Totma

Totma stands on the Sukhona River in northern Russia, along a water route toward the Northern Dvina and the White Sea. Salt production began nearby in the thirteenth century, and the settlement moved from its earlier site downstream. In 1539 Kazan Tatars plundered Totma, after which a fortress was built. The monk Feodosy Sumorin founded the Transfiguration Monastery in 1554. Trade and salt made Totma prosperous in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, while in the eighteenth century its merchants took part in expeditions and trade reaching Alaska. In 1780 the town became the centre of Totemsky uyezd. Its fortunes later declined as foreign trade shifted toward Saint Petersburg, but its history still connects the saltworks and river routes of northern Russia with ventures across Siberia and the Pacific.