Rich villages and villages of the Vologda region. Abandoned villages of the Vologda region

In the Vologda region there is a special type of village houses that you will no longer see in Russia. The main distinguishing feature of these houses is their severity and monumentality. Today we will go to the abandoned villages of the Russian North and find out what makes their houses unique.

The basis is a wooden frame - it is good for its pristine strength, natural beauty, and the simple rhythm of mighty crowns. Try to cover them with some fancy pattern, neatly sawn boards, plaster or paint - and all the charm will immediately disappear. It is the lack of rich external decoration that gives these houses their unique uniqueness.

I will start my story from the northeastern part of the Vologda region. Here, on the banks of the Nutrenka River, there are two villages Nikolskaya and Bolshaya with their large Nikolskaya houses. According to old-timers, most of the houses were transported here from the northern outback. And, indeed, in the neighboring villages there are no such huge log houses. In Soviet times, a large farm was located here, there was a village council, a club, a school, etc.

The first thing that greets us is this huge two-story house with a large light. Moreover, this is not one house, as it might seem at first glance, but two huts - two independent log buildings, tightly pressed against each other and having a common roof.

The ends of the logs at the corners are covered with paneled blades decorated with applied carvings.

The next two houses in the neighborhood are no less huge and also have the type of twin hut, under one gable roof and light. Among the external decorations here, only one house has applied carvings on the corner blades. There is still life in these houses.

Further on one can see, again, a hefty two-story house with a vestibule attached behind it. In the North, only barns, bathhouses and threshing floors were placed separately from housing, and stables and povets were the back part of a Russian house. This allowed the peasant to carry out household work in inclement weather (common in those regions) without going outside.

This is a five-wall house with a cut in the center. The only decoration is that which is sheathed and covered with planks.

This hut is smaller in size, but still larger than the houses in the Middle Zone. As you can see, the house stands on a basement of 8-9 crowns, the roof is covered with planks, like the walls and the light. Not decorated at all (except perhaps the cornice). Most likely, the owners were not so wealthy.

Right next to it is again an example of a double hut, each of which is askew in its own direction, which creates the feeling of a sprawling house. More precisely, this is actually the case. But the little lamp here, unlike the walls, is very skillfully and elegantly decorated with carvings.

We come across a frozen artifact - a “Kazakhstan” tractor, probably from the 60s.

There are a lot of houses here. To cover everything will take the entire report, but I’m going to show other places, so a couple more shots and we’ll go to other villages.

“The Village Council was here”...

Russia is like that.

We leave the village of Bolshaya (on the maps), also known as Nikolskaya (on the sign). In the next series of photographs I will present a few houses of the completely abandoned village of Novo, located on the other side of Vologda - on the Belozersk ridge, on the banks of the Toitsa River.

The houses are more squat and not as expressive as the previous ones. But also on the basement, five-walled. True, there are no lights here anymore. Somewhere there is an attic window, and in the house below it looks more like an attic window. It was even decorated.

Another house is elongated with an entrance in the middle through some unimaginably high porch.

I don't pay attention to the interior of houses because it is not there.

The only interesting finds were these obviously ancient forged huge chests.

And even the baskets here are handmade wicker.

The last resident lived here back in 1995. Continuing along the Belozersk ridge, we leave this village.

And now we are in the village of Ulyankino with its very, very colorful house. The decoration, however, is that of a house of our time.

You can see how much work was put into decorating the house. The castle is knocked down, we go inside.

There is a note on the table asking not to destroy the house.

From this facade there is a loggia at the top.

Not far away on the same site is another creation of a handy owner - a “hunting” house with a greenhouse and a pen for animals.

It’s getting dark, but we have time to explore a couple more villages with their northern houses. This, in my opinion, is already the village of Bubrovo.

As usual, the front part of the house is for housing, the second half is for pets and food supplies.

And in the Soviet years there was no posh here, and even more so now. So all that remains is to abandon these still strong houses.

Even though the houses have been demolished, how can one live when there are no roads, transport runs twice a week and the entire infrastructure has disappeared.

In this village the houses are already covered with slate. The house seems to be quite simple, but there is something in this simplicity.

And finally, a little positive - the village of Artyushino, where all is not lost, although all tendencies are towards this.

A strange and very old mega-domino with ten walls. Either for the workers, or... I don’t know for whom.

Two representatives of different eras and both into oblivion. And there is nothing new!

The unfinished project, by the way, is very global. A building for a village of colossal proportions. I wonder what was supposed to be here.

And this is the “Bubrovskaya” school with a pedestal of V.I. Lenin. The year the school was founded was 1878! Two Heroes of the Soviet Union studied there: Ivan Prokopievich Malozemov (at the age of 21, February 1942, went to the front, died in Stalingrad in March 1943) and Alexander Mikhailovich Nikandrov (in 1941 he was sent to the Northern Fleet, where he served until the Nazis were expelled, then participated in the Soviet-Japanese War of 1945).

Surprisingly well landscaped and maintained “Victory Park”.

“Until their last breath they remained faithful to their Fatherland. The Native Land will forever preserve the names that did not come from the war.”
To the soldiers of the Artyushinsky village council who gave their lives for their Motherland...

This concludes our winter journey through the Russian villages of the Vologda region.

Interesting:

There is no point in hiding that abandoned villages and other populated areas are the object of research for many people who are passionate about treasure hunting (and not only). There is a place for those who like attic searching to roam, to “ring through” the basements of abandoned houses, to explore wells, and much more. etc. Of course, the likelihood that your colleagues or local residents have visited this locality before you is very high, but, nevertheless, there are no “knocked out places”.

Reasons that lead to the desertion of villages

Disappeared settlements are geographical objects that today have completely ceased to exist due to military actions, man-made and natural disasters, and time. In place of such points one can now see a forest, a field, a pond, anything, but not standing abandoned houses. This category of objects is also of interest to treasure hunters, but we are not talking about them now.

Abandoned villages precisely belong to the category of abandoned settlements, i.e. towns, villages, hamlets, etc., abandoned by residents. Unlike the disappeared settlements, the abandoned ones for the most part retain their architectural appearance, buildings and infrastructure, i.e. are in a state close to the time when the settlement was abandoned. So people left, why? A decline in economic activity, which we can see now, as people from villages tend to move to the city; wars; disasters of various types (Chernobyl and its environs); other conditions that make living in a given region inconvenient and unprofitable.

How to find abandoned villages?

Today, one of the most accessible and fairly informative sources is Internet:

The second quite popular and accessible source- These are ordinary topographic maps. It would seem, how can they be useful? Yes, very simple. Firstly, both tracts and uninhabited villages are already marked on fairly well-known maps of the Gentstab. It is important to understand one thing here: a tract is not only an abandoned settlement, but simply any part of the area that is different from other areas of the surrounding area. And yet, on the site of the tract there may not be any village for a long time, but that’s okay, walk around with a metal detector among the holes, collect metal garbage, and then you’ll get lucky. Not everything is simple with non-residential villages either. They may not be completely uninhabited, but may be used, say, as summer cottages, or may be occupied illegally. In this case, I don’t see any point in doing anything, no one needs problems with the law, and the local population can be quite aggressive.

If you compare the same map of the General Staff and a more modern atlas, you can notice some differences. For example, there was a village in the forest on the General Staff, a road led to it, and suddenly the road disappeared on a more modern map; most likely, the residents left the village and began to bother with road repairs, etc.

The third source is local newspapers, local people, local museums. Communicate more with the natives, there will always be interesting topics for conversation, and in between, you can ask about the historical past of this region. What can locals tell you about? Yes, a lot of things, the location of the estate, the manor’s pond, where there are abandoned houses or even abandoned villages, etc.

Local media is also a fairly informative source. Moreover, now even the most provincial newspapers are trying to acquire their own website, where they diligently post individual notes or even entire archives. Journalists travel a lot on their business and interview, including old-timers, who like to mention various interesting facts during their stories.

Don’t hesitate to visit provincial local history museums. Not only are their exhibitions often interesting, but a museum employee or guide can also tell you a lot of interesting things.

It is believed that the mass settlement of the Vologda lands by the Slavs began no earlier than the 8th-9th centuries. Before this, the main inhabitants of the dense forest region, dotted with silver stripes of rivers and saucers of lakes, were Finno-Ugric peoples; scientists distinguish among them four main ethnic groups - Vepsians (all), Merians, Lapps (Sami) and Chud Zavolochskaya.

As a historical heritage, they left us the names of many settlements or bodies of water, in which Finno-Ugric roots can be traced in one way or another: an - goose, kuzh - spruce, bow - convenient, good place, camp - fishing camp, temporary hut for fishermen and etc. And the Venya stream flowing through the Vytegorshchina, if you look at it in detail, was not named in honor of some Venya, but also reflected the Vepsian classification of territorial affiliation: the word Venya can be translated from the Vepsian language as the place where Russians live.

Later, when the gradual assimilation of the Finno-Ugric tribes began with the arrival of the Slavs, many names were modified and “adapted” to new conditions. Princely civil strife and the invasion of Tatar-Mongol invaders also contributed to the toponymic process. The same word “stan” could already mean the location of the residence of the appanage prince, and the village where the Tatars lived.

In general, toponymy is a rather subjective science. Many researchers still fiercely argue about the origin of certain names. Suffice it to say that the toponym “Vologda” has more than a dozen different interpretations! The origin of the hydronym “Pazgalev Stream”, which flows in the Nyuksensky district, can be interpreted differently. It may also be a derivative of the Finno-Ugric word meaning “clean, beautiful body of water”, or a cognate word from the Old Russian “paszgat” - to work quickly and intensively.

Well, now some statistics. Now there are approximately 8,200 settlements in the Vologda region. The most common name is Gorka - there are 105 namesake villages in the region! In second place is Gora - 62, in third is Pochinok - 57. Moreover, in the Vologda and Gryazovets districts, six Pochinoks were found at once! The “collection” of adjectives for this toponym is also amazing - Usov Pochinok, Zarubin Pochinok, Anikin, Vakhonin, Nikitin, Oblupinsky, Tataurov... There is even Big Erogodsky Pochinok! Let us add that such a triple name, although considered quite rare, is by no means unique in the Vologda region. In the Kichmengsko-Gorodetsky district, two “related” villages were found at once - Bolshoye Skretneye Ramenye and Maloe Skretneye Ramenye.

There are quite a lot of place names in the Vologda region that make you smile involuntarily. In the Sheksninsky district there is the village of Glupovskoye, in Mezhdurechensky - Sbrodovo, in Nikolsky - Bludnovo, in Syamzhensky - Trusikha, in Kharovsky - Zlodeikha, in Vozhegodsky - Kholui. We also have our own Durnevo, two Durnevskys and three Durasovs.

Other villages are famous for their toponymic kinship with famous place names. The Nyuksen region has its own Danube, Cherepovets has Ryazan, Vozhegodsky has Bukhara, and not far from Sheksna the real Florida nestles. Maybe not so sunny, but still...

The names of the villages Vinograd and Kharchevnya are a few from another opera. In the Nikolsky district, not far from each other, are Veselaya Griva, Vesely Pakhar and Vysokaya Griva. Also on the map of the region there are Zadnaya Stupolokhta, Grishch and Glukhaya Lokhta, and behind Nyuksenitsa some Family Spoons were found.

Among other non-standard names of settlements in the Vologda region, the following can be noted: Babik, Dorogusha, Ezdunya, Zagotskot, Zakobyaykino, Mardasovo, Perya, Rykhlyanda, Feklukha, Tsypoglazovo and a very strange village - Road section No. 222 (Podlesny village council of the Vologda region).

Since the mid-1990s, in the Vologda region, a still slow, but certainly encouraging process of the emergence of new settlements began. Every year two or three new villages appear on the map of the region. Some of them arise in places where there were once settlements that disappeared in the pre-war or early post-war years. Others, as they say, appear out of nowhere. The latter will include a demonstration village of 200 comfortable houses, which will soon appear between Vologda and Molochny. Moreover, the term “indicative” perfectly reflects the essence of the planned project. Using the example of this village, the regional government wants to demonstrate how and in what conditions a village of the 21st century should exist, living conditions in which, in most respects, should be comparable to urban ones. And not just to show, but over time to spread the experience gained to other settlements in rural areas, where people not only can, but should live better!

We offer you extracts from toponymic dictionary"Geographical names of the Vologda region."