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Mezen (in Russian: Мезень) is a city of Russia pertaining to the Arkhangelsk Oblast and the administrative center of Raion of Mezinski. It is located north of the Oblast, very close to the autonomous district of Nenetsia, on the banks of the Mezén River, about 30 kilometers from its mouth in the White Sea and 224 kilometers northeast of Arkhangelsk, the capital of the Oblast. Its population in the year 2006 was 3813 inhabitants. Mezen has an airport located 4 kilometers north of the city. It is used to communicate with the regional center. A seaport is located near the city (port Krivka).
The town of Mezen is located on the right bank of the Mezen River at the confluence of the Tovy River, 45 km from the White Sea, 390 km from Arkhangelsk. Opposite the Mezen is the village of Kamenka. Permanent road service valid since 2008.
Mezen was founded in the 16th century on the site of the
Okladnikova (Bolshaya) settlement (Sokolnya Nova) and the Kuznetsova
(Small) settlement of the Mezen district. The first to settle here
was the Novgorod boyar Okladnikov and his sons; the first mention of
the settlement dates back to 1545. Served as a place of exile. So,
in 1664-1666. In Mezen, the famous schism teacher Archpriest Avvakum
was kept, and in 1680-1682. - disgraced boyar A. S. Matveev, in
1905-1907. I. F. Armand.
From 1708 to 1780 - as part of the
Arkhangelsk Governorate.
Transformed into a city by decree of
Catherine II of January 25 under Art. style of 1780 as part of the
Arkhangelsk region of the Vologda governorate. Since 1784, Mezen was
part of the Arkhangelsk governorate, from 1796 to 1929 - part of the
Arkhangelsk province.
In the 18th-19th centuries, the Mezen
preserved its ancient way of life: one long street stretched along
the river with village huts on both sides, two log churches and many
windmills on the outskirts.
In the 1790s, the Lower
Voivodeship Office was located in government buildings, where the
city magistrate and verbal court were located. The Mezen mayor
settled in the former voivode's house. A stratum of wealthy people
stood out in the city (merchants of the II guild - two, merchants of
the III guild - 58, burghers - 583). In 1802, Mezen was included in
the number of regular urban settlements in the Arkhangelsk province.
At this time there were three churches in the city. Two squares
appeared, and the residential area was divided into ten streets and
alleys. In the center of the city there was a state government
house, and along the river there were 208 private residential wooden
buildings.
An interesting remark about some of the morals of
Mezen officials in the mid-19th century was left by the writer S.V.
Maksimov in his book “A Year in the North,” who visited Mezen in
1856. If in other cities of the province, the author wrote, local
officials at least organized dances in their free time, then: “In
Mezen there are no dances: cards, and once again cards absorbed all
their free time there.”
In September 1859, the Epiphany
Church was built in Mezen at the expense of Stefan Shevkunenko. In
1894, the church was renovated with funds from the wealthy Mezen
merchant Ivan Efremovich Ruzhnikov.
Mezen became the
birthplace of many sailors-explorers and participants in polar
expeditions.
At various times Avvakum Petrov, A. S. Matveev,
P. A. Moiseenko, Alexander Serafimovich, V. A. Shelgunov, I. F.
Armand, K. E. Voroshilov, S. N. Markov and others were in exile here
.
In 1929, an agricultural collective farm named after the
12th anniversary of the October Revolution, as well as a fishing
collective farm named after the 3rd Five-Year Plan, were created in
Mezen on the basis of a reclamation partnership.
In 1929,
Mezen became the administrative center of the Mezensky district in
the Northern Territory, since 1936 - in the Northern Region, since
1937 - in the Arkhangelsk Region.
Since 2006, it has also
been the administrative center of the Mezen urban settlement.
In the city you can see a seemingly unusual phenomenon. Twice a
day the Mezen River flows against its current and fills the waters
of its channel. River transport employees take advantage of this:
when filled with water, the river lifts ships from the bottom, which
allows transport to enter the open sea, and local passenger
transport to transport people from Mezen to Kamenka. This phenomenon
is associated with sea tides.
The city can be reached by plane or car. On the Mezen there is the
port of Kamenka, 7 km from the city, but commercial passenger
transportation is not carried out to it.
By plane
You can fly
to Mezen only from Arkhangelsk Vaskovo Airport; flights are operated by
the Second Arkhangelsk United Air Squadron. The scheduled travel time is
one hour, a ticket costs about 5 thousand rubles one way.
1 Mezen Airport. 9:00–18:00. Located on the northern outskirts of the
city. The terminal building is wooden, built in 1982. Bus No. 1 runs
occasionally from the city to the airport.
By car
Despite the
fact that the city is located 225 km from the regional center, to get to
it by car you need to travel a distance more than twice that.
There is one hotel in the city, “Mezen”, located at Sovetsky Ave., 51. The hotel has 19 rooms.
Megafon MTS
The city got its name from the Mezen River on which it stands. The origin of this hydronym has several versions. The most common one is that the name comes from the Baltic-Finnish Metsänjoki “forest river”.
The city of Mezen is located on the right bank of the Mezen River at the confluence of the Tova River, 45 km from the White Sea, 390 km from Arkhangelsk. Opposite Mezen is the village of Kamenka. Mezen Airport is used for communication with the regional center. Constant road transport has been in operation since 2008.
Mezen belongs to the regions of the Far North and is located near the
border of the temperate and subarctic climate zones, taiga and
forest-tundra zones. Currently, the city is outside the permafrost
range. Since the average temperature of the warmest month (July) is less
than 15 degrees, the climate is subarctic, but over the past 10 years,
summer night frosts have been observed less frequently than in
Arkhangelsk, and hot summer days have been observed more often.
Average annual air temperature - −0.7 °C
Relative air humidity -
81.3%
Average wind speed - 3.7 m/s
Genetic research
Scientists who studied the frequencies of
haplotypes of modern populations of the East European Plain came to the
conclusion that in the population in the northwestern (Belarusians of
Myadel, Minsk region), northern (Russians of the Mezen region (Mezen,
Kamenka, Dorogorskoe, etc.) and Oshevensky Kargopol region of the
Arkhangelsk region region) and eastern (Russians from Puchezh, Ivanovo
region) parts of the East European Plain have relatively high
frequencies of the B2-D2-A2 haplotype, which may reflect admixture from
populations of the Uralic language family that inhabited these regions
in the early Middle Ages.
In the city there is the Krivka port of the Mezen seaport, located on
the left bank of the river, 7 km from the city, in the village of
Kamenka.
The city is known as a center of folk craft - Mezen wood
painting, and also as one of the places where traditional twisted
gingerbread cookies - teters - are baked.