This grateful letter was written in 1899 to the provost of Borisoglebsk Dormition Cathedral (Old Cathedral Church) Vasily Guryevich Guryev (1862-1899). The document was written by the church goers and signed by many important Borisoglebsk citizens including a merchant Semyon Kochergin on the top of the list. In the note the church goers expressed their regret on the occasion of reassignment of father Vasily to a different parish. ‘Father Vasily, our feelings of love and regret about you we can no longer express to you personally and felt compelled to thank and pray to God…’ By the moment the note was written, the provost had been serving at the cathedral for 37 years, therefore the feeling speech of the city inhabitants, who conceived an affection for Vasily Guryev, is of no surprise.

A merchant Semyon Kochergin was an important person in the history of Borisoglebsk. It was him who founded the ironworks in 1875. It’s interesting that the factory still functions nowadays under the name of Borisoglebsk Kotel’no-Mekhanicheskiy Zavod. The philanthropy was within the businessman’s scope of activity, many times he offered funds for the repairs and maintenance of Dormition Cathedral. Thanks to Semyon Kochervin’s initiative and funding and the received blessing of Innocent I (born Belyaev Ivan Vasilyevich), bishop of Tambov and Shatsk (1862-1913), a parochial school was built at the cathedral. The construction was finished in autumn 1904 under the patronage of merchant’s wife Agrafena Alekseevna Kochergina.

Previously on the site of Dormition cathedral there was a wooden church built in 1703 in honour of St. Boris and St. Gleb. When it had burnt down, the inhabitants built another wooden cathedral. However, in the late 18th century it was decided to build a stone cathedral. A bell tower and a frater house were built in the 19th century.

Tambov Eparchial Journal published a note in June 9, 1912: “Old Cathedral Church in Borisoglebsk is the oldest of all churches. It was founded in 1792 on the site of the wooden cathedral in honour of St. Boris and St. Gleb, according to the will of Peter the Great. At the moment the Cathedral church has a form of a middle-sized church built in the shape of a cross with three altars. Thanks to the special attention of a church warden, merchant Semyon Kochergin, Old Cathedral Church in Borisoglebsk is in good shape and is greatly decorated.”