I.I. LEPEKHIN IN PRICHEREMSHANYE (ANALYSIS OF ARCHIVAL SOURCES)
The article is devoted to the analysis of archival sources pertaining to the Academic expedition of I.I. Lepekhin detachment in 1768-1769 to the Middle Volga region. Gymnasium students - Timofey Malgin, Nikolay Ozeretskovsky and Andrey Lebedev, a painter Michael Shalaurov, a taxidermist Philip Fedotiev worked in his team. The main aim of the expedition was comprehensive studying of the region. Numbered reports filed by the Chancellery of the Imperial Academy of Sciences make it possible to trace the chronology, the route and areas, visited by I.I. Lepekhin and his assistants. They worked in the territories of modern Orenburg, Penza, Samara, Ulyanovsk regions and the Republic of Tatarstan. The Samara region was examined in the most detailed way. In a modern map these are 10 districts of the Samara region. Naming this or that settlement, I.I. Lepekhin indicated its national identity. For example: “by the evening we arrived to the Chuvash village Melekes”; “there are only 10 miles from the Russian Melekes to the Chuvash Melekes”; “we arrived in the Mordovian village Karmala”. The travelers left detailed characteristics of dwellings and of prayers of the local population. Collected minerals, clothing samples and other items were first placed in the academic Conference hall, they were examined and put in order. After returning from the expedition, I.I. Lepekhin himself made the inventory list. Archival sources, which were used in the article, make it possible to expand our knowledge about the Academic expeditions of 1768-1774. Generally, the Academic expedition to the Middle Volga region under the leadership of I.I. Lepekhin made a significant contribution to the study of the region.