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From the 12 century these lands were under the power of Novgorod the Great and the Rostov-Suzdal Principality which fought with each other for exploration and annexation of new territories. The antagonism lasted to the last quarter of the 15th century when the lands were annexed by the Moscow State. Since then intensive populating of the Krasnoborye started, steady development of agriculture, industries, crafts, trade brought the inhabitants of these Volosts (smaller districts) to the Urals, and farther on to Siberia where they exchanged their produce.
The Krasnoborsk land is a native place of original peasants’ painting of Uftyuga, Permogorye and Rakulka the roots of which are in the 18th century. Bright colours of the painted household tools and objects made them true objects of art reflecting the spiritual culture of Russian people.
Architectural monuments, outstanding examples of wooden architecture of Russia can tell much about daily life, creativity, culture and construction in the Krasnoborye land, among them the Tsivozero bell-tower (the 17th century), the Georgiyevskaya (St. George’s) Church of the Permogorsky Pogost (1665), the Demetrius of Thessalonica Church in the village of Verkhnyaya Uftyuga (1784).
Written evidence on Krasny Bor (so was Krasnoborsk called in older times) belong to the beginning of the 17th century. In 1780, after Ekaterina’s administrative reforms, Krasnoborsk became an Uyezd (district) town, later it lost its administrative status but still was the famous place for fairs, the trade turnover of which in the 19th century was second to the Guberniya centre Vologda.
The Krasnoborsk land gave birth to talented scientists, local historians, researchers and public figures of Russia. Samson Sukhanov, stone-cutter in Saint-Petersburg, who took part in creating such chef d-oeuvres as the Kazansky and St.Isaac’s Cathedrals, Rostrum Columns, the Mikhailovsky Castle, Vasilyevsky Island Strelka and many others, was one of them. Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Borisov, a famous Russian artist and a Polar explorer, a pupil of I.I. Shishkin and A.I. Kuindgi, a forerunner of the artistic exploration of the Arctic, was born there. His artistic heritage is kept in the Russian Museum, in the Museum of Arctic and Antarctic, the Arkhangelsk Museum of Fine Arts. Krasnoborsk is a native place of Nikolai Yegorovich Bekryashev, the founder of the Veliky Ustyg Museum. Devoted local historians Pavel Grigoryevich Zashikhin, Vasily Alekseyevich Ponomarev, Sergei Ivanovich Tupitsyn worked there.
It is a pity the poor tourism infrastructure does not allow to accommodate large groups of tourists, but luckily the Krasnoborsk land is opened for studying it on one’s own. It has preserved some archaic features of traditional folk culture. Some of these features are common for the whole northern province, others can be found only here. No doubt, visiting and studying this area will allow people to better understand the many-sided cultural heritage of the Russian North, to see the picturesque architectural monuments, never touched by a restorer’s hand, to enjoy the cultural landscapes of the land.
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Monastery
