Malodelskaya

Malodelskaya stands on the Medveditsa, among the wooded river valleys of the Don Cossack lands. In 1698 officials from Tambov recorded the town of Malodelya while surveying settlements and forests for shipbuilding. They counted fifteen Cossacks and seventeen boat haulers there. A wooden church dedicated to the Archangel Michael is mentioned in 1722. By 1778 the stanitsa had 137 serving Cossacks, alongside retired men and youths, showing the growth of a community first recorded as a small river town.