Kholmogory
Encyclopedia
Kholmogory is a historic village (selo) and the administrative center of Kholmogorsky District of Arkhangelsk Oblast
Arkhangelsk Oblast
Arkhangelsk Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . It includes the Arctic archipelagos of Franz Josef Land and Novaya Zemlya, as well as the Solovetsky Islands in the White Sea....
, Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
. It lies on the left bank of the Northern Dvina
Northern Dvina
The Northern Dvina is a river in Northern Russia flowing through the Vologda Oblast and Arkhangelsk Oblast into the Dvina Bay of the White Sea. Along with the Pechora River to the east, it drains most of Northwest Russia into the Arctic Ocean...
, along the Kholmogory Highway, 75 km southeast of Arkhangelsk
Arkhangelsk
Arkhangelsk , formerly known as Archangel in English, is a city and the administrative center of Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia. It lies on both banks of the Northern Dvina River near its exit into the White Sea in the north of European Russia. The city spreads for over along the banks of the river...
and 90 km north of the Antonievo-Siysky Monastery
Antonievo-Siysky Monastery
Antonievo-Siysky Monastery is a Russian Orthodox monastery that was founded by Saint Anthony of Siya deep in the woods, 90 km to the south of Kholmogory, in 1520...
. The name is derived from the Finnish
Finnish language
Finnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland Primarily for use by restaurant menus and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. It is one of the two official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a...
Kalmomäki for "corpse hill" (cemetery). Population:
The Kholmogory area was at first in historical times inhabited by the Finno-Ugrians "Savolotshij Thsuuds", (sa-volokis, i.e. "the Chud
Chud
Chud or Chude is a term historically applied in the early Russian annals to several Finnic peoples in the area of what is now Finland, Estonia and Northwestern Russia....
[who live] beyond the portage"), known also as Yems in old Novgorod chronicles, and Karelians. The first Slavonic population to enter to Kalmamäki were Pomors
Pomors
Pomors or Pomory are Russian settlers and their descendants on the White Sea coast. It is also term of self-identification for the descendants of Russian, primarily Novgorod, settlers of Pomorye , living on the White Sea coasts and the territory whose southern border lies on a watershed which...
from Vologda area after 1220. As early as the 14th century, the village (the name of which was then spelled Kolmogory) was an important trading post of the Novgorod Republic
Novgorod Republic
The Novgorod Republic was a large medieval Russian state which stretched from the Baltic Sea to the Ural Mountains between the 12th and 15th centuries, centred on the city of Novgorod...
in the Far North of Russia. Its commercial importance further increased in 1554 when the Muscovy Company
Muscovy Company
The Muscovy Company , was a trading company chartered in 1555. It was the first major chartered joint stock company, the precursor of the type of business that would soon flourish in England, and became closely associated with such famous names as Henry Hudson and William Baffin...
made it a center of its operations in furs. The Swedes
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
besieged the wooden fort during the Time of Troubles
Time of Troubles
The Time of Troubles was a period of Russian history comprising the years of interregnum between the death of the last Russian Tsar of the Rurik Dynasty, Feodor Ivanovich, in 1598, and the establishment of the Romanov Dynasty in 1613. In 1601-1603, Russia suffered a famine that killed one-third...
(1613), but had to retreat in failure. In the course of the 17th and 18th centuries, the settlement was also a place of exile, notably for ex-regent Anna Leopoldovna
Anna Leopoldovna
Anna Leopoldovna of Russia , also known as Anna Karlovna , regent of Russia for a few months during the minority of her baby son Ivan...
and her children.
In 1682, the six-pillared Kholmogory cathedral was consecrated; the biggest in the region. It was disfigured by the Communists
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
in the 1930s. Many ancient wooden shrines and mills, however, still survive in the neighborhood. One of the nearby villages is a birthplace of the great Russian scientist Mikhail Lomonosov
Mikhail Lomonosov
Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov was a Russian polymath, scientist and writer, who made important contributions to literature, education, and science. Among his discoveries was the atmosphere of Venus. His spheres of science were natural science, chemistry, physics, mineralogy, history, art,...
. Local artisans — such as Fedot Shubin
Fedot Shubin
Fedot Ivanovich Shubin is widely regarded as the greatest sculptor of 18th-century Russia.A peasant's son, Shubin was born in a Pomor village near Kholmogory and, inspired by the example of his neighbour Mikhail Lomonosov, he walked all the way to St Petersburg at the age of 18...
- have been famed for their craft of carving
Scrimshaw
Scrimshaw is the name given to handiwork created by whalers made from the byproducts of harvesting marine mammals. It is most commonly made out of the bones and teeth of sperm whales, the baleen of other whales, and the tusks of walruses...
the tusks of mammoth
Mammoth
A mammoth is any species of the extinct genus Mammuthus. These proboscideans are members of Elephantidae, the family of elephants and mammoths, and close relatives of modern elephants. They were often equipped with long curved tusks and, in northern species, a covering of long hair...
s and walrus
Walrus
The walrus is a large flippered marine mammal with a discontinuous circumpolar distribution in the Arctic Ocean and sub-Arctic seas of the Northern Hemisphere. The walrus is the only living species in the Odobenidae family and Odobenus genus. It is subdivided into three subspecies: the Atlantic...
es.
In Kholmogory, a craft of Kholmogory bone carving
Kholmogory bone carving
Kholmogory bone carving is a traditional handicraft practised in the villages of Kholmogorsky District, Arkhangelsk Oblast, in the north of Russia.The craft of bone carving was developed in the town of Kholmogory in 17th century...
was developed in 17th century. The bone carvings from Kholmogory were notable for excellent craftsmanship and perfected technique. The best carving masters from Kholmogory were invited to work in the Kremlin Armoury
Kremlin Armoury
The Kremlin Armory is one of the oldest museums of Moscow, established in 1808 and located in the Moscow Kremlin .The Kremlin Armoury originated as the royal arsenal in 1508. Until the transfer of the court to St Petersburg, the Armoury was in charge of producing, purchasing and storing weapons,...
, which performed orders for the tsar’s court. The handicraft reached its peak under the reign of Peter the Great
Peter I of Russia
Peter the Great, Peter I or Pyotr Alexeyevich Romanov Dates indicated by the letters "O.S." are Old Style. All other dates in this article are New Style. ruled the Tsardom of Russia and later the Russian Empire from until his death, jointly ruling before 1696 with his half-brother, Ivan V...
. Currently the carving is being performed at the Lomonosov Bone Carving Factory.