Buturlino is a workers' settlement and the administrative center of Buturlinskiy District; it is located in the central part of the district, 121 kilometers southeast of Nizhny Novgorod, on the Pyana River, near the Smagino railway station on the Moscow–Kazan line.
History of the settlement
The history of Buturlino stretches back into the distant past. More than a thousand years ago, the banks of the Pyana River were inhabited by tribes that later merged into the Mordva people. Legend has it that before Buturlino there existed a settlement called Tesh Mordovsky. By the 1550s–70s, the Mordva population in this area had become sparse. This is explained by the fact that the terrain was open on the steppe side, with no natural defenses. Raids by the Kazan Tatars and the Nogai destroyed Mordva settlements. As a result, the Mordva moved eastward, toward Arzamas and beyond, where life was more peaceful. It is no coincidence that the Arzamas–Ardatov area is referred to in ancient documents as "Tish" or "Utishye" (meaning "quiet" or "stillness"). In 1552, following the successful Russian campaign against Kazan, Ivan IV granted the lands along the Pyana River to his associate, the boyar Fyodor Ivanovich Buturlin. Thus, in the mid-16th century, the Russian selo of Buturlino came into being among the Mordva settlements, named after its owner. The folk names of Buturlino's neighborhoods preserve the memory of the ancient names of the settlements that later merged into it: Kargala, Ketarsha, Yerzovka, and Bazino. Russian colonization and Christianization of these lands began in earnest. The exodus of the Mordva continued. Documents of the time state: "From the Mordva beyond the Pyana, no arrears of quitrent money can be collected, for that Mordva has scattered and there is no one from whom to collect said money…" In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the volost selo of Buturlino became a fairly large trading center. Merchants from various volosts would gather here for the fairs held in the town. From 1921, private trade flourished in the settlement, and small-scale production was established — mills, oil presses, bakeries, and brickmaking.
Industry
The food processing, mining, and timber industries are well developed, as is agriculture.