Sarov, Arzamas-16, Gorky-130, Kremlyov is the main science city of Nizhny Novgorod Region. A "closed city" and home to the Federal Nuclear Center.
Sarov was founded on June 16, 1706.
In 1946, after the secret facility "KB-11" was located in the town of Sarov, it received the status of a closed administrative-territorial entity. In documents it was called Arzamas-16 and Gorky-130.
Arzamas-16 until 1991, then, until 1995, Kremlyov.
The name Sarov was restored by a decree of the Russian Government on August 14, 1995 (Federal Law No. 145-FZ "On the Renaming of the City of Kremlyov, Nizhny Novgorod Region, to the City of Sarov").
General Information
The total area of the city is 232 sq. km. The city has about 100 streets, twelve of which are named after famous citizens. The Population is about 90,000 people.
Sarov has 9 natural monuments: the Near and Far Hermitages, the Sarov Silver Springs, the sacred Erzya urochishche of Keremet, the floodplain meadow in the Satis River valley, the monastery ponds Protyazhkinsky and Varlamovsky, the monastery's Shelokshansky pond, the monastery urochishche of Filippovka, and the Sysovsky Cordon.
Security Regime
The city's current status and the special conditions of its existence are defined by the Law of the Russian Federation "On Closed Administrative-Territorial Entities," adopted on July 14, 1992. This law applies to all closed cities of Russia.
The initiative to draft and adopt this law came from Sarov.
The land of Sarov keeps its secrets. Ongoing archaeological excavations are gradually refining the dates when the first people settled here. The time has not yet come to open all the pages in the history of the Soviet atomic project, in which the residents of Arzamas-16 played a key role. To this day, the main task of the staff of RFNC-VNIIEF, located in Sarov, is to maintain the reliability of Russia's nuclear weapons. The present-day appearance of the city, its customs and traditions were shaped mainly by those who came here to create the nuclear shield of our Motherland.
Sarov and Arzamas-16
At the end of the 1940s, the name Sarov disappeared from the maps of the Soviet Union. On April 9, 1946, a decision was made to locate a facility of special state importance here, where the first Soviet atomic bomb would be built. The site chosen for the construction of the secret facility was the place where the famous Sarov Monastery stood. Over the course of half a century, the name of the facility and the postal address of the settlement changed. In the history of the Soviet atomic project, it went down as Arzamas-16.
On March 17, 1954, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR decided to create a city under regional jurisdiction with the classified name Kremlev.
In 1995, the city was given back the name Sarov, under which it entered the history of the Russian state and became known in the Orthodox world. A city reappeared on the map of Russia whose location and name had been a state secret for almost half a century, but which throughout its existence had played a major role in the history of our state.
History
The history of Sarov is divided into two completely different periods, which could loosely be called the "monastic" period and the "nuclear" period. In modern times, Sarov is the Russian Federal Nuclear Center, the place where the nation's nuclear weapons were created, where Academician Sakharov and dozens of other outstanding scientists lived and worked — a city of science behind barbed wire, until recently bearing the code name Arzamas-16 and, until the mid-1990s, marked on no map. Even now, when the veil of secrecy has been lifted, the city remains a closed administrative-territorial entity, and an ordinary tourist cannot get in.
During the years when the nuclear facility was sealed off, almost nothing was said about the other period in Sarov's history — the monastic one. It was as if Sarov did not exist. Yet it was a very well-known monastery in its day, one that gave Russia one of its most famous saints.
As recent archaeological research has shown, Sarov arose on the site of an ancient Mordvin settlement that survived until the mid-13th century and was ravaged by the Tatars. Somewhat later, a Tatar town called Saraklych stood on this spot, and a certain Tatar prince, Bekhan, lived there. After Ivan the Terrible captured Kazan, Saraklych was destroyed and abandoned, after which it came to be called Staroye Gorodishche (the Old Settlement).
By the end of the 16th century, individual hermits began to appear on the headland at the confluence of the Satis and the Sarovka, living in dug-out caves. The names of the first ascetics remained unknown. The monastery was founded by the hieromonk Isaac (in the monastic schema, John) in 1705: he built a wooden church for the hermits in the name of the Most Holy Mother of God, "Life-Giving Spring," and introduced the rule of the ancient ascetics of the East. Soon he also laid the foundation of another church, a stone one, in the name of the Dormition of the Mother of God. An underground monastery was built, with a labyrinth of caves, cells, and a church. The Sarov Hermitage became famous for the names of its great ascetics and elders Nazarius, Dorotheus, Hilarion, Matthew, Alexander, Mark, and, finally, Seraphim.
In November 1778, a young man from Kursk, Prokhor Moshnin, came to the Sarov monastery. In 1786 he was tonsured with the name Seraphim. Repeating the feat of Simeon the Stylite, Father Seraphim prayed standing on a rock for a thousand days and nights.
The healings he performed and the example of his strict ascetic life drew masses of pilgrims to Sarov. He greeted each of them with his famous words: "My joy!"
By the time of the death of Seraphim of Sarov in 1833, a magnificent monastery complex had been created in Sarov: an 80-meter bell tower, several churches, walls with towers, and numerous service buildings. The Sarov Monastery was one of the richest in Russia; it managed extensive forest lands successfully and owned plowed fields and mills. In 1903, when Seraphim of Sarov was canonized, the last emperor of Russia, Nicholas II, visited the monastery with his family. This was the monastery's time of greatest flourishing, soon followed by a rapid decline.
In 1927 the monastery was abolished, and its grounds were given over to the production areas of a factory. A small settlement grew up around it. Sarov acquired special significance during the Great Patriotic War: a defense plant set up in the monastery buildings produced shells for the Katyusha. The presence of an industrial base, a location away from transit routes combined with relative proximity to large scientific and industrial centers, and a railway connection — these conditions led to Sarov being chosen in 1946 as the site for a scientific and production center that was to create Soviet nuclear weapons in the shortest possible time. From that moment, for almost half a century, Sarov, renamed Kremlev, vanished from maps and was not mentioned in the media.
Outstanding physicists and production managers worked in Sarov, including the three-time Heroes of Socialist Labor Yu.B. Khariton, A.A. Dukhov, Ya.B. Zeldovich, K.A. Shchelkin, A.D. Sakharov, and I.V. Kurchatov, and the Nobel Prize laureate I.E. Tamm. In 1949 the first Soviet atomic bomb, created here, was tested (scientific director and chief designer: Academician Yu.B. Khariton), and four years later, the world's first hydrogen weapon. In 1954 the settlement of Sarov was granted city status.
At present, the Russian Federal Nuclear Center carries out tasks in the development, storage, and disposal of nuclear weapons and the processing of radioactive and other materials. Work is conducted in fundamental and applied physics, as well as in the interests of Russia's national economy.
Humor of Sarov Residents
The prize for the best April Fools' joke in Nizhny Novgorod print media goes to the newspaper "Sarov," which on April 1, 2010, published the following article:
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The editors of the newspaper "Sarov" have learned from a competent source that the Central Election Commission of Russia, in view of numerous complaints and a number of circumstances that make it impossible to determine reliably the results of the voters' expression of will, has declared invalid the elections to the local government bodies of the city of Sarov held on March 14, 2010.
The head of the Central Election Commission, Vladimir Churov, whom our correspondent reached by telephone, declined to explain the decision, stating that the text of the document contains sufficiently complete information. The same source reported that, since the Sarov Duma is unable to exercise governing authority on the territory of the closed administrative-territorial entity (ZATO) of Sarov, direct gubernatorial rule is being introduced in Sarov until the powers of the newly elected deputies of the city duma are recognized. The secretariat of Governor Shantsev officially declined to comment on the situation, but unofficially confirmed that the documents on temporary gubernatorial rule on the territory of the ZATO of Sarov could be signed as early as Thursday. Enormous changes await Sarov. Amid the blissful assurances of the uniqueness of the Sarov ZATO, we failed to notice how, again and again, waves of Kremlin displeasure were building against the Sarov establishment, which has taken the bit between its teeth. The petty security-regime perks of our officialdom cost the country too much. These last two pieces of news are the ninth wave, about to crash down on the Sarov bastions of barbed wire, and they will not hold. 2012 will be a catastrophe for Sarov. According to our information, as early as next year preliminary work will begin on opening the city, for now only on paper, with assurances that this is being done just in case. But to those who understand, everything is already perfectly clear."Sarov" newspaper, April 1, 2010
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Musical group ARZAMAS-16 ("Arzamas-16")
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ARZAMAS-16 lineup:
Formed: 1997 It is rather difficult to pin down the musical direction or style in which ARZAMAS-16 plays. Our compositions contain elements of industrial, alternative, punk, pop, and rock music. So we simply can't bring ourselves to label this thermonuclear mixture with any single word. And it isn't our job anyway to classify things and hand out definitions. Let someone else do that. We will just create and perform Music. As for how well we have succeeded at it, time and our listeners will judge. Since it is impossible to single out any one date as our band's birthday, we propose the following key dates and periods in the lives of the people who later formed the creative collective ARZAMAS-16. One of the first meetings took place in the fall of 1997, between Sergey Golubev and Alex Repyov, at a concert. The former was responsible for the drums in the band Gothic Castle, while the latter played in the original lineup of the band Elysium. It was one of the largest concerts ever put on by Nizhny Novgorod bands. After the concert they met on the staircase of the foyer of the Sputnik movie theater and exchanged words for the first time. After paying each other all sorts of compliments, they went their separate ways, and two years later they were playing in Elysium together – Alex as a guitar recruit and Sergey as the drummer. After playing several concerts together, they left Elysium almost simultaneously. The first, tormented by industrial longing, went off to Mechanical Orange on the advice of Dmitry Kuznetsov (Elysium's bass guitarist); the second played in Gothic Castle for a while longer and, after it finally broke up, went off to beat the drums for the band Street Beat. This was the spring of 2000. Some time later, having immersed himself in the affairs of MO, Alex got to know Dmitry Tikhomirov – a musician, internet figure, and man of science, a participant in the development and promotion of alternative music in Nizhny Novgorod, who was then actively involved in the life of MO in particular. As a result of numerous conversations between Dmitry and Alex about music, musical creativity, and the meaning of life, Dmitry picked up a bass guitar for the first time, and Alex left MO (practically in the middle of mixing MO's first album, which was never released) in order to create a more promising musical collective, later named ARZAMAS-16. After some time spent creating and preparing trial musical material, the first rehearsal took place at the end of spring 2001 with the lineup: Alex Repyov – vocals and keyboard sequences, Dmitry Tikhomirov – bass, Sergey Golubev – drums, and Sergey Karpov as a guest guitarist. Having made sure the band was capable of playing live, the collective set about looking for a permanent guitarist and a rehearsal space, expanding its technical capabilities and accumulating musical material along the way. Only a few months later did the band meet its future guitarist – Ruslan Ismailov, a promising and talented eighteen-year-old musician – and finally found self-expression in music based on a symbiosis of Ruslan's guitar parts and the musical experiments of Alex and Dmitry. After that the collective settled on its name – ARZAMAS-16 – and took part in a Russian tribute compilation dedicated to the legendary American band of Martin Atkins, PIGFACE, which was subsequently released on INVISIBLE Rec. USA, a label owned by M. Atkins. In the fall of 2001 the band sent up a trial balloon in the form of its first demo and the website www.a16.nm.ru (now arzamas-16.nnov.ru). Beginning in April 2002, ARZAMAS-16 found a space for regular rehearsals, which allowed the band to begin its concert activity. With the help of D. Kuznetsov, ARZAMAS-16 took part in a series of concerts by the band Elysium. This is not the end of ARZAMAS-16's biography, any more than it is the end of the collective's creative work. |
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How Sarov Was Not Renamed Pogrebinsk
"...Sarov is your brainchild, and it is our common wish to grow Sarov into the city of POGREBINSK"
Seventy years ago, on July 4, 1938, Yuly Moiseevich Kaganovich, secretary of the Gorky Regional Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks), delivered a report at the 6th Regional Party Conference. Here is an excerpt from his report:
"In our Region and in our regional party organization, for a number of years a Right-Trotskyist spy-terrorist-saboteur-wrecker underground was operating, headed by Pramnek, Pakhomov, Stolyar, Pogrebinsky, Burov, Zashibaev, and others.
...In the Diveevo District, a Right-Trotskyist wrecking organization has been exposed, headed by the former district committee secretary Steshov and the former chairman of the district executive committee Dudarev. Their activity was aimed chiefly at provoking discontent and irritation among the masses. Moreover, they went so far that they practically engaged in terror against local officials. They organized the murder of a collective farmer, Kudakov, who had tried to expose them.
...The Diveevo organization was connected with Pogrebinsky and Roslyakov. Luchinin states in his testimony that he attended a meeting at Pogrebinsky's. Present were: Luchinin, Sukhov, Steshov, and Kaganovich (Pervomaysk District).
I must say that this Kaganovich is merely a namesake. While there are repressed persons among my wife's relatives, there is no one arrested among the Kaganoviches.
And so he says that they were all there.
Who else? Shelukhin. Who is this Shelukhin? A criminal sentenced to be shot, whom Pogrebinsky promoted to militia sergeant.
It turns out that Pogrebinsky was engaged in preparing insurgent-terrorist cadres and organized a group of criminals (about 120 people) for combat work in case it should be needed.[1] He also made use of criminals from the Sarov colony.[1]
And so, you see, the "district committee secretaries" Luchinin and the criminal Shelukhin all act together under Pogrebinsky's leadership.
All this, comrades, clearly and convincingly shows how all these counterrevolutionary, spy forces, criminals, and scum of human society became entangled in a single knot and represented, as Comrade Stalin says, a frenzied, unprincipled gang of wreckers, saboteurs, and spies acting on the orders of foreign intelligence services."
As we can see, Pogrebinsky's name is mentioned many times in the report. What is known about him?
Matvey (Motya) Samoylovich Pogrebinsky (1895–1937) was a commissar of the 3rd rank, an organizer of the OGPU labor communes, and the author of the book "The OGPU Labor Commune" (1928). Accompanying Gorky on a trip to Solovki, he selected young people from among the criminals, who were transferred to the Bolshevo OGPU commune (see Gorky's sketch "Solovki," vol. 20, pp. 211–213). Before his transfer to Gorky in 1932, he was head of the NKVD Directorate of Bashkiria. While head of the NKVD Directorate of the Gorky Territory, he committed suicide in his office on April 4, 1937. Before his death he wrote a letter to Stalin. "He rushed it for nothing!" said Stalin. "He would have told us a great deal more..." And Maxim Gorky favored Pogrebinsky and jokingly called him "Motya the Militia."
See how fate plays with a person: today a city is named after you, and tomorrow you are trampled underfoot. True, the city of Pogrebinsk never appeared on the map. And yet there were those who wanted it... The Sarov archive holds the following collective appeal to Pogrebinsky:
"Dear Matvey Samoylovich! It is a great pity that you cannot be present at our celebration. However, we know that our growth, our achievements, and every one of our victories in daily life and at work are the fruits of your fatherly care for us. Sarov is your brainchild, and it is our common wish to grow Sarov into the city of POGREBINSK.
In wishing to give Sarov your name, we know that we thereby place many obligations upon ourselves. But we are on the right path, and difficulties do not frighten us. We will ensure that every resident of Sarov is worthy of your name. Our present gives us the right to say this. Our present is a struggle for qualifications and knowledge. None of us is afraid anymore to raise a hand when a violator of discipline needs to be punished.
Sarov is your new victory in the work of re-educating people, and we swear to you: we will build it into the city of POGREBINSK. Such is our common wish.
With greetings: the general meeting of the Labor Colony. September 6, 1936, the settlement of Sarov." <..> ("Sarov" newspaper, August 12, 2008, "Motya the Militia")
See also
Sarov Websites
Sources
- shantsevvp.livejournal.com — Mentality, Habit, and Fines for Bribe-Takers (archive)