Today marks 275 years since the birth of the outstanding naval commander Fedor Fyodorovich Ushakov (1745, 1817). He was born in the village of Burnakovo near Rybinsk to a family of a retired sergeant of the guard. Since 1769, Ushakov served in the Don (Azov) flotilla and participated in the Russo-Turkish War of 1768-1774. From 1775, he commanded a frigate, and in 1776 and 1779, he took part in campaigns in the Mediterranean Sea. From 1783, while on the Black Sea fleet, Ushakov helped build ships in Kherson. His first award, the Order of Saint Vladimir IV class, was received in 1785 for his successful fight against a plague epidemic. At the beginning of the Russo-Turkish War of 1787-1791, Ushakov commanded the battleship 'Saint Paul' and the vanguard of the Black Sea fleet, displaying heroism in the battle at Fidonisi. In subsequent battles, he commanded a squadron and achieved victories over the Turkish fleet at Kerch (1790), Tendra (1790), and Kaliakria (1791). In 1798 and 1800, Ushakov led the Russian-Turkish naval forces in the Mediterranean, liberated the Ionian Islands from the French, and stormed the fortress of Corfu. Throughout his service, he suffered no defeats, lost no ships, and not a single sailor under his command was captured. In 2001, the Russian Orthodox Church canonized him as the righteous warrior Theodore Ushakov.

Ushakov passed away on October 2, 1817, at his estate in the village of Alexeyevka (now in the Temnikovsky district, Republic of Mordovia). The funeral service was held at the Spaso-Preobrazhensky Church in the city of Temnikov. When the coffin with the admiral's body was carried out of the city amidst a large crowd, they intended to place it on a cart, but the people continued to carry it by hand all the way to the Sanaksar Monastery, where he was buried.

After the 1917 revolution, the Sanaksar Monastery was closed, and the chapel over the admiral's grave was destroyed. During the Great Patriotic War, when the Soviet leadership turned to Russian national ideas and values, an order in his name was established, and the question of the admiral's burial place arose. A state commission restored his grave.