Kologriv is the smallest town in the Kostroma region. Although formally it belongs to Central Russia, in fact it is a real northern wilderness, where it is almost impossible to reach by public transport, and by car you need to overcome several tens of kilometers of terrible road. In late spring, in the floodplain of the Unzha River near Kologriv, thousands of wild geese stop to rest, and the town itself, without having individual bright attractions, is interesting for the integrity of its historical environment and general flavor.
Kologriv Local History Museum named after G. A. Ladyzhensky. It is
located in an old merchant mansion, which is called “a station without a
railway.” The museum was founded by Kologriv resident, academician of
painting, “king of watercolors” G. A. Ladyzhensky. The museum presents
exhibitions on the history and nature of the region. In the art
department you can see paintings by Russian artists: I. N. Kramskoy,
Shishkin, Bryullov, P. A. Fedotov, T. G. Shevchenko, V. L. Borovikovsky
and others, as well as Western European painting of the 16th-19th
centuries; Much attention is paid to the work of two famous Kologriv
artists - G. A. Ladyzhensky and E. V. Chestnyakov. The museum has
collections of weapons, ethnographic things, early printed and
handwritten books.
Reserve "Kologrivsky Forest". Its area is about 60
thousand hectares, and its main value is the pristine spruce forest,
which has never been subject to anthropogenic impact or forest fires.
The rich fauna and flora of the reserve are represented by hundreds of
species of rare plants and animals. Here you can find mink, elk, brown
bear, marten, lynx, ermine and other animals. The reserve is
characterized by unique landscape and special value of the territory.
The preliminary list of the reserve's flora includes 322 species of
vascular plants belonging to 205 genera and 78 families. For example,
Prince of Siberia, Lady's slipper. The vertebrate fauna includes at
least 300 species, of which 69 are rare or endangered. Research has
shown the uniqueness of the forest area allocated for protection. In
dense spruce forests, trees 350-400 years old reach a height of 40-45
meters and a diameter of 80-120 cm.
The village of Shablovo. This is
the birthplace of Efim Chestnyakov, a peasant artist, thinker, and poet.
In the house-museum of E. V. Chestnyakov you can get acquainted with his
life and work, see original things, paintings, drawings and sculptures
of the artist. There is also a spring in the village - “Efimov’s Key”.
Goose reserve "Kologrivskaya floodplain". Located within the city.
Thanks to him, Kologriv has recently been called the Goose capital of
Russia. Every spring, tens of thousands of wild geese, flying from
Europe to the Arctic, stop here to rest. In Kologriv they have a kind of
resort area - for a month they rest in the fields and meadows, in the
floodplain of the Unzha River, gaining strength before flying to the
polar tundra, where they will breed. At the same time, cautious birds
live in close proximity to people, almost within the city limits.
Migrating geese are found on the territory of the Kologrivskaya Poima
goose reserve from April to the end of May. Dutch and Russian
ornithologists immediately appreciated the ideal conditions for
observation. Using stereo scopes and binoculars, they examine the geese
and sometimes find individuals ringed in Holland. Since 2008, bird
ringing has also taken place in Kologriv. In May 2005, the first “Goose
Festival” took place in the city. Since then it has become traditional.
To the northeast of Kologriv, among the endless taiga, on the top of a
high mountain there is the Princely Hermitage, a former monastery.
According to legend, the emergence of the Princely Hermitage dates back
to the 15th century, during the reign of Ivan III and Vasily II the
Dark. The name of the monastery and the river is associated with the
fact that a certain princess, hiding from persecution, found shelter
here. For centuries, pilgrims have sought to get here. It was necessary
to climb the mountain, called the Holy Mountain, on foot, many pilgrims
carrying heavy stones. To the left of the churches, in the ravine, there
were holy springs, considered healing. Huge holy linden trees grew on
the mountain, gnawed by the teeth of thousands of pilgrims - it was
believed that the bark of these trees could relieve toothache (now the
stump of one of the holy linden trees is in the local history museum).
Chizhovsky complex in the village of Ekimtsevo, where since the end of
the 19th century the agricultural school named after F.V. Chizhov was
located (in the Soviet years - a zootechnic school, closed in 1986). The
Kologriv complex was an ideal estate intended to use all the natural
resources of the northern region. There were: a flax plant with a full
production cycle; dairy products processing plant; leather tannery;
cheese factory; brickworks; chemical laboratory and technical workshops;
experimental fields, vegetable gardens, an exemplary apiary and a
greenhouse in which even grapes and citrus fruits were grown; steam
mill; weather station. The impressive two-story building on
semi-basements is richly decorated with exposed brickwork. Large lancet
windows and other architectural details make it look like a Gothic
medieval castle.
The only road leading to Kologriv begins in the city of Manturovo on
the Kostroma-Kirov highway and the Trans-Siberian Railway (the distance
from the railway station is about 80 km, from the turn on the
Kostroma-Kirov highway - about 70). After the fork to Kologriv and
Georgievskoye, the road is mostly in poor, sometimes terrible,
condition. In fact, Kologriv is a dead end; the only way to get out of
it is through the surrounding villages.
The Kostroma-Kologriv bus
(via Sudislavl, Makaryev, Manturovo) has an unpredictable frequency and
runs either once a week or once a day. In any case, it arrives in
Kologriv in the evening and leaves early in the morning. The bus station
is closed, the bus leaves from the fire station in the city center.
1 Guest house “Kologriv”, st. Nekrasova, 33. ☎ +7 (910) 807-37-83.
2 Guest House “Goose Flight”, st. Kirova, 10. ☎ +7 (910) 801-89-39.
3 Guest house “Inn”, st. Pavlova, 37. ☎ +7 (915) 903-52-15.
4 Rooms
for daily rent, Verkhnyaya st. 6. ☎ +7 (910) 809-05-26, +7 (49443)
4-11-36.
5 Hotel in Verkhnyaya Unzha. ☎ +7 (910) 808-48-74.
The first inhabitants of the Unzhensky lands were the Finno-Ugric
Merya tribes. It was from them that many toponyms were “inherited” -
Unzha, Pezhenga, Uzhuga, Marhanga and others. From the 11th-12th
centuries, the banks of the Unzha began to be settled by the Slavs, who
gradually assimilated the aborigines.
The exact date of the
emergence of Kologriv is unknown. The time of the establishment of the
settlement is the most debatable issue, the clarification of which is
complicated, moreover, by the lack of scientific reference apparatus in
local history works, on the one hand, and various variations on the
theme of the very name of the settlement, on the other. The village of
Mikhail Arkhangel, Maly Arkhangel, Maly Arkhangelsk, Novo-Arkhangelsk,
Kologriv, Okologrivye, Old Kologriv, Kichino - this is not a complete
list of toponymic names directly related to the early history of the
city. The earliest dates (from 1444 to the 16th century) are
speculative; the toponym Kologriv is found only in sources of the 17th
century.
The question of the relationship between Shishkilev and
Kologriv, known from written sources, has not been resolved in the
history of Kologriv and upper Unzha. In 2017, exploration work in the
upper reaches of the Unzha by the Kostroma archaeological expedition
with the support of the Kostroma branch of the Russian Geographical
Society identified archaeological sites comparable to the lost
Shishkilev and old Kologriv. However, the final linking of historical
cities with specific archaeological monuments from among those
identified requires more large-scale research.
In the 17th
century, Kologriv lost its significance as a fortress and fell into
disrepair. In this regard, in 1727, Kologriv voivode Ivan Rogozin moved
the city to a new location, 40 km downstream of the river - to the
village of Kichino.
In 1778, the village of Kichino was renamed
the county town of Kologriv, which became the center of a vast county.
In 1779, Kologriv was granted a coat of arms representing a shield with
a black abstract horse’s head in its golden field.
On the map of
the Kostroma governorship of 1792, two Kologrivs are depicted on the
Unzha River. The southern one, corresponding to the modern one, is in
bold, the northern one is indicated in italics.
Gradually, the
city, which received a regular development plan, acquired the features
of an administrative and commercial center. It was built up with public
buildings, merchant mansions, shops and churches. There were four of the
latter in Kologriv: the Resurrection Church (built in 1777), the
Assumption Cathedral (1807), the Cemetery in the Name of All Saints
(1840) and the Church of the Savior Not Made by Hands (1911).
Revision tales of the 10th revision for 1858, stored in the GAKO fund
200-13-21, speak of the replenishment of the city's philistine class by
the inclusion of liberated cantonists.
The city had a military
history. From the Diary of Ivan Ivanovich Tseren, a local pharmacist,
director of a county bank, founder of Kologriv local history: “1878
November 6. The Turks left Kologriv (these prisoners were brought to the
city in 1877).”
Communication with the provincial center in the
middle of the 19th century was carried out along Unzha - steamships
sailed, and by land - along the Kologriv, Parfentiev, Galich, Kostroma
roads. By the beginning of the 1880s, the city was already connected to
the common telegraph network of the Ministry of Posts and Telegraphs of
the Russian Empire.
In the 19th and 20th centuries, Kologriv was
famous as a city of educational institutions. There were district and
parish schools, women's and men's gymnasiums, and parochial schools
here. In 1892, with funds bequeathed by F.V. Chizhov, an agricultural
technical school named after F.V. Chizhov was opened near Kologriv. In
the Soviet years, in addition to general education schools, there was a
zootechnic school, pedagogical and medical schools, a boarding school
and an inter-district school for the deaf and dumb.
The
population of Kologrivsky district was overwhelmingly peasant. In
addition to traditional agriculture and animal husbandry, peasants were
actively engaged in various crafts. The most widespread was forestry: in
winter they cut down timber, and in spring they floated it down the
Unzha to the Volga. Accordingly, the richest people in the county were
timber merchants. The peak of the timber industry boom occurred at the
beginning of the 20th century. In January 1918, Soviet power was
established in Kologriv. The Soviet period is, first of all, the history
of collective farms and the timber industry enterprise, the main
enterprise of the region. During the Great Patriotic War, thousands of
Kologriv residents defended their homeland at the front, remaining in
the rear, sparing no effort, brought victory closer on collective farms
and in logging. Six Kologriv residents became Heroes of the Soviet
Union, another became a holder of the Order of Glory of three degrees.
The city's economy is largely based on the area's forest lands. Within the city limits there are mainly enterprises of the forestry and woodworking industries: logging enterprises, forestry enterprises, sawmills (mostly private entrepreneurs). There are also many small grocery stores in the city, a Pyaterochka supermarket, and one catering establishment - the Ogonyok cafe.
The city has: a House of Culture, a central library system, a secondary school, an art school, a museum, and a center for folk art and tourism “Gornitsa”. The Kologriv Folk Theater plays within the walls of the House of Culture.