The cultural capital of the Russian North is one of those places where the centuries-old heritage of ancestors is carefully preserved. Many famous rulers, saints, writers and poets left their mark in the history of Vologda. Today, on the Vologda streets, ancient temples are adjacent to civilian buildings, the local oil with nutty flavor and amazing folk art - Vologda lace - are world famous.
Name origin versions
Most likely, the name of the city is of Finno-Ugric origin. This version was put forward at the beginning of the last century by linguists Yalo Kalima and Joseph Julius Mikkola. In 1988, the philologist Y. Chaikin confirmed the same thing in the reference publication. According to this version, the name of the Vologda River, which gave the name to the nearby settlement, comes from the Veps "white". The Russian “Vologda” can be deciphered as “a river with clear water”.
There are assumptions that connect the name of the city with the nightingale "dragging". This version, however, did not find wide support among linguists and philologists interested in geographical names. The version is presented mainly in fiction and journalistic literature, in particular in the work “My Wanderings” by V. Gilyarovsky. The assumption is popular among Vologda residents.
The first settlements on the territory of Vologda
The history of Vologda dates back to the eighth century BC, when ancient people explored the territory along the Sukhona River. Small groups of hunters and fishermen moved through territories that were freed from the glacier, gradually mastering new sites. In support of this, bone and stone tools along the Vologda River were found. The shores were densely populated already in the Neolithic era, that is, in the fifth or third millennium BC.
The beginning of Slavic colonization
The beginning of Slavic colonization in the vicinity of the Vologda River dates back to the eleventh century. Then a system of draggers was formed that connected the routes from Belozerye (located in the modern Vologda region) and Kargopol (modern Arkhangelsk region) with local rivers. By the thirteenth century, a waterway had formed from the upper Volga region to the White Lake.
The official foundation of Vologda
The official history of Vologda begins in 1147. This date of formation of the settlement is substantiated by the evidence of "The Tale of the Miracles of Gerasim of Vologda" of 1666. In scientific circulation, this date was introduced by one of the first local historians of Vologda Alexei Zasetskiy in 1777. The writer and researcher was also based on the data of the chronicler Slobodsky (records from 1716). Both cited sources are borrowed from earlier vaults. The text of Ivan Slobodsky is closer to the earlier record than the text "The Tale of the Miracles of Gerasim of Vologda".
The first doubts about the history of the creation of Vologda appeared in the works of the same Zasetskiy. Subsequently, there were even more skeptical claims. The foundation of the monastery on the Vologda River runs counter to the overall picture of the monastery building in the north-east and north-west of Russia. The first monasteries appeared in Novgorod in the first half of the twelfth century; in the northeast, the process began much later. The first monastery in Rostov was founded in 1212, in Vladimir in 1152, and in Belozersky square in 1251. It turns out that monastic life near Vologda in the twelfth century was virtually absent.
According to archaeologists, the history of Vologda (as an official settlement) begins in the thirteenth century. Around this time, belong to the fortifications of the Vologda fort. A mistake is possible in the "Tales of the Miracles of Gerasim of Vologda": the year of coming could be indicated in comparison with the date of the origin of Moscow. In ancient Russian written sources, the city is not mentioned either in 1147 or in the twelfth century in general. The city was first mentioned in 1264 in agreements with Grand Duke Yaroslav Yaroslavich as the outskirts of Novgorod.
Joining Moscow and dependence on Novgorod
The history of the city of Vologda is still partially unknown. For example, only in 2015, a birch bark letter was found, which dates from 1280-1340. Prior to this, the only documentary evidence of the existence of a settlement in the thirteenth century was a record of the attack of the Tver prince Svyatoslav Yaroslavich, in which the units of the Golden Horde took part.
The oldest documented mention of the construction of monasteries in Vologda dates back to 1303. Then Bishop Theocristos consecrated the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin. At this time, Vologda remained in the possessions of Novgorod. A representative of Vladimir Prince Mikhail Yaroslavich was already present in the city. Then, according to the trilateral agreement of the Moscow prince, Tver and Novgorod, the borders between Vologda and the Novgorod volost were restored.
Subsequently, the settlement passed into the possession of Prince Dmitry Donskoy. At first, a duumvirate was installed (Novgorod and Moscow), after the founding of the Spaso-Prilutsky monastery, four kilometers from Vologda, Dmitry Donskoy managed to establish himself in the northern lands. But around Vologda throughout the fourteenth to the beginning of the fifteenth centuries unfolding actions of regular wars between Moscow and Novgorod.
Principality of Vologda
Briefly, the history of Vologda is considered only occasionally: the first settlements, the year of foundation, the Principality of Vologda, a city within Kievan Rus and the Russian Empire, the Soviet era. As for the Vologda principality, it existed in the fifteenth century. This is a short historical period, but significant enough, because the territories received a certain independence. The Principality was taxed, there were several routes of communication between Vologda (water routes to Novgorod, the Baltic Sea, the Upper Volga, the White Sea and Siberia, and land routes to Moscow and Yaroslavl), and four monasteries were located on the territory. Only Vasily the Dark and Andrei Menshoy managed to visit the princes.
Vologda under Ivan III and Vasily III
By the end of the fifteenth century, the history of Vologda became more interesting: it was a gathering place for military campaigns, storage of part of the state treasury, grain stocks, and exile. Over the years, Khan Ilham with his wives, Prince Mikhail Kholmsky, princes Dmitry and Ivan, the sons of brother Ivan III, who at that time were 12 and 10 years old respectively, were sent to Vologda, the Lithuanian hetman Konstantin Ostrozhsky, who sided with the Moscow prince in the fall of 1506. . In the first third of the sixteenth century, the city was visited by Austrian diplomat S. Herberstein, who left a detailed description of the territory, economy, life and geography. He described Vologda as a source of furs.
The city under Ivan the Terrible and in the Time of Troubles
Ivan the Terrible first visited Vologda during a trip to the monasteries in 1545. There was an English navigator Richard Chanslor, who, having traveled to India from England through the northern seas, reached Muscovy and met with Ivan the Terrible. As a result of this meeting, diplomatic relations were established between the Moscow principality and England, and trade began to develop. Chancellor noted that Vologda is trading in lard and flax. The city was elected the main warehouse and logistics hub of the trading company "Moscow Company" in 1555.
The laying of the walls of the Vologda Kremlin - an outstanding monument of the history of Vologda - occurred in 1567 during the direct examination of the tsar. There is a legend (there is no documentary evidence) that the city was named in honor of the Apostle Jason, and in common parlance - Nason. The construction of the monument was led by an English engineer H. Locke. The British in the second half of the sixteenth century built in Vologda shipyards and a fleet of river vessels. In 1591, the village was one of the main cities of the state and was mentioned as one of the best producers of fat.
The second heyday of the first Romanovs
After the plague epidemic and several attacks in the Time of Troubles, the city experienced a new heyday under the Romanovs. About fifty professions were distributed in Vologda, foreign and domestic trade, stone building existed, crafts developed. Foreigners settled in the Fryazinovo settlement. But the troubles didn’t be left behind: in 1661-1662, due to poor crop prices rose sharply and starvation began, another crop failure happened eight years later, in 1680 there was a severe fire, in 1686 a hurricane demolished the roofs and damaged several churches , in 1689 the city suffered from flooding, in 1689 - another fire.
Provincial Vologda under Peter I
Under Peter I, Vologda became a large military base where technical and military equipment for ships and fortresses under construction was stored. The city could become the training center of the emerging Russian fleet, but Lake Kubensky was inappropriate. In 1708, the village ceased to be a significant administrative center. Then Vologda was reckoned with the Arkhangelsk province. The economy was finally undermined when Peter I restricted trade through Arkhangelsk.
City at the turn of the XIX and XX centuries
The history of Vologda at the turn of the century is not marked by significant events. The cargo flows that previously went through the city now changed direction, the Vologda industry did not correspond to technical progress, the weaving mill, sugar and bell-making factories closed, the production of tallow candles decreased, and gradually entrepreneurs completely curtailed the tanning and candle production.
The formation of Soviet power
In 1917, the Vologda government did not recognize the October Revolution, the Bolsheviks and their decrees. Until January 1919, Soviet power was not recognized in the city. Subsequently, the Bolsheviks dismissed all the objectionable administrative bodies and put “their own” in the main places. In 1918, Vologda became the "diplomatic capital" of Russia, because it was here, fearing the capture of Petrograd by the Germans, that eleven embassies, consulates and missions led by the American David R. Francis were evacuated. Soviet power forced foreigners to leave Vologda and go to their native places through Arkhangelsk. The Bolsheviks continued to subjugate the city to new power: in 1918, for example, 22 Vologda streets were renamed (the history of pre-revolutionary names became known only in the 1990s, when the old names were returned to few streets) and squares were held; Congresses were held to restore industry and transport .
City during the Great Patriotic War
The history of Vologda during the war years is the history of a transshipment center for the mass evacuation of the population and industrial enterprises to the deep rear. With the outbreak of hostilities, all the factories of the city switched to military production, the construction of defense facilities began, along the Northern Railway cargo was sent for the besieged Leningrad. By September 1941, the front approached the borders of the region. In general, the city suffered heavy losses during the war years, primarily demographic ones. Since 1942, mortality in Vologda was five times higher than the birth rate.
After the end of hostilities on the territory of the USSR, the active restoration of urban industry began, new treatment and waterworks, roads and a trolleybus line were put into operation, hundreds of thousands of square meters were built. meters of housing. The population began to grow rapidly, because the city could provide a large number of people with jobs. Families moved to Vologda and stayed for good.
The modern history of the city
Today's Vologda is the administrative, transport, cultural and scientific center of the Vologda Oblast and the North-West Federal District as a whole. The history of Vologda endowed the city with a valuable heritage. On the territory of the settlement there are 224 monuments, 128 of which are protected by the state. Interesting facts are connected with the history of Vologda bridges: on the Red Bridge, the film “The Property of the Republic” was shot, Ovsyannikovsky Bridge over Pyatnitsky Ponds was walked by Alexandra, daughter of the last Emperor Nicholas II, Stone Bridge - living evidence of architecture of the late eighteenth century. There are few tourists in the city, but locals are happy to immerse themselves in the history and culture of their native places.