Bolshaya Gribanovka

Bolshaya Gribanovka grew beside the small Gribanovka River on the roads from Borisoglebsk toward Tambov and Kirsanov. Founded around the turn of the eighteenth century, it belonged to lands granted to Alexander Menshikov. Its villagers were drawn into Kondraty Bulavin's rebellion in 1708, when a detachment led by the Cossack Samoylov arrived and established Cossack-style rule with popular assemblies. An account from 1787 describes a wooden church, estate houses, four smithies and a postal station beside the roads.