Zasekin, Grigory

was the statesman of the times of Ivan Grozny and Boris Godunov. He passed the twenty-five-year Livonian War and in 1586, according to the tzar’s decree, he founded a new fortress at the confluence of the Samara and Volga rivers. In 1590 he founded the fortress of Tsaritsyn (modern Volgograd, the former Stalingrad), and in 1590 – the fortress of Saratov.