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city in the northwest of Russia
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Vologda (Russian: Во́логда, IPA: [ˈvoləɡdə]) is a city and the administrative center of Vologda Oblast, Russia, located on the river Vologda within the watershed of the Northern Dvina. Population: 313,944 (2021 census); 301,755 (2010 census); 293,046 (2002 census); 282,802 (1989 Soviet census).
The city serves as a major transport hub of the Northwest of Russia. The Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation has classified Vologda as a historic city, one of 41 in Russia and one of only three in Vologda Oblast.
The official founding year of Vologda is 1147, based on the 17th century "Tale of Miracles of Gerasimus of Vologda" and Ivan Slobodsky's 1716 "Chronicler", which tells the story of the arrival of the monk Gerasimus who founded the Trinity Monastery near the Vologda river. This date, which would make Vologda about the same age as Moscow, was introduced by the historian Aleksey Zasetsky in 1780.
However, historians and archaeologists have expressed doubts on the official founding year, due to the age and secondary nature of the sources and also due to archaeological excavations dating no earlier than the 13th century. Instead, they believe that the city was founded in the 13th century with Vologda being mentioned in a 1264 agreement between the Novgorod Republic and the Grand Prince of Vladimir as an outlying possession of the Novgorod Republic.
The nucleus of Vologda in the 13th century was not located in the area which is now the city center, but rather the area known now as "Lazy ground" (Ленивая площадка), close to the Resurrection church. This area was the center of Vologda up to 1565. Until that year, no stone constructions existed in Vologda; all of the city fortifications, bridges, houses, churches, and industrial enterprises were made of wood.
The unique position of Vologda on important waterways connecting Moscow, Novgorod, and the White Sea (via the Northern Dvina) made it attractive for the Novgorod Republic, as well as for the princes of Tver and Moscow, who fought numerous wars between the 13th and the 15th centuries.
In 1371, Dmitry Prilutsky, a monk from the Nikolsky Monastery in Pereslavl-Zalessky, founded Nikolsky Monastery, now known as Spaso-Prilutsky Monastery, close to the city. Dmitry Donskoy, the Grand Prince of Moscow, was the chief benefactor of the monastery and viewed it as a stronghold of the influence of the Grand Duchy of Moscow in the Northern lands in competition with Novgorod.
In 1397, during the reign of Vasily I, Vologda was added to the Grand Duchy of Moscow. Subsequently, the city was several times attacked by Novgorod forces. During the Muscovite Civil War, Vologda played a key role. After Vasily II the Blind, the Grand Prince of Moscow, was defeated by Dmitry Shemyaka in 1447, he swore to never start a war against Shemyaka, was exiled to Vologda, and got the city as a personal possession. From there Vasily traveled to the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery where the hegumen released him from the oath. The civil war continued, and in 1450, Vologda was besieged by the troops of Dmitry Shemyaka; however, they did not manage to occupy the town.
After the death of Vasily in 1462, Vologda passed to the possession of his son Andrey Menshoy and became the center of the Principality of Vologda. In 1481, after the death of Andrey who had no successors, Vologda passed to Ivan III, the Grand Duke of Moscow, and was included to the Grand Duchy of Moscow.
During the reign of Tsar Ivan the Terrible, Vologda became one of the major transit centers of Russia's trade. The foreign trade was conducted mostly with England, Holland, and other western countries via the White Sea. Arkhangelsk was the major foreign trade haven, and Vologda stood on the waterway connecting Moscow with Arkhangelsk. The trade with Siberia was conducted via the Sukhona and the Vychegda, and Vologda also played an important role as a transit center. The state courtyard was built in the city on the bank of the Vologda. In 1553, Vologda was visited by the English seafarer Richard Chancellor who officially established diplomatic relations between the Tsardom of Russia and England. In 1554, trading agent John Gass described Vologda to English merchants as a city with an abundance of bread where the goods were twice as cheap as in Moscow and Novgorod, and that there was no city in Russia that would not trade with Vologda. Following the reports of John Gass, in 1555 England opened a trading office in the city, and the first Russian ambassador sent to England for negotiations became Osip Nepeya, a native of Vologda.
In 1565, Ivan the Terrible introduced the policy of Oprichnina and included Vologda in the structure of Oprichnina lands. That year, he visited the city for the first time and decided to make it the center of Oprichnina and consequently the capital of the country. The Tsar ordered to build a new fortress. It was decided to build it not in the former town center, but rather in another part of the town, limited on the one side by the river, and on the other side by what are now Leningradskaya, Oktyabrskaya, and Mira Streets. The fortress was surrounded by a moat. Ivan the Terrible traveled to Vologda in person to supervise the foundation of the fortress on April 28, 1566, which was the day to celebrate the memory of Saint Jason (Nason in the Russian tradition) and Saint Sosipater. Therefore, the territory of the fortress located in the new part of Vologda was named the "Nason-gorod" (Nason-town). The other name of the Nason-gorod was the Vologda Kremlin (currently, the name is sometimes referred only as the Bishop's courtyard).
Between 1568 and 1570, a new cathedral was built in the new fortress. The Saint Sophia Cathedral became the first stone building in Vologda. The design of the cathedral copied the Dormition Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin. This was the idea of Ivan the Terrible who wanted to make his new capital similar to Moscow. He personally supervised the construction, headed by the architect Razmysl Petrov. In 1571, Vologda became the center of the Diocese of Vologda and Perm that was formed in 1492 and previously had its main church in the distant settlement of Ust-Vym in Perm lands. Thereby, Vologda was strengthened not only in trading, military and political influence, but also in ecclesiastical affairs.
However, in 1571 Ivan the Terrible unexpectedly stopped the construction work in Vologda and left the city for good. Presumably, this was connected with his decision to abolish Oprichnina, and Vologda was not needed as the second capital any longer. According to the legend, when Ivan visited the Saint Sophia Cathedral, a little stone fell from the roof on his head. The superstitious Tsar who received a serious head injury took it as a sign of misfortune and decided to leave the city. In any case, it is known that the Tsar wanted even to demolish the cathedral, and that the cathedral was never consecrated during his lifetime. The consecration took place only during the reign his son Feodor I in 1587. Parts of the incomplete fortress which were later in the 17th century strengthened with wooden walls stayed up to the 19th century when they were disassembled by the city authorities and local residents and used as a material for stone building.
The Time of Troubles for Vologda began with a plague epidemic in 1605. In 1608, when Russia was split into areas controlled by Tsar Vasily Shuysky and areas controlled by the pretender False Dmitry II supported by Polish troops, the people of Vologda made an oath to False Dmitry. By gaining Vologda not only did he get control over Russian and English trading warehouses, but he also positioned himself to gain control over northern Russia. However, abuses and property seizures by the new administration sent to Vologda caused extreme discontent among the population. As a result, Vologda denounced False Dmitry II and supported Shuysky. Moreover, in February 1609 a national home guard headed by Nikita Vysheslavtsev was formed in Vologda and went to fight against False Dmitry II.
In 1612, people of Vologda rendered sizable food and military help to the home guard organized by Kuzma Minin and Dmitry Pozharsky, which eventually defeated Polish troops. However, after the city sent huge military forces to support the second home guard, it remained without sufficient protection, and on September 22, 1612 one of the Lithuanian extortionate groups seized Vologda without resistance, later burning down the city and killing and imprisoning many of its inhabitants.
After 1613, Vologda quickly recovered due to its convenient location and once again became an important center of foreign trade. During the reign of Peter the Great, Vologda became one of the main military bases of Russia. Military and technical equipment for fortresses and military ships under construction was stored there. Vessels which delivered food supplies to Arkhangelsk were constructed in Vologda. Peter intended to hold them on Lake Kubenskoye, 30 kilometers (19 mi) north of Vologda. However, after personally inspecting the lake in 1692, he abandoned the idea deciding that the lake is improper for that purpose.
Peter the Great visited Vologda on no less than ten occasions, on six of which (in 1692, 1693, 1694, 1702, 1722, and 1724) he stayed in the city for extended time. He always stayed in a small house of the Dutch merchant Goutman, which in 1872 was bought by the city authorities, and in 1885 was transformed into the memorial museum of Peter the Great and became the first museum of Vologda.
However, after St. Petersburg was founded and foreign trade was rerouted to the Baltic Sea, the importance of Vologda as a center of foreign trade decayed. In 1722, Peter issued the decree restricting trade through Arkhangelsk, which damaged Vologda even further. In the course of the administrative reform carried out in 1708, Vologda lost its functions as an administrative center and was included as a town of Archangelgorod Governorate.
The revival began only during the reign of Catherine the Great who in 1780 made Vologda the center of Vologda Viceroyalty, a successor of Archangelgorod Governorate. In 1796, the viceroyalty, administered by a governor-general, was transformed into Vologda Governorate, the borders of which stretched up to the Ural mountains in the east. The center of Vologda was rebuilt according to the plan of a provincial city issued in 1781. The street network is still in use now.
A new economic lifting of the city was connected with a steamship movement across the Sukhona and with the building of a new railroad line connecting Vologda with Yaroslavl and Moscow (1872), with Arkhangelsk (1898), with St. Petersburg and Vyatka (1905).
In 1871, the Danish merchant Friedrich Buman opened a specialized butter factory in the manor of Fominskoye, 13 kilometers (8.1 mi) from Vologda. It was the first butter factory both in Vologda Governorate and in Russia. Since then Vologda became the center of the butter industry, and the Vologda butter, a special type of butter with the taste of nuts invented by Nikolay Vereschagin and Buman, became a world trademark. In 1911, the manor of Fominskoye together with the Buman's creamery was given to the state and became the base for the Vologda dairy institute. Thereby Vologda turned to one of the largest dairy centers of Russia.
Since the 15th century, Vologda was a political exile destination and was even known as "Siberia close to the capital". In the 19th–20th centuries, such persons as Joseph Stalin, Vyacheslav Molotov (later the Minister of Foreign Affairs), Nikolai Berdyaev (the famous Russian philosopher), Boris Savinkov (later known as a successful terrorist), Mariya Ulyanova, and Alexander Bogdanov were sent to Vologda. Anatoly Lunacharsky chose to go there to join Bogdanov, and to marry Anna Alexandrovna Malinovskaya, Bogdanov's sister.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Vologda”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.