Korocha

Korocha grew from a fortress on the river of the same name, built to guard the southern frontier of the Russian state. It was one of the strongpoints of the Belgorod Line, a long chain of fortified towns and earthworks intended to block routes used by raiders coming north from the open steppe.

The first fortress was raised on Red Hill in 1637, but Crimean Tatars destroyed it that September. In the following year the voivode Dmitry Lvov had it rebuilt closer to the river. For a time official documents called it the “Red Town on the Korocha,” before the shorter name prevailed. The garrison's work belonged to a wider effort to close the Izyum route, alongside fortifications at neighbouring Yablonov.