A series in 3 parts about windmills that are currently preserved in Russia with a 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. This is not a complete 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 A well-known object of research and scientific work. 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. While preparing a trip to the 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. During the summer holidays I carried a notepad and pencil with me. At the height of the summer of 1969, I was walking with a friend. There were green plantings along the route, rye was filled with golden ripeness nearby, pigeons were swimming in the heavenly blue, and a mill reigned over the entire area - winged, like these pigeons, but tightly connected to the earth by 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
My blog already has a lot of photo stories about a wide variety of mills, but there are not so many water mills among them. That’s why today’s post is about just that. The mill is located on the outskirts of the village of Krasnikovo, Kursk region, on the Nagolnensky Kolodez river. By the way, on the Internet this river is often called the Hook (less often - Shirokiy Brook). I assume that this is most likely an outdated local hydronym, since on all maps the river is called Nagolnensky Kolodez or Nagolnensky Well. In addition, the Kursk media circulated the version that this is the only surviving mill of this type in the Black Earth Region, but this is also not true. But that's not the point. I visited Krasnikovo back in May, so on the eve of the golden autumn, I decided today to please my readers with pictures of fresh spring greenery.
02
. Just a few years ago, despite the fact that in 2003, on the recommendation of the Ministry of Culture, by decree of the governor of the Kursk region, the Krasnikovskaya mill was included in the unified state register of historical and cultural monuments of the peoples of the Russian Federation, it was in terrible condition and was simply dangerous to visit due to for extreme disrepair. In 2013, the mill was restored (the frame of the mill was rebuilt and the foundation was strengthened), the pond was cleared, a gazebo for relaxation was installed, and a wicker fence was made. In 2014, additional work was carried out to improve the surrounding area, and an asphalt road with a parking space and a toilet was laid. 4.7 million rubles were allocated for these purposes. 
03
. General view of the tourist complex (let's call it that) as of May 2015. Let me explain about some chaos in the foreground. These are stumps of trees cut down during the reconstruction stage. I don’t presume to judge whether this is the right decision or a hasty one, since I myself have not personally seen the mill surrounded by old elms. There are old pictures of the place online, it seems good, but that’s how it is now. Nowadays, meetings of local veterans are held near the mill, graduates of the local school come to greet the dawn, tourists come, and in general life is in full swing. 
04
. The mill was built in 1861 by the local landowner Glazov, about whom practically no information has been preserved. But it was precisely in the “Glazov times” that a dam was created on the river and two dozen bog oak piles were driven in, on which the mill still stands. And a certain Foma Ignatievich Tetyanets worked as a farmhand for this Glazov, who eventually became the new owner of the Glazov mill. There are two versions of legends about this in the village. According to one of them, the landowner, sensing impending changes in 1917, simply sold off his property and went abroad, and according to another, Foma got the mill as a dowry, because he had the audacity to knock up the landowner’s daughter Sophia right in it. 
05
. One way or another, after the revolution, the mill came into the possession of the collective farm "40 Years of October", and the newlyweds went to stay with relatives in Voronezh. It’s an amazing thing, but at the beginning of the 2000s, the then ninety-year-old son of Thomas and Sophia, Stepan Fomich Tetyanets, came to Krasnikovo from near Samara and said that both he and his parents remembered their mill with warmth all their lives. 
06
. In 1960, Yegor Ivanovich Krasnikov was appointed miller and under his leadership the mill continued to supply Krasny residents with amazingly ground flour. Until the seventies of the last century, there was also a grain grinder at the mill, but when people stopped sowing millet and buckwheat in their gardens, and they began to buy grains in general stores, they were removed as unnecessary. But the demand for flour still remained. In the nineties, the collective farm died for a long time, but the head of the organized agricultural enterprise regularly paid the miller a salary of 550 rubles. And for grinding one bag, the men were charged 7 rubles. 
07
. Under Krasnikov, the old mill wheel became obsolete, but was soon replaced with a metal one and the mill started working again (at the reconstruction stage it was replaced again with a wooden one). The frame of the building was also renovated several times, but the mechanism itself, they say, is the same one from Glazov. The mill produced up to a ton of flour per day. 
08
. Later, when the flow of millers from nearby villages dried up, and the miller himself turned 77 years old, he was appointed a museum worker, but soon there was no strength left to look after the condition of the mill and it suddenly began to deteriorate. Well, then you already know everything. The photo shows the updated so-called. running stall. 
09
. In conclusion, a few of my own thoughts about what I saw. I understand that in our time the amount of 5 million is a mere trifle, especially considering that there was half a kilometer of asphalt road leading to the mill, but in some places I got the impression of a certain, so to speak, negligence. I saw reconstructed mills in Kenozerye and they look completely different from the ones in the photo below (I’ll show you in the very near future). In addition, the mill building was surrounded by a fence made of chain-link mesh (visible in photo 04), which does not look good on it at all, but forces tourists to somehow overcome it. 
However, knowing the situation with the mills of our native Voronezh region, we can say that the Krasnikovskaya mill was incredibly lucky. They didn’t even bother to put menacing signs on our windmills, not to mention any kind of reconstruction or repair. Who knows whether they will survive this winter or not, and therefore I congratulate the people of Kursk on the fact that they have preserved such a wonderful historical monument in their region!
The use of my photographs in any media, printed materials and on any websites, with the exception of personal blogs and pages on social networks, is PROHIBITED. Only after
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 a greater variety of natural conditions and contributed to a pronounced differentiation of the territory into the agricultural south (Steppe side), a mixed farming zone in the central part (Ryazan side) and industrially developed north (Meshcherskaya side). At the same time, the provincial city of Ryazan most corresponded to the requirement of its (optimum) 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.
The use of wind and water mills in the Ryazan province (XIX century). At the time under review in the Russian Empire, steam engines and technologies based on them were just coming into use and, despite the “railway boom” and the general replenishment of the engine fleet, the energy basis of agricultural production 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 water mills |
Number of supplies in water mills |
||||
|
Skopinsky | |||||
|
Ranenburgsky | |||||
|
Pronsky | |||||
|
Mikhailovsky | |||||
|
Zaraisky | |||||
|
Ryazansky | |||||
|
Dankovsky | |||||
|
Sapozhkovsky | |||||
|
Egoryevsky | |||||
|
Spassky | |||||
|
Kasimovsky | |||||
Water mills
Denis Makhel
2010-201
9
Since ancient times, mills have played a huge role in the life of Venevsky district. Before the advent of steam and “oil” engines, wind and water were the main sources of energy, excluding, of course, “muscular propulsion.” Mills remained the most complex technical means until almost the end of the 19th century. Steam engines were very rare before the construction of the railroad.
The power of the mill was characterized by the number of so-called supplies. If the mill ground grain into flour, then a millstone was installed on the stand. At small mills located on streams and rivulets there was only one, on small rivers (Venevka, Polosnya) there were two or three, but on Osetra there were from three to six mills. The dams of many mills on the Sturgeon River were made of stone already at the beginning of the 19th century. In addition to the well-known flour mills, there were grain crushers, wool beaters and butter churns in the county. In the 18th century, the city's Lubyanka mill set in motion the machines of the canvas manufactory. In the 20th century, some mills turned on electric generators.
XVI - XVII centuries
The first mention of a water mill is found in the first reliable document of the Venevsky district - the “Scribe Book of 1571/1572”.
“Near Gorodensky I planted the Prince Ivanovskaya mill on the river on Venev, a large German wheel, and on the mill there is an oak chimney of nine fathoms, and in it there are five stages and a sixth stage of the hut in the same chimney. And at the same mill on the river on Venev they started a pond Actually, the base of the dam is lined with oak beams."
The same document also mentions the first millers of Venyov; the “black man without tillage” Filka the miller lived in the settlement, and the palace peasant miller Nechaiko lived near the ravine under the abatis forest. “A black man without tillage” meant that he neither sowed nor reaped, but earned his living by craft.
In 1626 it was written: “But in Venev, near the Streletskaya Sloboda, there was a mill, and that mill was owned by the Streltsy Pentecostal Ivashka Shcherbak and his comrades, and the rent from it paid 3 rubles a year to the Ustyug quarter, and according to the tale of the local priests and all sorts of elected residents people in the year 123 (1615) that mill and the spring water swept away the flesh, and that mill in the year 132 (1623/1624) is not business, it stands in the desert."
The surname “Batishchev” was never found in Venev; apparently, his family was registered under another name, which was common then. Yes, and the meaning of the word “batishchev” can be translated as a criminal. In our city at that time there was only one family, the head of which was the old man Trofim, and his last name was Tochilin. Perhaps this was Yakov’s father?
I wonder what specific offense Yakov went to Azov for? Shklovsky in 1948 came up with a version about a sacred oak tree allegedly being cut down for the dam. The writer could not frankly indicate that Batishchev was an “enemy of the people”, whom Peter I sent to hard labor (on the galleys) in Azov, and he turned out to be a talented inventor. Presumably, Batishchev was exiled by decree of the Tsar in 1699. But this is just a version.
Mill dam near the Zaraisky Bridge, photographer P.N. Lavrov, 1903
From the collections of the Venevsky Museum of Local Lore
Okorokovs
Back in the 17th century, the Okorokov archers were Pentecostals in Streletskaya Sloboda; they traditionally ran a mill located in the settlement. In 1721, Evtrop Kirillovich Okorokov received a place near the Zaraisky Bridge for “perpetual maintenance” from the Venev Epiphany Monastery, and built a new mill on three buildings, called “Lubyanka”.
His son Ivan Evtropovich (1721-after 1782) organized a canvas manufactory on the basis of this mill in 1752 and was able to earn significant capital. He, being a Venev merchant, married a noblewoman of the Tula district, Marfa Stepanovna, which gave his children the right to go beyond the merchant class and make a career. Both of his sons, Ivan and Vasily, graduated from the Moscow Imperial University. Vasily Ivanovich Okorokov (b. 1758) rented the university printing house in 1788-1793 and 1798-1800. His publishing mark can be found on the many thousands of books he published. Not bad for the son and grandson of a miller.
