Copy of Гаврикова Алина

An important date in the history of the state of the Russian and Saratov land is approaching: in 2022 we will celebrate the 350th anniversary of Emperor Peter the Great and the 300th anniversary of his visit to the Volga cities, including Saratov.
Peter's first passage along the Volga was in 1695 during the Azov campaign. It is believed that Peter visited Saratov during this campaign. Some authors have a description of this visit, but this information is unreliable. The documents do not give a clear answer to the question whether Peter was in Saratov in 1695 or not. Saratov burned down repeatedly, once every 25-30 years, so there are crumbs left from the documents of those years, and this is a big problem for Saratov local history - a shortage of documents.
Peter himself, when he undertook military operations, campaigns, especially along the Don, along the Volga, kept a travel journal in which he wrote down daily where, what, when he visited, all these journals were preserved and published. There is a journal about a good procession, concerning this first campaign of 1695. It says that "at the fifth hour they passed the city of Saratov." There is no mention of stopping. But from other sources it is known that Peter stopped and went ashore. The journal might not have recorded this, although some of its moments allow such an assumption to be made. For example, it says that at 10 am they crossed the Kurdyum River, and at 5 pm they passed the city of Saratov and set off. It turns out - 7 hours from Kurdyum to Saratov, and this is only 19 km. Even if a person walked with a simple soldier's step, he would have reached the city of Saratov in two hours. Five hours is gone. Where did they go? Historians have suggested that Peter could have taken them to Saratov. It is possible that the issue of granting land to the Saratov residents was raised before Peter on his first visit to Saratov in 1695, but it is impossible to prove or disprove this, just as it is impossible to fully confirm the visit itself.
In 1701, Tsar Peter sent a letter to the Volga banks, in which he donated to the Saratov residents for eternal use all the lands located from Saratov in the vicinity of forty miles along the left and right banks of the Volga. It was a very significant decision for the city.

With his diploma, Peter brought clarity to the delimitation of lands and a very significant contribution to the development of the city. Since that time, the Saratov people could not be afraid for their existence, they could feed the cattle, engage in vegetable gardens, engage in farm work, and graze cattle, which were traded very actively until the beginning of the 19th century. They could supply various kinds of cabs with hay, because Saratov was a trading city, every day hundreds of carts left from here all over the country, and carters, coachmen came here in whole caravans for fish, for salt, drove cattle. The entire Peter's army fought on Kalmyk horses, which were bought and exchanged here. Peter even asked to send him camels from the south of the Saratov province, where Algay, Ozinki is now, to the Swedish front, because the Swedish cavalry panicked at the sight of camels, they had never seen such a creature and simply fled.
Why did Peter give such a privilege to Saratov?
Saratov under Peter was the center of the Volga region, the Volga trade, or rather, the Lower Volga. The main article of the Saratov economy was fish - catching, processing, transportation, trade in red fish and its derivatives. Sturgeon, which we had here, on the Volga, were called red fish. Commercial fishing was carried out from Samara to Astrakhan, the government has been engaged in it since the beginning of the 17th century. Even under Ivan III, here, on the Volga, there were royal fish catchers.

The second time Peter I visited Saratov was during his Persian campaign in 1722. His path lay from Moscow through the Moscow River, then along the Oka, from the Oka to the Volga, along the Volga to Astrakhan and the Caspian Sea. He had the so-called Moskvoretsky structure, where he was based, Empress Catherine and a large retinue were with him on the way - it was an official campaign.
Here is how a resident of Saratov of that time, the bourgeois Mazilina, recalls the arrival of Peter:
“Peter arrived at the city at night. The coast of the city, then still small, was brightly lit with bowls and lanterns, and monograms and banners were displayed in prominent places. What a fine and handsome king! - the philistine Mazilina talks about the tsar emotionally in a feminine way. - Face a little swarthy and tanned from the sun. The gaze of the king is quick and lively, his mustache is pitch black, tall. Dressed in a short embroidered Hungarian shirt. The archpriest with the city clergy met the king at the shore with a cross. The merchants brought him bread and salt, and the commandant gave a report. Along the road lined with red cloth, Peter, accompanied by city officials, clergy and people, reached the governor's house, where an overnight stay was prepared for him. Walking among the people, the king bowed to him on both sides. In the morning, Peter got up early, the people again gathered at the commandant's house to see the king. He went out to them, talked about various subjects, examined the city, the two-story stone cathedral, which was then being completed, and even climbed up the scaffolding and examined the construction of the temple nearby.
Peter was accompanied by the owner of the city Beklemishev. The governor deserved the attention of the king, for he was a young, prominent, handsome, affectionate, kind and obedient man. The city truly loved him for his friendliness and good nature”.

But most of all, we are interested in Peter I’s visit to Saratov as a “peculiar Kalmyk capital” in the period when, according to legend, after 1710, the settlement of Novye Bokury (Kokuri) was founded on the left bank of the Volga opposite the right bank of Saratov, which laid the foundation for the settlement of Pokrovskaya.
Peter I and Catherine arrived in Saratov on June 20, 1722. The tsar made a stop to meet Khan Ayuka Monchak (1642-1722), whom he wanted to make his ally.
The residence of Khan Ayuki Monchak was located on the syrt, where the Engels second city hospital and the stadium are now. Here was the courtyard of Khan Ayuki (according to the local Kayuki, from where the name of the Volga channel crossing Ponomarev Island came from - Kayukovka), a Kalmyk monastery, and under the syrt - a Kalmyk common cemetery.
Peter I pursued this meeting with a specific goal - to persuade the khan to put 10 thousand soldiers on the Persian campaign. Peter and Ayuka were satisfied with the meeting. On June 22, the tsar departed from Saratov down the Volga.
The arrival of Peter I in Saratov was of great importance in the development of the city for the next quarter of a century.
The following sources were used in the work: «Russian history in the biographies of its main figures» by the famous Russian historian N.I. Kostomarov (Moscow: EXPO, 2004), «History of the Saratov Territory» (Saratov: 1996), article by I. Zhukova « August visits» (Almanac «Monuments of the Fatherland» No. 39/1-2, 1998), K.I. 51), dictionaries and other literature related to the historical events of the 20s of the 17th century.