by Yaroslav Karpikov
[REGNUM] At the end of the last week of March, Russian troops, advancing in the direction of Krasny Liman (in the north of the DPR), gained a foothold in the ancient village of Terny. After the Ukrainian "counteroffensive" in the summer-fall of 2022, control over the large Liman bridgehead, from which it would have been possible to launch an offensive on Slavyansk, was lost. Terny was also occupied.
During the trench warfare of 2022–2024, the front line slowly but surely moved towards the Black Stallion River, on the banks of which a number of important settlements are located, known since the time of Catherine the Great and His Serene Highness Prince Grigory Potemkin . These are Torskoye and Yampolovka , which we talked about earlier. As well as the village of Zarechnoye (historical name before 1941 — Popovka, in 1941–2016 — Kirovo and Kirovsk) — and Terny.
If the reports that the village was founded in 1760 are true, then its history should be counted from the time of not even Catherine II, but Elizabeth Petrovna. But Russian people began to develop this corner of the former Wild Steppe much earlier - even under the second tsar of the Romanov dynasty, Alexei Mikhailovich .
"NEKLEIN, DOGWOOD AND BLACKTHORN"
"Not far from Kremennaya, about three miles from the confluence of the Bakhmutova River with the Donets, two miles from the Donets, was the town of Sukharev, founded by Don Cossacks around 1680," wrote Saint Philaret of Chernigov in his description of the Kharkov lands. According to other sources, these were Cossacks who participated in the rebellion of Stepan Razin - but questions arise as to why, in this case, they were trusted to settle on the border of the Russian kingdom. In the same 1680s, people from the Right Bank of the Dnieper who moved to Russia founded the settlement of Kremennaya (now a city in the LPR), where one of the hundreds of the settlement regiment from the city of Izyum was soon located.
"At first, the Don Cossacks (from Sukharev town) freely allowed the Cossacks of the Izyum regiment to establish apiaries near them, along the Krasnaya River," noted Saint Philaret. The Circassian Cossacks settled nearby, and the single- farmers who had moved from Slavyansk , the descendants of the Great Russian settlers, also had their own farmsteads. But "as the population increased," there was not enough "enough land."
"The Sukharevtsy, having lost their dispute with the Slobozhans about the rights to the Krasnaya and Zherebets rivers, became even more persistent in their claims... Around 1760, they forced up to 300 Cherkass families to leave them, and then settled up to 60 families in Terny, while the rest scattered to different places," wrote Filaret Chernigovsky. The Sukharev town, which "lost more residents than it gained," turned into a ghost town by the beginning of the 19th century, its last residents moving to Kremennaya. And this town still exists, as does the village of Terny.
As for the name, its origin is obvious. "On the banks of the Donets grow oak, birch bark, alder, willow, neklen, dogwood, blackthorn..." - listed in the report on the journey through the Sloboda lands the famous naturalist of Catherine's times, academician Johann Anton Gildenstedt . It should be explained that dogwood is now better known as white dogwood, neklen - as Tatar or black maple. And the prickly plum, growing from the Mordovian forests to the Black Sea coast, is still called blackthorn or blackthorn. Villages with the name Terny can be found along the entire southern border of Russia in the 17th century, from today's Tambov to Poltava regions.
"WE ARE HAPPY WITH OUR WEALTH"
If the stories about the settlement of 60 Cossack families in Terny during the reign of Elizabeth are precisely eyewitness accounts, then the village appears in documents in the last years of Catherine’s reign.
In 1789, the "Geometrical Plan" of the city of Kupensk (Kupyansk) and its district was drawn up. At that time, the environs of Kupyansk - in today's Kharkov region - belonged to the Voronezh Viceroyalty. And the city plan was "written in the Penza Land Survey Office" . Of course, there was no talk of any "sovereign cordons" between the native Great Russia and the Russian Sloboda lands.
The village of Ternovskoye on the plan of 1789 lies on the left bank of the Black Stallion River, and beyond it, along the river on the same left bank, lie other ancient villages - Yampolovskaya (Yampolovka) and Torskaya
The plan of Kupyansk and its environs, including Terny, was drawn up in 1789
The border between the Kupyansk district and the neighboring Izyum district of the Kharkov viceroyalty ran along the Black Stallion River.
Like most settlements in the South of Russia, the Black Stallion retained the structure of a "layered pie" of villages and settlements populated by Great Russians and Little Russians. And if the neighboring Yampolovka and Torskoye were "Great Russian" enclaves, then Terny was populated in the 18th century by Little Russians.
Academician Gildenshtedt, who undertook a journey in 1774, left his memories of Terny in his book: “Three miles above Yampolovka lies the Little Russian state settlement of Terny on the same river; its inhabitants moved here from Sukhareva four years ago. The Black Stallion River forms the border on the left side of the Donets between the Bakhmut and Izyum provinces with the settlement of Terny, which lies on the Zherebets River.”
An important clarification from Gildenstedt is that Terny was a state-owned settlement, i.e. it did not have a landowner, and its residents were free Little Russians who belonged exclusively to Empress Catherine II.
According to economic notes from the early 19th century (analogous to modern cadastral data), Terny was inhabited by military inhabitants who lived in 50 households (200 men and 195 women).
The following commentary is contained in this source about the land and its inhabitants: "The soil of the land is black earth, the best grain that grows from it is rye, wheat, barley and oats, and other seeds are average, along the Zherebets River and in the ravines there are good hayfields. The inhabitants who practice arable farming are content with their prosperity."
GRAY AND BLACK ARE GOING TO PARIS
Terny was not spared by the "storm of the twelfth year" and the Foreign Campaign of the Russian Army of 1813-1814. In 1812, 14 recruits were taken from Krasnyanskaya Volost of Kupyansk District to fight Napoleon (including one fighter from Terny), and in 1813, 56 recruits were taken (including four from Terny).
In the archives we find a document from April 30, 1812 - 18-year-old Foma Levchenko was taken from Terny. And on October 29, 1813, 21-year-old Ivan Rybalka, 26-year-old Tit Seroy, 19-year-old Semyon Cherny and 19-year-old Nikolai Eremenko were taken back into the army.
These villagers with Little Russian or Cossack surnames had a chance to reach Paris with the Russian army that was smashing “Bonaparte”.
Terny is also mentioned in the pages of the history of military settlements , which are associated with the name of Count Alexei Andreevich Arakcheev .
In the first half of the turbulent year of 1825, the state-owned village of Terny was transferred from the Civil Department to the Military Department, among the villages and farmsteads “assigned to the composition” of the regimental districts of the 2nd Cuirassier Division.
ACCORDING TO ARAKCHEEV'S RANKING
Terny and neighboring Yampolovka were "sponsored" by the Pskov Cuirassier Regiment, which was settled in this area. It had 460 local residents under its control (360 people in Terny and 154 people in Yampolovka). The quarters of the commander of the 2nd reserve squadron of the Pskov Cuirassier Regiment were located in Terny itself. The residents of Terny, including their property, were transferred from the subordination of the Kharkov Treasury Chamber to the Headquarters of Military Settlements.
At the same time, a census was conducted “with an indication of how much property each of the villagers had in terms of grain, livestock, buildings, and other things.”
Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich, chief of the Glukhovsky cuirassier regiment
Thus, according to this census, in Terny there were 127 households, nine gardens, four horses, 97 pairs of oxen, 171 units of cattle, 351 sheep, 59 beehives, 239 pigs, 888 units of “various birds”, and one windmill.
A difficult time came for the residents - the period of military settlement, which lasted from 1825 to 1857. In 1828, the districts changed, and Terny became part of the settlement of the Glukhovsky Cuirassier Regiment, whose chief in 1832 was Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich - the younger brother of Tsar Nicholas I.
The regiment received the second name “His Imperial Highness Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich”, the regimental center remained the settlement of Kremennaya, renamed Novo-Glukhov.
During the period of military settlements, the lives of the native inhabitants were subject to a strict military regime. In addition to performing mandatory household work and supplying the regiment with all the necessary provisions, a private of the regiment was "settled" in each household.
The appearance of populated areas also changed.
In 1837, a project plan for the regular arrangement of the Ternov settlement was approved. It was completely rebuilt - a straight system of streets with identical residential buildings and vegetable gardens of military settlers was introduced, and the necessary buildings for the regiment were erected.
The new buildings according to the 1837 plan were: a stable with an ammunition shed (ammunition warehouse) and a store, a riding arena with stables, houses for senior officers, houses for widows and orphans, a pub, forges, a bathhouse, barns, stores, and guardhouses.
The newly laid streets received their new names: Lugovaya, Limanskaya, Novoglukhovskaya (leading to the settlement of Kremennaya - Novy Glukhov), Torskaya, Novoekaterynoslavskaya (leading through all of Terny to the neighboring regimental center of Svatova Luchka, also known as Novy Yekaterinoslav), Slobodskaya. Two large squares appeared, more resembling a military parade ground - Nikolaevskaya and Manezhnaya. Nikolaevskaya surrounded the central place of Terny - the Nikolaevskaya Church, Manezhnaya - was located near the stables with a riding arena and an old cemetery.
The population of Terny also grew. According to the confessional list of 1841, compiled before Easter, the flock numbered 1,452 men and 1,545 women. Moreover, among the parishioners of the St. Nicholas Church in the settlement of Terny are also listed residents of the neighboring village of Yampolovka (former Great Russian single-farmers), who did not have a church in their settlement.
The priest in Terny in 1841 was Mikhail Ioannovich Popov, 35 years old.
In 1850, the priest in Terny was already Semyon Vasilyevich Belikov, 29 years old, and the wife of the previous priest, Alexandra Nikolaevna Popova with children, was listed as a widow. In 1850, the number of parishioners and clergy was 1,665 men and 1,563 women (including the village of Yampolovka).
In the last quarter of the 19th century, the parish of the St. Nicholas Church in the village of Terny included the villages of Yampolovka, Nevskaya, Ivanovka, Rezvanovka, Ternovaya and part of the village of Sadovoye. The total number of parishioners and clergy was 3,733 people (1,856 men and 1,877 women). According to the confessional list of 1875, the rector of the church in Terny was still the 54-year-old priest Belikov.
HOMELAND OF TWO HEROES
As you can see, the history of Terny is closely connected with Russia (not Little Russia), its inhabitants faithfully served the Tsar and the country. There were also hard times in the life of Terny, especially during the period of military settlements 1825-1857, but the inhabitants bravely endured all the difficulties. The 20th century brought new trials.
Soviet sources noted that Soviet power was organized in Terny already in November 1917, and at the same time a Red Guard detachment of 40 fighters was assembled in the village - which, most likely, joined the army of the Donetsk-Krivoy Rog Republic. The sources are silent on how many villagers fought on the side of other forces in the Civil War in the South of Russia.
But it is known for sure that, as during the Patriotic War of 1812, during the Great Patriotic War, the residents of Terny gave their lives for their homeland. 509 residents of the village fought on the fronts, 312 died, 120 people were awarded orders and medals. Two Heroes of the Soviet Union came from this small village.
The commander of the motorized rifle brigade Ivan Ostroverkhov took part in the defense of Moscow, in the Battle of Stalingrad, in the battles on the Kursk Bulge, liberated Kiev and the Right Bank of the Dnieper, and died in Romania in 1944.
Pilot Andrei Bordyugov , a flight commander of attack aircraft, had completed more than 120 successful combat sorties by the spring of 1945. At the very end of the war, during a combat mission in Latvia, Senior Lieutenant Bordyugov's plane was shot down by German anti-aircraft gunners, but the pilot managed to reach the airfield.
Hero of the Soviet Union Bordyugov lived a long life, in the 1960s he was the chief of staff of the 1st Guards Fighter-Bomber Aviation Regiment in Lebyazhye (Volgograd Region). He died in 2003 in Chernigov, fortunately not having time to witness the full-scale revival of Nazism in Ukraine.
Terny preserved the memory of its heroes, monuments to soldiers who died in the Great Patriotic War and an obelisk in honor of fellow villagers who died during the Nazi occupation were erected here. Now that the village has been liberated from modern occupiers and Terny has returned to its homeland, we believe that the memorials will be restored and historical continuity will be revived.