Slobodskoy
Encyclopedia
Kirov Oblast
Kirov Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . Its administrative center is the city of Kirov. Population: -History:In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Vyatka remained a place of exile for opponents of the tsarist regime, including many prominent revolutionary figures.In 1920, a number of...
, 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...
, located on the right bank of the Vyatka River
Vyatka River
The Vyatka River is a river in Kirov Oblast and the Republic of Tatarstan in Russia, right tributary of the Kama River. It is 1,314 km in length. The area of its basin is 129,000 km²....
, 35 kilometres (21.7 mi) northeast of Kirov
Kirov, Kirov Oblast
Kirov , formerly known as Vyatka and Khlynov, is a city in northeastern European Russia, on the Vyatka River, and the administrative center of Kirov Oblast. Population: -History:...
. Population:
It was first mentioned in 1505 as a fortified settlement. From 1562 it was known as Slobodskoy posad
Posad
A posad was a settlement, often surrounded by ramparts and a moat, adjoining a town or a kremlin, but outside of it, or adjoining a monastery in the 10th to 15th centuries. Usually it was inhabited by craftsmen and merchants, known as posadskiye lyudi .In the Russian Empire a posad was a small...
. It has had town status since 1780.
History
Slobodskoy is one of the oldest towns in Kirov OblastKirov Oblast
Kirov Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . Its administrative center is the city of Kirov. Population: -History:In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Vyatka remained a place of exile for opponents of the tsarist regime, including many prominent revolutionary figures.In 1920, a number of...
. It appeared after joining Vyatka region to Moscow in 1489. For the first time Slobodskoy was mentioned in the charter of Ivan the Terrible in 1505. This year is considered to be the year of its foundation. In Slobodskoy there was the Kremlin castle, from the south it was defended by a large moat, from the east by the bank of the Vyatka and from the north by a large ravine. In the Kremlin there were three churches made of wood. At that time there were 154 houses and nearly 600 people lived here. The site of the town was chosen rather well. It was a place of forests and endless grasslands. In the forests there were a lot of animals and the rivers were full of fish.
Russians arrived in the 12th century. They were peasants who built the villages on the bank of the Vyatka River
Vyatka River
The Vyatka River is a river in Kirov Oblast and the Republic of Tatarstan in Russia, right tributary of the Kama River. It is 1,314 km in length. The area of its basin is 129,000 km²....
. They were from Novgorod, Ustyug, and Suzdal. The peasants were occupied with agriculture; they fed cattle, grew vegetables, and liked fishing and hunting. Slobodskoy province was connected with other provinces by highways and a river system. Natives used those routes for trading. The highway on which Slobodskoy was situated was also the way of the Russian sovereign from Moscow to far Siberia. That highway played a great role in the fate of the town. It had become an outpost and a trade center in the north of Vyatka by the beginning of the 17th century.
In the 17th century Slobodskoy became a centre of the district with its own government. Since 1784 Slobodskoy began to be built according to the plan of Katherine II. In the 18th and 19th centuries brick houses in the spirit of provincial classic appeared in the main street.