Arzamassky Uyezd was a historical administrative-territorial unit that existed from 1564 to 1929, successively as part of the Russian state, then of Nizhny Novgorod Province and the RSFSR. Arzamas. In 1929 the uyezd was abolished in the course of a Soviet administrative reform, and Arzamas District was established on its territory.[3]
History
Arzamassky Uyezd has been known since pre-Petrine times as part of the Russian Tsardom. In 1628 the uyezd contained 98 parish churches, including those in the town of Arzamas. In 1708 the uyezd was assigned to Kazan Governorate; in 1713 it was returned to Nizhny Novgorod Governorate. In 1719, when the governorates were subdivided into provinces, Arzamas Province was formed within Nizhny Novgorod Governorate. In 1779 the uyezd was assigned to Nizhny Novgorod Viceroyalty, which in 1796 was transformed into Nizhny Novgorod Governorate.[3]
In 1612 Ivan Fyodorovich Pushkin, a participant in Nizhny Novgorod Militia of Dmitry Pozharsky and Kuzma Minin, received the village of Boldino in Arzamassky Uyezd as a hereditary estate. Bolshoye Boldino. From the beginning of the 18th century, the Boldino estate was held by the poet's direct ancestors: his great-great-grandfather, great-grandfather, and grandfather; and from the early 19th century by the father of A. S. Pushkin, Sergey Lvovich.[3]
The earliest surviving description of the southern part of the Nizhny Novgorod region is the "Cadastral Book of Arzamassky Uyezd, 1621–1623" — a document compiled during the period of the region's recovery after the Time of Troubles in the early 17th century. The book lists all the settlements of the uyezd, with mention of their owners and inhabitants, defensive structures, and the churches of the selos and villages; in particular, it contains the first detailed information about the selo of Bolshoe Boldino. Preparation of the book for publication took approximately two years. In 2022, Nizhny Novgorod archivists published this document in full for the first time, as part of the documentary series "The Nizhny Novgorod Region Through the Centuries"; the head of the Archives Committee of Nizhny Novgorod Region, Boris Pudalov, also announced the continuation of the publishing project "Arzamassky Uyezd in the 17th Century".[1]
Economy and Population
Arzamassky Uyezd occupied the central part of Nizhny Novgorod Governorate and was of considerable agricultural importance owing to its good soils, including chernozem on which rye and oats were sown.[2] In the 17th–18th centuries the uyezd was known for the production of potash — a chemical used in glassmaking, soap-boiling, dyeing, and gunpowder manufacture; potash was exported abroad via Arkhangelsk.[3]
In former times Arzamassky Uyezd was renowned for a distinctive variety of onion and a breed of geese. In the mid-19th century, the knitting of patterned footwear from multicolored wool was widely practiced in Arzamas, at the Nikolsky Monastery, and in the village of Vyezdnaya Sloboda: in the 1860s, up to ten thousand or more pairs were produced annually, which were Nizhny Novgorod Fair and dispatched to Siberia, the Caucasus, and other parts of Russia.[2]
According to the 1897 census, the population of the uyezd was 138,785; by the end of the 19th century it stood at approximately 150,000.[2][3] By 17 December 1926 the uyezd's population had grown to 361,663.[2]
Links
Sources
- Wikipedia (ru) — Arzamassky Uyezd (archive)
- Vzglyad-NN — Nizhny Novgorod archivists presented the "Cadastral Book of Arzamassky Uyezd"
- livelib.ru — Ten Centuries of the Nizhny Novgorod Region. 1152–2018. Volume One. A–L, Vladimir Kuchin, ARZAMASSKY, uyezd — read an excerpt online for free