Olonets Governorate
Encyclopedia
The Olonets Governorate or Government of Olonets was a guberniya
(governorate
) of north-western Imperial Russia, extending from Lake Ladoga
almost to the White Sea
, bounded W. by Finland
, N. and E. by Arkhangelsk
and Vologda
, and S. by Novgorod and St. Petersburg
. The area was 57,422 m², of which 6,794 m² were covered by lakes.
and geologically to the Finland region; it is thickly dotted with hills reaching 1,000 ft. in altitude, and diversified by numberless smaller ridges and hollows running from northwest to south-east. The rest of the governorate was a flat plateau
sloping towards the marshy lowland
s of the south. The geological structure was very varied. Granite
s, syenite
s, and diorite
s, covered with Laurentian metamorphic
slate
s, occurred extensively in the north-west. Near Lake Onega
they were overlain with Devon
ian sandstone
s and limestone
s, yielding marble
and sandstone for building; to the south of that lake carboniferous limestones and clays made their appearance. The whole was sheeted with boulder-clay, the bottom moraine
of the great ice-sheet of the last glacial period. The entire region bears traces of glaciation, either in the shape of scratchings and elongated grooves on the rocks, or of esker
s (asar, selgas) running parallel to the glacial striations.
, Loksha, Tulos
, and Vodlozero cover from 140 to 480 m² each, and their crustacean
fauna indicates a former connection with the Arctic Ocean
. The south-eastern part of Lake Ladoga falls also within the government of Olonets. The rivers drain to the Baltic Sea
and White Sea basins. To the former system belong Lakes Ladoga and Onega, which are connected by the Svir River
and receive numerous streams; of these the Vytegra
, which communicates with the Mariinsk
canal-system, and the Oyat, an affluent of Lake Ladoga, are important for navigation.
, which has its source in the south-east of the governorate and flows into the White Sea, is of minor importance.
63% of the area of Olonets was occupied by forests; those of the Crown, maintained for shipbuilding purposes, extended to more than 800,000 acres (3,000 km²).
The climate is harsh and moist, the average yearly temperature at Petrozavodsk
(61 8' N.) being 33.6 °F (1 °C). 12.0 °F (-11 °C) in January, 57.4 °F (14 °C) in July; but the thermometer rarely falls below 30 °F (-1 °C)
, Karelians
, Chuds and Finns. The people belonged mostly to the Greek Orthodox Church
, or were Old Believers
(Nonconformists).
and oat
s were the principal crops, and some flax
, barley
, and turnip
s were grown, but the total cultivated area did not exceed 21/2% of the whole governorate. The chief source of wealth was timber
, next to which come fishing and hunting. Mushrooms and berries were exported to St. Petersburg. There were quarries and iron-mines, saw-mills, tanneries, iron-works, distilleries, and flour-mills. More than one-fifth of the entire male population left their homes every year in search of temporary employment.
, Kargopol
, Lodeynoye Pole
, Olonets
, Povyenets, Pudozh
, and Vytegra
. It included the Olonets mining district, a territory belonging to the Crown, which covered 432 m² and extended into the Serdobol district of Finland; the ironworks were begun by Peter the Great
in 1701–1714.
invasion its towns soon became wealthy trading centres. Ivan III of Russia
annexed it to Muscovy in the second half of the 16th century.
Guberniya
A guberniya was a major administrative subdivision of the Russian Empire usually translated as government, governorate, or province. Such administrative division was preserved for sometime upon the collapse of the empire in 1917. A guberniya was ruled by a governor , a word borrowed from Latin ,...
(governorate
Governorate
A governorate is an administrative division of a country. It is headed by a governor. As English-speaking nations tend to call regions administered by governors either states, provinces, or colonies, the term governorate is often used in translation from non-English-speaking administrations.The...
) of north-western Imperial Russia, extending from Lake Ladoga
Lake Ladoga
Lake Ladoga is a freshwater lake located in the Republic of Karelia and Leningrad Oblast in northwestern Russia, not far from Saint Petersburg. It is the largest lake in Europe, and the 14th largest lake by area in the world.-Geography:...
almost to the White Sea
White Sea
The White Sea is a southern inlet of the Barents Sea located on the northwest coast of Russia. It is surrounded by Karelia to the west, the Kola Peninsula to the north, and the Kanin Peninsula to the northeast. The whole of the White Sea is under Russian sovereignty and considered to be part of...
, bounded W. by Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
, N. and E. by 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 Vologda
Vologda
Vologda is a city and the administrative, cultural, and scientific center of Vologda Oblast, Russia, located on the Vologda River. The city is a major transport knot of the Northwest of Russia. Vologda is among the Russian cities possessing an especially valuable historical heritage...
, and S. by Novgorod and St. Petersburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
. The area was 57,422 m², of which 6,794 m² were covered by lakes.
Geology
Its north-western portion belonged orographicallyOrography
Orography is the study of the formation and relief of mountains, and can more broadly include hills, and any part of a region's elevated terrain...
and geologically to the Finland region; it is thickly dotted with hills reaching 1,000 ft. in altitude, and diversified by numberless smaller ridges and hollows running from northwest to south-east. The rest of the governorate was a flat plateau
Plateau
In geology and earth science, a plateau , also called a high plain or tableland, is an area of highland, usually consisting of relatively flat terrain. A highly eroded plateau is called a dissected plateau...
sloping towards the marshy lowland
Lowland
In physical geography, a lowland is any broad expanse of land with a general low level. The term is thus applied to the landward portion of the upward slope from oceanic depths to continental highlands, to a region of depression in the interior of a mountainous region, to a plain of denudation, or...
s of the south. The geological structure was very varied. Granite
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
s, syenite
Syenite
Syenite is a coarse-grained intrusive igneous rock of the same general composition as granite but with the quartz either absent or present in relatively small amounts Syenite is a coarse-grained intrusive igneous rock of the same general composition as granite but with the quartz either absent or...
s, and diorite
Diorite
Diorite is a grey to dark grey intermediate intrusive igneous rock composed principally of plagioclase feldspar , biotite, hornblende, and/or pyroxene. It may contain small amounts of quartz, microcline and olivine. Zircon, apatite, sphene, magnetite, ilmenite and sulfides occur as accessory...
s, covered with Laurentian metamorphic
Metamorphic rock
Metamorphic rock is the transformation of an existing rock type, the protolith, in a process called metamorphism, which means "change in form". The protolith is subjected to heat and pressure causing profound physical and/or chemical change...
slate
Slate
Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. The result is a foliated rock in which the foliation may not correspond to the original sedimentary layering...
s, occurred extensively in the north-west. Near Lake Onega
Lake Onega
Lake Onega is a lake in the north-west European part of Russia, located on the territory of Republic of Karelia, Leningrad Oblast and Vologda Oblast. It belongs to the basin of Baltic Sea, Atlantic Ocean, and is the second largest lake in Europe after Lake Ladoga...
they were overlain with Devon
Devon
Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...
ian sandstone
Sandstone
Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...
s and limestone
Limestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
s, yielding marble
Marble
Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite.Geologists use the term "marble" to refer to metamorphosed limestone; however stonemasons use the term more broadly to encompass unmetamorphosed limestone.Marble is commonly used for...
and sandstone for building; to the south of that lake carboniferous limestones and clays made their appearance. The whole was sheeted with boulder-clay, the bottom moraine
Moraine
A moraine is any glacially formed accumulation of unconsolidated glacial debris which can occur in currently glaciated and formerly glaciated regions, such as those areas acted upon by a past glacial maximum. This debris may have been plucked off a valley floor as a glacier advanced or it may have...
of the great ice-sheet of the last glacial period. The entire region bears traces of glaciation, either in the shape of scratchings and elongated grooves on the rocks, or of esker
Esker
An esker is a long winding ridge of stratified sand and gravel, examples of which occur in glaciated and formerly glaciated regions of Europe and North America...
s (asar, selgas) running parallel to the glacial striations.
Hydrology
Numberless lakes occupied the depressions, while a great many more had left evidences of their existence in the extensive marshes. Lake Onega covers 3,764 m², and reaches a depth of 400 ft (120 m). Lakes Zeg, Vygozero, LachaLake Lacha
Lake Lacha is a freshwater lake, located in the south of Kargopolsky District of Arkhangelsk Oblast in Russia, south of the town of Kargopol. It is the biggest lake in Arkhangelsk Oblast. The area of the lake is , and the area of its basin is...
, Loksha, Tulos
Lake Tulos
Lake Tulos is a large freshwater lake in the Republic of Karelia, Russia, near Finnish border. It has an area of 95.7 km². It freezes up in November and stays icebound until May. There are many islands on the lake. The waters from the lake flow into the Lieksanjoki river that drains into lake...
, and Vodlozero cover from 140 to 480 m² each, and their crustacean
Crustacean
Crustaceans form a very large group of arthropods, usually treated as a subphylum, which includes such familiar animals as crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, krill and barnacles. The 50,000 described species range in size from Stygotantulus stocki at , to the Japanese spider crab with a leg span...
fauna indicates a former connection with the Arctic Ocean
Arctic Ocean
The Arctic Ocean, located in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Arctic north polar region, is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceanic divisions...
. The south-eastern part of Lake Ladoga falls also within the government of Olonets. The rivers drain to the Baltic Sea
Baltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is a brackish mediterranean sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and...
and White Sea basins. To the former system belong Lakes Ladoga and Onega, which are connected by the Svir River
Svir River
Svir is a river in the north-east of Leningrad Oblast, Russia. It flows from Lake Onega west to Lake Ladoga, thus connecting the two largest lakes of Europe. It is the largest river flowing into Lake Ladoga....
and receive numerous streams; of these the Vytegra
Vytegra
Vytegra may refer to:*Vytegra, a town in Vologda Oblast, Russia*Vytegra River, a river in Vologda Oblast, Russia...
, which communicates with the Mariinsk
Mariinsk
Mariinsk is a town in Kemerovo Oblast, Russia, located on the Kiya River northeast of Kemerovo. Population: 39,700 .It was founded in the 18th century as the village of Kiyskoye . In 1856, it was granted town status and renamed Mariinsk after Empress Maria, consort of Alexander II, one...
canal-system, and the Oyat, an affluent of Lake Ladoga, are important for navigation.
Climate and Fauna
Large quantities of timber, firewood, stone, metal and flour were annually shipped on waters belonging to this governorate. The Onega RiverOnega River
The Onega is a river in Kargopolsky, Plesetsky, and Onezhsky Districts of Arkhangelsk Oblast in Russia. The Onega connects Lake Lacha with the Onega Bay in the White Sea southwest of Arkhangelsk, flowing in the northern direction. The discharge at the source is and at the mouth is . The river is ...
, which has its source in the south-east of the governorate and flows into the White Sea, is of minor importance.
63% of the area of Olonets was occupied by forests; those of the Crown, maintained for shipbuilding purposes, extended to more than 800,000 acres (3,000 km²).
The climate is harsh and moist, the average yearly temperature at Petrozavodsk
Petrozavodsk
Petrozavodsk is the capital city of the Republic of Karelia, Russia. It stretches along the western shore of the Lake Onega for some . The city is served by Petrozavodsk Airport. Municipally, it is incorporated as Petrozavodsky Urban Okrug . Population:...
(61 8' N.) being 33.6 °F (1 °C). 12.0 °F (-11 °C) in January, 57.4 °F (14 °C) in July; but the thermometer rarely falls below 30 °F (-1 °C)
Population
The population, which numbered 321,250 in 1881, reached 367,902 in 1897, and 401,100 (estimate) in 1906. They were principally RussiansRussians
The Russian people are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Russia, speaking the Russian language and primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries....
, Karelians
Karelians
The Karelians are a Baltic-Finnic ethnic group living mostly in the Republic of Karelia and in other north-western parts of the Russian Federation. The historic homeland of Karelians includes also parts of present-day Eastern Finland and the formerly Finnish territory of Ladoga Karelia...
, Chuds and Finns. The people belonged mostly to the Greek Orthodox Church
Eastern Orthodox Church
The Orthodox Church, officially called the Orthodox Catholic Church and commonly referred to as the Eastern Orthodox Church, is the second largest Christian denomination in the world, with an estimated 300 million adherents mainly in the countries of Belarus, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece,...
, or were Old Believers
Old Believers
In the context of Russian Orthodox church history, the Old Believers separated after 1666 from the official Russian Orthodox Church as a protest against church reforms introduced by Patriarch Nikon between 1652–66...
(Nonconformists).
Industries
RyeRye
Rye is a grass grown extensively as a grain and as a forage crop. It is a member of the wheat tribe and is closely related to barley and wheat. Rye grain is used for flour, rye bread, rye beer, some whiskeys, some vodkas, and animal fodder...
and oat
Oat
The common oat is a species of cereal grain grown for its seed, which is known by the same name . While oats are suitable for human consumption as oatmeal and rolled oats, one of the most common uses is as livestock feed...
s were the principal crops, and some flax
Flax
Flax is a member of the genus Linum in the family Linaceae. It is native to the region extending from the eastern Mediterranean to India and was probably first domesticated in the Fertile Crescent...
, barley
Barley
Barley is a major cereal grain, a member of the grass family. It serves as a major animal fodder, as a base malt for beer and certain distilled beverages, and as a component of various health foods...
, and turnip
Turnip
The turnip or white turnip is a root vegetable commonly grown in temperate climates worldwide for its white, bulbous taproot. Small, tender varieties are grown for human consumption, while larger varieties are grown as feed for livestock...
s were grown, but the total cultivated area did not exceed 21/2% of the whole governorate. The chief source of wealth was timber
Timber
Timber may refer to:* Timber, a term common in the United Kingdom and Australia for wood materials * Timber, Oregon, an unincorporated community in the U.S...
, next to which come fishing and hunting. Mushrooms and berries were exported to St. Petersburg. There were quarries and iron-mines, saw-mills, tanneries, iron-works, distilleries, and flour-mills. More than one-fifth of the entire male population left their homes every year in search of temporary employment.
Administration division
Olonets Governorate was divided into seven provinces, of which the chief towns were PetrozavodskPetrozavodsk
Petrozavodsk is the capital city of the Republic of Karelia, Russia. It stretches along the western shore of the Lake Onega for some . The city is served by Petrozavodsk Airport. Municipally, it is incorporated as Petrozavodsky Urban Okrug . Population:...
, Kargopol
Kargopol
-Culture and recreation:Today, Kargopol is a sleepy historical town adjoining the Kenozyorsky National Park. It is best known in Russia for Kargopol toys , which are small, simple clay figures painted in traditional style....
, Lodeynoye Pole
Lodeynoye Pole
Lodeynoye Pole is a town in Leningrad Oblast, Russia, located on the left bank of the Svir River northeast of St. Petersburg. Population: 21,400 ....
, Olonets
Olonets
Olonets is a town and the administrative center of Olonetsky District of the Republic of Karelia, Russia, situated on the Olonka River, to the east from Lake Ladoga. Population: -History:...
, Povyenets, Pudozh
Pudozh
Pudozh is a town and the administrative center of Pudozhsky District of the Republic of Karelia, Russia, located on the Vodla River east of Petrozavodsk. Population: 8,000 ....
, and Vytegra
Vytegra
Vytegra may refer to:*Vytegra, a town in Vologda Oblast, Russia*Vytegra River, a river in Vologda Oblast, Russia...
. It included the Olonets mining district, a territory belonging to the Crown, which covered 432 m² and extended into the Serdobol district of Finland; the ironworks were begun by 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...
in 1701–1714.
History
Olonets was colonized by Novgorod in the 11th century, and though it suffered much from SwedishSweden
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....
invasion its towns soon became wealthy trading centres. Ivan III of Russia
Ivan III of Russia
Ivan III Vasilyevich , also known as Ivan the Great, was a Grand Prince of Moscow and "Grand Prince of all Rus"...
annexed it to Muscovy in the second half of the 16th century.