Orlov

Orlov occupies a promontory formed by the Vyatka and the Vorobikha. A fortified settlement here dates archaeologically to around the turn of the thirteenth century. The name first appears in a chronicle in 1459, when Moscow's forces campaigned against the Vyatka lands; the town was brought under Moscow in 1489. One explanation of its name connects it with a word for a pointed headland, fitting its position between the rivers.

In the eighteenth century Orlov traded grain and hides with Arkhangelsk, and merchants held three annual fairs. The Bulychev merchants established a tannery in 1778. In 1780 Orlov became an uyezd town of the Vyatka Viceroyalty, after earlier periods in Siberian and Kazan provincial administration. Its merchants' leather trade linked the town to markets far beyond the Vyatka valley.