Volok

Volok, later known as Volokolamsk, grew at a portage between waterways leading toward the Volga and the Moskva River. Its name recalls the hauling of boats across the watershed. Novgorodians used the route in their dealings with the lands farther south, and the settlement appears in chronicles in 1135.

In the fifteenth century Volokolamsk was a princely seat on the western approaches to Moscow. Its white-stone Resurrection Cathedral was built in the latter half of the century, while Joseph of Volokolamsk founded his monastery nearby in 1479. During the Time of Troubles the town’s position again exposed it to warfare; in 1613 it resisted a siege by the forces of the Polish-Lithuanian king. It became a district town in 1781, long after the old portage had given it its name.