There is relatively little life in the mountains; along the entire 90-verst length there are about four or five villages, which, of course, were not able to revive the majestic and somewhat harsh beauty of Zheguli. Yes, in fact, it would not be easy to settle here: the mountains drop off so steeply towards the Volga that only occasionally does a narrow coastal strip emerge below, and even that, of course, is flooded with water during high water. The Usa River flows on the western side of the bow; near the village of Perevoloki it is very close to the Volga, from which it is separated by only three versts space; in this and that time, the robbers dragged their boats from the Volga to Usa (from here the village is just above), and at the opposite end the bows again lowered them into the Volga; Thus, Samara remained on the sidelines, but the merchant ships, having safely passed Perevoloka and Samara, were unexpectedly attacked by robbers already near Stavropol.
Interesting for their picturesqueness, Zheguli is also remarkable in historical terms. If we take into account that in former times the local forests were impenetrable, the roads did not exist here, the population consisted entirely of robbers and vagabonds, then it will become clear why the eguli in former times inspired so much fear and why so many amazing legends and stories arose about them. Nature itself, when creating Uveguli, seemed to have given us the desire to create a first-class robber’s nest. Starting from KHUT Vka, along the entire length of the Volga there was no place more terrible than Zheguli..
All the most outstanding atamans of the Volga robbers visited Zheguli. Here, every hillock, every gorge, every cave is connected in memories with the names of such heroes as Stenka Razin, OEedka Sheludyak, Zametaev, Bulavin and others. The conqueror of Siberia Ermak Timooevich also walked around in his time; his associate Ivan Koltso also visited; even to this day there are two villages, one of which is called Ermakovo, and the other Koltsovka.
Zheguli was truly a cultivated land for robbers: on the one hand, the Usa River served as an excellent route and means for dragging boats and suddenly appearing where they were least expected; on the other hand, the peaks of Yaegul were excellent points for viewing the surrounding area at a great distance. It was always possible to set up a guard post, invisible to the eye, from which ships could be seen in the distance; one had only to go down from the hill, hide in the dense undergrowth of the lowland, untie their boats there and wait for the appearance of a slowly crawling barge, pulled by exhausted barge haulers with a whip. The cry “saryn na kichka”, so well known on the Volga, was heard and its effect had something magical in it; on the shore, the barge haulers immediately lay down on the ground, and on the ship, on the bow, the ship workers immediately lay down on the deck. In the midst of dead silence, the owner of the ship handed money to the senior worker to transfer to the robbers, and he himself went down to the cabin and, out of fear, bowed to the ground before the icon. Quite calmly, without any thought of any resistance, the robbers gathered on deck, received money from the senior worker and generally took what they liked; at the same time, the owner remained as before in the cabin, and the ship's workers lay motionless on the decks: it was known that as soon as anyone moved, he was killed, and that resistance entailed the wholesale beating of everyone, the looting of all goods and the sinking of the ship.