At the mention of him, many recall that Catherine II fed him grapes, that she gave him a saber studded with diamonds, that he was illiterate. But for what and why the highest honor was given to him, this is something they will not immediately remember. They don’t even remember that it was he, the ataman Zakhary Chepiga, who found a place and laid the foundation for our city.
Little we really know about him. We do not know his real surname, even the name is read differently: along with the usual Zachary, we meet the name Khariton. Most likely, Zakhary Chepiga was of humble origin, this can be judged at least by the fact that his sister Daria was married off as a serf. The ataman Zakhary Chepiga was not literate, but he had a cold head, a lively soul, was brave in battle and firm in defending Cossack rights. He had a concept of honor and valor and was more understandable to the Cossacks than the “sly pysulya” - Anton Golovaty. Such a straightforward and kind-hearted ataman, who can be called a “father”, was needed by the army of faithful Zaporizhian Cossacks, later renamed Chernomorskoe.
It is no coincidence that the name of Kharka Chepiga is on a par with the names of such Zaporozhian leaders as Athanasius Kovpak. And his illiteracy even adorned him - such a glorious chieftain as Ivan Sirko, who did not know defeat in the most cruel and unequal battles, was illiterate. There would be a head on their shoulders, and there were always plenty of “written” ones ready to sign and write a warrant in the army.
Zakhary Alekseevich, apparently, had an impressive appearance and knew how to behave with dignity in public. Unfortunately, we do not have a reliable portrait of the last ataman of the Black Sea Cossack army, Zakhary Chepiga did not like to pose in front of the painters. Regarding the appearance of ataman Z. Chepiga, F.A. Shcherbina in the first volume of “History of the Kuban Cossack army writes the following: “History has not left a description of the appearance, or a portrait of this leader of the Cossacks, but before the eyes of those who thought about the life, activities and actions of Kharkov Chepiga, one involuntarily draws a strong, squat figure of a man, impressive in body and sedate, sedate in manners of address, with a round, smooth-shaven Little Russian face, and large, but soft outlines of the nose, lips and mouth, with gray gentle eyes, with a thick mustache, hanging down, with an even thicker chupri and with a good-natured smile, as if saying to everyone: “good, brothers, good.” This is how Z.A. came to life in bronze. Chepiga in 1907 among the figures of S. Bely, A. Golovaty and Potemkin on the Mikeshin monument, though only for some 10-12 years.
Z. A. Chepiga was born in 1726 in the Chernihiv region, according to some historians, in the village of Borki. Chepiga is his Cossack nickname, his real name is unknown to us (cited by some local historians as the real name Kulish, can hardly be considered reliable). It is known that he had a brother Miron, who apparently died early, since the son of the latter, and the nephew of the former, Evtikhiy Chepiga, grew up in the Sich with his uncle. Z. Chepiga himself did not have children, he died single, remaining faithful to the Zaporozhye Cossack vow of celibacy.
In the register of the Cossacks of the Zaporizhzhya Sich for 1756, we find Zakhary Chepiga as an ordinary Cossack of the Kislyakivsky kuren. His career cannot be called swift and brilliant. In 1768-1774. during the First Turkish War, Zakhary Chepiga commanded one of the Cossack detachments. At the time of the destruction of the Zaporizhzhya Sich (1775), he was a colonel of the Protovchanskaya palanka.
PER. Chepiga was not a bright figure who played one of the main roles in the Zaporizhzhya army, and he did not own the idea of restoring the abolished Cossack army. July 1, 1783, when, according to the published G.A. Potemkin's proclamation instructed Anton Golovaty to recruit hunters from the former Cossacks in the amount of a thousand people to suppress the rebellious Tatars, Z. Chepiga was awarded the rank of second major. The Russian army needed cavalry, which was so lacking in the war of 1787-1791, and the mounted Cossacks, who knew the Ochakov steppes, were at a great price. It so happened that Zakhary Chepiga, a native of the lower Cossacks, was destined to command the Black Sea cavalry, which consisted of noble and wealthy Zaporozhye Cossacks. Having acquired by that time land, farmsteads, herds of horses and other property, Zakhary Chepiga expressed their interests. After the death of the koshevoi Sidor Bely, mortally wounded near Ochakovo, Z. Chepiga became the ataman. The fact of his election to the Rada is still controversial, at least the historian V.A. Golobutsky insists on his appointment as Prince G.A. Potemkin and cites an order of the following content: “By courage and zeal for order and at the request of the army of faithful Cossacks, Khariton (Zakhariy-V.G.) Chepiga is determined by ataman. Announcing this to the whole army, I order it to be properly honored and obeyed. And a little lower, arguing with the Kuban historian P.P. Korolenko, who claimed that Z. Chepiga was elected ataman at the Rada, cites the letter of the latter dated July 5, 1788 to A. Golovaty that Potemkin “appointed me in the army of faithful Cossacks as a military ataman.”
His position in this high post was not always firm. In July 1789, the Cossacks from the foot team sent to G. Potemkin asked for his replacement. Potemkin himself informed Z. Chepiga about this in a letter dated July 29: “From the entire Kosh of the faithful troops of the Black Sea, news came to me in which they, giving all justice to your service and virtues, explain that old age and your wounds do not leave you strength , required for the administration of the burden of the title of ataman. They are asking for the election of a new one.” Z. Chepiga himself had to decide, and he decided to keep the ataman title for himself.
It is impossible to call ataman Z. Chepiga poor, he owned land, a village with serfs, farms, herds of horses, which he loved very much. And yet, his estate was much more modest than the estate of the military judge A. Golovaty, who, in addition to the village of Veselo in the Novomoskovsky district, had farms, mills, orchards, cows, sheep, and 85 pigs alone in Chernomorie. Zakhary Chepiga was not such a caring and zealous owner as Anton Golovaty, and he did not strive to accumulate wealth. Nevertheless, it was to him that the Black Sea people owed both the resettlement to the Kuban and the laying of the city of Ekaterinodar. Koshevoy Z. Chepiga expressed the idea of resettlement of the Black Sea people in the free Kuban steppes, and later found in the Karasun Kut “a place for a military city”. To embody his plans, to a greater extent, it was necessary for the military judge Anton Golovaty.
On March 1, 1790, G. Potemkin informed the Black Sea army that he asked Catherine II for land for the army between the Bug and the Dniester, and on April 19 announced that the Kinburn side, Yenikalsky district and Taman would be additionally provided to the army. Potemkin also gave the troops his fishing grounds on the Taman Peninsula. On November 30, 1791, in a letter to General V.S. Popov, Z. Chepiga complained that “it is impossible for the Black Sea army to talk about the crowding between the Bug and Dniester rivers on earth.” In the winter of 1791 Z. Chepiga summoned A. Holovaty, with whom they went to Iasi to G. Potemkin to ask for free land for the army. It is not known how this deputation would have ended, if not for the incident - one of the Black Sea boats, along with 25 Cossacks, was captured by the Turks. Angry, G. Potemkin sent the Cossacks with nothing, promising, however, to consider the issue of allotment of land later. Later, such a case did not present itself, the all-powerful favorite and hetman of the Black Sea and Yekaterinoslav Cossacks died on October 5, 1792 on the way to Bendery. And there was not enough land for the pastures of numerous herds of elders and herds on the Dniester. This circumstance, as well as the desire of the Black Sea people to live on their own, separately from the landlords, in order to preserve their way of life, to a greater extent influenced the decision in February 1792 to send a deputation to St. Petersburg with a request to grant the army of the Kuban Right Bank.
The place under the military hail was chosen by the ataman Z. Chepiga. The circumstances for this were, apparently, the presence of timber, the middle location in relation to the chain of cordons, and a convenient place for building a fortification. In the same way as in the last Zaporizhzhya Sich, a kut protruding to the south from the northeast covered Karasun like the Podpilnaya River. There was also an elevated place from which the floodplain of the Kuban was clearly visible, and where, according to all Zaporozhye fortification rules, it was possible to create a fortification. Z. Chepiga seemed to be trying to rebuild the former Sich in the Kuban, but the “Order of Common Benefit”, in the development of which he took an active part, put an end to the Zaporozhye liberties.
PER. Chepiga, for all his severity and severity during military campaigns, was in fact a kind-hearted person who sympathized with the orphan. He was repeatedly resorted to for help and support by the Cossacks-siromakhs. And rarely did he refuse help and protection to anyone.
Kosh ataman Zakhary Chepiga died on January 14, 1797 after a short illness in his rather spacious hut. And on January 16, with honors befitting a general and ataman: the removal of all regalia, the reading of the gospel, a cannon and rifle salute, he was buried in the military cathedral under construction. Years passed, and about a hundred years later, his lost grave was accidentally found when clearing the floor of the dismantled Resurrection Cathedral. It was possible to establish his remains only by the general's uniform. It is amazing that the army did not find the means and the guardian to install at least a stone slab with a proper inscription over his ashes. And only General V.S. Varenik, who found his ashes, reburied together with the remains of Ataman T.T. Kotlyarevsky and R. Porokhni under the refectory of the Church of the Holy Resurrection under construction and installed a bronze plaque. And half a century later, new barbarians destroyed this temple, razing the graves of the memorial cemetery in the former Yekaterinodar fortress to the ground.
Our historical memory is strange and surprising. In honor of the people who have never been in our city, did nothing for it, the streets are named, in memory of those who mocked the Cossack history and glory, there are busts and bas-reliefs, and there is practically nothing about who founded this city. doesn't look like today.
In vain, our contemporary will look on the map of the city of Krasnodar-Ekaterinodar for the name of its founder - the ataman Zakhary Alekseevich Chepiga.
ON THE. Ternavsky (Krasnodar)
There is a version that Z. Chepiga comes from an old Cossack family Kulish. But employees State Archive Krasnodar Territory, preparing for the publication of the biography of the atamans, they found a document indicating that Z. Chepiga's sister, Daria, was married to a serf Kulish, who belonged to the landowner of the Poltava province, Major Levents. More recently, a version about the Albanian origin of Z. Chepigi has appeared, but the source needs to be verified. Did not receive education.
At the age of 24 (1750) Chepega arrived in Zaporozhye. In October 1769 he distinguished himself in the defeat of the Turks on the Dniester. During the first Russo-Turkish War, the Cossack flotilla on the Danube ensured the capture of the important fortress of Kiliya, the castle of Tulcea and the fortress of Isaccea.
Thanks to the skillful actions of the Cossack flotilla, almost the entire hundred frigates Turkish fleet, defending the besieged Ishmael from the Danube, went to the bottom.
By the time of the liquidation of the Zaporizhzhya Sich (1775), Zakhary Chepiga was a colonel of the Protovchanskaya palanka. In the Manifesto, on behalf of Catherine II, it was said that the Sich was destroyed forever, like the very name of the Zaporizhzhya Cossacks, for their daring deeds and disobedience to royal decrees.
Chepega did not know the letters, the papers were signed for him by others.
Taking advantage of the Empress's trip to the south of Russia (1787), not without the mediation of Prince Potemkin, the Zaporizhzhya foremen Sidor Bely, Anton Golovaty and others presented her with a petition in Kremenchug, where, on behalf of the former Zaporozhye Cossacks, they expressed their desire to take part in coming war. The request was accepted. The Cossacks took a new name - "The Army of the Faithful Cossacks" (in contrast to the "infidels" who went to the Danube in Turkey).
Catherine II granted the "troop of faithful Cossacks" a large white banner with a black eagle and the inscription "For Faith and Loyalty", small banners for kurens, an ataman's mace, small kuren seals and a seal with the inscription "Seal of the kosh of faithful Cossacks."
The chieftain of the newly created army of the Faithful Cossacks was Sidor Bely, the commander of the cavalry was Zakhary Chepiga. By a court decree of January 5, 1788, it was reported to the public that "Mr. Colonel Sidor Bely was named the military ataman of the faithful Cossacks and ordered him to establish his own kosh on the Zburyevskaya side. Therefore, the Cossacks were invited to sign up" on foot with the military ataman Sidor Belago on Zburyevskaya side, and the cavalry at the Colonel of the Army Second Major Zakhary Chepig on Gromokl.
During the second Russian-Turkish war, it was the Faithful Cossacks who captured Khadzhibey (the castle located on the site of present-day Odessa) by night assault, captured the island of Berezan with a dashing attack.
Since 1790, the Danube Cossack flotilla did not allow the Turks to enter the Danube. Near Izmail, having landed from the Danube, the Cossacks broke into the fortress in the most unexpected place.
In commemoration of the victories, the Army of Loyal Cossacks became known as the Black Sea.
Having received from the queen the title of Great Hetman of the Black Sea and Yekaterinoslav Cossack troops, Grigory Potemkin approved A. Golovaty as a Cossack military judge. Potemkin allowed the troops to settle between the Southern Bug and the Dniester, and in addition, G. A. Potemkin, admiring the courage of the Black Sea people, presented them with their own fishing grounds on the eastern coast of the Sea of \u200b\u200bAzov.
Zachary (Kharko or Khariton) Alekseevich Chepega(1725 - January 14, 1797, Yekaterinodar) - the second (after Sidor Bely) Cossack ataman of the Black Sea Cossack army, major general of the Russian army, an active participant in the Russian-Turkish wars of the second half of XVIII century and the resettlement of the Black Sea Cossack army to the Kuban.
Biography
The exact date and place of birth are not known. There is a version about his origin "from a noble family of Kulish". It is believed that he arrived in the Sich in 1750, when he signed up for the service as a Cossack of Kislyakovsky kuren. In 1767, he headed the border guards at the Pereviz palanka. During the Russian-Turkish war of 1768-1774, he participated in campaigns, parties, and traveling. He could neither read nor write until his death.
At the time of the liquidation of the Sich in 1775, he served as colonel of the Protovchanskaya palanka (Ukr. Protovchanskaya palanka). In 1777, in the convoy of Lieutenant General Prince Prozorovsky. On January 29 of the same year, he was granted the rank of army captain.
Since 1787, the patronage of His Serene Highness Prince Potemkin has been traced. During the trip of Catherine the Great to Taurida in the same year, Potemkin introduced the Cossack elders to the Empress, including Chepega. Former foremen of the Zaporozhian Sich asked the Empress to organize the former Cossacks into a special army, in Russian military service. The empress gave such permission and the “Army of the Faithful Cossacks” was formed, later renamed the “Black Sea Cossack Host”.
With the start of a new Russian- Turkish war the newly created Cossack troops (at the time of their greatest deployment there were up to 10,000 people in them) took an active part in it.
I declare through this to everyone and everyone ... that Mr. Captain Zakhary Chepega, being filled with commendable zeal and zeal for the service of Her Imperial Majesty... showed a desire to gather volunteers and be used with them in the army entrusted to my superiors. That is why I allow him to recruit hunters from free people ...
Chepega's salary was 300 rubles a year, which was equal to the salary of the first ataman, Sidor Bely. By May 1788, the Chepega volunteer cavalry team was approaching 300 people. They were engaged in traveling and guarding the borders. June 17 of the same year naval battle near Ochakov, he was wounded and on June 19 the first military ataman of the faithful Cossacks, Sidor Bely, died. Chepega became his successor. Although the Cossacks themselves elected I. Sukhina as chieftain, but after a few days the "people's protege" was removed in favor of Chepega. Chepega himself wrote to A. Golovaty on July 5 of this year:
His Serene Highness… Prince Grigory Alexandrovich Potemkin-Tavrichesky assigned me to the army of faithful Cossacks as the Army Ataman…
Potemkin wrote about the same empress as follows:
I take the place of this venerable elder [S. Bely] entrusted the reign of the kosh to the second-major Chepega ...
The Black Sea Cossacks under the command of Chepega especially distinguished themselves in the capture of Ochakov, the fortified island of Berezan, Gadzhibey, Akkerman, Bender. In 1790, the Cossacks showed incomparable courage during the assault on Izmail.
In this Turkish campaign, Chepega was once seriously wounded in the right shoulder and was awarded the rank of army brigadier, orders of St. George and St. Vladimir, Catherine II granted the chieftain "a saber strewn with expensive stones."
After the victorious end of the Turkish war, the Russian government decided to resettle the Black Sea Cossacks to the Kuban, to protect the Russian border that had sunk to the south. Chepega took an active part in organizing the resettlement, founding Ekaterinodar and smoking villages.
Chepega also participated in the suppression of the Polish uprising of 1794. For the assault on the outskirts of Warsaw - Prague, which essentially decided the success of the entire company, he was awarded the Order of St. Vladimir 2nd class.
Zakhary Chepega was a large landowner. He had a dacha near the Gromokley tract, in the Kherson region he owned the village of Lyubarka with serfs, whom he promised to set free, but never did; in the Kuban, Chepega owned "Circassian kuts and forests" near Yekaterinodar, a huge farm on the Kirpileh River (there were 14 Cossack workers on it), a large garden and vineyard on Taman, a mill on the Beisug River and a large house in Yekaterinodar.
In early July 1788, G. A. Potemkin issued a decree on the appointment of a new ataman: “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 ataman. 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 Levenets, 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 have time to get food, 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 contemporaries and descendants, is, of course, the foundation 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 have not been heard of ...”
It should be noted that the riches of the new region were appreciated not only by the Cossacks, who were to plow and protect these lands, but also by their Kerch, St. Petersburg and other bosses, large and small. Notable in this regard is such an order from Chepega to Colonel Savva Bely in Taman on January 29, 1793:
“... His Excellency Mr. Major General Taurida Governor and Cavalier Semyon Semenovich Zhegulin needs fresh red fish and freshly salted caviar, and therefore I recommend that your Excellency make an effort to get as much of it as possible and send it to both His Excellency and those serving under him provincial prosecutor Captain Pyotr Afanasyevich Pashovkin, secretary collegiate recorder Danil Andreevich Karev and 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 Ekaterinoda, 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 chieftain, 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.
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 ... "
