The Athena press. [volume] (Athena, Umatilla County, Or.) 18??-1942, 1917-01-12
rHE BEGINNING of 1917 will
| complete century since the
great fair of Mini Novgorod

n iOlhpiCLG u tVhtuiJ pi'SN hAAS
great fair of Mini Novgorod
was established on its present
site, while the fair of 1916 was actu-
ally the ninety-ninth since the removal
of this famous national mart from its
former location at Makariev to the
banks of the Okla in 1917. ,
Yet the legitimate antecedents of
the fair may be traced back much
farther than that date. History re-
cords fair at the mouth of the Volga
In the kingdom of the Hozare and at
Arsk.
PIunder for the Cars.
The spacious field of Arsk in 1915
was the scene of reunion Of peoples
hostile in sentiment, alien in faith,
reconciled by economic needs, says the
London Times. The fair they held
was attended even by the Kazan czars
with their retainers, but their un-
Bridled revels not infrequently cul-
minated in murderous assaults upon
the unfortunate merchants and plum
der Of their goods. When at length
Mongol supremacy began to totter and
the Muscovite grand dukes became
strong enough to dispute the author
ity Of the Kazan czars over the Volga,
a fair sprang up alongside on Russian
ground.
Ioann III, seeing that the Tartars
had robbed Russian merchants at their
fair, forbade them to proceed to Kazan,
and established Russian fair at the
newly founded town of Vasil-Sursk,
at the confluence Of the Sura with the
Volga. In proportion as the Volga be-
came more settled the fair expanded,
and received official recognition. Gar
Mihail Feodorovich conferred upon 1t
the right to levy customs duty on vari-
GUS commodities. The fair passed un-
der the jurisdiction of the Kazan court
in 100 and Empress Elizabeth Petrov-
ma ordered booths to be erected at
state expense on the bank of the
Volga.
Gradually the fair grew into the
principal distributing center for the
entire internal trade of the country,
and the Makariev site became too con-
gested for its requirements. More
over, the fair was situated on shifting
sand, and, added to this, the Volga en-
croached more and more upon the
Makariev shore and insidiously re-
duced the fair area. So the state
chancellor proposed that the fair
should be removed to Mini Novgorod,
but the merchants fatty declined to
entertain this suggestion, and the ques-
tion was left open. An accident, how
ever, took the decision out of their
hands.
All Fair Shops Burned.
A fire broke out among the fair
buildings, which were speedily reduced
to ashes, and no further opposition
was raised to the choice of Mini Nov
gorod as the new site. The advantages
of Mini Novgorod We're manifest. AL
ready a flourishing commercial center,
1t was also nearer to Moscow city
which was even then steadily gather
ing into its hands the reins which con-
trolled Russia's domestic trade.
The fair migrated to Mini and took
up its quarters temporarily in wooden
booths on the shore of the Okla op-
posite the town itself. The govern
ment seriously concerned for the per-
manent prosperity Of the fair, decided
to lose no time In building stone prem
ises for the accommodations of goods.
Emperor Alexander was so impressed
by the national Importance of the fair
that he appropriated for its improve
ment 100000 rubles ($750,000) origin
ally assigned for the construction of