History of the Old Smolenskaya road

All roads have a beginning and an end. Only not everyone knows for sure where these points are. известно. About the old Smolensk road is known.

It starts from the Moscow Kremlin, from the Trinity Tower, as it should be to the Russian road, and ends at the border with Belarus. и находится «нулевая верста». There, 20 kilometers from the village of Red, and is "zero verst".

The appearance of the road

назвать трудно, но она уже должна была быть в 14 веке. The date of its occurrence is difficult to call, but it should already have been in the 14th century. According to the surviving documents, the scientists concluded that there was then a close relationship, first of all, trade, between Moscow, Smolensk and Orsha. So, there was a road.

At first it was land - water, and then only land and "straight ahead". And they called her in the documents of that time the Big Smolenskaya or the Posolskaya, and sometimes the Great Main Inn (from the word "guest").

Traveling on it at that time was almost a feat, for foreigners and completely impossible. The writer IS Sokolov-Mikitov describes their impressions: "Heavy was the way. The endless forest is full of wild beasts. Scary Muscovite muzhiks. The road is terrible, which, so as not to be drowned in the swamp, the Russian people spread a log gatya. "

But, evidently, the need was great, if the guests were still on that road to the Moscow Kremlin.

Postal business in the Smolensk region

. All invaders from the west went to the Russian lands along the Old Smolensk road . In the early 17th century the Poles captured most of the Smolensk region, which became their territory for half a century. When the lands returned to Russia, a mail route was laid in the western direction. For the speed of movement of the postal service, the local population was ordered to keep the road in good condition.

In 1668, the first postal station was established in the village of Mignovichi, and by the middle of the 19th century there were seven postal routes with 43 stations in Smolensk province . . Most of them were on the Old Smolensk tract .

Road transformations

, который приступил к реорганизации всех органов управления, не обошел стороной и дорожное дело. Peter I , who began to reorganize all government bodies, did not bypass the road business. и их содержания вновь созданной Камер-коллегии, в губерниях этими вопросами занимались специальные комиссары. He conveyed the construction of roads and their content to the newly created Chamber Chamber, in the provinces these issues were dealt with by special commissioners.

By his order, local peasants who completed field work were actively involved in the repair and construction of roads. – три сажени, то есть 6,39 метра. The width of large roads, including the leading one from Smolensk to Moscow, was set - three sazhens, that is, 6.39 meters.

But, despite the efforts made, the roads in Russia remained in a deplorable state. Still travelers complained that the road was often not well laid, and the traffic in summer was hampered by numerous swamps and swamps.

, каменных верстовых столбов. In 1764, Catherine the Great signed a decree on the establishment of stone pillars on all the main roads of Russia, to which the Old Smolensk road belonged . They should have been the same, a sample in the form of a picture was attached. Immediately followed by a new instruction: do not pave roads with logs, and do them there, "where there is convenience", stone. But, as usual in Russia, orders were sometimes carried out, but from what it was.

On the Smolensk road, for the first time, verst signposts from logs have been exhibited, and a lot of trees have been planted along the tract. When they grew up, a tent formed over the travelers' head, protecting them from the heat and rain.

1812 and 1941

по Старому Смоленскому тракту. Every schoolboy in our country knows that Napoleon went to the capital along the Old Smolensk tract. He walked with his invincible army, and the Russian, exhausted army retreated along the same road.

Napoleon went all the way from Smolensk to Moscow, from beginning to end. But before that he had to enter a decisive battle near the village of Borodino. August 26, 1812 agreed on the field of Borodino two huge armies. The French Emperor was sure that on that day he would achieve the surrender of Russia. After 15 hours of fighting, both exhausted troops, who suffered huge losses, found themselves at the same initial positions.

To save the army for further fighting, MI Kutuzov led him under cover of night from the Borodino field, and Napoleon completed his march along the route to the Kremlin. And then back.

. The brutal fighting during the Great Patriotic War also fell on the places through which the Old Smolenskaya road passes . Probably, nowhere is there so many monuments to those killed in those wars in defending their homeland, like in cities, villages, villages, and simply in a clean field along it.

The modern road

The road was of great importance until the middle of the 19th century, until the modern, by the standards, Warsaw highway was built. It passed through the Kaluga, Smolensk provinces, through Byelorussia to Warsaw. Since then, the old tract began to lose its significance, was used for local purposes, it was given less and less attention. The road fell into decay, and when the Moscow-Minsk-Brest route was built in the 20th century, it was almost forgotten.

смотрится прерывистой линией. Today the Old Smolenskaya road on a modern map looks intermittent. Some of its plots are in very poor condition, some are not at all impassable. Although in some places a good asphalt has been preserved, and other segments have turned into dirt roads.

Although talk about the road will be restored, not for the first year. I really want to believe this.