The collection of the Urazovo Local History Museum includes a drawing of the fortress Valuyka.
At the end of the 16th century, the frequent and devastating raids of ‘military people’ — ‘thieves’ Cherkas’, Crimean and Nogai Tatars, prompted the Russian sovereign to begin the construction of fortified towns on the southern “borderland”. In the official papers of the late 16th — first half of the 17th centuries, the name “Polish Ukraine” or simply “Field” (in Russian — “Pole”) was firmly entrenched. The “Polish” towns, that is, towns located on the Field (in Russian — “na Pole”), included: Belgorod, Borisov (until 1612), Voluyka, Voronezh, Yelets, Kursk, Lebedyan, Livny, and Oskol. The first Russian fortress towns on the Field were erected in places from which it was more convenient to observe the movement of military people along the “sakms” or “paths” — the ways they followed inland in order to plunder and rob the civilian population.
The fortress Valuyka (at present — the town of Valuyki) was erected next to the main invasion routes of the Izyum and Kalmius “sakms”. It played an important role in the defense system of the southern border area. The defenders of the fortress combined the service of the sovereign with housekeeping and daily concerns. In 1599, with the prince Koltsov-Mosalsky and the head Sudok Myasnoy, church utensils were sent to the construction site. In general, very little information is known about the life of the fortress in the Time of Troubles, because the dispatching of military governors to serve in Valuyki was resumed only in 1613.
