Wind and water mills of the Ryazan province of the 19th-20th centuries. Water mills of the north-east of the Moscow region in the 16th-17th centuries The village of Kukoboy

A series in 3 parts about windmills that are currently preserved in Russia from brief description and their location:

Part 2: Stone windmills.

Part 3: Windmills in museums.

In all three parts I will not dwell on the types of windmills, their design features and specific location on the ground. Much has already been written about this. And it’s difficult to add anything to this without special knowledge. So the task will be a little different. In these posts I will try to prepare the most complete picture of what we have at the moment.

Yes, because once upon a time windmills were one of the most common economic structures. At the beginning of the 20th century. in the Russian Empire their total number reached 250 thousand.

Map with windmills of the Tver region. XIX century http://boxpis.ru/svg/?p=2545

Thus, in open areas, almost next to each village, there were several mills, and in special cases their number reached ten or more. I think those who sometimes travel around Russia will ask a very reasonable question - “Where did they all go? I’ve traveled so much, I haven’t seen a single one... except in museums.” Really, where are they all? Did they really fall apart, and the few that remained were long ago taken to museums as exhibits. Yes, unfortunately this is practically true. There are some left, but only a few dozen throughout Russia. Another 10-15 years and they can be counted on one hand.

So, in this post we will only look at wooden mills that still exist in their original places. To begin with, let’s just announce the numbers of how many of these mills, not transported to museums, are currently in the regions of Russia:

Arkhangelsk region - 7 pcs.
Chuvash Republic - 6 pcs.
Voronezh region - 5 pcs.
Nizhny Novgorod region - 2 pcs.
Vladimir region - 2 pcs.
Tambov region - 2 pcs.
Kirov region - 1 piece.
Bryansk region - 1 PC.
Vologda region - 1 piece.
Yaroslavl region - 1 piece.
Novgorod region - 1 piece.
Belgorod region - 1 piece.
Ryazan region - 1 piece.
Saratov region - 1 piece.
Rostov region - 1 piece.
Republic of Kalmykia - 1 piece.
Samara region -1 PC.
Republic of Mari El - 1 piece.
Rep. Tatarstan - 1 piece.
Republic of Karelia - 1 piece.

The regions that are not included in this list do not have a single mill on their territory that has survived in its original location. Of course, I’m more than sure that I don’t know about any mills. Is not full list. Not complete, but very indicative. Take, for example, the same Tver region, the map of which you saw at the beginning of the article. So there is not a single mill left there, even in museums! Until the beginning of 2000 I was left alone in the Vasilyevo museum and it fell apart. Or, for example, in the Kirov region, the penultimate mill was also recently lost; it was bought from the owner and dismantled for transportation to the museum, but was never reassembled in a new place.

The penultimate mill of the Kirov region (lost)

So if you look at a modern map, it turns out such a picture.

Now let's take a closer look at the most interesting of them:

01. Village Barinovka. Samara region

The mill was built in 1848. Architectural monument of regional significance. The last restoration was carried out in the early 1980s. Coordinates: 52°54"55.55"N 50°49"12.17"E

02. Village of Zaval. Novgorod region.

This windmill was built in 1924 by peasant Mikhail Pavlovich Pavlov together with his son Ivan Mikhailovich. The mill operated until the 60s. The last restoration was carried out in 1974. Coordinates: 58°21"35.91"N 31°5"43.72"E

Video about this mill:

03. Village Polnoye Konobeevo. Ryazan Oblast.

Built in the middle of the 19th century. Worked until the early 70s. Architectural monument of regional significance. The restoration was carried out at the beginning of 2003. Coordinates: 54° 3"5.20"N 41°54"23.82"E

04. Village of Kryukovo. Vladimir region.

Mill of the first quarter of the 20th century. It has not been restored. Despite the ruined appearance from the outside, the main parts of the structure survived in the interior: a central axis made of solid pine, a system of gear wheels and stone millstones. Coordinates: 55°38"29.25"N 41°17"8.86"E

05. Village Kukoboy. Yaroslavl region.

It was built in the 20s of the twentieth century. It is interesting because it was built by young women (!) from the commune named after. N.K. Krupskaya. In fact, it was a convent disguised as a commune, which was liquidated by the Bolsheviks. Coordinates: 58°41"32.82"N 39°58"54.00"E

06. Boyarskaya village (Rovdina Gora). Arhangelsk region.

Beginning of the 20th century It worked until 1955 as a collective farm. Located on the island 5 km. from the homeland of M.V. Lomonosov. Its restoration is planned in the near future. Coordinates: 64°13"35.69"N 41°50"18.75"E

07. Popasnoe village. Voronezh region.

Mill of the second half of the 19th century. Coordinates: 50°29"25.51"N 40°39"37.50"E

08. Village of Stupino. Voronezh region.

Coordinates: 50°37"27.50"N 39°54"32.70"E

09. Village of Chirsha. Republic of Tatarstan.

Late XIX - early XX century Famous research object and scientific works. All the main mechanisms have been preserved inside. Coordinates: 56° 5"5.23"N 49°13"7.17"E

10. Village of Kulyabovka. Tambov Region.

Built in 1902 by Vasily Meshchersky together with his son Fedor. It had 16 wings and processed up to 30 tons of grain per day. Coordinates: 51°46"47.98"N 42°22"18.95"E

11. Farm near the village of Shorkino. Chuvash Republic.

2 mills have survived. At the moment, a European-quality renovation has been carried out. Coordinates: 55°59"25.90"N 47°11"13.69"E

12. Village of Shabry (uninhabited). Kirov region.

Construction early 20th century. A very little known building. Excellent internal preservation. Very likely the last wooden mill in the Kirov region. Coordinates: 56°57"19.37"N 46°46"33.10"E

13. The village of Levino. Tambov Region.

Mill at the estate of Prince Chelakaev. Coordinates: 53°17"29.92"N 41°45"48.26"E

14. Village of Kimzha. Arhangelsk region.

The mills in Kimzha are the northernmost in the world. One of them (in the background) belonged to P.I. Deryagin, and was built in 1897. In Soviet times, it was confiscated from the owner and worked until the 1960s. The other (in the foreground) belonged to A.N. Voronukhin. Until recently, it stood unfinished for a long time (it was laid in the early 1920s), but several years ago it was completed and is in operation. Now a windmill festival is held in Kimzha every year. Coordinates: 65°34"23.34"N 44°36"33.49"E

15. Village of Pogorelets. Arhangelsk region.

They are located 30 km away. south of Kimzha. Not restored. Coordinates: 65°25"1.67"N 45°3"55.19"E

Photos taken from panoramio.com and vk.com

P.S. Other mills can be viewed at

Windmill(Russia, Ryazan region, Shatsky district, Polnoe Konobeevo village)

As an architect who has worked in the industry for more than 10 years, I am always interested in various engineering structures, so I do not ignore bridges, cooling towers, dams, dams, etc. I am not left indifferent by such “not tricky” structures by modern standards as wind (water) mills, preserved mainly in museum-reserves (Suzdal, Kostroma, Pushkin Mountains). Quite rarely, but still there are wind turbines in the vastness of Russia, however, their condition is most often depressing, for example, in the villages of Kirovo, Kurovo, Krugloye in the Bryansk region. When preparing a trip to Ryazan region I accidentally came across a well-preserved mill in the village. Polnoye Konobeevo in the vicinity of Shatsk. So this agricultural site appeared on my route (which turned out to be very useful, because our path ran a little further - to the Bykov estate, the Naryshkin Mountain and the Vyshetsky Convent.

I bring to your attention an excerpt from a historical essay about the mill in Polny Konobeevo by local historian A.N. Potapova: “At the beginning of the 20th century, there were 250 thousand windmills in Russia, especially widely used in the grain-rich steppe regions and grinding half of all grain collected throughout the country. In the Shatsk district, which was part of the Tambov province until 1923, by 1884 there were 108 windmills, including seven in the Polno-Konobeevskaya volost. In those years, the windmill was an integral part of the rural landscape. In all large villages, along with the church, the mill dominated the surrounding area, since it was usually placed on a hillock, in a place open to all winds (and therefore to all eyes). It is not known for certain when the Polno-Konobeevskaya mill was built, but old-timers of the village said that it had been in operation since the mid-19th century. There was a similar mill in Lesnoy Konobeev, on the other side of Tsna. But one day during a fire it broke out, and no matter how hard they tried to put out the flames, it almost completely burned out. For a long time, not far from the rural cemetery, a black skeleton stood, then it was dismantled.
And the mill in Polny Konobeev served people for many years. From time to time the windmill was repaired: the plank casing, log shafts, worn-out oak gears were replaced - and the mill again began to rotate its wings, and rye flour flowed from under the millstones in a warm stream... I remember how we children, playing nearby, looked into the mill . The miller, Uncle Kostya Berdyanov, all white with flour dust, seemed to us either like Santa Claus or a kind sorcerer from a fairy tale. The wings of the windmill creaked under the pressure of the wind. Huge stone millstones rotated slowly, with noise and roar, and, like the jaws of a prehistoric animal, crunched the grain. A mysterious staircase led up to the tower. Gears, shafts - everything was made of wood by rural craftsmen. The capacious scoops for pouring flour from the bottom into the bag were also made of wood - linden. From time to time, carts drove up to the mill. Collective farmers loaded the sacks into carts and took them to the farm, where they mixed feed flour in warm water and fed the calves this hearty “chatterbox.”
In those years, there was a bakery in the village, located in an old brick house, which before the revolution belonged to the priest of the local church. Sometimes villagers bought bread not in the store, but here - in the heat of the moment. I also liked buying bread at the bakery. The loaf that had just been taken out of the oven burned my hands. He put it in a string bag, and on the way home he broke off the crispy crust and put it in his mouth. The bread was delicious, fragrant - you couldn’t imagine a better treat! Childhood smelled of warm rye bread baked from flour ground at our mill...
As a boy I was interested in drawing. IN summer holidays carried a notepad and pencil with him. At the height of the summer of 1969, I was walking with a friend. There were green plantings along the route, rye was filling with golden ripeness nearby, we were swimming in heavenly blue pigeons, and a mill reigned over the entire area - winged, like these pigeons, but tightly connected to the earth with its work. I took out a notebook and pencil and made a drawing published here (author's note: in the magazine).
I also wrote poetry and “at the dawn of my foggy youth” often published them in the Shatsk regional newspaper. How could I bypass our old mill with my poetic inspiration:

On the hillock there is a carved silhouette.
This is a mill, spreading its wings,
Stands proudly in the village,
Like a symbol of peasant Russia...

But one day the mill wings stopped - as it turned out, forever: electricity was supplied to the windmill, and it began to rotate the millstones. Gradually the mill was destroyed. With the beginning of “perestroika,” the collective farm withered away. The windmill turned out to be of no use to anyone. And although a sign appeared on its planked lining indicating that the Polno-Konobeevskaya mill is a monument of Russian wooden architecture (and also, I would add, the ancient life and way of life of the villagers), no one guarded this monument, and time and bad weather took their toll. However, in 2003, on the eve of the celebration of the 450th anniversary of Shatsk, the district authorities nevertheless found funds for the restoration of the Konobeevskaya mill. The log frame remained the same, the worn stone millstones remained in place (can you really take them away?), but the plank lining was changed. As for the wings, obviously there was not enough money for their restoration. The mill stood there, wingless, resembling a lonely fortress tower. Finally, the authorities got around to the wings - they were restored to their previous dimensions, but, unfortunately, they stopped rotating and lost their planking. The mill froze, as if to confirm that from now on it is a monument,” wrote Alexander Nikolaevich Potapov.

Natalya Bondareva

Literature:
A.N. Potapov “Mill. From childhood memories”//Moscow magazine No. 4 (232), 2010

Since the end of the 20th century. In a number of countries, wind energy is actively used for economic purposes. To assess the potential capabilities of wind energy, a study of the features of its use in the Tver province in the 19th century was carried out.

The regions of North-West Russia are of great importance in the history and culture of our country. Concentrated in the North-West a large number of historical, cultural and natural landscape monuments, scientific and industrial centers, reflecting the richness and diversity of Russian civilization.

According to the dissertation data of I.A. Hare for 1847. in the Tver province with a population of 1340 thousand there were 611 water mills and 1312 windmills. From a historical, geographical and local history perspective, it is of interest to localize the location of such a large number of objects. Information about the location and, accordingly, the number of mills is contained on large-scale archival maps.

In the 19th century, in the process of transition from general survey plans to topographic maps large-scale maps in part of the Tver province are presented by one- and two-vertex topographic boundary maps surveyed by A.I. Mende (Mendt). These maps are a unique cartographic work, because work on correcting provincial atlases began in the Tver province, was completed most fully and, accordingly, the largest amount of information was presented on the maps. When creating maps of the next 7 provinces, the work gradually decreased in volume.

During the research, information on both wind and water mills was analyzed.

The initial data for conducting research to determine the location of the mills were:

Large-scale archival maps of the Tver province of 1853;

Statistical data for the Tver province;

Modern maps and spatial data.

For the Tver province, as part of the work on filming A.I. Mende created one- (1: 42,000) and two-verst (1: 84,000) topographic boundary maps.

Based on the two-verst map, a complex of raster electronic maps was previously created in the following formats: GIS MapInfo, Global Mapper, as well as an Internet resource in the following formats: Google Maps tiles with access through the SAS.Planet program (URL: ) and Internet browser (URL: ) , and also in Google Earth electronic globe format (URL: http://www.google.com/intl/ru/earth/index.html) with access through the appropriate Google Planet.Earth program and an Internet browser.

An assessment was made of the equal information content of the one-verst and two-verst maps in terms of data on mills. In Fig. 1 shows an example of the group arrangement of mills near the villages of Bezhetsk district. At the village Old Gvozdevo shows 10 mills, near the village. Prokino 7, near the village. Grudino 4. The analysis shows coincidences in the number and location of mills on different scale maps. Accordingly, subsequent results obtained from a two-verst map should not differ significantly from the data from a one-verst map.

In the process of research on a two-verst map, vector layers of the position of wind and water mills were formed for the Tver province.

Taking into account the fact that this map is large-scale and the territory is significant, the use of a single raster electronic map for the entire province in a professional GIS (MapInfo) turned out to be difficult due to the requirements for large amounts of memory. This circumstance greatly slowed down the work of the GIS program when performing operations of moving, scaling, and editing the map.

To increase the speed of creating vector layers, it was proposed to use the Google Maps tile format (URL: http://support.google.com/maps/?hl=en) raster electronic map and the SAS.Planet program. The small sizes of tiles (blocks) of a raster map (256x256 pixels), the presence of pre-calculated blocks for various scales and the automatic mode of loading the necessary tiles allow for quick navigation on the map with scaling and drawing of point objects, regardless of the size and detail of the map. Testing of this approach also aimed to assess the possibility of its practical application in other studies.

The vectorization results imported into GIS MapInfo are presented in Fig. 2 – windmills and in Fig. 3. – water mills.

The SAS.Planet program functionally allows you to apply and edit point, linear and area objects, as well as labels. In this case, archival and modern maps, space and aerial photographs from various sources (http://google.ru, http://yandex.ru, http://kosmosnimki.ru, etc.) can be used. In this case, objects can be separated into different layers. For layers and individual objects, it is possible to set the visualization attribute.

For selected layers and individual objects, the function of exporting to kml format has been implemented ( Keyhole Markup Language, URL: http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/KML).

In the interests of the possibility of a consistent presentation of the archival map of the Tver province together with cartographic materials from other sources, a tiled electronic map for it is implemented in the Latitude-Longitude projection WGS-84.

Rice. 2. Distribution of windmills in Tver province

Rice. 3. Distribution of water mills in Tver province

Next, the kml format of the vector layers of water and windmills was first converted into the mif/mid format of the MapInfo GIS, imported into it and then transformed into the Gauss-Kruger projection of Pulkovo-42, 6th zone.

In the part shown in Fig. The 2 distributions of windmills can be noted as follows:

The largest number is in the northeastern part of Bezhetsk district;

A significant number in the southeastern part of Vesyegonsky, southwestern part of Kashinsky, central part of Vyshnevolotsky, eastern part of Torzhoksky, southwestern Tver, southern part of Rzhevsky districts;

A small number in Ostashkovsky district.

After comparing the location of windmills and the elevation matrix of the area, it was noted that their largest concentration is located in the western and northern parts of the Sonkovo ​​Upland.

In the part of water mills shown in Fig. 3, it can be noted:

A large number in the northern and eastern parts of Vyshnevolotsk, Torzhok, Ostashkov districts;

A small number in Tver and Kalyazin districts.

To assess the various objective reasons for the significantly different number of mills by county, a comparison was made of the number of mills, areas sown with grain and harvested crops.

The table presents data on the number of mills in the districts of the Tver province, the area of ​​arable land (thousands of square dessiatines), the amount of arable land per revision per capita (square dessiatines), and the volume of grain harvested.

Analysis of this data shows:

The number of mills in the counties significantly exceeds their number according to the map;

The amount of arable land (tithes) per male soul is not very significant (minimum - 2.5 in Bezhetsky, Tverskoy; maximum - 3.3 in V. Volotsky; differ by 32% from the minimum) varies by district;

Arable areas vary significantly by county (minimum - 111.2 in Tverskoy; maximum - 199.8 in Bezhetsky; differ by 80% of the minimum);

The grain harvest varies significantly by district (minimum - 59.9 in Rzhevsky; maximum - 597.7 in Bezhetsky; differ by 898% of the minimum).

List of the number of mills by county for 1847.

					Groin. ., thousand..
1	Tverskaya
2	Korchevskaya
3	Kalyazinsky
4	Kashinsky
5	Bezhetsky
6	Vesyegonsky
7	V.Volotsky
8	Novotorzhsky
9	Ostashkovsky
10	Rzhevsky
11	Zubtsovsky
12	Staritsky
	Total

Rice. 4. Comparison of arable land, number of mills and yield

Rice. 5. Number of wind and water mills

The smaller number of mills shown on the map can be explained by the fact that not all mills were plotted on the map.

A county-by-county comparison of the number of mills with arable areas and yields in the form of a diagram is presented in Fig. 4. Shown here is the total number of windmills and watermills. The diagram shows the relationship between the number of mills and productivity, which may serve as one of the explanatory factors for the large number of mills in Bezhetsky district.

A comparison of the number of water and windmills by county is shown in the form of a diagram in Fig. 5.

We can assume the functional complementarity of wind and water mills and, accordingly, a small number of water mills in the presence of a significant number of wind mills.

Despite the smaller number of mills represented on the A.I. survey map. Mende, data on their distribution over the area of ​​the province and specific location are of undoubted interest not only for geographers, but also historians, local historians, and museum workers. In particular, the proposed automated public approach to the formation and use of an Internet resource with archival large-scale maps of the 19th century. as a source of data on the location of wind and water mills aroused practical interest at the 6th All-Russian Local Lore Readings (URL: ) and at the Russian-Dutch seminar on the problems of studying, reconstruction and museumification of historical mills in the New Jerusalem Museum (URL: ).

The proposed approach for the use of large-scale archival cartographic works of the Tver province in the study of wind and water mills of the 19th century. can be developed in the following directions:

Study of the distribution of mills on the territory of the Tver region using already generated Internet resources based on military topographic maps of the 19th century. to neighboring provinces, the territories of which are now included in the Tver region;

Study of the distribution of mills on topographic boundary maps surveyed by A.I. Mende of other provinces (Internet resources for Vladimir, Nizhny Novgorod and Simbirsk have already been formed; for Yaroslavl, Ryazan, Tambov, Penza at the stage of formation);

Study of the distribution of mills in Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, the Baltic States, Poland using the created Internet resource on a three-verst military topographic map of European Russia in the 19th century;

Formation of a targeted Internet resource presenting generalized data on the location of mills in the 19th century. based on large-scale archival maps.

Thus, in the studies conducted using a large-scale topographic boundary map of the Tver province of 1853. and a complex of GIS technologies using electronic maps of raster and vector formats, various projections, an approach to studying the distributions of wind and water mills based on data from the 19th century was proposed and practically tested.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Web mapping and navigation. Two-verst topographic boundary map of the Tver province 1853. [Electronic resource] // – Access mode: – 06/12/2012.
2. Zayats I.A. Water and windmills of the northwestern region of Russia. History and prospects for conservation. Abstract of the dissertation of St. Petersburg State University of Civil Engineering. St. Petersburg, 2007.
3. Processing and presentation of archival maps [Electronic resource] // – Access mode: – 06/12/2012.
4. Memorial book of the Tver province for 1868. Publication of the Tver Provincial Statistical Committee. Tver, 1868
5. Preobrazhensky V.A. Description of the Tver province in agricultural terms. St. Petersburg. Printing house of the Ministry of State Property, 1854.
6. Collection of materials for statistics of the Tver province, compiled, on behalf of the Tver Provincial Zemsky Assembly, by V. Pokrovsky, Issue IV, Tver, 1877.
7. Shchekotilova M.V. The use of wind energy in the Tver province according to data from the 19th century. Materials of interuniversity scientific conference. “Geography, geoecology, tourism: scientific research of students and graduate students.” TvGU, Tver, .2012, pp.74-77 .

Page 1

The retrospective study is focused on identifying the territorial organization of renewable energy in the Ryazan (province) region. The main emphasis is identified in the field of socio-economic factors that predetermined quantitative and qualitative changes in the potential of hydraulic and windmills and “territorial shifts” in their location. The work takes into account changes in the region during administrative reforms in the 20th century (Fig. 1).

Analysis of the figure shows that the transformation of borders has important geographical consequences. Previously, the Ryazan province had a greater extent from north to south than from west to east, which provided greater diversity natural conditions and contributed to a pronounced differentiation of the territory into the agricultural south (Steppe side), a zone of mixed farming in the central part (Ryazan side) and the industrialized north (Meshcherskaya side). At the same time, the provincial city of Ryazan most corresponded to the requirement of its (optimal) central position in relation to the province as a whole.

In general, as a result of administrative reforms, the region somewhat “shifted” to the east and at the same time “shrank” towards the conditional center, that is, it became comparatively more “eastern”. Despite some “increase” of the Ryazan region at the expense of other regions, the “exchange” was not qualitatively equivalent, since the most industrially developed and agriculturally significant territories were transferred to other regions.

Use of wind and water mills in Ryazan province(XIX century). At the time in question Russian Empire steam engines and technologies based on them were just coming into use and, despite the “railroad boom” and the general replenishment of the engine fleet, the energy basis of agricultural production had changed little. Thus, the historical period still continued when the muscular power of draft animals, the water and wind wheels were almost the only means of powering mechanisms in agriculture.

Rice. 1. Changes in the administrative-territorial boundaries of the Ryazan province (region) in the 19th century.

1. Territories that separated from the Ryazan province (region).

2. Territories that became part of the Ryazan province (region).

1922 is the year of entry and exit of the territory into (from) the composition of the province (region).

In the Ryazan province, river energy was widely used in industry, especially in metallurgy for the power drive of mechanical hammers and machine tools.

However, due to the dominance of the agricultural sector, larger-scale economic use of wind and river energy resources was typical for the flour milling industry (Table 1, Fig. 2).

Table 1

Location of mills in the districts of the Ryazan province in 1860

Number of windmills

Number of water mills	Number of supplies in water mills
	Skopinsky
	Ranenburgsky
	Pronsky
	Mikhailovsky
	Zaraisky
	Ryazansky
	Dankovsky
	Sapozhkovsky
	Egoryevsky
	Spassky
	Kasimovsky