Beryozovka

Beryozovka was first recorded in 1652 as the Ascension stockade, named for its wooden Church of the Ascension. Convicts, many from the Vologda and Arkhangelsk provinces, were settled there. In 1800 the village took the name Voznesenskoye. The Goroblagodat road passed through it on the way to Siberia, bringing merchants and other travelers as well as prisoners. A stone Ascension church was built in the early nineteenth century, and fairs gave local people an opportunity to trade with visitors on the road.