Obran Osh — the Erzya name for Nizhny Novgorod and the name of a fortified settlement that, according to legend, stood on the Dyatlov Hills before Yuri Vsevolodovich founded a city there in 1221. In Erzya, "osh" means city, and Obran is the name of its ruler, so the name reads as "Obran's city." In the Russian literary tradition, the same legend is known as the tale of Abramov Gorodok (Abram's Little Town).[1][2]
The Legend of Abramka
A legend recorded in the Erzya lands of the Nizhny Novgorod region tells that an Erzya man named Abramka came to the mouth of the Oka from beyond the Kudma River, settled on the Dyatlov Hills, and built seventeen houses for his children. The little town burned down in a clash with a Russian army, and a new city was founded nearby.[2]
In the novel Purgaz by Mordvinian classic author Kuzma Abramov, Obran's little town is depicted as a hub connecting the Mordvinian lands with its neighbors; the fortress falls while defending against Russian princes. The novel fixed this image in the reader's mind: "in the place where he had seen the hill and the little town on it his whole life, there was nothing."[3]
Literary Versions of the Predecessor City
The idea of an urban settlement at the mouth of the Oka predates Nizhny Novgorod historiography itself: at various times it was expressed by the compiler of the seventeenth-century Nizhny Novgorod Chronicle, Pavel Melnikov, and Nikolay Khramtsovsky, while Vasily Tatishchev wrote of a Bulgar town on this site.[1]
A source-critical analysis of these versions was conducted by Nizhny Novgorod historian A. A. Kuznetsov. His conclusion was that all four derive from late chronicle writing and literary legend rather than from sources contemporary with the events themselves; the reports from the winter of 1171/1172 concerning the campaign of Mstislav Andreyevich relate to Bulgar lands, and there are no grounds for connecting "Abramov Gorodok" with them.[1]
| Source | City in question |
|---|---|
| Nizhny Novgorod Chronicle, 17th century | a city established by the Suzdal princes |
| Vasily Tatishchev | a Bulgar town at the mouth of the Oka |
| Pavel Melnikov | the Mordva settlement of Abramov Gorodok |
| Nikolay Khramtsovsky | Abramov, also known as Ibragimov, Gorodok |
For four centuries now, historical thought has entertained the notion of an urban settlement in the area of the Oka's mouth predating 1221.[1]
What the Archaeologists Found
The earliest fortification on the Kremlin promontory stood at the summit of Chasovaya Hill — the eastern platform of the present-day Kremlin; the earthwork-and-timber fortress was small, having been built under tight time constraints.[1]
The settlement of the Oka's mouth proceeded from the north: following Andrey Bogolyubsky's campaign against the Volga Bulgars, Gorodets was founded on the left bank of the Volga, sixty kilometers upstream from the Oka — this occurred between 1164 and 1171. Nizhny Novgorod became the last city of pre-Mongol Rus to be founded by princely decree as a military and political center on the frontier.[1]
Mordva archaeology presents a different picture of settlement patterns. Two types of settlements were most characteristic of medieval Mordva: small riverside villages of five or six dwellings, and khutor farmsteads of individual homesteads known in written sources of the 15th–17th centuries as "zimnitsy." Fortified hillforts do appear among Mordva sites, but as industrial, metallurgical, and ceramic complexes.[4]
The founding of the city itself fits into a chain of events precisely dated by the chronicles: in 1219 the Bulgars attacked Ustyug and Unzha; in 1220 Georgy Vsevolodovich led a victorious campaign against the Bulgar town of Oshel; at the end of that same year the two sides concluded peace; in the spring and summer of 1221 Nizhny Novgorod was established at the mouth of the Oka; and in 1225 a stone Transfiguration Cathedral was erected here.[1]
Purgaz and Purgaz's Volost
Erzya tradition associates Purgaz with the name Obran Osh — the first inyazor (ruler) of the Mordva known from documentary sources, active in the late 12th and early 13th centuries. Information about him and about "Purgaz's volost" is preserved in the Patriarchal, also known as the Nikonian, Chronicle of the 16th century.[5][3]
Purgaz stood in opposition to another Mordva ruler, Puresh, who in the 1220s acknowledged the authority of the Vladimir prince; Purgaz himself maintained the independence of his lands. According to Erzya tradition, he received his education in the Bulgar Great City.[5]
The new city served as a foothold in relations with the Mordva: the Vladimir prince concluded a treaty with Puresh, while waging war against Purgaz — in the spring of 1229 Purgaz's forces advanced to the very walls of Nizhny Novgorod and were repulsed.[1]
It is to these very years that Erzya tradition dates the destruction of Obran Osh, and that is why the name of the town is inseparable from the name of the inyazor: in Mordva literature they always appear together.[5][3]
A Name That Survived in the Language
The dispute over the predecessor city has been going on for four centuries, yet the name itself has outlasted the dispute: on ceremonial occasions Erzya still call Nizhny Novgorod by the name Obran Osh. For the indigenous peoples of the region this is not a toponym from a reference book, but a form of memory about what stood on the Dyatlov Hills before the Russian city.[2]
In Nizhny Novgorod toponymy, the Erzya layer persists beyond the city's own name: field research has identified dozens of microtoponyms — names of clearings, ravines, and streams — that appear on no modern map.[2]
The name belongs to the same body of narratives about the city's origins as the chronicle record of 1221 and the search for a predecessor settlement.[1]
See also
Sources
- cyberleninka.ru — A. A. Kuznetsov — The founding and early history of Nizhny Novgorod. Bulletin of Lobachevsky University of Nizhny Novgorod, 2014, no. 5 (archive)
- Nizhegorodskaya Pravda — Genealogy, ancient manuscripts, and aerial photography: how a St. Petersburg resident learned of his Nizhny Novgorod Erzya ancestors, 19 July 2022 (archive)
- cyberleninka.ru — A. O. Valova — The portrayal of the image of the inyazor in K. G. Abramov's novel "Purgaz". Ogaryov-Online, 2017
- cyberleninka.ru — V. I. Vikhlayev, I. M. Peterburgsky — Types of ancient and medieval Mordva settlements. Gumanitariy: aktualnyye problemy gumanitarnoy nauki i obrazovaniya, 2015 (archive)
- cyberleninka.ru — N. A. Silkina — K. Abramov's novel "Purgaz": facts, figures, and images. Ogaryov-Online, 2015