The village of Malaya Kardashinka appeared in the Black Sea region in 1785. According to the legend that still circulates within the limits of Golopristansky district, the founder of the settlement is considered to be one of the brothers Kardash. In translation from Turkic word «Kardash» means one brother. Three brothers received land plots from their father between the Dnieper-Bug estuary and Aleshkovsky sands. They settled on them, and the map of Kherson region was enriched with the following settlements — Bolshaya, Malaya and Kardashinka proper.
According to another version — the word «Kardashin» from Tatar means district, and in the XVII century in the common mouth of the Dnieper and Southern Bug lived, without mixing, Tatars and Cossacks. The Orthodox lived mostly in farmsteads, which were called Kardashin farmsteads. Over time, the most resistant to temporary shocks farms turned into rural settlements. Practically each of them had its own church. Many of them became recognized landmarks of the Kherson region.
One of them is Svyato-Georgievskaya Church, located in the historical center of the village of Malaya Kardashinka. It is an absolutely beautiful and harmonious stone building, built in 1905-1912. Affluent residents of the Kherson district zemstvo, engaged in farming, gardening, cultivation of bashtan crops, weaving and vine-weaving, did not spare money for a new religious building. The architect K. Kvinto was invited from Moscow, who developed the project of the Kardashin temple, taking the Moscow temple architecture of the XVII century as an example, mixing the tent style with his favorite Naryshkin baroque.
This style is characterized by a cubic structure resembling a ship or an ark. And tents are built up on it. In this case, we see one tent topped with an onion-dome with a cross. On the edges of the tent rise four smaller domes, completely repeating the style of the main one. At the end of the building there is a chapel topped with a conical, faceted roof with the smallest onion-dome.
The building of St. George’s Church from the outside is abundantly decorated with stone carvings. Inside the church is painted with biblical scenes by local artist S. Panpushin. Panpushin. In general, this sacral building, built by peasants of the Kherson district, looks very rich, and in addition — reminiscent of the Uglich Refectory Church of Alexeevsky Monastery and the Moscow Church of the Nativity of the Virgin, which are recognized as the benchmarks of the Naryshkin Baroque style.
For those who came to vacation to Skadovsk, in Zheleznyj Port or Lazurnoe in Soviet times, visiting this attraction was inaccessible. The temple was a warehouse for agricultural products. For some time it was used as a club. Those who visit the Black Sea coast today will be convinced that St. George’s Church has been returned to the believers, has undergone a global restoration and pleases the residents of their native village, Kherson and the region.