During the reign of Dmitry Konstantinovich (1868-1388), Nizhny was repeatedly attacked! Tatars and this forced the Grand Duke to start building a stone Kremlin, but he built only one bathhouse, which is still known today under the name “Dmitrovskaya”.
Civil strife arose between Dmitry's successors, which Moscow took advantage of. Vasimy the Dark took over the city in 1392 and annexed the entire Nizhny Novgorod principality to Moscow.
Toann PSH, with whom a series of wars with Kazan began, made Nizhny a gathering point for troops sent against Kazan, and therefore diligently continued to take care of fortifying the city; under him, the Tverskaya Tower was built, and the Kremlin was completed under Vasishi G[\.
While, over the course of this century, Moscow fought fiercely with Vazan, Nizhny bore the brunt of the failures for the Russians; As the most important point and as a rich city even then, it attracted the constantly greedy gaze of the Tatars, and only with the conquest of Kazan did fate begin to pamper it with a peaceful existence. But even then, too 20 years after the conquest of Kazan, the Tatars approached the city for the last time in 1574, but they could not defeat the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin.
In times of troubles, Nizhny Novgorod played the great role of a faithful guardian of the Russian land; The year 1612 reflected for him the great glory of its two famous citizens: Minin and Pozharsky.
It is known about Minin that he, being a meat merchant by birth, served at the same time as an elected townsman. For his great deeds for the benefit of Russia, he was awarded the title of Duma nobleman and, in addition, he was granted an estate (the village of Bogorodskoye, in Berezopol).
Without leaving any offspring, Minin died in 1616. Minin's tomb was built in 1797; on it is written a poem (by an unknown author) with the following content: “Deliverer of Moscow, lover of the fatherland And reviver of dying Russia, Beauty of the Fatherland, fear of the Poles and revenge, Praise of Russia and all glory, honor; Se Minovich Kuzma rests in peace: Every true Ross, yes kiss his ashes!”
On three metal boards there is an inscription that reads: “The Lord of hosts is with us,” “our intercessor,” and “God is such,” and then there is a story about the events of 1612 and the role Minin played in them. Minin's ashes rest under a high sarcophagus, covered with a gilded canopy, and his tomb is located in the main shrine of the Kremlin, in the Transfiguration Cathedral.
The monument to Minin and Pozharek, in the form of a pointed granite obelisk, is placed on the edge of the mountain, opposite the Archangel Cathedral and the Church of the Assumption.
On one side of the monument there is a bas-relief depicting Kozma Minin with an open head in shirts; above the head are two genyas, holding a wreath of oak leaves; below is the inscription: “Grateful posterity to Citizen Minin. 1826.” On the opposite side is a bust of Prince Pozharsky in armor and a helmet, and below is the inscription: “To Prince Pozharsky, grateful offspring. 1826.”
After Minin's feat, Nizhny Novgorod did not have the opportunity to take part in an outstanding historical event. During the Razin riot, Stenka’s accomplices, after the capture of Arzamas and Lyskov, approached Nizhny, but, being met by a very energetic commander, who skillfully managed this case, the rebels were dispersed.
When, at the end of the Razin rebellion, a rapid strengthening of the schism in the lower lands of the Volga region was noticed, a metropolitan caoedra was established in Nizhny with the aim of combating the schism: the first metropolitan was appointed Archimandrite Philaret, a native of Nizhny Novgorod; The caoedra existed until 1719. Peter the Great visited Nizhnyaya twice. The first visit to it left behind the establishment of a faith for the manufacture of sails, masts and, in general, all rigging. The second visit (in 1792 on the way to Persyo) was marked by a very interestingly combined celebration: May 80 (Peter the Great's birthday) the 50th year of Peter the Great's life and the 500th anniversary of the founding of Nizhny Novgorod were celebrated.
The day before, the Emperor attended the all-night vigil in the church of the Cathedral of the Mother of God (near the Stroganovs' house), and on May 30 he attended the mass in the Transfiguration Cathedral and himself read the Apostle there and sang in the choir. At the end of the mass, the Great Tsar personally showed his descendants and the entire Russian people an example of how one should treat the memory of Minin; bow down to the ground before the tomb, he said: “Here is the true savior of the fatherland.” And from then on, all the sovereigns, visiting Below, gave the same honor to Minin’s ashes.