[6] There are several hypothesises of the etymology of the toponym "Ardatov": According to the most widespread one, the name is connected with the legend about the Mordovian guide Ardatka, who led Ivan the Terrible's troops through the deep forests of this area and was granted land for his assistance.

Traces of their presence are still visible - so two kilometres away from Ardatov, on the bank of the Pashin ravine, exists a Kipchak burial mound, the grave of a noble herdsman.

In 1221 Nizhny Novgorod was founded, but already in 1236 it, as well as Volga Bulgaria, was destroyed by new conquerors - Mongols, who included these lands in their state called Golden Horde.

[19] However, the lands of most of the Ardatov region, together with the present-day territory of the settlement itself, continued to be part of the Golden Horde; the border between the two states ran along the course of the Tyosha River.

[22][13] Around the middle of the 13th century, a Bulgar tabor settlement was founded on the left bank of the Lemet River [ru] (northern part of modern Ardatov).

By the end of the 13th century the Golden Horde authorities built a fortified settlement on its place, which became the centre for collecting yasak from the surrounding Mordovian tribes.

[24][19] Ivan the Terrible's campaign is connected with an undocumented legend about the Mordovian guide Ardatka and his brothers, who helped the tsar's army to find the way to Kazan in the dense forests around nowday's Ardatov.

[25] The legend is widely spread in the area, and local historians prefer to consider the date of Ardatov's foundation as 1552 - the year of Ivan the Terrible's campaign against Kazan.

Historian and prolitician Nikolay Mikhaylovich Karamzin (1766—1826), an estate owner in the Ardatov uyezd himself, cited in his book "History of the Russian State" a document of the epoch: ... Orzamas and Olatyr... and with the districts were in treason, from Tsar Vasiliy laid aside...

The main battles of Pugachev's uprising (1773—1775) took place rhousands of kilometres away from Ardatov, but the result of the rebellion was a reform that directly affected the village and its inhabitants.

The writer Pavel Ivanovich Melnikov-Pechersky, who travelled through Ardatov in the 1850s, left a description of the town:[36] Three churches, seven stone houses, pavement posts and two or three booths with rusty halberds at the doors reminded us that this was not just an ordinary village.

March 8] the United Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies began to create their own governing bodies called executive committees (ispolkom) all over the Governorate.

January 5] 1918, and its legality is doubtfull as it was attended by only 18 delegates, 12 of whom were soldiers of the Ardatov garrison, and nevertheless peasants made up the majority of the population of the uyezd, only two of them were present at the congress.

A theater resumed operations in Ardatov, the previously neglected city garden became municipal property, and the gymnasium and college consolidated into a second-level school.

[63] Concurrently, pressure on religious institutions intensified; the Pokrovsky Nunnery was converted into a handicraft cooperative, and the cemetery housing the Church of Our Lady of Sorrows was closed.

The Arzamas plateau is an elevated gently undulating plain, composed mainly of sulfate-carbonate rocks from the Permian period, whose bedrock is relatively resistant to erosion, covered with loams and, in some cases, glacial deposits.

On September 26, 2012, the Settlement Council decided to restore the coat of arms of 1781, which was described as follows: In the upper white field a red deer, with six-pointed antlers and black hooves.

The dictionary provides some data on the social composition of the population of the town: nobles and officials — 177, clergy — 228, merchants — 110, burghers — 1,400, peasants of various denominations — 16, household servants — 113, militaries — 703, and miscellaneous — 14.

[144] In the 19th and especially the 20th century, the population continued to grow, reaching its peak of 10,500 people by the 1960s, which was caused by the emergence of several industrial enterprises in the settlement, primarily the plant Sapphire.

The responses were distributed as follows: Russians - 8,584, Armenians - 26, Roma - 21, Tatars - 7, Ukrainians - 4, Azerbaijanis, Chuvash, Moldovans, and Mordvins — 3 each, Lezgins — 2, Cossacks, Georgians, Germans, Latvians, Mari, Ossetians, and Tajiks - 1 each.

The reference book "Monuments of History and Culture of the Nizhny Novgorod Region," published in 1981, notes and details the following noteworthy objects: On November 3, 1983, by decision of the Gorky Oblast Executive Committee No.

The plan envisaged the laying out of straight and wide streets, with all constructed houses facing them with their facades ranged in lines, and conforming to model projects sent from the capital.

April 9] 1817, Emperor Alexander II approved a new "Plan for the town of Ardatov in Nizhny Novgorod Governorate," which envisioned the construction of a symmetrical area in the Zarechnaya part (which is located on the opposite bank of the Lemet River), but it was never completed.

[41] Handicraft and artisanal production were well-developed: peasants and townspeople wove bast shoes (part of which merchants exported to the treeless provinces of the Russian Empire: Astrakhan, Tsaritsyn, and others).

[30] The "Economic Note of the Ardatov District," written for Empress Catherine the Great in 1784, stated: Among the urban residents, merchants and townspeople trade in this city at fairs, which occur on July 20 and last for one day, as well as weekly on trading days on Wednesdays, with various small peasant goods and food supplies; other goods such as wool, silk, and cotton are delivered from Arzamas and other cities [...] Most townspeople are engaged in agriculture.

[189] The reforms of Emperor Alexander II in the early 1860s led to a significant revival of trade; over 250 individuals were registered as "merchants" in Ardatov within ten years.

Nevertheless, it was still a local-scale event,[207] this is why the Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary, published in 1890, reported in its article about Ardatov: "The city has neither industrial nor commercial significance; the residents are engaged in agriculture.

He wrote that the market in those years became not just a local one, as it had been before 1917, but that sellers and buyers came not only from nearby villages and hamlets but even from many other districts and cities: Vyksa, Mukhtolovo, Murom, Pavlovo.

According to Bukovsky, a distinctive feature of the Ardatov market was the huge number of livestock (especially piglets), but one could also purchase food products, homemade clothing, and even toys.

In summertime, performances were held in a wooden pavilion in the city garden, and in the wintertime on the upper floor of house of merchant Krasheninnikov (current address 21, Lenin Street).