Kargopol

Kargopol stands on the Onega near its outlet from Lake Lacha, at a meeting of routes through the forests of the Russian North. Merchants brought salt from the White Sea coast upstream, while traders from Vologda and Beloozero came to buy it for markets farther south. Stone churches rose above a prosperous town whose reach extended from the lake country to the sea.

In 1447 Dmitry Shemyaka sought refuge at Kargopol during his struggle with Grand Prince Vasily II. As Moscow absorbed the northern lands, the town became an important commercial centre. Charters granted its merchants privileges in the salt trade: salt from Pomor works was carried to Kargopol, weighed and sold onward. The Nativity Cathedral, begun in 1552, expressed the wealth and standing of the town in the sixteenth century. During the Time of Troubles Kargopol’s wooden fort withstood assaults by Polish-Lithuanian forces in December 1612, although the settlement outside its walls was burned. Further attacks followed in 1614. The town later suffered another disaster when a fire in 1765 destroyed much of its housing and storehouses. Its surviving churches and river setting recall both the wealth of northern commerce and the hazards faced by the community that sustained it.