In Cherkessk took place a big celebration devoted to laying of the foundation stone for the monument to the first officer of the Karachai, the Head of the Elbrus district, and later – of the Batalpashinsk uyezd, a Russian General Nikolai Grigorievich Petrusevich. 
«This was a man of a new formation, who considered the main purposes of the power to be preservation and settlement of the people, that is why his activities will forever remain in the memory of our people», - the President of Karachayevo-Cherkessia Boris Ebzeyev said at the ceremony.
General Petrusevich (appr. 1838-1880 years) had arrived in Karachai in 1865 in the rank of a Captain, and first of all had learned the Karachai and the Circassian languages in order to do without an interpreter and get a comprehensive notion of the life, customs and manners of the highlanders. He took up realization of the peasant reform, abolishing serfdom, spared no efforts to get monetary allowance for the poorest peasants, sought admeasurement of land for the released peasants. With his participation had been founded the auls of Mara and Dzheguta, which became large settlements of the republic. With the support of Zuccu pristop – the respectful nickname of Petrusevich among the local population, by the year 1874 had been opened 46 special schools, colleges and Sunday schools for adults. Petrusevich had spent a lot of efforts to get the gifted Karachai children into the Stavropol and Nalchik gymnasiums. With his assistance 52 Karachais made a pilgrimage to Mecca. 
Petrusevich died in the rank of a Major General in Central Asia, on December 23, 1880, in the course of assault of the fortress Teok-Tepe, later given the name of «The Garden of Petrusevich». 
Love and respect of the highland peoples for him were so great that the Karachais sent a squad for his body to Turkestan at their own expense. Petrusevich was buried with a huge concourse on the territory of the St. Nicholas Cathedral in stanitsa Batalpashinskaya.