Zasechnaya cherta

Zasechnaya cherta ( _ru. Большая засечная черта, loosely translated as "Great Abatis Line") is a chain of fortification lines, created by Grand Duchy of Moscow and later the Tsardom of Russia to protect it from the raides of the Crimean Tatars who, rapidly moving along the Muravsky Trail, ravaged the southern provinces of Russia during a series of the Russo-Crimean Wars.

As a fortification construction stretching for hundreds kilometers, the Great Abatis Border is analogous to the Great Wall of China and the Roman Limes.

The abatis was built from the felled trees that were arranged as a barricade. It was also fortified by ditches and earth mounds, palisades, watch towers and natural features like lakes and swamps. The width of the "abatis" mounts up to several hundred meters. In the most dangerous places the "abatis" was doubled, trebled etc., the gates and small wooden fortresses were created to check the passers.

Stone and wooden kremlins of the towns were also included in the Great Abatis Border. Among these towns were: Serpukhov, Kolomna, Zaraysk, Tula, Ryazan, Belyov.

There were a large number of fortification lines in Russian history and it is difficult to get good information on them.The lines naturally moved south as the Russian state expanded. The earliest reference to abatis fortifications appears to be in a Novgorad chronicle of 1137-1139. Abatis lines began appearing in southern Rus' in the 1200s. The 'Great Abatis Line' extended from Bryansk to Meschera and was nominally completed in 1566. It was guarded by a local militia of about 35,000 in the second half of the sixteenth century. Another source gives an annual callup of 65,000. Behind the line was a mobile army headquartered in Tula (6,279 men in 1616, 17,005 in 1636).

The Russina Wiki under Crimean Khanate mentions three lines. The oldest ran from Nizhi Novgorod along the Oka to Kozelsk. The second, build by Ivan the Terrible, followed the line Alatyr - Orel -Novgorod Seversky - Putivl. The third, under Tsar Fyodor was on the line Livny - Kursk - Voronezh - Belgorod.

Khodarkovsky mentions a Simbirsk line of the 1640s and 50s extending the Belgorod line from Tambov to Simbirsk on the Volga. In 1730-31 the Kama line separated Kazan from the Bashkirs. From about 1736 a Samara-Orenburg line closed in the Baskirs from the south.

References

Khodarkovsky,Michael, "Russin's Steppe Frontier", 2002.

Russian Wikipedia