The history of the Pogost of Macarovka village

The family of Polyanskiy landowners.

The history of Macarovskaya patrimony goes back to the time of the first decades of Saransk existence and is connected with the family of Polyanskiy.

The representatives of Polyanskiy branchy family occupied important posts in Moscow state government system. Daniil (Ivan) Leontyevich Polyanskiy served in Secret Department in Tsar Aleksey Mikhaylovich’s time and fulfilled important orders of Peter I.

Daniil’s brother Yerimey Leontyevich Polyanskiy served in Secret Department as well.
Macar Atemyevich Polyanskiy (his name was given to the village and the constructions) served in Detective Servise.

Macar Polyanskiy was noted when building the Bogoroditskaya fortress on the river Samara. The tsars-brothers Peter I and Ivan V favored Macar with silver scoop of unusual beauty for his assiduous work. The scoop was made by Petr Ivanov - the master of Kremlin’s Silver Chamber. Presently this scoop is kept in Armory Museum in Moscow and is considered to be a great value.

Artemiy Yemelyanovich Polyanskiy was the first of the family who obtained land in Saransk uyezd (district). His allotment consisted of the best lands around the town. Not far from Saransk, in the place presently known as the village Krasniy Klin, there lived brethren of a few monks. For their monastic service Artemiy Yemelyanovich Polyanskiy built a church in the name of Archangel Michael not far from his patrimony, in the forest on the bank of the river.

Since 1686 the land ownership came to the sun of A. Polyanskiy – Macar Artemyevich. The family of Polyanskiy set themselves landownership expansion in Saransk uyezd as an object. Macar Polyanskiy was a commanding, strict, persevering person. He considered the labor as life basis. He put his diligence for great purposes and deeds, what was valued by his contemporaries.

But at the same time we shouldn’t forget about the other facts of his biography. Macar Polyanskiy’s attitude to his serf peasants was rather harsh. For example there is data that in 1681 Macar Polyanskiy almost death tormented a woman and killed her child, but he was not punished at all, as Saransk and Moscow ignored the woman relatives’ complain. Admiring the beautiful architecture of St. John Theologian Temple and other buildings, one shouldn’t forget who built it. It’s clear that such a vast work required a lot of efforts. The major work laid on serf peasants. Just try to imagine how hardly and slowly the temple’s erection was carried out those times. But Macar Polyanskiy couldn’t help to seeing his brainchild and used all possible ways to approach this event. There was a road with a heavy traffic crossing Macarovka and leading to Alatyr, Nizhniy Novgorod and Moscow. Not far from the village there was a stone bridge and turnpike and a small tower for the watchman. People paid a duty to cross the bridge. And the landowner contributed the money to the treasury. Polyanskiy made corrections to these rules and forced every person crossing the bridge carry the bricks to the constructions and only then he let them pass the turnpike.

As we can see, it was not only the career and wealth, what Polyanskiy used to think about. He always remembered about God. All these cares made him building new churches at the lands which he owned.

The son of Macar Polyanskiy – Ivan didn’t leave a lot of information about his living. It is only known that in 1721 he was the ober-krigscommissar. In Peter’s the First times he became the colonel .in Anna Ioanovna’s times he was promoted to adjuvant-general. Ivan Macarovich Polyanskiy died in 1735.
Ivan Polyanskiy was married twice.

Andrey Ivanovich Polyanskiy - was his son from his first wedlock with Bashmakova. Andrey Ivanovich was born in 1698. At the age of 17 in 1715 he was moved from Moscow school of mathematics and navigation to St. Petersburg Marine Academy. In 1716 he was detach to France, where the young reefer improved his marine science knowledge. He spent about 10 years there and was promoted to midshipman; in 1725 he came back to Russia. Very soon he became a non-commissioned lieutenant and then an adjuvant-general. And on July, 1 1733 he was promoted to captain.

Andrey adopted his grandfather’s persistency and purposefulness. The military career, connected with great difficulties and temptations developed successfully for him. Since 1736 till 1748 Andrey Ivanovich was the chief of the Moscow Admiralty office, was in command of the ships on the Baltic Sea. In 1751 A. Polyanskiy was promoted to rear admiral and appointed to the chief commander of the Port of Kronshtadt.

In May 1764 A. Polyanskiy was promoted to admiral and was appointed to commander of the Baltic Fleet. But in October, 17 he died. A. Polyanskiy had three children: two daughters Yeakaterina and Avdotya and the son Petr.

Petr Andreyevich Polyanskiy devoted himself to sea too. He was the lieutenant on the ship “St. John Chrysostom” belonging to the Kronshtadt squadron.

In his second wedlock Ivan Macarovich Polyanskiy had two sons – Nikolay and Alexander and the daughter Agraphena. It is known that Agraphena was married with the first lieutenant V.I. Volynskiy.
The document information about Nikolay says that he died childless.

Alexander Ivanovich Polyanskiy was born in 1721. At the age of 21 he was taken in the Guards in the rank of a soldier. In 1755 Alexander was promoted to first lieutenant. At that time he served in Chernigov infantry regiment. In 1756 he became aide-de-camp to the field marshal – general. In May 1763 he was promoted to colonel. In 1765 he retired.

A.I. Polyanskiy actively purchased peasants and lands. He owned five studfarms and two gardens. He also developed beekeeping and fishing in his estate. Besides, he seriously cared about mechanical manufacturing – the owned three manufactories and three distilleries in the villages Machkasy and Ivankovskoye.

A.I. Polyanskiy had the daughter Anna and the son Alexander. Anna became the lady in waiting in 1782 and later married with Holland ambassador Ghagher who moved to Russia afterwards.

The son Alexander was born in 1774 and at the age of 6 he was enrolled in the lifeguard Preobrazhenskiy regiment and raised to the rank of captain of cavalry. He retired in 1798.

A.A. Polyanskiy was a kind person and loved theatre very much. He attended performances practically daily. A.A. Polyanskiy died on March, 28 1818 and was buried in the Alexander Nevski Monastery.

His wife Antoniya Fyodorovna was Lutheran but she respected Polyanskiy’s confession. On her initiative in the beginning of 1880 the renovation of St. John the Theologian Cathedral in the village Macarovka was carried out. On August, 31 1882 the church was consecrated on the occasion of the new five- tiered iconostas construction (the master’s name is Smolin).

The connection of the family name Polyanskiy got broken before the October revolution of 1917. The estate was sold. And the new landowner came there – the retired lieutenant colonel Grigoriy Petrovich Teplyakov who wanted to keep the estate in the capitalistic way. But it was the new time that started – the time of great changes and Teplyakov’s plans didn’t have a chance to be realized.

Bogdanovich L.A.