Shava is a historic village in Kstovo District. It is currently being intensively developed as a cottage settlement.
The village sits at a height of 100 m above the level of the river and has the shape of an open palm. The "fingers" are streets radiating from the center. Street names: Novaya, Selo, Sibirka, Novy Poryadok, Vyselki.
Name of the village. Legend of Catherine the Great's dogs
During her travels across Russia in 1763, 1764, and 1767, the Russian Empress Catherine II visited here. The purposes of the journeys were to gain a true picture of the peasantry's condition, to allow the sovereign contact with various strata of the population, and to oversee the work of the local administration.
It is known that Her Majesty the Empress was very fond of dogs. She started the fashion for breeding Italian greyhounds in Russia. Kazimierz Waliszewski, author of the book "The Romance of an Empress," writing about the private life of the tsarina, wrote in his work: "Six o'clock in the morning. This is when the sovereign usually wakes up. Beside her bed stands a basket where, on a pink satin cushion trimmed with lace, rests a family of little dogs — Catherine's inseparable companions. These are English greyhounds".
Dogs and other animals occupied a very large place in Catherine II's affections.
From a letter of Catherine's: «I have always loved animals... animals are far smarter than we think…», Courtiers could tell from afar that the sovereign was present by the cheerful barking of the dogs racing across the lawns.
The village has a legend that during one of her stays here, one of Her Majesty's beloved little dogs ran away. The whole community searched for the lost dog, but it was never found. The villagers found it hard to pronounce and remember the names of Catherine II's beloved dogs — such as, for instance, Tom-Anderson, Zemira, Duchesse — so they simply looked for a "shavka" (mongrel).
And so the name Shava stuck to the village.
Archaeological monuments
- Shavskaya site (late 2nd millennium BC) — document granting state protection status No. 331;
- Shava-3 site (2nd millennium BC) — document granting the status: order of June 26, 2001, No. 17-OD.
Monument of urban planning and architecture
- Church of St. Nicholas. Dating of the object: 1796. Document granting state protection status No. 286.
Interesting facts
- The founding date of Shava is not precisely known, but it is known that a Mongol-Tatar army passed through here [1] (archive) .
- The village has a church dedicated to St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. The church is more than 216 years old. In Soviet times it housed a club, where dances were held. Some villagers (archive) still cannot bring themselves to enter the church to pray — their conscience torments them, their soul aches.
- In Erzya, "shava" means empty, an empty place, wasteland.