Lukh

Lukh stands on the river of the same name, among the forests west of the Volga. It became the centre of one of the last appanage principalities in the Muscovite lands. A chronicle records a Tatar raid on Kostroma, Plyos and Lukh in 1429, after which the grand prince’s commanders overtook the raiders beyond Nizhny Novgorod.

At the end of the fifteenth century Lukh and neighbouring districts were granted to the Belsky princes, who had come to Moscow from Lithuania. Their possessions included Kineshma and Vichuga as well as Lukh. The town’s wooden churches stood in its trading quarter, while its fortified centre sheltered the district in troubled times. The Belsky appanage eventually ended and a Lukh uyezd was formed from its lands.