Kholmogory, Arkhangelsk Oblast

Kholmogory is a historic rural locality (a selo) and the administrative center of Kholmogorsky District of Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia. It lies on the left bank of the Northern Dvina River, along the Kholmogory Highway, southeast of Arkhangelsk and north of the Antonievo-Siysky Monastery. The name is derived from the Finnish 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 [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  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 in the Far North of Russia. Its commercial importance further increased in 1554 when the English Muscovy Company made it a center of its operations in furs. The Polish-Lithuanian vagabonds (see Lisowczycy) besieged the wooden fort during the Time of Troubles (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 and her children.