The Aurora Guide to Suzdal [antikvár]

The road from Vladimir to Suzdal passes through the fertile arableland which first made the region rich and well-populated. The roadis slightly undulating, and from the top of Poklonnaya Hill Suzdalappears abruptly before us in the distance. The town lies on anelongated hill surrounded by fields and woods that stretch as faras the eye can see. As the road rises and falls, we catch glimpsesof the hazy, uneven silhouette of churches, cathedrals and bell-towers appearing and disappearing from view. Approaching the town,we can now make out certain individual structures amidst the greenpatches of gardens: the kremlin with its white cathedral and bell-tower, the massive pink walls and towers of the Spaso-YevfimievMonastery and the soaring bell-tower of the Convent of the Depo-sition of the Robe.On the outskirts of the town, to the right of the roadway, on agently sloping meadow near the Mzhara River are the numerousburial mounds of Suzdal's old cemetery. Here, beneath the mounds,lie the remains of townspeople from the twelfth and thirteenthcenturies, the time of Prince Yury Dolgoruky and his grandson,Georgy, builders of the town's ramparts and its beautiful cathedral.Suzdal's proud boyars considered the town, the stronghold of theirpower and the source of their wealth, older than Vladimir, althoughthe two towns were actually settled at the same time. Suzdal wasfounded by Russian settlers, who cultivated the rich, fertile landand built a number of villages here in the tenth and eleventh cen-turies. Several of these old settlements were closely grouped alongthe banks of the Kamenka River, a tributary of the Nerl, andserved as the basis for the future town of Suzdal. The remains ofthese settlements were discovered during excavations inside Suz-dal's kremlin as well as in other places nearby. Peasants came herefrom regions near Smolensk and Novgorod in search of farmlandand freedom, but they did not enjoy these blessings for long, asboth they and their lands soon fell into the hands of the "bestpeople" risen from their own peasant class, who also helped theKievan prince's tribute collectors to take away their property.In 1024 there was a peasant uprising "throughout the land" led