Beryozovo

Beryozovo stands on the Northern Sosva, a tributary of the lower Ob, near waterways leading from the Urals into northern Siberia. The Russian name and the older Khanty name both evoke birch trees. Its position made the settlement a point of exchange and administration in a country connected chiefly by rivers.

In 1593 Russian forces built a fort at the site of the Khanty settlement of Sŭmt-voš. The stronghold became one of the earliest Russian towns in northern western Siberia, with a fortified centre and an adjoining settlement. Its history was closely tied to the collection of fur tribute and to routes across the Urals. In the eighteenth century Beryozovo also served as a place of exile: Alexander Menshikov, once a powerful associate of Peter the Great, died there in 1729.