The wealthy merchants of Nizhny Novgorod shared the tradition to build churches at their own expense, usually in the neighborhood of their residence. Athanasius Olisov was one of the richest "guest merchants" involves with international trade in Nizhny Novgorod, so he built two churches: this Dormition of the Holy Virgin Church in 1672 on the Ilyinsky hill, and St. Sergius Church in 1702. His house in Krutoy lane was just between the two churches.
The Dormition of the Holy Virgin Church was rebuilt by Athanasius Olisov "in fulfillment of the aspirations and hopes". Indeed, it did not hurt to make sure. Olisov was about to go to Astrakhan to take charge of the royal salt and fish industries. After Stepan Razin`s riot the Volga area remained rather troubled, the trip promised to be dangerous, and the work looked rather challenging. Yet Olisov`s fortune favored him and four years later he safely returned to Nizhny Novgorod, where he was elected to head the district council. This wealthy business person was respectable and honored by his contemporaries, in official documents of that time he was called not "Afonka" by his diminutive first name as it would be a the usual case, but by his full name and patronymic "Afanasy Firsovich", an unprecedented honor for someone not of noble rank.
In the Soviet years the church was plundered and abandoned in desolation until the first scientific restoration that took place 1965-1967. Eventually, the church was restored in 2004.
