Nikolsky District (russian: Нико́льский райо́н) is an administrativeLaw #371-OZ and municipalLaw #1119-OZ district (

raion A raion (also spelt rayon) is a type of administrative unit of several post-Soviet states. The term is used for both a type of subnational entity and a division of a city. The word is from the French (meaning 'honeycomb, department'), and is co ...

), one of the twenty-six in

Vologda Oblast Vologda Oblast ( rus, Вологодская область, p=vəlɐˈɡotskəjə ˈobləsʲtʲ, r=Vologodskaya oblast, ) is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast). Its administrative center is Vologda. The Oblast has a population of 1,202,444 ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

. It is located in the southeast of the

oblast An oblast (; ; Cyrillic (in most languages, including Russian and Ukrainian): , Bulgarian: ) is a type of administrative division of Belarus, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Ukraine, as well as the Soviet Union and the Kingdom of ...

and borders with

Kichmengsko-Gorodetsky District Kichmengsko-Gorodetsky District (russian: Ки́чменгско-Городе́цкий райо́н) is an administrativeLaw #371-OZ and municipalLaw #1117-OZ district (raion), one of the twenty-six in Vologda Oblast, Russia. It is located in the ...

in the north,

Vokhomsky District Vokhomsky District (russian: Во́хомский райо́н) is an administrativeLaw #112-4-ZKO and municipalLaw #237-ZKO district (raion), one of the twenty-four in Kostroma Oblast, Russia. It is located in the east of the oblast. The area of ...

Kostroma Oblast Kostroma Oblast (russian: Костромска́я о́бласть, ''Kostromskaya oblast'') is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast). Its administrative center is the city of Kostroma and its population as of the 2021 Census is 580,97 ...

in the east, Pavinsky, Pyshchugsky, Mezhevskoy, and

Kologrivsky District Kologrivsky District (russian: Кологри́вский райо́н) is an administrativeLaw #112-4-ZKO and municipalLaw #237-ZKO district (raion), one of the twenty-four in Kostroma Oblast, Russia. It is located in the north of the oblast. Th ...

s of Kostroma Oblast in the south, Babushkinsky District in the southwest, and with

Nyuksensky District Nyuksensky District (russian: Ню́ксенский райо́н) is an administrativeLaw #371-OZ and municipalLaw #1120-OZ district (raion), one of the administrative divisions of Vologda Oblast, twenty-six in Vologda Oblast, Russia. It is locate ...

in the west. The area of the district is . Its

administrative center An administrative center is a seat of regional administration or local government, or a county town, or the place where the central administration of a commune A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or ...

is the

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

Nikolsk Nikolsk (russian: Нико́льск) is the name of several inhabited localities in Russia. Modern localities Urban localities *Nikolsk, Nikolsky District, Penza Oblast, a town in Nikolsky District of Penza Oblast *Nikolsk, Vologda Oblast, a t ...

.Resolution #178 Population: 26,461 ( 2002 Census); The population of Nikolsk accounts for 38.0% of the district's total population.

Geography

The landscape of the district is dominated by the

Northern Ridge The Northern Ridge, Northern Uvaly, Severnyye Uvaly (russian: Северные Увалы), is the chain of hills in the northern part of the East European Plain in Russia. The Northern Ridge divides the river basins of the Northern Dvina River ( ...

chain of hills which separate the

basins Basin may refer to: Geography and geology * Depression (geology) ** Back-arc basin, a submarine feature associated with island arcs and subduction zones ** Debris basin, designed to prevent damage from debris flow ** Drainage basin (hydrology), a ...

of the

Northern Dvina , image = dvina.jpg , image_size = , image_caption = Northern Dvina starts as the confluence of Yug River (on left) and Sukhona River (on top) near Veliky Ustyug (photo 2001) , source1 = Confluence of ...

and the

Volga River The Volga (; russian: Во́лга, a=Ru-Волга.ogg, p=ˈvoɫɡə) is the List of rivers of Europe#Rivers of Europe by length, longest river in Europe. Situated in Russia, it flows through Central Russia to Southern Russia and into the Cas ...

s, or, more generally, the basins of the

Arctic Ocean The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceans. It spans an area of approximately and is known as the coldest of all the oceans. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) recognizes it as an ocean, a ...

and the

Caspian Sea The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, often described as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. An endorheic basin, it lies between Europe and Asia; east of the Caucasus, west of the broad steppe of Central Asia ...

. The rivers in the eastern part of the district drain into the

Yug River The Yug (russian: Юг) is a river in Kichmengsko-Gorodetsky, Nikolsky, and Velikoustyugsky Districts of Vologda Oblast and in Podosinovsky District of Kirov Oblast in Russia. It is long, and the area of its basin is . The Yug joins the Suk ...

, which makes a big loop inside the district. The town of Nikolsk is located on the banks of the Yug. The Yug is one of the two sources (along with the

Sukhona The Sukhona (russian: Су́хона) is a river in the European part of Russia, a tributary of the Northern Dvina. The course of the Sukhona lies in Ust-Kubinsky, Sokolsky, Mezhdurechensky, Totemsky, Tarnogsky, Nyuksensky, and Velikoustyug ...

) of the Northern Dvina. The northern part of the district belongs to the basin of the Sharzhenga River, a left

tributary A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drainage ...

of the Yug. The southwestern part of the district belongs to the basin of the

Unzha River The Unzha (russian: Унжа) is a river in the Vologda Oblast and Kostroma Oblast in Russia, a tributary of the Volga. It is long, and its Drainage basin, basin covers .

, a left tributary of the Volga, and of the

Mezha River The Mezha (russian: Межа) is a river in Nelidovsky, Zharkovsky, and Zapadnodvinsky Districts of Tver Oblast and Velizhsky District of Smolensk Oblast in Russia. It flows out of the Valdai Hills and continues west into the Daugava (Western Dvi ...

, a principal (left) tributary of the Unzha. Minor areas in the south and the very east of the district are in the basin of the

Vetluga River Vetluga (, , ''Vütla'') is a river in the Kirov Oblast, Kostroma Oblast, Mari El Republic and Nizhny Novgorod Oblast of Russia. It is a left tributary of the Volga.Vokhma. The sources of the Unzha and the Vokhma is located within the district limits. Considerable areas of the district are covered by coniferous forests.

History

The area was populated by

Finnic peoples The Finnic or Fennic peoples, sometimes simply called Finns, are the nations who speak languages traditionally classified in the Finnic (now commonly '' Finno-Permic'') language family, and which are thought to have originated in the region of ...

. In the 14th–15th centuries, during the colonization, it was a disputed territory between the

Grand Duchy of Moscow The Grand Duchy of Moscow, Muscovite Russia, Muscovite Rus' or Grand Principality of Moscow (russian: Великое княжество Московское, Velikoye knyazhestvo Moskovskoye; also known in English simply as Muscovy from the Lati ...

and the

Novgorod Republic The Novgorod Republic was a medieval state that existed from the 12th to 15th centuries, stretching from the Gulf of Finland in the west to the northern Ural Mountains in the east, including the city of Novgorod and the Lake Ladoga regions of m ...

. Novgorod controlled the major part of the Russian North, and, in particular, all areas along the

Sukhona River The Sukhona (russian: Су́хона) is a river in the European part of Russia, a tributary of the Northern Dvina. The course of the Sukhona lies in Ust-Kubinsky, Sokolsky, Mezhdurechensky, Totemsky, Tarnogsky, Nyuksensky, and Velikoustyug ...

northeast of Nikolsky District. Moscow controlled

Veliky Ustyug Veliky Ustyug (russian: Вели́кий У́стюг) is a town in Vologda Oblast, Russia, located in the northeast of the oblast at the confluence of the Sukhona and Yug Rivers. As of the 2010 Census, its population was 31,665. Veliky U ...

, which it inherited from the

Vladimir-Suzdal Principality Vladimir-Suzdal (russian: Владимирско-Су́здальская, ''Vladimirsko-Suzdal'skaya''), also Vladimir-Suzdalian Rus', formally known as the Grand Duchy of Vladimir (1157–1331) (russian: Владимиро-Су́здальс ...

, and the

was the waterway it used to get to Veliky Ustyug. It is known that in 1452 Nikolsk and surrounding areas paid tribute to Novgorod. In the end of the 15th century, Novgorod was overtaken by the Grand Duchy of Moscow, and Nikolsk became one of the key points on the way from Moscow to the White Sea, which until 1703 was the main route for the foreign trade in Russia. In particular, the harbor in Nikolsk was used to transport cargo. In the course of the administrative reform carried out in 1708 by

Peter the Great Peter I ( – ), most commonly known as Peter the Great,) or Pyotr Alekséyevich ( rus, Пётр Алексе́евич, p=ˈpʲɵtr ɐlʲɪˈksʲejɪvʲɪtɕ, , group=pron was a Russian monarch who ruled the Tsardom of Russia from t ...

, the area was included into

Archangelgorod Governorate Archangelgorod Governorate (russian: Архангелогородская губерния, ''Arkhangelogorodskaya guberniya''), or the Government of Archangelgorod, was an administrative division (a '' guberniya'') of the Tsardom of Russia and ...

. In 1780, the governorate was abolished and transformed into

Vologda Viceroyalty Vologda Viceroyalty (russian: Волого́дское наме́стничество) was an administrative division (a '' namestnichestvo'') of the Russian Empire, which existed in 1780–1796. The seat of the Viceroyalty was located in Vologda ...

. Simultaneously, Nikolsk became the seat of an

uyezd An uezd (also spelled uyezd; rus, уе́зд, p=ʊˈjest), or povit in a Ukrainian context ( uk, повіт), or Kreis in Baltic-German context, was a type of administrative subdivision of the Grand Duchy of Moscow, the Russian Empire, and the ea ...

and was granted town rights. The viceroyalty was abolished in 1796 and

Nikolsky Uyezd Nikolsky Uyezd () was one of the subdivisions of the Vologda Governorate of the Russian Empire. It was situated in the southern part of the governorate. Its administrative centre was Nikolsk. Demographics At the time of the Russian Empire Census ...

was transferred to

Vologda Governorate Vologda Governorate (russian: link=no, Вологодская губерния, ''Vologodskaya guberniya'', ''Government of Vologda'') was an administrative division (a '' guberniya'') of the Russian Empire and the Russian SFSR, which existed fr ...

. In 1918, the area was transferred to the newly established

Northern Dvina Governorate Northern Dvina Governorate (russian: Северо-Двинская губерния, ''Severo-Dvinskaya guberniya'') was a governorate ('' guberniya'') of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic from 1918 to 1929. Its seat was in the city ...

with the administrative center located in Veliky Ustyug. In 1924, the uyezds were abolished in favor of the new divisions, the districts (raions). On June 10, 1924, Nikolsky District was established. In 1929, Northern Dvina Governorate was merged into

Northern Krai Northern Krai (russian: Северный край, ''Severny Krai'') was a ''krai'' (a first-level administrative and municipal unit) of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic from 1929 to 1936. Its seat was in the city of Arkhangelsk. ...

. The krai consisted of five okrugs, one of which,

Northern Dvina Okrug Northern may refer to the following: Geography * North, a point in direction * Northern Europe, the northern part or region of Europe * Northern Highland, a region of Wisconsin, United States * Northern Province, Sri Lanka * Northern Range, a r ...

, had the administrative center is Veliky Ustyug. Nikolsky District became a part of Northern Dvina Okrug. In July 1930, the okrugs were abolished, and the districts were directly subordinated to Northern Krai. In 1936, Northern Krai was transformed into Northern Oblast, and in 1937, Northern Oblast itself was split into Arkhangelsk Oblast and Vologda Oblast. Nikolsky District remained in Vologda Oblast ever since. On June 10, 1924, Roslyatinsky District was established, with the administrative center in the '' selo'' of Roslyatino. On July 30, 1931, it was merged into Ledengsky District, then in 1935 it was re-established, and on November 12, 1960, Roslyatinsky District was abolished again with its area divided between Babushkinsky and Nikolsky Districts. Until the 1990s, Nikolsky District was one of the most remote areas of Vologda Oblast. Nikolsk was connected by roads to Veliky Ustyug and Vologda, but traveling from Nikolsk to Moscow required a detour to Vologda. The problem was solved when the road to Pyshchug and

Manturovo Manturovo (russian: Мантурово) is the name of several inhabited localities in Russia. ;Urban localities *Manturovo, Kostroma Oblast, a town in Kostroma Oblasthttp://manturovo.org/ ;Rural localities * Manturovo, Ivanovo Oblast, a village ...

, both in Kostroma Oblast, was built in the end of the 1990s.

Economy

Industry

Timber industry is the basis of the economy of the district. Food industry, including meat, milk, and bread production, is also present. There is also

linum ''Linum'' (flax) is a genus of approximately 200 species''Linum''.
The Jepson Manual. ...

textile production.

Agriculture

There are about a hundred farms in the district, with not more than a dozen of them being large-scale. The main activity of the farms is cattle breeding, pork production, and

linum ''Linum'' (flax) is a genus of approximately 200 species''Linum''.
The Jepson Manual. ...

growing. Most of the crops are grown to feed cattle.

Transportation

Paved roads connect Nikolsk with Pyshchug and

in the south, crossing the border with Kostroma Oblast, with

Totma Totma (russian: То́тьма) is a town and the administrative center of Totemsky District in Vologda Oblast, Russia, located on the left bank of the Sukhona River at its confluence with the Pesya Denga, northeast of Vologda, the administrati ...

in the west, and with

via

Kichmengsky Gorodok Kichmengsky Gorodok (russian: Кичменгский Городок) is a rural locality (a '' selo'') and the administrative center of Kichmengsko-Gorodetsky District, Vologda Oblast, Russia, located on the left bank of the Yug River, at its con ...

in the north. There is regular bus service on these roads, as well as local bus traffic originating from Nikolsk. The Yug is navigable downstream from Nikolsk; however, there is no passenger navigation. There are no railroads operated by the

Russian Railways Russian Railways (russian: link=no, ОАО «Российские железные дороги» (ОАО «РЖД»), OAO Rossiyskie zheleznye dorogi (OAO RZhD)) is a Russian fully state-owned vertically integrated railway company, both manag ...

in the district, and the closest railway stations with regular passenger service are

Kotlas Kotlas (russian: Ко́тлас) is a town in Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Northern Dvina and Vychegda Rivers. Population: Kotlas is the third largest town of Arkhangelsk Oblast in terms of population (after Ar ...

Arkhangelsk Oblast Arkhangelsk Oblast (russian: Арха́нгельская о́бласть, ''Arkhangelskaya oblast'') is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Russia (an oblast). It includes the Arctic Ocean, Arctic archipelagos of Franz Josef Land ...

and Sharya in Kostroma Oblast. There were plans to extend the Monza Railroad—a railroad built for timber transport, which runs along the border of Vologda and Kostroma Oblasts—to Nikolsk; however, these plans were never realized. Several kilometers of tracks at the eastern end of the Monza Railroad, including Kema terminal station, are located within the district.

Culture and recreation

The district contains 137 objects (60 of them located in Nikolsk) classified as cultural and historical heritage of local importance. Most of these are farms, town houses, and churches built prior to 1917. Author

Alexander Yashin Alexander Yakovlevich Yashin (russian: Алекса́ндр Я́ковлевич Я́шин; March 27, 1913 – July 11, 1968) was a Soviet writer associated with the Village Prose movement. Biography Early life Yashin was born in the norther ...

, associated with the

Village Prose Village Prose (russian: Деревенская проза, or Деревенская литература) was a movement in Soviet literature beginning during the Khrushchev Thaw, which included works that focused on the Soviet rural communities. ...

movement in Russian literature, was born in 1913 in what is now Nikolsky District, got his education in Nikolsk, and lived in Nikolsk until the mid-1930s. The only state museum in the district is the Memorial Museum of Alexander Yashin, located in Nikolsk. The museum occupies the house which belonged to Yashin's parents, as well as the former house of Yashin.

References

Notes

Sources

* * * {{Use mdy dates, date=August 2012 Districts of Vologda Oblast