Koygorodok

Koygorodok was recorded in 1586 as the pogost of Kolgorot, with a wooden chapel of Saint Athanasius, ten inhabited peasant households and three empty ones. Nearby stood the village of Sharga and the small Leontyevsky settlement. The households' fortunes changed with harvests and migration: by 1608 several yards were empty after famine, while others later left for Siberia, the Vyatka and the upper Kama. By 1646 the pogost had grown to forty-five households, though nine were deserted. Sharga had merged with it by 1678. These records reveal a community on the upper Sysola whose size was shaped by poor harvests and the movement of families through the forested northern river country.