Arbekovo forest-steppe reserve as one of the first protected areas in the Penza region

"Arbekov forest-steppe Reserve" (a site near the city of Penza) was part of the Penza (later Middle Volga, later Kuibyshev) Reserve in 1925-1951. The forest core of the former site is currently protected in the form of a nature monument of regional significance "Arbekovsky Forest". Two manuscripts stored in the State Archive of the Penza region in the personal fund of I.I. Sprygin are published in the article. The first work is graduate work completed by a student of the Moscow City Pedagogical Institute Gvozdeva M.D. in 1935 under the guidance of A.A. Uranov and with the participation of I.I. Sprygin. The title of the work is "The study of broad-leaved forest types in the Arbekovsky protected area", a detailed description of forest phytocenoses is contained in it. This information can serve as a starting point for monitoring studies of flora and vegetation at this site. The second work is a small note by I.I. Sprygin regarding the significance and prospects of using the Arbekov Reserve, dating from the late 1930s. He intended to keep the core of the reserve intact. At the same time, he justified the need to increase the area of the site by joining adjacent territories on which it would be possible to conduct forestry experiments with the planting of valuable forest species in order to offset the consequences of logging.