In the Orthodox tradition, November 21 is considered to be the day of Archangel Michael, one of the most revered spiritual images not only in Christianity, but also in other world religions - Islam and Judaism. In Pridnestrovie, many churches are dedicated to him. 15 cities, towns and villages of the republic associate their anniversaries with it. Among them is frontier Pervomaisk, the historical capital of the Black Sea Cossacks - Slobodzeya, the birthplace of Ivan Soltys-Kuzmin, the Soviet Union hero, as well as other settlements with no less interesting legend. In this article we will focus on the early history of the city amid the hills and the center of domestic metallurgy – Rybnitsa. It is believed, that this year the city of steelworkers turns 390 years old, although such calculations are based on one mistake of thirty years ago. As indicated by some indirect data, Rybnitsa may be older than the set date.
The tradition to celebrate the day of the native settlement appeared in the republic not so long ago - only a few decades ago. With a few exceptions, the day of a city or village is associated with an Orthodox holiday in honor of the sacred image that the main local church is dedicated to. For example, the day of the capital of Pridnestrovie - Tiraspol - is celebrated on the Feast of Protecting Veil of the Mother of God that one of the first churches of the city is dedicated to. This is despite the fact that Tiraspol is one of the few cities in the republic, which foundation date is well known to historians. And that date, as noted earlier, does not coincide with the Dedication day.
The exception is Bendery, where the day of the city is associated not with the dedication day, but with the first reference in historical documents, and Grigoriopol. The history of its foundation is well known right up to the day, when the first stone was laid. However, very little is known about the time of appearance of majority of the Pridnestrovian settlements, and it is almost impossible to establish the exact date of their foundation. Therefore, the city day of native towns and villages are celebrated by their inhabitants according to the dedication days, because, according to popular tradition, no settlement can exist without a spiritual center.
One of the republic landmarks is the largest Orthodox Cathedral in Pridnestrovie and Moldova - Archangel Michael Cathedral, within which there can be about 2 thousand parishioners present at the same time.
It is located in Rybnitsa, being its main temple, the dedication day of which is November 21 - the day of the Archangel Michael. The cathedral appeared already in the newest period of Rybnitsa’s history - it was founded in 1990 and had been being built for 15 years. Meanwhile, on this day, according to official information, the citizens celebrate 390 years since Rybnitsa`s foundation. The starting point is the year 1628, which is also indicated by the monument in the form of an open stone book, installed in the center of town.
This date, however, was taken, so to speak, on trust after E. Shiryaev, the author of the “History of Pridnestrovie in maps” published “A fragment of the map of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania Johan Probst” in 1993, where the settlement Ribniсzy was marked.
The author of the book had the map dated 1628, thus making the oldest historical document where Rybnitsa is mentioned.
But it turned out that E. Shiryaev was in a hurry with the conclusions. It turned out that the cartographer Probst was born a hundred years later than the date indicated by our contemporary as the year of his map publication. Aleksei Pokusinsky, co-author of the book “Rybnitsa”, noticed that. That fact means that the map of Probst was drawn in XVIII century. Therefore, the year 1628 as the date of the first mention of Rybnitsa is still a question.
As a result, today the oldest known document, which mentions the Rebniczy river and the suburb at its confluence with Dniester, is the “General Plan of the Wild Fields Easily Called Ukraine” of 1648 by Guillaume de Boplan.
But, as indicated by Alexey Pokusinsky, the 1648th is not the year when the settlement was founded, but only documentary evidence of its existence at that time. This map had been being prepared for publication for about three years, besides, Boplan, as he himself had said, had been traveling for 17 years collecting information. This means that the settlement on the banks of Dniester and Rebniczy river existed for at least 20 years before the publication of the map. That is, it is obvious that in 1628 the settlement has been already there, although the exact date of its appearance is still unknown.
Alexander Koretsky
