Pugachov's Oak

Pugachov's Oak is a major tree in Marii Chodra national park, Mari El Republic, Russian Federation. It is estimated to date to about 1500, is 1.2 m in diameter, and 26 m high.

Legend says that after the defeat in the battle of Kazan and retreat to the Mari forests, the rest of Pugachov's troops stayed under the oak, and Pugachov personally watched the burning of Kazan from this oak. However, there are doubts that the particular oak is the tree Pugachov's rebels stayed under, and some researchers consider that tree is estimated to date to about 1650 and at the time of Pugachov revolt it was an ordinary tree. Another major oak tree, estimated to date to about 1400 existed in the nearby fields until 1940s, when it died and was sawed in 1950s. Possibly it was the original Pugachov's Oak.

Famous quotes containing the word oak:

    Yet poetry, though the last and finest result, is a natural fruit. As naturally as the oak bears an acorn, and the vine a gourd, man bears a poem, either spoken or done. It is the chief and most memorable success, for history is but a prose narrative of poetic deeds.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)