Totma is located in the eastern part of the
Vologda region. Totma is not less interesting than the neighboring
Great Ustyug, and from the tourist
point of view, this city of the Russian North, underestimated, lying
on the Sukhona River. The city, which at the present time, bears the
memory of Russian explorers and navigators who have mastered Siberia
and Russian America. Evidences of this are on every corner, be it
monuments, temples-ships of authentic Totma baroque and even an
American silver fox, unique from the point of view of Russian
heraldry, located on the city's coat of arms. The natural objects on
Sukhona are interesting in the vicinity of the city.
A visit
to the city will be especially interesting for pilgrims, travelers
who are interested in the history of Russia, lovers of auto
expeditions. The trip is better to plan for summer time.
For the most part, Totma is located on the left high
bank of the Sukhona with rugged relief and partly on the opposite low
bank. There is practically nothing to do in the trans-river part,
perhaps with the exception of a few viewpoints that allow you to enjoy
panoramic views of the city.
The small central part of the city
naturally stretches along the river. The correct quarter planning
according to the town-planning plan is sometimes broken by the natural
features of the relief, hollows and streams. For orientation, the city
center can be conditionally limited to Kirov Street in the north,
Sukhona Street in the south, Dmitrovsky or a little more distant
Korepovsky stream in the east, and a river with a memorable name - Dog
Denga in the west. The latter has nothing to do with dog currency, the
name has historically been remade into Russian from the Finno-Ugric
Pyos-Edenga. The central streets of Lenin and Sovetskaya, transverse
Belousovskaya, connect the Totem settlement (Cathedral Hill), the main
city Trading Square, and park areas. There is no clearly marked
embankment in the city, but there are several exits to the river on high
steep banks, on which good viewpoints are formed.
The outskirts
of Totma are former villages with corresponding names, now
microdistricts, some of which are must-see: Zelenskaya Sloboda - to the
west of the center, as well as the village of Varnitsy to the north of
the city. Babushkina Street leads to the northwestern outskirts of the
city, where the Spaso-Sumorin Monastery is located.
Totma has an interesting historical and architectural
heritage. Presented are Russian baroque, classicism, "Russian style",
eclecticism, peasant houses and outbuildings, barns, merchant
warehouses. Three of the surviving city churches are classic examples of
the original architectural school of the "Totem baroque", two more
temples in one way or another have features of this style. In addition,
a number of interesting civil buildings stand out, including those that
housed various educational institutions of the city.
"Totem
Baroque"
Most of the temples built in the second half of the 18th
century in the style of the so-called "Totem baroque" (a kind of
classical northern baroque) are exceptionally original. Local architects
were able to creatively process Western European ideas. Churches built
in this style are very high, literally looking into the sky; their
silhouettes are similar to the silhouettes of sailing ships. Exquisite
ornaments on the facades of churches - cartouches, or, as they were
called in the 18th century, "brands" - give them a special originality.
Totem cartouches differ from the usual ones (stucco, carved or painted)
and represent an external element of the decoration of temples - a part
of the wall masonry, as a rule, protruding by a third of the brick and
framed by a roller of brick set. The inner margins of the cartouches
depict stars, flowers, shamrocks, crosses and shells. There is a version
that totem cartouches are nothing more than a drawn element of sea
charts stylized in architecture, which were used by local merchants in
their campaigns.
Temples in the style of "Totem Baroque":
Church of the Entry into Jerusalem (1794)
Trinity Church in
Zelenskaya (Rybachaya) Sloboda (1772; active)
Church of the Nativity
of Christ (1746-1748; 1786-1793; active)
Temples with elements of
the "Totem Baroque" style:
Church of the Assumption (1800-1808)
Church of John the Baptist (1738)
Church of the Resurrection in Totma
(1744-1749)
Church of the Resurrection in Varnitsy (1743-1772)
Classicism in temple architecture is represented only by the
Epiphany Cathedral (1863-1872) and the Ascension Cathedral of the
Spaso-Sumorin Monastery (1796-1801). In total, at the beginning of the
20th century, there were 17 stone temples in Totma. Until now, five have
survived - Vhodoyerusalimsky, Assumption, Resurrection, Rozhdestvensky,
Trinity. The last two have been handed over to the Russian Orthodox
Church, where divine services have been resumed. Other churches built in
this style have not survived to this day, having been destroyed during
the years of militant atheism (there were at least three more
outstanding churches - John the Theologian, Kazan and
Paraskevo-Pyatnitsky).
Among the monuments of Totma civil architecture there
are no masterpieces, but nevertheless, the building of the city is quite
original and interesting. In particular, it is worth noting the estate
of the merchant-navigator Fyodor Kholodilov on the banks of the Sukhona,
which has been well preserved to this day. Classicism is represented by
the building of the former teacher's seminary on Belousovskaya street
and the Zamyatkins' house on Sadovaya. The most widely represented
eclecticism:
the building of the Mariinsky Women's Gymnasium, in the
city center with a claim to pseudo-Gothic (1912-1916)
building of the
Theological School (1898-1900)
the building of the Petrovsky Craft
School - a monumental three-story building on the banks of the Sukhona
(1902-1904).
In the central part of the city, stone and wooden
merchant mansions have been preserved, among which it is worth
highlighting:
Malofeev's estate, semi-stone-half-wooden with
outbuildings
the merchant's house of Kuznetsov, a classic for
northern Russian cities, wooden with a spacious balcony above the
entrance.
the house of the merchants Panovs, with baroque elements,
was built in the very center of the city for the merchants-builders of
the Temple of the Entrance to Jerusalem.
Singer's shop, a monument of
history and culture of regional importance.
House of the merchant
Belov.
Ordinary buildings of the city are represented by
one-story houses of the late 19th - early 20th centuries, the most
interesting in the appearance of which are openwork chimneys on the roof
and carved drainpipes. An interesting wooden house with Art Nouveau
elements has been preserved.
A kilometer west of the city center is the
Spaso-Sumorin Monastery (formerly Spaso-Preobrazhensky), known since
1554. In 1919, the monastery was closed and became operational again
only in 2014.
The complex of the former monastery was
significantly damaged in the Soviet years and is currently only
partially restored. The 76-meter bell tower, built at the beginning of
the 19th century, partially burned down in 1917, and since the 1930s it
began to be dismantled into bricks. The following buildings have been
preserved on the territory of the complex.
The Ascension
Cathedral is an excellent example of mature provincial classicism
designed by V. M. Kazakov, externally restored, but closed to the
public. The Totma community has repeatedly drawn attention to the unique
frescoes of the outstanding Vologda artist of the second half of the
nineteenth century, P. S. Tyurin, dying inside the temple, but so far no
real steps have been taken to preserve them. Built in 1796-1825.
Spaso-Preobrazhensky Cathedral (without domes, in a ruined state). Built
in 1685-1689, rebuilt in 1880.
Monastery fence tower (in a ruined
state).
Church of the Assumption of the Mother of God (ruins).
Rector's building (museum "Open storage of funds").
Corps of
fraternal cells (in a ruined state).
Corps of fraternal cells (Hotel
"Monastic cells").
Hotel for pilgrims (hostel).
Other notable places in Totma include:
Monument to
Russian sailors and explorers on the central square, which is a boat, on
the sail of which the outlines of totem temples are visible;
Memorial
sign "Sixtieth Parallel";
Monument to I. A. Kuskov;
Monument to
the painter F. M. Vakhrushov;
Monument to the poet N. M. Rubtsov, the
first in Russia.
The Elk stone on the Sukhona River is one of the
largest Odintsov stones, which has been mentioned in historical
documents since the 18th century. According to legend, during the
journey of Peter I through the Vologda lands to Arkhangelsk, the tsar
and his retinue rested on this stone and drank tea from a silver ladle,
and since then the stone has sometimes been called the “royal table”.
This granite stone is 2.5 times larger than the famous boulder
Thunder-stone, on which the Bronze Horseman stands in St. Petersburg.
Also among the interesting features of Totma can be called the presence
of a considerable number of viewing platforms due to the complex urban
terrain, as well as wooden sidewalks, “bridges”, preserved on many city
streets.
Since 1915, a local history museum has been
functioning here, which in the 1990s was divided into several relatively
independent branches, which became the Totma Museum Association. As of
2013, the city has 6 museums under the auspices of the Totem Museum
Association:
The Totma Museum of Local Lore, which occupies the
building of the former religious school and contains the historical,
art, archaeological departments, as well as the department of nature. It
contains a rich collection of items of folk art and everyday life of the
Sukhon region: enamel, blackening on silver, carving on wood and birch
bark, painting on wood, embroideries, artistic processing of metals,
etc.
the Museum of Church Antiquities, exhibiting in the former
Assumption Church wooden sculpture, icons and church items from the
churches of the former Totemsky district;
Museum of Sailors, which
consists of three exhibition halls in the building of the Church of the
Entrance to Jerusalem, telling about the phenomenon and history of Totem
navigation;
House-Museum of Ivan Kuskov, the founder of the Fort Ross
fortress in Northern California, the most famous of the Totem sailors;
The complex of the Spaso-Sumorin Monastery, representing the open
storage of funds on the territory of the former Spaso-Sumorin Monastery;
Museum and exhibition center in the former Church of the Resurrection,
holding temporary exhibitions.
Two more museums are located in
the Totemsky district:
Museum of childhood and family in the
village of Tsareva;
The house-museum of the poet N. M. Rubtsov in the
village of Nikolsky. Many exhibits from the city's secondary school No.
1 (located in the building of the former Petrovsky vocational school),
where in 1976 the first school literary museum of Nikolai Rubtsov was
opened here, were also transferred here. Its creator was the teacher of
literature of the same school, Margarita Afanasievna Shananina. Since
there were difficulties in designing the school museum as an independent
one, it was decided to transfer some of the exhibits to the museum with.
Nikolskoye.
During the summer period (from May to September) there
are two viewing platforms located on the ringing tiers of the bell
towers of the Assumption and Entrance to Jerusalem churches. The last
restored belfry.
Other cultural institutions
There are two
folk theater groups in the city - the Totma Folk Theater of the Totma
Youth Center (director - Svetlana Samodurova) and the Totem Theater "On
Krasnaya Gorka" at the City Cultural Center (director - Lyudmila
Goncharova). The Totemsky regional library named after N. M. Rubtsov
functions with several branches. The municipal cultural institution
"Intermunicipal Organizational and Methodological Center" operates,
which implements the directions of cultural policy related to the
development of various types, genres of folk art and amateur art,
cultural and leisure activities, with the support of institutions of
culture and art, tourism in the region.
Currently, services are held in three active churches: the Trinity Church in the Zelenskaya Rybachya Sloboda, the Church of the Nativity of Christ and the Ascension Cathedral on the territory of the Spaso-Sumorin Monastery. One parish community is registered - the Parish of the Holy Trinity. There is a Sunday school at the Church of the Nativity of Christ, events related to pilgrimage tourism are held. The Totma deanery also includes the territories of the Tarnogsky and Nyuksensky municipal districts.
The name Totma most likely comes from the Finno-Ugric languages (where the Komi “tod” is “a damp place overgrown with spruces and shrubs”, “-ma” is “earth”). This point of view is supported by official science. However, toponymic legends are actively circulating in the city, explaining a different origin of the name. One of them says that Peter I, on his first visit to Totma, said: "It's not a city - it's darkness." However, the incorrectness of this legend is confirmed by the fact that the city had its current name long before the Petrine era. According to another version of the legend, these words allegedly belong to Ivan the Terrible. Another legend says that "Totma" is translated as "a city that conjures water", which is allegedly explained by the fact that the Sukhona River changes the direction of its flow twice a year (since it originates in Lake Kubenskoye, and when the water level in the river is higher than in the lake, in the upper reaches of the river the direction of the flow changes to the opposite and for some time the river flows towards the lake from which it flows).
The date of foundation of Totma is considered to be 1137, based on
the data of the letter of the Novgorod prince Svyatoslav Olgovich, where
among the lands subject to tribute, the churchyard of Toshma is
mentioned. Previously, historians believed that this churchyard was
located 15 kilometers downstream from the modern city; Now these data
are questioned, because the exact date of the founding of the city in
the Middle Sukhohnye can hardly be clarified. Nevertheless, a certain
settlement at the mouth of the Staraya Totma River still existed in the
13th-14th centuries.
In the 15th century, part of the Totma,
apparently, moved to a new place, 2 km north of the modern city. It was
there, according to scientists, that the inhabitants of local villages
were the first in Russia to master the processes of deep salt
production. The first manual on deep drilling of salt wells, created in
Russia, has survived to this day - “A painting on how to start making a
new pipe in a new place,” written by master Semyon Sablin. Around the
varnits built by the inhabitants of the villages of Uglitskaya and
Galitskaya (on the banks of the Kovda, Lyapunikha (Lyapunka) and
Solonukha rivers) a new administrative center of the volost, Usolye
Totemskoe, grew up. From that time until the 18th century, Totma
remained one of the largest salt towns and at one time was also called
the Posad of Totemskaya Salt or Totemskaya Salt, by analogy with
Vychegodskaya Salt, Galician Salt, and others. At first, well-known
Vologda monasteries, including Spaso -Prilutsky, as well as the richest
peasant salt producers. This continued until the Spaso-Sumorin Monastery
acquired the right to duty-free salt production and trade, which
significantly expanded its salt holdings. Soon other merchants began to
arrive on the Totma land. Salt pans were repeatedly devastated. In
1539-1541, the city was heavily devastated by the Kazan Tatars.
Apparently, it was during the period after the departure of the
Kazanians that the construction of a fortified fortress on the highest
of the coastal hills on the left bank of the Sukhona began. The Totem
fortress-prison was a powerful defensive structure that repelled the
attack of a fugitive detachment of Poles in the Time of Troubles, which,
however, plundered the local varnits. It was around this fortress that a
new settlement began to grow, resembling the modern city center with its
borders. Totma is quite accurately indicated on the map of Asia from the
third part of the Mercator Atlas, released in 1595. There is also a
legend that Ivan IV the Terrible visited the city and allegedly even had
time to rest on a halt near the city, which is why the concept of
Sovereign Lug later appeared in the city toponymy. But there is no
documentary evidence of Ivan the Terrible's stay in Totma. A notable
fact in the history of the city of the 16th century was the foundation
of a large monastery near Totma by the monk of the Vologda
Spaso-Prilutsky monastery Theodosius Sumorin, which was called the
Transfiguration of the Savior. Soon, many land holdings, as well as salt
works, moved to the new monastery. The founder of the monastery
Theodosius Sumorin was canonized in 1798. The relics of Theodosius,
extracted in 1919 from the shrine of the monastery cathedral, spent most
of the 20th century in the Lazarevsky Church in Vologda, and in the
1990s returned to Totma, to the current Church of the Nativity.
Totma under the Romanovs
The 17th century is
becoming a century of prosperity for Totma, as well as for other cities
that stood on the North Dvina waterway. Almost all foreign trade of the
Russian state, due to the lack of access to the Baltic Sea, was carried
out through Vologda, Totma, Veliky Ustyug and Arkhangelsk, which
contributed to the emergence of courts and representative offices of
foreign merchants and trade missions in Totma. In just a year, from 500
to 1000 ships passed through the city. The commercial importance of the
city, which increased due to the further development of salt mines,
allowed Totma to be one of the richest and most important cities of the
Russian kingdom. According to the census books of the 1st quarter of the
17th century, in the old Totemsky settlement along the Kovda and
Lyapunka rivers, there were 8 varnits, where brines contained from 5 to
6% salt. Salt production reached 200 thousand pounds per year.
Peter I visited Totma three times. There is a legend that the tsar,
visiting the Totma varnits, personally tested the work of the
salt-worker and pulled a tub of brine out of the well. Peter was the
last of the Russian rulers to personally visit the city. Soon, the
commercial and economic importance of Totma began to decline due to the
founding of St. Petersburg and the complete cessation of trade on the
Sukhono-Dvina route, as well as the discovery of new sources of salt (in
particular, salt lakes Elton and Baskunchak) in southern Russia. But the
Totem merchants were able to find new sources of income and provide the
city with an equally impressive economic prosperity. In the second half
of the 18th century, Totma residents — Fedor and Alexei Kholodilov,
Peter and Grigory Panov, Stepan Cherepanov and a number of others —
organized many expeditions to the east[16]: to Siberia, the Far East and
to the shores of the American continent. Companies of Totma merchants
equipped about 20 expeditions to the Pacific Ocean - this is more than
the companies of Moscow, Vologda and Veliky Ustyug merchants combined.
That is why Totma is called the city of sailors. During these
expeditions, geographical discoveries were made, recorded by science in
1755, maps of a number of islands were compiled. These expeditions took
out 1/5 of all the furs mined on the American continent for half a
century - a record figure among the cities of Russia. The fur trade
brought tangible profits; Thus, with the proceeds from Siberia, Totma
merchants-navigators had the opportunity to build richly decorated and
large enough for such a small city temples: Entrance Jerusalem, Trinity,
Rozhdestvensky. In 1785, Empress Catherine II adopted a decree granting
Totma a coat of arms with a black fox on a golden field: "as a sign that
the inhabitants of this city are practicing catching these animals."
Totmichi proved to be active participants in the Russian-American
Company, explored the Pacific Ocean, discovered a number of the Aleutian
and Commander Islands. Totmich Ivan Kuskov on the coast of Northern
California near Bodega Bay in 1812 founded the Fort Ross fortress, which
became the southernmost point of "Russian America". The surviving
building of the city government, a federal monument, also belongs to the
second half of the 18th century.
In the second half of the 19th
century, Totma gradually became an ordinary county town. The salt mines
in Totma and Ledengsky lost some of their significance, largely due to
the discovery of large salt lakes Elton and Baskunchak in the south of
the country, as well as due to the secularization of monastic lands
carried out by Catherine II, as a result of which local and Vologda
monasteries were deprived of the right to engage in salt production.
Gradually, salt mines passed into the hands of local salt producers and
the treasury. By 1915, salt production had already become oriented
towards local consumption.
City churches continue to be built,
education is developing: a higher primary school, a women's
progymnasium, spiritual and real schools are being opened. At the
beginning of the 20th century, Totma was considered one of the
"educational capitals" of the Vologda province. The Petrovsky craft
school, opened at the expense of a local native, merchant N. I. Tokarev,
enjoyed particular success. The purpose of the school was to teach
children from peasant families how to make toys and household items.
There were several workshops at the school: locksmith, turning,
carpentry, tin, basket, toy. In 1905, at the international exhibition in
Liege (Belgium), the school was awarded the Grand Prix. In the press,
Totma began to be called the Russian Nuremberg - the city of toys.
In addition, Totma continued to be a place of political exile since
the 17th century. Especially many exiles passed through the city in the
second half of the 19th - early 20th centuries. The populist writer and
publicist P. L. Lavrov, who began work on his famous “Historical
Letters” here, the democratic writer N. V. Shelgunov, the ethnographer
and folklorist G. N. Potanin, the future People’s Commissar for Foreign
Affairs of the USSR V. M. Molotov (Scriabin). In 1876, the writer V. G.
Korolenko stayed here for a short time, later describing his personal
impressions of the city in “The History of My Contemporary”, one of the
chapters of which is called “Stop in Totma”. Also in Totma, I. V.
Dzhugashvili (Stalin) stopped for some time, moving from Solvychegodsk
to Vologda. But the most detailed memories of the Totma exile were left
by A. V. Lunacharsky, who lived here in 1903-1904.
My memories of
Totma are even more pleasant than those of Vologda... Totma is a
charming, patterned town, with churches in the rococo style, on the
banks of a huge river, beyond which dark forests stretch. Not far from
the city lies a monastery where you can ride a sleigh through silver
winter forests and where they give bread, kvass and fish soup, which I
have never eaten before or since ... I remember Totma as some kind of
winter fairy tale, some kind of decoration for "Snow Maiden".
- A. V.
Lunacharsky. "From Vologda memories"
After the abolition of the Vologda province, and with
it the Totemsky district in 1929, the city became the center of the
newly formed Totemsky district - first the Northern Territory
(1929-1936), then the Northern Region (1936-1937), and then - the
Vologda Region separated from its composition. (since 1937). The
processes of industrialization have little affected the city. A power
station was built and food and forestry production expanded, but the
economy remained oriented toward agriculture. The struggle of militant
atheists with religion ended with the demolition of more than half of
the temples of the city, the conversion of the Temple of the Entrance to
Jerusalem into a winery, and the premises of the Spaso-Sumorin Monastery
into a forestry technical school.
For several years (1950-1952),
the future poet Nikolai Mikhailovich Rubtsov studied at the Forestry
Technical School, who had previously been brought up in an orphanage in
the village of Nikolskoye, Totemsky District, and subsequently
repeatedly came to Totma and considered these places his spiritual
homeland. In 1985, a monument to N. M. Rubtsov was solemnly opened on
the banks of the Sukhona. The revival of the historical traditions of
the city began only in the 1970s and is closely connected with the
activities of local historian S. M. Zaitsev. S. M. Zaitsev
“rediscovered” the history of Totma navigation and the phenomenon of
Totma cartouches (“brands”), thanks to his active work, it was possible
to protect the historical center of Totma from demolition under the
Lengiprogor project.
Modern period
The 1990s became a
difficult time for the city to close a number of enterprises (a timber
industry enterprise, a furniture factory, a flax mill). On the other
hand, at that time the Church of the Entry into Jerusalem, the Church of
the Nativity and the Assumption were restored, the Museum of Church
Antiquities and the Museum of Sailors were opened, and new ideas for the
development of tourism arose.
In the 2000s, a sports and
recreation complex, a new building of the youth center "Totma", a hotel
and entertainment complex "Varnitsy" were built in Totma, the building
of the city bus station, turned into a bus station, was reconstructed. A
monument to Russian explorers and sailors was solemnly opened on the
central square. Since 2001, the Transfiguration Fair has traditionally
been held on the second Saturday of August, and the city has been
admitted to the new Hanseatic Society (Hanseatic League).
By car
From Moscow on the federal highway M8 "Kholmogory" through
Rostov, Yaroslavl, Vologda, Kadnikov, in Chekshino exit to P7 to Totma.
The quality of the road from Chekshino to Totma is not bad, there are
some broken sections that are being actively repaired. From Totma, the
P7 highway continues south across the bridge in the direction of
Nikolsk, the natural continuation of the road from Chekshino to the east
towards Veliky Ustyug is the Sukhonsky tract (distance 240 km, 90% of
the distance is a new roadbed). There are several gas stations in Totma,
incl. Lukoil, refueling will not hurt, since the next gas stations are
only in Ustyug.
By bus
Buses and fixed-route taxis run from
Vologda to Totma.
Bus station.
Hotel "Varnitsy", Severny per., 1a. ☎ +7 (81739) 2-42-88. from 2 400
₽.
Hotel "Rassvet", st. Kirov, 12.
Hotel "Monastic cells", in the
Spaso-Sumorino monastery.
Guest house "Pilgrim".
Camping Alaska.
Totma is located on several low hills on the left bank of the Sukhona
and partly in a gently sloping low part on the right bank. The layout of
the streets has been preserved since the time of the master plan granted
by Catherine II. The city is quite compact; the historical center, which
houses the main architectural monuments and other sights, is located on
the territory bounded by Sukhona from the south, Pesya Denga from the
west, Kirova Street from the north and Dmitrievsky Creek from the east.
In this part there are the Totem settlement (Cathedral Hill), the main
city square - Torgovaya, the city market, 4 out of 5 totem museums, the
main shops. The rest of Totma is conditionally divided into a number of
small microdistricts, which are former settlements and villages:
Korepovo - in the east, Fetikha and Zelenskaya Sloboda - in the
southwest. From the north, Totma is adjoined by the large village of
Varnitsy, which is nominally part of the Pyatovsky municipality of the
Totemsky district, but, in fact, has merged with the city limits. In the
right-bank part of Totma there are several streets, a recreation area
and a city cemetery.
The main streets marking exits and passing
through most of the city territory are Lenina, Belousovskaya,
Sovetskaya, Babushkina streets. Totma's buildings are predominantly
low-rise, there are no houses higher than five floors in the city. The
central part is almost completely devoid of modern residential
buildings, which are built up on the eastern and northern outskirts of
the city. Among the whole areas of preserved old buildings, the
preserved ensemble of commercial and residential buildings on
Belousovskaya Street, a quarter of educational buildings near Lenin
Street, and Zelenskaya Rybcha Sloboda attract attention.
Totma
forms the municipality "City of Totma", which has the status of an urban
settlement. OKTMO code - 19 246 501. The charter of the municipality was
adopted on August 10, 2005. Since November 2017, the head of the
municipality "city of Totma" has been Koposov Alexander Alexandrovich,
and the mayor of the city is Skoryukov Anatoly Anatolyevich. Since Totma
is the largest center of the territory, conditionally called the Middle
Prisukhonye, a number of various institutions located in the city work
for several municipal districts of the Vologda Oblast, for example, a
military registration and enlistment office, an internal affairs
department, a post office, etc.
The city is dominated by the timber and food industries. There are a
bakery, a butter factory, the Totemsky branch of Vologdaenergo, JSC
Totemskaya elektroteploset, a shop for the production of soft drinks and
a bakery of the Totemsky RaiPO. In the Soviet years, a mechanized flax
mill was built, but in the 1990s it was stopped and ceased to exist. An
asphalt-concrete plant is also located near the city. The “Shining of
the North” gas pipeline passes through the territory of the Totma
region, therefore the development of Totma is also closely connected
with the gas and oil industry.
Trade and services
The sphere
of trade in the city is developed quite widely. In addition to the Totem
RaiPO, a butter factory, a bakery, numerous private entrepreneurs also
have a network of their stores. There are shops of the federal chains
"Magnit", "Evroset", regional chains "Cherny Kot", "The Freshest" and
others in the city. Large shopping centers are the "Almaz" and "Seven
Days" built in the last decade. Totemsky city market in 2011 was
recognized as the best among the markets of the regional centers of the
Vologda region. The network of public catering enterprises is
represented by two restaurants, five cafes and several eateries.
Restaurants and cafes
Restaurant "Shining of the North", st.
Volodarsky, 31. Dishes of Russian cuisine.
Cafe "California", st.
Lenina, 59B.
Cafe "Sukhona", st. Volodarsky, 6.
Cafe "Pelmennaya",
st. Lenin, 55.
Cafe "Lyubava", Belousovskaya st., 16.
Pirozhkovaya
snack bar, Sovetskaya st., 17. Pies, cakes and drinks (tea, coffee,
lemonade).
Totma is an attractive city for tourists due to the high preservation
of many monuments of both church and civil architecture, its favorable
geographical position and the availability of resources for recreational
and natural landscape tourism. According to the results of 2012, Totma
took the fourth place in the Vologda region in terms of the number of
tourists received (yielding to Vologda, Kirillov and Cherepovets).
The information and tourist portal of the Totem region is working.
Currently, the following are engaged in the reception of tourists in
Totma:
Municipal unitary enterprise "Tourism and folk crafts"
Totem Museum Association
Fyodor Konyukhov Travel School
The
trademark "Totma - the salt of the Russian land" and the brand "Totma -
the city of sailors and explorers" are being developed. Options for
cultural, educational, entertainment, gaming, corporate and family tours
have been developed. Since 2012, rafting services on the Sukhona have
been regularly offered both within the district and to Veliky Ustyug.
Event tourism in the city is represented by the following regular
events:
exhibition-fair "Real Totem product" (June 12).
the annual
Preobrazhenskaya Fair, accompanied by a teleconference and the chime of
the Totma-Fort Ross bells (second Saturday in August).
Interregional
festival "Rubtsovsk autumn". It usually takes place in September.
Includes classes and meetings in libraries, exhibitions, film
screenings, concerts and reading competitions, book presentations. And
all those who are not indifferent to the poetry of Nikolai Rubtsov
gather near the monument to the poet on the banks of the Sukhona.
inter-district festival-competition of performers of songs and poems
“Here is the homeland of my soul”, dedicated to the memory of Nikolai
Rubtsov.
competition of water travelers "Sukhonskaya regatta".
There are three hotels in the city (“Dawn”, “Varnitsy”), as well as the
camping “Alyaska” and the guest house “Pilgrim”. The Monastic Cells
Hotel, located in the Spaso-Sumorin Monastery, was closed in 2019, as
the buildings were transferred to the Russian Orthodox Church.
Totma is located in the temperate continental climate zone, which is formed under conditions of low solar radiation in winter, under the influence of the northern seas and intense western transport, with relatively warm short summers and long cold winters. The removal of warm sea air associated with the passage of cyclones from the Atlantic and the frequent intrusions of arctic air from the Arctic Ocean make the weather very unstable throughout the year. Winter in the city is long and moderately cold, lasting five and a half months. Spring and autumn are cool, summer is warm, the coldest month is January, the warmest month is July. Precipitation falls more in summer and autumn, in the form of rain. Due to its geographical position, the climate in Totma is generally somewhat colder than in the regional capital.
Totma is located on both banks of the Sukhona River (the left bank is much more populated than the right). The relief of the city is a riverine hilly area, indented by numerous rivers and streams that form ravines. The following flow in the city: the Pesya Denga River, the Dmitrievsky and Korepovsky streams (tributaries of the Sukhona), the Kovda River, the Rozhdestvensky and Petukhov streams (tributaries of the Pesya Denga), the Lyapunka stream (a tributary of the Kovda). An automobile bridge was built across the Sukhona River, which is part of the regional highway P7 (Chekshino - Totma - Nikolsk). Another fairly large road bridge ("Savinsky") within the city was built across Pesya Denga. There are a lot of pedestrian bridges in Totma due to the peculiarities of the relief.
The level of air pollution in Totma is low, which is due to the almost complete absence of industry that uses toxic emissions. Nevertheless, the pollution of the waters of the Sukhona River within the city is increased, which is associated with the Sokolsky pulp and paper and woodworking plants located upstream.
There is one informational newspaper (Totemskiye Vesti) and three
advertising newspapers (County News-Advertising, Express Bulletin,
Useful Newspaper) in the city. In 1999-2005, the informational weekly
Uyezdnye Novosti was also published. The newspaper "Totma and Totmichi"
was also published.
Four channels are publicly available: Channel
One, Russia 1/GTRK Vologda, NTV and Channel Five. There is cable TV. As
of 2013, there is no broadcasting of the Totemsky district television,
there are no plans to restart it.
Cellular communication is
represented by four operators: MegaFon, MTS, Beeline, Tele2.
Internet media are represented by the regularly updated news portal City
of Totma. Ru”, as well as information communities in social networks.
Road network
Totma is a major transport hub in the eastern part of
the Vologda Oblast. The city is located at the intersection of two
highways of regional importance: P7 (Chekshino - Totma - Nikolsk) and
"Sukhonsky tract" (Totma - Nyuksenitsa - Veliky Ustyug). According to
these roads, there is access to the federal highways M8 "Kholmogory"
(Moscow - Yaroslavl - Vologda - Arkhangelsk) and P157 (Uren - Sharya -
Nikolsk - Kotlas). District roads connect Totma with the northern
(Seredskaya, Moseevo) and southern (Veliky Dvor, Nikolskoye, Gremyachy)
parts of the district.
Public transport
Thanks to the
developed road network, it is possible to travel from Totma daily to
Vologda (more than 12 public transport flights per day, not including
private minibuses), as well as to Veliky Ustyug, the village of
Babushkina, Nikolsk, Tarnogsky Gorodok, Kichmengsky Gorodok,
Nyuksenitsa, Kadnikov, Cherepovets . The bus station is located in the
northern part of the city, half a kilometer from the center (Privokzalny
square, next to the Northern lane).
Urban public transport as such is
completely absent, although there are two suburban routes to the
villages of Sovetsky and Ust-Edenga, making a number of stops in the
city (the cost of traveling around the city is 3-12 rubles). There are
several taxi dispatch services. The cost of a trip within the city
limits at the moment is 50 rubles.
Other modes of transport
There is no railway within the city, the nearest station is Vologda. The
broad-gauge railway project that existed in the 1930s (Galich -
Soligalich - Totma - Velsk) was abandoned in connection with the
outbreak of the Great Patriotic War and was not started again; and the
Pyatovskaya narrow-gauge railway built since the 1950s, which ran 12 km
from the city, was finally dismantled in 2006. There is currently no
passenger traffic on the Sukhona. It is possible to hire a pleasure
boat, pre-organized rafting on catamarans or kayaks.
Air transport
ceased to exist in the city by the end of the 1990s, the territory of
the former airfield is being built up, and there are no prerequisites
for its revival.
Department of Housing and Utilities
The
housing and communal services of Totma are represented by enterprises
that ensure the operation of the city's engineering infrastructure:
housing maintenance, heat supply, water supply, electricity supply, gas
supply, as well as landscaping and waste disposal. Among these
enterprises are MUP Vodokanal, OOO Fidesz, Totemsky branch of
Vologdaelektrosetey, Totemsky branch of Vologdaenergo, etc.
The main
source of water supply is the Sukhona River. The main communal problem
remains the high wear and tear of existing engineering and technical
communications, primarily the city water supply system. In this regard,
it is recommended to pass tap water through a filter before boiling. A
significant number of residential buildings in the city are not
connected to a water supply system and a centralized sewerage system,
therefore there are many standpipes on the streets of the city, and on
the Sukhona River you can see rafts for rinsing clothes.
The city's
gas supply is carried out mainly on the basis of natural gas from the
Siyaniye Severa gas pipeline.
The following educational institutions are located on the territory
of the city:
preschool. 7 kindergartens.
comprehensive schools:
Totem Secondary School No. 1[69]
Totem Secondary School No. 2
Totem Secondary School No. 3
institutions of additional education:
children's music school
Petrovsky children's art school. Created in
the 1990s as an attempt to revive the Petrovsky craft school.
the
House for arts and crafts for children
children's and youth sports
school
dance school "Bravo" at the Youth Center "Totma"
karate
club "Katana"
secondary specialized educational institutions:
Totem Polytechnic College. One of the largest such establishments in the
east of the Vologda region.
Until 2012, there was also the Totemsky
Pedagogical College, reorganized and attached to the Polytechnic in
2012.
Higher educational institutions in the city are represented
only by a branch of the Modern Humanitarian Academy.
Medical care in the city is provided by the Totma Central District Hospital. The hospital campus is located in the northern part of the city in the quarters between Sadovaya, Voroshilov, Kirov and Zagorodnaya streets. There is only one clinic in the city. Separately from the hospital campus, in the central part of the city, there is a dental department of the Central District Hospital. There are three drugstores. Also on the territory of the city there is a municipal institution "Comprehensive Center for Social Services for the Population", at which a boarding school for lonely elderly people has been created.
Basically, the sports life of the city is concentrated in the
premises of the sports and recreation complex, in which a swimming pool
is open and many circles and sections operate. There are two fairly
large stadiums in the city: the central Fetiha and the stadium of the
youth sports school, but none of them is fully equipped for sports. At
the central stadium, there is also a beach volleyball court and a
basketball and volleyball court, which are currently almost not used for
their intended purpose.
In the central part of the city, there are
several parks that are popular recreational areas for Totma residents:
the Freedom Fighters Garden, Vakhrushev Park, and the Seafarers Square.
Near Rubtsov Square, near the former pier, there is the only relatively
convenient, though not well-maintained, city beach. For swimming and
recreation, Totma residents most often use suburban beaches on the
Edenga River and in the town of Desyatina on the Tsareva River.
International activity in Totma is primarily associated with the development of the project "Russian America: the connection of times and generations", implemented with the support of the administration of the Totma region. Signed a number of important agreements with the Fort Ross Museum-Reserve in Northern California. Every year there is a video bridge and the chime of the bells Totma - Fort Ross, timed to coincide with the Preobrazhenskaya Fair. In recent years, in connection with the 200th anniversary of the Fort Ross fortress, Totma was visited by the ex-US Consul in St. Petersburg Sheila Gwaltney and the current consul Bruce Turner, the ex-president of the Fort Ross Historical Association John Middleton, the president of Fort Ross Park Sarah Svidler and a delegation of North American Kashaya Indians. Partnerships continue to develop to this day.