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July 3 marks 230 years since Zakhary Chepega, ataman of the Troops of the Black Sea Cossacks, took office. This name is associated with the resettlement of brave lads to the Kuban and the foundation of Yekaterinodar. "Komsomolskaya Pravda" prepared 10 facts about the first ataman.

1. Zakhary Chepega is one of the brightest, but at the same time mysterious figures of the Kuban Cossacks. Few people know that Chepega is actually not the real name of the ataman, but the nickname he received in Zaporozhye. And it means “a handle for a plow”, because the researchers say that Zachary was not a representative of a noble family.

By the way, many Cossacks called Zacharias - Kharko Chepega. There is no mistake here, it’s just that in the Zaporozhian Sich he was known under the name Khariton.

2. After the death of Sidor Bely in 1788, the Cossacks elected their favorite, Kharko Chepega, as their ataman. The order of elections then was simple - voting at a gathering. And the old Cossacks, who themselves were once imperious foremen, chipped off the mud that had dried to their boots and sprinkled it on the head of the chosen ataman. Only after this ritual the decision came into force.

3. Many documents related to Zechariah have been preserved, but you will not find his autograph on any of them. The ataman of the Black Sea Cossack army was illiterate. Signatures on papers for him were put by a trusted officer.

4. On April 17, 1790, Prince G. A. Potemkin, appointed shortly before this “Great Hetman. Imperial Cossack troops of the Black Sea and Yekaterinoslav", presented the saber to Zakhary Chepega. Traces of this valuable gift, unfortunately, were lost.

However, in part, historians managed to trace the fate of another saber - the “royal”. In mid-August 1792, Anton Golovaty returned from St. Petersburg, where he asked Catherine II for land in Taman and Kuban "for eternal and hereditary possession." He arrived in Yekaterinodar with empty handed- He handed over to Chepega “a saber showered with expensive stones”, granted by Catherine II. For a long time, the gift was kept at Zacharias's house. However, after his death, according to historians, all the property of the ataman passed to his nephew Evtikhiy Chepega and “his walking wife, known for her behavior even outside the Black Sea coast. Everything that was collected by Chepega was squandered and drunk away ... ". It is possible that the saber donated by Potemkin was also lost at that time.

5. The place under the military city - Ekaterinodar - was chosen by the ataman Chepega himself and it was no coincidence. The presence of a forest, a middle location in relation to the chain of cordons and ideal lands for fortification. There was also an elevated place from which the floodplain of the Kuban was clearly visible, and where, according to all Zaporozhye rules, it was possible to create a fortification. Researchers say that Chepega tried to rebuild the old Sich in the Kuban.

6. Chepega had a simple and unpretentious life as a Cossack, he was never rich, he earned honestly.

7. Once, an artist from Yekaterinodar suggested that Chepega draw him so that his descendants would have a memory. But the ataman immediately refused this honor, remarking briefly: "Tilko gods paint."

8. Throughout his life, Chepega was a bachelor - an orphan. In the affairs of the Kuban military archive, a draft of a letter from a koshevoi to some familiar general who offered his daughter to the ataman as a bride has been preserved. It is worth saying that a friend in uniform was absolutely not embarrassed by the age difference - Zakhary was already an old Cossack, and the general’s daughter would have been suitable for him as a granddaughter. Nevertheless, the old Cossack, who refused once and for all from marriage in order to devote himself to chivalrous, according to the concepts of the Cossacks, occupations in the fight against enemies, found something to answer.

You recommend your daughter to me as a bride. Thank you. May you be healthy and prosperous,” the letter says, and then Chepega jumps to another topic. - It's a pity that they didn't live up to their feet from Poland ... I wanted to take the Polish woman away, so no one was taken as a headman. I don’t know how far it will be (the author’s style has been preserved - Ed.).

9. At the very beginning of 1797, Zakhary Chepega fell ill with a "prick of the lung" (pneumonia - Auth.). And on January 14, in a modest hut built in an oak grove, he died over the Karasun River. On the 16th, the ataman was buried in the Yekaterinodar fortress "in the middle of the place appointed for the cathedral military church."

The coffin of the ataman was carried on a chariot drawn by six black horses, six foremen with lit candles walked on both sides of it, they carried a lid in front, with two sabers placed crosswise on it, donated by Tsarina Catherine II and Prince Potemkin, - military clerk Timofey described the funeral ceremony Kotlyarevsky. Chepega's two favorite riding horses were led nearby, and his awards were carried on cushions made of thin green cloth. All military regalia accompanied the koschevoi on his last journey ... Twelve times the procession stopped, and twelve times the military priest read the Gospel, after which the foot and horse Cossacks fired from their guns, and the gunner fired from a three-pound military cannon - the coffin was lowered into the grave.

10. In the summer of 1930, the brick Resurrection Church on Victory Square (now Postovaya Street) was destroyed. The burial of the founder of the city was trampled down for many decades.

Now, on the site of the temple and the grave of Chepega, there is a square of the Children's Regional Clinical Hospital.

Zakhary Alekseevich Chepega was a native of the Chernigov province, the village of Borki. Nickname Chepega probably he received in Zaporozhye; his real name was Kulish. If we take into account that his venerable parents, as is now known, after death, were buried at the local church, then it must be assumed that they were something more important than ordinary people who are not honored with such a funeral; most likely they were local landowners. Subsequently, Zakhary Alekseevich, already being a ataman, presented evidence of his nobility to the Yekaterinoslav provincial deputy assembly, according to which that assembly recognized him hereditary nobleman and included in the genealogical book, on the basis of the Highest charter given by Empress Catherine II Russian nobility, April 21, 1785 g., for the 3rd part.

Where the young Zakhary Kulish was brought up and what he studied is unknown. They say that he was completely illiterate, as he himself declared, but this is hard to believe; It is more likely that he was "not written" i.e., who did not know how to write well in cursive, like many of his peers, who put signs instead of letters: a bagel, half a rim, a pillar with a crossbar, etc., so that a semblance of a signature of a surname came out. This is also confirmed by the fact that the signature "Zahary Chepega" I had to meet in the affairs of the Kuban military archive; usually his personal secretary Migrin signed for him on official papers, and although the latter also declared that the ataman of Chepeg was illiterate, this still cannot be given the probability also because in Zaporozhye, according to Skalkovsky, the atamans did not show their literacy, - although there really were written ones, and Zakhary Alekseevich was a true Cossack and could imitate his predecessors.

We find Zakhary Alekseevich in the service of the Zaporizhian army in 1750 year when he was 24 years old. In a military kosh, he was recorded in the Kislyakovsky kuren, in which he was listed until the day of his death.

The service of Zakhary Chepega took place on various business trips, in campaigns and military operations against enemies in the first Turkish war of Catherine II, where, as evidenced in the certificate issued to him in the former kosh July 5, 1775 G., "stand bravely". AT recent times During his service in Zaporozhye, Chepega, having passed through a number of military ranks, held the noble position of Colonel of the Protovchanskaya palanka (district). This position was the highest and most honorable in the ranks of the regimental foreman of Zaporozhye. He ruled over a whole district of the military territory inhabited by Cossacks and subjects of the army people. Such colonels inevitably had to be well prepared for administrative work, and if we say that without literacy they could hardly justify their complex duties, then it seems that we will not be mistaken.

When it was destroyed 1775 year Zaporizhzhya Sich and the army of Zaporizhzhya Cossacks was abolished, then Chepega, leaving his post as a colonel, kept his regimental banner with him, which he sacredly kept throughout his service and, only after moving to 1792 year to the Kuban, when the first Yeysk palanka was formed in the Black Sea, which included the Kislyakovsky kuren, in which Chepega was also listed, he handed over the banner, modest in appearance, but important in meaning, which is currently stored in the military headquarters, among military regalia.

Zakhary Alekseevich was not touched by the punishment that befell the Zaporizhzhya foreman of the military kosh. He remained among the trustworthy foreman and was granted the rank of army captain. Whether he occupied what position at the same time there is no information, but when the war with the Turks began in 1787 and Prince Potemkin published his letter August 20 about the conscription of the Cossacks who lived in the Yekaterinoslav governorate, then Chepega, having gathered part of the Zaporizhzhya Cossacks, was among the first to come to the named prince in Elisavetgrad with an offer of his services to protect the fatherland from advancing enemies.

The illustrious prince, who then took care of the restoration of the Zaporizhian army, was very pleased with the proposal of Zakhary Alekseevich and October 12 gave him the following letter:- "I announce to everyone and everyone who should know about it, that on the occasion of the break with the All-Russian Empire caused by the Turks and the opening of hostilities, Mr. Captain Zakhary Chepega, being full of commendable zeal and zeal for the service of Her Imperial Majesty and taking the opportunity to express his courageous deeds against the enemies of Christianity, he expressed a desire to gather volunteers and be used with the army with them. . ."; a 20th the same month he approved him as a military colonel, promoted him to the rank of second major in the army and, as a sign of power, gave him a pernach through lieutenant general Bibikov.

Taking advantage of such attention from Prince Potemkin, Chepega sent with the aforementioned letter of kuren ataman Andrey Bely to gather the Zaporizhzhya Cossacks for the service and with them joined other eminent foremen Sidor Bely and Anton Golovaty, who formed a volunteer team in Berislav that formed an army of faithful Cossacks, under the command of the first of those foremen, elected ataman by the military association.

When in naval battle Kosh chieftain Sidor Beloi June 17, 1788 year was killed by the Turks, then the military association of the Zaporizhzhya Cossacks gathered a council and, after a long squabble between the two parties of Golovaty and Chepega, chose the latter as ataman in place of the late Sidor Ignatievich, in what rank Zakhary Alekseevich was Prince Potemkin approved 3 July that year and was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel in the army.

This year, the army of faithful Cossacks received the name Chernomorsky.

Leaving behind him the personal command of the Black Sea Cossacks, the ataman Chepega entrusted the leadership of the foot team to the military judge Anton Golovaty, who was in the rank of prime minister of the army, and in the army of the colonel, who was also in charge of the flotilla of the Black Sea troops, on which foot Cossacks served . As a sign of power, Golovaty received from the koshevoi a colonel's pernach and proper (small banner).

The Black Sea Cossack flotilla at that time stood near Ochakov. 3 July Golovaty, having called the Cossacks from the boats to the shore, announced to them that Zakhary Chepega was approved as commander-in-chief as ataman and that he was appointed by the latter to be the head of the entire Black Sea Infantry Cossacks and fleets. The next day, the ataman himself arrived in the circle of Cossacks. Having heard from them various statements of claims and displeasures, which were mostly related to the army authorities, Chepega, having found out to the dissatisfied comrades the fragile position of his army, formed with great effort, advised, in order to maintain glory and order in it, to rub all sorts of hardships and hardships, in anticipation of a better situation in the future. ; and especially to obey and obey the authorities and not be self-willed. The reasonable advice of the koshevoi had an effect on the Cossacks better than any threats. They quietly returned to their ships; - bearing in mind also the fact that the speech of the stern koschevoi did not allow objection, and, according to his character, it was not far from the word to kiya.

I will not follow the difficult service that fell to the lot of Zakhary Alekseevich at the beginning of his atamanship. The military kosh, not having time to organize in one, was transferred to another place and then temporarily, under the influence of military circumstances. The kosh affairs at the beginning of the formation of the army required his personal presence, and this could not be achieved during business trips at the request of the authorities and military operations, and in the absence of the ataman and the military judge, the military clerk Podlesetsky was actually in charge, who in the end also turned out to be unreliable, who had to to be replaced by foreman Kotlyarevsky. The army itself, rather small, divided into two parts, cavalry and infantry, was not arranged either in combat or in materiel, and there was no military discipline among the Cossacks. It took a lot of skill and energy of the ataman, so that the Cossacks, with all the shortcomings and hardships, would not run away and thereby stop the existence of the just born Black Sea Troops.

The higher authorities of the Cossacks did not spare and demanded from them, in addition to the war with the enemy, such still difficult work that they were carried out only thanks to the perseverance of the ataman and the devotion of the Cossacks to him. Take, for example, the work teams that were appointed in winter to unload rigging from frozen ships in the Bug estuary or excavate cannons and artillery supplies from a sunken ship from the bottom of the same estuary. In winter, with severe winds and severe frost, the Cossacks worked in the water with poor food and a lack of warm clothes, which is why in a short time it was delivered to the kosh, in addition to the sick alone and crippled, with frostbitten legs, up to 50 people, and all those who died from exhaustion, cold and hunger for March 1789 years, there were up to 500 people.

Such an exorbitant loss for the small Black Sea army was sensitive, and Chepega looked with bated breath at this death of the Cossacks from the inattention of the higher authorities to the Black Sea people, but it was impossible to complain, and it was useless to ask for release from military work; he only bothered to ensure that the Cossacks were fed and clothed at work.

The arrival of the Cossacks from their places of residence to the army of the Black Sea Cossacks was not successful because it was associated with great difficulty. Many Cossacks were in serfdom, and the landlords did not let them out of their estates. The question, raised even earlier by foreman Sidor Bely, about the liberation of the Cossacks from serfdom, was not resolved, since Prince Potemkin found it premature to complete the formation of the Black Sea troops formed from them, which did not yet have a definite land for settlement. The published command of his lordship for the Yekaterinoslav viceroy on the call of the Cossacks, in whatever condition they were, to public service, was not always performed by both the landlords and the local authorities, who stood on the side of the latter.

News from all sides reached the ataman that the landowners were keeping the Cossacks as peasants, and those Cossacks who, at the call of Potemkin, had gone to serve, were being taken away from their estates, and some bars and their managers, taking revenge on the family of the departed, forced their wives and children to work for a whole a day without rest, and at night they are locked up in an empty hut, or thrown into a pit and stuffed into stocks so that they do not leave the corvee; there were such monsters that during the day they were forced to work, and at night they were also flogged with rods, and the less obedient were starved and flogged three times a day with a gang, and not only adults, but also minors.

The heart of the unfortunate Cossacks, who were already in the service in the Black Sea army, bled; when rumors reached them about the suffering of their families from ruthless pans, but no disasters could shake their determination to serve faithfully and faithfully to the tsar and fatherland in their young Cossack army; they endured their depressing grief with remarkable humility and listened to the fatherly admonition of their father, the koshevoi, whom they both feared and loved.

Zakhary Alekseich, having collected the above information about the plight of the Zaporizhzhya Cossacks who entered the service in the Black Sea army, turned to October 1788 to Prince Potemkin of Tauride with the following petition: - “The voiceless branch of the army of the faithful kosh of this Cossacks in the service of those who are in the call collected screams about the enslavement of the gentlemen. the landowners of their wives, as if in an eternally repeating time, and the well-acquired estate of those, taken by them, has already been turned into an eternally descendant possession and some have been involved in the sale. Such an act of tolerable oppression of this tribe requires the rise to the feat of diligent touch of your lordship, and about life's liberation, resettlement in the said land of their benefit, and at the ever-delivered allowance of this assembly, in accordance with the Imperial law, give, which from the outpouring of will on you and the internally inhabited bounty of the touching pending resolution".

Such a flowery request of Chepega touched upon, long raised by Sidor Ignatievich Bely, the question of the liberation of the Cossacks from serfdom and the determination of land for them to settle. This question, as you know, was already predetermined by the Empress in a positive sense, but Prince Potemkin, despite the glaring disasters of the Black Sea people, did not find it possible to fulfill the desire of the Cossacks and the will of the monarch. The reasons for this were solid. If all the Cossacks with their families enslaved by them were freed from the landowners and removed from the master's estates, then it was necessary to immediately give them land for settlement in the south of Russia, even though it was already destined for Kerch Kut and Taman, but in the first place that land was very not enough to settle all the inhabitants of the former Zaporozhye, even if only one Cossack class, secondly, the lands were far from the theater of operations, where the Cossacks gathered on the occasion of the war with the Turks, and although most of them had not yet arrived at the theater of operations, but with the release from the peasantry, they had to go not to resettle with their families to the shores Kerch Strait, and with weapons in hand to the banks of the Bug, where the Russian army then operated, moving towards the Dniester. The Black Sea Cossacks at that time had neither the time nor the opportunity to engage in resettlement to a distant land and could not even use the richest fishing grounds on the Sea of ​​Azov presented to them by Prince Potemkin until the end of the war.

But scream of the Black Sea, about whom Chepega wrote, did not remain a voice crying in the desert. Such a command of the head of the region and the authorized the highest authority manager of the fate of the Zaporizhzhya Cossacks eased their position, and the profits of the Cossacks increased rapidly, so that in the second half 1789 years in the Black Sea army, there were up to 5000 of them in the infantry and up to 2000 in the cavalry.

Throughout the war, the ataman of Chepega was in special favor with the commander-in-chief of the army, Prince Potemkin of Tauride.

Taking two people prisoner in battle or in the open is not an important matter, but capturing them under the fortress cannons at night is not an unimportant feat, if we add to this the important consequences arising from the testimony of the captives cited. Probably for this and other excellent exploits of the ataman in military operations, he was granted the army by lieutenant colonel.

Under the end of the year the commander-in-chief, wanting to deprive the Ochakovsky garrison of the supply of food from Gadzhebey, ordered the ataman to send 100 Cossacks with Captain Bulatov to this fortress to set fire to Turkish food stores. This command was completely unfulfilled. What a hundred Cossacks could do under the shots of the Turkish garrison, the Cossacks could not go unnoticed in such a number, and it was unthinkable to force their way to the Turkish food reserves. Then Zakhary Alekseevich decided to personally fulfill the order of Prince Potemkin - it was not for nothing that he was considered a sorcerer. Courage had nothing to do with it; remained courage and military art. 29th of October Chepega took with him several of the most courageous Cossacks and, having made his way to Gadzhibey at night, lit the coastal arsenal; and after that November 7 burned a barn with food in the Hajibey fortress itself. How he managed to do this, only God knows, but only this wonderful feat was brought to the attention of the Empress herself by Prince Potemkin, who awarded the fearless ataman the Order of St. George 4th grade.

It is impossible not to mention another remarkable feat of Chepega, accomplished by him in 1789 year. After the capture of Ochakov, the Russian army moved to Turkish land between the Bug and the Dngetr. The intention of Prince Potemkin was to capture the strong Turkish fortress of Bendery on the Dniester. To this end, he instructed the ataman Chepega to reconnoiter the surroundings of this fortress. Commanded for this military colonel Neyakiy with a team of Black Sea Cossacks, returning, reported that the enemies were not seen anywhere. Then an order was made to open Bender itself, for which a detachment was appointed from the Cossack units of the Don, Black Sea and Bug. But then there were misunderstandings in commanding this detachment: General Kutuzov put the Don marching ataman Colonel Isaev at the head, and the ataman of the Black Sea considered such subordination to his junior rank as humiliating for himself. Isaev was the ataman of the marching regiments, and Chepega was the ataman of the whole army. In view of this, he did not go to connect with Isaev, but spoke June 16 separately with the Black Sea Cossacks, and therefore reached Bender before Isaev. This case cost the Black Sea people dearly. As soon as they approached the Dniester, the Turks came out against them from Bendery, crossed the river and entered into battle with them. Retreat was impossible, and shameful. Chepega, having no more than 1000 Cossacks,. boldly went into battle with the enemy, three times his strength.

For five hours a fierce battle between the Turks and the Black Sea people was in full swing. On the Turkish side, there was superiority in numbers, and among the Black Sea, strength was replaced by courage and courage, and only when Ataman Chepega, who fought ahead of the Cossacks, received a serious wound with a bullet right through his shoulder, then only, seeing their leader bloody and exhausted from loss of blood, the Black Sea began to retreat , but at that time the Donets and Bugtsy arrived in time for them, and the Turks were defeated.

In this battle, Chepega with his Black Sea men recaptured two Ochakov banners from the Turks and captured 12 people.

On this momentous military history day ataman of the Black Sea troops commanded the second assault column of General Arsenyev, from the Danube. Having landed on the shore, he took Turkish batteries and smashed enemies without mercy, distinguished by courage, diligence and personal courage, for which he was awarded the order St. George of the 3rd class and received, along with others, the golden cross of Ishmael.

Returning from the campaign, the ataman devoted all his time to strengthening the established procedures for managing the Black Sea troops and paid special attention to military fishing in the Danube, where the proud left by the Turks were given to the Black Sea by Prince Potemkin. Chepega ordered them to be corrected and under the guidance of an appointed experienced fisherman shaparya(caretaker) managed to gain up to 9,000 rubles in income in military capital in 10 months.

The following year, in the spring, information was received that the Turks were gathering in significant forces across the Danube at Machin. Prince Repnin, who commanded the army in the absence of Potemkin, decided to transfer Russian weapons from the conquered land to the enemy side. For this purpose, two detachments of troops were assigned to the campaign, under the command of generals Kutuzov and Golitsyn, of which the first was the ataman Chepega with the Black Sea. Having crossed the Danube, Kutuzov defeated the Turks near Babadag and joined with Golitsyn. Without continuing further hostilities beyond the Danube, the Russian troops returned to their side. But soon news was received that the Turkish troops were again gathering at Babadag. Then, by order of Repnin, Kutuzov June 3 moved beyond the Danube, and the next day Chepega went there with the Black Sea Cossacks, of which 55 people walked ahead of the guides of the detachment. On the way, the guides noticed a dense crowd of enemies, and Chepega hurried with his Cossacks to the vanguard, where Colonel Ribas was walking with the rangers. The latter, on duty, offered Chepega, as a senior in rank, the authorities, but Zakhary Alekseevich politely rejected this offer, saying that they would command the vanguard troops together. Meanwhile, the enemy had fled.

The next day, the brigadier Chepega made a reconnaissance himself and from a high mound noticed Machin in the direction big number Turk, which he immediately reported to Kutuzov, from whom he received the order to go on the attack on the enemies. Having detached 500 Cossacks against the Turks on one side, under the command of military colonel Vysochin, Chepega moved with the rest of the Black Sea on the other side against the advancing enemies, whom he defeated and put to flight. At this time, another party of Turks appeared, with whom Chepega also entered into a heated battle. The Turks began to retreat again. But Chepega, neither before nor after, pursued the fleeing enemies, as he received a warning from one enemy Cossack that the Turks were deliberately retreating in order to lure the Black Sea people into a trap to the ravine where the Crimean Khan stood with the Tatars, Turkish, Zaporizhzhya and Nekrasov Cossacks until 8000 pers., - hit the Black Sea in the rear.

Seeing the failure with the Black Sea Turks, the Turks began to call in a shootout of the approaching Donets, in order to at least lure them into the Khan's ambush, but here Chepega took over the rights of the avant-garde commander and ordered both the Don Cossacks and other regular units under the command of Ribas, not to chase the Turks ; Prime Major Belukha ordered to occupy the mountain that hid the Khan's troops and become a front against the enemy, and he himself, with all the Black Sea people, went from the flank to attack the Khan.

In vain, not expecting such an attack, the eminent Tatar tried to break through the ranks of the Black Sea people and Ribasov's rangers who came to the rescue, in vain he made swift onslaughts to throw back the attackers, nothing was successful and the brave Chepega, smashed the khan on his head and pursued the discordant crowds of enemies to the river. Gustbol, ​​littering the path with their corpses. In this case, Chepega lost 4 killed and 35 wounded; the loss of the enemy was immeasurably greater.

Returning to the detachment, the brigadier Chepega received a new order from Kutuzov to pursue the retreating Turks further and further. Fulfilling this order, Chepega, without resting himself and his detachment, launched an attack on the Turks, but the latter, seeing the defeat of the khan, dispersed and began to run away. Despite this, Chepega still managed to catch up with some enemies and, in a battle with them, beat off several poles from the banners, which the Turks, not having the strength to save, tore to pieces themselves; in addition, Chepega captured three cannons, a heavy convoy and 6 prisoners.

The Turks, defeated by the brigadier Chepegoy at all points, abandoned Babadag, who the next day ruined Chepega and Ribas, killed the resisting Turks, burned the surrounding villages and, at the end of the victory, presented Kutuzov with up to 30,000 quarters of bread that was in the Babadag warehouses, 8 copper cannons and a Turkish camp.

This brilliant feat of the ataman was left without a reward. The reason for this can be assumed was the same revenge of Kutuzov, which pursued Zakhary Alekseevich and near Bendery.

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Slides captions:

Zachary Chepega

In early July 1788, G. A. Potemkin issued a decree on the appointment of a new chieftain: “By courage and zeal for order and at the request of the army of faithful Cossacks, Khariton (that is, Zakhary) Chepega is determined by the chieftain. I announce this to the whole army, I order it to be properly honored and obeyed. As a sign of respect, the field marshal presented Chepega with an expensive saber. Many documents have been preserved, mainly military warrants and correspondence related to Zakhary Alekseevich, but we will not find his autograph on any of them: the ataman of the Black Sea Cossack army was illiterate. Signatures on papers for him were put by a trusted officer. If we add to this circumstance the fact that Chepega's sister, Daria, was married to a serf peasant Kulish, who belonged to the landowner of the Poltava province, Major Levents, and her three sons, even when Chepega was an ataman, were listed "with the aforementioned landowner in the peasantry" (however, one of them, Evstafiy Kulish, fled during the Turkish war to the Cossacks, acquiring the rank of lieutenant there “through various differences”, then he married and, not wanting to move to the Kuban, remained in residence in the Kherson district), then the origins of the Chepega family tree are easily guessed.

In the Sich, he had a reputation as an experienced and brave warrior, commanded cavalry, and participated in all the most important battles. During the capture of Izmail, A.V. Suvorov instructed him to lead one of the assault columns to the fortress. For military exploits, Chepega was awarded three orders and received the rank of brigadier. But not only awards marked his military path: enemy bullets more than once overtook the Cossack. However, here we are given the opportunity to give the floor to the very hero of our story: the archive preserved a letter from Chepega to the military judge Anton Golovaty, with whom he had a sincere friendship. This letter was written on June 19, 1789, immediately after a heated battle with the Turks near Bender, for which, by the way, the Black Sea people, who fought together with the Don and Bug Cossacks, received gratitude from M. I. Kutuzov. Talking about the losses of the enemy, captured Turkish banners and prisoners, Chepega further writes: “Three of all of us were wounded and one person was killed in death, 6 horses were killed and three were wounded; Yes, and I got it, a bullet pierced my right shoulder through and it is unlikely that I will recover soon, it is very difficult for me. Woe to the poor orphan ... and we can’t get food in time, but only be so, we will endure, and pray to God, and rely on him, let him be an assistant and intercessor, seeing our justice ... then forgive, dear brother, friend and comrade, for I, having wished you blissful success in all your undertakings, remain with true respect ... "

Chepega was to be chieftain for almost ten years, and the main event in his activity, from the point of view of both his contemporaries and descendants, is, of course, the founding of Ekaterinodar and the first Kuban villages. The path to the Kuban Chepega with the army and the convoy kept land, at the end of October 1792 he arrived at the river Her, where he wintered in the so-called Khan's town at the Yeisk Spit. He reported to Golovaty that he was satisfied with the inspection of these places, the land is “capable” for arable farming and cattle breeding, the waters are healthy, and fishing ... “such extremely abundant and profitable ones have never been seen and nothing like it has been heard of ...” Note that the riches of the new land were appreciated not only by the Cossacks, who had to plow and protect these lands, but also by their Kerch, St. Petersburg and other bosses, large and small. Remarkable in this respect is such an order from Chepega to Colonel Savva Bely in Taman on January 29, 1793: “... His Excellency Mr. Major General the Tauride Governor and Cavalier Semyon Semenovich Zhegulin needs fresh red fish and freshly salted caviar, and therefore I recommend your high nobility to make an effort how can I get more of it and send it by courier both to His Excellency and to the provincial prosecutor Captain Pyotr Afanasyevich Pashovkin serving with him, to the secretary and collegiate recorder Danil Andreevich Karev and to the entire provincial office ... "

On May 10, 1793, Chepega set out with the Cossacks to the Kuban River to set up border cordons, and on June 9 he camped in the Karasun Kut, where “he found a place for a military town ...” approval of the city and sending a land surveyor, writes out builders, appoints a mayor ... In the spring of 1794, with the direct participation of the ataman, a lottery was held for land for future smoking villages and on March 21 a list was drawn up, “where a place was assigned to a smoking place.” But already in June 1794, Chepega left the “newly built” military city, setting off on the order of Catherine II with two regiments on the so-called Polish campaign. On the way to Petersburg, he is invited to the royal table, and the empress herself treats the old warrior with grapes and peaches. For participation in the Polish campaign, the Cossack chieftain is promoted to general. This was his last military campaign. A year after returning to the Kuban on January 14, 1797, Zakhary Chepega died from old wounds and a "prick of the lung" in Yekaterinoda, in his hut, built in an oak grove above Karasun. His funeral took place on January 16. The funeral chariot, drawn by six black horses, was accompanied by kurynye atamans and foremen, foot and horse Cossacks, who fired from rifles and a three-pound military cannon every time they stopped and the priest read the Gospel. Twelve stops were made on the way from the house to the church, and twelve volleys resounded over the city.Ahead of the coffin, according to custom, they carried a lid with two sabers laid crosswise on it - the hetman's and the king's, bestowed on the ataman; two of his favorite riding horses were led along the sides, awards were carried on pillows made of thin green cloth, and in front of them - the ataman's mace ... Chepega was buried in the military fortress "in the middle of the place designated for the cathedral military church."

The description of his funeral was compiled by the military clerk Timofey Kotlyarevsky for Anton Golovaty, who was at that time outside the region, on the Persian campaign, and a copy of this document remained in the military archive. Ninety years later, military archivist Varenik added to reverse side a curious note in which he reported (for future generations?) that on July 11, 1887, when digging a ditch for the foundation of a new church on the site of the wooden Resurrection Cathedral, consecrated in 1804 and dismantled in 1876, graves were dug, according to Chepega, Kotlyarevsky, military archpriest Roman Porokhni, Colonel Alexei Vysochin, and also a certain woman, according to legend, the wife of Golovaty Uliana, were recognized as burial places ... These ashes were transferred to new coffins (Varenik himself donated the coffin for Chepega) and reburied under the refectory under construction churches. During the ceremony, the military choir sang and the chief ataman Ya. D. Malama was present ... What else do we know about Chepeg? Since the old ataman “died single, and therefore childless,” historians were somehow not interested in his descendants. A branch of his family along the line of his sister Daria Kulish was lost somewhere in Ukraine. It is noteworthy that the children of his nephew Evstafy, Ivan and Ulyana, "appropriated" the name of Chepega and then claimed the inheritance. Another nephew Evtikhiy, the son of Chepega's brother Miron, bore the Ataman surname by right, since, having lost his father early, he was taken by Zakhary Chepega as a child and was with him all the time. Before his death, the ataman, who did not see the need to make a spiritual testament, summoned Evtikhy from the farm, handed him the keys and “some papers” and talked about something in private for a long time ... Lieutenant Colonel Evtikhy Chepega also made his contribution to history: in 1804 he brought to the Kuban from Mirgorod the famous sacristy and library of the Kiev-Mezhigorsky monastery, which belonged to the Zaporizhian army. Evtikhiy died in 1806, among the property described in his house were sabers that belonged to the late ataman.

E. D. Felitsyn, who published in 1888 curriculum vitae about Zakhary Chepeg, claimed that one of them - gold, granted by the Empress, "is still kept in one old Cossack family." History has not preserved the portrait of Chepega. According to P.P. Korolenko, who at the end of the last century wrote down many legends heard from old-timers, he was “short in stature, with broad shoulders, a large forelock and mustache” and in general was a “type of stern Cossack”. They say that once a painter came to Chepega. “Your Excellency, it seems I will remove the partret for you.” Chepega: “Are you a painter?” Otvicha: "Malyar". - So paint the gods, and I was a general, you don’t need to paint me ... "

On the building of the Kuban medical university a memorial sign was erected to the founder of Yekaterinodar Zakhary Chepega. More than two hundred years ago, the house of the ataman of the Black Sea Cossack army stood on this site, to which not a single monument or memorial sign has yet been erected in the city. Those who are at least a little familiar with the history of the Kuban Cossacks, at the mention of Chepeg, will remember that Catherine II fed him grapes, that he gave him a saber studded with diamonds, that he was illiterate - letters were signed for him by others. But few people know that it was Zakhary Chepega who found the place where the Cossacks laid the foundation for Yekaterinodar-Krasnodar. He also led the landing of the Black Sea Cossacks on the Taman Peninsula. And the first winter after receiving the highest diploma for the development of the local lands, he, together with the army, spent practically in the steppe, with great human losses. Reliable images of the ataman have not been preserved, but it is known for certain that Chepega fought heroically in the Russian-Turkish war, was loved by the Cossacks, and for all his severity and severity during military campaigns, in fact, he was a kind-hearted person and rarely refused anyone to help and protection.

The work was done by a student of 8 "A" class Bichurina Khristina