Ust-Sheksna

Ust-Sheksna stood at the mouth of the Sheksna, where it joins the Volga. The Laurentian Chronicle mentions the settlement in 1071 during the suppression of a revolt near Rostov. Excavations have revealed imported Byzantine and Scandinavian goods, Arab silver and the remains of crafts. By the thirteenth century it was a substantial center of trade and production, with evidence of metalworking, pottery and woodworking; lead seals also point to an administrative role on the Volga route.

The settlement was devastated during the Mongol invasion of 1238 and later lost its administrative standing as Moscow consolidated its power. Across the Volga, Rybnaya Sloboda grew at the mouth of the Cheremukha. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries its fishers enjoyed exclusive rights over certain valuable fish in stretches of the Volga, Sheksna and Mologa, supplying the Muscovite court. The sloboda became the town of Rybinsk in 1777.