Albazino is a small village in the Amur Region on the Russian-Chinese border. This is the land of our ancestors, abundantly saturated with the blood of the defenders of the prison - the first fortified Russian settlement of the second half of the 17th century.
The history of the founding of the Albazin prison
In the years 1649-1650. Russian pioneer Erofei Pavlovich Khabarov with a detachment of Cossacks made a trip across the Olekma River to the Amur. He occupied the town of Daurov Albazin and founded the Albazin prison in its place. In June 1651, Khabarov left there, but previously managed to burn it. In 1665, the Albazinsky prison was rebuilt by the Cossacks, who again came from the Ilimsky prison, led by Nikifor Chernigovsky. It was a fortress measuring 17 by 13 fathoms with three towers, surrounded by a moat 3 wide and 1.5 fathoms deep. Behind a ditch on four sides, six-row counter-window garlic was driven in. Near the garlic put farts. In the prison there were two churches, grain barns, an order hut, office space and four residential buildings. Around the fortress there were 53 residential yards and arable land.
The first siege of the Manchu fortress
In 1682, the prison became the center of the Albazin Voivodeship. It included all the territories of the Amur basin and northern tributaries of the river. The Albazin voivodship had its own symbols of state power: a silver seal depicting an eagle and a banner sent by the tsar for hoisting on lands conquered by the Russian state. In an effort to prevent the establishment of our empire in the Amur region, the Manchus repeatedly besieged the Albazin prison in the Amur Region.
In July 1685, the first serious clash between the Albazinians and the Manchus took place. The forces were initially unequal in terms of both number of people and weapons: 450 Albazinians, armed with three guns and beeper, opposed the 10,000th Manchu army with two hundred guns. The clash lasted a whole month. The defenders of the fortress did not give up until the last. After a month of serious clashes, the Albazinians, led by Governor Alexei Tolbuzin, retreated to the city of Nerchinsk for a while, and then returned to the territory burned by the Manchus.
The history of Albazinsky prison was renewed in June 1686, when a new fortress was built according to all the rules of a fortification. Some residents of the fortress were captured, were forced to leave their homes and settled in Beijing. The Emperor of China respected the people who fought so fiercely with the Manchus superior in numbers and weapons, and wisely decided that it was better to settle these people at home than to endlessly fight them. As a result, many Albazinians were enlisted in the army of the Chinese monarch. A special Cossack hundred was founded for them, which was considered an elite unit. Of the captured Albazinians, not everyone wanted to become under the banner of the imperial army and decided to return to Russia. In total, at least a hundred Cossacks sided with the Chinese. They were very highly regarded by the Chinese monarch and lived in better conditions.
Nerchinsk treaty
In July of the same year, the Manchus again besieged the fortress. Over the course of five months of continuous fighting, 826 defenders of the prison were courageously opposed by about 6.5 thousand selected warriors. In May 1687, the Manchus retreated a little. Only 66 people remained alive in the Albazin prison. In 1689, the Moscow state and the Qing Empire concluded the Nerchinsk treaty, according to which the Russians were to leave the Amur lands. Until the middle of the XIX century, the Amur region was a kind of buffer zone between the two states.
Museum in Albazino
The memory of the heroic events of the 17th century, of the courage of the Albazin defenders, carefully preserve the original exhibits of the museum of local lore. A whole collection of Orthodox crosses that once belonged to the inhabitants of the fortress, tools, household items, samples of military weapons of the Albazinians - all this was discovered during archaeological excavations and research of the settlement. A unique monument of archeology is located next to the museum. On its territory is the tomb of the defenders of the Albazin prison and a six-meter cast-iron bow cross to the Cossack pioneers. In the middle of the XIX century, the Russians will return to this land again. In 1858, the Albazinskaya stanitsa, the administrative center of the first hundred, the first Amur equestrian regiment, will be founded here. The glorious history of the Cossack village is presented in the exposition of the Albazin Museum of Local Lore.
Cossack village
A whole complex has been organized on the territory of the museum - a Cossack hut with a courtyard, a barn, a forge. All this acquaints us, modern residents, with the life of the Amur Cossacks and immigrants. Today, the Albazin Museum of Local Lore is one of the most unique tourist sites in the Russian Far East, and also serves as the venue for regional and All-Russian festivals of Cossack culture, scientific and practical conferences. In the future, the Albazinsky Ostrog museum and tourist complex will be founded on its territory, the center of which will be the recreated Albazin fortress.