The article analyzes comprehensive studies of the unique natural and cultural-historical territory on the Middle Volga – Samara Luka and one of the largest landlords in Russia – the Usolsky Patrimony of the Orlovs and Orlov-Davydovs. This example shows the role of historians and modern methods of “local history” in interdisciplinary studying the past of Russian regions, including the processes of the colonization and the development of the South-East of European Russia.
