tau, a mountain on the right bank of the Yuryuzan River below the village of Komsomol, 35 km NE from the Kropachevo railway station. In Bashkir, yangan means “burnt”, “burnt”, tau means “mountain”, that is, “Burnt Mountain”, “Burnt Mountain” (translated as “Burning Mountain”). The local Russian name is “Warm Mountain”.

Hot steam is still billowing over this mountain - a consequence of a fire of oil-soaked rocks (bituminous marls), which, according to P. S. Pallas, began from a lightning strike in the middle of the 18th century: “According to fairy tales, thunder struck near the old-timer Bashkirs living into a large pine tree... burned it even from the roots. This flame was communicated to the mountain, and since that time it has been burning inside incessantly.”

Adzhigardak (Azhigardak), a ridge on the left bank of the Sim River, adjacent to the E of the city of Asha. Some sources contain the variant Dzhigardak. In the “Materials on the History of the Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic” under 1762 we find Mount Zigerdyak, possibly the same Adzhigardak. The forms Dzhigardak, Zigerdyak most likely arose on Russian soil, since Russians pronounce the initial syllable in Turkisms much weaker than the final syllable, which is stressed.

The oronym from the modern Bashkir language is not interpreted in any convincing way. It is possible that it should be divided not into Ajngar + dak (cf. the ancient Turkic tag - “mountain”), but into Adzhig + ardak, considering the second part as an archaic or even substratum geographical term (for more details, see Zilmerdak). The meaning of the first part is equally problematic.

It is interesting that Pallas calls Adzhigardak - Jiggertau. This form would seem to speak in favor of the Adzhigar+dak division, since tau is a Bashkir geographical term with the meaning of “mountain,” but it can also be considered as a Bashkir reworking of the substrate toponym.

Unfortunately, the exact Bashkir form of the name is unknown.

Baskak, a ridge 10 km WNW from the upper reaches of the Sim River. In the Bashkir and Tatar languages there once existed the word baskak - “Khan’s tribute collector.” The reason for the name is unknown, but the names of mountains and rocks such as Boyarin, Colonel, Protopop, etc. are quite widespread. The oronym is probably a Turkism, but it could also have arisen in the Russian language, since the word baskak penetrated from the Turkic languages into Russian in ancient times.

Baka (Baka-Tau), a mountain on the right bank of the Lemeza River, 20 km southwest from the city of Asha. The Turkic word baka is “frog”, therefore, Baka is “Frog” (“Frog-mountain”). Names of this kind are also known in Russian oronymy. There is, for example, Mount Frog in the Kakva River basin in the Northern Urals.

Manu, a low ridge on the left bank of the Sima between the lower reaches of the Lemeza and Inzer.

Some sources give the Bashkir form of this name, Manyu. It can be translated as “Dipping”, “Dyeing”, “Dipping”, “Dyeing”. From the point of view of the structure of Turkic languages, there is nothing unusual in such a toponym. The reason for the name, however, is unknown.

The “Dictionary of Toponyms of the Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic” analyzes only the name of the village of Managora, which is located on the eastern slope of the Manu ridge. The toponym Managora is considered as a literal translation of the Bashkir Manatau, possibly meaning “Guard Mountain” in translation.

Further clarification is needed.

Biryan (Biryan in Bashkir), a ridge between the upper reaches of the Lemeza River and the Inzer River, the northern continuation of the Zilmerdak ridge. In Bashkir bir- “give”, “give”, yәn- “soul”, the whole expression as a whole is translated by local residents as “give your soul”, “die” (the combination yәn bireu and in the literary language means “give your soul”, “die” "). From a grammatical point of view, the name fully complies with the norms of the formation of Turkic place names. The mountain may have received a name that translates as “Give up your soul” or “Die” due to its inaccessibility. The local population sometimes also says that this was the name of some person whose name was transferred to the ridge.

* The first settlement near the Kartaly station was the village of Poltava, founded in 1743 as a military settlement of the Orenburg Cossack army in the novolineiny district at No. 6. Named in memory of the famous Battle of Poltava in 1709. Now one of the towns of the city.

Karasu, four rivers, the left tributary of the Uvelka (territory of the city of Plast), the Uya basin; left tributary of the Bolshoi Kizil (Kizilsky district), Ural basin; right tributary Bersuat (Bredinsky district), Tobol basin; left tributary of the Nizhny Toguzak (Varna region); lake, Nagaybak district.

Among the Turks, this is the name given to steppe shallow rivers and lakes fed by spring waters.

Karasye, Karas'i, Karasevo, Karas'i more than a dozen lakes and rivers in different areas of the region.

The lakes are almost all stagnant and stagnant, fed by groundwater outlets. Some of the names are Russian, indicating the type of fish common in water bodies. Others arose as a result of rethinking in Russian “in crucian carp” the Bashkir toponym Karasu, indicating the source of nutrition by groundwater; the third are formed from personal Bashkir names: Karas, Karasya, Karasa, Karasu.

Karataban, village, lake, Etkul district.

The toponym has a historical connection with the naming of the Bashkir family that lived here, which is based on an ancient Turkic name Karataban“crucian carp”, associated with the cult of fish.

Karatavka, lake, Oktyabrsky district.

From the Turkic male name common in the past among the Tatars and Bashkirs Karatau, Karatavu.

Kara-Tau, ridge, Ashinsky district.

From the Bashkir “mountain with a dense forest”, where punishment "dense", tau "mountain".

Kara-Tash, top of the Karaul-Tau ridge, Ashinsky district; two mountains, Uysky, Verkhneuralsky districts.

Translated from Bashkir “black mountain”, where punishment “black”, tash “stone”, “mountain”; here is the word punishment indicates not only the black color of the rocks, but also the lack of vegetation.

Kara-Tibis, lake, Oktyabrsky district.

The name is from the language of the Siberian Tatars, punishment “clean”, “transparent”, tebis, tbys, tabs “mirror” (smooth, even, like a mirror); that’s what they called open areas of water “glasses” on an overgrown lake. Kara-Tibis “a lake with an open, clean surface and clear water.”

Kara-Uzyak, rivers, right tributary of Gumbeyka (Nagaibaksky district), Ural basin.

Translated from Bashkir “spring channel” or “river flowing from the earth (earthen)”, where punishment indicates the river is fed by groundwater, zyak "river".

Karaulovka, village, Katav-Ivanovsky district.

The settlement arose in the second half of the 18th century. at the site of the factory picket guard.

Karaul-Tau, ridge, Karaul-Tyubya, mountain, in the Kara-Tau ridge, Ashinsky district; Karaul-Tube, Mount Agapovsky district.

From the Turkic word karau, karauyl “guard”, “inspection”, “guard”, tau "mountain", tube “peak”, “hill”, “mountain”, i.e. “guard or sentry mountain”.

Karaulnoe, lake, Oktyabrsky district.

In the XVIII XIX centuries. there was a post of the Orenburg Cossacks here.

Kara-Chura (Kara-Churin), lake, Nagaybak district.

From a Tatar male name Karachura, with base punishment “black”, “black”, crazy “slave”, “slave”, “helper”.

Karashar, river, left tributary of the Uya, Uya district.

From the ancient Turkic male name Karashar “dark-haired”, common among the Bashkirs.

Karbys-Kul, lake, Oktyabrsky district.

From the Turkic name common among the Tatars and Bashkirs Karbys, Karbos.

Karelka, rivers, the right tributary of the Malaya Satka; mountain, farmstead, former Karelian mine, Satkinsky district.

Most likely, from the Turkic name Kara-Elka “river with dark water”.

Karmatkul, lake, Argayash district.

From the Turkic male name common among the Bashkirs and Tatars Karmat, Karmyak, Kormat, Korman.

Karsanak, village, territory of the city of Verkhny Ufaleya.

From an ancient Turkic male name Karsanak.

Karsy, village; Karsky, stopping platform, Troitsky district.

The village was founded on the site of what was here in the 18th century. postal station Yam Uslaminsky (along the Uslama river, from the Turkic name Uslam). Renamed Karsy from a Turkic male name Karasy, Karasa. That was the name of the neighboring lake.

Kartabyz, village, lake, Oktyabrsky district; Kartak, village, lake, Troitsky district.

From the ancient Turkic male names Kartabyz and Kartak, Where kart “old”, “elder”, abyz “learned”, “enlightened”, or simply “literate” person (from Arabic hafiz “defender”).

Karyaz, mountain, Katav-Ivanovsky district.

From the common Tatars and Bashkirs of the ancient Turkic male name

Two wonderful Crimean bays, Golubaya and Kutlakskaya, are separated by the Karaul-Oba rock massif; sometimes you can hear the old name of the cape - Chicken-Kaya. From the village of Novy Svet it is 3.5 km along a marked path to the top, and from the camp site in the village of Veseloye it is only 2.5 km. True, the road takes a long time due to the ascent and numerous stops for photo sessions and sightseeing.

Origin of names
The toponym Karaul-Oba is of Turkic origin and stands for Sentinel Mountain.
The meaning of the name Kutlak is interpreted as follows: the Turkic root “kut” means happiness, and the suffix “lac” indicates that there is a lot of object. Thus, “Kutlak” is a place where a lot of happiness is collected. No wonder the Valley of Paradise is located nearby.

Walking to the Karaul-Oba rock

This route is not difficult; even older young ladies can climb along a clearly visible path. There are steps cut into the steep areas. The ascent begins near the juniper grove or from Cape Kapchik in the village of Novy Svet. There are many paths, they either converge or come together again. Step up, you won't miss!

Advice:
Although there are people wearing beach shoes and clothes along the way, it is better to take care of your equipment. You will feel comfortable in trekking shoes or sports sneakers, a hat and shorts. Bring your camera and water bottle.

Along the entire route there are excellent viewing platforms, oddly shaped pine trees and junipers. The road rises smoothly, higher and higher.

Here is Golitsyn's throne. You get good photos here.
Then we descend to the Kholodnaya cave, from where permafrost blows. You can get there only with special caving equipment.
And here the roots of the trees are intertwined and the result is an intricate staircase worthy of your attention.

Where the Valleys of Heaven and Hell meet

You will recognize the Hell's Glade by the pile of frightening stones. Approach the cliff and admire the beautiful seascapes: Cape Kapchik, Cape Meganom in the distance, Blue (Tsar) Bay. Emperor Nicholas II swam here while visiting Prince Lev Golitsyn and his estate Paradise (modern New World). The exit from the Valley of Hell is guarded by two rocks called the Devil's Horns.

Further on, at the bend in the path, look carefully to the right. The main path leads to Kutlak Bay, and a crushed stone path goes up to the right. Follow it to the Valley of Paradise and Sentinel Peak (modern name Peak of Cosmos). This modern name was invented for another observation platform. Once again you can admire the scenery and take pictures.

Video review of Karaul-Oba

How Karaul-Oba helped the ancient brands

A little more and you will climb to the top of Karaul-Oba, the height seems to be small, 342 m, but the views from the cliff are excellent. Every weather and lighting creates interesting effects. Along the way you will come across numerous crevices and caves, under your feet are the remains of ancient Taurus staircases. When Crimea was attacked by Roman legionnaires, local residents had to leave the fertile lands and take refuge from the enemy in the mountains, making homes in caves. The Tauri not only hid, but also attacked the barbarians, and used the Karaul-Oba rock to monitor enemy troops and set up signal fires.

Returning to the marked route, follow to Vesele. Another interesting stone stands at the end of the path, this is the Axe rock. To some, its shape really resembles a weapon, while others see it as a mushroom cut in half. After a few hundred meters the trail will lead to the Marianida recreation center.

Inspection of the ancient Kutlak fortress

If you are lucky, then on the descent from the camp site, you will be able to examine the remains of the walls and defensive buildings of the ancient fortress. It was located on a natural terrace, approximately 70 m above sea level. The Kutlak fortress is the oldest fortification structure in Crimea, dating back to the reign of the Bosporan king Asander. Archaeologists discovered her remains relatively recently, in 1982. It is believed that the fortress protected the borders of the Bosporan kingdom from barbarians and sea pirates 2,000 years ago, at the turn of the old and new eras. The ancient fortress had a quadrangular shape with watchtowers at the corners. The height of the surviving walls reaches 4 meters.

After resting in the village of Vesele, set off on the way back...

How to get to Karaul-Oba rock

If you are planning to take a walk along the Karaul-Oba rock massif, then you need to get to the village of Novy Svet. Minibuses from the city of Sudak go here every hour.

Another option is to start the route in the village of Veseloye. Whatever option you choose, you will have to walk further; there are no roads to Karaul-Oba.

Karaul-Oba on the map of Crimea

GPS Coordinates: 44°49’21″N 34°53’36″E Latitude/Longitude

In 1737, the Head of the Orenburg Expedition, Ivan Kirillovich Kirilov, died, and Vasily Nikitich Tatishchev was appointed head instead of him. Moreover, this was no longer an expedition, but the Orenburg Commission. And in the fall of 1737, at the suggestion of Vasily Nikitich, the Trans-Ural Iset Province was established and Vasily Nikitich’s brother, Ivan Nikitich Tatishchev, was appointed its governor. As a governor, Ivan Nikitich implemented his brother’s project to build fortresses along the road that led from the Siberian settlements to the Verkhoyaitskaya pier. And first of all, it was necessary to rebuild the Verkhoyaitsk fortress itself.

Plan of the Verkhoyaitsk fortress, drawn up in 1742

From the upper reaches of the Yaik, the detachment went to Lake Ukly-Karagay, where back in 1736 it was planned to build a fortress. It was near this lake that the food convoys that went from the Techenskaya Sloboda to Orenburg, which was under construction, were attacked in July and December 1735. Therefore, a fortress here was necessary to control the road, along which food, tools, etc. continued to arrive. Let us turn to the same report Bakhmetev: “Uklykaragai was built in 738 in the month of August and September by Messrs. Colonels Arsenyev and Tatishchev, earthen with turf with a front garden, in it there was a garrison of one hundred and fifty regular and irregular people who settled from peasants to twelve Cossacks.” And a decoding of the composition of the garrison: “... in the Ukly-Karagai dragoons of the Orenburg regiment there are sixty-eight, soldiers (of the Tobolsk and Yenisei regiments - G.S.) there are sixty-four people, there are fifty-nine serving Russians, there are seventy Tatars.”
The garrisons in the fortresses were mixed, they included dragoons (cavalry units), soldiers (infantry units) and servicemen from Siberian cities. The servicemen, otherwise called city Cossacks, consisted of Russians and Tatars. In the first fortresses built in 1736-1737. A large number of Cossacks were recruited from the peasants of the Trans-Ural settlements. They made up the main population of the Chebarkul, Miass, Chelyabinsk and Etkul fortresses. As we can see, there were 12 such people in Ukly-Karagayskaya in 1742, but there were none at all in Verkhoyaitskaya.

After the construction of the Ukly-Karagai fortress, all that was left was to “fill” the space between it and Chebarkul. A place to build a fortification on the river. Uy was appointed, along with others, back in 1736, but the Uy fortress itself was erected only in 1742. The fortresses had fortifications characteristic of that time - square in plan, with an earthen rampart, with corner bastions. The external fortifications of the fortresses were an earthen rampart (Verkhoyaitskaya), a rampart with a palisade (Ukly-Karagayskaya), or simply a wooden wall, as Uyskaya was initially fortified. A wooden dam was placed in Uyskaya, marking the area for filling an earthen rampart, which was built later. The description of the Verkhoyaitsk fortress in 1742 was left by I. Gmelin: “The fortress is a regular rectangle, in each corner of which there is a bastion. Each side from the outer corner of one bastion to the outer corner of another bastion has 80 fathoms and consists of a high earthen rampart... From the side of the reservoir and from the north there are gates with an entrance, and above them rifle towers, each of which is equipped with a battery. Outside, the fortress is surrounded by a deep ditch , behind which there are slingshots, which are adjacent to the river on the southern and northern sides. Inside the fortress there are 2 houses for senior officers, an office, a powder and vodka cellar, 5 granaries and 22 barracks. Now a church in honor of the Annunciation of Mary, which was founded on June 28, is also being built inside the fortress.”
It seems that it was in 1743 that a comprehensive system of border protection began to take shape. The fortresses themselves acted as strongholds on the border line, and the distance between the fortresses also had to be controlled. For this purpose, outposts were initially set up (relatively small fortifications where a border crossing could fend off an enemy attack) and beacons - signal towers from which an alarm could be given in case of danger. There were guards (pickets) on duty at these towers. The territory between the fortresses was controlled by patrols (like a modern border patrol). There were also “outgoing patrols,” that is, groups of military personnel who went to the steppe to monitor the situation; in modern language this can be described as “reconnaissance.” In June 1743, the governor of the Iset province, who was also the commander of the Orenburg Dragoon Regiment, Colonel P. Bakhmetev wrote to the Miass and Chebarkul fortresses: “... patrols have already been established from Verkhoyaitskaya through the Uklykaragayskaya and Uyskaya fortresses and at the lighthouses, missing the Etkul fortress and Chumlyatskaya settlements, to Tobol, with which both that Chebarkul and other fortresses along Miyasu are covered.”
In the same June 1743, Prime Major M. Shkader sent out “proposals” to the fortresses about increased readiness at “established outposts”, where he ordered the commander of the Uyskaya fortress, Captain Polozov, “to send the [ob]istov beacons and figures available at the Uyskaya fortress to Verkhoyaitskaya the fortress immediately (...) according to these beacons and figures on the departing guards, where appropriate, at the Verkhoyaitsk fortress.” The words “beacons” and “figures” in this case mean sets of signs and signals with the help of which messages could be transmitted at a distance, within sight. Therefore, signal towers, which were also called “beacons,” were placed on hills and hills so that the signals could be seen from afar. The lighthouses were placed within line of sight, at such a distance that it was possible to distinguish which “figures” were being shown at the next lighthouse. In the case of the Verkhoyaitsk fortress, natural hills served as lighthouses. I. Gmelin, who visited here in 1742, wrote: “One post is located on a mountain called Ak-Tyude (50 sazhens above the fortress, and 3 versts from it on the western bank of the Yaik), another on Mount Koshtak-Tyube , which is located 4 versts east of the fortress near the eastern bank of Haud-uidyak. The third is 6 versts south of the fortress down the Yaik, on Mount Karaul-Tyube, so called because of the guard that stood there in past Bashkir times.” He also pointed out that “Outside the fortress, on its western side, near the river, there are 15 almost collapsed barracks for the Bashkirs stationed at the outpost. Consequently, the external security system existed almost from the very construction of the fortress in 1738, and the Bashkirs served there, along with soldiers and Cossacks. I don’t know what the “figures” and “beacons” were, perhaps they were made in the likeness of the “figures” used (and still used) in the navy.
Thus, a new border line was organized and Chelyabinsk, Miass, Chebarkul found itself in the “rear”, inside the territory outlined by border fortresses.

Part one: Verkhoyaitskaya pier

The oldest city in the Chelyabinsk region is Verkhneuralsk. Today it is a small, quiet town, and throughout the 18th–19th centuries. he played an important role in the history of our region. And its history is rich in various episodes - tragic, heroic, ordinary, simply interesting. Before starting the story, I would like to remember the wonderful local historian - Ivan Vladimirovich Degtyarev. It was he who, in his time (back in the 1960s–1970s), collected a huge amount of various information in various archives, which formed the basis of my story. I supplemented his information with newly identified materials.
Let's start in order, with the founding of the city. In 1734, the activities of the Orenburg expedition began. It was formed through the efforts of the Chief Secretary of the Senate I.K. Kirilov. The priority tasks of the expedition are the construction of the city of Orenburg and a pier on the Aral Sea. Promising areas of work are the establishment of trade routes to Central Asia, exploration and the beginning of the development of local natural resources, the beginning of the development of ore riches of the Southern Urals. The first Orenburg (today the city of Orsk) was planned and was founded at the confluence of the river. Or in the river Ural, hence the name - Orenburg, i.e. “city on the river.” Or." The initiators of the construction of the city (at least formally) were the Kyrgyz-Kaisaks, that is, the Kazakhs. They needed this city for trade and as a symbol of the presence of a powerful ally in the steppe. True, the author of the project I.K. Kirilov tried to attribute the desire to build a new city to the Bashkirs, but this is a controversial point. In this case, we will not go into the nuances, but, by all accounts, the activities of the Orenburg expedition caused the Bashkir uprising, which called into question the fulfillment of its tasks.
In the fall of 1734, the expedition arrived in Ufa, and here Kirilov learned that the place where the city of Orenburg was supposed to be founded was located far from Ufa and the problem of supplying the new city with supplies arose. It was not possible to bring the necessary supplies by winter route to the town of Sakmarsky, in order to then deliver them to the construction site. It was necessary to look for another option. December 15, 1734 (old style) I.K. Kirilov wrote to the chief commander of the Kazan and Siberian factories, V.N. Tatishchev: “in the land map it means that the peaks of the Yaika River (today the Ural River) approached the Siberian and Yekaterinburg settlements and factories, from where everything you need can be obtained, having established a convenient pier and here in the winter to transport, and in the spring to float on rafts with the first water " Next, the head of the expedition asked Tatishchev, if he knew the situation in the upper reaches of the Yaik, to send proposals on how to more conveniently organize the delivery of tools and food supplies to the place where it would be more convenient to build a pier, from the Yekaterinburg department. “If Your Excellency does not know about the peaks, then I ask you to send from the merchants and with them secretly, instead of the clerk, a surveyor who would travel around the necessary places and inspect where the piers were and then make a drawing, it would be more accurate,” wrote I.K. Kirilov. Tatishchev, having received the letter, sent the Yekaterinburg merchant Ivan Kharchevnikov to the “peaks” of Yaik, and with him he sent surveyor Ivan Shishkov, ordering him to take with him an assistant (“student”). They had to find in the upper reaches of the Yaik or some tributary a place convenient for building a pier, from where supplies could be sent down the river on rafts in the spring. In addition, they had to contract the “Tatars” who lived there (meaning the Bashkirs - in documents of that time they are often called Tatars) to build sheds for storing food and harvest timber for rafts. In addition, “Shishkov is too sick to explore the position of those places, and after examining them, make a drawing.” On January 2, 1735, two Ivans - Kharchevnikov and Shishkov - went to Yaik.
Meanwhile, I.K. Kirilov is informed that a place for a pier has been found. On December 31 (old style) he wrote to Tatishchev: “now I have received the real news that it is possible to float by rafts and ships from the mouth where the Ulzhedhe (Urlyady) river flowed from the Siberian side, and on that river at the top of a pine and other forest for ships and there are enough rafts and that forest is called Oktu (Okto-Karagai - Karagai Bor), behind the Khoroshaeva village, a day's drive, about sixty versts. Which pier Tarkhan Taimas Batyr Shaimov undertook to build on the Siberian road of the Karatabyn volost and has already bought a thousand or more pounds of bread in the Siberian settlements through another Bashkir Bokchurga...” In connection with this, he asked to send tools: axes, staples, crowbars, drills, etc. to the village of Khoroshaeva, so that “as soon as a company soldier arrives from Ufa, they will take the huts and barns, or sheds to the indicated place.” . In addition, he reported that Admiralty shipwrights would also go to the pier (there were some of them on the expedition; let me remind you that one of its tasks was to build a pier and ships on the Aral Sea). The problem was different, these masters “had never been involved in simple ships,” that is, they could build a sea vessel, but a simple plank was not a fact. Kirilov noted that Tatishchev had enough such craftsmen and asked to send two or three people “to send in the first case, they can, seeing the waters, make such ships.” That is, build barges based on the full flow of the river, so that they do not turn out to be too large for the upper reaches of the Yaik.
A day earlier than Tatishchev (that is, December 30, 1734), Ivan Kirillovich writes a “most humble report” to Empress Anna Ioannovna. And in it he reports that “that pier was sent from me by the Bashkir foreman of the Siberian road... Tarkhan Taimas-batyr inspected and permission from the Bashkir patrimony... took the name Good... For guard duty and construction on the first occasion of a small store and slingshots, manufacturing for ships and rafts forests, commanded a company of soldiers, sent a ship’s foreman there with carpenters and other craftsmen, and by spring I will send another company.” That is, Kirilov lays out the matter to Vasily Nikitich as it is, and reports to Anna Ioannovna about the successes - they say the consent of the Bashkirs living on Yaik has been received and a company has already been sent to the site, and practically the pier is already being built! It is on the basis of this report that the foundation of the Verkhoyaitskaya pier is dated to 1734, although nothing had been laid yet, and the Bashkirs living in that area did not give consent to the construction, and even the detachment to Yaik from Ufa had not yet left... However, about this and that, How did the events develop in the rest of the story ahead?

Map of the Ufa province from the Atlas of the Russian Empire, published in 1745. However, the situation in the Southern Trans-Urals shown on this map corresponds to 1735, that is, the time when the Veroyaitskaya pier was founded. But other fortresses, except for the first Orenburg (Orsk) and Ozernaya, had not yet been built.

Ivan Shishkov and the merchant Kharchevnikov on the 11th day after leaving Yekatinsk (as Yekaterinburg was called during the “reign” of V.N. Tatishchev) reached the very village of Khoroshaeva (Karashaeva) and found out that everything was not so smooth. The owner of the Bashkir village, Karashay, said that he would not give a place to build sheds and store timber for rafts: “And this Karashay told us that when the Bashkirs pass the Nogai road food brought from Ufa to the Cossack town of Sakmara in preparation for the newly built city of Orenburg, then and I will gladly give you that place.” Also, there were no people in the village to build sheds, but Karashay said that if everything was normal, and the Bashkirs of the Nogai road let the convoy from Ufa to Sakmarsk pass, then he would give the empty huts and sheds in the village for warehouses. Shishkov also noted in his report that on the road from Yekaterinburg to the peaks of Yaik, “there is great scarcity of senes... it is also impossible to hire carts.”
Tatishchev drew conclusions from Shishkov’s report almost at lightning speed. On January 24, he receives a surveyor’s report and, it seems, immediately gives orders to the peasants of the Bagaryatskaya settlement - to go to the Tabyn volost “to inquire about Lake Chebarkule, what is it - farmed out and to whom? And if possible, to hire it for a settlement, supposedly for yourself.” The peasants of the Bagaryatskaya settlement, Trifon Karandashev and Semyon Yushkov, set off. There were no Bashkirs in Chebarkul; they moved for the winter to the upper reaches of the Uy River (modern Uchalinsky district of Bashkiria). Having reached there, the peasants talked with the Tabyns (Tabyn is one of the tribal groups within the Bashkirs) about renting the lake for 5 years and the possibility of building a village. The Bashkirs said that it was possible to farm out the lake, but “we don’t dare give land to the peasants in our area, fearing Her Imperial Majesty’s decrees...”. It turned out that at that time the lake. Chebarkul was given to the peasants of the Dalmatov Monastery for 20 rubles a year. To the proposal of the Bagaryat peasants to lease the lake to them starting next year, the Bashkirs replied that in general they were not against it, but now not all the patrimonial lands (that is, the Bashkirs are the owners of that land) are in place, when everyone is assembled, then they say let them come and come to an agreement. It would seem, why did Tatishchev need a Russian settlement on Chebarkul? It's all about the very lack of places where you could buy hay and change horses, on the way from Russian settlements to the upper reaches of the Yaik...
The efforts of the Orenburg expedition went on as usual. Ensign Gladyshev traveled through the settlements and purchased flour and cereals for the needs of the expedition. Kirilov was in charge. On January 29, he wrote to Tatishchev that he had been shown two more places where a pier could be built. He appointed one company each from the Ufa battalion and the Kazan regiment to be sent to the construction site, but they were still in Ufa, awaiting the arrival of I. Gladyshev, who knew “where it would be safer for them to come to the inspected place.” Since Gladyshev left Techenskaya Sloboda no earlier than February 23, the soldiers from Ufa moved to Yaik no earlier than the end of February. The instructions to Captain Uvarov and Lieutenant Vetoshnikov, who commanded the first company sent to Yaik, were signed on February 21, 1735. Consequently, they left after this date. In a letter dated March 30 to Tatishchev, the head of the expedition reported that “the Verkhoyaitskaya pier, I hope to the true God, will establish itself and there the first company in a strong place slingshots, and the other company and the Admiralty servants left from here on March 16...”. Thus, Verkhoyaitskaya pier was actually founded in February-March 1735. Although it is usually customary to talk about 1734, this year is officially considered the date of the founding of Verkhneuralsk. But this is such a historical misconception - it has been said for a long time that this date is not correct, but since 1734 is earlier than 1735, it seems somehow more interesting to the residents of Verkhneuralsk as the year of the founding of their city (and not only to them). This is generally a common phenomenon. In Chelyabinsk they regularly try to revive the theme of the mythical “Alexandrovskaya Sloboda”, which was supposedly the predecessor of the Chelyabinsk fortress, and was supposedly built at the end of the 17th century... Ufa residents do not want to give up 1574 as the first year of the city’s existence, although it seems to have been proven long ago that Ufa was founded in 1586.

Part two: History of the winter convoy

The first to arrive at the site of the future Verkhoyaitskaya pier was a company of the Ufa Garrison Regiment under the command of Captain Uvarov and Lieutenant Vetoshnikov. Then a company of the Kazan Regiment, commanded by Captain Koryagin and Ensign Ignatiev, approached. They built the necessary storage and living quarters and a fortress, since the mood of the Bashkirs turned out to be not at all peaceful, which is not surprising. In the summer of 1735, the uprising had already spread to the central and southern regions of Bashkiria. And then it spread to the Trans-Urals.
The sent detachment did not have the opportunity to build a normal fortress - two companies were clearly not enough for this. Fortresses like Miass or Chebarkul were built by detachments of 2–3 thousand people (including peasants). And it is simply unrealistic to fill up normal earthworks with the help of soldiers of two companies. There is nothing to put a wooden dam out of. A normal forest grew 30–40 km from the pier. What remained... were the talnik rods, i.e. and you. Soldier Devyatkov later said that one of the groups of fighters went to cut the waistcoat for “tours”, i.e. for the manufacture of wicker high cylinders, which were filled with soil or other ballast. P.S. Pallas wrote in his notes in 1771: “The Tatars and Bashkirs living nearby still call the upper Yaitsk fortress “Talkallar” [false fortress], because at first it was surrounded like a rampart by the fascists.” “Talkallar”, more precisely, “talkale” means “taln city”; fascinnik is simply rods, usually tied into bundles like sheaves. However, no matter what its walls were made of, the rebel Bashkirs did not dare to storm it...
The further situation was largely determined by whether food from the Siberian settlements would be delivered in a timely manner? Therefore, I will talk in detail about how the situation with food delivery developed. The very first convoy, sent from Techenskaya Sloboda to the Verkhoyaitskaya pier and further to Orenburg, in the summer of 1735, was blocked by the Bashkirs near the lake. Ukly-Karagai. Units of the Siberian and Orenburg dragoon regiments that arrived in time freed the convoy, and the food was delivered to the builders of Orenburg. But the supplies delivered were not enough to feed the garrisons until spring. Another convoy was supposed to arrive in winter, but Orenburg and Verkhoyaitskaya pier did not wait for it...
Even before the convoy left, in November 1735, reports began to arrive that the Bashkirs of various volosts said that “when the provisions go to Orenburkh, they will of course be broken up and will not be allowed to reach Orenburkh.” Captain Uvarov reported the same from the Verkhoyaitskaya pier. V.N. Tatishchev sent a decree to Colonel I. Arsenyev, in which he invited him to escort the convoy to a safe place. The convoy set off from Techenskaya Sloboda on December 2, accompanied by a detachment of dragoons and infantry of 357 people, under the command of Major M. Shkader. In addition, there were 600 peasants with the carts. And... I fell into the same trap as the summer convoy. But if in the summer of 1735, as A.I. wrote. Tevkelev, the team accompanying the food was attacked by a detachment of Bashkirs numbering about 260 people; in winter there were several thousand of them. I will leave the further narration to contemporaries and participants in the events - the documents written by the officers of the Siberian Dragoon and Yenisei Infantry Regiments are eloquent and quite artistic in style of presentation. Although the “effect” of artistry probably arises from the drama of the events described. Before proceeding with the presentation, let me remind you that in those days any violators of the law were called “thieves”. Those. the word “thief”, which will often appear in documents in relation to the Bashkirs, denotes the Bashkirs who took part in the uprising. Because rebellion, according to state logic, is an illegal action.
Major Shkader’s first report on the Bashkir attack on the convoy is not dated; most likely, it was written on December 23, 1735: “... we left Techenskaya Sloboda on December 2, 1735 and walked along the Bashkir veins, and on December 22 near the Yanbiki River We sit isolated from the enemies of the Bashkir thieves... and there are a thousand or more of these Bashkir thieves... it is absolutely impossible to move from this place, since we came (to) the stone mountains and between them there is only one rope (that is, in one column, in single file).” A convoy stretched between the mountains is an ideal target for an attack; naturally, Shkader did not dare to take such a suicidal step. The fact that the Bashkirs attacked Shkader’s team not in the gorge, but before entering it, out of the blue, may indicate a reluctance to destroy the convoy. Although it is possible that someone’s nerves simply could not stand it, and the attack began earlier than planned. The further development of events is described in Shkader’s report dated January 24: “...not allowed (to the Verkhoyaitskaya pier), the Bashkir thieves attacked near the Anbi River, and there was a strong battle in December from the 22nd to the 24th, and this year, 1736, on the 6th day from morning to evening. In which the battle was defeated: two soldiers from the Yenisei regiment, one soldier; wounded: one corporal, two soldiers, two soldiers from the Tobolsk regiment, five different settlements of peasants, one Yasash Tatar. In total, eleven people were wounded... What they wrote to his honor, Colonel Ivan Savich Arsenyev, to follow with the command to the sikurs (to the sikurs, which means to the formation - G.S.)...".
So, Shkader was surrounded with food and was waiting for help from the Siberian Dragoon Regiment led by Colonel Arsenyev. But no help came. A fragment from a report to Tatishchev, written by Arsenyev on January 20, 1736, tells why the wait turned out to be in vain: “this year 736, January 4 days ... the Siberian Dragoon Regiment with available people, with five hundred and seven people, and the Okunevsky district with ninety-seven peasants , many of whom did not have guns, set out from the Techinskaya Sloboda on a march to rescue the captured government authority by Bashkir thieves, near the river Yanbiki, sent from the Techinskaya Sloboda to Orenburkh with Major Shkader... And today, on the 12th day of January, he came to the Kuski peaks river... before being attacked right before reaching fifteen versts, the Bashkir thieves of the Siberian and Nagai roads Yusup and Zhiyanbai in large numbers, thousands of people from the heels and more, attacked us from all sides and attacked us with a cruel attack, and there was a battle with them from half a day to the evening and all night and the next day of the third on the tenth (thirteenth) day from morning until evening. And in that battle they killed: six dragoons, one peasant; wounded... forty-five people...". Then the colonel explains: it was impossible to line up the battalions in a square and attack on foot because “the great rocky mountains and the most cramped places came - it was difficult to walk in one sleigh, and all the food was reserved for the government horses, ... and because of the lack of food, the horses were left behind.” were dying." It would seem like some kind of overkill - why would horses die? It turns out that the peasant carts from the settlements were not sent on time and the dragoons were forced to harness their combat horses to the sleigh with supplies. And since they were marching quickly, the horses were naturally exhausted, “and the dragoons had to be all cavalry for a quick march and from the attack of an enemy dangerous case... and during the above-mentioned thieves’ attack, the dragoons unharnessed the horses (from the carts) for the battle as needed "
If Shkader was surrounded before entering the gorge, then Arsenyev’s detachment was attacked, having already been drawn into the gulch. The situation was stalemate - there was no food for the horses, no food, the ammunition was almost exhausted in two days of battle, the enemy was on the tops and slopes of the surrounding mountains, and the road could only be passed in single file... “And during the above-described battle, on the 13th of January in the evening , the Bashkir thieves began asking for an interpreter to negotiate. And the Bashkirs who were with us in the camp were sent to them from us: the Siberian road of the Salzautsky volost Isengul Lushnikov, the Balakatai volost Abdul Kachkin. And at the negotiations, Yusup and Zhiyambai told them that: we won’t let the colonel and his people get to the forged praviant, but if he goes forward, then we will fight, and until the last person we will all die here on our land, and the praviant will not only reach Orenburg, but before We won’t allow Verkhoyaitskaya pier.” And in conclusion, the colonel reported: “On the 14th day of January from the current march, from Otaki, due to the paucity of people and a strong thieves’ attack, and due to considerable harm to people and horses, and due to the lack of food and fodder, they returned to Techinskaya Sloboda.”
Arsenyev's first message about the failure of his campaign, sent on January 16, aroused Tatishchev's anger. On the same day, when Arsenyev was drawing up a detailed report, which I quoted above, Vasily Nikitich sent him a stern “warrant”, which stated that “the convoy with praviant and supplies was left to the enemies for destruction,” and then it went on about measures to save the convoy... But the measures are already too late. According to Shkader’s description: “on the leave of this gentleman colonel (Arsenyev), the Bashkir thieves let loose another five thousand and wanted to break them up. And in a conversation, these Bashkirs announced that the thief Yusup and his comrades did not want to let the deprivation convoy go further than this place, and if they went forward or stood here, then of course we would break them up and not let them pass. And if you go back, we will give you amonats (hostages) and see you off with honor. And this day, January 16, the sent company headquarters and chief officers signed up to accept the Amonats, and instead give them their own Amonats, from the Russians, and return. And after giving the Amonats, they returned, because we had too little gunpowder, both cannon and weapons, and therefore had nothing to fight with them. And this January 23rd, everything arrived safely in Techenskaya Sloboda.”
As far as one can judge, the hostages were released by both sides after the convoy arrived back to Techenskaya Sloboda. At least, I did not come across any documents that mentioned the parties’ non-compliance with their obligations.

Part three: The death of the “pier” garrison

After the return of the food convoy to Techenskaya Sloboda (today the village of Russkaya Techa), in the report of V.N. Major Shkader reported to Tatishchev: “Only in the Karatabyn volost, the Bashkir Kinzyakei Akynchikov wanted to announce his faithful service to Her Imperial Majesty, and undertook to conduct the Bashkirs secretly from the thieves, so that they could not know that there were twenty-two carts of the state government at the Verkhoyaitskaya pier... a total of 323 pounds.” Kinzyakai’s decision was quite understandable - the garrison of the Verkhoyaitskaya pier was starving. Almost all the products delivered by the previous convoy were sent to Orenburg, which was under construction, and almost nothing was left in the fortress. But nothing is known yet about the fate of this small convoy; one can only make assumptions, but more on that below.
For a long time there was no reliable information about the fate of the Verkhoyaitskaya pier. Apparently, Kinzyakei Akinchikov disappeared along with the convoy that he undertook to deliver to the fortress. In February, the officers of the Siberian Dragoon Regiment began to receive snippets of contradictory information reported by Tatars and Bashkirs who had heard the stories of other Bashkirs who lived closer to Yaik. One message said that “they heard (that) the people staying on the Verkhoyaitskaya pier were all beaten by Bashkir thieves, and they took the shell, cannons, guns, gunpowder and other supplies for themselves. And the thieves did this in this way: they arrived at that pier and announced that torture had been sent with them to go from the Verkhoyait pier to the city of Ufa, and they, as Bashkirs, were ordered to accompany them, and lured everyone on the way and beat them. And where that flour was sent from and in what case, they didn’t tell him...”
Another said that “all the soldiers who would be on the Verkhoyaitskaya pier, due to the lack of a right and suffering from great need, were taken from the Nagai road by the Bashkirs Adzhigit and Emet and his comrades, three hundred people, and taken to the city of Ufa on carts, which the carts gave to the soldiers Nagai road Bashkiretin Karabay, and how many soldiers and supplies were given for them and whether they were hired or not, I haven’t heard about that and the mentioned Bashkirs Adzhigit and Yemet and all three hundred people came to the sherty to bring them all safely to the city of Ufa according to their faith and they kissed the Kuran and signed their names, and left the guns with the Bashkiretin near Zhinbai.”
The third again outlined the worst option: “thieves from the Bashkir people of the Kumratsk volost of Tokchyura came to the Verkhoyaitskaya pier of the Siberian road with their comrades and the chief officers and soldiers who were at that pier, lured them out for about ten days and encouraged them to escort them to the city of Ufa along the road they came and beat everyone " It was clear that the pier no longer existed. Already in March, in the instructions given by V.N. Tatishchev suggested that Colonel I. Arsenyev try to restore the Verkhoyaitskaya pier, or rather its fortifications.
And in the summer, near the Sinara River, the soldier Semyon Mokeevich Devyatkin, who had escaped from captivity, was found, apparently the only survivor from the Verkhoyaitskaya pier garrison. His story surprisingly includes both versions, which reached the officers in retelling...
Since the fall, the pier was actually under siege - the surrounding area was controlled by detachments of rebel Bashkirs. There was no food left. Sometimes the Bashkirs, who did not take part in the uprising, risked their lives to deliver some food. By winter, the situation worsened, and after the winter food train was blocked in Karagaysky Bor and turned back to Techenskaya Sloboda, the leader of the uprising, Yusup Arykov, came to the pier with the main detachment. By this time there was no food left at all, the soldiers had reached the point where they ate carrion, many were sick or simply exhausted. Arykov invited the garrison to go to the “Siberian settlements” and promised unhindered passage and assistance with horses and food, but the garrison commander did not agree. As it turned out, he did the right thing... At the beginning of February, Arykov sent “the best people” for negotiations, i.e. foremen Ten people were allowed into the fortress to listen to their proposals. The elders repeated Yusup's proposal, saying that otherwise the garrison would simply starve to death. Captain Uvarov set the condition “if you take the oath and kiss the Kuran that you will see us off safely, then we are ready to leave the fortress.” The Bashkirs (the very best people sent by Yusup Arykov for negotiations) took an oath on the Koran. The next day, 200 horses and sleighs were driven in, where they loaded weapons, ammunition, and the sick; the healthy ones went on foot and moved towards the settlements, i.e. to the East. But the very next day it was said that they would not be allowed into the settlement and they had to go back to Ufa, the same road along which they came to Yaik... Apparently, the elders who took the oath, seeing that the people were taken where it was promised, dispersed houses, and Yusup decided to turn things around in his own way.
I will not retell the vicissitudes of this tragedy. It lasted for several days. Almost all the soldiers of the two companies died. The wounded, whom Captain Uvarov left in one of the villages (the sleighs and horses were taken away from the soldiers, and it was impossible to carry the wounded and frostbitten, who were also left without warm clothes), were taken by the Bashkirs to their homes, to become workers. One of them was Semyon Devyatkov, a 24-year-old soldier. After some time, he escaped from the “master” and told the story of the death of the Verkhoyaitskaya pier garrison. True, the ending of this story happened without his participation.
It can be assumed that Kinzyakai Akinchikov’s convoy was intercepted by Yusup’s troops, and the carts with bread were used as a kind of additional argument in negotiations with the fortress garrison. At least this version is possible, based on the stories of some Bashkirs given above.
Until 1738, the place where the pier was built was empty...

Part four: Tatishchev-2-Tatishchev, or the rebirth of the Verkhoyaitsk fortress

In the summer of 1738, a detachment under the command of the governor of the Iset province, Colonel I.N. Tatishchev (brother of the famous statesman and historian V.N. Tatishchev) and the commander of the Siberian Dragoon Regiment, Colonel I.S. Arsenyeva comes to the upper reaches of the Yaik and, one mile from the burned first Verkhoyaitskaya pier, erects a new fortification. As Colonel Bakhmetev wrote in a report in 1742: “Verkhoyaitskaya was built in July 738 by the same gentlemen, Colonels Arsenyev and Tatishchev, earthen with turf, with a garrison of one hundred and fifty regular and irregular men.” Another document deciphers these numbers: “in the Verkhoyaitskaya dragoons of the Siberian regiment there are sixty-five, Tobolsk soldiers forty-four, Yenisei soldiers thirty-four, Russian servicemen eighty-eight, Tatars twenty-eight.” Of course, the fortress was built over many months and the work was completed only by the end of August.
From the upper reaches of the Yaik, the detachment went to Lake Ukly-Karagay, where back in 1736 it was planned to build a fortress. It was near this lake that the food convoys that went from the Techenskaya Sloboda to Orenburg, which was under construction, were attacked in July and December 1735. Therefore, a fortress here was necessary to control the road, along which food, tools, etc. continued to arrive. Let us turn to the same report Bakhmetev: “Uklykaragai was built in 738 in the month of August and September by Messrs. Colonels Arsenyev and Tatishchev, earthen with turf with a front garden, in it there was a garrison of one hundred and fifty regular and irregular people who settled from peasants to twelve Cossacks.” And a decoding of the composition of the garrison: “... in the Ukly-Karagai dragoons of the Orenburg regiment there are sixty-eight, soldiers (of the Tobolsk and Yenisei regiments - G.S.) sixty-four people, fifty-nine serving Russians, seventy Tatars.”
The garrisons in the fortresses were mixed, they included dragoons (cavalry units), soldiers (infantry units) and servicemen from Siberian cities. The servicemen, otherwise called city Cossacks, consisted of Russians and Tatars. In the first fortresses, built in 1736–1737. A large number of Cossacks were recruited from the peasants of the Trans-Ural settlements. They made up the main population of the Chebarkul, Miass, Chelyabinsk and Etkul fortresses. As we can see, there were 12 such people in Ukly-Karagayskaya in 1742, but there were none at all in Verkhoyaitskaya.

A fragment of a map of the Iset province in 1742, which shows the newly built fortresses: Verkhoyatskaya, Ukly (Ukly-Karagayskaya) and Uyskaya, as well as Etkulskaya.

After the construction of the Ukla-Karagay fortress, all that was left was to “fill” the space between it and Chebarkul. A place to build a fortification on the river. Uy was appointed, along with others, back in 1736, but the Uy fortress itself was erected only in 1742. The fortresses had fortifications characteristic of that time - square in plan, with an earthen rampart, with corner bastions. The external fortifications of the fortresses were an earthen rampart (Verkhoyaitskaya), a rampart with a palisade (Ukly-Karagayskaya), or simply a wooden wall, as Uyskaya was initially fortified. A wooden dam was placed in Uyskaya, marking the area for filling an earthen rampart, which was built later. The description of the Verkhoyaitsk fortress in 1742 was left by I. Gmelin: “The fortress is a regular rectangle, in each corner of which there is a bastion. Each side from the outer corner of one bastion to the outer corner of another bastion has 80 fathoms and consists of a high earthen rampart... From the side of the reservoir and from the north there are gates with an entrance, and above them rifle towers, each of which is equipped with a battery. Outside, the fortress is surrounded by a deep ditch , behind which there are slingshots, which are adjacent to the river on the southern and northern sides. Inside the fortress there are 2 houses for senior officers, an office, a powder and vodka cellar, 5 granaries and 22 barracks. Now a church in honor of the Annunciation of Mary, which was founded on June 28, is also being built inside the fortress.”
It seems that it was in 1743 that a comprehensive system of border protection began to take shape. The fortresses themselves acted as strongholds on the border line, and the distance between the fortresses also had to be controlled. For this purpose, outposts were initially set up (relatively small fortifications where a border crossing could fend off an enemy attack) and beacons - signal towers from which an alarm could be given in case of danger. There were guards (pickets) on duty at these towers. The territory between the fortresses was controlled by patrols (like a modern border patrol). There were also “outgoing patrols,” that is, groups of military personnel who went to the steppe to monitor the situation; in modern language this can be described as “reconnaissance.” In June 1743, the governor of the Iset province, who was also the commander of the Orenburg Dragoon Regiment, Colonel P. Bakhmetev wrote to the Miass and Chebarkul fortresses: “... patrols have already been established from Verkhoyaitskaya through the Uklykaragayskaya and Uyskaya fortresses and at the lighthouses, missing the Etkul fortress and Chumlyatskaya settlements, to Tobol, with which both that Chebarkul and other fortresses along Miyasu are covered.”
In the same June 1743, Prime Major M. Shkader sent out “proposals” to the fortresses about increased readiness at “established outposts”, where he ordered the commander of the Uyskaya fortress, Captain Polozov, “to send the [ob]istov beacons and figures available at the Uyskaya fortress to Verkhoyaitskaya the fortress immediately (...) according to these beacons and figures on the departing guards, where appropriate, at the Verkhoyaitsk fortress.” The words “beacons” and “figures” in this case mean sets of signs and signals with the help of which messages could be transmitted at a distance, within sight. Therefore, signal towers, which were also called “beacons,” were placed on hills and hills so that the signals could be seen from afar. The lighthouses were placed within line of sight, at such a distance that it was possible to distinguish which “figures” were being shown at the next lighthouse. In the case of the Verkhoyaitsk fortress, natural hills served as lighthouses. I. Gmelin, who visited here in 1742, wrote: “One post is located on a mountain called Ak-Tyude (50 sazhens above the fortress, and 3 versts from it on the western bank of the Yaik), another on Mount Koshtak-Tyube , which is located 4 versts east of the fortress near the eastern bank of Haud-uidyak. The third is 6 versts south of the fortress down the Yaik, on Mount Karaul-Tyube, so called because of the guard that stood there in past Bashkir times.” He also pointed out that “Outside the fortress, on its western side, near the river, there are 15 almost collapsed barracks for the Bashkirs stationed at the outpost. Consequently, the external security system existed almost from the very construction of the fortress in 1738, and the Bashkirs served there, along with soldiers and Cossacks. I don’t know what the “figures” and “beacons” were, perhaps they were made in the likeness of the “figures” used (and still used) in the navy.
Thus, a new border line was organized and Chelyabinsk, Miass, Chebarkul found itself in the “rear”, inside the territory outlined by border fortresses.

Part five: border arrangement

The formation of the first border line did not cancel the original function of the fortresses - they were set up as transit points on the road along which food was transported to Orenburg, which was under construction. The Verkhoyaitskaya fortress, as planned back in 1735, was a place for storing supplies: in winter, along a sled route, food was transported there, and in the spring, along high water, it was supposed to be sent down the Yaik (Ural). And to harvest hay, Cossacks from the Chelyabinsk, Miass, Chebarkul and Etkul fortresses were dispatched to the Verkhoitsk, Ukly-Karagai and Uysk fortresses. Moreover, in Ukly-Karagayskaya in 1743 there were 17 “our” Cossacks, in Uyskaya - 35, and in Verkhoyaitskaya there were still none. And a lot of hay had to be prepared, in Verkhoyaitskaya - 40,000 kopecks, and in Ukly-Karagayskaya and Uyskaya - 30,000 kopecks each. Each shock is no less than 5 poods, i.e. 80 kg. hay It is characteristic that for the Cossacks, harvesting hay was equated to line service, that is, to duty at border outposts.

In 1743, appointed head of the Orenburg Commission (as the former Orenburg expedition was now called), I.I. Neplyuev decides to build border lines of fortresses along the Uy and Yaik rivers. The previous option, when the line consisted of Verkhoyaitskaya, Ukly-Karagayskaya, Uyskaya, Etkulskaya fortresses and Chumlyatskaya settlement, was far from optimal, since the gaps between the stronghold fortified points were too large and it was unrealistic to cover them even with the help of outposts and patrols. We needed a continuous border line that would allow us to control the situation. In the same 1743, the fortresses of Magnitnaya, Petropavlovskaya, Stepnaya, Troitskaya and others were founded. Verkhoyaitskaya and Ukly-Karagayskaya, thus, were included not only in the system of “road” fortifications, i.e. built on the road along which food was transported from the settlements of the Trans-Ural region to Orenburg, which was under construction, but also to the newly formed border line. Obviously, soon after this, the Urlyadinsky redoubt was erected between these two fortresses and the Erdizinsky (Erzidinsky) redoubt - between Ukly-Karagayskaya and Petropavlovskaya. The Uysk fortress was located in the depths of the territory, beyond the border line.

Thus, the border with the “steppe of the nomadic Kyrgyz-Kaisaks (Kazakhs)” initially passed along the Uy and Yaik rivers, and the Ukly-Karagai fortress was a kind of link between the lines located along these two rivers. The border security system developed; new redoubts and outposts were erected between the fortresses - fortifications smaller than the fortresses, in which temporary garrisons were located. These garrisons included soldiers, dragoons, Cossacks and Bashkirs. Later, detachments of Cossacks, Bashkirs and “service Meshcheryaks” began to be sent there. Line service, i.e. duty at outposts usually took place in the summer - in winter, the danger of Kazakhs crossing borders was less, since they migrated south, to winter pastures.
The task of the border line of fortresses was precisely to protect the border. Fortresses acted as strongholds, and redoubts, outposts, pickets and lighthouses made it possible to effectively guard the border and prevent the penetration of troops from the steppe, or warn of their approach.

Section and “facade” of the lighthouse according to Laskovsky. A tower with a barrel of something flammable on top. If danger was detected, a fire was lit to give a signal.

As the border was developed, it was divided into “distances” - each distance included several fortresses and redoubts. P.I. Rychkov reports: “This entire line (Uyskaya - G.S.) is divided into two distances. The first begins with the Verkhoyaitsk fortress, where the commander of this distance is located. In his department are the Ukly-Karagai, Peter and Paul and Steppe fortresses with several redoubts; but in what concerns military affairs, it consists for the most part under orders (orders - G.S.) and the instructions of the commander located in the Trinity Fortress, to whom foreign affairs are entrusted.” Accordingly, the commander of the Trinity fortress had overall command over the entire Uyskaya line and directly commanded the Nizhne-Uyskaya distance, which included the Trinity, Krutoyarsk and Ust-Uyskaya fortresses with redoubts and outposts between them. However, in the second half of the 1750s. the situation will change: the Nizhne-Uyskaya distance comes under the command of the commander of the Zverinogolovskaya fortress, which was previously part of the Presno-Gorkovskaya line, and in 1756 was transferred to the Uyskaya; The Trinity fortress “takes” the Verkhne-Uyskaya distance, excluding the Ukly-Karagai fortress. Verkhoyaitskaya became the center of the newly formed Verkhoyaitskaya distance, which included fortresses: Ukly-Karagayskaya, Magnitnaya and Kizilskaya, with redoubts and outposts. In fact, the Verkhoyaitskaya distance “closed” the lines of fortresses along the Uy and Yaik rivers.

Dmitriev-Mamonov A.I. Pugachev revolt in the Urals and Siberia. Historical sketch based on official documents. – St. Petersburg, 1907. – pp. 6–7.

Part six: Pugachev passed nearby

Here I will again present the plan of 1742 and quote the description of the Verkhneyaitskaya fortress by Academician Gmelin, who was in our area just this very year: “... The Verkhneyaitskaya fortress is located on the eastern bank of the Yaik River, which near the fortress flows to the southwest, and above - to the southeast.

Verkhneyaitskaya fortress 1742

The fortress is a regular rectangle, with a bastion in each corner. Each side from the outer corner of one bastion to the outer corner of another bastion is 80 fathoms long and consists of a high earthen rampart, which runs along the bastions. On the side of the reservoir (i.e. from the west) and north there are gates with an entrance, and above them there are rifle towers, each of which is equipped with a battery. Outside, the fortress is surrounded by a deep moat, behind which there are slingshots, which are adjacent to the river on the southern and northern sides. Inside the fortress there are 2 houses for senior officers, an office, a powder and vodka cellar, 5 granaries and 22 barracks. Now a church in honor of the Annunciation of Mary, which was founded on June 28, is also being built inside the fortress. Outside the fortress, on its western side, near the river, there are 15 almost collapsed barracks for the Bashkirs standing at the outpost. For the dragoons, 2 rows of barracks are now being built on the north side or above the fortress, which on the east and north sides will be surrounded by slingshots, interlocking with slingshots around the fortress, which in turn will be adjacent to the river. It is planned to build the stable a little to the west of the barracks near the river, but at some distance from it, since in this place the river flows from the northwest.
The personnel of the fortress consists of 60 soldiers of the Tobolsk and Yenisei regiments and 90 Cossacks from various Siberian cities. This includes 2 companies of the Orenburg Dragoon Regiment, which should be stationed here permanently...
...This year farming began here and in the fall they will sow rye and oats for the treasury, for which a sufficient number of peasants from the Iset province were sent here, who after sowing will be released again to their homeland. All the necessary construction timber is brought here by land from the Okto-Karagai forest. This is almost the only inconvenience of this fortress, which surpasses all others in the convenience of its location. But these inconveniences only relate to the time of construction of the fortress.”
I don’t know who commanded the garrison of the Verkhoyaitsk fortress immediately after its construction. In 1743, the eldest captain here was Kortsov (possibly Kartsov). Since units of the regular army were stationed in the fortress itself, its population was practically not engaged in agriculture. Everything necessary was supplied from the same Trans-Ural settlements: Shadrinskaya, Okunevskaya, Peschanskaya, etc. At first, apparently, food was brought to already existing fortresses, and from them, on Cossack carts, they were delivered to the Verkhoyaitsk fortress. In 1743, Captain Kortsov wrote that oats from fortresses were brought in canopies, i.e. simply poured onto carts, and not packaged in gunny bags. Subsequently, decrees on the delivery of food to the Verkhoyaitsk fortress usually stated the requirement to deliver it in matting bags: “in Verkhoyaitsk, flour and cereals are in good matting bags, and on line b there are still no bags in peasant canopies, because all of them have shops in which and you can keep a devil of sacks.” Yes, back in that very year 1743, the Siberian city Cossacks were sent home - those same serving Russians and Tatars, of whom there were 90 people - and the garrison of the Verkhoyaitsk fortress became purely army, that is, consisting of units of the regular army. It just so happens that we know negligibly little about the life of the Verkhoyait fortress in the 1740s - 1780s (as well as other fortresses in the Southern Trans-Urals). Therefore, we move straight to the “signature” events of the late 18th century.
In 1773, an uprising led by Pugachev, or the Pugachev rebellion, began. Most of the population of the Southern Trans-Urals turned out to be - openly or hidden - on Pugachev’s side. Discontent that had been brewing for many years found a way out. Few resisted the Pugachevites in that period, and these few included a significant part of the population of the fortresses in the upper reaches of Yaik and Uy.
The main events took place at first far from the places described. In the spring of 1774, Pugachev began to suffer significant defeats. At the end of March, his army was defeated near the Tatishchev fortress and the Sakmar town, after which Pugachev himself fled to Bashkiria with a small detachment. Here he spent quite a lot of time at the Beloretsk plant, where he was engaged in replenishing supplies and his army. On May 5, already with a detachment of 5,000 people, Pugachev came to the Magnitnaya fortress, which, after a fierce battle, he took. At this time, the commander of the Verkhoyaitsk distance, who is also the commandant of the Verkhoyaitsk fortress, Colonel E.A. Stupishin gathered garrisons from the Ukla-Karagai, Peter and Paul and Steppe fortresses, fearing an attack by Pugachev. Ironically, the detachment of General Dekolong, who stopped at the Ukly-Karagai fortress somewhere during these days, went to Verkhoyaitskaya, responding to a letter from Commandant Stupishin. And Pugachev, having learned that in Verkhoyaitskaya, in addition to the garrison, there was also Delong’s detachment, bypassed it and moved to Ukly-Karagay, and after its capture down the Uy River.
The Verkhoyaitskaya fortress escaped Pugachev's assault and destruction, but the consequences of the uprising affected it from an unexpected direction. On January 15, 1775, Catherine II signed a decree renaming Yaik to the Urals, the Yaik Cossacks to the Ural Cossacks, etc.: “... for complete oblivion of this, the unfortunate incident that followed on Yaik, the Yaik River, along which both this army and its city Until now, they had their name, due to the fact that this river comes from the Ural Mountains, to be renamed Ural, and therefore this army should be called Ural, but not called Yaitsky from now on, and accordingly, the Yaitsky town will be called Ural from now on.” Accordingly, the fortress, which was previously called “Verkhoyaitskaya” based on its location in the upper reaches of the Yaik River, after the river was renamed to the Ural, began to be called Verkhouralskaya, or Verkhneuralskaya. By decree of December 23, 1781, the Orenburg province was transformed into the Ufa governorate, within which Verkhouralsk district was created, and Verkhouralsk itself became a district city. But more on that later.

Verkhouralsk is a district town

I didn't spell the name of the city wrong. The fact is that I did not come across in documents until the 19th century the spelling “Verkhne-” in its name. When it was a pier, it was called VERKHOYAITSKAYA pier, when it became a fortress, it was first called VERKHOYAITSKAYA fortress, then, after the decree of Catherine II on the renaming of Yaik to the Urals and, accordingly, settlements containing the word “Yaik” in the name, too, it became known as VERKHOYAITSKAYA fortress When it received the status of a county town, its name was written as VERKHOURALSK. Only in the first third of the 19th century did the name begin to change and on the plan of 1835 Verkhne-Uralsk was already listed, and back in 1810 it was Verkhouralsk... That’s right, a note about the name.

But now we are not talking about this, but about what happened in the city of Verkhouralsk, when it had already lived as a city for almost 20 years:

This is a plan of Verkhouralsk, drawn up in 1798, and below are explanations for it.

Geometric special plan of the Orenburg province of the city of Verkhouralsk farmland owned by the city of merchants, townspeople and residents of various ranks and military command land surveying studied on June 1798 by land surveyor city secretary Ignatius Shchepnev. And inside this city with buildings separated from the pasture land... In this city there are courtyards: five merchants, three petty-bourgeois, commoners, such as: employees of staff and chief officers, lower ranks, non-employees, minors, retired people, and settled Cossacks - three hundred and fourteen, clergymen - two. And in total in this city there are people of different ranks living: merchants, townspeople, and military personnel, peasants, registered merchants living in different villages - three hundred twenty-four households, in them there are four hundred eighty-five men, four hundred and ninety-five women.
Explication of this plan:
A – strength
There are buildings in it
B – wooden church
C – commandant’s office and deanery board
D – grocery stores
E – salt barns
F – artillery arsenal
G – powder magazine
H – company workshops
I – county treasury and storeroom
In outstate
1 – wooden church
2 – lower zemstvo court
3 – county court
4 – wine cellar
5th – battalion office
6 – bean bean and hemp planters of the inhabitants of that city
7 – hospital
8 – trading shops
9 – common buildings
10 – a rampart with bastions and a ditch enclosing the city and its fortress.

It can be added that the Cossacks indicated in the notes did not originally live in Verkhoyaitsk. There, in general, it says “settled Cossacks.” The Economic Notes to the General Land Survey Plans, which were drawn up around the same time, indicate the number of Cossack souls: 43 males and 47 females. In addition, it is noted that these are Cossacks-Old Believers. Perhaps these Cossacks were resettled after the Pugachev rebellion.

One more thing. You probably noticed that in the middle of the city there is a preserved fortress. It was clearly visible during the period of drawing up the Verkhneuralsk project plan, approved in 1838. And shown on this plan. Unfortunately, I only have a scan of a photocopy, of very average quality, of this plan. The outlines of the fortress on this photocopy (or scan?) are barely visible, the bastions are a little better. But I still tried to combine the modern General Plan of the city and the plan of 1838. Since modern Verkhneuralsk has a layout organized exactly according to the plan of 1838, the results of the combination can be considered quite correct. That is, they give an idea of where, relative to the modern layout of the city, the fortress built in 1838 was located. Of course, combining old plans with modern ones is quite a difficult task - the accuracy of the compilation usually differs, and even distortions during photocopying, gluing together sheets of photocopies, etc. But still here it is:

Yes, I forgot - it's a kind of riddle: Find the fortress!