Oskol

Oskol stands near the meeting of the Oskol and Oskolets rivers, on the forest-steppe frontier. The name was borne by an older settlement in the district, while the Russian fortress town was established at the end of the sixteenth century alongside new strongpoints at Kursk and Belgorod. Its garrison watched the approaches from the open steppe.

Cossacks settled in a suburb of the town, while coachmen carried official mail and goods along the frontier roads, while other service people maintained the fortress and the roads. In 1616 a Polish-Lithuanian detachment burned Oskol, and the voivode Nikolai Skuratov restored it. In 1655 the town became known as Stary Oskol, or Old Oskol, to distinguish it from the newer town of Novy Oskol farther down the river.