The article deals with the information concerning the history of the Lower Volga region described in the travel notes by Academician N.Y. Ozeretskovsky who visited the region in 1782-1783. The historic legends about Peter I are firstly described in this diary; they were widely spread among the local inhabitants at the end of XVIII-XIX centuries. The documentary materials of the travel of N.Y. Ozeretskovsky prove the date of origins of these historiographic plots as 1780s.