Vacha — a workers' settlement, the administrative center of Vachsky District, Nizhny Novgorod Region.
The Oka River and the Murom forests lie nearby. There is also a small river called the Vachka — though not Vysotsky's. According to legend, in the 10th century there was a bogatyr (warrior) outpost here guarding the borders of Ancient Rus. Later, rebellious Novgorodians and those who had fallen out of favor were exiled to the area. Twenty-six ancient campsites have been discovered on the district's territory. And Perestroika started here earlier too.
Nature of the Phenomenon
The territory of Vachsky District is home to some of the oldest human settlements on the planet. The age of all the world's capitals pales before that antiquity — and even Vacha's own 415 years seems modest by comparison. The district contains 26 registered campsites, hill forts, and settlement sites dating from the 4th millennium BC to the 17th century AD, situated along the banks of the Oka River.
A shortage of arable land, poor soil fertility, and unfavorable weather conditions spurred the development of various crafts in the district, which had their roots as far back as the end of the 1st millennium. Blacksmithing, for instance, was already well developed in Vachsky District in ancient times.
Given the soil, biological, and climatic conditions, the local population could not survive on farming alone. Peasants derived roughly two-thirds of their income from craft activities. In the early 19th century, the most successful artisans — who had spent years toiling in their workshops — managed, through extraordinary effort, to establish small-scale manufacturing operations. The pivotal moment for this woodworking region was the transition to mechanized production, as evidenced by finds of finely polished stone tools: hammers, axes, and so on.
History of Vacha
The settlement was established in 1938 from an old artisan village known since the 14th century.
Vacha was renowned for its metalworking craft, which, according to legend — just as in Pavlovo — was introduced by exiled Novgorodians. Archaeological excavations confirm that people settled these lands long ago; the earliest campsite dates to the 4th millennium BC.
In ancient times these lands were inhabited by Finno-Ugric tribes, whose language has survived in the names of Vachsky villages and rivers. There is no precise record of when the village of Vacha was founded, but chronicles of 1588 mention it as a village with two wooden churches belonging to Prince Ivan Shuisky. The inhabitants of this forested region had long engaged in crafts: weaving bast shoes and baskets, woodworking, and weaving cloth.
Local craftsmen produced excellent ironwork, as confirmed by finely tempered axes and knives found by archaeologists and dating to the 8th–10th centuries. According to cadastral records, Vacha had four blacksmith shops at the end of the 17th century, and fifteen by the mid-19th century. The forged chests made by Vacha craftsmen were highly prized by merchants from Bukhara and Khiva.
In 1830, the serf Dmitry Ivanovich Kondratov established his own workshop for the production of bread knives. His son, Dmitry Dmitrievich Kondratov, carried on his father's work: he expanded the range of cutting tools, registered a trademark for his products, launched production of carpentry and joinery tools, and was the first in his operation to introduce a steam engine.
The products of Vacha's craftsmen were valued not only in Moscow and Saint Petersburg but also on the international market. Kondratov knives bore three State Coats of Arms — the highest Russian hallmark of quality at the time. In 1889, at the World Industrial Exhibition in Paris, the work of Vacha's craftsmen was awarded a gold medal.
Vacha specialized in the production of cutlery, knives, and razors.
In the center of the settlement, a house survives where V. G. Korolenko lived for a month in 1897. Vacha is home to a local history museum founded by local physician V. A. Vorobyov.
Origin of the Name
Several versions of the name "Vacha" exist. Vacha may be a modified Slavic word for "veche" (a popular assembly, a gathering). Vacha may derive from the Erzya word "vacho" — hungry; from the Mari "vache" — shoulder, meaning the Vachka is a tributary of the Kutra River; or Vacha may come from the Udmurt "voch" — wild duck.
There is a legend that after the fall of Lord Novgorod the Great, many families of its "freemen" were sent into exile and resettlement. Some of them were exiled by the Muscovite prince Ivan III to the remote Murom forests. This is corroborated by ancient chronicles: "In the cold winter they traveled by sled, with all their belongings, suffering from hunger and illness. Many died along the way, and they settled along the banks of the wide Oka and the neighboring rivers."
Arriving on the right bank of the Oka, the Novgorodians settled along the steep bluffs of the Kutra and Vachka rivers. They founded the settlements of Gorodishchi and Derevnishchi, and for a long time could not forget their traditions and kept alive the memory of Novgorodian freedom.
As for the origin of the word "Vacha," the debate continues to this day: is it a Slavic name or not?
Why "vachkasy" and not "vachane"?
The inhabitants of Vacha have been called vachkasy since time immemorial. The name for the residents of the Vacha settlement was formed in an entirely individual way. One possible explanation is that it derives from the Mordva inessive case form of the river name Vachka, with the addition of the suffix -s.
The Siberian Vacha
Vacha and the Vachanka stream are regularly confused with the real river Vacha — which the vast majority of Russians know thanks to Vladimir Vysotsky and his song about a reckless prospector.
The Siberian Vacha is a river in the northeast of Irkutsk Region; it flows into the Zhuya River, a left tributary of the Chara, in the Lena River basin.
Industries
- JSC "Trud" — tableware and kitchen utensils since ancient times.
- Kazakov filigree — one of the oldest forms of decorative metalwork. The enterprise has been granted the right to work under the hallmark of the Patriarchal Workshops — to produce "ancient Russian filigree" (scan).
In discussions among Nizhny Novgorod residents
— The word "vachanka" immediately caught my eye. For me, as a representative of this small homeland, that word is unacceptable — it's the word of someone far removed from this region. And the preceding paragraph even addresses this point. It's very simple: the river has always been called the Vachka. Further on — "About the river vacha and fellow traveler Valya" — there too it should read: the river Vachka. And since we're on the subject of the Siberian Vachka of Vysotsky, here's a link: http://content.foto.mail.ru/mail/sega1949/381/i-832.jpg — a drawing of gold prospectors, and there's also one of a modern shift-work camp in the Siberian Vacha area — there are many of them, even in Guinea.
— Vacha and the river vachanka are regularly confused with the real river Vacha — which the vast majority of Russians know thanks to Vladimir Vysotsky and his song about a reckless prospector...
— No, the river in Vacha was never called the "vachanka." The word even grates on the ear. It has always been the river Vachka — even before Vysotsky's song. These days a dam has been built across it and the result is a flow-through pond called the Tsimlyanka. When it filled with water it seemed to us like such an enormous mirror that we named it Tsimlyanka after the freshly built Tsimlyansk Reservoir we'd read about in newspapers — and seen on matchbox labels, which covered all the major events. Before that there was a different pond on the Vachka, with carp and crucian carp. And further on, beyond Gorodishchi, it merged with the Kutra and meandered toward the Oka...http://video.mail.ru/mail/sega1949/353/1110.html
— And where is the ancient city of Starodub Votsky, the second oldest after Murom? It seems the city has been lost and can't be found on the territory of the modern Vachsky District — and the Starodub ford was on the Oka too. Of course rivers change their course (there are ox-bow lakes, and the island near Zhaysk has joined the Vladimir side), but still… Archives are more accessible now with photocopiers and digital photography. — sega1949