Talitsa

Talitsa stands on the Sosna, near a ford once watched by the defenders of Yelets. In the seventeenth century the fortified town of Taletsk arose here as part of a chain of strongpoints along the river. The crossing mattered on a frontier exposed to Crimean and Nogai raids, and the garrison included Cossacks, musketeers and other service people.

In 1636 the Yelets voivode sent men to find a suitable place for a fort at the Talets ford. Settlers from Yelets formed slobodas around the new stronghold. As the Russian frontier shifted south, Taletsk lost its military importance and became a village. In 1707 a group of its inhabitants moved to the mouth of the Chamlyk, where they founded Talitsky Chamlyk and carried the old name with them.