Vologda

Capital city, economic and cultural centre of Vologda oblast (region), Russian Federation; population (1996 est) 300,000. Vologda lies 400 km/249 mi northeast of Moscow on the Vologda River and is situated at the junction of the Moscow–Archangel and St Petersburg–Kirov railways. The city contains engineering and metallurgical works, and also produces linen and foodstuffs, especially dairy products.

Vologda has many churches and monasteries dating from the 16th to the early 19th century, as well as traditional wooden houses. The city was first chronicled in 1147; it became part of Muscovy in 1397, and was an important trading point on the route between Siberia and Western Europe until the early 18th century.

Noteworthy architecture in Vologda includes the collection of 17th–18th-century buildings known as the ‘Archbishop's Courtyard’ and St Sofia's Cathedral (1568–70).

Vologda

Oblast (region) in the northwestern Russian Federation; area 145,700 sq km/56,255 sq mi; population (1996) 1,350,000 (68% urban). The capital is Vologda. There are lumbering, woodworking, cellulose, paper, chemical, glass, linen milling, metalworking, and traditional handicraft industries. Coarse grains and flax are grown, and there is dairy farming.

The province stretches from the southern shores of Lake Onega and the Rybinsk Reservoir in the west to the Northern Dvina in the east. Its terrain is a rolling plain, half of which is covered with coniferous forests. There are large peat deposits. Cities in the region include Cherepovets, Kharovsk, and Veliki Ustyug.

The province was captured from the Finns by Novgorod in the 11th century, and became Muscovite by 1462. It was an area of internal exile from the 15th century onwards.