Lebedyan
Encyclopedia
Lebedyan is a town and the administrative center of Lebedyansky District
Lebedyansky District
Lebedyansky District is an administrative district , one of the 18 in Lipetsk Oblast, Russia....

 of Lipetsk Oblast
Lipetsk Oblast
Lipetsk Oblast is a federal subject of Russia which was formed on January 6, 1954. Its administrative center is the city of Lipetsk...

, Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

, located on the upper Don River
Don River (Russia)
The Don River is one of the major rivers of Russia. It rises in the town of Novomoskovsk 60 kilometres southeast from Tula, southeast of Moscow, and flows for a distance of about 1,950 kilometres to the Sea of Azov....

 62 kilometres (38.5 mi) northwest of Lipetsk
Lipetsk
Lipetsk is a city and the administrative center of Lipetsk Oblast, Russia, located on the banks of the Voronezh River in the Don basin, southeast of Moscow.-History:...

. It is the location of the largest fruit juice manufacturer in Eastern Europe, Lebedyansky
Lebedyansky
Lebedyansky , in Russia, is the largest fruit juice manufacturer in Eastern Europe and the sixth largest in the world. It also manufactures baby food. Lebedyansky has two major production centers, both located in the Lipetsk Oblast...

. Population:

Lebedyan was founded in 1613 largely to guard the holdings of I. N. Romanov, the Tsar's uncle, and served as a border outpost protecting South Russia from the Crimean Tatars
Crimean Tatars
Crimean Tatars or Crimeans are a Turkic ethnic group that originally resided in Crimea. They speak the Crimean Tatar language...

 incursions. The Trinity Monastery was established there in 1621 and several churches were built until the end of the century; they are all now reduced to ruins.

Chartered in 1779, Lebedyan developed in the 19th century as a centre of horse racing
Horse racing
Horse racing is an equestrian sport that has a long history. Archaeological records indicate that horse racing occurred in ancient Babylon, Syria, and Egypt. Both chariot and mounted horse racing were events in the ancient Greek Olympics by 648 BC...

 and horse breeding. The locals claim that the first racetrack in Russia was opened there in 1826. The Agricultural Society of Lebedyan, founded in 1847, was influential in preparing the Emancipation Reform
Emancipation reform of 1861
The Emancipation Reform of 1861 in Russia was the first and most important of liberal reforms effected during the reign of Alexander II of Russia. The reform, together with a related reform in 1861, amounted to the liquidation of serf dependence previously suffered by peasants of the Russian Empire...

 of 1861.

Lebedyan is the birthplace of Yevgeny Zamyatin
Yevgeny Zamyatin
Yevgeny Ivanovich Zamyatin was a Russian author of science fiction and political satire. Despite having been a prominent Old Bolshevik, Zamyatin was deeply disturbed by the policies pursued by the CPSU following the October Revolution...

. Other residents of the town include Mikhail Bulgakov
Mikhail Bulgakov
Mikhaíl Afanásyevich Bulgákov was a Soviet Russian writer and playwright active in the first half of the 20th century. He is best known for his novel The Master and Margarita, which The Times of London has called one of the masterpieces of the 20th century.-Biography:Mikhail Bulgakov was born on...

 and Andrey Bely. Ivan Turgenev
Ivan Turgenev
Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev was a Russian novelist, short story writer, and playwright. His first major publication, a short story collection entitled A Sportsman's Sketches, is a milestone of Russian Realism, and his novel Fathers and Sons is regarded as one of the major works of 19th-century...

 incorporated a story titled Lebedyan in his collection A Sportsman's Sketches
A Sportsman's Sketches
A Sportsman's Sketches was an 1852 collection of short stories by Ivan Turgenev. It was the first major writing that gained him recognition...

.

Lebedyan has two cathedrals, both dedicated to the icon of the Theotokos of Kazan
Our Lady of Kazan
Our Lady of Kazan, also called Theotokos of Kazan , was a holy icon of the highest stature within the Russian Orthodox Church, representing the Virgin Mary as the protector and patroness of the city of Kazan. Copies of the image are also venerated in the Catholic Church...

. The old and neglected cathedral goes back to the 18th century, while the larger cathedral on the market square was designed in the Empire style and consecrated in 1839.
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