Description of the attraction
The monument to the "First Cossacks who landed at Taman" is one of the most famous historical sights of the village of Taman.
According to historical information, after the war with Turkey, Empress Catherine II granted the Cossacks free lands either near Kerch or on Taman. But in connection with the death of Count Potemkin, the decree was never executed. Then the military judge of the Cossacks, Anton Golovaty, turned to the empress with a new petition, as a result of which Catherine II signed the Highest charter, according to which the lands on the right bank of the Kuban were assigned to the eternal possession of the Cossacks. The Cossacks were paid a permanent salary, and the Cossack command received the status of nobles and army ranks.
In August 1792, the Cossack flotilla, led by Colonel Savva Bely, landed on the Taman coast and took over. During the year, about 17,000 settlers arrived in these lands, who founded 40 kurens here. The city of Yekaterinodar, founded in 1793, became the center of the region. The Cossacks who settled near Taman began to guard the southern outskirts of the Russian Empire.
The commemorative anniversary of the landing of the Cossacks is celebrated in Taman annually. In 1911, a monument dedicated to this event was erected in the center of the village, not far from the marina. A bronze figure of a Cossack with a banner in his hand is placed on a granite pedestal. A Cossack in traditional Zaporozhye clothing looks over the endless expanses of Taman from a height.
On the front side of the monument there is an inscription: “To the first Cossacks who landed near Taman on August 25, 1792 under the command of Colonel Savva Bely”. A little lower is the cast-iron bas-relief made by the sculptor A. I. Adamson, which depicts Cossack sailing ships sailing to the Taman coast. The back of the monument is decorated with the text of an old Cossack song, the author of which, apparently, was a military judge A. Golovaty.
