Pokrovsk

Pokrovskaya sloboda grew on the Volga's left bank opposite Saratov, at the end of the route from the salt lake of Elton. In 1747 the government established salt stores on the river and invited Ukrainian carriers, known as chumaks, to bring the salt across the steppe in ox-drawn wagons. The river landing connected the lake's brine and salt fields with markets farther inland.

German colonists arriving under Catherine II's invitations also passed through the sloboda on their way to new Volga settlements. Its inhabitants included Ukrainians, Russians and Germans. In 1774 Pugachev's forces entered Pokrovskaya during their rebellion, and local people joined them. The town's early life was thus bound to the salt road, the river crossing and the upheavals of the eighteenth-century frontier.