Sheleksa

Sheleksa is a district of lakes and small settlements in the upper Yemtsa basin, between the Onega and the Northern Dvina. A portage through this country connected the two river systems. The parish took its name from the Sheleksa, a tributary in the lake country, and its villages stood around the rivers and Lake Shestovo.

Anthony of Siya settled on the Sheleksa with two fellow monks in 1513 before moving farther east to establish the monastery for which he is remembered. A sixteenth-century tax survey records the Sheleksa district and its church of St Nicholas. The portage remained useful to merchants travelling between the Onega and the Dvina, though the upkeep of bridges and the passage of loaded horses could also bring disputes with the monks whose lands lay along the route.