Peremilovskiye Hills — an upland on the right bank of the Oka in its lower reaches (within the Nizhny Novgorod Region).
Geological characteristics
The Peremilovskiye Hills are located at the northern tip of the Volga Upland in the central part of the East European Plain.
A plateau-like erosional terrain with absolute elevations of 130–210 m. High riverside chains of outlier ridges rise 100–150 m above the Oka. The bedrock Permian deposits (clays, sandstones, marls, limestones, and gypsum) are overlain by a thin cover of loose loams and sands, sometimes moraine, and Jurassic and Cretaceous clays. The plateau is dissected by gullies, ravines, and broad valleys of small rivers. Karst landforms are present (caves, sinkholes, etc.). The terrain is heavily cut by small river valleys and deep branching gullies and overgrown with forest, giving the riverside heights a picturesque appearance.
The relative heights of the Peremilovskiye Hills are determined by the Oka water levels, which stand at 71 m near the mouth of the Bolshaya Kutra and the Aleksandrovo landing, and 68 m at Pavlovo, meaning that the hills do not exceed 140–150 m in relative height.
The Brockhaus and Efron Dictionary on the Peremilovskiye Hills
The Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary mentions the Peremilovskiye Hills on several occasions. A separate entry, "Peremilovskiye Hills," exists in the dictionary.
Various interpretations of the territory occupied by the Peremilovskiye Hills
There are differing views on what is meant by the Peremilovskiye Hills. The Brockhaus and Efron Dictionary treats the Peremilovskiye Hills as a narrow strip of elevated bedrock bank of the Oka from Pertovo to Sapun, while other authors extend the Peremilovskiye Hills along the right bank of the Oka all the way to Pavlovo and even to the city limits of Nizhny Novgorod. The section of the Peremilovskiye Hills from Pavlovo to Nizhny Novgorod is referred to as Berezopoye; in ecological literature, the Peremilovskiye Hills are understood to encompass the entire northern tip of the Volga Upland, bounded to the north and northwest by the Oka and covering the territory of Vachsky District, Pavlovsky District, partly Sosnovskiy District, and other districts of Nizhny Novgorod Region.
On the modern Topographic Map of Nizhny Novgorod Region, the label "Peremilovskiye Hills" is printed across the territory of Sosnovskiy and Pavlovsky districts, starting from Leontyevo (absolute elevation above 200 m), passing by the village of Laptevo neighboring Pavlovo (maximum elevation 171 m), and ending on the left bank of the Kishma River near Vorsma (maximum elevation approximately 150 m).
Protected areas, flora and fauna of the Peremilovskiye Hills
Protected areas
The Peremilovskiye Hills contain a number of specially protected natural areas:
- A forest section along the slope of the bedrock Oka riverbank between the village of Sapun and the Pozoga landing.
- A forest section along the slope of the bedrock Oka riverbank near the village of Korovayevo.
- A coniferous forest section near the village of Zhekino.
- The park of the selo of Elizarovo.
Flora
The flora of the Peremilovskiye Hills is highly diverse. Listed below are the plants of just three of the above-mentioned specially protected forest areas in Vachsky District: Scots pine, spruce, maple, smooth-leaved elm, wych elm, aspen, birch, oak, linden, goat willow, guelder rose, alder buckthorn, common hazel, rowan, bird cherry, moschatel, burnet-saxifrage, warty spindle, lingonberry, ground ivy, wood small-reed, wood bent, wood vetch, bush vetch, round-leaved wintergreen, white sweet clover, fly honeysuckle, lanceolate stitchwort, perforate St John's-wort, wild strawberry, one-flowered wintergreen, goldenrod, wood club-rush, wood sorrel, mountain clover, zigzag clover, cloudberry, peach-leaved bellflower, nettle-leaved bellflower, European wild ginger, cat's foot, common nettle, common haircap moss, Solomon's seal, lily of the valley, sickle medick, two-leaved mayflower, raspberry, meadow cow-wheat, lungwort, juniper, oxeye daisy, hairy woodrush, serrated wintergreen, rhizome sedge, erect sedge, hairy sedge, heather sedge, drooping melic, stag's-horn clubmoss, bird's nest orchid, Syreyshchikov's bent, hemp agrimony, perennial mercury, brittle bladder fern, agrimony, dog couch grass, Siberian hawk's-beard, ground elder, spring pea, meadowsweet, blue fescue, sand violet, wood violet, wood horsetail, wild thyme, bilberry, self-heal, may rose, hairy hawkweed.
Ferns: male fern, crested buckler fern, beech fern, lady fern, ostrich fern, Linnaeus's woodfern.
Orchids: false hellebore helleborine, Fuchs's marsh orchid, oval-leaved helleborine.
The Peremilovskiye Hills are home to a species listed in the Red Book of the Russian Federation: the lady's slipper orchid.
Fauna listed in the Red Book
The Peremilovskiye Hills are inhabited by species listed in the Red Book of the Russian Federation: the Russian desman and the little tern; and in the Red Book of Nizhny Novgorod Region: the Eurasian scops owl.
Historical notes
In 1878, the Vladimir Provincial Gazette wrote: "In the Peremilovskiye Hills, washed by the river Kutra, which flows into the river Oka from the right, near the small village of Bolotnikovo, forty-two versts from the town of Murom, limestone deposits have been discovered. In 1871 the local inhabitants began to extract them and burn them on site… For a time the Bolotnikovo lime was put to use and found buyers, but soon the strong demand for alabaster — the extraction of which is considered the chief occupation among the Bolotnikovo folk — put an end to the nascent working of the limestone deposits, and the lime of the Bolotnikovo Hills awaits more enterprising businessmen in the future."