Pestravka

Pestravka lies near the Pestravochka and Bolshoy Irgiz rivers in the steppe southeast of the Volga. A survey of 1769 describes the settlement as inhabited by state peasants from Little Russia who transported salt for the Iletsk salt works. Such settlements grew along roads crossing the grasslands, where the river valleys offered land for cultivation. Before this expansion the broader Irgiz country was used by pastoral peoples, including Bashkirs and Kalmyks.